#despite not being a very good game it's quite easy to replay

[proffbon]

Me after finishing a Veilguard playthrough:

Okay, technically I still need to do the final quest but after that it's another one for sure. I just don't know which one to go for.

(Honest/Humorous/Stoic is basically Blue/Purple/Red personality-wise but matching to Veilguard's descriptions for each personality)

[co-mixed]

Daredevil by Chip Zdarsky Pt.1

It's not easy to sum up a run like this. Nah, it's actually pretty impossible. It's a long road with so much going on with so many faces, you have to record every single one of your thoughts. So I’m gonna go character by character, taking every arc and dissecting it. 

I have, in fact done it a while ago, right after I finished the run, but it took me some time to post it. And I wanted to make it feel more like a review but that didn't quite work out, so here it is, my essay or analysis of some of the character arcs in this run. Spoilers ahead too!

Zdarsky’s run finds Matt right after the short rehab series. And I have to talk about that a little: the truck that kicked Daredevil out of the game, poetically replaying his childhood accident, left him dealing with all the old injuries. In DD’s line of work, those tend to pile up. So the few issues were a short detour into Matt’s identity crisis as he was about to give up and had to seek help from his fellow Defenders. It was a very recovery-focused story with flashbacks and the fears that haunted him. For a man without fear, he sure has plenty of nightmare scenarios so questioning and reevaluating this status is a constant process for him. This idea circles philosophy but to me, it just reminds again and again of how much Matt Murdock depends on the way people see him. 

When Zdarsky’s run starts, Matt is already going out at night and throwing his clubs around. But he’s not exactly living his previous life anymore. Here, the status quo is fully restored after Waid’s detour and the brooding hero on the roofs in the rain is back. Well, almost back. He can’t fully heal his body or his mind so he ends up accidentally killing a man. And then Zdarsky finally pushes Daredevil into the trap that's been sprung for him ever since he killed Bullseye. At the time, I was a bit disappointed that Waid allowed Matt to walk away into a new life, never having to deal with emotional repercussions. It felt to me like he was repressing that event so hard, his entire personality had changed. While the run was good, it felt like a bizarrely loud cry for help. I felt like that was not Matt, at least not the ever-guilty martyr we all know. 

But now, here, he gets a chance to live through this hell. The beautiful part, in terms of narrative, is that Daredevil right away becomes erratic and paranoid: he goes digging through his enemy list, convinced that someone had set him up. And he fools you easily. Despite him being off his game I truly thought there was a Fisk handprint or just The Hand behind it. But you know what? No. It was just an accident. Probably caused by Matt's lack of trust in Daredevil or his not being at 100%. 

DD gets so bad, he actually ends up getting a talking to from none other than Spider-Man. Aside from the usual suspects that is. Which, think about it, all heroes have gone through trauma at one point. But compared to a spiraling Daredevil they still seem very together. Granted it's his book so the main drama has to come from him.

There’s a moment when he’s in a room with Jessica, Luke, and Danny, and he calls them all murderers, quickly correcting the ‘you’ to ‘we’. It’s like a new light in which he sees the whole superhero game: like he thought they were truly above the law because they made no mistakes. So yeah, after all these years he saw for the first time how flawed each one of them truly is. 

What he refuses to see is that they are all working through that, not dividing the world into the good and bad. Meanwhile, Matt has Daredevil on a pedestal as someone who must never allow the line to become blurry.  

Matt's disturbing as hell. And yeah, have to admit I like him more when everything is awful, simply because he always knows how to make things worse.

For a brief time, Matt hides the costume in his closet and works as a parole officer. But it turns out he is actually terrible at compartmentalizing and he's even worse at self-inflicted penance. 

I believe the culmination of his incompetence in life is an affair with a married woman. Married to a mob boss’s son. It's truly classic Matt Murdock at this point - got no one to cheat on, well, at least she does. He is Exupery’s drunkard and he's brilliant at that. He wakes up next to Mindy thinking about the terrible sin he’s committing. Gotta give her credit though, she gave him a piece of hell for making it about himself. 

And then his circle of violence as he calls it (courtesy of late Vanessa Fisk), pulls him back in again. 

He has doubts and fears about putting on the costume again and we'll, it's hard to blame him. But he still lives in Fisk’s city and the city is getting worse every day. 

When Matt came face to face with The Purple Man, he said that the thing he fears the most is hearing all the tragedy and doing nothing. Zdarsky just puts him in this reality and Matt's got no other choice than to put on the mask. Before he fully embraces it, he trains with Elektra. Did he break up with Mindy? No, of course not. He just ghosted her until she needed help. The good ol' Matt. 

But with Elektra, this time it's different (not really - she has her own plan as she always does.)  I have to admit, the more they get together the more I realize one thing - Matt really can't break up with women. They have to die, otherwise he’ll be hung up on them for years. Elektra is the love of his life no less than Karen was. She just came back from the dead, unlike Karen, and I’m pretty sure deep inside Matt thinks it's for him. Plus, she knows his identity which makes it so much easier. And she's deadly which makes her so less killable. 

But most importantly Matt’s obsessed with Elektra because she's from his past and he’s notoriously bad at moving on from his past (see Exupery's drunkard again). Here’s why I kind of root for them: I do like the adversary/lover connection they have and they exist in the same world. Can they make it work? I doubt it. 

Before I get too deep into more of Matt's disastrous relationships (and believe me you, there is more) I should refocus on the arc.

We got Matt running from the law while making adjustments so he could represent that same law. And he has an interesting new addition to the cast in the form of detective Cole North. I’m gonna talk about him later since he's one of the narrators in the run. But North is hell-bent on holding vigilantes accountable and Daredevil is his idée fixe just as he is for Fisk. 

Daredevil manages to sway North by saving his life as corrupted cops attempt to kill him and that leads to three interesting events.

One - his parolee learns that he is Daredevil. And his parolee is none other than the brother of the man he accidentally killed. 

Two - North starts seeing him as a protector rather than a criminal. But he still wants to hold him accountable. 

Three - it sets the tone for the rest of the run, showing the cracks and imperfections of the US criminal justice system.

Either way, that day Matt goes free. And when he puts on a costume again, he is convinced that now he's gonna act smart (because Elektra told him to gather information before leaping into action, duh. All that education and you couldn't figure it out on your own…) It's also a different costume and Matt even convinces everyone who’d listen and a couple people who won't, that he is now a new and improved hero who is not Daredevil at all. Yes, he actually believes it and I think it's still his desire to wash his hands off of everything connected to the accident. He thinks he sees things clearly now but it feels like he's never been more blind. Yet somehow, he will be. 

This repetitiveness becomes very noticeable when you read through run after run. It’s a very clear pattern that Matt goes through: every time something changes he makes the decision. This time… this time… this time… and it always comes back to the same conclusion. 

He immediately gets duped by Elektra into stealing money from the bad guys, of which she pocketed some. And then the bad guys rain Inferno upon Hell’s Kitchen. 

That's a fun little event during which another one of Matt's exes, Typhoid Mary, reappears: prior to that she's been therapied into a nice nun who's been helping Matt whenever he ended up in church. The first time I saw her I thought “Oh no, he's not gonna sleep with a nun…” but then, he already had. Uhm, anyway, the nice uplifting moment was the people of the neighborhood dressing up as Daredevil, turning him into a symbol. They'd been doing it for a while and some had been moderately successful too. But when the battle was won, one of them died in Matt's arms, so he turned himself in as Daredevil. 

Now that's the thing, that's where the main idea of this run starts really growing. And not because Daredevil goes to prison or refuses to fight for his freedom, but because of what's awaiting him there. It's not the superpowered villains, it's all the people he’s been sending there for years. It's such a simple thing - to take these “street level” bad guys, put them face to face with Daredevil, and tell their stories. 

Daredevil in jail is a stupid idea. Smart from the narrative point of view yet stupid for him as a person on many levels. First of all, he is doing it out of misguided loyalty to the law. He's still a lawyer after all. He's also religious but he kind of sorted that out for himself already. He says he wants to show everyone how even superheroes have to be held accountable if they step out of line. 

He wants to feel good about himself and again, a part of me thinks he wants to feel like he's better than the others: he loves that moral high ground, and whenever it shakes underneath his feet, everything around him falls apart. Mostly because he destroys it, but he doesn't focus on that. 

Cole, Kirsten (yeah, she's back too), and Foggy, they all tell him he's wrong. And they are absolutely correct too. He wants to be an example, sure, but he really needs people to see him the way they did before. It's not about his guilt, he's been forgiven in fact. 

The one big regret I have is that this run and this prison time didn't give him more therapy. Because the therapist calling him out on his usual BS was incredible. And she, along with another inmate reminded him that he's fooling himself and trying to fool others. All that makes more sense considering he still hides his identity, so whenever he chooses to leave, his crime and his time won't affect anything. None of that will ruin his life. 

The way the story leads to this social or rather political issue, it's very organic. It's something he’s been dealing with for years as both his personas: the revolving door between a police station and the streets, the poverty and desire for a better life that lead to crime, the mean streets. He's the perfect hero for this story and his flaws are most vivid here. He had both put people in jail and kept them out of it, he'd been a mayor, and he’d been accused and stood trial. But all of that he had been doing from his high horse.  

The truth in that story is grim and realistic - prison isn't helping reform anyone and only serves billionaires in their quest for more wealth. 

As Daredevil discovers that and makes a deal with the FBI, he gets released. And once again, he wants to go for that one big win. He always falls into that same trap, he always attempts to stand alone or with friends and win everything, save everyone at once. He’ll keep trying to, all the way to The Fist saga. 

But to get there, he needs to step over one considerable obstacle.

Wilson Fisk

Like I said, Daredevil and the rest live in Fisk’s city. He is still the mayor and he is going after all vigilantes and I mean all, including the Avengers. But that’s just a part of it. Fisk has an interesting story as he decides to move from the underworld politics to the real thing. He makes a decision, he retires the title of Kingpin of crime, but he forgets the one crucial part – he can’t retire his persona. He will go on to the next level with his hands still soaked in blood. And that’s something he shares with Matt: where Matt needs to be absolved, all Fisk needs is to just turn around and pretend he’s done nothing wrong.

The ironic detail is, he’s so used to doing his dirty work himself, he finds it impossible to fit in with polished high-class criminals. Politics seems like a natural next step for him but somehow the shadow games turn out to be more than he can chew. Thus the Big Bads of this run are Stromwyns - the richest people in New York. They pull the strings and even Fisk struggles with that idea. 

In all this, he has a few defining moments:

He wages war on superheroes, including mutants, which leads to X-Men Devil’s Reign

He goes to fight on the ground during Inferno (which was organized as you might have guessed or known already, by the Stromyns).

He kills Mike Murdock thinking he’s Matt Murdock. 

Oh, right I forgot to mention that Mike’s back. And he is seemingly real now, has his own arc, although still can’t escape the title of a spare Matt Murdock. 

Anyway, back to Fisk. Of course, when the time comes for reelection, Fisk wants not just to run but to guarantee his victory, which is not surprising at all. I mean take a criminal who gets a fraction of power, would they ever let go of it? In this regard, Fisk is your classic villain. And just like every other villain, he decides to cheat and use The Purple Man’s power to sway the voters. All of that leads to his ruin and retirement.

But not before he marries Typhoid Mary. Can’t call the ceremony lovely really because they both creep me out and I’d like them or at least Fisk to pay for his crimes. It’s not just the fact that he never does or it never sticks, it’s that later he’s received diplomatic immunity from Krakoa, and sure, he helped them during Fall of X and the drama with Orchis. But it’s still the same damn Kingpin. That hasn’t changed and he will return to make everybody’s life hell again. 

Why? He’s absolutely evil and we see that in a panel during Devil’s Reign. There’s no non-evil or non self-serving for him. 

Yeah, Fisk and Mary rowed off into the sunset but not before Fisk killed Mike. And really, that’s another opportunity missed by Matt. Could’ve played around scaring him in both his personas instead of going after him right away and revealing his existence. But I get it, he had other engagements including his actual engagement to a woman we all know all too well. 

I ran out of the images limit, so there is a Part Two.

[klonoa-at-blog]

From: Nintendo World (May 2009)

Complete evolution in a remake. Originally released in the competition's first generation, the game Klonoa became famous for uniting graphically superb scenarios, hyper-fun platform gameplay and a very charismatic protagonist in the same package. Now, with this Nintendo Wii remake, things... have changed little. At first, you'll notice that this game is a kind of "remake on steroids": it's exactly the same thing you saw on old consoles, but now with sharper graphics, 3D scenery that really looks 3D, and a or other gameplay tweaks. Despite offering absolutely nothing new, it manages to amuse up to a certain point.  Klonoa tells the story of a type of "humanoid rabbit", who, after falling from a gigantic ring coming from space, gains a little friend called Huepow. Later on, the protagonist has a nightmare of pirate ships and dark clouds, and wakes up only to discover that his imagination has become a reality. Now to investigate why this is all happening and prevent the world from being swallowed by darkness, you must take the rabbit and his cosmic friend through a series of levels in the best platform style, while unraveling mysteries in real time.  Graphically, the game is quite beautiful, I admit. The settings are alive, verdant, remarkably designed and well designed. You even get a sense of depth, although you can only move in two axes. You use a button to jump, which when pressed continuously will make Klonoa float for a short time. In addition, the intrepid hero has a ring that allows him to capture enemies and throw them in three spectrums of movement - front, back, and background. Couple this simple but responsive gameplay with superb graphics and gorgeous cutscenes, and you have a platform game worthy of the glimpse of excellent RPGs.  The problem is that the game is kind of short, and at times too easy. The enemies succumb easily to your movements, while it is difficult for them to overthrow your character. Despite the air of innovation that this Wii version manages to give, you can't deny that the primary objectives can be completed without major mishaps.  At least the boss battles can be a bit of a headache, which keeps the replay factor of this title at a really satisfying level. But don't expect epic fights or find an enemy that can beat you right away: as I said before, it's relatively easy to overcome obstacles, and all you'll need here is a little attention. Of course, stupid blunders like "jumping beyond the reach of the ground" and the like won't be forgiven by even the dumbest of your naysayers.  The extras are really good: reproduction of the game's music, reverse mode, visualization of the concept models of the primary stages of development of the game. Everything you're entitled to and more. It may not be innovative, but it's worth the investment.

[harellan]

I’ve been reading a some veilguard reviews while still avoiding spoilers and though I’m still mostly excited, there’s a few recurring things I’m reading that are starting to worry me (possible spoilers under the cut)

- obviously, we all know about the lack of decisions being carried over. Some possible retuning characters that’ll make this interesting.

- seems like there’s not really an option to be mean / an asshole at all.

This is huge for me as it’s the direction I was hoping to take my Rook. I know a lot people don’t play that way, but I enjoy it so that’s a big hit. Red Hawke and Renegade Shepard are my favorites and they were so good. Renegade Shepard was a perfect example to show that you can still play as a “mean” character and be a hero

Dialogue options appear to be: nice, nice but sarcastic, slightly less nice but still agreeable. I saw one review say it felt like Rook was HR talking to their employees

- while the general consensus is that the combat is excellent, a few reviews said that by the end of the game (which is supposedly wonderful) it felt very repetitive and the reviewers were trying to get through it as quickly as possible. Though this could just be in order to meet deadlines.

This I’m not too worried about. I’ve enjoyed a lot of games like this (major side eye towards bg3)

- most reviewers say the tone is a lot lighter than previous titles. This may not be a negative to some, but personally I’m a little concerned.

- no greatswords??????

- several reviews pointing out that voice acting is 50/50 and dialogue seems very campy, marvel-esque, and hand-holdy. Similar Andromeda. This concerns me because that was a main contributor to me never finishing Andromeda

On the other hand, there are many recurring positive points such as:

- the game is very focused with very little bloat

- playtime of about 60-65 hours for an average player. This is perfect for me. A great playtime for someone who wants to play again.

Gonna use bg3 as an example again, but it’s such a slog getting through that on a replay because it’s just so fucking long.

- appears to be in a good technical state which is not that stand for AAA game releases these days.

- the combat is praised by most reviewers despite it being quite different than what we had and previous titles

- gorgeous environments

Overall the reviews are very good and I’m still very much looking forward to playing. I tend to be pretty easy to please but there are certainly some concerns. I just hope it’s a step up from Andromeda which shouldn’t be hard.

Dragon Age had been an important part of my life for a long time now and I can’t imagine that I won’t enjoy it just based on that alone.

The Hobbit movies were arguably very bad (and I agree) but I still enjoyed them just because of my connection to the universe.

[akihikosanada]

my aa5 thoughts could be summarized by saying i'm a fan of turnabout academy, athena and blackquill rock, apollo's joker era outfit fucks and that l'belle's theme song is too cunty to be real

i feel like they wanted bobby fulbright to be a combination of both gumshoe ("useless" detective who helps the protags) and matt engarde (guy who looks harmless but plot twist! he is evil and ruined everyone's lives) except they failed on both accounts

i mean part of the gumshoe thing is because he never appeared before so they couldn't build up on him helping the protags, even gumshoe by the end of aa1 is already quite helpful with phoenix and maya, mainly because he wants to help edgeworth but later cases like 2-2 and 2-4 show he wants to help them even with edgeworth out of the picture. obviously bobby never got this because he appeared for the first time in this game and in the one case he cooperates beyond basic stuff it's so he can later frame athena anyways so. also just the fact that he is always tasing blackquill only shows he was never to be trusted like????? if we see him through gumshoe lenses. interesting to note that bobby wearing a white suit that looks brand new (+ expensive shoes) makes him look less approachable than gumshoe with his old tattered coat. the sunglasses don't help either so if they really wanted him to be "gumshoe but evil" they did a bad job because he never seems trustworthy

then re engarde the "reveal" was laughably lame in aa5 with zero foreshadowing. i already knew about it and yet there was nothing in his actions that made him suspicious other than him seeming more helpful during 5-4 idk. meanwhile in 2-4 on a replay it's like. fairly obvious matt's the culprit almost from the moment you meet him but unless you suspect him from the start it's very easy to believe in him because that is also what phoenix is doing and there's also how he always believes his clients to be innocent (+ until engarde all his clients were innocent so you probably believe so too even with all the evidence stacked against him + every single character saying he is guilty). then matt drops him façade the whole case changes!!! it's no longer about helping your client but rather doing everything to save maya without having engarde be declared innocent. with bobby it's embarrassingly done at the last minute (in the final part of the trial no less) so despite him being an international spy or whatever he never feels like a threat compared to the literal actor. i mean by this point athena and blackquill were already declared innocent so there aren't any real stakes in the game other than finding out The Truth yk. also taking him down isn't even cathartic??? breakdowns have had a total downgrade in quality since phoenix's trilogy but that's a discussion for another day. the guy just rips his masks off and then gets shot by a random sniper only because they told him he's scared. taking down engarde is so much more gratifying after all the help phoenix had to take him down + it's one of phoenix's top bitch moments. a lot of people chimed in against the phantom too but it isn't cathartic whatsoever and again. you or the other characters aren't even who end up taking him down

in conclusion there will neverrrr be a case as good as farewell, my turnabout and next time they should just not make the plot twist guy so hateable to me i'm already wishing him to be dead from the very moment he appears

[asleepinawell]

hot off the triumph of my ng+ run of dark souls 1, i decided to finally go back to try and beat ringed city which i rage quit 2 years ago (read more because i rambled a bit) (obligatory note that this is all just my opinion, other people get different things out of the game and that's fine, etc)

i didn't quit over a boss fight, but over that stretch between the inner wall bonfire and the swamp where the devs were like okay turtle clerics, ringed knights, SIX harald knights on the stairs backed up by ranged, and then a goddamn swamp in a level that should have been a cool ruined city. and all of the hard damage sponge enemies respawn. so if you die you have to go through a ton of very slow hard fights again and it's tedious

this time i looked up where the bonfire was and just made a run for it. and then after trying the next part did the same thing again. it is just frustrating. i can't play for more than twenty minutes at a time without having to turn it off and find something actually fun to do

the whole time I've been thinking about what makes a soulsborne level actually good. i've never thought it was difficulty (and would argue that being known as "so so hard" becoming the core aspect of soulsborne has been the worst thing to happen to the series)

for me, the best levels depend on patience and observation, not extremely hard enemies spawning out of nowhere. the sign of a good level is that when you finish it, when you're out of the thick of it, you think "hey that was cool and i wouldn't mind doing it again someday". and you think that regardless of any annoyance or difficulty you had along the way

when you finish an area and just think "i never want to go through that again" then something went wrong

i think about tower of latria, anor londo, darkroot garden, tomb of giants, central yarhnam, and even the valley of defilement and yeah some of those were grueling but god were they cool and i will go back to them someday. ringed city makes me think i'd rather go mop my kitchen (which i did so i guess something good came of it)

similar feeling about boss fights. artorias and manus were challenging but i ended both fights being like fuck yeah i did it! and the fights looked and felt really cool. i felt like i was fighting a duel rather than waiting for the boss to stop ping-ponging off the walls shitting status effects so i could get in one hit

the first boss fight in ringed city (I'm up to the second one now but haven't done it yet) i was like oh good now i never have to do that again (i don't even remember it very well, just that i didn't enjoy it). i actually prefer easy fights that have neat atmosphere (moonlight butterfly) to harder ones that leave me frustrated and think the best ones combine elements of challenge and atmosphere

(artorias' primal screams still get me every time, the deceptive speed he can move with despite lurching around, his dead arm dangling, the trail of abyss corruption, the way i remembered all his attacks years later...god that fight was good)

anyway i love the series a ton and I'll just end with the fact i have beaten demon's souls about 5 times (3 ng+ iterations included), and dark souls 1 about the same number of times. i've been through bloodborne twice and am almost through a third time. elden ring i beat twice and it's kind of a mixed bag. and then there's ds3 which i beat once and have 5 new characters i never got far on (i did like it but felt no desire to replay). i don't think i ever touched ds2 again after beating it. to me that says a lot

[tarakaybee]

Stray Thoughts: Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Switch Remake)

This was one of the first Game Boy Colour games I owned, and I think the second Zelda I might have ever played of my long history with this series, which has been my top favourite game series my whole life. The Zelda series is my favourite game series of all time, but I always found the 2D Zeldas inscrutable and overly difficult and generally didn't capture my imagination. I normally love games with that kind of 8 bit sprite art style because the artists have no choice but to have as much absolutely clarity as possible, but having this game rendered on a TV with better clarity than a cramped Game Boy Colour helped me to appreciate that this is perhaps one of the best Zelda games ever made.

It's hard to describe why I had a really good time with this game, setting aside the recent developments of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, I'm so used to Zelda games being frontloaded with a ton of pre-amble, being full of gimmicks and focusing on cinematic adventure, that this game's extremely simplicity on all those fronts was so enjoyable. The dungeons are absolutely nothing flashy but they're some of my favourites in the series because they use what they have so effectively and focus on challenging the player with global navigation, in a way that Zelda games have been coming and going on for a long while. The story is also simple, we're washed up in an island that gives off Alice in Wonderland vibes, and we're trying to assemble an orchestra to wake up some sort of fish god, easy. It's easy to get attached to the world of this game in spite of how small it is, I commuted across Koholint Island so many times that it became a cosy sort of commute despite being extremely dense with enemies, I enjoyed looking at the surprisingly small world map and slowly unpicking its mysteries in a way that replaying Breath of the Wild and TOTK has never quite been able to capture.

If I had to sum up Link's Awakening when compared to other Zelda games, it would be unpretentious. The arsenel of traversal items you unlock in the dungeons are the least flashy of just about any Zelda game, the dungeons contain very simple puzzles, where the real challenge is plotting a course through a cluster of rooms filled with monsters and traps. And again I can't stress enough how much it helps with immersion for a game to avoid explaining itself too much, after a single very short cutscene, the second you exit Marin's house you have complete free reign with no more story cutscenes save for owl conversations, who in this game is your main source of information about the world, and who doesn't outstay his welcome. The Switch version, which is the version I was playing, also has a lot of quality of life improvements, like I said I found the original Game Boy Colour version of Link's Awakening DX inscrutable and it was hard to feel like a heroic adventurer when I could only see twenty feet around me at all times, the viewpoint scrolling more often really helped me to place myself.

Like I said, I've been a lifelong fan of the Legend of Zelda, one of my earliest memories is my dad defeating Ganon at the end of the game and it's one of the franchises I stuck with the longest. The peak of my Zelda love was around the time of Majora's Mask and The Wind Waker. Around the time of The Minish Cap and Twilight Princess, I remember liking those games but I never ended up replaying them, they didn't fire up the imagination the way they used to. I ended up not finishing Skyward Sword or Spirit Tracks, the Zelda formula had run stale for me by that point, so after a prolonged period of feeling like I was over Zelda, Breath of the Wild came out and exceeded my wildest expectations, with Tears of the Kingdom being a nice cap on the end of the experience. With this return to a game I'd never been able to get myself to get into, before the period I consider the peak, it's been nice getting to feel those old feelings again. I'm managing expectations for Echoes of Wisdom, the echo system basically looks like a scaled down version of the crafting system from TOTK, so I'm curious to see how it plays out while we wait for the next mainline entry. Zelda games at at their best when they don't try to reinvent the wheel and either use existing wheels or they Ultrahand a flying saucer together.

Fuck, that's such a good Nintendo Official Magazine sign off to a game review, I should use that and not keep in this part.

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #600

Top 100 Videogames Revisited

Here we are with a Very Special Top Ten list. I’ve been doing this stupid time-wasting exercise for six hundred flippin’ weeks now. Six hundred! Why?! Why?! God knows. Yet here we are.

It’s getting increasingly hard to find suitably epic topics to discuss when these mega-anniversaries roll around, which is probably why I’ve returned to a well I last dredged way back in 2019. Doing a Top 100 instead of a Top Ten is something of An Undertaking, requiring as it does my remembering quite a lot of things that exist – in this case, videogames. Trying to properly rank them is next to impossible, so I tend to just “rate” them against whatever’s sat next to them. This means I tend to look over the whole list and say “Woah, why’s Mass Effect so low?” – but then, it’s that low because I’m also thinking “well, I can’t really put it higher than Unpacking, and that’s not higher than Perfect Dark, which is a little bit lower than Command and Conquer…” and so on. On the other hand, listing a hundred of the damn things gives me an excuse to not have to write some pithy explanation for all of them. So there’s that.

And it’s TOPICAL isn’t it?! Because a Very Big Videogame is coming out this week. Starfield is definitely the biggest Xbox release of the year, and one of the biggest games of the year full stop; it’s also the first new game in ages that I’ve been really, really excited about (the last one was probably Cyberpunk). But even aside from Starfield, 2023 has been quite the year for gaming in general; up there with 2007 and 1998 probably. Of course, me being me, I’ve not played any of the “big” games; for me it’s only really about Starfield. I’ve barely played Breath of the Wild, so I don’t see the point forking over a small fortune to play Tears of the Kingdom, even though I know it’ll be amazing; I didn’t bother with Baldur’s Gate 3 yet because I knew I’d be playing another massive RPG shortly so what’s the point (also I’d be waiting for the Xbox version regardless); and I don’t have a PlayStation, so even if I wanted to I wouldn’t be able to play Spider-Man 2 But Not That Spider-Man 2 This One’s Just a Videogame it’s Got Nothing to do With the Film You Know the One With the Whole Power of the Sun in the Palm of my Hand Thing.

Anyway, the gist is, despite me just doing this because I thought it’d be fun and relatively easy, it’s also turned out to be quite a good time to revisit my favourite games. Has much changed since I last did this nearly four years ago? Stuff’s come out that’s pretty high in the list – Unpacking, Vampire Survivor. Or I might have played a game more, or more recently (GoldenEye and Quake being higher than in 2019 is due to how well their recent re-releases have held up). Another change I decided to make is recognising remasters or collections; this was really just an excuse to not have, say, C&C and Red Alert both taking up a spot each, or working out how to rank all the Halos or Mass Effects. But also I think the collected editions of those franchises do offer something a bit new, be it updated graphics and options, or just the way The Master Chief Collection allows you to remix and replay the games to your heart’s content. I’ve also decided to put 2019’s placement next to the titles, to see how things have dropped or climbed. I made a (potentially spurious) decision to use collections like Mass Effect to represent the highest-ranking entry last time round – so obviously the Legendary Edition collection wasn’t out in 2019, but the “previous ranking” refers to Mass Effect 2, the most popular part of that collection. Hopefully that makes sense. There are a couple of games where the new entry has entirely knocked the old entry off the charts – Forza for instance, where each new edition is more-or-less an iterative improvement; in these cases I was tempted to put the prior entry’s ranking against it, but decided that was a bit daft.

Finally a big difference is my acknowledging that, whilst it’s not a narrative-based FPS or a dense RPG, I do love Civilization more than almost anything. I think back to how scandalised I used to be at PC Gamer consistently ranking Civ II as the best game of all time, over the likes of Duke, Quake, or even my beloved (and already getting-on-a-bit) Monkey Island games. And yet I think in many ways they were proven right.

So there we are; not much else to it. Please enjoy this spurious ranking and try not get your knickers in a twist. How would things stand if I’d waited till the year was over before revisiting? I guess we’ll never know. Or at least not till my 800th list.

The Secret of Monkey Island (Lucasfilm Games, 1990) 1 NM

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (LucasArts, 1991) 2 NM

Sid Meier's Civilization VI (Firaxis Games, 2017) 5 U

Deus Ex (Ion Storm, 2000) 4 NM

Half-Life 2 (Valve, 2004) 3 D

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (BioWare, 2003) 6 NM

Stardew Valley (ConcernedApe, 2016) NE

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo, 2017) 21 U

Fable II (Lionhead, 2008) 10 U

Halo: The Master Chief Collection (343 Industries after Bungie, 2014) 7 D

Wii Sports (Nintendo, 2006) 23 UP

Lemmings 2: The Tribes (DMA Design, 1993) 8 D

Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo, 2020) NE

Medieval II: Total War (Creative Assembly, 2006) 16 U

GoldenEye 007 (Rare, 1997) 34 U

Quake (id Software, 1996) 45 U

Command and Conquer Remastered Collection (Petroglyph Games/Lemon Sky Studios, after Westwood Studios, 2020) 12 D

Perfect Dark (Rare, 2000) NM

Unpacking (Witch Beam 2021) NE

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition (BioWare, 2021) 22 U

Slay the Spire (Mega Crit, 2019) NE

Lego Marvel Super Heroes (TT Games, 2013) 11 D

Crackdown (Realtime Worlds, 2007) 9 D

Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II (LucasArts, 1997) 13 D

Portal (Valve, 2007) 17 D

Grim Fandango (LucasArts, 1998) 42 U

Drop7 (Area/Code Entertainment, 2009) 31 U

Sam & Max Hit the Road (LucasArts, 1993) 15 D

Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo, 2007) 24 D

Flashback (Delphin Software, 1992) 25 D

Peggle 2 (PopCap Games, 2013) 43 U

Sensible World of Soccer (Sensible Software, 1994) 19 D

Half-Life (Valve, 1998) 14 D

Doom (id Software, 1993) 35 U

Tetris (Alexey Pajitnov, 1986) NE

Quake II (id Software, 1997) 45 U

Pentiment (Obsidian Entertainment, 2022) NE

Return to Monkey Island (Terrible Toybox, 2022) NE

Vampire Survivors (Luca Galante, 2022) NE

Portal 2 (Valve, 2011) NE

Duke Nukem 3D (3D Realms, 1996) 20 D

Minecraft (Mojang Studios, 2011) 63 U

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo, 2017) NE

BioShock (2K Boston, 2007) 30 D

Overcooked 2 (Team17/Ghost Town Games, 2018) NE

Quake III Arena (id Software, 1999) 33 D

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (Ninja Theory, 2017) 86 U

Forza Horizon 5 (Playground Games, 2021) NE

Gears Tactics (Splash Damage/The Coalition, 2020) NE

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (TT Games, 2022) NE

Batman: Arkham City (Rocksteady Studios, 2011) 26 D

The Witcher III: Wild Hunt (CD Projekt Red, 2015) NE

Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar Studios, 2019) NE

Switch Sports (Nintendo, 2022) NE

Project Gotham Racing (Bizarre Creations, 2001) 65 U

Halo Infinite (343 Industries, 2021) NE

Age of Empires II (Ensemble Studios, 1999) 37 D

Worms World Party (Team17, 2001) NM

Doom (id Software, 2016) 55 D

Lumines: Puzzle Fusion (Q Entertainment, 2004) NE

Marvel Snap (Second Dinner, 2022) NE

RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 (Chris Sawyer, 2002) 32 D

Another World (Delphine Software, 1991) 52 D

The Settlers II (Blue Byte Software, 1996) NE

Blade Runner (Westwood Studios, 1997) 41 D

Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady Studios, 2011) NE

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (Nintendo, 2002) 60 D

Viva Pinata (Rare, 2006) 47 D

Townscaper (Oskar Stålberg, 2021) NE

Syndicate (Bullfrog Productions, 1993) 40 D

Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (Nintendo, 2003) NE

Cannon Fodder (Sensible Software, 1993) 49 D

Cyberpunk 2077 (CD Projekt Red, 2022) NE

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Sega Technical Institute, 1992) 53 D

Banjo Kazooie (Rare, 1998) 50 D

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (LucasArts, 1992) 64 D

Crazy Taxi (Hitmaker, 1999) NE

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo, 1998) 77 D

Superhot (Superhot Team, 2016) 44 D

Super Skidmarks (Acid Software, 1995) 62 D

James Pond 2: Codename RoboCod (Vectordean, 1991) 39 D

Super Mario 64 (Nintendo, 1996) 76 D

Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle (Ubisoft Milan/Ubisoft Paris, 2017) NE

Plants Vs. Zombies (PopCap Games, 2009) 36 D

Full Throttle (LucasArts, 1995) NE

Braid (Number None, 2008) 56 D

Age of Empires IV (Relic Entertainment/World’s Edge, 2021) NE

Planet Coaster (Frontier Developments, 2016) NE

Gears 5 (The Coalition, 2019) NE

Pikmin 3 (Nintendo, 2013) NE

Max Payne (Remedy Entertainment, 2001) NE

Counter-Strike (Valve, 2000) NE

Jaguar XJ220 (Core Design, 1992) 80 D

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (Neversoft, 2000) 83 D

Thimbleweed Park (Terrible Toybox, 2017) 73 D

Star Wars: Dark Forces (LucasArts, 1995) NE

Beneath a Steel Sky (Revolution Software, 1994) NE

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (Tribute Games, 2022) NE

Two Point Hospital (Two Point Studios, 2018) 72 D

Parasol Stars (Taito, 1991) NE

[looooooooomis]

FINAL GIRL | FIVE

You were his final girl.  And there was no chance in hell that anyone or anything was going to mess that up.

p a r t   five  |  t h e  c a b i n (part I)

masterlist here

pairing: Billy Loomis x f!reader word count:  5.6k (I’M SORRY I GOT CARRIED AWAY) warnings: s m u t (18 +!!!!!)

A/N: after 8 months of MIA, SHE’S BACK BABY!!! this is part 1 of 2 of our fav couple being at the cabin x next chapter will have soft moments I promise lmao 

You should have been paying more attention.

If you’d been paying more attention, you wouldn’t have had five sets of eyes currently watching your every move, waiting for an answer you didn’t have. Why had you thought it was a good idea to stay up as late as you had packing your overnight bag for the cabin? If you had gone to bed at a reasonable hour, you wouldn’t have been as braindead as you currently were and, if you hadn’t been braindead, you wouldn’t have wound up in whatever ring of hell you were currently stuck in as your friends stared at you as though you’d grown a second head.

You pleaded with your tongue to say anything, pleaded for your brain to register a decent enough lie to make this uncomfortable silence end but nothing came out of your mouth. Only a pathetic hum and a gusto of forced laughter.

You wanted to die.

It should have been an easy enough answer to what was an even easier question. One that you’d practiced answering for the last two days and yet, as the moment for the lie came and went, you were left scrambling like a fucking moron.

You didn’t dare look at Billy as Sid curled into his side knowing if you managed to catch his coffee-coloured stare, you’d only be met with something between terror and amusement as you royally shit the bed. So, instead, you did the next best thing. You replayed the question over and over again in your head until you were driven mad.

‘Are you up for a movie this weekend?’

It was a simple enough question, one you’d managed to decline easily enough but, as Tatum frowned and asked the one question you were expecting to hear, your mind went blank.

‘Why? What are you doing?’

The answer you were supposed to say: I have to babysit my cousin in Santa Rosa all weekend. The answer they got? Silence. Pure, awkward as fuck, silence.

“Earth to Y/N,” Tatum laughed, brows furrowing. “Are you alive?”

“Sorry,” you huffed out a quiet laugh and shook your head, “I barely slept last night, I’m braindead.”

While it wasn’t a lie, you were still on edge. You’d think after months of sneaking around with the asshole sitting in front of you that you would have chilled out a little more but not today. Maybe it was the nerves of a full weekend away with Billy Loomis as his girlfriend hosted a fucking movie night sans her boyfriend and best friend – but something was making you stumble over what should have been second nature to you.

“You feeling okay?” Sid, the angel she was, asked with a small frown. Your stomach twisted in the familiar way it always did when your sweet friend showed concern. Concern which you most definitely didn’t deserve. “You seem…off.”

It would have been so easy to confess your dark little twisted affair with Billy right then and there. To just open your mouth and let the truth of everything you’d been doing behind her back play out. But you knew it would break her heart and, more than that, you were a fucking coward.

“I’m fine, Sid,” you smacked on a small smile and leaned into your locker. You had one more class until you were home free. Free of your friends’ inquiring eyes, free of Biology, free of Woodsboro. If you managed to get through this incredibly uncomfortable moment. “And I would if I could, trust me. I have to babysit my little cousin in Santa Rosa.” You feigned disappointment with a small frown. You could see Stu’s lips tug up in mild amusement out of the corner of your eye. “She’s nine, so if I don’t come back on Monday, know that she annoyed me to death.”

Randy scoffed and casually threw his arm around your neck. “Every day I’m thankful I don’t have any snot-nosed kids in my family. Losing my weekend to babysit? I’d rather rot.”

Despite your guilt, you managed a small smile as you looked across at him. “I think the kid would rather you rot, too. You’d be a terrible babysitter.”

“She’s right,” Tatum smirked, “you’d show the kid one of your weirdo movies where a girl with big tits is running helplessly away from her killer. It’d scar the kid for life.”

“Or,” Randy mused, “prepare them for the real world. Put some hair on their chest and all that shit.”

“Furthering my point, Meeks, you’d be a shit babysitter.” You laughed. “But, yeah, I’ll be suffering at the hands of a nine-year-old, so you guys have fun without me.”

“How about you, lover boy?” Tatum asked, looking across at Billy. “Will you be joining us this weekend?”

You should have averted your eyes. Should have done anything besides wait, with bated breath, to see what Billy would say. Slowly, those brown eyes tapered over towards you just briefly before looking at Tatum. With a casual shrug of his shoulders, Billy shook his head and leaned into Sid. “Can’t,” he merely said, “I’m going up north with my dad. He wants to get some of his affairs in order or something, I don’t know.” He ran a hand through his hair. “All I know is I was promised free beer if I helped him. So, I’m helping him.”

If Sid caught onto his lie, her face didn’t betray her once. And, as she looked up at her boyfriend with doting eyes, you couldn’t help but feel that pang of shame slice into your gut once again. She believed him. She always believed him. Believed you. Regardless of how good it felt to have Billy, that shame of knowing just who it was unwittingly hurting in the process never dissipated.

“You sure you guys won’t need help?” Sid asked, further digging that knife of shame into your chest. “Besides this movie, I’ve got nothing else going on this weekend.”

“Real nice,” Randy teased. “She’d rather watch Billy’s dad punch away at a fucking calculator then sit down with her nearest and dearest.”

Billy ignored Randy entirely as he glanced down at the brunette. “I’m sure,” he affirmed, giving her a quick squeeze. “Enjoy the movie night. I’ll be there for the next one.”

He lied so effortlessly, so casually, that it should have unnerved you. But it didn’t. Because for as good of a liar Billy Loomis was, you were right here with him. This dangerous little game the two of you were playing was becoming second nature to you and for as much as it pained you to see Sidney get lied to, you couldn’t help yourself.

You loved Billy. Billy loved you. Right person, wrong time. Only rather than wait like you knew you should have, Billy’s glow was much too enthralling to miss. You were both moths to each other’s’ flames and no amount of guilt or shame was strong enough to outweigh the otherworldly affliction the two of you had for one another.

The bell signifying your final class rung out, snapping you out of your brief reverie as you blinked and focused on pushing Randy off of you. “Want to drive me to the bus station?” You asked him. “I don’t want to drive all the way to Santa Rosa, so I bought a bus ticket.”

“Tonight?” Randy considered it briefly before shrugging. “Sure, I guess. I’ve got a shift tonight at seven, though. When’s your bus leave?”

“Six thirty,” you lied, mainly doing this so that should anyone drive by your house this weekend and see your car still neatly parked in your driveway, they wouldn’t bat an eye. “I owe you.”

“Yeah, you do,” Randy agreed. “And, lucky for you, I accept a lot of different payment options.” He wriggled his brows, earning a playful smack from you and an annoyed glare from Billy. Thankfully, Randy didn’t catch onto the latter. “Pick you up at six?”

You nodded. “Perfect.”

With your eyes flickering to Billy’s once more, you managed to shoot everyone a quick smile before disappearing down the hall towards Biology. Just how you’d managed to dance your way out of what could have been an incredibly awkward moment, you didn’t know. But as you felt that weighty stare of Billy’s on your back as you walked away, there was an air of excitement that swallowed you whole.

No matter how much guilt you felt, no matter how sick it made you to see Sidney get hurt, even if she didn’t quite know about just yet, there was a much larger part of you that couldn’t wait to get Billy alone.

Because for the first time in the seven months since you’d started this torrid little affair, you were finally getting Billy all to yourself. No prying eyes, no secret kisses, no having to hide every part of your relationship with the man. None of that.

This weekend, it was you and it was Billy.

And you couldn’t fucking wait.

»»-------------¤-------------««

Randy, being the superstar he was, had dropped you off at the station a little after six-fifteen and by six-thirty-two, just around the time the actual bus was leaving for Santa Rosa, you were scrambling into Billy’s car with a wild grin on your face.

Just how the pair of you had managed to pull it off, especially given your brain lapse earlier in the day, was beyond you. But, as Billy tore off down the main street leading to the freeway, you couldn’t help but feel a sense of freedom engulf you the farther and farther you got from town.

It was exhilarating.

And, as you glanced at Billy, who couldn’t have looked more like a movie star with his dark locks blowing with the wind cascading in through his open window, you couldn’t help but reach across the divide to gently squeeze his jean-clad thigh.

“Thank you,” you found yourself muttering and as those brown eyes met yours, you couldn’t help but grin. “For your stupid key proposal. In hindsight, it was very sweet.”

The dimple in Billy’s cheek deepened as his own grin grew. “Glad you let me steal you away?”

You loosened your seatbelt momentarily and leaned across to give him a kiss on the cheek. “Very glad.” You made a move to pull away but stopped when he gently grabbed your chin with the hand not holding the wheel. “What—”

The kiss, while dangerously stupid, was short and sweet but the emotion behind it, the genuine happiness that exuded out of Billy in those few seconds was palpable. “I really do fucking love you, you know that?”

“You’ve mentioned it,” you hummed and slinked back into your seat. When his large hand found your thigh, he gave it a firm squeeze that sent shockwaves throughout your whole body.

“Not going to say it back?” He teased, giving you a sidelong glance as he drew nearer to the freeway.

“I’d rather show it.” Rather than put your seatbelt back on, you shimmed in your seat and leaned into him as your fingers scraped along his thighs towards the button of his jeans. “Eyes on the road, Loomis.”

Easier said than done, Billy thought, torn between watching the road and watching you unzip his jeans. Raising his ass out of the seat just long enough to allow you to tug his pants down his thighs, the second Billy saw yours eyes light up as his now somewhat erect cock sprung free of his jeans, keeping his eyes on the road seemed impossible. But, the second he saw that pretty mouth of yours perk up in anticipation, it was game over. “Are you trying to get us killed?”

A low chuckle escaped your lips as you began to pump his length with your hand. “Focus on the road, Billy.”

“You say that like it’s easy.” Not being able to keep his hands off of you, he reached for your nipple and gave it a pinch through your shirt. “Take your shirt off, baby.”

“Shut up and drive.” You chided him, shimming in your seat so that you were on your knees leaning over the console. His cock was rock hard now and, as you ran your tongue alongside his length, from the base of it all the way up to coax your tongue along the precum that had gathered along his head, you felt him shiver beneath you.

“Fuck,” he hissed, tangling his fingers through your hair. You were too fucking good with that mouth of yours.

Still pumping the base of his cock with one hand, you swirled your tongue along the tip of his dick again before taking that perfectly girthy cock in your mouth. His grip tightened on your hair and your eyes watered as he pushed your head down to fully take the length of him inside of your mouth. He heard you gag on him but even as his grip eased up, you continued your pursuit of deepthroating him.

His breathing was shallow as he felt your hot mouth all over him. Between the sounds of your wet mouth taking him in and the occasional gag as you choked on his length, Billy was in heaven.

But having you this close as you fucked him with your mouth whilst still fully clothed was killing him. He needed to feel you. He wanted to feel your juices on his fingers and running down those perfect fucking thighs as he fingerfucked you. He wanted to hear you moan, feel you moan on his cock as he made you feel as good as you were making him feel.

He wanted all of you, needed all of you.  

Trying his damnedest not to shut his eyes as your mouth brought him closer to the edge, he reached beneath you to work on your own zipper but when that proved to be impossible, a frustrated growl tore out of his lips. “Undo your pants.” He hissed through bared teeth.

You hummed against his dick which nearly sent him into the other land of traffic. “No,” you purred, “I want to make you feel good.”

With one hand on the wheel and the other now gliding up and down your back as you fucked him with your mouth, Billy couldn’t help but buck into your mouth as you began to massage his balls. He was going to bust and soon if he wasn’t careful.

You were too fucking good and he was too fucking in love with you not to get lost in the way you made him feel.

“Touch yourself, at least,” he breathed out, desperate to see that pretty cunt. “Please, baby.”

Not granting him the satisfaction, you simply dug your nails into his thighs and moaned onto his cock and the sensation of it alone was almost enough to make him come down your throat. It seemed to slither around his cock, making him twitch and buck into your mouth.

But it was the second you moaned out his name as you swirled your wet mouth along the head of his dick one final time, swallowing back his precum with a contented hum, that Billy blew his loud inside of your mouth.

For a good five seconds, he didn’t care if he crashed the goddamn car as he watched you swallow his seed. He was bucking into your mouth, his breathing was ragged, as you guzzled him back and, as you finally released his cock with a pop, Billy almost lost it.

With a devilish grin, you simply wiped a finger along the edge of your lips and leaned back into your seat with a satisfied glimmer in your eyes. You knew you’d be in for it once he got his hands on you at the cabin, but for now, as you watched him lamely try and pull his jeans up his body to cover his slowly softening cock, you couldn’t help but laugh.

“What’s the matter, Billy?” You teased, fastening your seatbelt back up. “You look a little rattled.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he simpered, not bothering with the zipper or button of his jeans. Instead, he reached across the divide and grabbed for your hand as he ghosted his lips across your knuckles. “Just wait until we get to the cabin.”

With your suspicions confirmed, you couldn’t help but beam across at him as you drove further and further away from Woodsboro. That was definitely a threat and good god were you excited for its execution.

»»-------------¤-------------««

By the time you’d pulled into the Loomis family cabin, it was pitch black outside.

The moon was too high in the sky and only a sliver of its light poked through the tall pine trees that surrounded the small house but, even with the low light surrounding you, the shadows that danced along the lake was enough to bring out a small smile as you quietly made your way out of the car. You didn’t need full sun to see the beauty surrounding you and the smell of the fresh air mixed with the spice of pine made any ounce of nerves filter out of you.

You were happy.

Unreservedly so.

Glancing across the roof towards Billy, he seemed almost distracted as he looked around at the familiar surroundings. You couldn’t quite tell if he was feeling as happy as you were in those brief moments, but you couldn’t quite blame him for that. The cabin held a lot of memories within it, many of which you knew included his mother. Where you felt freed and excited, you could tell the weight of his current whereabouts was heavy on his shoulders.

“Hey,” you muttered, slicing into the quietude around you. Walking around the front of the car, those brown eyes found yours as you circled your arms around his middle. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” he assured, but his voice was low and distant. All the same, however, his strong arms enveloped you as he kissed your hairline. “Lost in a memory, I guess.”

You nodded into the crook of his neck but said nothing. He needed time to decompress, to familiarize himself with a house he hadn’t been in since his mother left. So, you’d give him that time.

For what must have been minutes, the two of you simply stood at the helm of porch holding onto one another. It wasn’t until Billy placed another quick kiss to your forehead that you felt his arms slowly fall only to grasp your hand in his own. “Come on,” he hummed. His grip on your hand was firm as he walked up the steps leading to the wrap around porch and as he stuck the key inside of the lock and opened the front door, the smell of cedar surrounded you.

The cabin was gorgeous. Wooden slats covered every square inch of the small house and a small fireplace sat at the front of the house with a worn-in couch and chair facing it. It was obvious nobody had come to visit for quite some time judging by the dust lining most of the countertops and shelving units, but you didn’t care.

To you, it was perfect.

Your own little oasis with the boy you loved without any sort of outside interruption.

You released his hand to take a brief look around the small living space but you could feel his eyes on you with every step you took. You knew he was looking to get even with you after your little stunt in the car, but you also knew that he hadn’t quite been expecting the swell of emotions to hit him upon driving up to the cabin. So, you continued to wander around the cabin to both grant him the space he may or may not have needed and, simply, to snoop around.

There were family pictures lining the tables and one in particular made you smile as you caught sight of a young Billy swinging from a tire swing. With a quiet laugh, you picked the frame up and surveyed it with a fond smile on your lips. “Cute,” you remarked, looking across to catch his stare. “A little model, eh?”

Billy watched you carefully place the frame down on the table before continuing on with your self-guided tour. No matter how hard he tried, regardless of the bittersweet memories swirling around inside of his brain, he couldn’t take his eyes off of you. Not that he ever really could, but there was an ease rolling off of you tonight, coming off of you in waves, that drew him in.

“I’ve been thinking about this all week, you know that?” He remarked, leaning against the back of the couch as he watched you pick up another picture frame. “Just me and you. Out here alone in the woods for an entire weekend.”

“Sounds like a scary movie when you put it that way,” you goaded with a wink. “Or a really niche porno.”

“Why not a bit of both?” His molasses coloured eyes glimmered mischievously as you walked up to him and stepped between his legs. The second you were close, he pulled you flush against his chest and kissed the tip of your nose as he pushed your hair back and away from your face. “Both could be fun.”

You grinned. “I’m down for anything,” you shrugged. “So long as you promise to take me on an actual date tomorrow. We’re not just fucking like bunnies inside of the cabin all weekend.”

“Heaven forbid,” he leaned in and gave you a slow, torturous kiss.

“I’m serious, Billy,” you moaned.

Pulling away from your mouth, Billy nudged his nose against yours and nodded. “The entire population in Bumfuck, California will know you’re my girl by the end of the weekend,” he avowed, skimming his hands down to your ass to give it a firm squeeze. “I promise.”

“Oh, yeah?” You hummed, kissing him again.

His calloused hands slipped beneath your shirt and scraped up your side. “Yeah.” Digging his hips into yours, he gave you one last kiss before nodding towards the bedroom. “Take your clothes off.”

You giggled as he slapped your ass to steer you down the narrow hallway. “And if I don’t?”

“I’ll rip them off of you,” he simply said, “so either they remain in one piece or I ruin your outfit.”

You glanced down at your jeans and tank before frowning. You looked cute tonight and you’d be damned if the bastard ripped them. So, being the good girl you were, you held his stare and slowly slinked out of your clothes. His eyes seemed so much darker as he watched you strip and the small smirk he wore slowly fell into a hungry thin line as you then perched yourself on the edge of the bed, completely nude.

“You just going to stand there looking pretty or are you going to do something about this?” You slipped your fingers between your thighs and ran your fingers along your swollen clit. A low moan slipped out of your lips at the sensation. “I’m already so wet for you, Billy.”

Slowly, Billy stepped towards you and undid his belt. Leaning down, he kissed you, hard, and steered you backwards on the bed beneath you until your head reached the soft pillows. You could feel his cock straining against his jeans but rather than grant himself any sort of reprieve, you watched him gently grasp your hands and raise them above your head only to wrap his belt around your wrists.

In the blink of an eye, you were tied to the bedposts.

“Is this payback for the car blowie?” You laughed, looking up at your restrained wrists. “If it is, I can’t say I’m mad about it.”

“You wanted something between a horror movie and a niche porno, remember?” He hummed against your skin, placing sloppy kisses along the vein that ran along your neck as he pinched your nipple. “God, you’re fucking perfect. You know that?”

He bit down on your collarbone, kissing his way down your chest until his warm mouth wrapped around your nipple. You could feel his teeth slither along your breast as his tongue lapped expertly on the sensitive bud. You hissed, arching into his mouth as your wrists, on instinct, fought for freedom. “Hardly.”

His eyes met yours as he slowly released your nipple. You were in nothing, of course, but he was still fully clothed, and you hated him for it. You hungrily eyed the bulge in his jeans as he propped himself up on his arm, letting his other hand glide up your chest and neck until it cupped your cheek. His nose brushed against yours, nudging it up to allow his lips to hover just over yours. Close enough that you could almost taste them, but much too far away to satisfy the hunger you had for the man.

“I love you,” he whispered, thumb stroking the apple of your cheek as his warm, brown eyes swallowed you up. “You know that, right?”

“Yes,” you swallowed hard and tilted your head up just enough to finally catch his lips. But, just as quickly as it happened, the man pulled away and let his hand begin to roam down your body. His mouth was at your ear now, nibbling at your earlobe as his hot breath slithered against your neck. You shivered. “I love you, too.”

His voice was gruff in your ear. “I’d kill for you,” his hand continued its journey down your throat, brushing past your nipple, down the length of your stomach until reaching the small smattering of hair along your mound. He was careful to keep his hands from dipping any lower, tormenting you as best to his ability, which just about killed you, if you were being honest. “You know that?”

Bucking your hips up, you nearly growled at the lack of attention you were receiving. You were soaked and touch-starved for him. His fingers, his mouth, the erection currently poking into your thigh, anything. “I wouldn’t ask you to do that,” you managed a quiet laugh. “But I appreciate it.”

His teeth bit down on your neck again. “But, I would. I’d do anything for you, sweetheart.”

His hand slipped further down to your sopping cunt and as he slowly slipped his fingers through your wet folds, the moan he got in return nearly killed him. “Billy,” you whispered desperately. It felt as though you were going to die if you didn’t feel him inside of you. “Please.”

His lips hovered over yours and on instinct, you caught his bottom lip between your teeth and bucked your hips against his hand. He snarled as you bit down on his lip but as the metallic taste of blood met his tongue, it was as though Billy was transcending. His pace on your clit quickened but it was still too slow for you and he knew it. He was torturing you, killing you, and he was enjoying every second of it. Struggling against the belt, your struggle was all for naught as it didn’t so much as move an inch.

“You’d love me, no matter what, right?” He asked, slipping one of his fingers inside of you as he kissed his way down to your chest. Lapping at your nipple, Billy was gentle at first before biting down hard enough to draw blood. Tit for Tat.

“Yes,” you moaned. Your entire body was on fire as his fingers brought you closer to the edge. “But I’d love you even more if you fucked me. You’re killing me, Loomis.”

Licking up the small trail of blood off of your tits, Billy hummed against your nipple and added another finger inside of your pussy. He’d fuck you soon but right now, he needed to feel your entire body light up the way it always had when he drove you into that fit of madness. You were a woman unhinged in the bedroom, he knew as much, and he knew exactly how to get that animal inside of you out.

“You’re so fucking wet,” he admired, reaching his hand up to coat your tit in your own slick. When it was sufficiently wet, he licked your juices off of your breast and growled. God, you tasted so fucking good. “You’re my girl, Y/N, you’re always going to be my girl, right?”

You looked up at him as those words fell from his lips. His brown hair hung down his forehead, his neck red from the strain of having to watch you writhe beneath him without doing a damned thing about it. But what struck you was the look of vulnerability in those brown eyes. That longing, far-away look as his eyes searched yours.

He wanted nothing more than to hear you say that you wanted him. Needed him. Just as much as he needed you.

“Always,” the answer tumbled out of your lips before you so much as thought twice. “I’m your girl, Billy.”

His mouth caught yours in a bruising kiss. Finally, his pace quickened inside of you as met your throbbing core with his dept fingers. With his thumb circling your clit, he dipped two fingers inside of you and grinned against your mouth as you let out a low, desperate moan.

It happened so fast after that. One moment, you were the one tied up on the bed and the next, he’d released you, stripped himself naked, and managed to flip you over so that you were the one on top of him, straddling his waist. Pulling away from you mouth, Billy’s eyes darkened as he saw that familiar glimmer in your eyes. That animalistic side of you was out in full force now.

“Get up here.” He demanded.

You smirked and leaned across him so that your lips hovered over his. “Why would I want to do that?”

He leaned up, the veins in his neck swelled against his neck as he caught your bottom lip between his teeth. “Get. Up. Here.”

Releasing your lip, Billy watched you smirk and crawl up the remainder of his body until your pussy was less than an inch away from his mouth. Grabbing onto the metal of the headboard you’d just been tied up to, you gasped as Billy’s tongue slid into your folds. Finding your clit instantly, you moaned and allowed your eyes to fall shut as you reached down to play with your hardened nipples.

Fuck, what Billy could do with his mouth should have been illegal.

He sucked and lapped at your clit as you rocked back and forth against his mouth. His fingers dug into your hips, so much so that you knew there would be bruises in the morning but, blinded by the pleasure between your thighs, you couldn’t care less.  

The moans that were coming out of you were raw and guttural and, as you played with your own tits, envisioning his hands being the ones to squeeze and nip on the swollen buds of your nipples, you saw stars.

“Fuck,” you moaned out, “Billy, baby, fuck.”

He pulled your hips further down so that you were sitting on his face. Not just hovering but sitting on that perfect mouth of his as he held you in place. You knew it must have been hard for him to breathe but he was adamant and as his tongue continued its assault on your throbbing cunt, you came devastatingly hard and incredibly loud.

Stars danced behind your eyes as you continued to ride out your orgasm. When you couldn’t take another second of Billy’s skilled tongue, you climbed off of him only to feel his large hands take hold of your hips again.

Swinging you around so that you were on your back and he was the one hovering over you, Billy wasted no time in slipping his rock-hard erection into your soaking pussy.

He was thrusting hard and the sounds of your juices squelching with every thrust of his cock would have been off-putting if it hadn’t been for the raw, primal need coursing off of the pair of you in waves. He was kissing your lips and biting them and suckling your neck as he continued to rail into you with all of passion in the world. You weren’t sure you’d ever seen him this riled up and you had to admit it was inherently sexy seeing him so affected by you.

Not surprising in the least, it didn’t take him long to come. You’d riled him up to the point of no return in the car and, as you felt him come inside of you, you all but laughed when he dramatically crashed on the bed beside you.

Sweat glistened over every inch of body and the sheen of your juices was still on his lips as he kissed you. This kiss was slow, methodical. Sweet. And you felt yourself fall even harder for the man as he broke the kiss and gently brushed your hair away from your now damp forehead.

Wrapping one arm around your chest, Billy held you against him as he propped himself against the headboard. You were both naked and sweating and while a shower was something you both definitely needed, neither of you found yourselves all too willing to move out of the other’s embrace.

“Is it hard being back here?” You asked, listening to his heart beating in his chest.

“For a second, maybe,” he admitted, soothing your hair down. “Not now.”

“What’s changed?” You asked with a small smile. “The sex was that good, huh?”

A quiet chuckle shook his chest as he kissed the top of your head. “I think horror meets niche porn is my new favourite genre.”

Kissing his naked chest, you grinned into his body. “Same.”

[tommytranselo]

I noticed what you were saying about how you wished mafia 2 was as good as your obsession with it made it seem and I must say that I felt the same! I played Mafia DE and loved everything about it- the character’s cannon complexities, the mission’s cannon complexities, the real and personable emotions, etc. and then I played Mafia 2 and so much was left unsaid/unanswered, that the whole game just felt repressive and I had to squint between the lines to feel like I knew the characters :/ (1/2)

when i posted that i mostly meant in terms of gameplay (as in, i'd love to replay but most of the missions are annoying) but honestly, mafia 2 really took a while to grow on me–i started it only a few days after finishing DE and at first i was seriously disappointed; it just didn't capture the same magic for me as MDE had, i couldn't get into the characters (then again i went in with somewhat of a grudge against them), i didn't enjoy a lot of the missions and i felt like i had no time to experience the world. around the end of chapter 11 i had to put it down for a while (didn't have access to the computer i was playing it on), and after letting it marinate for a while, so to speak, i'd gotten more into it, and then, well–to quote a meme, "i do not control the hyperfixation." (i had a very similar experience with tarantino's reservoir dogs, funnily enough) personally, the characters and relationships felt just similar enough to the kinds of characters i write in my personal projects that they really stuck with me, but i think a lot of it's probably the echo chamber effect of tumblr. in total we've got, say...fifteen, twenty people (and usually less than that talking loads about it) all closely analyzing the game and extrapolating things and repeating them to each other. a lot of the talk about, say, eddie and carlo's relationship, or henry's dead wife bettina, or luca–that's the product of major extrapolation or borderline making shit up. add that to a fairly short game, and it's easy to remember a lot of the details and make something of it.

the description of it being repressive and having to squint between the lines, and a lot being unsaid/unanswered is very accurate imo–they cut a lot of content before release, and you can tell, 'cause it's left this distinct feeling of the game being rushed and unfinished, and of the lore barely holding together. quite frankly, i think a handful of fans on here have done a hell of a lot of squinting between the lines and answering things ourselves, and it might be because there's so much room to do so that we've ended up with this kind of a fanbase. there's just enough there to latch onto that a lot of people (myself included) seem determined to mine out the game's untapped potential. i've definitely noticed the other games don't seem to attract the same level of wild speculation and like...fixation over very very specific details.  i saw someone once describe the show supernatural as having had very little of its potential untapped by the actual creators but a lot of potential untapped by the fans, and i feel like mafia 2 is much the same.

despite mafia 2 (for some reason?) largely being the face of the series now, i've heard when it first came out it was widely hated by diehard fans of the original mafia: tcolh, and while i've never played the og, i can see why. i guess it really does just grow on you. like a fungus.

[shihalyfie]

Shiramine Nokia, and her role in Cyber Sleuth’s narrative

This one’s on request! Cyber Sleuth is quite the interesting game and a rather landmark entry in the franchise, mainly for being a love letter to the franchise and its long history itself, and for being the franchise’s very first work exclusively aimed at adults, meaning that it can explore different topics that wouldn’t normally be Sunday morning timeslot material, while also being a little more willing to assume that the people playing this are familiar with a lot of older parts of the franchise (not that it’s advisable to have complete lockout, but the game benefits greatly by not needing to assume lockout by default).

One of the ways Cyber Sleuth exhibits its “franchise love letter” status is by starting off the game all the way back at the franchise’s roots, before Digimon Adventure changed the game and everyone’s perception of Digimon and Digimon partnership, when the V-Pet lore was intertwined with Digimon as elements of hard sci-fi. As the game proceeds, the atmosphere slowly starts to resemble the more fantasy-like version of the franchise established by Digimon Adventure and its follower entries -- and that change is represented in none other than Nokia herself.

Before we begin: As anyone who follows my meta work has probably noticed, I generally prefer to have my analyses use tons of references and screenshots so that it’s easy to follow and the evidence is concrete, but Cyber Sleuth is a game, and it’s much harder to get those things without replaying the entire game, so I hope this won’t be too hard to follow despite being mostly text.

Nokia’s background and personality

If we want to apply the producer’s statements on Twitter, Nokia is 17 years old at the time of Cyber Sleuth, and has a backstory of having originally been a shy, bullied child who broke out of her shell thanks to the influence of her cousin (who, of all people, happens to be none other than Date Makiko). The flashback we get with Nokia in chapter 18, however, portrays her as just a fairly cheerful, go-getter child, but (although we only get to see her hair) she’s not quite as “flashy” or in-your-face as the description entails.

A possible hypothesis for rationalizing this all together comes from a what we learn about the process of memory wiping in Cyber Sleuth chapter 14: even if memories are extracted from the person, there’s some kind of residual memory left behind (the producer’s above statement also states that the same thing had even happened to Suedou). In Hacker’s Memory chapter 16, Arata confesses to Ryuji that the first Under Zero incident and Jude's loss to the Knightmon had re-triggered his trauma from having lost Yuugo years prior -- “not the memory, but the feeling.” So in other words, there was some feeling of loss that came after the loss of Yuugo that impacted those involved -- and it’s very possible that this deeply impacted and traumatized Nokia as well.

Assuming we’re still following this line of thought (since, again, this background point wasn’t actually in the game proper), Nokia eventually decided to break out of her shell thanks to Makiko’s influence, and become eccentric and assertive, and thus, the game begins.

While we’re here, I also want to point out that Nokia is also voiced by Han Megumi, possibly the Digimon franchise’s most notorious “promoted fangirl” who freaked out after getting to meet her childhood characters’ voice actors while cast as Airu in the Xros Wars crossover and ended up casted in a handful of major Digimon roles thereafter as a result. Which is not to say that her voice performance wasn’t also absolutely perfect for the bright and aggressive Nokia, but, you know...considering the below analysis, food for thought.

Nokia as a representative of “the conventional franchise”

Cyber Sleuth opens on a world where Digimon are largely seen as hacker programs, and even the hackers themselves only see them as non-sentient programs; there are ones like Chitose who treat them with empathy, but his attitude seems to be kindness towards them in a way not entirely unlike a family would treat a Roomba. Although he doesn’t admit to it at first, Arata himself also comes from this “world” of hackers, and we later learn that Yuuko herself is as well (via her “Yuugo” persona), meaning that, other than the playable protagonist, Nokia is the only “outside-context” person -- a completely ordinary civilian who’s gotten dragged into all of this.

Much like, say, the protagonists of Digimon Adventure.

With this background behind her, once she’s thrown into the world of hackers, she immediately has a “fateful encounter” with Agumon and Gabumon, instantly recognizable as two of the franchise’s most prominent Digimon (and complete with their Adventure voice actors, too). And I do especially bring up Adventure specifically, because while Nokia’s position in the game does end up taking in certain elements that roughly came around that era and possibly slightly predated it (mostly Digimon World and V-Tamer), Agumon and Gabumon weren’t particular mascots of the franchise until Adventure basically blew everything to pieces.

Right off the bat, Nokia does not have a single shred of doubt that Agumon and Gabumon are living beings and should be treated as such (again, much like the protagonists of Digimon Adventure; even Taichi in his “is this a game?” mode never doubted this). And they open up their meeting with this conversation:

Agumon: Umm, who are you? Nokia: It... It can talk?! It's so... so... so adoooooorable! M-M-M-M-My name's Nokia. What're your names? Agumon: Me? My name is Agumon! Gabumon: I... I'm Gabumon. Nokia: Agumon and Gabumon? Hee hee! What weird names! Gabumon: Hey, they're not weird! Agumon: You're the one with the weird name! Nokia: As if! My name's not weird! Hee hee!

And on top of that, Agumon refers to Nokia as having a “familiar” scent. Remember this for later.

Nokia’s second encounter with Agumon and Gabumon in Cyber Sleuth chapter 3 involves her properly partnering herself with Agumon and Gabumon, and learning about the existence of the “Digital World”. Note that, for all intents and purposes, EDEN had been treated like the functional equivalent of the Digital World in this narrative up until this point -- cyberspace with hackers, coming from the network, it’s basically a “digital world” from top to bottom, and yet here Agumon and Gabumon are introducing the concept of a more fantasy-esque incarnation of a digital world. (And, in fact, despite EDEN being right there, many long-time Digimon fans playing this game often complained about how little you get to see the “Digital World” in this game, because of how associated that term is with something more fantasy-like.) So, again: here we have Nokia, who’s forming a partnership with Agumon and Gabumon as equals instead of recruiting them as hacker tools (even the protagonist wasn’t immune to this method), and being indirectly responsible for introducing the more fantasy-like concept of the Digital World that the modern franchise is currently associated with.

Nokia embarks on the conventional shounen anime character arc of starting off cowardly, but eventually learning to have her own inner strength, with her Digimon evolving in accordance to her emotions. And, eventually, in Cyber Sleuth chapter 8, she decides to form her own hacker team, called the “Rebels”. She ostensibly bases it off the old creed of Jude, having heard that they were a team that never caused trouble for others, but we later learn via Arata turning out to have been its former leader, and the even later portrayal in Hacker’s Memory of its spiritual successor Hudie, that this is an extremely rose-colored image of them -- Jude (and Hudie) was not a well-intentioned team by any means, but rather a sort of mercenary group meant to enforce the “freedom” of EDEN, often taking on shady jobs and “punishing” entities they considered to be causing chaos. But in this case, Nokia forms her team under the idea of legitimately fighting for justice and good will -- again, much like a Digimon Adventure protagonist.

In case the metaphor weren’t clear enough, Nokia decides that the members of her group will not be called “hackers”, but “Tamers” -- the same lingo used by the franchise to refer to a human who partners alongside a Digimon to help them get stronger -- and that she wants to promote the idea of humans and Digimon working in tandem (complete with emotional bonding exercises). For this, everyone looks at her weird, and yet her methodology, initially naive as it seems, keeps working, because Nokia’s natural charisma starts bringing people from different places together and making quite the formidable team. Everyone is perplexed by this, but perhaps it’s only natural, because Nokia has just independently invented the modern concept of Digimon partnership in a world where it did not exist. And this is eventually solidified by the Under Zero invasion in Cyber Sleuth chapter 10, in which Omegamon is finally formed (from sheer guts on her part).

Omegamon is yet another symbol of the modern franchise, but it’s important to remember that he hasn’t always been so; even his appearance in V-Tamer was as more of a tactical piece than any kind of game-breaker, but the impact of Our War Game! has led him to constantly make a resurgence in major franchise roles (maybe a little too much these days). However, on top of Nokia basically embodying the modern franchise itself by doing this, Nokia and Arata’s positions are an obvious reference to Our War Game! in particular, being Omegamon and Diablomon Tamers -- but they’re not seen directly fighting each other. In fact, Arata’s partner only ever reaches Diablomon when he’s at the highest point of his morality, so the reference is more ideological; Nokia represents the more idealistic and heroic side of Digimon, whereas Arata represents the more dirty-playing and cynical hard sci-fi side of it (remember that Diablomon himself was rather detached from the fantasy conflict of Adventure, being a mysterious entity that sprouted out of nowhere on the Internet and wreaked havoc). Moreover, Nokia’s usage of Omegamon embodies a theme that’s central to both Our War Game! and Cyber Sleuth itself as a whole -- while most people associate Omegamon with Taichi and Yamato these days, the original method of formation back in Our War Game! came from “bringing people from different places together”. Nokia managed to bring together a formidable army in a place where everyone else in the hacker world was trying to promote a dog-eat-dog philosophy, and the sense of cooperation is arguably making her stronger than anyone else.

(I should also point out that Nokia’s name is, obviously, a reference to the Finnish telephone communications company, and this has a lot of relevance to the game’s theme of connection, along with her phone Digivice...and, also, the method used to bring everyone’s powers together in Our War Game!’s spiritual successor, Diablomon Strikes Back. Feels a bit too on-the-nose here.)

In the second half of the game, when the world starts falling apart due to the Digital World portal opening, Nokia becomes one of most important people holding everything together as Arata goes off the deep end and Yuuko starts fixating on her own personal problems and revenge -- because she’s the one most in tune with treating Digimon as the living beings they are, she’s most active in advocating for them and helping them bond with humans, and and she’s the one making the chaos be a little less chaotic. The second half is basically the more fantasy-esque version of Digimon leaking into the sci-fi, with the sidequests progressively resembling your average Digimon anime monster-of-the-week episode, and holding that all together is Nokia, who becomes a vital figure in maintaining that fellowship by being in tune with the modern franchise’s philosophy.

Through all of this, Nokia ends up taking a role rather similar to a Digimon protagonist, which is highlighted very strongly in Cyber Sleuth chapter 18 when she ends up literally becoming the player character while the main protagonist is out of commission. During that time, Yuuko and Nokia learn the truth of what happened during the EDEN incident eight years prior -- and we also learn that the five children involved had an extremely conventional “first meeting in the Digital World” experience that could have been pulled right out of the first episode of a Digimon anime, with them having a lovely adventure meeting new creatures. And at the center of that “first contact” was none other than Nokia, Agumon, and Gabumon themselves:

Agumon: Um... who are you? Nokia: Ahem! I am Nokia! And just who are you? Agumon: Me? My name is Agumon! Gabumon: I... I'm Gabumon. Nokia: Agumon and Gabumon? Hee hee! What weird names! Gabumon: Hey, they're not weird! Agumon: You're the one with the weird name! Nokia: As if! My name's not weird! Hee hee!

Nokia, Agumon, and Gabumon’s meeting at the beginning of the game had been an (accidental) reenactment of their first meeting in the Digital World eight years prior -- and, in the flashback, Nokia invites them to go on an “adventure” with them. So in other words, Nokia getting involved in the hacker conflict at the beginning of the game was, unknown to all of them, her attempting to restore that beauty and idealism of the Digimon Adventure-esque philosophy and fun in a world where the Eaters had torn it away and EDEN had turned into a haven of cynicism and hacker battle royale.

In the end, the game’s conflict is only resolved by bringing everyone together; Arata has to be retrieved from the deep end, and Yuuko has to settle her deep-seated personal grievances. Everyone makes a promise to return together, in the sense of making things right and repairing the connections between them that had been cut in that incident. The final battle (momentarily) causes the playable protagonist to literally fall apart, and the one reaching out to them and sending her message to them at the end of the game is none other than Nokia herself -- again, in the absence of the game’s protagonist, Nokia is the one with the closest role, because in the face of the new world going forward, she was the one who contributed most to restoring its idealism.

Ultimately, all of this is especially because Cyber Sleuth works under one of the most terrifying imaginable premises for a fan of a kids’ franchise: “we made an entry for this, but for adults.” Many of us can testify that this kind of premise can go very well, or very badly -- the latter especially in the case of things that decide “taking the opportunity to do things that you can’t do on a Sunday morning kids’ timeslot” means “going out of your way to put edgy violence and sexy things and cynicism just because you can”, or, in other words, looking down condescendingly on its kids’ franchise roots with malice and deciding that something for adults means “more suffering” and not “issues that require more life experience to understand”. The reason the game ended up getting as much acclaim among longtime Digimon fans as it did was that despite being the franchise’s first venture into this territory, it did end up setting itself up as something that took that opportunity to do something new and unique that would have never made it into any of the prior entries (holy hell the doll quest) and yet never gave up on the idealism and themes of connection that make up the franchise at its core, and paid respect to everything that had contributed to all of that while it was at it.

And at the center of that is Shiramine Nokia, who is effectively the spirit of Digimon Adventure, condensed into a single character.

[seijorhi]

mmmm i have been on a bokuto kick n ur bo content is so yummy....i have been fed....

So I’ve been thinking about Bokuto a lot lately, particularly timeskip Jackals Bo 😌

TW implied kidnapping and very slightly nsfw

You know that friend who’s in a relationship, but you’ve never met their partner and there’s a running joke that they don’t actually exist? That’s Bokuto with his team.

Because that man is head over heels in love with you, spends all his time at training just gushing about you - how pretty and perfect you are, the fancy romantic anniversary dinner he had planned for you guys, how the two of you spent his day off together watching replays of his old games. All romantic, soft, coupley shit. And of course there’s all that locker room talk as well. Sakusa might just gag if he has to listen to Bokuto describe how many rounds you went for the night before, or how he made you cum from riding his thighs alone one more time.

But the thing is... none of them have ever met you. You don’t come to their games (not even the home ones), you don’t ever drop by to watch their practices or pick Bokuto up to hang out afterwards. You’re mysteriously absent from all their official events, which inevitably means that the wing spiker will spend the whole thing moping about and constantly checking on his phone - but none of them can ever seem to get a real reason as to why you don’t show up.

He always has an excuse - you don’t do well with big crowds, and your job keeps you busy (no one can ever seem to get out of him what exactly that job is), but fuck, you don’t even come to the monthly team dinners and that’s like 20 people max! They’re good guys, they’re not gonna go out of their way to make you feel uncomfortable if that’s what you’re nervous about!

Atsumu’s even gotten to the stage where he’s searched your name up on Facebook, Instagram, even twitter but if you have ‘em they’re certainly not easy to find.

And Bokuto claims to have pictures of the two of you together - showing them a selfie he’d taken of him and you lying in bed, with you asleep and curled up by his side. There’s more on the camera roll, but he’s adamant that those aren’t quite so innocent, and are for his personal viewing only. For a guy that never shuts up about you, he’s weirdly private about the whole thing. It took both Hinata, Atsumu and Inunaki teasing for almost an hour before Bokuto would even show them the first pic at all.

The look in eyes though, the lovesick. dopey grin as he swiped onto the image was kind of hard to deny.

“Isn’t she beautiful?”

But if you guys really were a couple, and Bokuto wasn’t paying you to pose as his make believe girlfriend as Atsumu had jokingly suggested - surely you could make a little more effort to get to know the rest of the team? They’re a family (despite what Omi-omi claims), and it’s weird hearing Bokuto fawn over you six days a week without actually knowing all that much about you.

It’s only when they manage to wrangle a reunion of sorts with old friends, Daichi, Kuroo, Akaashi and a few others drinking with the Jackals in a fancy bar downtown that they begin to think that maybe there is a reason you’re kept away from them. It’s all harmless teasing at first, laughing at Bokuto stepping out to call his ‘fake girlfriend’ when Akaashi gets an confused look on his face.

Atsumu assumes that it’s because he doesn’t get the joke - out of everyone, surely Akaashi, being Bokuto’s closest friend, has to have met this mysterious woman. Except Akaashi just looks puzzled at the revelation that Bokuto’s dating at all.

And holy fuck, they think they’ve finally caught him out in the lie. His own best friend has never heard of this chick, she has to be fake! This is the greatest, most ridiculous thing that’s ever happened and they are never, ever going to let Bo live it down!

It’s only when Sakusa offhandedly mentions your name while Atsumu laughs that ‘he even had photos!’ that Akaashi’s face pales and he abruptly excuses himself, hurrying out the same door Bokuto left a few minutes earlier.

[obeymebabes]

May I request the brothers reactions to mc suddenly pulling them in for a kiss? (I'm sorry if this doesn't follow the rules, I tried my best)

Did someone say extra soft fluff? I think yes.

Lucifer

Before you even managed to pull him in he was hesitant and questioning your intentions.

How dare you touch him?

He did like it though.

When you kissed him though, he was stunned, his eyes went wide as his brain tried to process what was happening.

Unfamiliar with the feeling of being shown such affection, especially from a human.

It took him a few seconds, but he quickly caught on and melted into the kiss, returning the same passion you were giving him.

His hand rested on your cheek as he relaxed, enjoying your soft lips against his.

After you both pulled away there was a faint pink that appeared on his cheeks.

"Who would've thought a human like you could stir up these feelings within me?"

Mammon

Absolute blushing mess.

He momentarily kissed you back, but then realized how bad it looked on his part, still not wanting to give up his not so secret crush he had on you.

Trying to recover from the affectionate kiss you had given him he would pull his whole "I don't like you, human" stunt.

Despite REALLY wanting it to happen again.

He would wipe his lips, still blushing like mad.

Yelling "What did ya do that for human!?"

Then he would shamefully look away, just replaying the scene in his head.

He cursed himself for being so much of a tsudere. He wanted to draw you back in to feel his lips pressed to yours again, but no, that is not how The Great Mammon would handle things now is it?

Levi

B l u s h i n g.

His whole face turned red of embarrassment when you pulled him in.

To be quite honest he hadn't ever expected a normie like yourself to ever want to kiss a "yucky otaku" like him.

This poor boy was so in shock he forgot to kiss back.

When you pulled apart from him, you could see in his eyes that he absolutely loved it.

He was speechless though. Not knowing what to say.

"This really must be a dream! Maybe I'm still stuck in a game. There's no way anyone would kiss a yucky demon like me!"

Satan

He would initially be taken back by your gesture, not expecting you to be so bold as to go in for a kiss with a demon, especially the Avatar of Wrath.

Though a few short seconds later he relaxed into the kiss, gently holding your chin as he fired back the same energy you were giving off.

A smirk formed on his lips as he tried to deepen the kiss, wanting more from you.

Had you not known better, you may mistake him for the Avatar of Lust for how passionate his kiss seems to be.

Though he adored every moment of your gentle lips upon his.

Upon pulling away you could see the blush that formed on his pale face.

His eyes shined with happiness, proving that you did a good job at wooing even the most rageful of demons.

Asmo

Oh honey, he had been DREAMING of this.

Quite literally too.

He wanted nothing more than for you to press your lips to his.

While he was initially shocked by your confident move of pulling him in first, he quickly, and I mean quickly, melded right into the kiss.

His hands immediately wrapped around you, pulling you closer than you had been.

You could feel the warm heat of his cheeks radiate to your face while you were both lip locked.

Tasting the sweet flavor of lip-balm he had applied just moments before.

It was like a scene from a movie. Everything somehow just fell into place, perfectly.

"If you enjoyed that dear, I'm always open for more."

Beel

He wasn't sure what what happening.

Though he blushed quite a bit when he realized that your face was so close to his.

He couldn't help but smile, which didn't necessarily ruin the kiss, but it definitely didn't make things easy.

Though his lips tasted like whatever he had last eaten, it wasn't completely unpleasant.

He eventually surrendered and tangled his large hands in your hair, holding your head to kiss you deeper.

Though he wasn't one to show such affection on this level, he did enjoy any affection he was shown.

When pulling away he simply chuckled to himself.

"You taste better than any food I've ever eaten."

Belphie

Too tired and dazed to realize what was happening in the moment, it took him a few moments to figure it out.

Immediately blushing and pulling away from you, he looked into your eyes with his violet ones.

Taking a moment to really make sure you wanted this, upon seeing your desperation lingering from the lost touch, he leaned back in for another go.

Wrapping you in a tight cuddly and warm grip, he passionately kissed you, making sure to let you know that you were safe with him now.

As you both pulled away for air you could see the bashful smile across his face, and the warmth in his eyes.

It was very different from when you had first met him. Never did you think you'd be kissing the stranger from the attic you met a few weeks into your stay here.

But here you were, and you didn't regret a thing.

[cthulhubert]

Please don't cry! And please be boring!

For the movies ask game I'd say 2, 3, 25, 26, 51 and 54 if they're not too many (whoops).

regarding this ask game (and my tags :P)

2 What movie(s) could you watch over and over and not get tired of?

I don't think there are any. For whatever reason, I've always had a lot of trouble rereading books, replaying games, or rewatching movies. Well, not always. Since around age 14? When I was very young I watched Little Nemo's Adventures in Slumberland over and over and over. And then a little bit later I watched the Battle Angel Alita OVA several times. If I had to guess, I think it's that my attention is very all or nothing: either I'm invested or it's a distraction; and it's hard to get fully invested in something with the novelty stripped away.

I think the closest you could get now would be something by Hayao Miyazaki.

3 Any old school favorites (pre-70s)?

I haven't seen many, and the ones I have seen I probably share with a lot of people, since if you're watching a movie older than you are, it's because it's highly recommended despite its age, right? (A kind of survivorship bias.) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alice in Wonderland, and the Wizard of Oz are all pre-70s movies I quite enjoyed, though none is quite a "favorite". I even have some others on my "to watch" list, like Metropolis, or the ultra classics: Casablanca and Citizen Kane.

25 VHS, DVD, or Blu-ray?

Blu-ray.

26 Best experience going to the movies

A friend and I laughed our asses off about Lazy Sunday, and by sheerest coincidence, a local theater was rerunning Chronicles of Narnia (one of those chill dinner and a movie places where the seats are basically couches). So we immediately decided to go watch it after buying some Mr Pibb and red vines. We didn't get high, but should've. Honestly though, the best part is being able to tell this story. Aside from that, seeing Spirited away on an IMAX was primo.

51 A movie that was better than the book?

This one's easy: The Princess Bride's book was good and had some bits (the frame story, with its asides about cutting out dozens of pages was cute, and establishing Prince Humperdink as a master hunter), but really the movie just perfectly distilled the book's essence.

54 A movie that changed the way you view the world?

I honestly can't think of any. No movie's really introduced a new concept or brain twister that I hadn't already gotten from a book. It's all been reinforcement.

[onesunofagun]

I’ve been replaying Twilight Princess again.

Coro, Hena and Iza were always some of my favourite minor characters. But Coro specifically amuses me, and let me tell you why.

Coro is well noted in the game for being kind of a bum. He’s a fairly lazy and easy going guy, he’s a bit of a drifter, and he can’t cook. Despite being from a fishing family, he’s been caught using sinking lures (which is frowned upon as ‘cheating’), and he’s got zero interest in helping at the fishin hole or the boat rental. Something that his sisters complain about.

For the most part, Coro wants to do his own thing, which is mostly nothing. He’s a person who just sort of mills about, chatting to travellers, and whiling away his time. 

So he sells Lantern Oil in the forest.

What you may not know, is that this is actually a joke.

Some brief history:

In Japan, especially during the Edo period, being an Oil merchant was lucrative business. Before the mass production of canola oil became standard, oils were taken mostly from wood and plants, and to a lesser extent, animals like fish. Products like Tsubaki Oil (made with Camellia) were popularly sold to housewives and young women as a beauty product to be used for hair and skin, and even to cook in with the case of Tempura at times, for very good money.

 Also highly sold was Pirella oil, which was a popular choice over fish oil for use in the home within lanterns because it burned longer, smelled less smoky and it was thought that fish oil could attract a monster called Bakeneko.

Anyway, with these oils being so viscous, it was said to be very slow to pour off portions all day. So Oil merchants, at face value, spent a lot of their time talking to people, usually women, and generally doing very little visible labor of any kind. It was seen as a very easy going job to have, where the Oil seller more or less just milled about doing the bare minimum.

This led to a Japanese idiom, where the act of loafing around and being lazy, or wasting time and not working very hard, is described as ‘selling oil’:  Abura wo uru (油を売る).

So there’s also small hint there that selling cheaper oils could attract monsters, and if Coro were to use fish oil, that would be noteworthy. Considering that stall in Faron Woods is run by Coro’s pet bird Trill, in fairly plain sight of Bokoblins, and that vats of the stuff is often found in monster addled dungeons, it’s an interesting thing to think about. With Hena running the fishing hole, it’s tempting to suspect that Coro is selling fish oil, and may be unknowingly attracting monsters to his customers. 

On the other hand, Coro seems to have inherited the famous fisherman’s itch and a quite impressive head of hair, and Pirella oil is also great for soothing itchy skin and for use in hair care. He’s also down in the forest area, and wearing a belt with a lot of attached satchels that suggest, to me, that they’re full of seeds. His business venture may have been something he stumbled upon by accident while looking for a remedy for himself. Animals seem to really like the guy, and him smelling like oils from the forest probably help quite a bit.

Maybe he used to sell dodgy fish oil at first, but now sells better quality stuff, worried that he was the one attracting monsters in the forest? That’s all open for speculation.

But the joke is there: Coro’s between work and kind of lazy, so he’s selling oil and hoping it works out for him.

[hopeisour4letteredword]

with friends like these

Summary: Apollo gets his wisdom teeth out, and Clay babysits.

Link to AO3 in the notes.

"Apollo, buddy. Buddy. You gotta lie back down."

Apollo blinks owlishly at Clay, swaying in place in the middle of the kitchen. God, Clay would feel better if he at least had the sense to lean against the counter. "But I want coffee."

"No coffee for you," Clay says, forcing himself to be stern despite the dreading anticipation of the way Apollo's expression falls, comically sad. AJ always looks younger than he is, as a big brave twenty-year-old, but the sad little pout while he's out of his mind on painkillers, cheeks swollen from surgery? He looks like he's twelve. Adorable. Clay feels bad for him, he really does—he got his own wisdom teeth out last year and he remembers how much it sucked—but the little baby pout just makes him want to smile. "You'll wind yourself up something good, sunshine."

"It's not that much caffeine," Apollo tries to say, even as he lets Clay catch him by the arm and pull him, stumbling, out of the kitchenette. "An' it would make me feel more awake."

"You don't need to feel more awake, you need to rest."

"But I've got stuff to do," Apollo says, mournfully. Clay manages to wrangle him back over to the couch and nudge him back down onto the cushions. Apollo makes doe eyes up at him while Clay grabs the nearest blanket to wrap around his shoulders. "I gotta work on my readings—"

"It's winter break, you don't have readings."

"But next semester."

"You don't have any advance readings yet. You checked and told me so before the surgery."

"I have to stay ahead," Apollo says. His eyelids droop. "I gotta be good at my classes so I can be a good lawyer."

"You're gonna be a great lawyer. But you aren't a lawyer yet, and you don't have any classes right now, so just take it easy, okay?"

Apollo opens his eyes again to peer back up at Clay. "My mouth hurts."

"I know. Sorry, buddy. Not time for more painkillers yet. You want me to grab you the ice pack again? Get the rest of your shake?"

Apollo nods, still looking glum. Clay dutifully returns to the kitchen to retrieve an ice pack from the freezer, which he wraps in a kitchen towel, and the rest of Apollo's post-surgery chocolate shake out of the fridge. When he gets back out to the living room, Apollo has toppled over to be horizontal on the couch. Clay puts the necessities down on the coffee table and scoops Apollo's legs up onto the couch so he isn't twisted all funny. The last thing the poor thing needs is unnecessary strain making him uncomfortable. He ruffles Apollo's hair. Apollo leans into the touch. Aww.

"Anything else I can grab you?"

"Can you sit with me? I wanna watch you play games."

"Aw, sure. What do you wanna watch?"

"I dunno. Anything's fine."

"Let's play some Odyssey, then. I'll go grab the Switch."

Apollo brightens, just like Clay thought he would. He always did like playing on Clay's Switch when they were kids. Even for Clay, it's hard not to be transported back to sleepovers, hushed giggles as they tried not to tip Clay's dad off that they were staying up late while they played games under the covers, whenever he picks it back up to replay something. He knows the memories are even more precious to Apollo, who spent so much of his adolescence struggling through foster system bullshit.

"Yeah!"

"Okay, sit tight."

When Clay comes back, Apollo has propped himself up enough to try to drink more of his shake. It dribbles out of his mouth.

"Oh, man. You got a little, uh—"

Apollo looks frustrated. "Did I miss again? I still can't feel my lower lip."

"Yeah, no, it's, um—you're fine, just let me—" Clay grabs a tissue off the box on the coffee table and wipes Apollo's face. "There you go."

"Thanks," Apollo says. He smiles, wobbly but true. "You're the best."

"No problem, sunshine," Clay says, smiling. He moves around the room, getting the Switch hooked up to the port so it will show up on the TV, before he lifts Apollo's upper body out of the way so he can slide onto the couch with him. Apollo's head ends up propped on his thigh. He helps Apollo adjust himself so there's no pressure on his cheeks, and he can easily hold the ice packs in place while seeing the screen. "Here we go."

"Let's-a go," Apollo says, in a terrible Mario impression. Clay barks out a laugh and starts the game.

"Goofball."

They don't get very far into the game before Clay is pretty sure Apollo starts to doze beside him. His breathing evens out and his weight goes limp. That's fine. He's warm and cozy, and Clay likes being someone he feels comfortable enough with to sleep around. If this is helping him feel a little better while he's in pain, Clay's satisfied. It's not like it's a hardship to sit here and play video games and be his pillow.

But the fact that he thinks Apollo's mostly asleep does mean Clay almost gets the shit scared out of him when Apollo says, suddenly, "Clay."

"Jesus!" Clay fumbles a jump and Mario goes plummeting to his doom. Oops.

"Yes, hello, hi. I thought you were napping, buddy. What's up?"

"You know you're my best friend, right?"

"Yeah? Of course."

"You know?" Apollo rolls so he's mostly on his back, looking up at Clay with big, sad doe eyes again. Clay stares back down at him, befuddled. Of course he knows. "Cause I—I know I'm kinda bitchy sometimes—"

"Aw, Apollo—"

"An' I can't help you with your smart science stuff a lot—"

"That's not—"

"An' I get really anxious and you have to babysit me sometimes an' I yell at you for it—"

"Apollo—"

"But you're really important to me and it would suck if you didn't know just 'cause I'm stupid."

"You aren't stupid," Clay says. He ruffles Apollo's hair again. Apollo's eyes slide closed, lips tugging back into the miserable little pout. "I know I'm your best friend. You're plenty nice to me. Just 'cause you're a little prickly when you're stressed doesn't mean you don't make it obvious that you care about people."

Apollo sniffles. Oh, no. Case in point, though.

"And you don't have to worry about not helping me with science stuff," Clay adds. "I know I'm not that helpful with your law stuff, either. You're way better at helping me review than I am at helping you review."

At least that makes Apollo smile a little. "Jus' easier to read formulas off notecards than legal definitions."

"You can say that again." Clay will take astrophysics over civil law any day. "Besides, you're the best hype-man I could hope for. Who else is gonna get me super pumped to go to space even though it scares the piss out of you?"

"It's so high up," Apollo whines, making Clay cackle. He never thinks about fear of heights as an issue with spaceflight until Apollo mentions it. "An' there's the whole vacuum and no air and you're just going in a tin can—"

"Don't talk about my girl Hattie like that, she's perfect."

"An' even Mr. Starbuck is nervous about it."

"And you help Sol get psyched for it too," Clay says. He pats Apollo gently on the shoulder. "Which is exactly what I'm talking about."

Apollo sighs.

"I know we're best friends, sunshine," Clay adds, more gently. "Come on. You think I would agree to live with you if I didn't know you liked me? I bet you could pull some real passive-aggressive roommate pranks if you wanted to."

Apollo huffs out a tiny laugh. "Maybe."

"There we go. We're fine, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Say it with me. We're fine."

"We're fine."

"You're Apollo Justice and you're fine."

"I'm fine!"

"That's my boy." Mario has fallen asleep standing up on-screen. Clay is considering whether or not he should keep playing or encourage Apollo to go take a real nap when Apollo shifts beside him. Clay lifts his arms out of the way on instinct, holding the controller aloft, when Apollo braces himself on shaky arms to turn and crawl the rest of the way over to plop himself down in Clay's lap. "Wh-oa, buddy. Hi there. You want cuddles?"

"Yeah," Apollo mumbles. He drops his head onto Clay's shoulder. Clay carefully shifts his weight and settles down against the back of the couch, letting it take both of their weight. He doesn't think of Apollo as a big guy, because he's not, but geez. A whole adult human does kind of weigh a lot. Good thing Clay's been beefing up for his training. "Are you at the moon yet?"

"Nope. Only at the gardens. It hasn't been that long."

"You're gonna get to the moon someday," Apollo says, with loopy certainty. Clay almost bites down on a grin before he remembers that Apollo can't see him anymore and he can smile as much as he wants, safe from scrutiny. "You're gonna be a kickass astronaut."

"Aw, thanks, bud."

"You're really smart. And good at solving problems."

"Flatterer," Clay says, grin spreading wider. God, he wishes he'd thought to grab his phone and start recording this. Yeah, he does know he's Apollo's best friend and Apollo loves him and all that, but he sure as hell doesn't get this mushy often. It's really cute.

"You deserve it. You're the best friend in the world, Clay," Apollo declares, and promptly passes out on Clay's shoulder.

---

"Anyway," Clay finishes. He knocks back the rest of his mocha. "That's what AJ was like when he got his wisdom teeth out, so like I said. Don't be too embarrassed about it."

Klavier is laughing so hard he's almost crying, a hand slapped over his mouth to muffle the sound of it. Apollo's in the kitchen right now, cooking the three of them brunch. Hopefully the sizzle of frying eggs and sausage covers the sound of Clay's indiscretions out in the living room. Clay's dead meat if it doesn't.

"He never mentioned," Klavier manages to get out, when he finally gets himself under control. "How cute."

"It was pretty great," Clay says, fondly. "But please don't tell him I told you about that. I don't want to die before I make it to the moon, and he will actually kill me for realsies."

"Your secret is safe with me." Klavier props his chin on his hand, grinning. "Has he ever gotten quite so affectionate other times?"

"If he's drunk enough, yeah."

"I'll have to keep it in mind, then."

"S'why I told you," Clay says. He considers the sly, affectionate curl of Klavier's smile for a second before he adds, "But don't bully him too hard afterwards, or you will lose drunk Apollo privileges. Only moderate mortification allowed."

"Would he be taking the privileges away or would you?"

Clay lets his own smile go sharper. He likes Klavier just fine, and he doesn't really believe he'd be that mean to Apollo, but... well, Apollo's Clay's best friend, too. He has obligations if Apollo's boyfriend is an asshole to him. "Fuck around and find out."

"Fair enough, Herr Astronaut," Klavier says. There's a clatter of plates in the kitchen as the sizzling dies down.

"Food's ready!" Apollo hollers. Clay casts Klavier a glance; Klavier mimes zipping his lips, winking. They both push away from the table to wander into the kitchen. Apollo bustles around fixing a plate of food, a pile of hashbrowns and sausage and eggs. Klavier creeps up behind him and puts his hands over Apollo's hips. Apollo startles, almost knocking him away. His cheeks go pink.

"What do you think you're doing? Clay's literally right there."

"Don't mind me," Clay says, cheerfully. He loves having ammunition to give Apollo hell over later.

"I think he already has an inkling that we're dating, Liebling," Klavier murmurs. He leans down to kiss the top of Apollo's head. Apollo gently elbows him in the gut, pushing Klavier away as his cheeks go even redder.

"Yeah, and he's already insufferable enough about it without you hanging off me in front of him. Come on, back off."

Klavier obligingly steps back. He and Clay begin to fix their own plates. Hovering nearby, Apollo asks, suspiciously, "What were you two gossiping about out there, anyway?"

"Oh, nothing," Clay says. He smiles sweetly when Apollo narrows his eyes at him. "By the way, AJ?"

"What?"

"You're the best friend in the world."