#however the gameboy was a gift from god actually

[bone-paste]

love is stored in the handheld console

[keresnotceres]

TF 141: General Headcanons

[sfw] cw: substance use, mention of injury

some of these are so stupid i’m sorry

Has never taken a nap in his life. Literally never. If he says he’s “going to take a nap” no he’s not. He’s going to lay in his bed and talk shit about people to himself.

Is not allowed to watch any war movie whatsoever. Will either complain about how inaccurate the warfare or death scenes are or will pass the fuck out. Head tilted back on the couch, arms crossed, legs spread. Neck pain for DAYS.

Prefers handheld consoles like the DS or Gameboy to any home consoles. Likes to feel that it’s his and if anyone wants to take it away from him, they’ll have to pry it from his strong ass grip.

SPEAKING OF. If you hand him like anything to hold onto he will have the tightest fucking grip on it. Bro it’s not gonna run away from you!!! Be gentle!!!

Casual smoker. Picked up the habit from being around Price too much and now he likes to smoke away stress with a cigarette or two.

Constantly hits his head getting out of cars. Literally cannot catch a break due to underestimating how tall he is compared to any vehicle.

Finds it very difficult to smile, even if he’s happy. Showing emotion in general is really hard for him, usually will only do it around people he trusts the most. Showing emotion to someone makes him feel vulnerable and weak, the complete opposite of how he presents himself.

Finds comfort in making tiny wood trinkets. Likes the motions of carving and having complete control over the little statue. Usually makes them when he’s on leave so that he doesn’t have to go out and that he isn’t distracted on base. He often gives carvings as gifts to his teammates/loved ones.

Shows affection through smaller, less noticeable gesture. Remembers small details about yourself or stories you tell; likes to bring you small trinkets he’s made that resemble things you’ve mentioned you like. Will talk to you about your interests, like what books or movies you like, and will have in depth conversations about your favorite parts of them.

Cracks his knuckles like way too much for it to be normal. He’s gotta have joint pain, because god damn the entire team hears it throughout the day. Just woke up? Cracking his knuckles. Doing paperwork? Cracking his knuckles. Does it on purpose to tick off Soap sometimes.

Absolutely LOVES making playlists/mixtapes for his friends. If you ask him to compile a list of songs that reminds him of you it will be in your hands in less than a day.

Is the friend that you go to when you don’t know what you need, but it’s something. You wanna go out and drink? He’s down. You just want to hang out at home and watch something? Get cozy! You need to gossip about someone? Fuck yeah.

Was probably the kid in school that everybody knew of but nobody was like good friends with. Like everybody liked him, he was cool, but he just didn’t like anyone else.

The only person in the 141 who can somewhat dance. Can he bust a life-altering move if the dance floor? Not really, but he definitely can do a few basic moves and can actually get with the rhythm. Prefers to listen to music than dance to it.

Probably called Price ‘Dad’ accidentally when talking to his civilian friends and had to backtrack so hard he almost choked on a saltine cracker.

Mastered the art of looking like he’s paying attention when he’s really not. Useful when it comes to the boring ass stories some of the COs go off on tangents about.

Terrific at word games, especially Scrabble. Catch him with only vowels and he will be making words you didn’t even know existed. However, he’s not the greatest at Monopoly. He thinks he’s going to win when he doesn’t buy much first round but ends up going bankrupt after having to pay everyone for their properties.

Will not let you live any embarrassing moment down. Never. He is no man’s peace. You tripped over nothing? He’ll remind you of it for the next four days. You misspelled a word in a message or on paper? He’s repeating it until he forgets it. You opened a cabinet and proceeded to whack yourself in the face with the door? He’ll be laughing at the image in his head for WEEKS.

Can braid like a motherfucker. You have no idea how he learned how to braid, but holy shit he’s good at it. Literally just loves playing with your hair regardless of length. The feeling of twirling little pieces between his fingers his just really calming to him.

Was absolutely a Pokémon kid. Has an obnoxious card collection at his parents’ house that he constantly sorts through whenever he goes to visit them. Can and will show off pictures of the rarer, expensive cards he has to anyone who understands.

Likes people-watching because he likes to make up random stories about everyone who walks by. The woman talking aggressively on the phone? Her fiancé is trying to get her to sign a prenup.

Can only cry if he’s watching a really sad scene from a movie or show. Marley and Me had his ass sobbing in the theater.

Likes babysitting his nieces/nephews whenever he’s on leave. He likes having some sense of normalcy and the feeling of having a family of his own, even if they’re just his siblings’ kids.

In his flat, he sleeps with like six blankets year-round. Even in the midst of a heatwave he’s got all six just piled on top of him, sweating his damn ass off.

Likes picking up random bullet casings he finds when on missions. Like a crow.

Hates the beach with a fiery passion. No, he doesn’t wanna go get sand in every crevice of his skin and article of clothing. He also doesn’t want to feel that weird mixture of sticky and smooth for an uncertain amount of time after getting out of the ocean.

Will NEVER be caught lacking when it comes to working out on leave. Rises with the sun and hauls ass to the gym so that he can keep those tasty biceps looking good. Has Ghost’s leg day routine memorized due to being subjected to it for so long.

Likes to be close to you no matter what. Eating? Sat right next to you, eating his own meal. Debriefing? Standing halfway behind you. On a mission? Standing right next to you, gun in hand, just a hair away from physical connection.

Loves going shopping, especially when it’s with you. Will pick out the most obnoxious shirts, put them to his body, and ask “would this look good on me?” Gives constructive criticism on anything you pick out, uses it to comment on how good he thinks you look lmfao.

Almost burned his house down after burning a candle and is now afraid of ever lighting a candle ever again. No, he doesn’t care if it smells good. Do not light that damn thing in his house!!

Had a lighter collection when he was younger, but somehow managed to lose all of them except the most boring, plain white one. Has never bought any other color of lighter since.

Is not allowed to recommend movies because it will either be a boring war movie, a really old movie, or a really old and boring war movie. His music taste is somewhat better than his movie taste.

Can hold his damn liquor but refuses to get involved in drinking games because he doesn’t want to partake in “alcohol poisoning the game.”

Has the dad sneeze. It could be nice and silent and then all of a sudden there’s just an ungodly noise coming from Price’s general area. It encompasses the entire room. It strikes fear into new recruits. It’s not until Soap says ‘bless you’ that anyone realizes it was even a sneeze.

Has gotten drunk in his office with Laswell on more than one occasion and ends up talking about dumb shit he’s done in the past. Gaz walked into Price’s office to scrounge up a pen and instead left with the knowledge that Price split his head open when he was 15 after riding his bike straight into a wall.

Calls you names like “Love” or “Dear” by reflex. You don’t even have to be together for it to happen, it just slips out of his mouth. He apologizes more often than not until you tell him that you’re okay with it.

Literal heater. Exudes heat like no other. Oh, you’re cold? Stand next to him for like five minutes and you’ll be warm in no time. 9 times out of 10 his hands are warmer than yours.

Isn’t really into soccer/football but will always watch a game if it’s on. Is always stood up, hands on his hips, watching intensely and making weird noises at every move made on the field.

Is like, astronomically good at cooking but only when it comes to basic foods. Makes an absolute banger grilled cheese but dear god don’t let him attempt any sort of casserole. His fettuccine alfredo? Fantastic. His steaks? Phenomenal. Any baked goods however… Good luck.

Owns a shirt that just says “Father.” and will wear it out occasionally when he’s on leave. Has never told anyone about this shirt, he doesn’t even know why he has it.

[gracifleur]

okay i'm kidding, more seriously: what drew you to shaymin in the first place? do you have any favorite and least favorite theories and concepts regarding it?

i hope ur ready 2b emotional on this good monday bc this, is the saga of me & shaymin.

so ive been a fan pkmn since the good year of 1998, u could not for the life of u me n dupree get my gameboy from my tiny child fingers n make me put down red or blue. my fav pkmn was pikachu, instantly. i still have my fav pikachu shirt from childhood ok listen. so thru the years watching the anime, seeing the movies in theater, playing the games time passes n we get to rse & admittedly i was burnt OUT. BURT THE FUCK OUT. but also, & pls no hate, i wasnt the biggest fan of the 3rd gen. i loved the sprites, the pkmn, the location, but the story itself just wasnt my thing & i rlly just felt the pang of man idk if im into this as i used to be which sucks when u lose a hyperfixation but also something that u rlly love n enjoyed n brought u immense joy. so i decided to be a wee bit edgy n be all bleh pkmn for babies as i totally very much still replayed rby & gsc etc etc. im a lil hypocrite if nothing. so when the ds came out n news of a new gen was on the horizon, i ignored it. however one of my high school besties did not & got diamond. it was also my birthday( fun fact i do share a release date birthday with platinum in america i will let u look it up ) & pal was like 'i wanted pearl so here take diamond as ur gift n lets go get my game n play together i kno u love pkmn' he was right. i do love pkmn n wow, wow. the first moments of diamond rlly just SNAPPED something within me. it was like falling in love with this series all over again. something about the world, the characters, the story, the pkmn it all fell into place n really really made me remember why i loved this franchise in the first place.

so, naturally i start paying attention again to pkmn news & more importantly: event pkmn. which lead me to this advertisement from toys r us. also fun fact: i have the shaymin image from this ad bc i cut it out, it's in my 3ds case at all times safe.

now, i saw this lil fella & i was like oh my god ur so adorable i need you. && so me n one of my high school besties who was as fanatic abt pkmn as me rushed off 2 our local toysrus n download the mystery gift. i go n open the summery of my shaymin & that was that. idk what happened. suddely pikachu was #2 in my heart( tho nowdays i do consider both shaymin & pikachu as my all time favs, but shaymin is like slightly higher on the list ). idk what it was ! this lil fella made me appreciate grass types, a type i normally dont care for at all but turtwig had started to fix that. i always had them in my party, i got a secondary diamond copy just to hACK TO DO THE OAKS LETTER EVENT. i loved them idk why something about the fact that this lil friend shaped creature is thankful to me in spite of everything was like the franchise itself saying thank you for always loving pkmn, for giving it a second chance, for like idk being a good friend. && that rlly resonated with me.

pkmn has been a franchise that has rlly helped me thru some shit & has always just been consistently there. every game since diamond ive loved more n more n more. && i think like gen4 will always be special for me & so will shaymin bc like as grateful as i am for pkmn it sorta feels like pkmn is grateful for me too & thats just like makes ur heartgut go emotional huh cause it does me too its ok anyways shaymin rules actually

aND FOR THE SECOND PART UHH IDK ABOUT THEORIES I HATE or concepts, its kinda hard to like rlly delve into more than whats there bc shaymin seems to embody the coming of spring, the change of the seasons, to start anew, refresh & rejuvenation all of those are sick as fuck concepts but i guess if i had a criticism i would def say sky forme looks stupid kdJHASKJDhsa IDK THATS JUST ME LAND FORME BEST FORME #HATER

oh uh, pet tax: here is a photo of that said toysrus shaymin currently chilling in my copy of x

[aforrestofstuff]

What would happen at an s-class slumber party? Including Saitama I guess. Like who falls asleep first, who plays games, etc

I got these two asks like, literally ten minutes apart and idk what prompted all of these sleepy time curiosities pertaining to the S-Class but I am HERE for it. I’m gonna put them together into one masterpost because they’re roughly the same thing lol. Thanks for requesting stuff y’all! 😄💖

I was having trouble thinking of a possible scenario that could explain why the S-Class would even want to be in the same room together for more than 30 minutes, let alone have a sleepover. The best I could come up with is Sitch paid them all a handsome sum to sleep in the Hero Association lobby and stand guard because there’s an S-Class threat hit squad on the hunt for his executive ass. And, being the cheap-asses that they all are, they took the offer.

Now, with that out of the way, let’s get crackin fellas:

Tornado of Terror: She’s grumpy as all hell to be here (even though she got paid the most), so she just falls the fuck asleep and tells everyone to wake her up at the first sign of trouble because she thinks she’s the only one who’s capable enough to deal with it. She brings a pillow, a blanket, her jammies, and a teddy to sleep with. If anyone dares to open their mouth about Sir Stuffers then she’ll gladly explode their head.

Silverfang: Volunteers to take first watch, but because he’s an old shit he falls asleep 20 minutes into his shift. He doesn’t bring anything to sleep with because he convinced himself that he has the willpower to stay up all night but Charanko “accidentally” mixed melatonin into Silverfang’s tea before he left for the mission so now he’s passed the fuck out and not waking up anytime soon.

Atomic Samurai: Same as Silverfang: thinks he can stay up to stand watch and falls asleep 10 seconds into his shift. Except, he doesn’t need to be poisoned to accidentally fall asleep because dealing with his disciples is a triple full-time job and as a result, daddy Kami is always ready to pass the fuck out at any time. He’s basically a narcoleptic past 8pm. To sleep with, he brought a ratty-ass pillow and a bottle of night juice (saké).

Child Emperor: is nocturnal and completely fine with staying up all night, so he’s on watch the whole time. Although, the sound of candy wrappers makes it hard for anyone else to sleep and as a result, everyone is ready to punt this kid by 3am. He shows up in gym shorts and a t-shirt because what’s the point of getting dressed with these hooligans and spends the whole night hanging out with Zombieman. Although, he did bring a sleeping bag and pillow just incase he wants to take a power nap.

Metal Knight: Shows up in a power suit like this mf in Pacific Rim. Everyone thinks he’s just controlling a drone remotely but Sitch told him if he doesn’t show up in person then he doesn’t get the money, so he’s sitting in this tin can the whole time and trying his best to stay awake (he passes out by midnight). He’s also in his underwear. Idk why that was worth it to mention but there you go ❤️

King: Mentally on the verge of a breakdown at the thought of spending the whole night with these jackasses but shows up anyway because he wants that PS5 and is willing to do anything to get it. He gets there in his jammies, sets down his pikachu sleeping bag, and falls asleep without saying hi or offering to take watch. Everyone thinks that he’ll wake up naturally at the first sign of trouble and finds it really impressive that he fell asleep so fast, but he really just passed out from hyperventilating so hard. He would normally be perfectly fine with staying up all night because he’s a gamer and he does it all the time anyway, but anxiety really do be like that sometimes.

Zombieman: Is nocturnal like Child Emperor when he wants to be, but can also fall asleep in .2 seconds on a bed of nails. He’s perfectly fine with staying up all night because he constantly does it when following leads on a case and doesn’t bother bringing anything to sleep on. In fact, he shows up in full gear because he’s mildly paranoid and he wears it all the time anyway, it’s basically a second skin by now. He spends the night playing cards with CE and taking occasional sips from a flask to calm his nerves. They also take turns telling spooky ghost stories by the light of Zombieman’s lighter, to which he pretends to be scared. When he wants to smoke, he does it by Bofoi’s machine because fuck that guy.

Drive Knight: Forgot to change his Duracells the day before and falls over the second he walks in the door. Everyone thinks he’s a lazy ass for falling asleep so soon but he’s actually in a robo-medical emergency.

Pig God: is perfectly fine with staying up all night because, as I’ve said on multiple other hcs, he’s a hardcore gamer and being nocturnal is basically second nature. However, like Child Emperor, the sound of him constantly eating in the dark has everyone ready to jump his ass by midnight. He’s dressed in his pajamas as well, and they’re so big that they share the clothing measurements of an actual humpback whale.

Superalloy Darkshine: Falls asleep by 9pm on the dot every night and knows it’s pretty much impossible for him to stay up all night so he shows up in his Bedtime Thong(tm) with a sleeping bag and kindly asks everyone to wake him up if there’s trouble. Nobody listens but he pretends they do. He also brings a “small stash” (actual grocery bag filled to the brim) of protein bars to snack on incase he gets hungry in the middle of the night and offers a few to everyone, to which they decline (ultra-vegan keto-friendly gluten-free sugar-free flavor-free protein bars taste like actual garbage). And because he drinks a swimming pool of water every day (gotta stay at peak physique, yo), he gets up at least 12 times in the middle of the night to pee and he pisses so loud for no reason that it sounds like there’s a waterfall in the next room.

Watchdog Man: Carries his human-sized doggy bed in with his mouth and falls the fuck asleep without even announcing his presence. Nobody even notices he’s there. Sitch forgets to pay him.

Flashy Flash: Is fine with staying up all night to stand watch because he had to do it so many times in the ninja village anyway, but fuck me if he isn’t pissy about it. He shows up in full gear because, like Zombieman, he wears it so often that it’s basically a second skin at this point. By 2am he fucks off to take a shower because being in the same room with these people actually makes him feel unclean and he doesn’t leave the bathroom until the sun starts to rise. His hair, however, looks twice as shiny.

Genos: Shows up, points his arm cannon at the door incase of possible intruders, and doesn’t move for 12 hours. He brought Saitama along because why not and mr caped baldy greatly regrets it.

Metal Bat: Shows up in gym shorts with his bat, a blanket, and a pillow and fucks off to the corner of the room to brood. He takes watch for a few hours in between power naps, and sleeps with his phone .2 inches away from his face incase Zenko calls. When she does, he wakes up at the speed of light and loudly answers the phone like there isn’t at least 7 other people sleeping within close proximity to him. It’s never for an emergency, she just calls like 3 times into the night because she had a bad dream or she’s wondering how he’s doing. But regardless of what it is, Badd is ready to run all the way home and be with her. He just took the job because he wants to buy her a bigass gift with all the money he’ll be receiving.

Tanktop Master: Same as Superalloy, except he snores like a motherfucker. He doesn’t need waterfall piss to keep everyone up because this mf sounds like a lawn mower. He shows up in his Tanktop Pajamas (which is basically just a Tanktop with pajama bottoms) and takes watch in between power naps, to which he sleeps on a Tanktop Sleeping bag (just a regular sleeping bag, there’s literally nothing different about it) with his Tanktop Pillow (also just a regular pillow, literally nothing special about it).

Puri-Puri Prisoner: sleeps naked. Dick out.

Saitama: Gets bored as hell by 10pm and tries to wake up King so they can play video games together on his gameboy that he smuggled in, but the poor bastard is OUT. Saitama tries to sleep, however, he forgot to bring anything to sleep on so he tries to roll up his cape and use it as a pillow but, alas, he gets a neck cramp so bad that he actually almost starts to cry.

[leiasfanaccount648]

The 3 Times Kenma Didn’t Get What You Wanted for Your Bday & the 1 Time He Did

(Kenma Kozume x Fem!Reader)

Summary: Like all friends, they remember what is most important to them, especially one another’s birthdays. However, Kenma seems to be struggling with finding you that perfect present year after year.

A/N: This is for the absolutely lovely @briswriting​!!! I’m so happy to call you my friend, that you got me into Animal Crossing, and I hope you have an amazing bday today <3 :)

Warnings/Contains: Fluff, birthdays, the tiniest amount of angst. Disclaimer, I did some research on the video games I mentioned in this but none of the release dates match up lol.

Word Count: 2033

Elementary School; 5th year

“Happy Birthday, (Y/N)!”

“Wait, what?”

Kenma looked up from his GameBoy as he heard people talking by the door of the classroom. He saw one of his neighbors that he had bet through Kuroo talking to some of her friends and receiving some gifts and snacks from them.

Kenma looked at the desk in front of him and saw a few more trinkets and such from people in other classes. They may not have known each other for that long, but (Y/N) was the first friend of his that actually wanted to play video games rather than volleyball like Kuroo.

(Y/N) was nice, and had great taste in games; he would gladly call her his friend. So what do friends of a couple months get one another for their birthdays?

“Good morning, Kenma!” (Y/N) brought him out from his thoughts as she walked over and sat down at her desk, facing him with a bright smile. “What’re you playing?” She peered over his desk to try and catch a glimpse at what game was on the screen.

“I, um,” Kenma glanced down at his GameBoy as Pokemon: Red and Blue was still playing. He didn’t get to answer as (Y/N) already saw the screen with a gasp.

“Are you about to play the battle against Professor Oak?”

Kenma couldn’t explain it, but he felt his heart jump at her knowledge of the game. He knew that she played it, but he thought that she had just gotten it a couple weeks ago. “Yeah, I am.” He smiled shyly and quickly paused the game so he could talk to her properly. “Happy birthday, by the way. I’m sorry, but I didn’t get you anything.”

(Y/N) shook her head, waving her hands in front of her as well. “No, no! It’s totally fine! Trust me, you didn’t have to get me anything.” She smiled, moving her hair out of her face shyly. ��Honestly what I keep getting from my friends gets to be too much of a hassle.”

Kenma smiled a little, finding her reasoning quite amusing; however he could tell during lunch she definitely enjoyed eating the cookies that someone had made her. He tried to think of something he could do for her, but he trusted her word to not worry too much. Besides, there was always next year.

--------

Middle School; 3rd year

It was late, almost too late to Kenma’s liking as he had just finished volleyball practice and wanted to do nothing than go home and finally get some rest before the weekend started tomorrow. However, he had one last thing to do.

Kenma had been hearing (Y/N) raving about the game for weeks, and he had managed to get it pre-ordered and delivered the day that it came out. Now he stood outside her apartment, hoping that she would like it.

He texted her to come to her door, and it was obvious that she was confused, but did so nonetheless. She smiled as she saw him, about to greet him, but he beat her to it, holding out a small, wrapped box for her to take.

“Happy birthday, (Y/N).”

“Oh my god, Kenma you didn’t!” (Y/N) grinned wide as she noticed the shape of the wrapped box her friend had handed her. She opened it without hesitation, expecting to see Pokemon X and Y, but instead saw Animal Crossing: New Leaf. She felt touched that he remembered how much she wanted that game, but still looked up at Kenma with sorrow.

“Kenma, I am so sorry,” she laughed nervously, starting to feel guilty. “But my parents got me the game already along with a new 3DS.” (Y/N) knew that there was no way that he could have known, but she felt guilty nonetheless over the fact that Kenma had spent his money to get her the game.

Kenma on the other hand felt nothing but embarrassment. He realized his mistake and that he should have asked her parents if she was going to be getting the game. “I’m sorry. I should have asked if there was more than just that game that you wanted.”

Like she did back in elementary school, she shook her head. “No, you’re fine, Kenma.” She laughed softly to try and lighten the mood, but she could still tell that Kenma felt awkward about getting her a game that she had been gifted not 3 hours ago. Then she smiled. “Wait! Now that you have the game, we can play it together!”

Kenma tilted his head a little, confused. “I thought it wasn’t a multiplayer game.”

“It’s not, but we can still keep up with one another’s progress and stuff. It’ll be like when we play Pokemon and see who can defeat the boss quicker!”

Although it wasn’t Kenma’s ideal choice of game style, he still kept the game and played with (Y/N) both online and while they hung out together. Soon enough, he became addicted and got a whole level ahead of (Y/N) despite their agreement to build their islands and such together.

--------

High School; 2nd Year

It was raining after school, and Kuroo had decided to cancel practice due to the weather scheduled to get worse throughout the evening. Kenma felt grateful for two reasons. One, he could go home and finish his homework early before playing some more Animal Crossing. Two, he could see (Y/N) before she had her club and give her the batch of his mom’s homemade brownies that he promised her a few days ago.

Kenma was on his way towards the room where he knew she would be at, however he didn’t expect her to be sitting outside the door. He saw her phone in hand along with her backpack leaning against her. Then he caught sight of her face and rushed over as soon as he saw the tears in her eyes. “(Y/N)?”

(Y/N) looked up at the sound of her name, instinctively reaching up to wipe below her eyes before putting on the best smile she could muster at the last second. “Kenma!” She chuckled and stood up quickly to straighten herself out. “What’re you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at practice?”

“Kuroo cancelled it due to the weather planning to get worse. So I decided to bring you the brownies since you said you wanted them for your birthday.” Kenma reached into his bag and pulled out a small container that contained the sweets. (Y/N) didn’t say another word, just stepping forward and bringing him into a hug.

Kenma froze as she did so, not sure how to react. “(Y-Y/N)?”

“Just,” she took a deep breath to keep from letting out any tears. “Let me have this, please?”

Kenma looked at her, wondering what it was that was causing her to be so upset, but he knew that she would tell him on her own time. For now, all he did was hug her and he practically felt the tension and nerves in her body melt away, ignoring how his heart raced rapidly due to her being so close and for so long.

That year, Kenma was the only one who had remembered (Y/N)’s birthday.

--------

College; 1st year

It was a couple days before (Y/N)’s birthday and Kenma was stressing beyond belief. Ever since high school, Kuroo he had begun to realize that he had developed feelings for her and he never knew how to express them into words or actions. 

He remembered the day that Kuroo pointed it out to him because they were playing an online game together and Kenma had managed to lose against both him and Bokuto. Needless to say it was obvious that something was bothering him and Kuroo needed to know (even if he already did).

Either way, he wanted to do what he thought would make her happy for her birthday. Some had been flops while others he felt like haven’t been the right gift, but he still did what he could.

This year however, he wanted to know exactly what she wanted.

The two of them were in the middle of playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons when Kenma thought he’d just ask via the game while they were fishing on his island.

‘btw, what do u want 4 ur bday?’

Since they were at different universities and couldn’t physically see each other, (Y/N) assumed that he would just craft/give her something in the game.

‘a cat to cuddle & love 4ever’

Kenma chuckled at her reply, smiling to himself as he typed out one himself, but (Y/N) added another response.

‘even though it’s not in the game XD’

Oh.

Kenma froze for a moment as he realized how (Y/N) interpreted his question. But he still got an answer and wasn’t going to take it for granted. He quickly got on his laptop and pulled up Amazon. Lucky for him, he found a cat plushie that he knew (Y/N) would like that would arrive the day before her birthday.

On the fateful day, Kenma headed to her dorm as he knew she was spending her birthday on a different day with her family and would most likely be cooped up side playing games (much like himself). Once he messaged her to come outside and was met with a ‘read’ text, he knew she was on her way down to greet him. When (Y/N) saw him with the stuffed cat in his arms, she ran over and hugged him tightly as she could.

Kenma almost lost his footing and fell, but he managed to stay standing and hug her back. “I know what you said you wanted a cat, but I didn’t want you to get kicked out of your dorm.”

(Y/N) laughed, shaking her head at his words before pulling away. She also took the cat plushie from him to get a better look at it before holding it in her arms. She smiled shyly at him. “Kenma, I was talking about you.”

“Wait, what?” Kenma’s eyes widened, repeating the words she said a couple days ago in his head. He felt his cheeks start to turn pink as (Y/N) spoke up again.

“All I wanted was to spend my birthday with you.” She glanced to the side, starting to feel flustered. “You’ve been my best friend for years and you’re so nice and considerate, not to mention cute,” she giggled, pausing briefly. “It’s practically impossible for anyone not to be around you and,” she met his gaze again. “I like you, Kenma.”

Kenma didn’t know when he did or what made him think it was a good idea, but he reached out with one hand and held the back of her head as he pulled her in for a kiss, which she gladly returned a second later. Once he pulled away, he smiled shyly as though silently apologizing for being so straightforward and sudden.

“Uh,” Kenma cleared his throat, letting go of her so she could have some space. “Would you like to go get some dinner?” It was obvious that he wasn’t sure what to say or do at the moment.”

(Y/N) simply shook her head, reaching for his hand and leading him into the building in which she stayed at. “I’d much rather spend my birthday eating takeout and playing video games with you. How does that sound?”

“But, it’s your birthday.” Kenma followed her to the elevator, still holding her hand.

“Exactly, so that means we’re going to do what I want.” (Y/N) giggled and kissed his cheek before stepping inside the elevator with him and pressing the button for her floor. “And I want to cuddle you while we eat and play Animal Crossing together.”

Kenma smiled, squeezing her hand to let her know his thoughts on her plans for the rest of the evening. “Sounds like a plan.” He was thankful that he decided to bring his Nintendo Switch with him.

“Oh, and that means that I want all of the turnips you bought yesterday, too.”

“Wait what?”

[serenedash]

I started rambling about my experience with kh and then it turned into khux and then it just turned into me rambling about Ryou and my art journey????? enjoy I guess,

it’s very long but there’s art in there :)

It’s funny to think about my kh journey as a whole tbh, I grew up watching my mom play video games, which included kh1 and 2. I wasn’t allowed to play the playstation2 we owned BUT I did have a gameboy so the first game I played was CoM (after my mom finished it ofc,) so I guess you could say I’ve always been passionate about kh “””side games””” lmao but I did fall off of kh very quickly bc again, I wasn’t allowed to play our PS2 and also I Am A Terrible Gamer I’ve Never Finished CoM I’m sorry you all had to find out like this, but then 358/2 came out when I was in middle school and!!! I didn’t care and I didn’t play idk why lol

Anyway, fast forward to high school I’m like 15 and my older sister, who HAS been keeping up with kh, has a wallpaper on her phone of roxas and ventus. And bc I haven’t kept up I say “nice roxas wallpaper” and she says “thanks but it’s roxas and ventus” and I proceeded to get so mad that I was determined to prove to her that her wallpaper was just roxas twice and then I fell down the BBS rabbit hole and suddenly I was reading about vanitas and then I’m reading the fan translations of the BBS novel and I’m crying??? I am sobbing???? and that’s how I actually got into kh for real lol we are vanitas stans before we are people,

It’s so funny how I thought I was some kh super fan, knowing all this stuff that I spent so long reading and rewatching cutscene movies, but I never once, SOMEHOW NEVER ever came across khx. It’s so absurd and bizarre I seriously have no idea how I never once encountered khx prior to khux. I suppose that has to do with the fact I wasn’t involved in the fandom? In early high school I had stepped away from fandoms as a whole and I didn’t have any interest in really posting content or interacting with fans anymore bc of how burnt out I was from a previous fandom,

but khux released! and I was so hype and excited for it! on launch day I was a senior in high school, I had ran around to every “nerd” and weeb I could find in school to ask them to join my party and fun fact about me is I have crippling social anxiety I literally refuse to start conversations irl so holy shit I was OUT HERE doing the MOST

My player just originally had my name (Matt) but everyone in my party had fun names so Ryou was born! High school was one big yugioh phase for me and ryou bakura is one of my favorite characters ever so it was just the logical name choice lol I quickly started creating Ryou, the character, as well. I was also leaving my homestuck phase and that + vanitas obsession made This character design (art circa 2016)

If y’all are familiar with my kh oc’s you might notice that keyblade now belongs to my kid Monty LOL

Anyway that got scrapped quickly for the chip and dale outfit (which is where Ryou’s trademark goggles are from <3) Goggles have been a staple of my character designs for a LONG TIME so like, it had to be done, (that’s a separate ramble about a separate oc tho)

OG Ryou was an interesting guy; he was a young party leader with this overwhelming responsibility on his shoulders bc of his status as a party leader. In his original story, he also struggled heavily with darkness, much like Terra but for Ryou it was more that the darkness was controlling him and not like a source of power like it was for Terra

A big part of early Ryou I kept, however, was the crushing awareness of loss. One of my party members (the strongest one at the time,) had left without saying a word and I was very confused and hurt. This was around the time the ephemera plot was happening so I decided to incorporate it into Ryou’s story; having him experience losing a friend to darkness since it’s so normal for wielders in Daybreak Town to just disappear, and this would unintentionally become a theme for both me and Ryou as khux friends would just randomly disappear.

I was desperate for khux at this point and I decided to watch the fan translations for khx and GOD, god, was I obsessed. I couldn’t stop thinking about the foretellers. And I’m not going off about that here bc I already did that, but I actually started entering fandom again! I did it slowly, I started on tumblr before this blog was made altho it was me sending anons to the few khux related blogs I could have lol a friend convinced me to get twitter where I got involved with the ffxv fandom, which led me to the kh fandom and eventually the khux fandom there which is what REALLY got me going on khux.

I joined discord servers, most of the servers I’m in are khux related, and from there I joined the khux oc rp (shout out to anyone there who might be reading this lol here’s some art from the beginning of the rp,)

It’s SO FUNNY how the RP influenced me so heavily. I hadn’t RP’d in YEARS, I used to have a strict no oc rp policy, but here I was? And the funny part is, I had barely developed Ryou. I had scrapped his original story and all I had was POST WAR Ryou so I literally had to reverse write him; I had only ever written him as a depressed, guilt ridden adult, but it was a fucking blast and I have such fond memories of this rp when it was active,

But anyway, this encouraged me to get more serious about art! I started drawing, writing, cosplaying, and roleplaying when I hadn’t done any of that stuff in a very long time. The first time I ever drew a background was for a deviant art khux competition actually LOL

also! I always think extremely fondly of the drawing I did of Aced in the keyblade war. It was also one of the first backgrounds I ever drew and it felt like my real starting point in the khux fandom. It got a ton of notes on here and someone wrote a tiny fic in a reblog which just made me SO HAPPY like it really felt like people were noticing me :) I was going to draw a matching Ira but!! I just never did!! One day tho, it’s on my art bucket list to redraw this along with Ira,

Aside from my personal growth, khux was great for my social life ngl, I made SO MANY friends online and got to meet a ton of people irl over the years! It’s crazy to think about all the people I now know and talk to? It honestly makes me really emotional. I’ll never forget taking the train into NYC and meeting up with discord friends. Going to conventions and talking with people about the latest khux update? Absolutely insane and those were some GOOD TIMES, if I thanked every khux friend or even just person who made an impact on me then we’d be here for a LONG TIME,

Fun fact, for my Lauriam cosplay all I needed to buy was the wig I just owned his outfit LOL also? Probably retiring that cosplay ngl people treated me like absolute garbage when I wore him and it led to a lot of confidence issues for awhile ngl. That’s probably one of the only memorable negative experiences I have with khux; it was great when khux people recognized me but for kh fans that weren’t in khux? They were FUCKING MEAN??? fuck kh fandom at large, I only care about khux fandom,

This leads me to another huge part of my experience in khux fandom: THEORIES!! I used to write SO MANY and oh my god my brain was so full all the time. It was a huge appeal for me in the fandom; I had been previously writing theory posts in the RWBY fandom and it just migrated over to khux for me lol I had done a ton of theorizing around Lauriam tbh, it was really the only reason I liked his character at all bc initially I did not care about the dandelions, anyone who wasn’t Skuld I was like “please leave Now thanks”

A funny part of khux fandom I never intended to be apart of is the MEMES, I really only started doing memes as stress relief bc college had me so busy all I had time/energy for was these quick little shit post drawings.

The first meme I made, file name “invi despair” LOL we need to get her a girlfriend smh anyway, I think in my senior year of college I did a bunch of rapid fire memes all in one month bc the stress of finals was getting so bad afdgfhdgf as far as I know my impact on this fandom will be my memes bc all I do now is enter a kh/khux server and introduce myself and I go “yeah I draw art. here’s a meme” and everyone goes OH YOU, honestly I am nothing if not a clown

I’ve talked so much idk where I’m going with this. Khux is just a good game even if the gameplay actually kind of really sucks yknow lol but it was the first game I played where I like, REALLY got into the meta and the mechanics. I used to read so much on the mechanics and watch youtube videos on which medals were worth pulling for. I was never a whale or a top player exactly, but I could rank well if I tried lol I’ve made it to the top 100 for solo rankings, my party has made it to top 10, and in pvp I’ve made top 300. I’m not the highest level in my party but FUCK do I know how to manipulate this game LOL

And with all that hard work, the strategies, the theorizing, the content I’ve made-- it’s been my life for 5 years. I’ve logged into khux almost every single day. At the end, I have logged 1820 days in khux out of 1910 days. Kinda crazy. Crazier I’ve never spent money on khux either lol the only “money” gone into it was one time my mom gave me a google play store gift card and I used it on my birthday for a VIP xemnas medal which eventually made it to regular pulls anyway but it was nice and a little treat :)

I’m not a gacha fan, I don’t care for it, so I don’t think I’ll be touching another gacha again. But for kh? This was pretty fucking awesome, even if it sucked a lot sometimes LOL It was worth it for the people I’ve met most of all I think. I would honestly be a completely different person without khux and that’s REALLY insane to think about.

[jaeminlore]

Ace of Hearts | Junhui

summary: jun works for cupid inc, and wonders why his arrows aren’t working on a certain girl. he decides to go down to investigate, and realizes he knew a lot less about love than he had originally thought. words: 6k+ category: cupid!jun x asexual!reader, fluff, comedy

There you were, as always, reading a book in the corner of the bar while your friends went on and mingled. Every once in awhile someone would come to your table, and you’d talk to them for a few minutes before returning to your book. Your pale t-shirt stuck to your collarbones, thanks to the growing humidity of the room. Jun himself felt a bit flustered from the heat. Of course, that could just be because heat rises, and Jun was hiding in the rafters. He sighed under his breath, squinting his eyes in an effort to see what you were reading. He wished he had brought a book with him, or his Gameboy at the least.

He wasn’t even supposed to be out tonight. This was Wonwoo’s shift. It was Wonwoo’s job to find you love, but the slacker just had to come down with a fever the night before. Sending a curse to his friend back at the head office, Jun extracted his bow and a single arrow. The bow was made from a Blackwood Tree, enchanted specifically for his hand. The arrows were basic, used by every other cupid in business. The simple baby blue arrows with dark blue tips looked rather beautiful, despite the frightening end. Jun poked it with the pad of his thumb. Blood soon appeared, and he quickly brought his thumb to his lip in and effort to stop the flow. At least Wonwoo sharpened them before he got sick.

Jun loved his job. Any other night, he would’ve thanked the stars above that Wonwoo had gotten sick. There wasn’t anything Jun loved more than pricking people in the butt and making them fall for the person next to them. If he were assigned any place else, he wouldn’t be complaining. But he was complaining, because you were there. You were the bane of every cupid’s existence. Absolutely no one had successfully found love for you. It was as if you didn’t feel arrows at all. Not to mention if someone else was pricked and set their sights on you: you would simply brush them off.

Jun would’ve loved to just ignore you. To move on to the next person and shoot them in their behind. Perhaps they would actually appreciate Jun’s hard work. He couldn’t ignore you because you were in the books of Cupid Inc. It was contracted that you were looking for love and would be an easy target. Jun really wanted to find the person who wrote down your name and make •them• try and find love for you. At this point the boy didn’t even feel like trying. However, he could be fired if he didn’t complete his job. With that thought as his only motivation, he held up his bow and pulled the string back until it met with his temple. Once the blue point was directed right at your hip, Jun released, his fingers loosening as he did so. The arrow soared across the dimly lit bar and landed right in the skin of your tailbone.

You jolted slightly and looked around. Jun thought that perhaps, just this once, he had actually succeeded in getting you. His hopes were soon smashed when you furrowed your thick brows and returned to your book. He shoved his bow back in his bag with vigor, not knowing how else to vent his frustration. Usually, if you were anyone else, you would approach someone by now. You were supposed to take their hand and lead them outside to hail a cab and start your adventure. Instead, you simply curled into a ball and smiled at whatever you had just read. Your pale lips distracted Jun for a moment, before he turned his head, wondering why the arrows didn’t work on you.

Before he could come up with a plausible answer, you were saving your place in your book. Oh, no. Jun knew this meant he had about two minutes before you were out that door and gone. His boss’s voice played over in his head: “If you fail this one again, you’re leaving Cupid Inc.”

He cursed under his breath. Your black heels seemed to clack louder with every step, almost to taunt Jun. Hey! Look what’s getting away!

Maybe you were a witch. That would explain why the arrows didn’t work on you. Jun went over theories as he walked outside, hoping to follow you home and question you himself. He never considered himself a hands-on cupid, but if you needed a bit of a push, he would help. Maybe you were shy. Maybe the arrows worked and you just brushed off the lustful feelings they gave you because you couldn’t approach anyone without having a panic attack.

As he rounded the corner and saw you walking up the steps towards a rather boring and not at all witch-like apartment, he pouted his lip. Eyebrows furrowed, he anticipated your next move: closing the door before he could approach you. This was all well, supposing Jun could just knock. He ran his fingers through his hair and trampled up the steps, nearly tripping in his escapade to your door. Then he knocked with a short rat-a-tat-tat.

You opened a meager fifteen seconds later with a single eye peaking out. “Hello. What do you want?”

“I’m Jun,” he said, curiously peering at your face. You looked dashingly beautiful under the lamplight, and the natural contour gifted to you by the shadows made Jun think that perhaps you really weren’t human. Perhaps you were something else altogether. “I need to talk to you.”

“Come back tomorrow,” your voice was a tad gravelly, and although it was a sound Jun wasn’t used to hearing, it was one he found himself wanting to hear again. Before he could proclaim this, you shut your door in his face, and the click of your deadbolt had him stumped for options.

It had to be nearing midnight. Jun supposed he could wait around until sunrise, where he would hear your voice again. The eagerness that that thought brought to him was almost enough to keep him awake. However, as soon as he curled up beside your apartment door, his eyelids fell heavily against themselves. It wasn’t long before soft snores escaped his lips, and your neighbors who worked night shifts thought you had a very drunken stalker camping outside of your home.

You nearly forgot about the strange man. He took you by surprise, certainly, with his copper-colored hair and mischievous eyes. What was more surprising was his speech, and the way he urgently expressed his need to talk to you, as if he were some messenger from an adventure novel. The book you were reading just had to be The Hobbit, and your mind went to far away places, wondering if the strange man was your very own wizard, coming to convince you to help him and his dwarf companions kill a dragon.

The thought had you chuckling as you flipped over a blueberry pancake. The batter slid unevenly for a moment, but with a tilt of the pan it was back to a normal, somewhat oblong, shape. In the midst of flipping your next pancake, a harsh rap of knuckles against wood frightened you, and you accidentally flipped the batter halfway out of the pan. Steam hissed as the drippy batter fell onto the hot stovetop, and you rushed to clean everything up before it charred and made your stove messy.

Once that situation was taken care of, you jogged over to the door and swung it open, fully expecting it to be the mail lady delivering your package. Instead, it was a sleepy boy, sporting the same familiar hair color you saw just the night before. It was easier to see him now in the morning light, so you took your time studying his features. You were just tracing the slope of his nose with your eyes when he cleared his throat, causing you to jump in embarrassment. Redness shot across your cheeks as you struggled not to look embarrassed in front of him. It wasn’t every day a handsome man came up to your door and asked to talk.

Whatever he wished to talk about might not be positive, though, and you had half the mind not to let him in. “What did you say your name was again?”

“I’m Jun,” he said. He voice was smoother than you remembered, a velvet drizzle of caramel to warm your eardrums. “I’m a cupid.”

You furrowed your eyebrows at his joke. “A single cupid? Isn’t there only one cupid anyway?”

“Technically, yes.” Jun rolled his eyes as if he got this question all the time. “We’re all ancestors of the Cupid. It’s a family business. Cupid is our calling card, like a surname for humans.”

“So if you aren’t a human, what are you?” He was lucky it was the morning, and the bizarreness of the conversation hadn’t crossed your common sense yet.

Jun covered his mouth with the back of his hand and yawned, “I suppose some kind of god. A demigod maybe. Or I could be an angel.”

“What if you’re a demon?” you played a long.

Jun nodded seriously, “That would explain my devilishly handsome good looks.”

It took three beats before you could no longer hold your laughter. You snorted at the boy, who still looked rather serious as he struggled to remember his ancestry. “Maybe you’re just a fairy.”

“Ah, I think that is it,” Jun said, eyes sparkling, “Although it’s not as interesting as a demigod.”

He didn’t look particularly bothered by the crisp morning. His thin t-shirt battled the wind, and goosebumps rose across his arms, but he showed no sign of discomfort. You found yourself believing his strange words and nonchalant attitude, so you opened the door wider. “Would you like to come in? I just made pancakes.”

As soon as the pancakes were in front of him, Jun popped the cap off of the syrup bottle and began to drown his. You sat across from him, nothing but a bit of whipped cream on your own pancakes, and rose the question, “What did you need to talk to me about.”

Jun looked up from his syrupy pool. “I’m a cupid, like I said before. I was assigned to find you a match, but you have yet to take the bait. It’s as if my arrows don’t affect you at all.”

“I wonder why. Did you actually hit me?”

“Yes!” Jun said, “Just last night I got you but you never made a move!”

You thought back to the previous night, where you had read in the corner of one of the bar’s many booths. Your brain walked through the evening, wondering if you ever got the urge to approach someone. “I-I can’t think of anything. That’s weird.”

Jun shoved some pancakes in his mouth and chewed quickly before swallowing and starting his rant, “Tell me about it. I’ve been trying to get you laid for weeks and yet nothing happens. It’s like you’re immune for something.”

Before you could stop it, a giggle erupted from your lips. “Laid? That’s what those arrows make you want to do? No wonder they don’t work on me.”

Jun’s eyebrows crinkled. He cocked his head to the side and met your eyes with an innocently curious gaze. “I don’t understand.”

“I’m asexual, Jun. It means I’m not really into sex. If the arrows produce lustful feelings, they aren’t going to work on me.” Your eyebrows rose and you smirked, “Unless they activate my lust for adventure, of course.”

“That would explain why you’re always burying your nose further into your book after I shoot you.” Jun sat back in his chair, arms crossed against his chest. For a moment, a fond smile adorned his face. Then, as quickly as it came it was gone, replaced with a look of deep thought. “Well, how am I supposed to find you love, then? I’ll get fired if I don’t.”

“Sex doesn’t equal love,” you said.

As you got up to get more whipped cream, you heard Jun sigh behind you. “It doesn’t? What does?”

You shrugged and popped the cap off of the can. “Love is hard to explain. It can be expressed through physical actions like hugs, kisses, and sex. But it’s also the little things. For instance, if you made sure I put on my seatbelt every time we were in a car. That would be a small act of love. Telling me there is broccoli in my teeth before I go out and embarrass myself in public is a small act of love. Holding my hand when it’s dark and scary would be a small act of love.”

“Holding hands is physical,” Jun pointed out.

“It usually isn’t sexual though,” you argued.

“So what do you recommend I do?” Jun asked. “If my arrows won’t work, how will I find you a mate?”

You grabbed both yours and his empty plates and transferred them to the sink. A soft hum escaped your lips as you thought about it. “Maybe you should make different arrows. Manufacture romance arrows and friendship arrows. That way people like me, or people who simply aren’t ready to have sex with a complete stranger, can fall in love in other fashions. Better, more concrete fashions.”

Jun brought his thumbnail up to his lips and bit down nervously. “Maybe it could work. I guess I’ll go search for ways to make them. I can’t make them at Cupid Inc., though. They’ll fire me.”

“You should let them fire you,” you retorted. “Make a new corporation and base it around making people happy, rather than getting people laid.”

You could see that your words were turning circles in the boy’s mind. The concept of romance in itself seemed so new to him. It was nearly laughable how much he didn’t know. So much for Cupid.

“Happiness,” he mulled over the word. “That is a good emotion. It’s different than pleasure, but not in a bad way. It could work.”

Jun showed up three days later, his arms so full of strange items that he could barely knock to alert you that he was there. He managed to kick your door, making you think someone was trying to break in. As soon as you saw his sheepish smile over a pile of junk, you relaxed. “Hey, Jun.”

“Y/n,” he greeted, walking past you and dumping his collected items onto your floor. “I have enough resources to make five arrows. They’ll be my prototypes and you’ll be my lab rat.”

“Honored,” you deadpanned.

“Seriously,” he said, “the more I thought about it the more this could work. I mean, just today I kept noticing all these couples and they seemed so happy just being beside each other. I think I’m beginning to understand love. So we’re making love arrows. Not lust arrows. Not passion arrows. We’re going to make people fall in love innocently, through shy gazes and hesitant hand holding.”

“Nice pitch,” you said, “How long did that one take?”

“Literally twenty minutes,” Jun rolled his eyes. “But it sounds great, right? The CEO of Cupid Inc. is bound to accept our product with a pitch like that. And think, I wouldn’t even have to be fired from the family business.”

“Our product?”

“You’re my business partner, right?” Jun asked. “This was your idea, after all.”

You bit your lip. “I’m a human.”

“Which works so well. Who better to have as a partner for a human product than a human itself?” Jun looked far too excited. You wondered how long he had stayed up, practicing pitches and looking for inventory. The bags under his eyes told you it had been awhile. Without much thought, you reached up and brushed the bangs off of his forehead. Jun’s eyes widened and he looked eyes with you. A blush appeared on his cheeks; he cleared his throat before looking to the ground. “So… should we get started?”

“Yeah,” you said absentmindedly as you looked around. “Except I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”

“Oh, well it’s all magic,” Jun said. “I transfer my magic into a potion and that’s what we dip the tips of the arrows into.”

You bit your lip and sat on your rug, pulling your knees up to your chest. Jun was quickly to follow. His nimble fingers grasped for the shaft of the arrow. “So maybe you can craft the arrows while I mix the potion?”

Eyebrows furrowed, you nodded. Once Jun showed you how to craft, you came to realize that it wasn’t hard at all. It was essentially drilling and screwing. You were done with all five arrows in less than fifteen minutes. With all the free time you had, you watched Jun work his magic — quite literally — into one of your saucepans. Somewhere inside of you was a mourning for the stainless steel, but it was quickly replaced with overwhelming curiosity as the mixture turned a thick purple. It looked like a galaxy pattern, but there was something deeper about it. The hues were darker — more blue — and they went on for infinities. Your eyes were wide as you stared at the mixture. “So…that’s it? That’s the stuff that makes you fall in love?”

When Jun looked up, you were already gazing into his russet eyes, searching for an answer. He swallowed his saliva subtly. Never in his life had he wanted so badly not to shoot a client. After spending even the short amount of time with you that he did, he felt instantly drawn to you. You were beautiful and joyful, not to mention, the two of you shared the same taste in books. Jun found himself thinking about your pancakes often, and also whether or not he would ever see you again after this. He thought of waking up and seeing you making the pancakes he never realized he would crave so much. He thought of kissing your cheek and setting the table for breakfast. Even a fantasy so simple had his cheeks rosy. Sweat dampened his palms, and he was quick to wipe them on his thighs before answering. “I’m not so sure about love anymore, Y/n.”

“What do you mean?”  

Jun averted his eyes from your careful scrutiny. His tongue darted out from behind his lips to wet them. “Well…it’s fake, isn’t it? All that we do? This whole business is a scam, isn’t it?”

The hurt look on his face made you want to lie. “Not necessarily…”

“It is,” Jun moaned. “Even these arrows won’t work because all this has to come naturally.”

Before you could argue, he grabbed the saucepan and got up to pour the contents down the sink. He flicked the garbage disposal on, and your apartment was filled with the loud gurgle of the machine. “Uh, what happens if you put a love potion in the garbage disposal?”

Jun shrugged. “Beats me. Maybe two rats will fall in love.” Without missing a beat, he turned to your counter and lifted himself onto it. He tapped his chin with his pointer finger, “Now back to brainstorming. Should we start a matchmaking business?”

You — with a bit of effort — crawled onto the counter with him. His shoulder bumped yours in greeting, eliciting a giggle from both of your mouths. You wondered how he could bounce from one project to the next so quickly. It was hard to keep up, but you didn’t mind the challenge, “We could start a matchmaking business. We could work for a charity… that makes people happy.”

“We could reunite families!” Jun exclaimed. “Like, imagine if Batman has been reunited with his parents! He would’ve been so much happier!”

“Jun,” you whispered gently, “Batman’s parents are dead. That was a part of his character development.”

“Oh. Nevermind.”

You let your head fall onto Jun’s shoulder. “We don’t have to worry about it now. It’ll come to us soon.”

Jun nodded, his own mind begging for a bit of rest from all the brainstorming and excitement. “Well let’s move to the couch or something because if we fall asleep on this counter it could be disastrous.”

When you didn’t answer, Jun craned his neck to try and catch a glimpse of you. “Oh. You’re asleep. Cute.” Before he could stop himself, he poked your cheek. You only moved closer to him at the contact. “Alright, snuggle bug, I’m just going to pick you up for a moment, just until we reach the couch.”

He felt awkward, hooking his arms under your knees and torso. Truth be told, he had never been this close to a human before. There was a warm, fuzzy place in his brain where common sense usually resided. Perhaps this was a human trait? Like, you must’ve been letting off a defense mechanism to keep him from harming you, right? Jun shook his head, thinking that he needed to get out and meet new humans. He needed to compare research notes with himself.

There was a wool blanket folded on top of the couch. After laying you down, Jun pulled the blanket up to your chin and tucked it under. He leaned down, lips puckered towards your forehead, before stopping. Maybe you wouldn’t like to be kissed while asleep. Maybe you wouldn’t like to be kissed at all. He still wasn’t quite sure of a lot of things about you. With a tender smile on his lips, he brushed your bangs off of your forehead and whispered a quiet goodbye.

Before heading to your apartment, Jun stopped at the local library. He was dying to research more about human love and emotions. He wanted to grasp how you were feeling, and why he felt the way he did around you. He wanted to know why you smelled like safety and why your eyes twinkled with starlight.

After grabbing a few different human behavior and philosophy books, he settled into an overstuffed chair in the corner and began to read. He was quick, his eyes scanning the words with eagerness and curiosity. He hadn’t even realized the time going past until a boy around his age tapped him on the knee. Jun peeked at him from over the rim of his book.

The stranger had fluffy blond hair and glasses. His smile was charming and just as mischievous as Jun’s normally was. Unfortunately, Jun didn’t feel fuzzy in the brain when this boy smiled at him. He didn’t even react when the boy began talking. “I’m Jeonghan. The library’s about to close soon; just thought I’d let you know.”

He walked away, and Jun was quick (and clumsy) to follow after him. “Wait!”

Jeonghan stopped. He looked worried. “What is it? Are you alright?”

Jun shook his head. “I’ve been reading books all day but I still can’t find what I’m looking for.”

“What is that?”

“Well, I want to know why my brain gets fuzzy when I look at someone.”

“What do you mean?” Jeonghan rose an eyebrow, “Is your vision blurry? You should go get glasses.”

“No,” Jun shook his head. “My brain.” Seriously, why do humans always misinterpret things? “My common sense disappears and my chest gets warm and my brain goes fuzzy. Like, I can’t think.”

Jeonghan’s confusion was quickly replaced with a knowing smile. “Ah… you’re innocent aren’t you? Don’t you know about attraction?”

Jun blinked at him.

“You know,” Jeonghan urged. “It’s like when you see someone, and they’re the most beautiful person you’ve ever seen. Or they’re funny and kind. Or they smell good and their laugh fills your mind whenever they’re gone. That’s attraction.”

Jun’s eyes widened. “I think I have that! Well, is it contagious? Is there a cure?”

“What you you going on about? It’s not a disease,” Jeonghan laughed, “You must be drunk. Can I call someone to take you home?”

“No. I’m walking,” Jun said. “I’m not drunk either, I just need to know what attraction is. Does it affect a lot of humans?”

The librarian came by then, and told them that is was closing time. Jeonghan followed Jun out, an amused smirk on his lips. “Well, it affects most humans, yes. Sometimes it affects people less or more, depending on the human.”

Jun pressed his tongue against the inside of his cheek. “It doesn’t affect Y/n at all. At least, the sex part. That’s what she’s told me, and I’m trying to learn more about her…”

“Well, people can not like sex and still be attracted to others. It just depends on the person. Humans are complicated, you know,” Jeonghan said.

“Tell me about it,” Jun grumbled. “When I’m around her I feel it more. Attraction. Do you think she’s the cause of it?”

Jeonghan snickered. “I think she might be. You really are out of it, aren’t you? How about I walk you home?”

Jun shrugged. “If you insist.”

You opened the door as soon as the doorbell rang. “Jun! I’ve been waiting for hours! Are you okay?”

Jun grinned at you, and pulled someone behind him. “Really sorry about that, Y/n. This is Jeonghan. I met him at the library. He says I have a disease.”

“What?” You looked at Jeonghan strangely.

The light-haired boy shrugged, “I think he’s drunk or high. He’s saying weird things that don’t make any sense.”

Jun huffed. “I already told you I wasn’t drunk. Second of all, please stop talking about me like I’m not right here. Y/n, I have a disease called attraction and you caused it.”

You snorted. “Okay, it wasn’t the smoothest pick-up line, but I’ll take it.”

Jun groaned and grabbed his hair in frustration. “You humans never listen. Stop talking nonsense and help me find the cure to this disease!”

Jeonghan bent down and whispered in your ear, “What’s going on?”

“He’s just forgotten his meds,” you whispered back, hoping you sounded convincing enough to please the stranger. “He gets a bit confused when that happens. Thanks for bringing him home.”

“No problem,” he still gave you a weird look. “Do you need me to help, or…”

“No, no,” you assured him. “Everything’s alright.”

Jeonghan passed a distrusting look toward Jun. Then, he pulled a notepad and pen out of his back pocket. “Here’s my number, alright? Call me if you need to.”

“Thank you,” you said, your cheeks growing warm at his gentle smile. With one more nod, he was gone, and you were left with a very frustrated Jun.

“Sit down,” you told him. “We need to talk.”

Jun fell back into the sofa, his hand immediately grabbing your throw pillow. He cuddled it to his chest and pouted. “I don’t see why you guys have to make fun of me. It’s not my fault I don’t know human customs. Why would I? Do I look like a human?”

“You do, actually,” you said. After receiving a glare from Jun, you cleared your throat. “Anyway, it’s not a disease or an illness. It’s a feeling. All the symptoms are there, but it’s not dangerous or anything.”

Jun huffed. “Great. So I just looked like an idiot in front of that human.”

“I’m sorry,” you patted his knee gently, “It’s just that I don’t know what you do and don’t know. I thought attraction was a thing Cupids should know about.”

“Why would we?” Jun asked. “We don’t get attracted to each other, and it’s not like we come down onto earth often. Even then it’s only on business, like now.”

You furrowed your eyebrows. “But you told Jeonghan you were attracted to me.”

“Of course I am,” Jun said with no embarrassment whatsoever. “Why wouldn’t I be? I’ve been working on your case for months, wondering for the life of me why someone as beautiful as you would need help finding love. And now, after spending just a few days with you, I still can’t figure out why.”

“It’s because I’m Ace,” you told him, “and not all humans like that.”

“What do you mean?” Jun suddenly looked upset. “You can’t get a date because you don’t like sex? Isn’t that like someone rejecting me because I like pineapples on my pizza?”

You crinkled your nose. “To be fair, I would reject you for that.”

A laugh erupted from your lips when Jun shoved your side, a gentle smile on his face. Without warning, he tackled you into a hug, his warm breath on your neck calming your senses. “Is this okay?”

“Yeah,” you whispered. “This is more than okay.”

“Good.” Jun pulled you down until the two of you were cuddling on the couch, your bodies squished together awkwardly. “Because I think I could hold you all day long if you’d let me.”

Jun’s words still stood when he woke up, nose pressed against your soft neck. You smelt good, and your skin was smooth and soft against his. With his arms around you, he felt safe. Safe and happy and hopeful, that today would be another happy day spent with you. It was horrible, because he’d only known you properly for a few days, but like he had told you before, he felt attracted to you. And it didn’t matter how humans defined it, because Jun defined it himself as a disease; a disease that overwhelmed him with the urge to be with you today and tomorrow and the next day until it turned into eternity and Jun still wasn’t tired of you.

But that was all part of the disease. Because Jun wasn’t used to human affection. He wasn’t used to knowing how it felt to be with someone else. You, however, did. That was why you didn’t like him back. That was why, to you, he was only a friend. A business partner. He came here to find you love; real love. Not this infatuation-affection lovesickness he had. He was going to do his work, and then he was going to return to Cupid Inc.

Maybe he could restart his arrow project. Maybe he could make them into confidence arrows. Instead of giving people false feelings, it could just show them the feelings they already had…

“Y/n!” Jun sprang up, effectively rolling you onto the floor. Your back hit the rug with a loud thud, and you squinted up to see Jun’s concerned face peeking down at you, “I’m so sorry, but you have to help me out. I have a new arrow project.”

“You couldn’t have waited till I woke up to tell me?” you grumbled, sitting up. Your nose brushed against Jun’s for a moment before he pulled himself up, grinning.

“But this could work! This could be the rebranding we talked about!”

“I thought we gave up on that.”

“Too quickly,” Jun agreed, “Now my idea has evolved properly. It’s foolproof.”

“Alright,” you sighed, “What is it?”

“Okay… So what if I could make an arrow that brought your true feelings to life? The ones you already had, so it wouldn’t be fake at all.”

You got up and sat beside Jun in the couch, crossing your legs. “That is actually not a bad idea. Can you think of any cons before we get started?”

Jun furrowed his eyebrows, “Cons?”

“Reasons not to do it,” you explained. “Something that would make us quit halfway like last time.”

Jun shook his head. “No, this is it. This is the one that’s going to actually work.”

You hadn’t felt like cooking breakfast, and you didn’t trust Jun to use any more of your cooking ware. So while he worked on his arrows (once again), you went to McDonalds to pick up some breakfast biscuits and coffee.

Upon returning, you saw that Jun had simply made more arrows and piled them onto the coffee table. Instead of the one he had already used, he managed to unearth another one of your lovely saucepans and fill it with an oozy blue liquid.

In his defense, you hadn’t told him that the saucepans were off limits. For all you knew, he might actually think they were for potions, or magic slime, or whatever else that stuff could be.

Jun himself was wrapped in one of your blankets like a burrito, only his head and arms peeking out from the cozy exterior. He was on your laptop, eyes barely lifting to tell you hello. You unwrapped a biscuit and held it in front of his mouth. “Eat.”

He opened his mouth and took a bite before pulling back and going back to the laptop screen. Through his partly-swallowed food, he managed to get out, “I’ve brewed a few different coating that I think will work. My best shot, no pun intended, is coating the arrow point with this blue stuff. It’ll give the victim clarity to see who they love. Who they truly love. I also have a green one boiling on your stove. That one will help people gain the confidence to approach someone, or kiss them, or whatever they want to do but don’t have the guts to do.”

You broke out into a smile. “Jun! These are genius! It’s like a way to help people without forcing them to do anything they don’t want to do. It’s like cutting out the creepy middleman and creating a whole new brand.”

Jun rose his eyebrows, and for the first time you saw him smirk. It was filled with pride, and didn’t last lost as it gave way to a cheesy grin. “You really think so? Do you think they’ll accept it at Cupid Inc.?”

“I have no reason to think they won’t,” you sat down and pulled some of the blanket off of Jun so that you could wrap it around yourself as well.

“C'mere,” Jun shifted, pulling you over his lap, so that you could rest against his collarbone and he could finish his research. “Now, I was thinking that I could try them both out on you, if it’s okay. Maybe I’ll shoot the clarity arrow at Jeonghan and the confidence arrow at you?”

You lifted your head and braced your hand against his stomach as you stared at him. “What? Why Jeonghan? I thought you were the one with attraction.”

Jun giggled nervously, “Well, I’m a cupid. And I’ll be heading back to Cupid Inc. soon anyway. You’ll need a human to look after you while I’m gone. Also, Jeonghan blushed when he gave you his number. That’s a sign of attraction: I looked them up.”

You couldn’t really explain the disappointment you felt as you sank back down, you head falling onto Jun’s chest effortlessly, like it was meant to be there. You felt stupid, like some teen romance protagonist who was so angstily in love with her best friend.

Except this wasn’t some teen romance novel and you weren’t in love with your best friend. You were crushing on a cupid, and that seemed much, much worse. Because it was like mythology: messy and unattainable and more than likely something you would regret in years to come. But this was Jun, someone who wanted people to find love, not some Narcissus who only loved himself.

You didn’t even know you were gripping Jun’s shirt until he grabbed your hands and gently pulled them off of the fabric. “Is it not a good idea?” he asked worriedly. “Should I give it up and try again.”

“No, Jun, it’s just…” You clenched your eyelids tightly before opening them and looking into the boy’s eyes. “Do you not want to even try to be with me? Do you really think I would rather go out with some random boy at the library than you?”

Jun opened his mouth to say something, but he unfortunately wasn’t sure what to say. “I-I, well, um, I just thought…”

“What?” you asked. “Jun, it’s okay.”

Jun sighed and lifted a hand to run through his hair. “What if it’s not right? What if… I mean, I’m a cupid. I don’t know how human customs work and I certainly don’t know how human love works. What if I’m reading my feelings wrong and I end up breaking your heart? I’m scared I’m going to hurt you.”

“Jun,” you cupped his face and pressed your forehead against his, breathing in his scent and shaking your head at his nervous exhales. “Jun, it might seem like it but humans don’t have it figured out either, okay? I’m scared, too. I haven’t been in many relationships, and none that have lasted more than a few months. It’s nerve wracking, because I don’t know if you’re going to fly up to Cupidsville and leave me for someone else.”

“I don’t think I’d ever do that,” Jun said, lifting his head only slightly to kiss your nose. “Maybe… Maybe I can talk Wonwoo (he’s one of my friends up there) into taking over the arrows for me. He can get them manufactured, and I can stay down here, with you.”

“What about money? Food? A job?”

Jun bit his lip and looked away sheepishly, “Okay, What if I still worked at Cupid Inc. for the money, but came down here to hang out with you and sleep.”

“I’d like that a lot,” you said. “I-I like you a lot, Jun.”

“I like you a lot too, Y/n,” he grinned, and for the first time, you noticed his uneven teeth. Something inside of you soared at the thought of getting to learn more things about him every day, slowly, at your own pace.

“As much as I like cuddling with you, we should probably get up and do something productive now.”

“No,” Jun wrapped his arms around your shoulders and squished you against his body. “I’ll have to take these arrows back to Cupid Inc. tonight. For now, I just want to hold you.”

And that’s what he did.

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE: Crunchyroll Staff Talk About Their Love For Pokémon

  Today is February 27th, which means that it's been twenty-five years since the release of Red & Green, the set of games that marked the debut of Pocket Monsters. Since then, the franchise has grown to almost unimaginable proportions and honestly, I can't really imagine my life without it. I remember receiving a purple Game Boy Color and Red Version as a gift, and being so caught up in excitement that I literally lost control of some of my bodily functions. I'm serious. I named my Charmander "Fzzzz." I can't explain why. "Fzzzz" is just what my helpless thumbs typed onto the little screen and then, for hundreds of hours, Fzzzz, my growing team of monster pals and I explored everything that Kanto had to offer. It was a great journey. By the way, I miss ya, Fzzzz, where ever you are. Sorry about Rock Tunnel.

    But anyway, to celebrate the occasion, I decided to ask some of the people that I work with about their first Pokémon memories:

  Justin Lasola - Social Media Manager, Games

  Pokémon’s been part of my life since 1998! Pokémon will always mean the world to me because it grew up with me be it learning how to read at 4 with Red, questioning all moral ambiguity at 16 with Black, or making the two hour commute to my first job bearable at 22 with GO. Here’s to someday making my future kids go to bed with Pokémon Sleep! (WHERE IS IT TPCI??)

    David-Christopher Harris - Sr. Manager, Editorial & News

  The MissingNo glitch in Pokémon Red placed in my 8-year-old hands a level of power no mortal should possess. A god unchecked, I carved my kingdom from a throne of unlimited rare candies, and with every irresponsible creation of yet another lv. 100 Dragonite I forged a piece of my soul. Thank you, Pokémon, for giving myself and every other child who grew up in extreme poverty a better world to evolve in.

  Cameron Trentalange - Manager, Social Video

  “Dad, what does this say?” a younger, more innocent version of me asked many generations ago every time I pulled up a menu in Pokémon Red. This game not only captured my imagination, but it made me determined to learn how to read so I could play on my own and fully experience this amazing world. As a result, I was amongst the students with the highest reading & writing comprehension in my grade and I credit that almost entirely to this franchise (that credibility may have faded as I am currently contemplating whether I should be using “among” or “amongst”.) From competing in Pokémon TCG tournaments as a kid with my mom, to syncing Pokéwalkers with classmates in high school, and sharing VGC strategies with my little brother every time I visit home, I cannot imagine my childhood, or adulthood, without Pokémon.

Joseph Luster - Editor, Crunchyroll News  

I have a distinct memory of visiting family in Utah shortly after the original games launched on Game Boy in the states. I was 17 (I know, I’m old) and my parents went out to eat with my aunt and uncle. I, however, being the brain genius that I am, convinced them to let me stay in that night and I pummelled my way through the Elite Four with ease. I was way overleveled. My game of choice was Pokémon Red. I had all the KFC beanie babies or whatever they were (still do!). I watched the cartoon every day. I cannot stress enough that I was about a year away from graduating high school at the time. I wouldn’t do so until I caught them all.  

Sergio Vaca - LATAM/Spain Editorial Lead

  When Pokémon arrived in Spain I swore to myself that I would not get carried away by that craze and I believed that I would not like it. And with Pokémon: Red Edition and Pokémon: Blue Edition I did it, I kept playing other things and I was able to stay out of it. But Pokémon was everywhere, and when Pokémon: Yellow Edition came around I couldn't resist, so I bought it and invested hundreds of hours in it (really, hundreds of hours). With Pokémon Gold and Silver, I consolidated my love for those games, which clearly connected with my existing fondness for RPGs. In 2021 I'm not the biggest Pokémon fan in the world, I don't play at a competitive level, but every new classic style game that is announced makes me excited. I won't become the best trainer, but I certainly learned to enjoy Pokémon over 20 years ago and still do.

  Mae Velasco - Associate Manager, Social Media

  Pokémon gave me the courage to believe in myself and my choices — and we all know choosing your first starter Pokémon is one of the biggest decisions we could ever make. (For me as a second-grader with a Game Boy Color Kiwi, it was Pokémon Red and my first loyal companion, Charmander.) The beautiful part is that with every choice, there was no wrong choice: We all were “masters” of our own destiny and each decision led to a wondrous adventure, and with lots of training, teamwork, and heart, we all could be the very best that no one ever was. (On the series, don’t even get me started on how the scene of Ash saving Pikachu from a flock of Spearow wrecked me, and taught me so much about loyal, sacrificial friendship — no matter the obstacle!)

  Jonathan Solis - Social Media Coordinator

  Pokemon Crystal. I remember it so fondly. My mom helped me put my name into the game because I was upset that there was a 7 character limit for names for that generation and “Jonathan” was just a tad bit long. But after that small upset, it was honestly the start of an amazing journey. Almost every new release ends up in my hands and I play it for hours on end. My favorite release was probably Heartgold and Soulsilver because of the Pokewalker. Running the mile in middle school with my Pokemon at my side? That was the future. More recently, I’ve gotten into playing the card game and even went to regionals with my friends (as a spectator but one day I’ll hit the tables as a competitor!) Pokemon has left such a huge impression in my life and I don’t expect that to change any time soon.

  Jacqui E. - Graphic Designer

  When the Pokemon anime first came out and got super popular with the US audience, like so many others, I felt like it was made for me. I loved watching Ash take care of his Pokemon like his own little family he got to travel and go on adventures with. I was SO excited when I found out that actually, it’s a video game, and you can play it and raise your own Pokemon and go on adventures with them too! I saved up my allowance to get myself a Gameboy Color and Pokemon Red and spent countless hours building my team and constantly feeling guilty that anyone had to be left in the computer box (Thank you to Sun/Moon for giving them their own island). One of the greatest things about Pokemon is that there’s no wrong way to be a trainer--there are so many different kinds. Some people like Pokemon Contests, some people like hanging out with their Pokemon in Pokemon Amie and similar modes, some people legitimately want to be the very best like no one ever was. There’s room for everybody, and all of those things are valid and important. Also, one time I paid for a Squirtle C-watch at my local Toys R Us almost entirely in pennies, and then I of course lost the watch.

  What is your first Pokémon memory? Let me know in the comments!

  ______________________________________________

  Daniel Dockery is a Senior Staff Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter!

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: Daniel Dockery

[daleisgreat]

30 Years of GamBoy: How I persevered through the 90s with Nintendo's green-and-black portable as my best friend!

Over the past couple weeks social media has been buzzing with tributes and testimonials for the legacy of the GameBoy on its 30th anniversary of its Japan launch and fast approaching North American launch in 1989. There was also that pic a couple weeks ago of Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson playing linked two player Tetris that went viral that sent waves of nostalgia down my spine! Like countless other 90s kids I had a devout affection for the GameBoy’s (and its 1998 Color update) enduring legacy into 2001 when its true successor, the GameBoy Advance launched. So it is time to lay out my history with the little gray brick that could, but before I do I would be remiss if I were not to point you towards someone who has been doing phenomenal work chronicling the GameBoy’s history first. Retronauts host, Jeremy Parish has been painstakingly crafting videos detailing every GameBoy release for America and Japan in chronological order and currently is nearing the end of covering games released through 1990. So if you want to catch up and find out about the early hits and likely a plethora of titles you have never heard of before, then click here to dive in.

Unlike a lot of the excellent retrospectives I have been reading these past couple of weeks, minus a couple exceptions, I did not play that many of the AAA GameBoy titles from Nintendo. I was a sucker for licenses from my favorite sports leagues and watered down ports of the latest console games as you will later read about. It was not until I much later got the Official GameBoy Player’s Guide with my first Nintendo Power subscription a few years after I got a GameBoy that I realized what were the key titles for the system. However even after re-reading that bible of GameBoy knowledge multiple times I was adamant on avoiding the powerhouse first party titles like Super Mario Land, Metroid II, Link’s Awakening and Donkey Kong in favor for eye-blinking double take titles you will discover in a bit. My childhood preference of games went against the grain to say the least. With that out of the way, let us flashback to 1993…. I remember begging my parents for a GameBoy for Christmas in 1993 when I was 10. I cannot specifically remember why, but after ruminating about it I pinpointed it down to the fact in 1993 I still had a NES and my parents understandably did not want to budge on dropping $200 for the 16-bit upgrade. The GameBoy was at its height of its popularity at this time and advertisements for the green and black handheld dominated my Saturday morning cartoon lineup. The GameBoy launched at $90 in 1989 so by 1993 I think it was going for around $70 which seemed like a much more realistic sell to my folks at being my one-and-only ‘Santa’ gift for Christmas.

Also around this time I was going through serious pro-wrestling withdrawal. From about 1988 until early 1993 I was an avid WWF kiddo. Big Bossman and The Rockers were my favorites, and I have fond memories of braving the classrooms of Catholic school with my Big Bossman tennis shoes. However, growing up with three other siblings who detested the squared circle made it a battle for control of the household’s sole television. Eventually, the numbers game caught up and I got so use to being bullied out of getting my weekly then-WWF fix that I went nearly three years from early ’93 until late ’95 not watching my favorites on the airwaves. The only other way at that time for me to get my dose of wrestling at home was in the mostly mediocre-to-horrible wrestling games on NES. I played far too many hours of duds like Wrestlemania and Steel Cage Challenge than any kid should have, and double that for the decent at best grapplers on the system like Pro Wrestling and Tecmo World Wrestling. Enter 1993 and Royal Rumble for the Super Nintendo and Genesis. I lost track at the number of times I would play that game setup on free play at store kiosks. I was dazzled by Royal Rumble’s superior 16-bit graphics and standout feature, the Royal Rumble match that saw up to six wrestlers in the ring at once trying to throw everyone out and subsequently replaced with a fresh combatant until the game went through its entire 12-man roster. It seemed as close as it was going to get at the time to the insanely awesome Rumble match in one of my all-time favorite arcade games, WWF WrestleFest. Being able to participate in the chaos of the Royal Rumble match with a controller after endless hours of only one-on-one and tag team matches on various NES games was mind-blowing to 10-year old Dale. All the gaming magazines at the time were echoed my sentiments and gushed with glowing reviews which only served to exacerbate my demand.

Again I pleaded for a SNES and a copy of Royal Rumble for Christmas and again I was denied courtesy of its tall asking price. It was then I went with the aforementioned plan b for the GameBoy. Also hitting NES and GameBoy in 1993 was WWF King of the Ring. King of the Ring sported inferior 8-bit graphics and had a smaller roster of wrestlers and no awesome Royal Rumble match to play, but it did have the not-so-great King of the Ring tournament to play which was only a series of one-on-one matches, but most importantly it would be portable and I could play it anywhere and not have to worry about battling for control of the TV with my siblings to play it. Looking back now those were the catalysts to relentlessly ask my parents for the GameBoy. Growing up with divorced parents meant celebrating most holidays and birthdays twice. I got to celebrate Christmas first with my dad a few days before the actual date of Christmas and was elated to unwrap and discover my very own GameBoy with a copy of its killer-app, Tetris! Over the next couple of days I played an un-healthy amount of Tetris. ‘Gee, if this block-puzzle game I barely heard of before is this awesome, imagine how good the wrestling game would be’ naïve me daydreamed of at the time. However, before I could get to that moment, something unexpected and terrible transpired! On Christmas Eve I was with my family that night going to church for its annual Christmas Eve dinner gathering. To get through the night of being with my family I brought my new electronic best friend with me and snuck in as much Tetris as I could between bites. After we wrapped up and my family got back into the car to go back home my GameBoy was not as snugly tucked into my pocket as I thought and as I shut the car door my GameBoy slid out of my pocket and collided with the blunt force of me shutting the door onto it. As you can see in the screenshot here, the incident caused about 95% of the screen to get cracked and impossible to see and I balled my eyes out that entire night. Kids, do not bring your GameBoy to church or God will strike down upon you when least expected!

To make matters worse on Christmas morning the next day I opened up a copy of WWF King of the Ring for GameBoy from Santa. I plugged it into my cracked GameBoy and was stunned to see it still worked and played the music and it would display the miniscule amount of graphics that were possible in the tiny corners of the GameBoy screen that were not damaged. I must have begged my parents for days to see if they could get the GameBoy replaced or returned or something. I feel horrible now for how irritating I must have been at that time. To my surprise, my mom came through a week or two later and got me a new GameBoy. Once again I was thrilled and beyond belief of how those past couple weeks played out, but from then on I was extra careful with my GameBoy and to this day I still own both my busted and replacement brick GameBoys. For a few months all I had was Tetris and King of the Ring. I loved Tetris and even found a classmate to link up and play two player with a few times and it remains in my GameBoy library to this day! However, even with my childhood adoration for wrestling I could tell King of the Ring would be nothing more than a middling wrestling game and nothing compared to its 16-bit brethren (though it did have some rocking wrestler chiptune entrance themes). At this point a few months into 1994 our local videogame shop was a place called Tiger Play, which was essentially a modern day GameStop that bought, sold and traded new and used games. It was the same store where I persistently requested to put Royal Rumble for play in its kiosk to the chagrin of the employees. I have no idea how they tolerated me back then. I decided it was time to part ways with King of the Ring and trade it in for something else.

In early 1994 Mortal Kombat fever was running wild with the sequel dominating arcades and the home release being super popular with all my classmates. Mortal Kombat did not come out for NES, but it did for GameBoy and the now much wiser 11-year old Dale thought the GameBoy version would be just as good as the SNES, but only not in color and was thrilled to hear Tiger Play would happily do a straight-up trade of King of the Ring for Mortal Kombat. Right away I could tell something was not right to discover it was missing Johnny Cage from its roster and it ran a significantly slower framerate. I still remember having to ever--so—slowly--like--this input the button sequences for the special moves in order to get them to work. Even worse, facing Shang Tsung on there was super cheap because he would automatically cast a projectile when one input away from pulling off a special move so I had to learn to beat him without special moves which took forever, but I eventually pulled it off. The GameBoy version of MK did have one thing going for it over the rest and that would be it was the only version of MK that let you play as Goro! Goro was unstoppable, but even with that trump card, the handheld MK was pretty lousy, but I forced myself to get some enjoyment out of it before marching back to Tiger Play a few months later and trading MK in for Bo Jackson: Baseball and Football. Turns out ‘Bo Knows…’ how to endorse subpar sports game, but the sports nut in me played that to death for a couple years because Tiger Play closed its doors around this time and it would be a few years until our town got another videogame store. After that brief flirtation with trading games in I would only receive two games a year for GameBoy from 1994 through 1998 shortly before I got my first job and could afford my own games then. At that period in my life those two games a year meant everything to me. As hinted above, I was still drawn towards games based on my favorite licenses at that point and Bart vs. the Juggernauts was one of my early games I received as a present. The mini-game collection featured a lot of hair-pulling cheap controls, but I forced myself to stick with it and lit up when it became one of the first games I ever finished. A much better game I got as a present that I also finished was Donkey Kong Land. I have no idea how Rare was able to get graphics that seemed somewhat comparable to the SNES Donkey Kong Country, but I remember loving playing it, but being bummed at its lackluster ending of only ‘congratulations’ with no accompanying DK crew victory graphic. At least Bart vs. the Juggernauts had a wicked ending with Bart getting rewarded with his very own ‘Truck-a-Saurus.’

I learned my lesson from Bo Jackson and MK to do my research for better games on the GameBoy….actually no because I kept asking for more fighting and sports games for Christmas and birthdays, but at least getting varying degrees of better ones this time. The original NFL Quarterback Club on GameBoy I had a ton of fun with. It only featured the ‘Quarterback Club’ mini-games, but no actual game of football that was playable in its console versions. That was not a problem though as me and my siblings had a surprising amount of fun alternating back-and-forth with the various QB drill mini-games available and I could not help but crack up that my sister only played as Jim Kelley because of how close it sounded to ‘Jim Carrey’ who was wildly popular in the mid-90s. NFL Quarterback Club ‘96 was only actual football and no mini-games, but that was fine because it featured a far better handheld rendition of football compared to Bo Jackson and even a season mode with password save option! Yes, I still have my passwords saved inside the instruction manual. Ken Griffey Jr. Presents: MLB is an awesome port of the SNES original and blew away the baseball from Bo Jackson. It had a battery-save season mode along with the ability to trade players with no restrictions so I created my team of all-stars and rocked through an entire season throughout many family car rides. Mortal Kombat II is a huge upgrade from the first portable version, and while it also had a scaled back roster it did feature more precise gameplay, more friendly controls to pull off special moves and fatalities and a stable framerate resulting in me not trading this one away and playing it way too much.

That wraps up all the games I got as gifts and by the time I got my first job the GameBoy Color hit the market so I eagerly picked that up. There were a couple classmates over the years I met where we borrowed games to each other. I did not discover many new gems that way as most kids were also picking up the dreck of LJN licensed games and I could one can only tolerate so much out of WWF RAW, Fist of the North Star and Home Alone on GameBoy before getting out of the game borrowing market. I managed not to get swept up in PokeFever as I was just a couple years older than that targeted demographic. I did pick up Pokemon Blue shortly after its release after reading about the hype for it and got a little ways into it before my younger brother noticed me playing it and asked to borrow it around the time it was blowing up with younger kids so I did not mind letting him hold onto it until it for his GameBoy until he remembered to give it back to me about ten years later. Since the GameBoy Color was only on the market for a few years I will not meander on as long about it. With that said, the GameBoy Color far surpassed the meek GameBoy in every way with the exception of not having a backlit screen. Other than that, it was smaller, fit more comfortably in my pocket, took two less batteries and well….the addition of color! Yes, I picked up a few too many sports and wrestling games on it again that were mediocre at best, but I did have a lot of fun with some enhanced NES re-releases on there with Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, the first three Dragon Warrior games and Micro Machines 1 & 2: Twin Turbo. For original titles my favorites were Mario Golf and Mario Tennis. For people familiar with the recent Golf Story on Switch Mario Golf is a lot like that where it is a sports-RPG hybrid where it has a fairly in-depth narrative at attending a golf/tennis academy to become the best player and being able to take lessons and play mini-games to level-up and prepare for the tournaments. Super Mario Bros. Deluxe had a lot of fun extras and even a two player competitive mode to see who can finish a stage first that I absolutely ate up.

A couple years ago some unearthly thing got me craving the basic, watered down platformers that dominated GameBoy and I hunted down the five Turok games released for GameBoy platforms and I played through the entirety of the first one on the original GameBoy and had a somewhat decent time with it. I did not play it on the actual GameBoy, mind you but instead on my TV courtesy of the Retron 5. I should mention I am a proud owner of the Super GameBoy, GameBoy Player and Retron 5 which made it convenient to bust out these portable games at a much friendlier resolution and not have to worry about the GameBoy’s non-backlit screen. In honor of the 30th anniversary last week I popped in the GameBoy Color version of Turok 2 and played a couple levels into it. For as weak and watered down most handheld versions of console games were, there was something about it that kept me coming back to them. The GameBoy helped me through my childhood, too many family trip car rides to count and several summers on a farm. I probably had an unorthodox library of games for my GameBoy compared to the average owner who probably owned a majority of vastly superior games released by Nintendo, Capcom and Konami. What can I say, I was too young to realize what to ask my folks for. No matter how strong or weak each game wound up, I made sure to get the absolute most out of each game. Thank you Nintendo for releasing and supporting the GameBoy well after you should have throughout the 90s and enabling me to enjoy games anywhere! Thank you to everyone who got through this indulging my childhood memories of portable gaming with me! I hope you all have just as many great childhood handheld system gaming memories as I did whether it was on GameBoy, GameGear or later generations like GBA, PSP, DS, mobile, etc.

[sylvieusedhyperbeam]

Some Thoughts from an Older Pokemon Fan

And now for something a bit more positive in the sappy happy shit venue of things!!

Mmkay.  Once upon a time, I had an old and very good friend who I was trying to get into pokemon for the longest ass time.  He wasn’t really into it because he thought the anime and the overall games were stupid/childish, so yeah, he was a hard sell on it even though sometimes he’d play Pokemon Stadium with me because the minigames were pretty fun.  But then Pokemon Colosseum and Pokemon XD came out.  These were games that were very different from the mainstream Pokemon games, if only because they were a little darker, and plus your pokes battling in 3D was pretty badass compared to the 2D graphics we still had back then. You will never guess what happened.

I got him to play his own file of XD, and he was actually enjoying it.

So yeah!!  He evolved the Eevee you get as a starter in this game into an Umbreon, of course.  Between Espeon and Umbreon, Umbreon was his favorite.  And he played through this game kicking tons of ass with said Umbie, that he nicknamed REMUS.  Not sure why because no it wasn’t from Harry Potter, but ehhhhh.  /KANYE SHRUG

ANYWAY he was gradually getting into the games so to make sure it stuck, I gave him my copy of Pokemon Ruby where he chose Treecko as his starter and began the tumultuous descent into sheer insanity.  Pretty soon, we were engaged in a race to fill our pokedexes and battled a lot and had a pretty enjoyable rivalry going!!

We kinda drifted apart in the past few years, but I won’t forget one gift he traded to me into my Pokemon LeafGreen.  

It was none other than his Umbreon, Remus.

Time passed, new games came out, but I lost interest in Pokemon for a while so I didn’t really get back into the loop until HeartGold and SoulSilver came out.  In the midst of all that, I kind of forgot about LeafGreen and moved on.  X and Alpha Sapphire came out, and for a long time AS was my intense focus because that was when I finally started getting into battling in the metagame and stuff. And of course when Sun and Moon came out, Sun became (and still is) my main focus.

But then I finally got Pokemon Bank and Pokemon Transport.  Yeah, I’ll admit to being a stubborn bastard up until that point about getting Bank because cheapass motherfucker ANYWAY.  

For one reason or another, I don’t even remember how it happened, but I wondered if my LeafGreen still actually worked.  I’d just finished a nuzlocke run on my Pokemon X, and I’d been thinking of restarting LeafGreen to run a nuzlocke on that just for nostalgia’s sake, I guess. Soooo I plug it into my old-ass DS, and what do you know, I still have a save file on it that still loads.  And guess who I stumbled across in my PC.

Yup.

Remus.

God, the memories that flowed when I saw him were nothing but happy ones.  Happy memories of trading madly with my friend as we both scrambled to one-up each other on our national dexes.  Happy memories of battling with my friend and seeing who had looked up the better strats on running particular pokes.  Happy memories of just constantly goading and trolling each other in good fun because we were playing a game together, and the rest of the world could just stop while we enjoyed a seemingly simple game that has fostered some startlingly complex emotions in a lot of people.  Granted these complex feelings are rooted in many, many people tying this game to their childhoods, but still.  They were nothing but happy memories that made me enjoy the game that much more.  Having an actual IRL rival in Pokemon is pretty damn sweet and I’d recommend it to anyone.

At that moment, my decision was made.  Before my LeafGreen battery potentially ran out, I was gonna move Remus to Pokemon Sun.  

Which I did!  I moved him from HeartGold to Black to the Poke Transport, all the way to Sun!!  

So now, when Remus is not in my party traveling with me, he is enjoying a nice relaxing life on a Poke Pelago island.  

And it trips me the hell out, because guys, this Umbreon is well over ten years old.  Pokemon XD came out in 2005, and even though I’m pretty sure my friend didn’t start his own file until at least 2006, that’s still eleven years.  This Umbreon is older than a number of children.

I guess it really trips me out because I’ve… been there since literally day one of Pokemon. I played Pokemon Red, I can remember starting my file while I was sitting in the car because I had to stay home from school sick that day and my mom had to take me along with her to run errands, so while I sat in the car I put Red in my Gameboy pocket.  Like I said, since day one.  

Pokemon Bank? Wireless trading?  That shit would have been completely alien to us old fogeys who back then were twisting knots out of our gamelink cables.  We had to battle and trade on the school bus, hoping that our Gameboys wouldn’t get confiscated.  Oh, and if we wanted our pokes on another game?  Welp, hope you either own an extra Gameboy or you have a really nice friend willing to lend you theirs, because otherwise, you were shit outta luck.  

I guess my point is it is fucking amazing how far technology has come since then.  It’s incredible!!  Guys, we have literally gone from trading (or cloning) Pokemon over link cables, to literally being able to trade Pokemon from the US to freaking JAPAN if we wanted!  When you stop and think about it, that’s actually astounding.  If I want to battle, I can just hop on the battle spot and challenge a random guy all the way in France.  I even have some of my best competitive pokemon right now BECAUSE of pokemon I received as gifts via Wondertrade, a good many of which are from different countries all around the world.  I wish I could personally thank those people or at least send them nice things right back via trade for making my life so much easier.  

And Pokemon Bank? Well, Bank made it possible for me to keep and care for what I will sappily call a symbol of a truly great friendship.  In all my sappy silly sentimentality, I’ve decided that Remus is going to be staying with me, throughout however many Pokemon games are due to come out.  Because come on, Remus began his life as an Umbie who kicked ass and took names while fighting the nefarious Cipher syndicate, adventure is in his blood.

Silliness aside, it’s just very humbling to think of how technology evolves and all the complicated emotions that are tied into its developments, I suppose.

Thanks for growing and evolving with your base, Game Freak, and making so many fantastic memories possible!