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derekscorner · 1 year ago

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Witchy Timez: Origins

Part Five & the art-style so good it's supernatural

Welp I finally got to playing Origins a while back. Finished it a week or two ago. I wanted to add it to my other Bayonetta rambles (listed at the end) but I wasn't sure what to add really.

I found the game good and very pretty. It's art-style is genuinely it's greatest asset. They wanted to portray it like it was a storybook and they did it so well that it's hard to put into words.

Gameplay was fine too. I had a few personal issues at most.

Game-Play(ed)

My biggest complaint was the lack of a mini-map. I felt the game needed one badly. I was opening the menus to view the map every few minutes and got lost more than once.

Which, yes, is a bit funny because the purpose of the Avalon Forest is to be a maze but it can leave you frustrated if you plan to track down all the items and Wisps.

My second issue was a very personal and nitpicky one. I didn't like Cheshire's forms by the end of the game. It got a tad annoying to swap repeatedly when I'm having to control both he and Cereza at once.

Had I no experience with TWEWY in my youth I imagine I'd be even more annoyed with the set up there. That said, I do like the abilities so rather than forms I wish Cheshire had abilities rather than forms.

Something to streamline the annoyance of color-coded enemies regardless of how lite they are used.

Hell, I wouldn't even have this complaint at all if I had free access to unbound Cheshire after you complete the game. His unbound form is what I would prefer in this situation.

They'd have to nerf it compared to the unbound form naturally but it would be a welcome idea....watch someone comment that you can unlock unbound Cheshire as soon as I post this.

Dat Story

I don't even know what to say on a base level here. The story was solid given what we've seen of young Cereza in Bayonetta 1. Watching her befriend a newborn demon is cute even if their squabble arc could be seen a mile ahead.

It also makes you genuinely curious about the fairies as a facet of the Bayonetta universe. Several things in this game make you more curious about the Bayo-verse in fact.

Such as Prince Lukaon, Morgana, and the whole unseen backstory of the fairy kings. The whole nature of the mischievous creatures is fascinating and they offer an odd parallel to humanity.

Hell, let's just dive into the broader strokes of that multiverse.

The magical & non-magical

As we learned in Bayonetta 1 & 2, humanity itself is weak. They lack magic and die easily. They only gained a semblance of power through Aesir's mercy but even then they couldn't do much.

The whole reason Lumen Sages & Umbra Witches form pacts with Heaven & Hell is to gain power. Their magic is tied to that and their soul is the cost they pay.

But like I mentioned in a previous post, the world of chaos is fittingly full of parallel timelines and pocket dimensions because it is, by definition, without solid order.

There is a future for every human there is to shape that future. Purgatory itself only exists as a pocket space between Chaos, Heaven, and Hell.

However, as if to exist in counterbalance, Chaos does have it's own form of magical being, the Fae. We don't know where they came from nor do we know which timeline they hide in.

Going by Bayo 3 and Origins they seem to pick specific worlds to hide in implying they have a means to jump them. It's possible that Avalon Forest itself branches into more than one world given how it feels as if it's a world unto itself when you play Origins.

Vast enough to have warring kingdoms and kings. Countries hidden in illusions. It's all very fascinating stuff and I find myself hoping to see more of it....well with caveats.

Baoynetta 3's Shadow

You know I would have to bring it up when it's shown that this Cereza is the younger version of Bayo 3. If you complete the Jeanne chapter you even see ol' Singularity himself. We also see that this Jeanne is the one that'll die in the third game.

This...did not sit right with me. Many others praise this reveal because they feel it fixed some of Bayonetta 3's story but I had the opposite impression. It felt like patch work, a band-aid.

Just like Bayo 3 it also opens up other cans of multiverse worms. Such as Prince Lukaon and his relationship with King Lukaon and every version of Luka to exist ever.

How can the king of Fae be Luka's variant if the prince Lukaon died? There's several ways theorize theorize that question of course but it's the question existing at all that kind annoys me.

Is Luka the prince's reincarnation? The game does make a note to point out the unknown destination of fairies when they die. Is King Lukaon a version of the prince that lived to adulthood? Probably.

Then there's the question of this backstory. The extra chapter makes it explicit that this is bayonetta 3 Cereza as she's referred to by the 3rd games villain via the name "Arch-Eve Origin".

Yet, the issue of Bayo 3's ending splitting the previous titles crops up. Sure, we know that young Cereza in Bayo 1, this Cereza from Origins, and the Bayo 3 Cereza are the same person.

But what about Cheshire? Why does Viola have Cheshire when it's made clear she's not this specific Cereza's daughter. Does Cheshire have variants due to being a young demon or is he just a single demon that's partial to Bayonetta in all forms due to his experiences?

Hell, does this backstory also apply to the Cereza of Bayo 1 & 2? Does it apply to even more such as Beta Cereza (viola's mother)?

From what I can tell the devs are being smart enough not to clarify but I do think this makes Bayo 3 messier in ways. It doesn't harm this games story or fun to me.

These questions only really pop up if you've played Bayo 3 and the Jeanne chapter....

THEN THERE WAS THE FUCKING EYES

I was trying to ignore it but I can't. I had a whole separate post for these eyes because it's a personal irk of mine. Do they still exist? Don't they?!

Sure, this is in the past. We saw Baldur regain his right eye once he was thrown back to his proper time but that just amplifies the headache!

On the one hand, her having the eye still explains how she defeated a fully matured witch BUT ON THE OTHER WHY IS IT STILL HERE?

To hell with arch-eve's. If the eyes still exist then Singularity is a fucking fool for not trying to claim them. Arch-Eve's & Adams may be a way to collapse the timelines but by hell the eyes are the objects of a god.

They MADE that world of Chaos. They briefly gave it order. He could find a timeline, steal the eyes, and be done. The eyes and eves existing in tandem adds to the headache. I don't understand if they were erased from one timeline or all of them.

Do they just cease to exist in the present due to Bayo 2? If they persist regardless then why have this stupid Arch-eye plot? Just go for the fucking eyes.

The worst part is that I'm unsure I even want an answer. The multiverse as presented in Bayonetta 3 hasn't been that well done and even this mini tangent I've added at the end is mostly my nitpicks.

But I do worry they will double down. If you can't construct it well or at least pass off the paradoxes with levity then don't try it. Please.

Conclusion

All in all a good game. Love the art-style, love little Cereza's story, I even love how the game goes from this new thing to full on Bayonetta in the final battle.

You can quite literally feel the shift from beating up fairies to kicking a witches ass as soon as Cereza says her iconic "let's dance" line.

It's just the minor things that annoyed me at worst. No mini-map, lite color-coded enemies, all the multiverse sh*t t hey snuck in with Jeanne's chapter.

As with any Bayo game it's very good as is. It's only someone like me who'd be bothered by what's mentioned. Not for story consistency so much as character consistency.

Action game stories tend to be less serious and more setting so any time you see someone mad at a Bayonetta or Devil May Cry type of game it's usually because it's really bad to play or a character was just did wrong.

Anywho, bye now~

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For the rest of the Witchy Timez Ramblings go here: https://derekscorner.tumblr.com/tagged/Witchy-Timed

#bayonetta #bayonetta 2 #bayonetta 3 #bayonetta origins #cereza and the lost demon #Witchy Timed

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kingreywrites · 4 years ago

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Beyond Those Trees

Fandom: Tangled

Word Count: 2263

Eugene Appreciation Week Day One: Childhood

Summary: When he was five, Eugene climbed a tree.

Note: i am very very weak for orphanage stories so here is a self-indulgent one asfhdghj also i generally hc that lance grew up for a few years with his parents before losing them (around the time he was six or seven) and then going to the orphanage and meeting eugene, which is why he won't really be there because they haven’t met yet ;;

Read on ao3

When he was five, Eugene climbed a tree.

He shouldn't have climbed that tree. He knew the matrons at the orphanage would be mad at him, and tell him that he was causing trouble again, that he should stop making it more difficult on them by being up to no good all the time. Something like that, at least; he heard the sermon often enough.

But, for all that they hated when he did stupid stuff, it wasn't like the matrons paid much attention to him in the first place. Not enough to stop him, in any case. As long as they didn't know, it would be fine, and Eugene knew they wouldn't notice anything if he did it before they checked where he was. So he left the orphanage right after lunch, went to the big old tree not too far at the edge of the village, and decided to climb it. He saw the older boys do it a few days before - they weren't his friends, and so he had been too shy to join them, but now he knew how to do it, and he wasn't gonna wait anymore.

He wanted to do the same thing as Flynnigan Rider on the cover of his favourite book, the one he was painstakingly learning to read with. On it, the adventurer stood tall on the branch of a tree, looking towards the sun rising on the horizon. The rays of sunlight were the same colour as his treasure, and the golden accents were in relief - Eugene had traced them with his finger time and time again, yearning for a life like this one.

So Eugene climbed a tree. It wasn't too hard, and he was very proud of himself, because he knew the older boys had needed each other to get up there, but he had done it all alone. He reached the thickest branch he could see, stood up tall, and... well, Vardaros was not as pretty as the city drawn on his book, and the sun wasn't exactly rising, but it still looked wicked cool, in his own words.

If you had asked him then, he would have said that this was the best moment of his life.

He was bored after exactly four minutes. To be fair, there wasn't much to do on a tree, and he really wanted to go tell everyone about what he did - except the matrons, of course. Anyway, he reasoned, Flynnigan probably didn't stay there long either, instead running off to go on new adventures, which was exactly what Eugene was going to do.

Eugene looked down.

Climbing had taken him mere minutes. He had been so focused on his goal that he did not even stop to think about the height, or anything, really. But he looked down, and suddenly the distance to the ground was nauseating, and the closest branch seemed miles away. Leaning on the trunk, feeling small, Eugene shakily tried to extend his foot towards it, before immediately giving up.

He... He was scared.

As he remembers it today, the tree was the tallest thing he had ever seen, reaching towards the sky, nearly on par with the clouds. When he came back during his teenage years - when Eugene wasn't his name anymore and his dreams had drastically changed - he saw the tree again, and realised that it was simply a sad, old tree, who wasn't even that tall compared to those in Corona's luxurious forests.

But he had been five. He had been five, and little, and scared, so he had decided to stay on the tree, and wait for someone to notice his absence. Wait for someone to come help him.

And he waited. And he waited.

The sunset had been prettier, bathing the entire town in red and golden light, just like on his book. He hadn't really appreciated it.

(When he tells this story, he always acts as if he had tried to distract himself, and that was it. He doesn't talk about the tears, and the heart wrenching loneliness he had felt, certain in that way kids were that this was permanent.)

Exhaustion and fear got the best of him, and he fell asleep. When he woke up, he was still here, and no one had come.

The sun was rising this time. Eugene got up, looked down, and something clicked for him. No one would come. He was cold, and scared, and hungry too, but no one would come, and so there was only one person who could save him. Only one daring adventurer, ready to brave his fear and save the day.

He tried to convince himself that this hero was him. Despite how terrified he felt, he was an adventurer, he was just like Flynnigan Rider, and Flynnigan never backed down when faced with a challenge.

"If it's not possible, it's not worth doing," he muttered, before jumping to the nearest branch.

Miraculously, he reached it. The same couldn't be said for the next branch, and he fell heavily to the ground.

He remembers pain exploding in his arm, staying on the ground for a long, long time, and then making his way back painfully, stomach growling loudly.

"Eugene?"

Rapunzel's voice breaks him out of his narration, and he looks at her, squeezing her hand lightly. They're both sitting in the special spot he found on the roof, an easily accessible ledge giving one of the best views on Corona.

"Yeah?"

"You said… You said this was a funny story," she remarks, tone hesitant, uselessly tucking a strand of her short hair behind her ear.

"It is!" he exclaims. "After spending all day and night away, I was so sure I would find the orphanage in absolute chaos that the whole way back I prepared a lie about going to fight off bandits or something. Imagine my surprise when not only no one had noticed I was gone, but the adults were even mad at me because I was late for my chores!"

He chuckles, and stops when he sees the lack of amusement in Rapunzel's eyes.

"It's funny because… I was being overdramatic?" he tries. Her frown deepens. "Guess you had to be there…"

"You were five," she protests. She's the one who takes his hand this time, an intensity he hadn't expected in her eyes. "You were five, and alone, and- no one cared you were gone?"

He opens his mouth, and closes it, unsure how to proceed. That wasn't the reaction he had expected. And, in all honesty, the way she said it did make the story sound sad, but it wasn't! He… They cared, he thinks, they would have if they had noticed because, at the very least, they would be in trouble with the law if they had lost a kid. They cared… They simply didn't know he had left.

"I got up to a lot of mischief at the time," he finally answers. "They were busy, and probably assumed I was out causing trouble."

Rapunzel stays silent after that. She holds his hand on her lap, and gently rests her head on his shoulder, while they both look at the view. The sun is setting on the horizon, bright and burning, the entire town glowing orange because of it.

Eugene sighs, and finally rests his head on top of hers, enjoying the soft brush of her hair against his cheek. Maybe this story isn't as funny as he remembers it. He's good at turning every little anecdote into something grandiose, entertaining whoever is willing to listen with his lively retelling, but… It's different, with Rapunzel. Everything is.

There's no hesitation to have when he says she cares, for one. Maybe she shouldn't, but she does, more than anyone ever did. She's also the first person in his life he doesn't want to lie to. The first person he doesn't feel like he has to lie to. She saw the worst of him already, saw how much of a selfish, useless jerk he could be, and she… she still loves him, for some reason. It's difficult to phantom, sometimes, and in the last month since their first meeting, Eugene kept worrying that he would wake up someday, and this dream would have ended as quickly as it started.

He's used to being forgotten, after all.

"I think we'd have been friends," Rapunzel whispers, interrupting his thoughts. "If we met, as kids. I think we'd have been friends."

"I was a troublemaker," he breathes out softly, still resting on her, "Sometimes, I acted out some scenes from my books, and it often ended with broken windows. You probably would have found me annoying."

"Oh I don't know, I think I would have enjoyed acting out those scenes with you, Mr Troublemaker," Rapunzel teased. "Though… Maybe you wouldn't have liked me. I was a bit of a crybaby when I was a kid, and not a great adventurer."

For a second, Eugene is glad she can't see him, because he knows his sadness for her must show. His heart tightens each time she mentions her childhood, and he remembers how lonely she had been, all alone in her tower.

"I would have loved you," is all he answers, and it's not even a lie. There's no universe in which he doesn't like Rapunzel, he's pretty sure of that, and even then… He had loved the younger kids, at the time. When he grew up a little, got over his tree adventure, and decided that he wasn't gonna be like the older kids he had known - he had read them stories, and had helped the new kids adapt, and had felt both happy and sad when they got adopted, and he inevitably wasn't.

And then… Then he started stealing, and it all went downhill from there.

"I would have loved you too," Rapunzel echoes, a bit too intensely. "We would have played together all the time, and- And I would have noticed that you were gone. I would have helped you come down from that tree."

They're still hugging. Still looking at the view, though Eugene is not seeing much of it, too focused on her words. He wants to joke that she couldn't have been more than one year old at the time, that she would have had trouble doing anything, but the deflection doesn't feel right. She's squeezing his hand tight, and he understands what she's trying to say, understands what she's trying to make him see.

"I know," he whispers, because he does. He knows she cares about him. He knows- He knows she wouldn't forget him. As much as he worries, deep down he knows she loves him, because she tells him and shows him in every little moment.

Rapunzel shifts, and they finally meet each other's eyes again.

"Do you know how I found you here?" she asks.

"Uh…" Eugene hesitates, thrown off by the subject change.

To be perfectly honest, he had come here because he was bored out of his mind, since Rapunzel was taken by her princess lessons, and no one really cared where he went as long as he didn't cause trouble. And then, all alone here with the sun shining warmly on his face, and the ledge offering more than enough space to stretch, Eugene had simply… fallen asleep.

Before waking up to Rapunzel curiously peering down at him, which surprised him so much it nearly made him fall off the roof. Thankfully, she had quick reflexes, and caught him, but she had looked spooked and he had wanted to make her feel better, thus the tree story he had been reminded of with this adventure.

"Usually, when my lessons are over, you always manage to find me and let me talk to you about my day, or try to take me on a date even when Cassandra says we can't, or… Well," Rapunzel chuckles softly, "what I mean is that you're always there. And today… Today you weren't."

"Oh," he breathes out.

"Cass said there was no reason to worry, and I knew she was right, but- but what if, you know? What if you were in trouble, or what if you had gotten hurt somewhere and couldn't come, or- or… I was worried," she sighs, looking down.

Gently, he put his hand on her chin, and made her raise her head again. The thing is, he does know what she was talking about. That worry gnawing at his insides every time he can't find her, and doesn't know where she is, he understands that all too well.

"I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay," she immediately corrects. "I simply… I notice your absence. Always, all the time, I notice when you are there or not, and I care about that. If… If you ever were in trouble, if you ever disappeared, I would find you, I promise."

When he sees the honesty in her eyes, Eugene thinks back to that little kid crying all alone on the branch of a too big tree. He thinks about him, growing up, meeting people he loved, finding a best friend in Lance, and yet continuing to ruin all of that little by little, because he was so sure the only way to carve his place in this world was by doing it alone.

He had been an idiot, he knows.

"I know you would, Sunshine," Eugene says. "I would too." Because now that they have each other, he knows that, no matter what, they will never let the other feel lonely ever again.

#tangled #tangled the series #Eugene Fitzherbert #Rapunzel #EAW

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chemicalpink · 4 years ago

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Hey, I hope you are doing good this was a thing that was wondering me so there are lot of bts future spouse /soulmate/twinflame videos being made on youtube and honestly everyone is being psychic like it has become a shitshow and what was previously just for curiosity fun and entertainment are becoming extremely emotionally invested in the topic especially for maknae line soulmate it would be interesting if the can do a tarot reading or your spiritual experience why is the future spouse saga turning ugly and does universe what us to know something through it !? Because it's becoming pretty crazy right now

Okay so I believe that yes, the spiritual part has a lot to do behind this occurrence, but I also think its roots lay on psicosocial matters and honestly I could go on for days about this but I’ll try to restrict it to a few points that you’ve mentioned

Why all of a sudden everyone seems to be tarot readers/astrologers/psychic?

The capitalism behind celebrities and how does that play a part in what is going on?

Are these people accurate at all?

How does energy shifting play a part in this?

Is the soulmate journey even something a third person would be able to note?

But first a Disclaimer: this opinion/rant is based on my experience with spirituality, I am obviously a mere mortal, so I do not hold the absolute truth. Spirituality is a constant learning process and it is open to discussion and interpretation of each person. I am also now a proud sociologist graduate that specialises in a lot of the stuff that has to do with what anon is asking, I’m a social behaviouralist applied to the entertainment industry as well but I’ll also provide my resources in the end.

A/N: Some of you might not yet be ready to read all of this, if I see ANY of you trying to start beef with me, even after the disclaimer, I'm gonna block you. If you want to talk more about it or want to discuss it further, DO SO OFF ANON. ISTG you’ve been warned, I’ve been working on this for the longest time, it even has resources to back all of it up! I’m so glad anon asked, I’m done being diplomatic on this topic (I know people that usually ask stuff are so respectful and i love you guys for it, this note is for those people that regularly jump on my asks to stir things up)

You guys are in for a whole academic article if you decide to read this

SO FUN AND EXCITINGGGG Let us start with behavioural economics as our base to understand the whole phenomenon, it's such a broad and kinda complex concept (especially since I’m trying to extrapolate it to this particular scenario) so let me do my best. It has a lot to do with trend following, although at least to me, it's unclear how exactly this content came to be (soulmate readings, channeling messages, etc) I am guessing it had something to do with an intersectionality between the general spirituality boom that we’ve met with during the pandemic and some person that just as any other marketable opportunity, saw a bridge between fandom life and this spiritual life (both prominent trends in the last two years or so) and honestly, it worked perfectly, whatever their initial intentions were, they threw out a new “product” and it kind of sold itself, two different trends coming together… turned into a behavioural game theory where if you played the part that allows your content to be consumed, you’ll get rewarded for it. In more simple words, tarot meets fandoms (alternatively, tarot meets BTS) is great as it is! but the fan behaviour (which we’ll talk about in a bit) positions the most private parts of the celebrities’ lives to be much more interesting than things that we are already able to see (personal experience, love readings do so much better than idk career readings and it all comes down to behavioural trends of perceiving ‘love’ as something very intimate)

Now, this is where we’ll begin to talk about capitalism as a whole, even in non-monetary systems like social media, where it takes more of a rewarding system via likes, views, reblogs, etc. The whole principle of us living in such a system is being aspirational, we see others profiting off of something, we might want to reach out and do the same so we can profit ourselves, which honestly, I think is what happened with the whole BTS soulmate readings boom, they get a lot of attention, and as a basic market law, as demand goes up and a few people that initially did these readings are no longer capable to satisfy the need of the people wanting to know all the tea, there are market opportunities for other people to do the same thing and increase the offer, although since this whole theory is behavioural, it is very context-dependant, which ends up not following the principle of the consumers being rational about how much and what content they consume, they just sort of consume all of it, regardless of whether the content creator is qualified to offer such content or not, which ultimately only adds onto a never ending cycle of more people claiming they are tarot readers/astrologers/psychics and fear nothing because this is the internet, you don't really have to enter any qualifications to be able to create content, whether someone is reliable in internet terms is basically all about how many likes they’ve got (which is why I always tell you guys to please consume content responsible).

When it comes to accuracy- I guess that’s the hardest part of all, we can’t just have pointers that would automatically tells us if someone’s craft is valid or not, since everyone’s craft is different all craft is valid to a certain extent (you can easily find scammers of course but that’s another story) what we can have are personal standards and deciding what content to consume or whose content to consume, but that’s entirely a personal decision and since so many people are invested in it- it seems really hard that these “market tendencies” might change any time soon. On that same note of accuracy, I really feel the need to talk about a major occurrence I’ve come across in this whole soulmate scene, minors. Now, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with being a minor and approaching spirituality (I was very much a minor when I started) but there’s a huge difference between just playing around and deciding to create content for the whole world to have access to. Of course I’m aware not all tarot readers in the BTS fandom are minors, and ARMY is very diverse and even if they were only minors it would be wrong to invalidate them, but we can’t ignore the statistics of it when touching this particular topic, according to 2020 data, 50,31% of ARMY are below 18 years old, and 42,59% are between 18-29 but why is this important? because the exact historical and economic moment we are living in mainly impacts these two age groups, thus making all 92,90% of ARMY a potential target to consuming or falling in a behavioural game theory of creating this content without them necessarily being qualified for it. But hey, why do you keep talking about the importance of being qualified? Glad you asked, creating spiritual content all comes down to one amazing term: accountability.

And this will explore two main phases of it, one applicable for that 50,31% that could potentially be drawn to create spiritual content and other for the 42,59% that could potentially be dragged to creating that content without much spiritual knowledge. For the first one, it has a lot to do with cognitive aspects, young people tend to do stuff without much further thought about how their actions impact other people, which, as they should, they are kids, they shouldn’t have to worry too much about emotional responsibility as us adults do, furthermore, they are in life stages where they can’t really comprehend many abstract concepts that we later learn in life, and spirituality is one of those concepts, so they tend to just have fun with it with no regards on how their content might impact other minors (this is where the whole feeding a false scenario that is potentially delusional in exchange of more views, likes comes into play) on a more spiritual level, they also aren’t able to comprehend the boundaries of the celebrities they’re reading for, us readers have to always be careful about the information we give out since it is not ours to give. As for the second group, some of this is still applicable since theorists consider a full cognitive maturity until 23 years of age, but since it is very intersectional itself, i would found it more to a spiritual responsibility, since they are young adults, and if they haven’t been spiritually guided as kids, they’re most probably eager to learn and just awakening yet to some of them the drive to this spirituality is content creation instead of inner work, so they get their hands on a tarot deck, might kind of read a few things, call it a day and start reading for BTS (note: not all of them, I’m aware)

As for the maknae line being the most sought out people with this content, I guess it kinda makes sense now that I’ve said all of the information above, maknae line is closest to the age group of 92,90% of ARMY, so they instantly become more marketable to this content creation and the whole Game Theory that we are seeing. With all that being said, and just adding a note coming from my own spiritual experience, soulmates in any form are a difficult topic for a third person to prode, which is why I, personally, tend to not touch that topic, love is one hell of a concept, especially since we all have different conceptions of love and interpersonal relationships. I do know for a fact that there’s only so far we can go in terms of fated connections, like with astrology, but even then, we would have to know their birth times exactly (so we can check for any indicator or a soulmate connection), and/or compare BTS with the rest of the world’s population in order to accurately tell if someone has a soulmate synastry/overlay/composite with them. Also, soulmate journeys are intimate and we are all just fans, what right do we even have to look for things that do not and will never belong to us?

This is why I’m always telling you guys to PLEASE consume content responsibly! Really! Us content consumers also have our part to play that can help us get more accurate, more drama-free content

REFERENCES (what? you thought I was joking? they’re in alphabetical order)

ARMYCENSUS 2020

Loewenstein, G., O’Donoghue, T., & Rabin, M. (2003). Projection bias in predicting future utility. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118(4), 1209-1248.

March, J. G. (1978). Bounded rationality, ambiguity, and the engineering of choice. The Bell Journal of Economics, 9(2), 587-608.

Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion and motivation Psychological Review, 98, 224-253.

Mazar, N., Amir, O., & Ariely, D. (2008). The dishonesty of honest people: A theory of self-concept maintenance. Journal of Marketing Research, 45(6), 633-644.

Murphy, S. T., & Zajonc, R. B. (1993). Affect, cognition, and awareness: Affective priming with optimal and suboptimal stimulus exposures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 723-729.

Samson, A., & Voyer, B. (2014). Emergency purchasing situations: Implications for consumer decision-making. Journal of Economic Psychology, 44, 21-33.

Schwartz, B. (2004). The paradox of choice: Why more is less. New York: Ecco.

Shah, A. K., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2008). Heuristics made easy: an effort-reduction framework. Psychological Bulletin, 134(2), 207-222.

Thaler, R. H. (2015). Misbehaving: The making of behavioral economics. Allen Lane.

Thaler, R. H. (2008). Mental accounting and consumer choice. Marketing Science, 27, 15-25.

Wood, W., & Neal, D. T. (2009). The habitual consumer. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 19, 579-592.

#i really said: thesis? wHERE #im sorry i jump at any given opportunity to rant #especially if it gives me an opportunity to share knowledge with you guys

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themattress · 3 years ago

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My Top 30 Favorite Video Games

Inspired by @ultraericthered’s Top 30 Favorite Anime post.

Although I’m doing mine in countdown form, ‘cause it’s more fun that way!

30. Super Mario Bros. - Arguably the first “blockbuster” game to be released, not only does Super Mario Bros. still hold up over 35 years later but it’s a gift that keeps on giving with how many different incarnations, remixes, fan games using its assets, etc. that we have now.

29. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - OBJECTION! While I cherish the entire original Phoenix Wright trilogy of the Ace Attorney franchise, I’ll always be the most partial to the original outing. The sheer audacity and hilarity of the concept, which is grounded by endearing characters and compelling mysteries, shines brilliantly in this little, easily accessible game.

28. Trigger Happy Havoc: Danganronpa - While similar in many ways to Ace Attorney, Danganronpa boasts a variety of more actual gameplay than mere point-and-click text scrolling. But what really makes this stand out, beyond gameplay or even the strength of its concept, story and characters, is the atmosphere it creates. For good and for ill, traversing the pristine, neon-lit hallways of the abandoned Hopes Peak Academy looking for clues as I’m forced to play by Monokuma’s twisted rules is an experience that will stay with me forever.

27. Star Fox 64 - Beyond all the entertainment this game provides through memes, it’s really just a fun, reasonably simple but just moderately complicated enough game that’s accessible to any player even if they usually don’t go for aerial shooters. It’s also one of the earliest console games that I ever played, so of course it’s going to hold a special place in my heart.

26. Batman: Arkham City - It’s an impressive feat when an open world game can still feel so claustrophobic in all the right ways, and that’s what Arkham City accomplishes. This game is essentially The Dark Knight to Arkham Asylum’s Batman Begins, escalating the action, suspense and sheer Batman-ness, providing unlimited opportunities to enjoy yourself playing as Gotham’s defender and facing down the greatest Rogues Gallery in comic book history.

25. Red Dead Redemption - Look, I know that Red Dead Redemption 2 is technically the superior game. But its complicated story, sprawling cast of characters, and vast canvas of a world can be pretty daunting, whereas I feel like the original Red Dead Redemption struck a much better balance. Allowing open world freedom within the confines of the straight-forward story of John Marston’s redemption really makes you feel like you’re in an old Western film, and the way that choices you make as a player impact the way that film ultimately turns out is one of the strongest arguments for video games being worthy of consideration as true art.

24. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - So, ten years ago an open world adventure video game series releases its fifth entry...and to this day, we’ve had no sixth, in favor of expansions and updated re-releases of said fifth entry. But that’s not a sign of laziness; it’s a sign the developers know they hit such a peak in quality that they have no need to rush anything further out the gate, as Skyrim is a gift that keeps on giving. Addictive in how unlimited in possibilities it is, with each playthrough never being the same as the one before, Skyrim is a gaming masterpiece that I don’t think I’m going to get bored with playing anytime soon.

23. Super Paper Mario - This may be an unpopular opinion, but I vastly prefer this game’s action-platform-RPG hybrid gameplay style to the prior installments’ traditional turn-based RPG style, which feels more at home in stuff like Super Mario RPG and the Mario & Luigi series. But gameplay aside, I think this has the strongest story of any Mario game, trading in the usual “save the kingdom/princess” fare for saving all of reality, with legitimate emotion and drama and even character development. It’s one of the Wii’s shining gems, to be sure.

22. Epic Mickey - This game’s graphics are by and large unremarkable, its gameplay is fraught with issues (that camera is unforgivable), and it’s nowhere close to the best on its system or genre. But Epic Mickey is a case study in where the effort put into crafting the game’s world and story, not to mention the obvious love and respect for the material being worked with, pays off. Any Disney fan will love this game for its story, which puts Mickey front and center as an actual character rather than a mascot and dives deep into his history as he meets his “half-brother” Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and its mystical, unique atmosphere - what the graphics can’t deliver, the fucking music more than makes up for. All of the game’s flaws mean nothing compared to the sheer heart on display, and I treasure it greatly as a result.

21. Batman: Arkham Asylum - I already mentioned that Arkham City is the superior game, but as was the case with Red Dead Redemption and its sequel, personal preference strikes again. The simpler story and narrower confines of Arkham Asylum just appeal to me slightly more, and I feel like the borderline horror atmosphere this game has could never fully be replicated by all of its sequels and spin-offs. Also, you can play as the Joker in this. WIN.

20. Metal Gear Solid - And on the subject of Arkham Asylum, it owes much to this game, which created the template of a lone badass hero having to use stealth and weaponry to liberate a government-owned island from the lunatic terrorists that have taken over. Hideo Kojima famously never wanted this game to have any sequels, and I can definitely see his point, as it’s a complete and wholly satisfying experience in of itself and I don’t feel like it’s ever been topped. At the very least, it’s certainly the most enjoyable of the series to me.

19. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - Also, speaking of “borderline horror atmosphere”, we have the freakiest game that the Legend of Zelda series ever put out. What was supposed to just be a gaiden to Ocarina of Time mutated into this beautiful monstrosity that’s become just as iconic. Nobody who plays this game is ever going to forget that fucking moon and all the constant jumping back and forth in time across three days as you try to prevent the apocalypse of Termina. It’s the kind of gaming trauma that’s well worth experiencing.

18. Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories - Like Majora’s Mask, this game is a case study where you can take a bunch of recycled assets and gameplay, and then make something unique from it if you have a well-crafted story with a dark and disturbing atmosphere. It’s hard to experience or appreciate the transition between Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II without playing this midquel, which takes the narrative and characters to deeper levels without being pretentious about it and sets the stage for the proper console sequel perfectly. And if you can’t get into it being on Gameboy Advance, then just play the PS2 remake (which is arguably the superior version anyway) and you’re good! Just...don’t mind the cards, OK?

17. Sonic CD - And now we have another game about jumping back and forth through time to prevent an apocalypse! See the common threads at play here by this point? Sonic the Hedgehog is at his best in 2D gameplay, and I personally enjoy this the best out of all the 2D games in the series. As obscure as the Sega CD was as a system, it was powerful enough to take the blue blur’s speed to its maximum level, set alongside beautiful graphics and a kick-ass soundtrack (well, two different kick-ass soundtracks; and I actually prefer the US one).

16. Pokemon Black & White - While there were advancements made to story and graphics and gameplay features in the third and fourth generations of the Pokemon series, nothing felt as truly ground-breaking as the second generation games until the fifth gen with its Black & White games. This was arguably the game series’ peak in quality on all fronts, but its specifically the story that lands it on this list, as its well-written and paced, subverts many formulaic elements from the previous games, is set in one of the most unique regions in the Pokemon world, and has a timeless message that has only grown more relevant with age.

15. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - The whole series could really go here, but fortunately the most recent entry is the perfect embodiment of said series, with every playable character there’s ever been and then some. The sheer variety is unmatched by any other fighting game out there, and its story mode, “World of Light”, is quite possibly the greatest video game crossover in history given how many characters are featured as both fighters and spirits.

14. Super Mario 64 - I’m pretty sure this game used to be higher in my favor, but replaying it on the Nintendo Switch recently has made me aware of how, as the first game on the Nintendo 64 and the first 3D platformer, it’s poorly aged in several areas. However, I must stress that it is still a very good game. The fun of going to the various worlds within paintings in Peach’s Castle hasn’t changed, nor has how smoothly and seamlessly Mario managed to make the jump from 2D to 3D. Just like Super Mario Bros., the number of games that owe something to this one is too great to count, and that’s an achievement that remains timeless.

13. Dark Chronicle - Also known as Dark Cloud 2. I hadn’t heard a damn thing about this game before renting it on a whim many years ago, and I was caught off guard by just how good it was. It’s got a simple but effective story and likable characters, a timeless atmosphere, beautifully cel-shaded graphics, dungeon-crawling gameplay, action-RPG combat gameplay, literal world-building gameplay, and even a fishing minigame! This game can actually stand besides the Zelda series without shame; it’s truly an underrated gem.

12. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Oh, speaking of Zelda, this game goes full Lord of the Rings-style epic fantasy with it and it is glorious. Between the near perfect gameplay, beautiful 3D graphics, and one of the best stories in the series (with one of the best characters: Midna), Twilight Princess’ most prevalent complaint from critics all the way up to its own developers is that it wasn’t even MORE expansive and awesome given how long it was hyped, and if that’s the biggest issue with the game then I’d say it’s in pretty good shape.

11. Super Mario Galaxy - Super Mario 64 may be held back a little by how its aged, but no such thing is holding back Super Mario Galaxy. Super Mario Odyssey might be as good or possibly even better, but I just don’t hold the same feelings of amazement and respect toward it that I do for this game. From the blitzkrieg-style attack on the Mushroom Kingdom by Bowser to the discovery of Rosalina’s space station, this game had me hooked from the first few minutes, especially with it blaring that awesome orchestral score the whole way through. To this day, I maintain that this is Mario’s greatest 3D adventure. It’s simply magnificent.

10. Final Fantasy X - Ha! See what I did there? This game has caught flak for some of the awkwardness that comes from being the first fully 3D entry in the series, but I think that’s tantamount to nitpicking when compared to all it does right. To me, this was the last really good installment of the main Final Fantasy series, with a story and world so brilliantly developed that the game earned the immediate breakthrough success and acclaim that it found in its native Japan. 20 years later and, as the HD remaster has shown, it still holds up as one of the most engaging JRPG experiences I’ve ever had the pleasure of having.

9. Banjo-Kazooie - At the time, this was basically Rare’s copycat version of Super Mario 64, although considered about as good. Now, however, there’s a difference: the aging issues I mentioned for Super Mario 64 don’t apply for Banjo-Kazooie. Whether replaying it on the Nintendo 64 or on whichever Xbox you’ve got, this game is still just as fun, imaginative and hilarious now as it was back then. It’s quite possibly the greatest 3D platformer ever made.

8. Pokemon Crystal - The definitive edition of the Gold & Silver games of Pokemon’s second generation, taking what was already a phenomenal advancement and improvement to the first generation and making it even better with additional features such as the ability to play as a girl for the first time and a more clearly defined storyline centered around the legendary Pokemon featured on the game’s box art. Pokemon had been written off as just a passing fad up until this point. This was when its staying power as a video game juggernaut was proven.

7. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Talk about a win right out of the gate for the Nintendo Switch! This game returns the Legend of Zelda series to its roots while also applying all that has been made possible in video games since the original game’s release, and the result is an enthralling, addictive, open world masterpiece that has set a new standard of quality for both the Zelda series and for many modern video games in general.

6. Kingdom Hearts II - The Final Mix edition to be precise, although in this day and age that’s basically the only edition people are playing anyway. This game is the apotheosis of Kingdom Hearts as both a video game series and as a concept; filled to the brim with Disney magic and Square Enix RPG expertise and paired with some of the most refined action-based gameplay there is. And when it comes to bringing the original Kingdom Hearts trilogy’s story to a close, does this game ever stick the landing. The series could have ended right here and I would have been completely satisfied (and its reputation would be a lot better off, too!)

5. Pokemon Yellow - While I maintain that this game, the definitive edition of the original first generation Pokemon games, still holds up as fun to play even now, I’ll admit that it’s pure bias that it ranks so high. It was the first proper video game I ever played, there was no way I was leaving it off the top 5! Its blissful nostalgic atmosphere is always such a delight to return to.

4. Banjo-Tooie - Remember when I said Banjo-Kazooie was “quite possibly the greatest 3D platformer ever made”? The “quite possibly” is because its in stiff competition with its own sequel! And personally, I’m in Banjo-Tooie’s corner; something about how inter-connected its worlds are and the addition of so many things to do all while maintaining your full moveset from the original game is just beautiful to me. Both it and its predecessor are like obstacle courses that I never tire of running through, which is the hallmark of brilliant game design.

3. Kingdom Hearts - Another case where the sequel may be the superior game, but my own personal preference leans toward the original. And in this case, it’s a highly personal preference: this game and my memories of playing it for the first time are so very dear to me. The characters and worlds of Disney put into an epic crossover RPG was like a dream come true for me and no matter how far the series it spawned has deteriorated, nothing can detract from the magic of this game. It’s got a certain, indescribable feel and atmosphere that’s never truly been replicated, and that feel and atmosphere still holds up whenever I revisit it. The gameplay may not be the best, particularly when compared to Kingdom Hearts II’s, but the charm of the story and the characters and the world and the very concept more than makes up for that. As far as I’m concerned, it’s one of Disney and Square’s greatest masterpieces.

2. Final Fantasy VII - I was aware of the hype this game got and was totally ready to call it overrated, but damn it, it got me! I don’t know what it is about this game with its blocky early 3D graphics, poor sound quality to its excellent soundtrack, and frequently mistranslated script that proved to be so gripping and enjoyable to play through, but man did it ever Limit Break its way into my heart. This is considered a JRPG classic for a damn good reason.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Do I really need to explain this one? It’s famous for being frequently cited as one of the greatest video games ever made, and like Final Fantasy VII, its hype is well-deserved and totally justified. Whether you’re playing it on the Nintendo 64, the Gamecube, the Wii, the 3DS, and hopefully the Nintendo Switch in the future, there is a magic quality to this game that permeates through every step you take in its fully 3D world. It’s a triumph that has stood the test of time, cementing the Zelda series as truly legendary.

#Video Games #Opinion #Analysis

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creativekat · 4 years ago

Text

PTC, part VI

Pairing: Marcus Moreno x F!Reader

[Gif by @pascalsky]

Word Count: 4,534

Rating: 18+

Warnings: heavy petting, serious making out, unintentional piercing play

A/N: @the-purity-pen and I are so excited to share the next chapter!! Things are heating up and this ended up being our longest chapter yet!! We hope you enjoy and if you want to be added to the tag list let me know!!

Marcus’s hands were shaking and sweating as he drove to your house. He had no intentions of going inside in your house but when he offered to pick you up for the date you had bid on and won, you couldn’t help but smile and tell him yes.

At a nearby stoplight, he wiped his hands on the thighs of his suit pants. He opted to go semi-casual with suit pants and jacket but just a dark grey t-shirt underneath. Missy told him that a tie would be too much and she wanted him to be comfortable on his first real date in a long time.

When he finally pulled up to your house, he waited in the car for a minute to calm himself and remind himself that this was just a casual first date. Nothing serious had to come of it even if he had been crushing on you for nearly an entire year. He finally got the courage to go up to your door and give it a hearty knock.

You had gotten ready early, worried about making a bad impression by keeping Marcus waiting. So, you paced the living room of the small house you rented, trying to avoid walking to the hallway mirror to double check your appearance. You’d worn a dress and heels, though Marcus had told you it would be casual. The dress wasn’t fancy or anything, just a simple summery dress, which you paired with a cardigan sweater.

When you heard the knock on the door, you nearly jumped out of your skin, you were so keyed up. Taking a moment, you took a deep, calming breath and released it hoping Marcus wouldn’t notice how jittery you felt.

As you walked to the door, you couldn’t help but glance at your reflection. You actually felt pretty cute and paused to smile at yourself in the mirror. You grabbed your purse from the console table and answered the door. The sight of him took your breath away. People could rave all they wanted about Marcus Moreno’s Heroics gear, but you’d take him looking like this any day of the week. “Hi,” you breathed out.

Marcus was just as dumbfounded seeing you dressed like that. Your hair looked immaculate and your smile was heart-melting. He blinked a few times, taking in your form before he finally swallowed a large lump in his throat and croaked out a soft “hi.”

You smiled wryly, finding it adorable how flabbergasted he seemed. His hands were wringing together in front of him and you stepped forward to place your hand on his which calmed him. He looked up at you and felt his heart skip a beat from how close you were.

“You look wonderful,” you complimented him and his cheeks started to flush pink.

Marcus shook his head, as if to clear it, before responding, “So do you. Stunning, in fact.” He laughed self-consciously at the admission.

He turned, only let go of one of your hands, keeping the other firmly in his grasp as the two of you walked to his car. When you reached the passenger side door, he reached out to open the door and helped you into the seat before closing it and making his way around to his side.

You hadn’t really discussed where the date would take place. Marcus had simply said he wanted to surprise you and that it would be “casual”. Anticipation swelled within you and your mind raced with the possibilities of what was in store tonight. You noticed that Marcus drove very carefully and you appreciated the fact that his regular persona seemed to be all about care and protective nurturing. You supposed this was because his hero persona faced so many risks. He glanced over at you and smiled and you returned it easily.

Marcus finally pulled into the parking lot of the science center and you gave a soft gasp. Your secret passion was science and while you had adored many field trips to the science center over the years, somehow being here with Marcus was bound to be far more romantic and memorable.

As the two of you walked in, Marcus gave his name and the woman behind the counter gave you both paper bracelets that allowed access to every part of the center. His hand only left yours briefly to try to attach his bracelet but you giggled and helped him put his on. The close proximity had your pulse racing in your ears as you looked at his eyes when the bracelet was on all the way.

“Where are we going first?” you ventured in curiosity as you grabbed one of the center maps and unfolded it. It was much larger than the last time you had been there and you wondered what new exhibits had been added.

“How about the cute animals first?” Marcus asked as he started to walk backwards to lead you down the small hall to the exhibit. You bit your lip slightly when his eyes met yours, eyebrows slightly raised. It felt like he wanted to make you happy and your entire body warmed at the promise of what that meant.

“When I came here as a kid, they let us hold a tarantula.” You tilted your head proudly, “I was the only girl in my class who was willing to do it.”

Marcus returned to walking beside you and squeezed your fingers lightly, “I have no doubt. Any woman who can handle working with a bunch of pre-teen kids daily wouldn’t be fazed by a silly spider.”

As the two of you entered the first room of the animal exhibit you saw that several parrots were flying freely about the room and laughed out loud when a small blue and gold Macaw landed on Marcus’ head. “I think that one likes you.”

Marcus’s whole body froze when the bird landed on him but your words caused him to let out a short burst of laughter. “Well he’s not pecking my head so I guess so,” he answered with a small chuckle before the bird was flying off his head and landed on your shoulder.

“Hmmm, it seems like he has good taste in women too,” he said with a wink and you swear your heart leapt from your chest at the simple gesture.

After some more venturing through the reptiles and the “exotic” exhibit that showcased sloths this month, Marcus took your head again and led you down a narrow hall. Just then, a small group of children decided to rush past you. “Whoa!” Marcus exclaimed as he turned and caged you in against the wall, trying to stop the both of you from being trampled on by the tiny feet as they all yelled and hollered past you.

You felt Marcus’s body pressed against yours shielding you from danger and the air left your lungs. Your skin tingled at his proximity and as the tiny army of children made their way into the room you’d just left you took a moment to try and catch your breath. Licking your lips you lifted your gaze to look Marcus in the eyes and spoke softly, “Thank you… for saving my life.”

Marcus chuckled, a low rumble that vibrated from his chest to yours, causing more tingles throughout your body. You laughed with him and though you were feeling the humor of the situation, you also felt something else. A yearning for him.

He was feeling the same yearning as the two of you locked eyes in the narrow hallway. He hadn’t moved from his protective stance, even though the children had disappeared, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just startled.” As you spoke you realized how close his mouth was to yours. Either one of you could move slightly and you’d be kissing. He did just that and his lips were just brushing against yours when a voice from just outside the hallway broke the spell. You weren’t really alone and that was a stark reminder of the fact.

Marcus pulled away from you, clearing his throat, and you gave him a lopsided grin, “Remind me to thank you more thoroughly later.”

Moving together toward the next room, both of you reached for the other’s hand as Marcus replied, “I look forward to it.”

An hour later and you had explored the exhibits that were actually open. The last one to see what the constellation one but there was some time before the next show would start. You stood with Marcus, your fingers intertwined, your back against the wall near the entrance to the stargazing exhibit.

“Do you want a snack before we go in?” Marcus offered, gesturing down the hall a bit to the vending machines. You nodded with a smile and he led you over to grab a couple of snacks and a soda to share. You were surprised his taste in soda was similar to yours.

The two of you were ushered in and took your seats. Before the show even started, your eyes were looking up at the domed ceiling. “Oh! That one is my fave! Machina Electrica,” you said happily as you pointed to the faded star shape on the ceiling.

Marcus looked up to where you were pointed and squinted. “You can see that?” he asked and you chuckled.

“I just know where it would be based on how they run the shows. Usually they start by showing you the current set up of the stars based on the earth’s rotation and then they slowly slide you through the seasons to show how-” you looked over at Marcus to see him staring at you and immediately clamped your mouth shut. “I’m sorry. I’m such a nerd about this stuff and I-”

Marcus placed his hand over yours gently and interrupted your rambling. “I like it.” You had immediately stopped talking assuming he was getting annoyed by your overwhelming passion for the star exhibit. But, his words were like cupid’s arrow, piercing your heart. If you liked him before that was nothing compared to the fact that he said he liked your geeky rambling.

“Oh, well… umm, okay ... good.” You felt your cheeks warming and Marcus smiled at you, thinking you look extra-beautiful with your shy smile and eyes shining with happiness. He felt the urge to kiss you again, but this was a public place and the seats were filling up quickly now that the show was close to starting.

The lights dimmed and suddenly the ceiling above resembled the clear night sky. Several kids in the audience made an “oooh” sound and Marcus heard you gasp, one palm covering your heart. “It never gets old,” you whispered, and he thought to himself, he would bring you here every day if he could just see that look on your face.

The show ended and the two of you walked out hand in hand. Your heart was racing from the pure excitement and beauty of the star show. Marcus found that his heart was racing as well but it wasn’t from watching the stars.

As the two of you walked out into the chilly evening air, you felt your body shiver slightly as you adjusted to the new temperature. Marcus moved closer to wrap his arm around your shoulders and rubbed at your arm lightly. “You okay?” he asked. You nodded and told him you were okay, just adjusting to the night air.

You both started to walk slower as you reached the car. Marcus let his arm slowly slide down your body and you turned to face him. “Do you have anything else fun planned?” you asked as you looked into his eyes. The softness of his smile nearly melted you into a puddle on the ground.

“One more stop,” he told you as a playful smile crossed his lips. “And, if you want, we can make a bet,” he offered, his voice dropping an octave as he took a step closer, his hand resting comfortably on your hip.

“Oh yeah? A bet on what?” you asked, the playful smile echoing to your own face.

“If I win, you come home with me for a night cap.”

“And if I win?”

“You get whatever you want.”

“How about a kiss?”

“We don’t have to wait for that,” he said, his lips now brushing against yours before his hand came to the side of your face and his lips pressed against yours softly. Your hands came up to rest on his lower back as your mouth opened for him. Your tongue pressed against his in a sultry dance, pleading for more.

You pulled away long enough to say, “I guess I’ll have to think of something else if I win then.” Your mouth searched for his again for another kiss. Your body stirred with longing to be closer to him than you already were, to feel his hands on your intimate places, to feel his breath against your skin.

You both seemed to realize you were still in the science center parking lot and pulled apart reluctantly. “I’m not sure I can think of anything better than that though.” You could, but it was best to keep those thoughts to yourself right now. Marcus pulled you close to his side as he unlocked the passenger door for you, then teased you with another slow drag of his lips across yours. Eyes closed, you attempted to follow his mouth as it retreated.

As you settled into the seat, you could feel your body’s reaction to him. And he hadn’t even used his power on you. He hadn’t known what he was doing the previous two times. You wondered what would happen if you told him about your piercing and how he could control them. Again, a conversation for another time.

As he slid into the driver’s side, you asked, “So, any hints as to where we’re going? Other than it involves one of us winning something?” You smiled sexily in his direction. He looked over at you and narrowed his eyes a bit in a big smile.

“It’s a game. That involves a ball. Or two,” he offered simply before changing his attention to the car to start it up and take off. He drove for a few minutes but his hand rested on his thigh, his fingers tapping nervously as he drove down the freeway.

Your eyes caught the movement and you turned and placed your hand gently over his, your palm resting against the back of his hand, your fingers slowly interlocking with his. As he pulled off the next exit and waited at the red light, he pulled your hand up to kiss the back of it softly, lingering his lips against your skin.

Your heart raced at the gentle moment before he was placing your hand and his back down to his thigh as he took off towards the miniature golf course. You immediately let out a laugh when the sign came into view. “Petey the Pirate’s mini golf?” you asked with a laugh and Marcus just smiled brightly and nodded.

You laughed, a bright unfiltered sound, “I don’t think I’ve been here since high school!” It probably hadn’t been quite that long, but back then you’d spent a lot of hours at the mini-golf course. Not that you were going to admit that to Marcus Moreno. “So… whoever wins mini-golf gets to choose how the night ends, eh?” Glancing at your date, you wink at him then laughed again.

Marcus grinned, “I take it I chose well when planning this date?”

“Oh yes, you’re two for two so far, Mr. Moreno.” You had been having a great time and it seemed like every time you thought the day couldn’t get any better, Marcus surprised you. Your heart raced just thinking about how he’d planned this special night for you and he’d gotten everything so perfect.

He got out of the car and rushed around to open the door for you. The two of you walked hand in hand toward the booth that sold the balls and putters and you couldn’t help but laugh giddily in anticipation. Taking your putter and ball, you bit your lip looking at Marcus, “You should know that I’m … not very good at this game.”

After paying the guy for the balls and putters, Marcus looked to you as he waited for his change with a raised eyebrow. The way you bit your lip was instantly driving him crazy but he cleared his throat and turned back to get his change before grabbing his putter.

“Yeah? Well, erm,” he cleared his throat again, “Maybe I can show you some tips and tricks,” he offered nervously, trying to sound smoother than he actually was. He nearly tripped over the little divider between the entrance walkway and the first green.

He straightened himself up and you found yourself snickering quietly. “Alright, alright. Let’s get to it so we can see what happens with our bet,” he said playfully as he set his ball down and took in a deep breath. He felt a familiar vibration through his hands as he guided the putter exactly where he wanted it to go to land the ball just outside the pocket.

You watched as Marcus lined up his shot and then the ball zipped it’s way toward the hole, stopping just short of dropping in. You looked at the ball then looked at him and raised your eyebrow, “I can see my work is cut out for me.”

You dropped the ball onto the little dark circle that marked the tee. Looking down the astroturf lane, you lined up your shot. In truth, you could easily make this shot. You’d practically lived at Petey’s as a kid, but you wanted Marcus to win. Not to make him feel good about himself. You knew he wasn’t the kind of man to care about that stuff. But, the more time you spent with him the better that night cap sounded.

So, you lined up the shot, then hit it just to the left of where you wanted it to go with more effort than the putt required. The ball overshot the hole and bounced hard off the little wall that lined the hole and stopped halfway back to its origin. “I might need that help,” You snickered.

Marcus’s gaze snapped back to you after having watched your ball go too far and bounce back. He was smirking but trying to hide it, trying not to make fun of you for being so bad on such an easy first shot. He nodded with a tight smile before moving closer to you. He leaned down and grabbed the ball and placed it just to the right of the mark instead of directly on it.

“Okay, first. Don’t trust the tee mark,” he told you as he stood up and turned towards you with a smile. He moved beside you to place his putter against the little fence to store it there. He turned back towards you and rubbed his palms together. “Alright. Show me your stance,” he told you and you stared at him for a moment with a cocked eyebrow. He laughed before moving to mimic as if he were holding the putt. “How you stand. You know, like this?”

You moved your feet apart, showing off a decent stance for mini-golf. Marcus nodded, “That’s good… but you don’t have a good grip on your putter.” He walked over to you, placing himself behind you. A slow smile spread across your face. He was doing exactly what you’d hoped he would. He began to manipulate your limbs, placing your arms where he thought they needed to be. Everywhere he touched you seemed to burn in reaction.

Then Marcus’ arms wrapped around you, placing his hands over yours. His torso was pressed to your back and you practically moaned. You managed to keep the sensual sound to yourself. Marcus’ hands were tender, but you could feel the exact moment his powers manifested, working their magic on the putter in both your hands. The magnetic sensation tugged lightly at your piercings and this time you couldn’t help yourself. You whimpered quietly, feeling the vibration in your nipples and your clit. Suddenly your knees were weak.

Marcus didn’t hear you the first time but he absolutely heard you the second time as he swung your arms together and hit the ball. It bounced off the back wall gently, landing just a few inches away from his own ball. But he didn’t move. He felt like he couldn’t. His body was vibrating in a whole new way with the noise you were making. “A-are you.. Okay?” Marcus asked in your ear, his hands still covered yours over the putter.

Your lips curled into themselves as you nodded slowly. You couldn’t find the words to tell the man that you were on an official first date with that his superhero powers were tingling the piercings in your tits and clit. Marcus leaned a bit closer and his lips barely grazed the shell of your ear as he spoke again. “If you’re sure,” he spoke softly as he pulled away from you. You bit your lower lip, trying to stifle the whine you were tempted to let out from the loss of contact with him. All you could think about was being close to him, all the time.

Marcus was just as affected and immediately turned around to grab his putter and took a deep breath in, trying to calm himself. He knew he liked you, and from the way things were going, it was very clear that you liked him back. But was it appropriate to get that physical on the first date? It had been too long since his last first date but he was pretty sure that the sounds you were making were not ones he had made anyone make on a first date.

You watched him collect himself. He had turned away and part of you wondered if you’d done something wrong. It wasn’t like you’d been able to control your reaction to him. And it wasn’t like he’d intended to turn you on like he did. He didn’t even know about your piercings, so you knew he hadn’t meant to tweak them. When he’d been standing behind you, it had felt like maybe you were having an affect on him as well.

Finally, he turned back to you and smiled, “Next hole is the Cave of Mystery!” Marcus added a spooky element to his voice when he said the name making you giggle. You were quickly figuring out that he was kind of a goofball, in the very best way. The more time you spent in his presence the more you liked him. As his daughter’s teacher, you told yourself you shouldn’t feel this way about him, but you couldn’t resist the desire to get closer.

As you walked to the next hole, he took your hand once again sending a ripple of pleasure throughout you. The cave entrance loomed in front of you and as you both stepped inside, you commented, “I hope you aren’t afraid of the dark.”

“If I was afraid of anything, I likely wouldn’t be the world’s greatest superhero,” he replied playfully as he set his ball down to take his first shot. The ball bounced the corner and disappeared around a cave wall and he hoped it didn’t land in the sand trap.

He stepped to the side and turned towards you. “Do you need help on this one too?” he asked, feeling his heart ramp up in rhythm at the thought of being closer to you again.

You smiled wryly at him with a small shrug of your shoulders. “If you wouldn’t mind,” you offered quietly and took your place. Marcus took a moment and came up behind you again to hold you and guide your ball. The familiar vibrations ran down your body and you bit your lower lip with a soft moan again. The ball bounced just the same as his ball had done and around the cave wall it went.

But Marcus didn’t move except to put his face closer to your cheek. You could feel his light scruff tickling your cheek and you felt your body heat up at the closeness again. His breath was warm as it fanned over your skin and you could have sworn his lips had pursed to kiss the shell of your lightly. Before you could think about that or even react to it, he’d pulled back, “We should see where our balls went.”

You bit your lip to keep from laughing at what he’d said. Spending all day with pre-teens meant your sense of humor sometimes took a dive into low-brow territory. This didn’t escape Marcus’s attention however and he chuckled lightly, “Can you even play mini-golf without everything sounding dirty?”

Finally letting loose with a soft giggle-snort, you shook your head, “I don’t think so. Unless maybe you’re a saint.”

Marcus gave you a look, his gaze full of heat and replied, “I’m not a saint,” as he pulled you around the corner. The light was much dimmer here. You remembered this had been a popular make out spot for the kids in your class when you’d been in high school. It was private and you could always hear when people were coming so getting caught was easy to avoid.

As soon as the memory had formed in your head, Marcus was turning you into his body and kissing you again, his hand gently gripping the back of your head. Stepping back, you found yourself pressed to the uneven wall of the “cave”. You moaned deeply into his mouth as your hands ran over his ribcage and over his hips so you could cup his ass.

Marcus’s lips slotted against yours and he groaned when your hands found his ass. He pressed you more against the wall, his hand sliding to your jaw to hold your face. His other hand slid up from your waist and tentatively explored over your stomach before sliding up over your breast.

Within an instant, his hand was buzzing with power and his palm attracted something hard from under your thin shirt. A piercing? His mind whirred with lust as he broke from the kiss for air and moved his lips down to your neck.

His hand on your breast placed his power directly where it could have the most effect and you responded immediately, making a sound between a gasp and a moan. Marcus continued to pull and twist gently at your nipple piercing, making you whimper softly, as he suckled at the curve of your neck. You were on the verge of coming already and he hadn’t even found your other piercing. As if reading your mind, he pulled away from your neck long enough to whisper in your ear, “What other surprises do you have for me?”

Jaggedly, you replied, “Why don’t we … say you won … and we can go … to your … place ... and you can ... find out?”

Tags: @boliv-jenta @fanfic-addict-98 @fandomtrashwhore @grandfanficstation @literally-anythin @mrschiltoncat @thisshipwillsail316 @yes-im-your-mom

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aimlessplayer · 4 years ago

Text

cleanse all your stress

(On AO3)

Summary: When Shigaraki is weirdly resistant to caring for his hygiene, Twice decides to lend him a hand. The pieces start to click together in the process.

Tags: (Platonic) Bathing and Hair Washing, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, All For One’s Bad Parenting, Past Sexual Abuse, Flashbacks, PTSD, Shigaraki is Touch-Starved, Twice is a Good Friend

Notes: cw: past csa, past child neglect, flashbacks, non-explicit but overt references to past csa

"Shigaraki, you should take a shower before we head out!"

"Huh?"

With all the others off on their own, only Twice and Tomura were left in need of somewhere to stay overnight, (well, Twice needed somewhere to stay overnight--Tomura didn't mind borrowing the room's outlets for his phone and 3DS,) so they ended up sharing a crummy motel room. Tomura was fully expecting to head out after Twice finished his morning cigarette--he'd already packed away his handheld consoles and everything--but instead, now Twice is holding out their pair of travel shampoo and soap to him.

"You didn't take one at the last place; you need it! You stink! Nice and clean!"

Tomura narrows his eyes at him, before glancing over to the bathroom, nails already attacking his own neck. Through the doorway he can only see a single corner of porcelain that makes up the tub, but the dread still hits Tomura hard enough that he has to look away.

"I don't want to."

"Ahh, come on, Shigaraki! Pretty please? For me?" Twice pleads, waving the products in front of him again.

Tomura grits his teeth as his nails dig harder into his skin, torn between that dread and knowing his members deserve better behavior from their leader.

"No," he growls. "If it bugs you that much then just stay away from me."

"Shigaraki…"

Twice seems to wilt in defeat, before snapping right back up.

"What if I did it for you?"

Tomura's fingers pause. He casts a questioning glance in Twice's direction.

"I need a shower, too! I'll take one later! If we take a bath together, I can wash your hair and stuff for you! Baths are for kids! You'll only need to get in the water!"

Tomura can't do anything but stare; he knows he's being childish, and he really didn't expect Twice to accommodate that so fully. He's so stunned by the offer alone that he forgets to even consider his answer.

He must take too long to respond, because Twice bows his head and claps his hands together--still holding the products, which crashes them together and nearly pops the cap off the shampoo--and cries, "Please, Shigaraki!"

Tomura finally snaps out of his stupor. "Fine, fine…"

At least he won't be alone with his thoughts. That's the biggest problem, isn't it? All he has to do is sit back and let it happen, like he used to. He pushes himself up before Twice can respond, digging his gloves out of his pocket while making a beeline for the bathroom so that he can set the water's temperature himself. Twice shouts his thanks behind him.

Stripping in front of another man while the water runs... It's so familiar he can almost fall into that memory, so much so that he half expects to feel Twice's hands strip off his jumpsuit for him. He doesn't though, of course, busy getting rid of his own clothing. Once he's naked, Tomura shuts off the water, then presses himself back against the sink to make room for Twice to squeeze by, letting the cold porcelain pressing against his side ground him.

Sensei had bathed him long after most children would have grown out of it, so in Tomura's mind it had always been a sort of group activity; trying to do it by himself brought on such a feeling of loneliness that he preferred to avoid it entirely. He hadn't ever taught Tomura how to bathe himself, either. He's sure he could have asked Kurogiri at some point in the last six years, but that would have meant having to accept that All For One wouldn't be around to do it anymore, so he never did.

Twice steps his foot into the water and hisses, quickly pulling it back out before whipping his head around to look at Tomura. "It's freezing! Too hot!"

Tomura crosses his arms. "Yeah. Hot water irritates my skin."

Tomura is acutely aware he's completely bare to Twice's eyes, making no effort to remain modest (even if his pulse is skirting something frantic). If anything, the way he's leaning back against the sink is jutting his hips forward--yet, Twice's eyes never wander, staying fully fixed on his face.

"What?! You always keep the water this cold, Shigaraki?!"

Tomura scowls. "Yeah. You said you wanted me to bathe, this is how I do it. Just get in."

"Geez…!" Twice exclaims, eyes finally leaving his face to wince in some sort of sympathy. "I wouldn't wanna do that. Let's jump in!"

Twice stares down at the water, before bracing himself for the chill and settling in, complete with barely suppressed noises of distress.

With Twice squeezed inside it, Tomura suddenly notices how much smaller this tub is compared to the one he and All For One shared. He knew he was most likely going to be in Twice's lap either way, but it'll probably be closer than he was originally expecting.

"O-okay, your turn!" Twice is quick to beckon Tomura over, arms outstretched with a look of urgency on his face.

Tomura doesn't know what's going to happen when he gets in; if it'll be similar to baths with his sensei, if Twice will touch him, if it'll be quick, or awkward. He doesn't know if Twice's hands will wander, or be rough, or if he'll flirt and bend him over the edge of the tub.

He does know that he doesn't really care, and he'll accept whatever's thrown at him in the end. Like always. As he steps over the porcelain barrier into the tub, that sense of acceptance increases, falling easily into the expectation of past routine as he settles himself onto Twice's lap. Twice is quick to wrap his arms around him and pull Tomura to his chest with a sigh of relief, head buried against his shoulder.

Tomura feels numb, like his skin is impossibly cold and nothing can quite penetrate the layer of ice.

"Come on, it's not that bad," Tomura chides softly, letting his head lull back to rest in the crook of Twice's shoulder.

He takes a quiet deep breath. Twice's scent is comforting - very present, but not like sensei's, who doused himself in expensive cologne that would fill the room and overpower everything else. While sensei's scent always made Tomura feel alert, Twice's puts him at ease.

"I know, I know..." Twice replies, "I just need a minute to adjust!"

Suddenly unfolding himself from around Tomura, Twice claps his hands together and says, "Let's get started!"

Tomura can't completely suppress his smile at Twice's predictable unpredictability. With practiced discipline, Tomura peels himself away from Twice's chest to allow easier access to his hair, leaning forward a bit while Twice drags a washcloth beneath the water to wet it.

His eyes habitually fall shut when he hears the water break. While Twice wrings out the water above his head to wet his hair, Tomura finds himself surprised at how easily the sensation makes him sink into memories; with each breath he draws he expects to smell that expensive cologne again. Nostalgia twists painfully in his chest--it's so familiar it almost makes him want to cry.

He's snapped out of his trance when Twice's fingers begin working the shampoo into his hair, jarringly small compared to the ones he was expecting. His eyes crack open, peering down at the water and disoriented to see how long his own legs are, resting on top of tanner thighs that aren't as wide as the ones he was used to.

"You should at least brush your hair once in a while if you're not gonna shower..." Twice chides as he struggles to get his fingers through the knots, oblivious to Tomura's dizzied state.

He doesn't think he could reply even if he wanted to, even with the grounding sound of Twice's voice. His throat feels sealed off, as it so often seemed to be when he was younger--and his head feels too light. He glances around the dingy bathroom to remind himself of where he is, because each time he blinks he expects he'll be somewhere bigger, brighter and cleaner than he really is.

The more he grounds himself, the more he appreciates the feeling of Twice's fingers stroking his scalp, even if they keep catching on knots and pulling.

"Sorry, Shigaraki!"

It's his own fault, anyway. Sensei never apologized for pulling Tomura's hair; if he didn't want it to happen, then he should have just kept it brushed (even if he was often too tired to lift his arms above his head, kept up by nightmares for days on end.)

He doesn't sleep often enough for nightmares to be a problem anymore, but the fatigue is just as bad. Same goes for washing his hair, or brushing his teeth; it's always either too tiring or there's something more important to use his energy for. The habits just never stuck.

"Tilt your head back for me?"

Tomura obeys, eyes slipping shut in preparation for the water. To his surprise, he feels Twice press the edge of his hand to his forehead, shielding his face from the pouring water while he rinses the shampoo out.

It's such a simple gesture, but something about it catches on his mind. He doesn't think All For One ever protected his eyes for him… He certainly appreciates not having water running down his face and irritating it. He can't help but lean into the warmth of Twice's hand; he can't even remember the last time he was touched this kindly.

If Twice notices the way Tomura is nudging himself under his hand like a needy cat then he doesn't say anything. The contact is short-lived; the shampoo is quickly rinsed from his hair and the hand removed to instead handle soap and a washcloth.

This is the part where Tomura gets… nervous.

He hates to admit that, but the pulse pounding in his ears is unmistakable. He'll stay and accept it regardless, but he's anticipating a total loss of control. As much as he likes the warmth of Twice's hands, he's relieved that the soap is going onto the rag, instead of being spread around his body directly, like Sensei often did.

As Twice scrubs him over, Tomura can see patches of his pale skin slowly revealed as the layers of dirt are loosened and then washed away. He watches brown steadily stream down his arms and fade into the tub water. (Was he really that dirty…?)

Twice rests one hand on Tomura's shoulder while the other works. His movements over his skin are thorough, but quick--he doesn't linger like Sensei, who would give certain areas of Tomura's body special attention until- until- ...until it responded.

Tiny fists push against the porcelain edge of the tub as Tomura lifts himself up out of the water, his hips tilted forward to present his problem.

"Make it better, sensei…"

Nausea stabs into his torso, resulting in a harsh shudder as Tomura tries to shake the memory from his mind.

"Shigaraki, you're shaking! It's too cold!" Twice cries, reaching around him for the faucet. "Let's turn the heat up, okay?"

Tomura's hand snaps out to grab Twice's wrist.

"No," God, please no- "It'll make me itch more."

Baths with sensei were hot. Almost scalding, sometimes. He remembers how cold the air felt when he was pulled out, how sensei would lay him dripping wet on his bed, would tear his hands away from his neck and kiss the scratches all better.

The thought of being surrounded by that heat again…

"You're warm enough, anyway," Tomura concludes, leaning back against Twice's chest as if to prove his point. His free hand shakes where it clutches the edge of the tub, but he's mindful not to dig his nails into Twice's skin with the other--though he refuses to let go until his hand finally moves away from the hot water valve.

"Toga and I could go steal you some moisturizer, you know! You don't gotta take cold baths!" Twice offers. "Do it yourself!"

Tomura is pulled out of his thoughts, turning his head to look up at Twice, suddenly feeling a flare of pain on his neck where his nails had subconsciously dug in. "...Huh? Would that help?"

"Your skin's too dry, and the hot water makes it worse. That's why it itches," he says, watching Tomura with a notable absence of hunger as he continues his ministrations over Tomura's chest.

Tomura's thoughts shift away from the past and towards the future as he peers back down at the water. Could it really be solved that easily...? Even if it could, would he be able to handle warm baths again?

Twice shifts his grip on Tomura's shoulder to be a little lower while he runs the washcloth over them, the warmth of it radiating a little deeper than before. He tries to picture it, if the water was warm now--and he thinks he'd be too afraid.

"Shigaraki, is it okay if I wash your neck?" Twice asks, pulling the rag away from his skin.

"...Hm?"

"I mean- is it going to be alright? I don't want to make your scratching worse. Who cares!"

"...It's fine," Tomura answers mildly, even if there's some odd feeling wriggling its way through his chest again. "It's already wet, anyway."

"Okay!" Twice chirps, beginning to scrub at the back of his neck.

Tomura makes a conscious decision not to scratch after Twice rinses away the suds, even though he wants to. Not because the water made it itch, but because he wants to dispel the discomfort of having Twice so mindfully tend to his needs. Instead he sighs, which unfortunately catches Twice's attention as well.

"Don't worry, we're almost done!" he assures, to which Tomura mumbles something he hopes is passively reassuring despite his total lack of enthusiasm. Twice's estimate is accurate though; not long after, he's finished soaping up the remainder Tomura's body and rinsing away the suds.

"Okay, let's turn the nozzle on and rinse off, then you can hop out while I shower!"

"Mm. Thanks," he replies half-mindedly.

"...Shigaraki?"

Tomura doesn't move from Twice's lap. Instead, he picks at his fingers and stares down at the water for a long moment.

"...Shouldn't I… help you…?" he finally murmurs. Twice blinks.

"...Huh? Wasn't the whole point of this so that you wouldn't have to do it yourself?"

"I'm not doing it myself, you're with me," Tomura retorts, finally regaining movement. He twists himself around until he's sitting sideways in Twice's lap, peering up at the man.

"Where do I start?"

Twice takes a moment to stare, wide-eyed and confused. His hands hover in the air while he tries to find somewhere to put them that isn't on Tomura.

"...Ah, most people start with their hair?" he finally offers.

Tomura glances over at their two travel-sized bath products, peering at their labels before picking up the shampoo, gaze flicking up to Twice.

"This one, right?"

Twice gives an affirming nod, so Tomura pops the lid open and starts squeezing the gel onto his hand, speaking as he does.

"How much do I use?"

"Just enough to-- Woah, that's enough!" Twice says. "No, add more!"

Tomura pauses, tilting the bottle upright again. He glances between Twice's baffled expression and the glob of product almost filling his palm, deducing that it's probably too much. He feels a pang of regret at wasting their limited supply, wondering if there's a way to get it back in the bottle, or if he's going to have to throw the whole handful out and use even more.

But Twice just laughs, and tilts his head forward.

"Now just… work it in!"

"Should I spread it over my hands first, or…?"

"Sure, that can help cover everything more evenly. There's no right way to do it! Just try to make sure you get all of it!"

There's too much; the moment Tomura starts pressing his palms together, the excess globs off the sides of his hands. He spreads what remains over his fingers and palms, trying to avoid coating his gloves as much as possible.

As he reaches up to run his hands through Twice's hair, an intense discomfort that he doesn't pay much attention to washes over him, more focused on the task at hand. He's alarmed by how quickly the product comes off despite how much of it there is, seeming more inclined to collect in one place despite Tomura's efforts to smooth it further back.

He hears a soft laugh from Twice, and it finally dawns on him that he should quit petting him and do it like Sensei used to, or how Twice had been all of five minutes ago. He threads his fingers through Twice's hair, gently rubbing the product in with his fingertips. He's stuck by how hot Twice's scalp feels, wondering if that's normal or if he should ask if he feels feverish--then freezes as a realization hits.

Has he ever touched someone like this before?

The movement of his hands continues just a second later. Sensei certainly never had Tomura bathe him in their time together; Tomura tried to avoid touching him at all, for fear of making him disappear, and he doesn't touch his comrades for similar reasons. His hands are weapons--they're not meant to comfort or to hold, only to destroy.

Yet here he is, sitting in a man's lap, running his fingers through his hair. It's so alien, touching someone without feeling them grow cold and give away under his hands. He remembers how long the feeling of Midoriya's warmth beneath his hand and pressed against his side had lingered after the mall, how often that memory nagged at his mind.

It's even more jarring when it's someone he actually cares about. He's hyperaware of every little movement Twice makes under his fingers, leaning into the touch or tilting his head to give Tomura better access.

Twice watches him closely from beneath his lashes while he finishes coating his hair in a slick layer.

"Hey, Shigaraki… do you not… know how to bathe?"

"How long should we wait?" Tomura asks instead, lowering his hands from Twice's head, trying to get rid of the lingering shampoo on them by running them through the water.

"Not long."

Tomura settles back and rests his hands on his knees in silence, watching them closely as the feeling of Twice's hair running beneath his fingers lingers in his mind, ignoring the feeling of Twice's eyes on him.

"...So," Twice starts suddenly, "normally someone would put in conditioner after washing the shampoo out! Obviously we don't have any, but in an ideal situation."

"Mm."

"Also, conditioner always goes in after shampoo, alright? Remember that! It's pointless to put it in before, because the shampoo would just get rid of it."

"Mm."

"And if you do use conditioner, do it before you wash your body. It's good for your hair, but bad for your skin! So, in order: shampoo, conditioner, soap."

"Mm."

"Okay, you can rinse it out now."

Tomura takes the washcloth and soaks it. Twice tilts his head back and pinches his eyes shut in preparation for the water, and Tomura presses the edge of his hand to Twice's hairline, trying to protect his sutures as much as possible while he washes the suds out of his hair. It's only after Tomura has rewet the washcloth for the second rinse that he glances back up and notices Twice watching. His eyes are half lidded, full of gratitude and some surprise while a smile tugs at his lips.

"What's that look for?" Tomura grumbles, reaching up to squeeze out the rag over Twice's hair. His smile wobbles before becoming a grin, eyes squeezing back shut.

"Sorry!--" Twice's breath hits Tomura's face when he speaks, alerting him to how closely he's leaned in. "--This is nice, is all."

Twice exhales at the exact time Tomura takes a breath, and the way breathing another person's air makes his lungs feel floaty sends him back--a flash of a memory fills his mind, of being held in his sensei's lap while they pant in each other's faces.

It's gone as soon as it arrives, but the feelings remain. Tomura realizes he's wrung out the washcloth so tightly his knuckles have turned white.

"Is it…" he murmurs half mindedly, lowering the rag back into the water. Despite how the memory has his stomach churning, he doesn't feel inclined to move further away so that they're not breathing the same air. The idea of having this sort of closeness with someone other than Sensei is… interesting. New.

He feels a sense of smallness wash over him as it so often does when he's met with foreign experiences. Usually that vulnerability makes him want to destroy something to reassert control, but he thinks…

...He thinks it's okay here.

After a couple more rinses, he smooths his hand over Twice's hair one last time to make sure there's no remaining shampoo, then lowers both of his hands, finally backing away a bit.

"So, what now?" he asks, eyeing the bottle of soap.

"Just soap up the rag and scrub!" Twice says. "Don't use so much this time! Soap spreads better than shampoo, so don't worry about that."

Tomura follows his instructions, adding less than half the amount of the shampoo he had used. Tomura hesitates with the rag in his hand as he glances up at Twice, who just smiles and settles back on his hands, watching him expectantly--but with none of the judgement he was so used to from Sensei. Tomura slowly places his free hand on Twice's shoulder, watching his expression carefully as he lifts the rag towards his neck. He doesn't tense or recoil like Tomura expects him to, just lifts his chin to expose his neck further.

So he presses the washcloth to his skin and starts to rub. He can see the soap start to lather, and thinks it'll be easier to actually get everything than he'd thought. When Tomura works down towards Twice's collar bone, he sighs pleasantly and lets his head roll back.

"Shigaraki…! So gentle!" Twice appraises. It almost makes Tomura have to pause for a moment.

It's such a jarring thing to hear said about himself. Of all the words that have been used to describe him--crazy, brat, freak, twisted--'gentle' has no place among them. To think someone would regard him with such a term… He tries to tell himself it's just Twice saying embarrassing Twice things as usual, because the feeling of warmth stirring in his chest is so alien that it's unbearable.

However, he is trying to be gentle; he's rarely touched anybody without the intent to kill before, and he sincerely has no idea how much pressure hurts. Twice has done a lot for him today; the least he owes him in return is some caution. He scrubs the rag over his shoulder, then leans in to slide it around the back of his neck, trying to avoid looking up at Twice's face that is filled with far too much warmth.

Moving lower, Tomura has to practically embrace him to wash his back. Twice had wrapped his arms around him earlier, sure, but then Tomura was still wired and half expecting to be bent over and railed. The warmth felt intrusive, in whatever distant, pinpricking way he'd felt it--but now he really does feel it when Twice's chest brushes against his own, and it's hard not to throw himself into that welcoming warmth.

God, he feels like a little kid again. It's been years since he last spent time with Sensei, and he'd worked hard to suppress that desire to be wrapped up in someone's arms and spoken softly to--but now he feels like he's bursting at the seams.

He manages to resist pressing himself into him, but he still syncs their breathing so that their chests press against each other with each inhale. He's so engrossed in the feeling of Twice's skin that he nearly forgets he's supposed to be bathing him.

Washing a broader area is a bit harder. His movements are clumsy and uncertain, and he can't find a decent way to hold the rag so that it doesn't slip out from under his hand. It leaves him red-faced with embarrassment, and a sharp pain radiating through his jaw tells him he's clenching his teeth too tight.

Ugh- he's getting all worked up… He should have just left Father on.

Tomura draws back hesitantly after a job not-so well done, avoiding eye contact while idly scrubbing at Twice's upper arm (because the idea of working down to his chest startles him).

"...Sorry. I'm bad at this."

"You're doing fine, Shigaraki!" Twice assures. "It'd be easier if we had a sponge!"

Surprised to go uncriticized, Tomura follows the rest of Twice's pointers and direction as he scrubs down the rest of him. Tomura isn't sure if Twice picks up on his hesitance or not, but it's a lot easier to wash his slightly more personal areas, like his chest, when he's idly rambling about this and that and not paying attention to Tomura's hands.

"Let's drain the water and get rinsed off!"

"I'd always wondered why you avoided taking showers!" Twice announces while he ducks through the shower curtain and practically leaps out of the tub. "Now it makes sense--you didn't know how!"

Tomura gives a low, neutral hum that bounces around the wet walls, standing under the spray and scowling at no one. The water's much colder coming from the showerhead, and he rushes through rinsing off. Even then, Tomura is already shivering by the time he's turning off the water and following after Twice, who's still toweling off.

Tomura grabs the remaining one off the rack and wraps it around his waist, then settles down on the edge of the tub. He's drained, and the chill certainly doesn't help. He stares blankly at the mat on the floor, head full of unheard thoughts--until his vision abruptly goes dark as Twice drapes another towel over his head.

"It's okay to ask for help with things like that, you know!" he starts while rubbing at Tomura's hair. For a moment, he has trouble keeping balance under Twice's movements until his body finally remembers how to tense up again.

"People like us… haven't always had the chance to learn "normal" stuff. I don't know normal stuff either!" he continues. "So you can just ask us, and if none of us know either, we'll figure it out together!"

Twice slows down, now squeezing the ends of his hair into the towel. Tomura is quiet for a long time.

Tomura would do just about anything for the members of his League, and he believes they'll always back him up when it comes to their shared goals, but… for one of them to go out of their way to help him? With something that isn't even important?

Tomura has to sit with that for a minute.

Eventually, he speaks up softly from beneath Twice's gentle motions. "Twice…"

"Hm?" Twice hums idly. He pauses drying his hair when Tomura stays quiet a little too long, nudging the towel back a bit so that he can just see his face poking out below. Tomura can't meet his eye.

"...If I try the moisturizer thing, and it works, and I can start using hot water… would you… take more baths with me?"

Tomura finally glances up at the end of his question. Twice is stunned by his bluntness, judging by the way he's staring with his mouth slightly agape. He's quick to shake the surprise off, though, and his expression melts into something warm and fond, with a smile that crinkles his eyes at the edges.

"Sure!"

...

"Do you not know how to brush your teeth either?"

"Ugh- I already took a bath for you, I'm not doing that too."

"I can do it for you!"

"No."

#shigaraki tomura #twice bnha #bubaigawara jin #bnha #fanfic #long post #csa tw #child abuse tw #neglect tw #my writing

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ill-be-istj-if-no-one-else-is · 4 years ago

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Hi, I've only recently come across your blog and I'd like to ask you a question regarding my type. I've originally written a long text to mbti-notes via private messaging, but I'd like to hear your opinion as well and draw conclusion from that. In short, I've been typing myself as INFP most of the time, even though I've felt like something is off, that I don't relate well to Fi-dom descriptions, etc. so I'm now thinking I could be an INFJ. I'll provide examples for INFJ as well as some questions

Some info: I'm 20, bipolar, have PTSD and severe social anxiety (diagnosed, so I know I'm not just looping or gripping, but this leads to questions such as if I really have Fe or it's just anxiety, etc.) but I've started psychotherapy, I'm not in a depressive nor hypomanic state so nothing really influences my perception of self, etc. Pretty confident that I'm an INFx, although I'm open to other possibilites, as well. Ni usage: I have a concrete sense of direction and where I want to end up

which does slightly change when I'm going through even more stress than usual, however I have everything planned out and absorb as much information on anything that could help me achieving my goals as possible. Unlike many Ne users (even Ne-terts I know), I don't enjoy switching areas of interest every week, dedication and going for your goal is ultimately what matters to me. I often envision the ideal situation and don't enjoy preparing for everything at one time: I get disappointed whenever

doesn't go as I envisioned it, but I often subconsciously "just know" how some things will play out. Though, this doesn't mean I'm okay without thinking everything thorough and immediately reacting to everything hoping it will be all right.HOWEVER: I think anyone is capable of (thinking they're) "predicting things" for whatever reason. I do like structure, and I have the need to know everything before my mind can move on. Although I have trouble with procrastination, I see this as more of an

emotional issue, since I still need everything to be clear. But still, I'd rather delay something than set it in advance when circumstances can change uncomparingly drastically, and this just seems like common sense to me. I'm absolutely perfectionistic in what I assume is important to me. I have to have full control over specific processes since I usually have some kind of vision how they have to turn out and evolve. HOWEVER: I could definitely picture an Fi-Te user doing this with their art

Why I don't think I use Ni: despite me criticizing whatever seems superficial to me, I still would describe myself as "too shallow" to be put in the same list as other Ni doms if judging by the depth of their Ni. I can enjoy things like living in the moment or spending good time with friends possibly too easily for an Ni dom. I've also been described as scatter-brained before, and had to take the role of the class clown on some occasions (this is more stereotyping than typing by functions, tho)

Fe: I'm pretty much "anti-Fi" in some aspects: this comes more from comparing myself against other Fi dominants, but they all have a somewhat, for a lack of better word, naive way of thinking about their identity, such as that you should show who you truly are all the time and through anything you can, to the point of giving up anything that makes them take up a persona. While this can be exhausting to me as well, I just don't seem to have a sense of personal identity whatsoever

Why I don't think I have Fe: even though I care a lot about what people think of me, I wonder if it's actually just inferior Te. In the end, even though I don't have a sense of identity, I "adopt" characteristics of people who seem interesting to me and act as if they were mine. Why I don't think I have Se: I don't think I have ever looped in a way of making impulsive decisions I regret later, etc. only wasting my time sleeping, doing pointless physical activities, etc.

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

Hi anon,

I was not able to come up with a type from this as there are very few actual examples, and putting things in terms of MBTI jargon/comparison to people you have typed as certain types is not really useful because I don’t know if they’re actually that type; it’s also really hard to go off of “here’s everything I’m not”, so I would recommend reading through the FAQ if you’re still stuck. Also, 20 is young and you might need more time to develop, particularly if you’ve been dealing with several mental health issues during your teens.

That said, here’s what I have

- lack of examples often correlates to high intuition in that intuitives tend to go straight to their interpretation and general descriptors rather than examples of their behavior

- someone once joked that long asks are usually high Ne and while I don’t think that’s universally true, it’s often true.

concrete sense of direction and where you want to end up is usually high Ni or Si, but in particular the part about procrastination because things can change really does not sound like an Ni dom at all. Dom Ni users tend not to procrastinate but also tend to really struggle with contingency - they are often so fixated on the vision that they don’t know how to deal with the idea that it may not come to pass.

Liking structure is one thing; do you create structure? Some NPs and SPs appreciate structure as an aid/jumping off point but do not create it; they can still find it helpful. Improvisation is still something that has structure, it’s just not the set structure. So this is a case where examples are absolutely vital.

A lot of the other Ni stuff is just people stuff; I think most people have an image of the ideal, and MBTI defines more your relationship to that, not that it exists. Perfectionism is also something for which examples are pretty vital; I see high Ti users claim perfectionism when it’s more what I’d call logical consistency, and sometimes it’s just high standards.

I should also note that while the circumstances of this question make me think intuition is more likely, most of what you’ve said for Ni is equally likely (if not more likely) to be Si; there’s nothing about themes or abstraction, but rather some degree of planning ahead/closure, with an eye to contingency.

So: examples are needed for the perceiving functions.

The part about Fi is similarly not really useable; I don’t know the people you’ve typed as Fi users; I don’t know if they are actually Fi users or if they’re immature Fi users, if you’re talking about ten people or two people, or what. This isn’t to say that comparing yourself against other people isn’t useful for typing yourself - it is - but when asking people who do not know you questions, you need references that they have access to and I do not have this access. With that said, lack of a sense of identity indicates you’re probably not a high Fi user.

Inferior Te wouldn’t really make you care much about what other people think of you (certainly not more than inferior Fe), and again, it’s hard to determine anything from adopting characteristics of others since that can be normal cognition (people mirror each other in general, regardless of type) or alternately, a conscious decision to imitate someone you admire (which anyone can do since it’s by choice).

My wild guess is xNTP, actually, but it’s very tentative; this felt too rambly for high Ni and the evidence for/against feels like it’s coming from a place of high Ti, attempting to put a consistent logical “if I do not fit all aspects of this I am not this” model in place.

#mbti #nowwhatisthissite

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bltngames · 4 years ago

Text

SAGE 2020: Fan Games

I’d hoped to have this article out a little bit sooner, but I overestimated how long it would take to write about some of these games. Whoops! Like I said when I outlined the posting “schedule” on the first day, we’re playing it fast and loose, so this is just what you get.

Today is the day I talk about fan games! And even though SAGE has “Sonic” right there in the acronym, it’s always hosted fan games from all types, so today we’ve got Mega Man, Mario, Rayman, and even fan games of fan games, if you can believe it.

Sonic Pinball Panic!

Pinball is one of those things where I’ve always been obsessed with it, but never very good at it. And now, with access to digital pinball collections like Pinball Arcade and Pinball FX, I don’t actually find myself playing as much pinball as I thought I would when I was 14 years old. Still, I find myself fascinated by a good pinball table, and this honestly caught me off guard. This could very easily be an official DLC release for one of those aforementioned pinball collections and I wouldn’t even bat an eyelash (in fact, if you ask me, this is better than Pinball FX, which has always had weird ball physics). This looks, sounds, and functions exactly like a real pinball table should. My complaints are minor: for starters, the table feels kind of easy. I’ve never been a pinball wizard, but I was losing balls left and right here and it still took a good 15 minutes before I finally got a game over. Score accumulation is also pretty slow; most pinball tables will dump millions and millions of points on you, but here, it felt like a struggle just to reach the 379k I finished with. Both contribute to the fact that the table feels a little flat, like it’s missing a spark to really put it over the top. And, third, it would be nice if it had controller support. The keyboard works just fine, here (it’s just pinball, after all) but I find that the triggers on a controller feel really good with pinball flippers, and mapping the plunger to the right stick is great, too. This is a Unity game, so I wouldn’t think it’d be that hard to hook it up to the controller mapper. Still, I came away impressed.

Mega Man: Perfect Blue

There are two things out there that always give me pause: fan-made Doom level packs, and Mega Man fan games. Fan made gaming content generally has problems when it comes to difficulty balancing anyway, but these games have earned a certain reputation for their difficulty, which creates a problem when you have content made by fans, for fans. This insularity means these things are usually way too hard for what I would consider “normal” people (read: casual fans and outsiders). Add on to the fact that I’d even say that there are official Mega Man games with bad difficulty balancing, and you have a recipe for frustration. Sadly, this is how I’d characterize Perfect Blue: though this introductory level isn’t impossibly hard, it’s definitely pushing that edge where it’s not very accommodating to someone who hasn’t played and finished every Classic Mega Man game ever made. It almost immediately throws you into scenarios where you have jumps you can barely reach, insta-kill spikes, and enemies that not only actively dodge your shots, but invincible enemies that launch counter attack homing missiles. And then it starts making you juggle all of this stuff, together, at the same time. None of this is insurmountable as long as you’re paying attention, but as a very casual Mega Man fan, it’s an unfriendly first impression and makes me worried about what the rest of the game is going to be like as the challenge naturally ramps up. For those hardcore Mega Man fans among you, the rest of this is solid, at least. The presentation and controls are excellent, and the new sprites are beautiful. It’s a game I’d love to enjoy when it’s done… but I’m assuming I’ll be left out in the cold. A shame, really, because there’s so much promise here.

Sonic and the Mayhem Master

There’s a lot to like about this game, but there’s a part of me that really wonders if this should even be considered a Sonic fan game. Mayhem Master’s depictions of Sonic and Amy Rose are atypical to put it mildly. Here, Sonic seems to be a bookish nerd of sorts, a sidekick to Amy Rose, who has been turned into a burnt out, cigar-smoking detective. Most of the game plays out as half an adventure game, half an RPG, where you roam around the world talking to NPCs and gather clues while being assaulted by random battles. The battle system is super off-the-wall, too, perhaps taking inspirations from games like Mario & Luigi and Undertale. This means that battles aren’t passive -- you spend most of each fight dodging or nullifying incoming attacks with simplistic action-based commands. It’s weird, and different, and occasionally even a little bit overwhelming. That’s kind of the whole game, really. It’s the sort of thing that really doesn’t feel like a Sonic game at all, but it also doesn’t feel bad. The artwork is very charming, I’m interested in seeing the characters develop, and there’s plenty of worldbuilding and mystery. Would this still be as intriguing if you removed the Sonic connection, even if it’s so threadbare? That’s a hard question to answer. I know that some of my interest in this game is seeing how it spins more familiar Sonic elements into something that’s completely different. Worth checking out, for curiosity’s sake if nothing else.

Sonic and the Dreamcatcher

This is a fairly brilliant little game with two unfortunate quirks. If you didn’t know, the special stages in the original Sonic the Hedgehog were inspired by an arcade game of the era called Cameltry, published by Taito in 1989. Now, Sonic’s special stages were different enough from Cameltry that it wasn’t a case of Sega outright stealing the gameplay, but there’s a clear lineage there, and it only becomes clearer when you compare the special stages in Sonic 4 Episode 1 to Cameltry (spoilers: in that game, they’re nearly identical). Dreamcatcher is also from this lineage, but is infinitely more charming than either Sonic 4 and maybe even Cameltry itself. The idea is that you must collect a specific number of blue spheres in order to reveal the Chaos Emerald, after which you have a limited amount of time to find and collect it. It’s very simple, but the presentation really sells the game’s charm. It’s just a game that looks good and sounds good, with an interesting premise executed very well. Also, you get a dedicated “& Knuckles” button to spawn infinite Knuckles to help you collect blue spheres and bash enemies. Being able to have unlimited numbers of these guys sounds like it would break the game, but once that countdown clock begins, the last thing you need is 20+ echidnas clogging up the route back to the emerald. The first quirk this game suffers from is that there’s only two levels. Parts of this have a very “game jam made in a weekend” vibe to it despite the rock-solid music, sound, and gameplay, and only having two levels contributes to that. Hopefully more are coming in the future. The other quirk? You can’t actually download this game -- it’s embedded in a webpage. I’m sure this is to make it easy to play on any platform with a web browser (phones, PCs, etc.) but I find myself greatly desiring a hard copy of this game that can live on my computer forever.

Sonic Galactic

Now here’s just a good old fashioned Sonic fan game. Though it clearly takes inspiration from Sonic Mania’s aesthetics in some places, it’s clearly doing its own thing, featuring not just the core cast of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, but also Fang the Sniper, and even a brand new character named Tunnel the Mole. Unlike a lot of Sonic fan games at SAGE, this appears to be using something besides Clickteam Fusion, Game Maker, or Unity. Here, it’s the “Hatch Game Engine,” whatever that is. Whatever the case may be, the game runs very well and is basically indistinguishable from just playing Sonic Mania. Visuals are sharp, music’s good, the two included boss fights are surprisingly fun to fight -- everything seems to be in order. As a result, there’s not really a lot to say. This is just a good, fun game. Anything else I’d say would come off sounding like nitpicks. For example, there’s no way to set graphics options yet, so the game is stuck in 2x Windowed mode. Fang and Tunnel are cute additions, but I wonder how much utility they have as characters. Unless I missed something, Fang’s pop gun is mainly for a weak double-jump ability, and Tunnel’s ability to dig and ricochet off floors, walls and ceilings is cool, but it doesn’t have quite the universal utility of Tails’ flight or Knuckles climbing and gliding. It’ll be interesting to see how or maybe even if their abilities have a chance to grow into something special. Anyway, like I said, those are nitpicks, so try to give this a shot if you can.

Sonic Robo-Blast!

Remasters seem to be a bit of a theme this SAGE, between Sonic Triple Trouble 16-bit, Sonic 2 SMS, Sonic 1 Revisited, but this is perhaps the most surprising of them all: a loving remaster of the original Sonic Robo-Blast. SRB1 was perhaps one of the first true “landmark” fan games, given that it was basically a whole entire game that people could play. It's not a stretch to say that SRB1 probably helped kickstart the fan gaming community that still survives to this day -- I certainly owe my involvement in the community to seeing SRB1 for the first time. The problem is, as historically significant as the game might be, it’s nearly impossible to go back to nowadays -- it’s much, much too dated to be any fun. This remaster completely re-envisions SRB1 as a regular Sonic game, while also pulling in gameplay elements from Sonic Robo-Blast 2. It’s a bit of a time paradox mindwarp, but it helps give it a bit more personality than just making a bog-standard 2D Sonic. It works, aided by the fact the sprites, music and overall presentation are fantastic. The only downside is the Act 2 boss, which commits the cardinal sin of taking away player agency and making you wait around far too much. Here’s hoping this gets finished, because it’s definitely on my radar now.

Super Mario Flashback

This has been floating around for a few years now and I’m glad to see it’s finally starting to get some more substantial content as it moves towards becoming an actual game. That being said, this is also one of those games that’s kind of hard to talk about because it’s just… really polished. The art is incredible, it controls exactly like a Mario game, and there’s already a decent mixture of ideas at play in the demo. Anything else I’d say would sound like nitpicking -- like, for example, the backseat game designer in me wonders if maybe the game is prioritizing aesthetics a little too much. This is a wonderfully animated game, absolutely gorgeous, but some actions, like the butt-stomp and the wall kick, feel a bit sluggish, and I think it’s because they show off fancy animations. Even if it’s a split second, waiting for Mario to attach to a wall to kick off of it feels slow. Really, though, that’s an insignificant complaint. This demo is still well worth checking out.

Sonic Advance 4 Advanced

This game seems like a greatest-hits of Dimps best ideas, spanning the first Sonic Advance all the way to Sonic Rush. There’s just one problem: the game seems broken. Now, my desktop PC is starting to show its age. I built it four and a half years ago, and though it can handle game like Gears of War 5 on high settings at 60fps, slowly, newer games seem to be leaving it behind. That being said, I don’t think a game like Sonic Advance 4 here should be running at what appears to be half its intended speed. It also originally launched in a teeny-tiny window (we’re talking, like, smaller than a postage stamp) and even though the options menu has a toggle for full screen mode, it doesn’t want to work. Something about this game under the hood seems to be struggling very, very, VERY hard. It’s a shame, because if this actually played at the proper speed, it seems like it might actually be an alright game, if a bit complex and busy.

Sonic 2 SMS Remake

Here’s a game I was all buckled in expecting to enjoy. Like it says on the tin, this is a remake of Sonic 2 for the Master System (and Game Gear), but with wide screen visuals and huge expansions to the mechanics, roster of playable characters, and levels. On the outside it seems really impressive, and to a certain degree it is, but something about the controls feel a little off. Sonic’s heavier here than he is on the Master System, perhaps to simulate “real” Sonic physics a little more accurately, but you can also pretty much stop on a dime, and the combination of the two feels awkward. The camera also needs a lot of work, as it’s basic at best and does a poor job of letting you see what’s below (to the dev if you’re reading this: there’s actually video tutorials out there on how 2D scrolling cameras work, it might be worth looking a couple of them up). It also leans into some of the tech limitations of the Master System, like how you aren’t given any rings for boss fights (and even hiding the HUD, a move done to save on resources for the large enemy sprites). I could be picky on a bunch of other little stuff, too, like how the flight mechanics feel, but there are other games to play at SAGE and I’ve got at least two more articles to write. Needless to say, this is a solid (impressive, even) foundation but it’s missing a lot of late-stage polish to clean up the tiny little rough edges.

Rayman Redemption

I tell this story every so often, but it was about three quarters of the way through Rayman 2 on the Sega Dreamcast when it struck me, suddenly: I love this game. I was being chased by a pirate ship through some rickety bridges and even though I was dying over and over and over again, I realized I had been enjoying Rayman 2 enough that I might put it in my top ten Dreamcast games. But that was 2002, and the years haven’t been so kind to ol’ Rayman. From the strangely celebrity-infused Rayman 3, to the tragedy of Rayman 4 (eventually becoming Raving Rabbids) to the endless, careless ports of Rayman 2 to every platform under the sun, one gets the impression Ubisoft maybe didn’t know what to do with Rayman. Especially now, when most of Ubisoft’s games are some form of online live service or cookie cutter open world experience (or increasingly both). But the fans know what they want. Rayman Redemption takes the original 1995 Rayman game and lovingly gives it a fresh coat of paint. The results are akin to what Taxman and Stealth did for Sonic CD in 2011, with wide screen visuals, improved controls, touched up level design, but gameplay that still feels faithful and accurate to the original experience. Except that Sega charged money for that, and here, fans have released this for free. Ubisoft’s loss, I guess. I didn’t play Rayman 1 until well after I’d finished Rayman 2, and I’ll admit, I kind of bounced off of it back then. It felt slow, and awkward, and when the difficulty ramped up, it got very hard, very quickly. Now, admittedly, I’ve only put about 30 minutes into Redemption here, but just the addition of a run button is incredibly welcome, and the retooled level design and powerup mechanics helps the game feel way less obtuse overall. It’s just a cleaner, tighter, more accessible and more polished version of Rayman.

Stay tuned for the next article: Indie games.

#sage #sonic amateur games expo #writing #review slew #rayman redemption #sonic pinball panic #mega man #perfect blue #mayhem master #dreamcatcher #sonic galactic #sonic robo-blast #super mario flashback #sonic advance 4 #sms remake #sonic the hedgehog #sega #sonic team #review

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peace-coast-island · 4 years ago

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Diary of a Junebug

Searching for bubble gyroids

Out of all the places to visit for a gyroid adventure, I never thought I'd be back in Seaweed Vine Sea. It's hard to believe that this place has been abandoned for over six years now, everything lying in ruins as nature reclaims it. In a way, it feels surreal swimming around a place that used to be bustling with activity - even though I never knew the sea during its heyday but even then it attracted visitors who just wanted to spend some time in the waters.

Along with the camp, Jamie, Sandi, Em, Dell, DJ, and Lea are here with us. Sandi and the gang are up to the usual, doing various missions like retrieving stolen artifacts, protecting compromised data, and a bunch of underground vigilante stuff. They've been busy these past few months since Sandi and Jamie started working with Dixie. After having to cut back on missions a couple years ago they're now finally back in full swing

Sandi's doing all right, adjusting to what she calls her new normal. Jamie said that Sandi was struggling a lot more than she'd let on. Complications from a serious illness a couple years back left Sandi partially deaf and although her hearing has recovered some, it won't be the same. So now she wears a hearing aid for her right ear, which has been helping her a lot. She's also learning sign language, which will be useful for missions when they need to communicate without being heard.

I can't imagine it being easy what Sandi's gone through. She always comes across as an optimist, sometimes to the point that it's the only way she knows how to cope. It's not entirely a bad thing, but sometimes an overly optimistic mindset can be quite deceiving to the point where even the optimist can't tell what's real or not anymore.

I'm glad that Sandi's in a much better place now. Compared to how she was when we went on our first gyroid adventure together, she's a lot more self-assured, confident, and pragmatic. It's good to see her take charge and rally forward!

DJ's here with us in person, always a treat to have her around as she's usually in her room. Being the team's tech expert and vigilante hacker, all she needs is a dark room and a bunch of computers. Still, it won't hurt for her to get outside once in a while, something she's been doing more often since Sandi had to step back.

It's nice to see DJ more comfortable being out on the field. She still prefers the comforts of her room but she doesn't mind being out there with her friends. Planes still aren't her friends though so whenever she's traveling with them they try to accommodate as best they can. It can slow things down but the others don't mind too much as long as everyone's happy.

Em's been working on some secret projects with Ludwig, a duo I never saw coming. Ludwig did hint that he was working on something big with a new partner. One invention they came up with unexpectedly turned out to be useful for this adventure. While trying to create a new element, Em and Ludwig ended up creating a potion that creates its own light source with water. Em did further tests on it to tweak it further as it has a tendency to spontaneously combust. Luckily, because we're underwater, fires stop as soon as they start. Aside from that, this mission wouldn't be as successful if it wasn't for Em and Ludwig.

Lea's with the agency as usual, though things have been a bit slow. She admits to being a bit bored with the lack of excitement but at the same time the long breaks have been doing her a lot of good. She and her work partner are using up their vacation days as there's no way of knowing when they would have this much free time again.

Dell is getting back on his feet after going through a rough patch. He'd been seeing someone on and off for the past few years but now it looks like it's over for good. Em says that he's not as torn up about it as she was worried he would be. Dell said it was a mutual breakup, just two people who have drifted away over the years. The adventure's been a helpful distraction for him - not to mention that he's good at spotting bubble gyroids in murky waters.

Being in Seaweed Vine Sea is nostalgic, like going back to a distant memory. I still remember most of the places, even when the sea itself looks nothing like it did years ago. Corridors are in ruins and the overgrown algae blocks out the sunlight, making it hard to see. It just doesn't feel real, the sea lying in abandon like that.

The biggest challenge of course was visibility. Without Em's invention, the water would be pitch black and impossible to navigate. The night before, while stacking up on supplies, we also made flashlights that are basically like glowsticks. They're waterproof and don't need batteries so they're perfect for a setting like this. Not only we can find our way around more easily, we can also avoid getting hurt by hostile sea creatures. Being slapped by electric eels is not a pleasant experience.

While the glowstick lights were extremely helpful, it's still hard to see clearly. It's also not easy juggling an oxygen tank, a bag full of gyroids and digging supplies, a flashlight, and a taser to subdue sea creatures. It was a bit scary at first navigating dark waters and trying to avoid running into dangerous creatures but after getting used to the darkness it's not as daunting.

While digging up bubble gyroids, we were also looking for keys. That's the main reason why Jamie and Sandi are on this mission - to retrieve coral keys for a friend who needs help. So we spent most of the day collecting whatever treasures we can find in the ruins, which was a lot of fun!

Along with gyroids and keys, we also found some old jewels and brooches. They're all scratched up - some even broken - all charming in their own way! Collecting them feels like keeping a part of Seaweed Vine Sea's history preserved. I don't know what I'll do with them but they're nice to have around. It's also fun to speculate about the treasures as well worn stuff tend to have interesting stories behind them.

The next day, we headed to Leo Lagoon to give the keys to Ari and hunt for more bubble gyroids. Leo Lagoon's nowhere in the same state of abandon as Seaweed Vine but she and the townspeople speculate that it's going down the same road. Only a handful of residents still live there but that number has been dwindling, even more so after Seaweed Vine Sea closed for good. It's a lot easier to navigate the waters of Leo Lagoon but the overgrown algae can make it hard to see, especially at night.

So we basically spent the day hunting for bubble gyroids, helping Ari run errands for the townspeople, and fix up a couple old portals. That's why Ari needed the keys - she needed to get access to supplies so she could repair the portals. Since they pretty much run on obsolete tech, she just needs them to be up and running so at least they can function. Using the portals to jump from one place to another was definitely helpful and we're not too annoyed when they take us to the wrong place as it usually takes a couple goes for it to work out. Instead, we saw it as an opportunity to explore the lagoon and get to know the merfolk!

Now that the portals are fixed, we have a lot more time for exploring, treasure hunting, and gyroid collecting! Sandi, Jamie, and I want to go back to Seaweed Vine Sea before leaving but the others aren't too keen on that. Can't blame them though, with the poor visibility and running into hostile creatures - still, I want to go back and see what else I can find. Also, I don't know when the next time I'll be back, that is, if Seaweed Vine would still be standing by then.

#animal crossing #animal crossing pocket camp #Diary of a Junebug #headcanon ramble

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fics-not-tragedies · 5 years ago

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KINKtober: Day Thirty-One

as per @beyond-antares‘ request we have #7 mixed with #10, mixed with #26 and #30 (since I wasn’t able to write them), mixed with a spooky twist since it’s Halloween after all 😈

Loud music was blasting from the speakers as John entered the club. He could hear a set of dark tunes blasting into the speakers, one after another. The whole place was decorated with Halloween stuff. There were pumpkins everywhere, bats hanging from the ceiling and few spider webs here and there. They really put loads of effort in turning the Continental’s underground club into a spooky dungeon and it worked out great.

John ordered his drink, wandering around the place looking at all of the people dressed up as various horror creatures. As he leaned his back onto the wall he saw an insanely gorgeous girl pushing through the crowd to get to the bar.

He kept piercing her with his stare until she caught his glance when she turned, leaning her elbow on the wooden table behind her. She swept his whole body with her gaze and lifted her eyebrow sipping her drink.

The girl that was now standing by the bar flashed him her fangs in a smile and John thought that they didn’t looked like the ones you can buy cheaply almost everywhere in Halloween season. Her beauty was hypnotizing, her long hair was falling in cascades onto her back until the length of her butt. The emerald dress she was wearing made her look like she came from a royal family.

She kept smiling at him like she knew he wasn’t just another guy who dressed up as vampire for this year’s Halloween party. Like she felt he was a real one. John smiled back exposing his own fangs making her shiver just by the sight of them. She quickly looked away, grabbed her drink and disappeared somewhere in the crowd.

That wasn’t the reaction he expected. It looked like she was frightened by him. But now he just wanted to play with her a little.

His mind was too busy with searching for the girl in emerald dress. He saw right through her and he really wanted to tell her he knows her badly hidden secret. Pushing through the crowd he was slowly sipping his Bloody Mary. He ordered it at the bar, but he spiced it up a little with his own ingredient.

When he finally saw her outside in the back smoking area his heart raced up a little. The moonlight made her look like she was really one of them, children of the night.

He passed through the door decorated with spider webs curtains and slowly walked outside. When she saw him she jumped at the sudden of how quickly he got close to her.

“You know my secret” she whispered into his ear, her eyes closed, heart racing.

“And you know mine” John said having a better look at her. There was a big black crystal hanging around her neck on a thick silver chain. He touched it lightly with his finger and nothing happened. Slipping his hand onto her neck he reached under her chin pulling it upwards. Pressing his lips onto hers he could feel the familiar coppery taste that he knew too well.

Pushing his tongue between her lips he became certain that she spiced her drink with the same substance he spiced his, but she wasn't needing it like he did. It was just a dedication to the role she was playing now.

“There’s not many of us here at this party” he said looking at her face. It was all a fraud, but he decided to play along. The navy blue eyes she had, the unusual shade caused by the contact lenses she was wearing, reminded him of the colour the ocean had at night.

John’s eyes looked now like they were the colour of freshly melted caramel. The look he was giving her was serious, but not overwhelming. The blood red beverage she was drinking colored her lips with a lovely crimson shade. His lips were in the same palette as hers and it reminded her of the bloody eclipse she saw this year.

“You only bite when the person’s really into it, huh?” she asked catching him off guard with her words. He blinked a few times and wrapped his hand firmly around her pale neck pushing her onto the wall.

“I only bite when I need to” he growled into her ear. The sound of his voice echoed in her head making her knees weak. He emptied his glass and placed it on one of the tables decorated with tea lights put inside small pumpkins.

Baring his fangs he growled again, pushing himself further onto her body, making her squirm under him. He slid his hand into her long hair, tugging at it harshly, making her tilt her head backwards, exposing the skin on her tasty neck.

“I feel your aura vibrating, I know what you want now” she pressed her thigh onto his.

“You have no idea what I want little girl” John whispered, fisting her hair, receiving a moan from her crimson lips.

“Perhaps if I call you something different it’ll do the job” he hissed through his gritted teeth, “how about that… daddy?” she licked her lips observing his reaction.

John’s stare changed, his eyes were almost pitch black right now. He grinned devilishly, his fangs still out in theirs full glory. The pale white teeth that formed into a Hollywood’s smile were standing out compared to his crimson lips.

“Do you want to play, daddy?” she asked accenting every word. Her hand wandered between them moving onto his crotch. She squeezed his cock through the fabric of his black suit pants making him gasp and he tugged at her hair again. “Oh, daddy… don’t be shy. I know how the real you acts. They've told me all of it. How’s the secret room in your flat doing? You’ve had someone there recently?” she felt his cock harden, he was probably having few flashbacks caused by her words.

“Still don’t know your name, ma’am” his free hand landed on her neck, caressing the porcelain skin. John licked its fragment right behind her ear making her moan obscenely.

“Do you have to know it?” she asked feeling his tongue on her earlobe.

“It makes things easier” he said nibbling on it lightly.

His face was now inches away from hers, she bit her lip hard, few drops of blood showing on it. John’s eyes widened, he growled biting her neck. Tightening the grip he still had on her neck he moved her closer to him gaining better access to the lovely blood vessels she had everywhere. Her hot blood fulfilled the hunger he felt, the little amount of the red liquid he had in his drink wasn't enough for him.

He didn't wanted to kill her, he just wanted to fed on her and then also show her that he’s not a man with whom you can mess.

“Don’t pretend to be someone who you’re not” John looked right into her eyes, her mind spinning, a rush of wetness between her legs, “you fooled me at first, little girl, but I’m not a fool.”

John spun her around, so she was facing the wall instead of him, pressing her into the cold bricks, the fabric of his well tailored suit pressed to her naked back that was exposed by the dress. A chuckle ghosted over her skin, his hand crept onto her thigh, moving the soft fabric aside, his calloused fingers touching her hip, drifting lower to between her legs. She stayed perfectly still, not able to move, crushed between the wall and his body, holding even as he touched her cunt. She was already wet.

She trembled, breath quickening, her lips quivering, hands clenched into fists and his breath ghosted across her warm skin, “Already so wet, you’re fucking naughty girl” the filth that was dripping from his dulcet tone wasn’t doing her any good.

With his other hand John spread her legs even wider, letting his fingertips wander closer to her entrance.

“Think only of me now, little girl” those words spoken with such warmth sounded honeyed and sweet, unlikely for that bloodthirsty creature that he really was, they filled her body with simmering heat, low and dark. It seemed like the whole world around them stopped and now it was just John and his lustful prey.

He was feeling kind tonight, or rather took pity on how desperate she for the pleasure, though he continued to tease. She didn’t know when he leaned in closer, his fangs scraping delicate skin on the nape of her neck. His hand skimmed lower, framing her hips and dipping between her legs again. His groan vibrated through her skin and to her very core when he felt how wet and aching she was.

She cried out in surprise, two of his fingers tracing her entrance, embarrassment flared when she could hear the slickness of her juices.

Her body fluttered and pulsed around his fingers, her juices coating him; she gasped and jolted at the brush of his thumb over her clit, it sent a heated spark through her, right into her core, sending her to ghost closer an edge she wouldn’t be allowed to fall over.

A third finger teased and slid easily into her, making her moan loudly, too loudly for his liking and he raked the nails of his other hand through the flesh of her thigh. He didn’t stopped even when she screamed in pain, so he pressed his fangs closer to her neck, letting them cut her skin, then dipping them further into her flesh, like he was trying to silence her that way.

Dizzying pleasure filled her and she desperately tried to hold onto something, but for her luck the way he was pressing her still onto the wall was helping her to stand up. She heard and felt his moans in her soul and almost collapsed when his fingers began to pump in a fast pace in and out of her dripping cunt. Her body felt like it has been engulfed in fire. Pleasure radiating from where his sharp teeth cut her, skin taking her blood and where his skillful fingers were taking over her body.

“Don’t fight it” John mumbled into her skin, moving to other place on her neck when he bit her again. He raked his nails over her hip, making sure to leave a mark for the morning after that hopefully will teach her a lesson. Then he moved to the other side of her neck, his nails leaving tiny pin pricks all over it, drawing droplets of blood from them which he greedily licked right after they showed up, “I told you, don’t fight it,” he left another harsh bite mark on the other side of her neck, feeling how her walls clench around his fingers, her whole body trembling, obscene moans falling from her lips, “good girl.”

He pressed his fingers to her lips in a silencing manner, but that wasn’t his intention, he just wanted to feel them under his fingertips, to mess up her lipstick a little. She parted her lips subconsciously, letting his finger slide past them, then sucking on it harshly, making him dig his fangs into her flesh even deeper.

She was desperate and he kept fingering her all the way through her orgasm, bringing her to the verge of another one, but stopping there, his hand moving from between her legs with a disappointed sigh.

Spinning her again he made her face him, her hands clutching onto the lapels of his suit jacket. John gripped her wrists tightly, his long nails digging onto their skin, as he pressed his knee between her legs, letting her get off by rubbing herself on the fabric of his pants.

It didn’t took her long, just a few quick movements of her hips, her soaked folds rubbing against his pants and she came hard once more, a soundless scream leaving her lips.

“Your blood is sweet… tastes like cherry wine” John breathed into her ear right after his tongue lapped at her neck, licking all the crimson leftovers from it, feeling how her body quivered again and he pressed his hand under her chin, lifting it up, making her look into his black eyes, “I will find you again, you can be sure” his hot breath enveloped her, leaving her absolutely breathless and in a wink of an eye he was gone.

She was alone, her lipstick ruined, dress perfectly intact, harsh red marks on her inner thighs and her neck to discover later.

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halevetica · 5 years ago

Text

Teasing(Ineffable Husbands)

***Smut ahead***

Over the many many years that Crowley and Aziraphale had been dancing around their feelings for each other, neither one had dared to take that final step. Crowley feared the rejection he was sure to get, while Aziraphale was afraid of the reprimand Heaven would no doubt give him.

But things had changed. Heaven and Hell didn't control them anymore and yet still they played this game of theirs.

Crowley, throughout the millennia, had teased and flirted with Aziraphale to no end. However, Aziraphale never failed to put him in his place. Crowley would be lying if he said an angry Aziraphale didn't turn him on. It was the primary reason he pushed the angel the way he did. His stern voice and glowering eyes could melt the demon. He didn't fear the angel though. Aziraphale would never hurt him and he knew that well, so when they were alone in Aziraphale's shop one afternoon, Crowley decided to push the angel once again.

"Hey, angel," Crowley gave him a menacing smirk as he handed Aziraphale the last book that needed to be put away.

"Yes?" Aziraphale asked, sliding the book into place on the shelf. He turned to see Crowley crowding into his space.

The angel took in a surprised breath, taking a careful step backwards.

"You've worked all day; what do you say we close up the shop early?" His eyes gleamed suggestively; his glasses discarded on a shelf somewhere in the back.

The all too familiar blush rose up in the angel's cheeks.

"I suppose that could be arranged," Aziraphale nodded his head. His eyes remained on Crowley's as he took another step back. "What is it you'd like to do?"

Crowley only gave a menacing smile as he continued to crowd closer. He pushed Aziraphale into the bookshelf so hard a few books were pushed from their spots and landed in a soft thud on the other side.

Crowley stopped inches from Aziraphale. Uncertainty in his eyes. The books falling would surely upset the angel.

The blue green of Aziraphale's eyes darkened, his jaw set slightly.

Crowley swallowed. This was it. The tone that made his bones shiver. The icy look that would send any demon screaming.

One second Crowley is pressing Aziraphale into a bookshelf and the next, Aziraphale had him pressed into the desk behind him.

Crowley's hands gripped tightly at the edge of the desk as he leaned back, Aziraphale hovering closely. Any further and either their lips would touch, or Crowley would find himself on the desk. This isn't quite how things normally went.

Uncertainty was evident in the serpent's eyes. His breath caught in his chest; his heart pounding with anticipation.

"My dear boy, do be more careful," Aziraphale spoke in a low tone. It was similar to the tone he'd used before but this one was deeper, darker, and it made Crowley's inside scream with want.

Knowing that with a flick of the wrist Aziraphale could probably end his life, the demon should have been terrified, but he still didn't fear the angel.

"Sorry, angel," Crowley whispered. It took all of three seconds for him to realize he'd just apologized, like a scolded child. This is what Aziraphale did to him.

A smirk played on the angel's lips as he grabbed Crowley's scarf pulling him in. Their lips met harshly, and Crowley was thankful for the tight grip Aziraphale had on him, cause he was sure it was the only reason he was still on his feet.

Aziraphale pulled away slowly, a smirk still playing at his lips.

Crowley wanted to say something, but it seemed that he forgot how to form words.

The angel released Crowley and went to pick up the fallen books leaving Crowley to gape after him.

Aziraphale wore a smirk on his face as he set the books back in their respective spots. He could see out of the corner of his eye that Crowley was unmoving at his desk, his hands still gripping onto the side for dear life.

"Are you alright, dear?" Aziraphale asked turning to face the demon as if he hadn't just pinned him to the desk and kissed him for the first time.

"Wh-eh-I-uh-th-wh-mmm what?" Crowley stuttered; his eyes trained on the angel across the room.

Aziraphale gave a satisfied smile as he crossed the threadbare rug to where the demon still held onto the desk. "You look shell shocked, my dear. What did you expect to happen?"

"Not that," Crowley squawked, his hand flailing towards the angel.

"Perhaps that will teach you not to tempt an angel," Aziraphale's tone was joking but there was an uncertainty to it that told Crowley the angel worried he'd overstepped.

"Teach me not to? You've only given me motivation to do it more often, angel. You should be careful," Crowley had finally pryed himself away from the desk.

"Or what?" Aziraphale challenged.

"Or I might tempt you further," Crowley's tone was lower, but it lacked the acrimonious lilt that usually accompanied a threatened demon.

"Then I'll have to put you in your place," Aziraphale grinned maliciously. It was a look that Crowley would have said didn't suit his angel, but when it was directed at him in such a way, it suited him very well.

"And where is my place at exactly?" Crowley took a step forward as if goading Aziraphale to show him.

"Below me," Aziraphale growled out gently as he grabbed Crowley's scarf and pushed him gently down onto the couch. He hovered over him, his face close to the demon's, not releasing the gray material.

Crowley swallowed hard, his hands itching to reach out and touch the angel, but he feared he would go too far. He didn't want to scare him off. Though by the look in Aziraphale's face that didn't look like it would be a problem.

"Wh-why now?" Crowley asked cautiously.

"No fear of consequences," Aziraphale shrugged, his hand finally releasing Crowley.

In a desperate attempt at keeping the angel close, Crowley grabbed at Aziraphale's arms, keeping him bent over the demon.

"None?" He dared ask.

Aziraphale, instead of answering, pressed his lips to Crowley's.

A guttural moan sounded in the demon's throat earning a smirk from the angel.

A tugging on Crowley's shirt let him know that the angel was unbuttoning his shirt. The loud thudding of his heart sounded in his ears as he continued to kiss Aziraphale.

The thought of doing this to Crowley had come up in Aziraphale's thoughts more than once over the millennia. Certain books gave him ideas, such as the way his hand travelled down Crowley's chest and towards the belt buckle. The snake head was cool against his fingers, hot with desire and- well now he was just reciting one of his books in his head.

He'd replayed images in his mind a thousand times, narrated his thoughts as he pleasured himself to them. But nothing would compare to this. And of all the things Aziraphale imagined Crowley would say and how he would say them, what came out of the demon's mouth next shook Aziraphale to his core.

"Fuck, angel," Crowley growled out as he tilted his head back, giving Aziraphale access to his throat.

Aziraphale's resolve slipped just a touch at the demon's words. He gave an impatient snap and the belt disappeared.

"I do hope you didn't send it somewhere far, 's my favorite belt." Crowley mumbled, his hands running through the angel's hair as he dipped down to his collarbone with his lips.

"Don't worry about that right now," Aziraphale spoke into Crowley's skin.

"What should I be worried about? Me not making it to the good part as you won't stop teasing?" Crowley huffed, his fingers tugging gently on the blonde curls.

"Very well," Another snap of his fingers and Crowley's clothes were gone.

"Bloody hell, angel," Crowley hissed at the sudden rush of cool air.

"That's what happens when you're impatient," Aziraphale's eyes drug down the demon's body, taking in sharp angles and pale skin.

"Well now it's not fair," Crowley glared at the angel, his hand forming into a snapping position.

Aziraphale grabbed his hand, preventing it, "I want you to undress me," He demanded gently.

A shiver rolled over Crowley at the stern voice. He nodded, his hands instantly pressing the jacket back off the angel's shoulders.

Aziraphale hummed in satisfaction as Crowley took his time undressing him with trembling hands.

"Are you nervous, my dear?" he asked taking the demon's hands from his now bare chest.

"Trying to hold myself back is all, you're so..." Crowley trailed off, unable to think of a term good enough do describe his angel.

"Tempting?" Aziraphale grinned, leaning forward to reconnect their lips.

Crowley didn't take as much time with the bottom half of Azirphale's wardrobe. He was far to eager for thing to progress.

As soon as Aziraphale was free of his clothes he pulled away from Crowley's lips, dragging a whine from him in the process.

"I want you against the desk," Aziraphale said, pulling Crowley to his feet.

Crowley swallowed hard, the amount of times he'd imagine either of them being bent over that particular desk was sinful.

"You sure, angel? Your stuff might get damaged," Crowley backed towards the desk anyway, as Aziraphale stalked towards him gently.

"Nothing a small miracle can't prevent," Aziraphale gave Crowley his puppy dog eyes.

"You can't jump from tempter to...to...innocent angel like that, you're gonna give me whiplash," Crowley rolled his eyes.

A smile pulled at the angel's lips once more as he pressed his chest to Crowley.

The demon attempted to say something else but the words were lost in his throat as the angel's hand slid down his hip.

"I suppose I've teased you enough," Aziraphale hiked Crowley's leg up against his bare thigh. Pressing in between the demon's legs.

A gasp was pulled from Crowley's lungs at the contact.

"Mmm, so ready for me," Aziraphale trailed his hand from Crowley's leg around to his ass.

"So ready, angel," Crowley moaned, his head falling foreward against the other man's shoulder.

"flip," Aziraphale demanded in his ear.

Crowley obliged easily.

The angel drug his fingers down Crowley's spine earning a shiver from the man in front of him and then with a gentle push, forced Crowley onto his elbows on the desk. The miracle Crowley had done kept the pages from wrinkling under his weight.

A snap from behind his ear and a sudden wet feeling at his hole told him that Aziraphale was growing impatient. Though delicate kisses graced his back, fingers pressed roughly into his hips.

Crowley let out an incoherent mumble of words when Aziraphale pressed into him finally. Slow and tender at first and then when he was sure Crowley was comfortable. He snapped his hips forward.

Crowley clawed at the desk which, once again thanks to his miracle, remained unharmed. He threw his head back as Azirapahle's hand gently wrapped around his throat allowing him to press his lips to the side of the demon's face.

The balance between gentle and forceful that the angel managed to keep was astounding.

"Fuck, angel," Crowley swore with another snap of hips.

"My dear, tell me what you want," Aziraphale whispered into his ear.

Millennia of pent up want bubbled to the surface as Aziraphale continued to drill into him.

"You, angel, only you," Crowley practically begged.

"You have me," Aziraphale hummed, his voice lower than before.

"I need more," Crowley bent his head forward as the angel released his throat.

Aziraphale gripped the demon's hips harder and changed angle's ever so slightly earning a satisfied yelp from the man under him.

Aziraphale listened to the sweet sounds of Crowley's breathless pants as he neared the edge.

"Aziraphale, fuck, yes," Crowley shouted, his knees nearly giving out under the weight of his orgasm.

The sudden sound of his name caused Aziraphale to falter. Crowley didn't often call him by his name, usually opting for angel, but during sex it sent a jolt through him.

"Say my name again," Aziraphale half demanded, half begged.

"Aziraphale," Crowley repeated the name, still panting.

The angel swore under his breath as he was pushed over the edge.

The two didn't move for a moment, both trying desperately to catch their breaths.

Aziraphale separated from Crowley and with a wave of his hand they were clean and dressed again.

Crowley remained bent over the unruffled desk.

"I meant it you know," he mumbled so low Aziraphale almost didn't hear.

"Hmm?" Aziraphale frowned in question.

"I need more."

"Were you not through?" Aziraphale's brows raised in surprise.

"No, no I don't mean that," Crowley turned finally. "I mean more of you. More of us."

Aziraphale seeming to understand what Crowley was trying to say took a step towards the demon, his hands cupping his face gently.

"I'm right here, my dear, in anyway you need me," Aziraphale pressed a soft kiss to his forehead.

"I love you, angel," Crowley whispered into the space between them.

Aziraphale froze. He'd known of Crowley's feelings but to hear him say it aloud was something he never thought he'd experience.

"I love you too, Crowley."

The demon let out a relieved sigh, before burying his head into Aziraphale's shoulder. This is all he needed.

Inspired by this post and was encouraged to continue it further.

#Good omens #go #Ineffable Husbands #smut #lemon #crowley x aziraphale #top Aziraphale #Bottom Crowley #One shot #ficlet #My writing -H

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britesparc · 5 years ago

Text

Weekend Top Ten #433

Top Ten Things I Want from Xbox Series X

June is Games Month here at David’s Top Tens! That’s right, all month long we’re exploring the majesty of what we all used to call “computer games” before we became too cool. That’s because it’s the time of year when huge multinationals tantalise us with pre-rendered cinematics showcasing gaming experiences utterly divorced from what we’ll get to play. Even in this Time of Crisis (as opposed to a Time Crisis), games companies are still Touting Their Wares, and as such, I am brimming with fanboy fervour, tantalised at the prospect of Gaming Yet to Come. This week alone has seen sexy new videos from the likes of EA, Pokémon, and Sony – whose PlayStation 5 reveal gave us the best glimpse yet at exactly what the next generation could look like. I was impressed; although there wasn’t too much in the way of radically new concepts or whatever, games looked good, with plenty of sexy, shiny new bells and whistles, and it looked like environments will be bigger, more fluid, and more reactive than ever before. Plus seeing the ray-tracing in Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart gave me serious “Quake II running on a 3D accelerator card” vibes. Suddenly I was sixteen again, getting all sticky-knickered over texture filtering and coloured lightning.

It was great.

However, I’m pretty much an Xbox-first gamer; mostly, I suppose, due to inertia, having gotten used now to how an Xbox works, to the point where a PlayStation always feels a little alien (still wanna play The Last of Us Part II, though). I’m more of a fan of the Xbox game franchises – the main reason I bought an original Xbox in the first place (way back in 2001) was to play Halo: Combat Evolved, and because of the promise of Fable. This love of Xbox games has only grown with the acquisition of Rare (despite the slight misstep of Perfect Dark Zero) and the release of games like Crackdown, Gears, and Forza Horizon. So as much as I try to be open-minded – and certainly I try to avoid any kind of partisan mud-slinging – I guess I’m pretty much in the tank for Xbox. As such, I’m phenomenally excited for Xbox Series X. I got an Xbox One at launch, and despite all of the hullaballoo and criticism, I’ve always really liked it. I think it’s kind of struggled compared to its predecessors (cult favourite OG Xbox and revolutionary Xbox 360), and hasn’t quite had the era-defining games that both of those enjoyed. All that being said, though, I’ve had loads of fun with it, and so have my wife and kids. But I’ve stuck with the same machine all these years, never upgrading to the more streamlined Xbox One S or the super-duper-sexy Xbox One X. So when I do upgrade, I think the jump will be far more noticeable than someone who’s been enjoying Red Dead Redemption 2 or Gears 5 on a 4K display; it should really feel like a new generation. And that’s before we get to all of the traced rays and other lovely gubbins.

Anyway, when it’s this time of year, I tend to do a semi-comical “E3 predictions” list, followed by a “Stuff I liked at E3” list. Obviously E3 isn’t really happening, but these other online game reveals are, and given my aforementioned excitement over Series X – and Microsoft’s upcoming and much-anticipated reveal of first-party titles – I thought I’d divert my thoughts to what I want to see on the new console. However, unlike the traditional E3 predictions of yore, I’m going to look at what I’d like from the console rather than what games I’d like to see. Partly that’s because these announcement videos are getting spread so far and wide that it’s hard to keep track of what’s been revealed or when we’re likely to see something; partly it’s because we already know quite a few Xbox games that are coming out; and partly because the list would just degenerate into older franchises I want to see come back round again. Plus, with Crackdown 3 having already happened, a new Fable more-or-less an open secret, and a new Perfect Dark being very heavily rumoured, my go-to “wants” are getting thin on the ground. Perhaps Tim Schafer can bring his old LucasArts classics to the Xbox next year…? Whatever, this time around, I’m looking at that big black box and thinking about what features and design elements I’d like to see. What could be improved from how the Xbox One works? How would I like Microsoft to leverage their assets – from the faster SSD to the power of Project xCloud? Basically, what do I want Xbox Series X to be like, outside from glittering reflections on Master Chief’s shiny armour?

Streamlined, faster dashboard: now they’ve already said that the Xbox Series X dash will be effectively identical to the Xbox One dash, which is a trifle disappointing, but I hope that doesn’t mean that both systems can’t get an improved dashboard before Christmas. At the moment things are a bit fiddly, and I’d like to use the improved SSD to mean seamless transitions from page to page. Make it super-easy to get to your game library. Allow more customisation of the landing page. How about allowing us to resize icons, like on Windows 10? Don’t have quite so many obscure categories clogging up the front page. Use the shoulder buttons to hop between sections. Make it more about the games I can play rather than connectivity, shopping, or chatting. Stuff like that.

Integrated streaming: with Project xCloud on the (official) horizon, hopefully we can integrate that service into how the Xbox works. How’s about letting us stream demos straight from the store? Or stream games while they install/download? Or the option to stream any game we own rather than play it from the console? Or cast games from console to phone, or tablet, or PC, so we can enjoy the benefits of Series X hardware in the palm of our hands?

Discless play: teased then withdrawn from the Xbox One launch as it require the internet to check, I hope this can make a belated return. I like physical media, but I also like not having to get off the couch to change discs. I’d be very willing to accept an always-on connection as the price for playing a game without the disc in. If they could find some way to implement this and keep everyone happy, I’d be delighted.

Improved Guide menu: the best thing about the Xbox 360 interface was the Guide menu, which – certainly by the end of the generation – basically offered you full console functionality from one simple pause-button menu. The One Guide has been refined but could go further. Offer instant access to all our games, and all the system settings. Let us seamlessly jump from one thing to another and back again. Let us view all our captures quickly and easily. And let us go through game-by-game and see all our achievements, cycling through their related imagery. Basically, make it more like the 360, please.

Standardised settings: another amazing thing the 360 did that was totally walked back for the One is the idea of having a standardised range of settings that were applied across your entire profile. So if you want to invert your Y-axis, you tick one box, then all games are inverted. This was fantastic, and Microsoft were daft for undoing it. Make it good again! You have the power!

Refined subscription services: I think Game Pass is the future of Xbox, and I think xCloud is the future of Game Pass. This seems fairly obvious to me. I don’t know how much money Microsoft makes from Game Pass, but the way they’re leveraging their entire gaming strategy around it suggests that it’s a much stronger money-spinner for them than the traditional console market. I just hope that eventually the myriad Xbox subscriptions can be refined. Perhaps “Gold” as we understand it could be retired, replaced with a simple three-tier monthly sub, similar to Netflix; Game Pass Bronze (limited multiplayer, limited ability to download games from the library); Silver (Gold and Game Pass as we understand it, plus limited streaming), and Gold (all the games plus full streaming of everything)? This would, hopefully, mean we could get some of the benefits at a reduced cost (say, a fiver a month), and the “free” games in Game Pass would offset the loss of Games With Gold, perhaps.

Switch app: simply put, this would be cool: the ability to stream Xbox games on a Switch. Nothing more to it than that, really; the Switch form factor and controls would lend themselves to the Xbox experience effortlessly, and it’d mean I could continue my Halo campaign whilst my wife hogs the Xbox with Stardew Valley again.

Tangible differences between generations: on the one hand, I really applaud Microsoft’s blended approach to console generations. Smart Delivery, Backwards Compatibility, and Play Anywhere combine to form a very consumer-friendly approach; if you a buy a game now, you’re more-or-less guaranteed the best possible version come the Series X launch in November (or whenever). The downside to this, however, is a slight nagging feeling that we’re not going to see the best that the console can do; it’s fair enough that the Xbox One and Series X versions of Halo Infinite are, to all intents and purposes, on the same disc, and your progress and achievements carry over; but does this not mean that, aside from improvements in graphics and loading times, the Series X version is functionally identical? Is it just like upgrading a graphics card? Ratchet and Clank boasted some nifty dimension-hopping technology that presumably is a core part of the gameplay and looked like something that maybe wasn’t possible this gen; will Xbox owners miss out on features like that? If Series X could, say, give us a new Fable that presented as one continuous open world with no “hubs” or separated areas or loading, with some kind of magical traversal that allowed us to rocket across the landscape on a broomstick or whatever, would that not be handicapped by having to carry save game data over from the inevitable Xbox One version? Basically, I’m fascinated by how it’s going to work, but I hope we’re not going to end up slightly short-changed from a featureset point of view.

New hardware: not just the Series X itself, obviously; and not even the strongly-rumoured “Series S” either. I mean other bits and bobs. As they’ve already shown us the controller, I can’t realistically wish for one that had a microphone in it, but a tiny mic attachment maybe? Alongside the obvious headset. I wanna talk to the machine, basically; it was the one genuine benefit of Kinect. Also: a new, improved, media remote. A wireless mouse and keyboard, or some kind of lap-based hybrid. A new camera, not as invasive or scary as Kinect, just so we can use the Xbox to Skype people. And y’know what? VR support. Doesn’t have to be unique, bespoke headsets; just let us use PC ones, and let developers support VR in Xbox games. I don’t have the money or space to upgrade my laptop to be VR-ready, but if I had a PlayStation you can be damn sure I’d have PSVR. Half-Life: Alyx might be a pipe dream, but can I play Star Wars Squadrons at least?

Don’t bankrupt me: yeah, this. I’m cautiously optimistic that Microsoft will at least attempt to make this manageable; the recent rumour that it’d sell for $399 was much appreciated even if I think it’s supremely unlikely, especially if Lockheart/Series S is a thing. With Sony giving out noises that the PS5 will be a “good value” proposition rather than cheap, I think MS will strongly attempt to undercut them, but also not feel the need to go stupidly low. So please, Microsoft: $450, top end. Please don’t give us a $499 box. I’m already gonna be forking out for a new TV so I’d appreciate if I could keep the whole cost. For what it’s worth, I think the prices of all the new consoles will be: PS5 $499; XSX $449; PS5 DE $399; XSS $299. There you go: I managed to slip in an E3 prediction right at the very end. Prove me wrong, guys!

Phew, that was another epic one. But it was fun. I guess it’s weird to try to talk about the feel of a console without having used it. There are things I’d like improving with the look and feel of Xbox, but it’s hard to quantify it; stuff that’s clunky on a daily basis. And I’m probably an edge case anyway: someone with a huge interest in games and gaming, but who’s not very interested in multiplayer, and who – because of time and money but mostly time – rarely plays new releases, and takes ages to complete a game. But anyway. I’m dead excited about the Xbox Series X, and I can’t wait to hear more.

#top ten #xbox #games #gaming #xbox series x #e3 2020 #microsoft

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enkisstories · 5 years ago

Text

Just like them

- Short Detroit Become Human fanfic starring Daniel - - Close enough to canon, not my Sims!AU - November 15, 2038 Park Avenue

Daniel placed his hand on the door lock. However, the device rejected his request almost instantly.

ACCESS DENIED

It wasn’t just a string of bright letters, the message additionally burned itself into the android brain. And although the narrative went that androids didn’t feel pain, the sharp sting of the “Nope” signal along with all the emotions it triggered in Daniel’s deviant mind were unpleasant to say the least.

“Shit!”

Daniel raised his hand – or rather, he moved his shoulder to lift the replacement arm and hand up, spare parts salvaged from other unfortunates that had found themselves in the DPD’s evidence archive. Just when the new limbs had started to feel less like prostheses and more like parts of himself, the android had to receive a reminder to the fact that this wasn’t the case. His real hand was lost and with it the RFID tag that would have opened the door to the Phillips apartment.

Daniel wondered briefly the key to which door he was carrying now, because some signal had gotten exchanged between the hand and the door lock. If there had been no key present at all, the door would just have stayed silent instead of bellowing its “Access denied” at the intruder.

A shutdown police auxiliary beyond repair had “donated” Daniel’s new legs, but also the hand? Daniel didn’t remember. It hadn’t mattered earlier that day when they had set him more or less free.

And now the android he was standing here, with an electronic cuff somewhere in his system, a novel worth of parole terms in his head, but fresh out of an emergency override keycard for his own home.

I should have went with that guy from Jericho when he offered it. But, noooooo, I HAD to do this alone, because I don’t NEED help at all. And I shouted at him, so there’s no turning back now. It’s getting dark anyway. And ‘sides, I have a right to this flat! It’s my inheritance, the pay for four years of service, no way I’m going to live in, what was it, a wrecked cruise ship or something? No way!

Tap,tap,tap… jingle,jingle,jingle… swoosh

Daniel exited the elevator and only when the doors closed behind him did he realize that he had just traveled downwards by one floor without actually having decided to do so.

Check. Deviant brain doing deviant stuff. They warned me about this.

Daniel’s subconsciousness had taken over, now the question was where had it taken him?

Looking around Daniel discovered that he was standing right in front of an apartment door, one hand raised slightly, obviously in an attempt to ring the doorbell. The nameplate that went with the bell read “Rasoya”.

Ah, right, that was familiar territory. The Rasoyas were the Phillips’ direct downstairs neighbors. They had helped them out by taking Emma when her parents were out and with sugar, flour and eggs that Caroline tended to forget to stock up in sufficient quantity. That had been before Daniel had joined the household, of course, but even with the Phillips owning a state of the art household assistant made by CyberLife now the families had remained… close?

I have always assumed we were close, but looking back I feel “habitually on speaking terms” is more precise.

Someone was stirring now inside the apartment and a female voice rose up:

“I think I heard someone at the door! Will you take a look?”

“Yes, it’s me!” Daniel shouted back, then rang the bell.

Someone was looking through a spyhole, not trusting the electronic security camera, then opened the door. Before it was fully open, Daniel already gasped at the person behind it: “Can I borrow a crowbar, please, Mrs. Rasoya? I need to break into the Phillips apartment!”

Mrs. Rasoya laughed so hard at this that the toddler boy she was holding was shaking violently. Reflexively Daniel grabbed him while Mrs. Rasoya was still trying to get a grip on herself. Eventually the woman said:

“Daniel Phillips – the most polite android revolutionary ever.”

“Calm down, calm down!” Daniel shushed the human. “I’m not with Markus or whoever, I don’t even have a clear idea what exactly’s going on!”

I mean, when have I ever? I lived in an illusion all my existence, believing myself appreciated… sheltered… Going by my experience Markus could just be another Connor: playing nice, but harboring ulterior motives.

“They just…”

Looking for a familiar term in all the madness that was the present, the android continued:

“…let me out of prison and here I am, but I can’t enter my own damn apartment!”

“Own dan apartment!” little Caden Rasoya repeated cheerfully, at which his grandmother demanded the kid to get returned to her.

“Raj, dear?” she called into the apartment and a few heartbeats later her adult son, Caden’s father, appeared. Raj was a gourmet chef and his body was certainly looking the part, although he tended to dress extremely casually at home.

“Would you accompany Danny here upstairs to break down the Phillips’s door, Raj?”

“You know what, mom?” Raj laughed out loud. “This is by far the most normal request I’ve heard those last few days.”

Daniel watched Mrs. Rasoya retreat into her home where she picked up an old handheld gaming device that she had been playing on. He heard Caden giggle. The TV was running, Caden giggled some more, but then listened intently to his mother, who was explaining something connected to the evening children’s show they were watching. Everything was so normal!

Why were the Rasoyas still here, Daniel wondered? Were the feeling that the worst was behind them and deeming it save to stay in Detroit, even though the president had arranged an evacuation of a scope that put to shame even the annual floods? Were these humans maybe just as attached to their territory as Daniel himself was? Regardless of the possible consequences? In retrospect, what if Caroline had still been here tonight? Or – was she, maybe?!

“Uh… Is Caroline…?” Daniel started asking Raj.

“Left Detroit. In fact, she didn’t even wait for the presidential nudge to do so.”

“Ah.”

Raj grabbed the doorknob and with his head motioned the android to join him.

“Come in!”

“But I need to…”

“No way I’m trying to kick in a sturdy apartment door, least of all with security still intact”, Raj explained. “And neither should you do that, with a criminal record on your head. You have one…?”

“Yes, yes, it’s all legit. The DPD knows I’m here, but, fuck, I should have asked for an escort to actually get into my home.”

“You certainly picked up some language there that you didn’t know before”, Raj commented, still more amused than wary. Definitely wary, too, but not to an extent that prevented the man from acting civilly.

“But what am I to do now?”

“You’ll want to take the balcony route, Daniel. Climb up from our balcony and find your door. It was never properly repaired after… the incident, you should be able to push it open easily.”

“That’s that Connor’s fault!” Daniel spat. “It doesn’t respect anything!”

And that were the last words he exchanged with the Rasoyas. Without even a “thanks” the deviant made haste towards the balcony, jumped onto the railing and started scaling the apartment building like an ape. A PL600 wasn’t particularly strong, but their dexterity and eye-hand-coordination had to be rated outstanding even compared to other androids. Daniel was also rather agile, although he suspected that was a personal feat, nothing hard-coded in his system specs. And of course his new PC200 legs were also contributing to his athletic ability.

Inside the Phillips home Daniel didn’t linger much in the apartment proper, but instead went straight to the fish tank in the floor.

“Huey, Dewey, Louie… everyone still there!” he noticed with relief. “It’s feeding time, gentlemen! – Hehe, yes, go for it! No need to fight, there’s more where this is coming from!”

Smiling the android watched the fish gorge themselves. When had been the last time they had been fed, he wondered? So typical of Caroline! Flaunting the family fortune, but possessed of a total disregard of actual living beings. Like those of the ornamental fish she had left behind to their fate. Or her android’s…

Daniel had never given his artificial lung much thought. They were just there, moving his chest to make him appear more lifelike. Now the deviant realized how this particular biocomponent came in handy: he sighed deeply.

Moving back into the apartment Daniel almost expected to find John’s tablet. Of course after all this time it wouldn’t be there anymore. Or at least it would no longer display the order confirmation for the AP700, where John had ticked the “Disposal of old device at no extra cost” option. There had been another option, also at no extra cost: to donate the old android to charity. It would have taken the man no longer than two minutes to choose an organization from a dropdown list, but John Phillips hadn’t wanted anybody to mooch from something he had payed good money for. He had said so aloud and that comment had alerted Daniel to what was going on in the first place.

John’s greed and antisocial tendencies might very well have saved my life!

Daniel shooed this thought and looked around some more.

Pictures of Emma, John and Caroline, sometimes alone, then again as a family or with various friends, were everywhere. Of their android there was no sign and hadn’t been before the incident. Daniel felt a little like visiting the Dursleys with all the pictures of Dudders and no hint whatsoever that another boy was living at Privet Drive…

He picked up one of the framed pictures. It showed the family gathered under a Christmas Tree. The spheres, bells, stars and pine cones were all made from real glass and in between hang handmade charms fashioned by Emma. The Phillips didn’t believe in anything transcendental, neither god, nor magic. But even so they had followed the traditions and actually gained something from them. There had been an unusual warmth around that time of year each year.

Daniel put back the photograph. Suddenly the glass ornaments were too bright, the fishtank next door too loud and even the carpet his feet were touching was too rough. The deviant hunkered down and buried his head in his arms. Thirium tried to get up and out through his nose. Daniel didn’t understand what was happening to him. His system status hadn’t been that bad this morning!

Stay in… stay in… I don’t want to die! Only, I feel like dying… But I don’t want to! It’s not fair!

Daniel had sat there hunched over and crying for a while, when suddenly the door rang. A jolt went through the android’s body. Daniel jumped up and the weak, but steady stream of skin fluid mixed with blue blood came to a halt. The android wiped it away and licked the thirium from his new fingers before opening the door.

“Hey, Geeta”, Daniel greeted the visitor. “Afraid I might shut down from sorrow all alone up here?”

The words sounded like an accusation…

“Nah.” Mrs. Rasoya shook her head. “Not you. In fact, I reckon you are unable to suicide.”

“Huh? How would you know?”

Geeta walked past Daniel. She grabbed one of the family photographs at random and turned it for Daniel to get a good look at it.

“Dogs take after their owners, children after their parents and androids… androids take after their masters.”

“That’s utter bullshit!” the deviant flared up. “And even if it wasn’t, it wouldn’t apply to me! I’m a de…”

“Deviant, Daniel? For deviants what I said goes even more so, because of your emotions.”

“I may have acquired some of those, so what?!”

“The Phillips couple, too, was never one for thinking before acting… for taking a step back from their desires… or for putting themselves into others’ shoes.”

Daniel started to yell again, but was cut short:

“What kindness they had, manifested indirectly only - in their little girl and in their household assistant.”

“Huh.”

“Not what you wanted to hear, I know.”

Daniel took the picture.

“Me? Being like them?”

“It’s true.”

The deviant smiled warmly, not unlike when he had watched his fishes. For several moments he stood there, content with the world and himself. But then he jerked around his arm and smashed the frame against the nearest wall.

“They never were my family!!!”

Geeta shrugged and said her goodbyes.

“You know where to find us if you want to borrow gelignite or whatever a modern deviant might need”, she said. The woman had meant it as a joke, but as she gently closed the door behind herself, she wasn’t so sure about that anymore.

#dbh daniel #dbh #detroit become human #dbhtextpost #dbh textpost #non sims #danielgavinnewstory

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bigskydreaming · 5 years ago

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@seekingxanadu

LOL I think you and I aren’t likely to ever agree on the subject of Jason’s role in the show, xanadu, as I actually like him being present and would enjoy seeing him end up more integrated into the team in the future. Yeah, there are a lot more classic Titans that they still haven’t gotten to, but IMO there’s a lot of reasons for that (like Wally and Roy currently being used elsewhere, Vic with the Doom Patrol, others perhaps ‘on hold’ because there’s always any number of projects or potential projects in the works that aren’t even announced to the public yet, etc).

Personally, I think its likely Jason’s role in the show and mythology has been expanded instead of introducing more Titans in his place for the same reason Hawk and Dove are here despite never being hugely present in Titans stories for the most part: they’re cheap.

Like tbh, that plays SO much more of a role than most people realize with shows like this, where budget concerns are constantly an issue, and special effects tend to carry the highest price tags. As far as the showrunners are likely concerned, the more they can bring in non-powered characters and give them screentime, the better....because it saves money.

For that matter, superhero projects belonging to the various live action shared universes love to cheat special effects whenever and wherever possible....and roster choices are absolutely made with an eye towards if any existing properties produced by the same companies have special effects that can be repurposed and used with other characters. Like, creating the special effect for the first time tends to be the most expensive part by far, whereas its often relatively simple and cheap to reuse it in a variety of ways....so they all like to do this as much as possible.

Just as an example, take the X-Men movies (sorry if they’re unfamiliar to you, they’re just the instances I can speak to as a sure example of this).....to most people, a LOT of the mutant characters used in the various films seem random as hell....like Azazel in First Class, and Sunspot in DOFP, etc. Thing is...those two and other characters were picked primarily because of the special effects. Azazel’s similarities to Nightcrawler wasn’t a coincidence, it was the point. The studio already had the special effect they’d created for Kurt’s teleportation power signature, and it’d been easily one of the most positively received and talked about special effects of the original trilogy....so they wanted to use it more. Cheap and easy, compared to making new ones for characters with entirely different powers. So by making Azazel one of the primary villains, they just used Kurt’s special effects and gave it a slightly different tint. Same thing with Riptide, Shaw’s other henchman in that movie....totally random choice given he’s never been remotely associated with the Hellfire Club and what they showed in the movie isn’t even really how his powers work in the comics...but the way they portrayed him in the movies allowed them to reuse some of the tornado effects they’d created for Storm in the original trilogy. Havok’s power displays were just repackaged versions of Cyclops’ special effects, and for Sunspot in DOFP they just reused stuff they’d developed in the original trilogy for Pyro...even though again, what Sunspot was shown doing in that movie isn’t remotely how his power works in the comics.

So like....this is a very very big consideration for studios with any and all superhero projects, both film and TV...its why WB picks nonpowered characters to center TV projects around whenever possible, like Arrow and Batwoman and the reason Hawk and Dove were referenced as being looked at for a possible spin-off pretty much since Titans started...and its not a coincidence that the Flash was the first superpowered character they chose to expand their TV universe with, as superspeed has always been one of the cheaper effects to create (its also why Smallville utilized Clark’s superspeed even more often than it did his superstrength). Same thing why when picking another ‘powered hero’ to add to Arrow early on, they went with Ray Palmer and gave him basically just an Iron Man style suit to start...because even when they eventually had him develop his shrinking power....again, super cheap. Size changing effects just involve shooting a lot of different takes using scale models or messing with proportions in post. Compared to what’s required for a lot of DC’s more high profile heroes....that costs nothing to do.

Odds are, Jason was originally introduced in S1 purely because they could use him to advance Dick’s solo storylines in ways very few other characters could allow for, given a key point of Dick’s story arc in becoming Nightwing over the course of two seasons has revolved around touching on where he’s been and come from, and how he’s now grown past that. To really make the most of that, you need something connected to his past, to Batman, and given its notoriously difficult and complicated to secure approval to use Bruce in any and all live action projects, with the sheer volume of different people you need to get on board with it....Jason was a much easier alternative.

And then once he was relatively well received, they jumped on the chance to expand his role because he enabled them to expand their core cast of characters without dramatically inflating their budget at the same time. Just like that’s why Hank and Dawn were never going anywhere any time soon.

So tbh....he’s very likely not taking anything away from any other Titans’ chances of appearing...since the same hurdles and reasons to take it slow are still there for a lot of the other characters. After Arrow ends, it might be a different story with that freeing up Roy to start making appearances...and who knows with Wally because even though he plays an entirely different version of Wally, bet you anything they’re waiting to be sure Keiynan is definitively done playing Kid Flash or the Flash show is for sure never going to bring him back, before considering either Wally for use elsewhere. Like, I know he already said he was done playing Wally but actors change their minds, so I doubt anyone in the studios took that as an immediate green-light to launch a new Wally project elsewhere.

This almost certainly played a factor in their killing off Garth in just his first appearance....water effects are notoriously hard to make look convincing, and this one’s on the writers too given that I bet people in the writers’ room in general weren’t pushing really hard to make Garth a core character for the show....a lot of TV writers reeeeeally hate trying to write for characters who are intrinsically affiliated with say, the ocean, if they’re not otherwise an ocean-themed show already.....because its just another version of why a lot of comic book writers say they have a hard time showcasing Arthur in JLA books, due to a lot of his most thematic abilities being so location dependent. (I mean, personally I say in both cases this is just a lack of imagination and not a good excuse for not using Garth or Arthur more, lol, but like, it is what it is. This tendency among writers as is still already exists).

And the DC expanded universe and which production companies are affiliated with which properties and studios and stations and all that is a huge complicated mess, so I’m not even going to try tracing the connections to verify for sure, but I’d be willing to bet Titans has access to either some of Supergirl’s special effects or some of Superman’s movie special effects or both (or possibly just to Superman special effects developed for various projects that have come and gone over the years without ever making it to completion). Either way, bet you anything that has as much to do with the decision to introduce Superboy into this particular ensemble, as does just them wanting to have a Super-family character in the mix and Superboy was next on the list, not already being used elsewhere.

*Shrugs* But yeah. Never underestimate the power of the dime even with something as fundamental as picking a core roster. Actually, ESPECIALLY with something that fundamental, since that’s the foundation any and all budget concerns spring from. As much as I love the original Judas Contract storyline, I’m not at all bothered to see Rose kinda shoehorned into Terra’s role in a truncated variation of it here....because first, that story’s been adapted a ton in a variety of different ways, so its not really a huge loss to not have it fully adapted again, but second.....its less likely that Rose took Terra’s role here and more likely that Terra was never remotely an option for the show given how ridiculously expensive her powers would be to render well....so they looked at what else they could make fit a similar role and decided hey, why not bring Rose into this as well, even though she’s not primarily associated with this generation of characters?

And Joey was obviously always a strong candidate to add to the cast as early as this, of course. My bet is other than possibly Roy, depending on WB’s overall plans for him, like, I would guess the next most likely Titans to show up/be added to the cast are Lilith, Mal and/or Karen. Telepathy’s cheap and easy to gimmick up some power signature for.....tbh, I wouldn’t be surprised if the only reason Lil HASN’T shown up yet is because they’ve been saving her for after the Jericho storyline is done, given that her powers would cut through all the stakes and suspense and reveal Joey was riding shotgun in Slade’s head from the very first time the Titans encountered Deathstroke this season. For that matter, it’d be extremely difficult to write her as not sensing the sheer chaos going through Dick’s mind this entire season and cutting off that storyline early, and it does seem they’ve known exactly where they wanted to go with Dick this whole time so I can easily see them having decided early on they viewed this as a necessary part of his evolution into Nightwing, and Lil’s mere presence would throw a spanner in those works.

And as for Mal and Karen, again, the shrinking powerset is relatively easy to pull off and its likely more just not wanting to invest in Karen’s suit/flight just yet that’s been the delay there, and Mal’s sonic powers OR his teleportation powers are both relatively easy and cheap.

And of course, other non-powered characters not usually affiliated with the Titans are always a possibility. I’d put money on freaking Golden Eagle being a more likely contender to show up than some of the other powered Titans, for that matter.

Anyway, just my industry take on the matter in general, lol. You know I’d always be for Jason as a Titan as I think he would have ended up one eventually if he hadn’t died when he did, and I’d love to have just one adaptation that doesn’t stick to his death and Red Hood storyline. He doesn’t need it to be an interesting character, just good writing. Its not like Bruce or Dick are definitively chained to one specific storyline outside of their own origin stories, so no reason Jason should have to be either. (And honestly, in line with everything I was talking about here......IMO the nonpowered characters are always a degree safer from being killed off than the powered characters. Doesn’t mean they’re ever totally safe, and it doesn’t mean the show’s necessarily ‘at capacity’ for powered/expensive characters already, but at a certain point the cast list likely will end up sticking with just the powered characters they have until one of those powered characters is killed or otherwise written off...before adding another ‘expensive’ character to take their place.)

But yeah, anyway, lol. Don’t know if that might make you a little more positively inclined to Jason taking up a slot on the show....all things considered, I truly doubt that it was ever a case of them picking to make Jason a series regular OVER adding another classic Titans character in that place instead. It really is more likely IMO that the cast list we have this season was more or less already otherwise in place and they just looked at things and said “we can’t really afford to introduce an additional character on top of the other ones we want to add already this season, like Joey, Slade, etc, and especially not one with special effects heavy powers...BUT we can bring Jason in as more of a presence in the ensemble and bump him up to series regular without too much trouble.”

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