#i want to trap them in a tamagotchi

[cruelnemothesis]

[bluesidez]

Gym Rat Miguel Part 12

content warning: Miguel is very dramatic in this one, mentions of food

word count: 4k (SHOUTOUT TO MY BETA!! @slushycoookie 🩵)

Prev | Next ✩°｡ ⋆⸜ 🎧✮ Masterlist

DISCLAIMER: This story is not canonical. 😒 Most, if not all, of the characters used are OOC. I literally can not stress this enough.

GymRat!Miguel who tries not to dwell on the fact that it’s been just about a month since he’s seen you. It’s the middle of the week and if he thinks about it too much, he’s going to go crazy.

It feels odd because you’re on the same campus as him. You’re not across the country. You’re not out of the country. You’re literally a short walk or drive away and neither of you have time to see each other.

He’s considering printing your pictures out and walking around with them like a forlorn lover looking for his lost soulmate. It feels like he’s back in his bedroom staring at your pictures for hours like a man at war aching for home.

He’s exhausted all of his options.

The couple-lunches have all been rain-checked, the weight of your workload trapping you in the Art building.

Your sleep schedule was terrible, if the late night TikToks and reels were anything to go by. He knew you had morning classes too so he could only assume you’ve had a few hours of sleep during the weeknights.

The weekends were for rest and he didn’t want to disrupt yours.

Your dorm tracked visitors which means he’d only have a few hours with you before curfew if you were even there.

GymRat!Miguel who misses you so bad he’s temporarily replaced his gym playlist for the one you gifted him.

His face is set hard, feet heavy as he sprints over a curved treadmill. After a few minutes he stops, takes a small break, and runs again.

Even the melodic and somber voice playing over a groovy piano couldn’t soothe his thoughts.

His heart rammed in his chest as sweat trickled down his face, his tank drenched and clinging to his chest.

Just a few more sprints to go.

GymRat!Miguel who slides the ear of his headphone off because Xina is standing in front of him, blocking his path.

“Anymore sprints and you’re going to pass out,” she hands him a towel.

“Maybe I want to,” Miguel grumbles, nabbing the towel and rubbing his face like someone spit on it.

Xina grabbed her ponytail and pinned it up, loose hair sticking to her neck. “Don’t say that. It’s not funny. I can only manage pulling your body to the entrance to the gym.”

Miguel snorted.

GymRat!Miguel who fills up the time that he used to spend with you to get to know his friends and meet others.

This meant having game nights with Peter and Ben. They were so close, not really, to convincing him to join their DND parties.

If he wasn’t with them, he was occasionally calling The Geek Squad and catching up. A Friendsgiving date was now tentatively on his calendar because of it.

Of course, his robotics team was still going steady. Aaron was interesting, if nothing else, and Margo was like the little sister he never had.

Then, there was checking up on Gabriel like a Tamagotchi. Was he eating ok? Did he need some money? Is he trapped in the subway? Did a rat eat him?

Gabriel had sent him a screenshot of his contact with his name being changed to “Mom #2.”

Miguel only scoffed and told Gabriel his name was going to get changed to “pain in my ass.”

The newest development, however, was Xina. Her transferring here felt like middle school when they used to be attached at the hip.

They had their programming class together two days out of the week, biweekly study sessions, and the occasional late night excursion.

It also explains why she’s eyeing him from the stairmaster while he heaves over the handles of the treadmill.

GymRat!Miguel who thanked Xina as she handed him his jug of water. He sat up from the bench to let her take a seat.

“So,” she started.

“I’m not helping you hack your professor’s dashboard. While you could do it, it’s not a good idea and quantum physics isn’t that-“

“It’s not that, you dick,” Xina pinched his side. “It’s you. What’s up with you?”

“Nothing is up with me.”

“Miguel.”

“Xina.”

“Now, you’re being a brat. Something is definitely wrong.”

Miguel picked at the peeling Game Over sticker on his bottle. He needed to tape it down or he’d lose it.

“I miss her.”

“Miss who? Your mom?”

“What? No. I miss my girlfriend.”

It was quiet between them, the sound of chatter and the clanking of equipment filled the white noise.

Xina tilted her head, “That bad?”

Miguel nods.

“When’s the last time you saw her?”

He takes a dramatic breath, “Our anniversary date. Last month. I feel…”

“Like you can’t function? Like it’s hard to think?”

“Is that pathetic?” Miguel winces. “I have a feeling you’re going to say that it is.”

“No, I don’t think that.”

Miguel pouts as he looks up. Xina shrugs and slides her hands on down her leggings.

“Remember the times I went boy crazy? All the times I came crying to you after they screwed me over, even when you already warned me they weren’t good guys? I think you deserve to be crazy about your girlfriend.”

“Thanks,” Miguel blinked. “You were way too nice to those first guys.”

“I learned though, didn’t I? I know a good guy when I see him, now,” Xina pushed at Miguel’s shoulders with hers.

“And now those self-defense lessons won’t go to waste, right?”

Xina snorted as she recalled the time she managed to flip Winston on his back at Miguel’s instruction.

GymRat!Miguel who watches Xina’s eyes grow in shock when he tells her how long he’s been dating you.

“Dang,” Xina stops in her tracks. “A year?”

Miguel puffs up his chest and stands a little straighter, a confident stride in his step, “One year and counting.”

“That’s,” Xina turns and waits for a car to go by. She readjusts her gym bag. “That’s awesome, Hare-Hare.”

GymRat!Miguel who feels the mood shift by the time he drops Xina back off. He’s not sure what’s brought it up, but now he’s nervous about upsetting her more.

He taps on the wheel, after he pulls into a park.

“You sure you don’t want me to get you anything? You don’t need to go anywhere?”

Xina unbuckles her seatbelt, “Nope. All good. See you tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” he watches her close the door before he can even finish. “See you.”

GymRat!Miguel who obliges when Xina texts him the next day to switch up their study session location.

Miguel wanted to keep the busy calm of the 1st floor of the library but Xina insisted on giving him a change of scenery.

“It’s good for you! You stare at the screen all day when you’re coding,” Xina slams Miguel’s car door to which he sneer at her for. “You need to look up and smell the coffee sometimes.”

“You just want a reason to not do your work.”

Xina turns around and walks backwards in front of Miguel, “And that’s completely fine. We should live a little.”

She trips over the edge of the sidewalk with a yelp and Miguel is quick to catch her, the panic on his face evident.

“See,” she grins as she pulls herself up by Miguel’s shoulders. “Living!”

GymRat!Miguel who lets Xina order for him while he finds a table.

The cafe was bright, white wood accenting the walls with vines and plants adorning the area. Salmon pink brought a pop of color to the sandy-looking tables and fairy lights hung in the corners of the room.

Miguel’s eyes grew as he saw the variety of desserts on display, his mouth itching to take a bite.

“No, no, no. Go away. I’ll pick something you’ll like,” Xina blocks Miguel’s lingering eyes.

Miguel clicks his teeth, “If it’s not good, I’m going to be really upset.”

“I doubt it.”

GymRat!Miguel who walks deeper into the cafe. He’s dodging ceiling plants left and right, but he’s sure that the best seats are in the furthest of the building.

He shuffles around a corner, eyes adjusting to the sun coming through window.

He blinks a few times and takes in the spacious area.

That’s when he sees you.

He walks fast, the strides of his steps wide.

The closer he gets, the stronger the smell of peaches builds. The sun was shining down like it granted Miguel one the greatest gifts of his life. Its rays danced across the spot that you're in.

He gets to your chair and pulled it out with ease, the sound disrupting the hushed corner.

A pen falls to the floor, voices are cut short, and arms are flailing but Miguel’s nose is buried deep into your neck.

Your arms tighten around his neck and your voice skips across his ears.

“I-” a kiss across your face, “missed you so much.” Miguel looks at you like you hold the stars in the sky within your palm.

“You scared the shit out of me, Miguel,” you say with no really malice in your voice. Your thumbs run across his cheeks, watching as he beams at you. You kiss him once or twice, heart fluttering as your feet dangle in the air.

“I hope there aren’t many people picking you up in the middle of establishments,” Miguel mumbled across your lips.

“Guys, there’s people staring at us,” a voice creeps in from the side of Miguel.

Miguel’s eyes follow it to see a deer-looking kid with hoodie pulled up over his ears.

“Who is this?”

GymRat!Miguel who is introduced to Miles, your freshman classmate that you’ve taken in.

He’s sitting across the table nodding along to you as you rave about Miles’ work. The entire time, his right hand didn’t leave your left one.

“So,” Miguel chimes in when there’s a pause. “Have you both been coming here a while?”

“Nah, I just dragged her out here recently. She never leaves the art building when a deadline is near. It’s kind of depressing-“

“You know, Miles.” You're holding back an eye roll. “There are times when you could just not talk.”

“No, actually tell me more,” Miguel insisted, attentive.

GymRat!Miguel who hurries to help a struggling Xina when she rounds the corner with a tray full of goodies.

A cinnamon roll, a lemon tart, a tall purple drink, and some warm tea is placed on the table while you and Miles clear the area.

You sit up straighter to watch Miguel pick up the tea cup and blow over it. “Tea? No milk with a pinch of coffee?”

“Amor…”

Xina looks over to his cup, “Did you want something else?”

“No, this is good, I haven’t had this in a while,” he takes a sip and hums while explaining to you. “I’ve been on this sweet drink kick since she let me try her frappe last year.”

“That’s rich because you always hated it when I got those.”

“To be fair, you downed like four of those in one day. I’m surprised your body didn’t go into shock.”

“I don’t know,” you shrug. “Four in one day must have meant you were going through it.”

Xina smiles and nods her head, “Exactly. And I told him-”

“We’re not doing this,” Miguel grumbled and stabbed his fork into his roll. “Four was way too much and she was bouncing off the walls all day just to crash and throw up on my shoes.”

“I said I was sorry about that!”

GymRat!Miguel who cuts pieces of his dessert to feed to you. You look at him incredulously as he insists on giving you bite after bite.

“Is it good?” Miguel asks chewing his own piece. You nod and he grins, happy in the bubble he’s created.

When Xina reaches for his plate for a piece he slides it away with ease, a move he knows too well.

“Why can’t I have some? I bought it.”

“You didn’t even ask!”

“Neither did she!”

Miles leans over to you, “I feel like I’m watching a fight between me and my baby sister.”

Miguel is pushing Xina’s hands away from his plate while she laughs up a storm. You think that it does mirror something like Gabriel and Miguel’s relationship, but something about Miguel isn’t the same.

GymRat!Miguel who continues his Tom and Jerry act with Xina even when the food is gone.

They were bickering over some formula that you couldn’t begin to figure out by yourself. To Miguel, it’s easy. To Xina, the setup makes no sense.

“How did you survive Ivy League without me?” Miguel asks as he reaches over and erases an error on her page.

“Like I do anything else, with peace.”

“So what you’re saying is,” Miguel points his pencil at Xina, “you hate me and I am not needed for problems 4 through 10.”

“No!” she panics, pushing his pen back to the paper. “I need you to start this one. I don’t understand it.”

“We just did one like this, though. It’s just the imaginary number all over again.”

Xina groaned and slumped in her chair while Miguel just turned back to his on work.

GymRat!Miguel who peers up from his computer to watch you work. You eyebrows pinch as your wrist moves across the large sketchpad in front of you. Your hand is moving fast and you’re so focused. Miguel hasn’t seen you like this before. In your element.

He leans his head on his hand, cheek squished and staring at you like he’s never seen you, like you were something to be admired.

You were pretty today, a sweater with some cartoon on it and some jeans that flared out at the bottom. Your bunny necklace was dangling around your neck and your glasses were falling down your nose.

You push them back and a smudge of charcoal from moving Miles’ artwork gets on your cheek.

“Stare at her any harder and she might grow something freaky,” Miles whispers.

Miguel falters and grabs a napkin, leaning to wipe your cheek, “She has something on her face.”

GymRat!Miguel who tries to be even more discreet as he watches you fill up the page. It’s mesmerizing seeing what you come up with.

He’ll type a little bit then look at your sketches, he’ll click a few links then look at your face. Sometimes, you would catch him looking and smile at resulting in his heart picking up.

Occasionally, Miles would ask your opinion on something and you would give him pointers, the two of you discussing something about focal points and rule of threes.

Miguel just wanted to put his stuff up and listen to you all day.

“What are you working on?” Xina asks, her voice breaking the silence. She’s staring directly at your drawings, fingers tapping against her notebook.

You perk up and flip your pad around, “It’s some ideas for one of our bigger projects! The theme is reinventing a classic, so I’m thinking something like a spin on Lady Godiva with a haunted theme and darker palette. Or The Fallen Angel with a bird’s eye perspective of him on the ground.”

You took a breath and flipped the page, “And then there’s The Kiss which I wanted to actually do a glaze to really give it that ‘mosaic’ look.”

Miguel leaned in with Xina to take a closer look.

The sketch was exceptional to say the least. Miguel wasn’t too sure how the original painting looked, but your drawing detailed a woman wrapped in these angular, moving shapes. Her face was angled up and a far-off look adorned her features. To her right sat a man whose lips were on her neck and his attention solely on her.

It was soft, yet strong. How you managed to put so much intimacy onto a single page was beyond him.

The feeling of it was familiar and when he looked up at you, he knew.

Miguel opens his mouth, “It’s..”

“Boring.”

“Beautiful.”

He turns to Xina with a frown on his face as she flips back to the front page.

“I mean, I think one of the other two is better, you know? More of a twist on the originals. The last one feels safe.”

The table is quiet as Xina’s comment marinates. She’s flipping further into your book and Miguel promptly snatches it from her and closes it a bit harder than he needs to. Miles shifts in his seat, chewing on the straw of his drink.

“Can you explain why it feels safe to you?” your fingers pick at a nail.

She looks up, “Well, don’t you want to stand out? Out of the others, I don’t think this one is that unique.”

“The point isn’t to stand out,” Miles chimes in. “The assignment is about remixing a classic and all three of these do that pretty well.”

Your smile is small, “Thanks, Miles.”

“So which one do you think is better?” Xina asks.

“The last one,” both Miles and Miguel say.

“It carries the emotion of the original while also bringing more focus to couple rather than the abstracted cloth. You can see the love between them in a way that the original doesn’t have and it’s not even painted yet,” Miles talks with ease. “But! That’s just my opinion.”

“I think it’s powerful,” Miguel hums. “You should go with that one.”

You nod, thumbing over the corner of the pages.

GymRat!Miguel who watches Miles nearly fly out of the cafe.

Something about catching the bus to go see a friend perform.

“Poor thing,” you mumble. “He didn’t even buy the tickets yet.”

GymRat!Miguel who can almost see the stress coming off of you in waves the later it gets in the evening.

“Are you alright?” Miguel places his hand over yours.

“Yeah, I think I need a nap.”

“Need me to drive you back?”

“No, it’s fine. You need to drive Xina back.” You start to pack up. “I brought my car anyways.”

Miguel follows your movements, hands putting his laptop up as well.

He hurries to pull your chair out and you thank him with a quiet voice. He follows you from the table to the door to your car. The scene is almost comical the way he’s in your peripheral.

“Will I see you again soon?” Miguel leans on the hood of your car, body practically falling onto you in the driver’s seat. “We gotta set up a date.”

“I’ll see what I can do, baby,” you rub his face and kiss the kicked-puppy look off of his face. “I’ll text you once I get back.”

“Please.”

GymRat!Miguel who throws his backpack in the backseat and slumps over the wheel once he’s certain your car was down the road.

“What now?” Xina patted Miguel’s back. “You miss her again?”

Miguel just dug his head onto the horn, the effect alerting anyone within 50ft radius.

“Ok, ok,” Xina yanked him up by his shoulders only for him to drop back down again. She sighs and grabs the back of his head with a slight yank to his hair.

Miguel swats her hand away with a grit to his teeth and a pinch to his brows.

Xina only holds her hands up with a grin lining her lips, “Calm down.”

“You’re really annoying me today.”

Xina drops her hands and her smile falters. Miguel straightens up with an apology on the roof of his mouth before Xina picks back up with joy.

“What I think you need is an awesome rager for your birthday.”

“No.”

“Why not? It could be fun!”

“I’m all partied out until next year.”

“Not even with your friends? People from your department? A couple of classmates? The robo nerds?”

“That’s robo rockstars to you.”

Xina laughed and buckled her seatbelt.

“I think it could be great, seriously. We’re doing it.”

Miguel only groaned and turned on the ignition.

GymRat!Miguel who wanted to use his Sunday for relaxation, a cheat day, maybe a game or two with Gabriel, Peter, and Winston.

Instead, he’s lying on his bed listening to Xina rant about one of her roommates using the sink as a trash can.

“Like we have a ridiculously expensive trash can that’s less than a foot away from the sink. It’s a simple spin and drop.”

“Ok, I get this is really gross, but don’t you have other friends you could bother?”

Xina pauses, and points her finger at him, “Hey, I’m here to help you out. If I wasn’t here, who knows how down in the dumps you’d be.”

“This isn’t helping me.”

GymRat!Miguel who answers his phone while Xina has managed to pull Peter into a game of Overcooked on his Switch.

“Hey, Ma.”

“Miguel! How do I connect your father’s computer to the TV? He found a movie that we could watch but the screen is so small.”

“He found a movie but can’t connect cords?”

“Just answer the question, mijo.”

Miguel sits up, prepared to spend at least forty minutes trying to explain what an HDMI cord is.

“Yeah.”

Xina gasps, pauses the game leaving a displeased Peter, and hops into the corner of Miguel’s phone.

“Hi, Mrs. O’Hara!”

“Hola, mi dulce niña! Hace mucho que no te veo. ¿Que tal te ha ido?“ (Hello, my sweet girl! I haven’t seen you in a long time. How have you been?)

“Más o menos, pero me alegro de verte.” (So-so, but I’m happy to see you.)

“No, Xina! ¿Qué tienes?” (What’s wrong?)

Miguel just plopped the device in Xina’s hand, “I like how you both started a conversation on my phone.”

“We’ve got important things to discuss,” Xina waved him off while she and his mother continued to fawn over each other.

Miguel just slid off the bed and joined Peter.

GymRat!Miguel who doesn’t get his phone back until curfew hours are around the corner.

Xina and his mom discussed everything from reality TV to recipes to her time up north. Xina left happier than when she came in which Miguel didn’t mind. He just wished he could have had the room to himself.

GymRat!Miguel who doesn’t see your message until he’s about to go to sleep.

“Baby”

“Let’s do something together on your bday”

Miguel unpeeled his eyes and typed swiftly.

“YES”

“YEESSSS”

“Best birthday ever already”

“Someone’s excited”

“I haven’t even said what we’re doing yet”

“What are we doing”

“Tell me please”

“Pleasepleasepleaseplease”

“Mmm”

“No”

“It’s a secret 🙂‍↔️”

“I can wait”

“That you are”

“Sometimes”

“😗”

“But mi luz I think Xina is trying to plan something too”

“Oh”

“Should we raincheck then?”

“NOOOOOO!”

“I can do both”

“I’ll literally split myself in two”

“You don’t have to choose”

“My gift is small”

“I want you to have fun on your special day”

“Can you come to the party?”

“I don’t want to miss it but I’ll have to see”

“If anything it’ll be much later”

“As long as I get to see you I’ll be happy”

“Good night bebé”

“Night!”

"Love you"

“Love you more"

divider by: @plutism 🩵

a/n: I have no notes other than school is starting back up so my posting schedule will be even more irregular. 🤠 Please bear with me.

The taglist has reached the max number! If you want updates, check my blog, turn on post notifs, or subscribe to it on AO3!

taglist: @ghost-lantern @miguelhugger2099 @emelie-s-h @lake-lili

@obsessed-with-miguels-ass @scaleniusrm @superiorspiderass @lexluvswriting

@flordelalunas @froggygal @vmpz8sauceee @famouscattale @nixinluv02

@jada-of-arcadia @spideykid22 @what-the-jams @julia4today @tojishugetiddies

@samjinxx @sleeklyalisha @the-pan-liquid @prongs-lover @kikaaauu

@urlocallocachica @wanderlustingcastaway @peachey-pie @ch3rry-bl1ss @girl-of-multi-fandoms

@love-kha1 @manlikemilesmyguy @sillysillygoofygoose @monticellohoe @kodzuminx

@lauraolar14 @bruhhvv @m4dyy @farrowroyale @cl3stevu

@ohara-whore @muneca-lemon-steppa @alexa4040 @amelialysm @snails-doodles22

@questionable-behaviour @babygotl01292003 @calig0sto @tatatida @haveclayeveryday

@corpsenightmarebride @earth2fae @maiyart @feegrh32 @darkstarlight82

@ladysimp @sonicbutbutter @relatednative @slowlyshycomputer @nuetralcolorsenthusiast

@maxlinpetersen @beyondstarlight @Madeofstar-dust @leoeloo @just-simpins-blog

@poisamm @thequeenreaders @tinybirdhidedout @aly29a2001 @mimi-sanisanidiot

@snakelore @pigeonmama @darkstalight82 @prettygirleli @koikohib

@jayskookies @xo-zeze @planetxella @thedevax @stressed-cherry

[gunnrblze]

Thomas Merrick moodboard + head cannons

-thunderstorm enjoyer

-doesn’t smoke to stay as healthy as he can, but has been known to indulge in a cigarette every once in a while (gets them from Keegan)

-will stare at a blank wall and do nothing for a half hour to destress (rarely has the time to do so, hence…)

-either takes shit too seriously or not seriously at all. usually operates on the opposites of that spectrum, either raises hell or literally could not be bothered

-has seen the lion king movie. “It’s a kids movie, of course I didn’t like it” (he fucking loved it)

-has a cackling type of laugh when something really humors him

-likes those old 50s/60s romance songs. slow dancing king, this guy can woo you with his moves (its more so his personality that really sells it though)

-on top of that ^ very romantic when he’s in love/courting someone too. flowers, classic type dates, dancing, hand holding, etc.

-came across asmr on his phone once…doesn’t necessarily seek it out, but will get trapped into watching it sometimes

-despite all his irritation and brusqueness shown throughout the game, he’s actually a pretty easygoing guy (when he’s not fighting a war and all that shit)

-solitaire enjoyer

-secretly misses his tamagotchi sometimes like a true 90s kid

-after Elias died and he was promoted captain, that was one of the only times he truly doubted his abilities since his boot camp days. he watched both his former captains turn/die and self doubt creeped in, if he was ready or not

-he’s a natural leader though^ does well with it, hates the increase of paperwork though

-black coffee drinker, a little creamer if there is any

-says “hell yea” a lot, just in general, to anything

-takes pretty decent care of his facial hair, doesn’t ever shave it all off though cause he thinks he looks stupid without it (was made fun of once…by Rorke)

-favorite dessert is a lemon bar

-has nightmares often enough from sand viper, the ones that really shake him though are of instances where any of the team almost died after they were formed as a unit

-^overthinks the Struck Down mission where Ajax died frequently, pulled himself out of the gutter to avoid getting too upset by his death

-because his father and grandfather were both career military men too, he’d wanted to join the military from a young age. but before that, he wanted to be a firefighter

-after Elias died, he felt so responsible for Hesh and Logan. To have Logan taken under his command, he’d consider one of his biggest mistakes

-Rorke was his biggest mentor, he won’t often admit it, but the sadness he feels behind the anger over Rorke’s actions is almost more consuming

-will actually do karaoke if drunk enough, and his voice would be good too if it weren’t for the alcohol in his system

[tubbytarchia]

the final day. of the 30 day hardcore series. jimmy aka solidaritygaming has gone live. the final day is upon us. (although theres actually like 1 day 23 hours left. so idk what hes on about. if it were just him id say its cuz he doesnt stream on weekends but martyns title says final day too. theyre all a bunch of liars) ITS A LONG ONE GET READY

anyway. he logs on and immediately gets up to gay shit

anyway he sees martyn and they start going ITS COOOOOOMING HOME ITS COOOOOOOMING HOME because theyre both football nerds. then sausage and mog comes over. martyn has a censor/beep on his soundboard and he says something with it and jimmy gets annoyed so martyn tells jimmy to **** himself. off to a great start

jimmy starts attacking him with a bow and martyn keeps pressing the button. martyn traps himself in an obsidian box.

sausage and mog are thinking about bringing the ender dragon to the overworld. idk how to do that but i wouldnt put it past them. they all want to do a raid too.

THERES FINALLY AN EXPLANATION FOR THE CHICKENS. martyn has a thing on his ship that fires out chicken eggs. they keep trying to guess when its going to fire by counting down. they keep saying theyre going to kiss each other if they get it right. ?? sure. then they start trying to get it to hit them on the head

riveting content. they do this for like 10 minutes. they start gambling using martyns on-stream tamagotchi thing. its like a higher or lower thing using a roulette table. u say red or black then if its the right colour martynll say like... "red 7 higher or lower" then u have to guess if the next spin will be a higher or lower number?? i have no idea whats going on. but jimmy got the highest streak so WOOOO

it hits martyn. low quality martyn getting hit with an egg.

THE DISCS ARE MISSING. someone has taken the discs. theres some in both sausages and martyns base. jimmy challenges martyn to a 1v1 (if they both survive the raid) and jimmy then turns to say if he survives he'll challenge sausage next.

sausage says theyre all going to kiss after the raid and jimmy says he does not kiss thieves.

they start to prep for the raid and jimmy gets a trident. he immediately starts attacking cpk who starts attacking him with his mace. jimmy gets his ass beat as sneeg and sausage start attacking him with their maces too. he calls out for martyn to save him.

when martyn does not come to rescue him scott logs in so he runs to scotts house. its actually really sweet do not talk to me.

j: SCOTT?! SCOTT THEYRE BULLYING ME :(

s: whats new though? you normally get bullied.

j: no theyre really- theyre coming for me.

s: ah. are they being extra mean today?

j: theyre being very mean. very mean.

s: aw im sorry. (he says something else idk what he said though)

FULL CLIP/TIMESTAMP CUZ I DONT WANT TO. TRANSCRIBE IT ALL its so sweet. dont talk to me ever.

theyre doing the raid at the disc. sneeg brings a bunch of villagers out of... somewhere AND IT STARTS!!! the raid gang/everyone online is jimmy, martyn, sausage, sneeg, scott, mog, and cpk.

jimmy realises on wave 2 that he doesnt have a shield?? surely this wont go wrong. he keeps "accidentally" hitting sneeg with his trident. good thing it barely even does half a heart per hit.

martyn calls jimmy a potato/spud then says something like "you look like one of andys toys mr tater head" and jimmys like you know thats a sore subject. and martyns like oh i genuinely did not even think of that. then jimmy goes searching through cpks chests and martyn breaks them so back to normal.

jimmy gets a shield :) then he goes to sort out cpks chests because hes nice like that. he then threatens to kill martyn. hes THEN LIKE "im the bigger man arent i chat. tell me i am."

jims worried he missed the whole raid then he looks over and theres just. a ravager. so hes like okay nvm and goes back to the group. he immediately starts trying to kill martyn and i think its really funny that nobody really tries to stop jimmy. however neither of them kill each other so.

jimmy/cpk/scott get distracted trying to shoot sneeg then jimmy turns around AND THE ENTIRE NEXT WAVE IS BEHIND THEM so he just. screams.

jimmy flees to mogs base in the middle of the water and just starts shooting at anything that moves. mostly sneeg.

MARTYN KILLS JIMMYS DOG. HONK IS GONE. jimmy is setting up a pvp arena he is so desperate to kill martyn.

sneeg wants to mess with his mace so scott holds a totem and sneeg hits him. he gets the achievement for doing 50 hearts of damage in one hit so.

anyway arena is ready. sneeg takes jimmy off to the side and gives him a god apple.

martyn burns all the discs he has on him and they start fighting. its kind of pathetic. jimmy DOES kill martyn but he has a totem so. cpk tries to give jimmy a totem BUT HIS INVENTORY IS FULL so martyn picks it up. he has like 3 totems on him now.

martyn says to call the fight quits. as soon as jimmy agrees martyn tries to attack him again. MOG COMES IN WITH THE STEEL CHAIR

scott starts attacking jimmy (if he dies you have to die :( SHUT UP SCOTT) and jimmy takes a moment before he defends himself. he was not expecting martyn to die. theyre all bickering about it THEN JUST,, SAUSAGE YOU MOTHERFUCKER PUT YOUR MACE DOWN. THEN SNEEG KILLS MOG.

im genuinely so emo about this ending btw do not talk to me. do not. if u do get the time/energy i so recommend watching the vod im so. oh my god. WHATEVER!!!

anyway stream ends soon after. among us video tomorrow. roblox channel video sunday. monday stream maybe at 6pm bst (an hour late since hes recording roblox with katherine). do not talk to me ever again ok bye im gonna be thinking about this for weeks.

HATE. HATE ON THIS PLANET HATE AND WAR. GRRRRRRAA ok starting from the beginning

Seapeekay get away from him. I don't trust you anymore. Not since the "I'm killing myself if you don't come to me fast enough" incident

YAYYY JIMMY ATTACKING PEOPLE WOOOOOOOOO ATTACK MORE PEOPLE YAYYYYYYY the way Martyn doesn't really retaliate either ugh. My property police...

I fucking love that "low quality Martyn getting hit with an egg" screenshot this is the best content I could ask for

"I do not kiss thieves" is terribly ironic but um. Jimmy saying to Sausage that he will not kiss him IS SO GOOD GO JIMMY GO YEAH!!!!!! Stop letting this sex pest get away with his sex pestery. Every other exchange Sausage has with Jimmy is seriously just "oooo let's be gay" or "oooo sex joke". I seriously don't get it. If it's ship bait then it's obnoxious. Tell him off Jimmy

HELL YEAH JIMMY ATTACKING PEOPLE WOOOOO wait but this time 3 people dogpile on him. Why. Stop that. Martyn didn't do that. And yet Seapeekay, Sausage and Sneeg start dogpiling him. Leave him alone. And he calls out for Martyn..?? STOPPP this is making so genuinely sad and upset NOOOOOOO!! This is awful!!!! Martyn please... where are you Martyn...., AND THEN SCOTT LOGS IN JUST TO SAVE JIMMY? AND THEY HAVE A REALLY NICE AND PLEASANT EXCHANGE? WHat the fuckk mannn. It's awesome I do like this but knowing Scott I KNOW this will come back to bite me in the ass and make me even more sad later

Jimmy "you know that's a sore subject" to Martyn basically calling him a toy noooo THIS IS MAKING ME SAD THIS IS MAKING ME UPSET!!!!!!!!!! At least Martyn didn't mean to get at Jimmy from that angle but mmgh...

"I'm the bigger man aren't I chat. Tell me I am." NOOO WHY'D HE SAY THIS! THIS MAKES ME SAD TOO!! Awwghh man he needs the confirmation... You ARE the bigger man Jim you have been... Go be awesome...!! But at the same time maybe you don't need to try and kill Martyn for like the 3rd time Jimmy it's okay... Tensions been high, few misunderstandings, it's okay Jimmy...

The way Jimmy starts attacking Martyn (oh well :( )and nobody stops him?? Oh but when he attacked Seapeekay then he got dogpiled by 3 people what. Are they like "Oh yeah that's just what Martyn and Jimmy do" or something. Huh. Ough I hate to see them fighting at a time like this though... But at least neither of them die... and then Martyn kills Jimmy's dog?? NOOO ARE YOU KIDDING ME NOOOO Honk... Honk shoo now...

And then... And then Martyn and Jimmy fight in the arena... And Jimmy wins, and Martyn says to call it quits, and then he immediately attacks Jimmy again??? man all of this is no property police banter this is malice. Property police is on pretty rocky ground to begin with but I didn't think it'd come to this wow... They are just straight up fighting. Hatred and war on planet earth. And yet, when Mog comes in swinging and kills Martyn, he chokes up... Jimmy hadn't expected Martyn to just die so soon... Oh Boatemboys oh it's getting really miserable. And he fails to defend himself in time when SCOTT STARTS ATTACKING HIM? AND SAUSAGE GETS THE FINAL HIT? Oh Scott and Sausage oh I am. Putting you in a box and shipping you to Madagascar

And Scott's reasoning for attacking Jimmy "If Martyn dies you have to die" oh so Scott suddenly cares about Martyn huh. He suddenly doesn't care so much about Jimmy even though he makes a flower husbands reference like every SMP. Suddenly Jimmy has to die because Martyn died, huh. Did that cute little conversation earlier mean nothing to you Scott. I am so upset right now. I am so fucking upset.

I need to watch this VOD for sure sometime but wow. What I've gotten from this is: - further Sausage dismay - I do not trust Seapeekay - I do not trust Sneeg - Scott is Scott - Property Police had a lot of very nostalgic and nice moments and then they started fighting each other with malice like I've never seen before. (Also Martyn killing Jimmy's dog kinda symbolic to me. Big dogs...)

The only truly good thing here is MOG I LOVE MOG YAYY Mog is AWESOME Mog even came in to defend Jimmy from Martyn. Mog has done nothing wrong ever. He especially didn't deserve to die to Sneeg. The only thing well and good in this SMP is Mog which is funny because I have two nickels now (cough cough SOS SMP) (This SMP wasn't trying to be anything it wasn't though so I'm very much not putting it on the same level as SOS but where SOS was just kinda lame to me, This SMP just made me really upset from the characters' perspective so Mog ends up being one of the only truly positive aspects both times)

[as-cruel-as-you]

As Cruel As You - Chapter One

As Cruel As You has officially launched! Keep reading to see the first chapter!

Learn more about As Cruel As You here

Read this chapter on AO3 here

Attention students of Hope's Peak Academy…

You are special. 

Nothing could ever hurt you as long as you have your talents. Here at Hope's Peak, we strive to pave the way to a greater perfection than what we know now. To create a society of young, promising people with no imperfections whatsoever, to create a more profitable world worth living in, that is our goal...

… as they told us.

Hope's Peak painted the world as a place where you could thrive amongst others in harmony, but if all are to thrive at once, how does one such as yourself remain unique? If you must shine as the brightest star, the rest around you must be extinguished.

Look around the room at the unfamiliar faces surrounding you, and know this: Blood will shed for survival. It is in your nature.

---

“Just in case I forget, my name is Komaru Naegi.”

The Komaru in the mirror blinked.

“Oh, mine too!”

She smiled awkwardly at herself. She was running out of ideas for a unique conversation. She didn’t know how much time had passed. Hell, she didn’t even know how old she was anymore.

“Then again, I'm at that age where you forget how old you are anyway,” she always told herself, “so like sixteen or seventeen…”

Talking to herself was Komaru’s specialty. She was the only person she could talk to in this lonely apartment with no contact or even sight of the outside world. The windows were covered by large metal plates and bars from the outside. Had the sun exploded yet? Komaru would’ve had no idea. Her skin was suffering from it… actually, her whole body was, and her brain too. Vitamins were really all she had outside of food. She believed that she was kidnapped. She hadn’t heard another human voice in… uh… she didn’t know-

“OH! I’ve never heard their voice, but there is someone else I talk to: my caretaker. They bring me food!”

It was through a little delivery slot by the exit door, which had never been opened before. Komaru had never seen her caretaker. They knocked at the door whenever she spoke to them, possibly signaling that they were listening. She just wished she could open it to see them...

“I'm trapped in this apartment, but I don't really care. I just want food and a friend.”

The Komaru in the mirror didn’t respond. She must have run out of things to say. Then again, this Komaru ran out of a lot of interesting things to do and say. She even wore the same three outfits… Well, two of them were actually the same outfit just with sweatpants instead of a skirt, which was what she was wearing now. The other outfit was a pink pajama shirt. It was always at least a little bit exciting when any of them developed a hole or a loose string. Regardless of attire at the moment, there was still nothing to say. Maybe the person at the door would be more fun to talk to? Komaru, as in the one not in the mirror, walked over to the big brown door. It wasn’t actually that big, but it felt like it. Perhaps it was the heaviness in the air that surrounded it. Komaru didn’t really care though.

“Hey buddy!” she called. “I can't keep myself entertained this whole time. I still don't know what you even want from me! You give me supplies, but that's it! What am I, a tamagotchi? Is the world actually just a tamagotchi game? BY THE WAY THE EARTH IS ROUND!!! I haven't lost my mind yet!”

A loud knock at the door responded.

“Aha! There you are!” Komaru said.

Another thump confirmed the greeting.

“Are you gonna let me open the door this time?” Komaru asked.

...

“Can I say hi?”

Though it never worked, Komaru reached to twist the doorknob for the millionth time… and it actually moved.

“… Yo…”

With a smile, Komaru flung the door open to greet her mysterious caretaker. It was standing right in front of her, though she had to look down a bit to see it. She was quite surprised to see it standing on four legs. It was an odd looking bear, its fur split between black and white neatly down the middle of its entire body. It stared at her with both a dead black eye and one of a strange jagged shape that emitted a faint red light. The bear bared it’s sharp, shark-like teeth with a wicked grin.

It was in that moment that Komaru’s body realized for her that she was not, in fact, looking at what had been taking care of her these past few however-long-it’s-beens, and the next thing she knew, she was running down the halls of the apartment building on feet that barely touched the ground. The bear, with clearly audible robotic limbs, pursued her swiftly. Komaru would soon discover that there was more than one of these bears as they would jump out in front of her at various intersecting corridors, forcing her to change direction. In truth, she had no idea where she was going. She had no idea if she would even make it out alive. Well, if she didn’t, at least she had the chance to run around at full speed one last time in an event that she could at least consider new and exciting…

… but alas...

BAM!

Suddenly, Komaru was lying on her back, the wind almost knocked out of her. She began to process the fact that she had just ran into something that let out a very human-like shout as she had collided with it. She tilted her head to see before her a young man about her age pushing himself up off of the floor from the fall. He certainly didn’t dress like his age, what with a black suit and tie, a serious scowl and squinting eyes. He pointed what appeared to be a megaphone at the bear, putting himself between her and it.

“Stay back.”

From the megaphone came a bright blue light that fired at the bear, causing it to explode into pieces in midair as it had attempted to lunge at them. Immediately afterwards, the young man looked back at the floor, squinting until he spotted a pair of white glasses that he proceeded to put back on his face. He then reached down, grabbed Komaru by her wrist and pulled her to her feet. He did all of this as if it was an ordinary day in which he did not just blow up a killer robot bear with a seemingly magical megaphone.

“Komaru Naegi, yes?” he asked in a very flat voice.

Any other day, Komaru would have judged this man as a stuffy brat who thinks he is better than anyone else, but after being isolated from any human interaction for who knows how long, she promptly began suffocating him with a hug.

“Hello human person!” she gleefully chirped. “Hello hello helloooo!!! I'm Komaru!! What's your name? Thank you for saving me! I love you. Are you my caretaker? I've been here for, like, AGES! How are you???”

It took the young man a few seconds of silence to recover from the onslaught of extroverted greetings. He was able to survive the squeeze and wriggle himself free from Komaru’s grasp.

“My name is Byakuya Togami,” he said, brushing his now wrinkled clothes straight. “You'll need this.”

Byakuya took another megaphone from his belt that Komaru had failed to notice until now and handed it to her.

“Oo! Thank you thank you!” Komaru said, thrilled that someone would entrust her with something that could be called a gun.

“It's a hacking gun,” Byakuya explained. “You in particular don't need to know about the hacking part, just the gun part. That device was specifically designed to defend yourself against the Monokumas.”

“The robot bears?”

“… Obviously.”

Byakuya made his way to one of the elevators in the room and pressed the down button.

“Remember to aim for the eye,” he said. “I need you to go to the first floor to meet your escort so that I can stay here and look for more survivors.”

Komaru clung onto Byakuya’s arm as he guided her into the elevator.

“Can I stay with you?” she pleaded. “Pleeeeeaaaase???”

“Sorry, but no,” Byakuya said. “It's too dangerous.”

“But I-!”

“Trust me.”

Byakuya shook her off once more, reached into the elevator and pressed the first floor button.

“Makoto sent me.”

Komaru froze as the doors to the elevator closed.

“… Makoto? M-My brother…? Where's he been?? Is he my escort??? Byakuya!?”

Byakuya could not hear her, or perhaps he ignored her. Soon, Komaru had reached the first floor to meet her escort. The good news is her escort wasn't Makoto. That's only good news because the bad news is that the escort exploded.

“And that's all I remember so far!”

Komaru had awoken on a firm bed within what she would describe as a “prison cell from the future.” Around her wrist was a tight black wristband with a bright red line cutting through the middle. It felt a little heavy and uncomfortable, but she somehow didn’t notice it until she saw it. She didn’t remember ever getting it… perhaps the creature at the foot of her bed knew? Well, it was a person, but it wasn’t quite human. She soon found out that it was yet another boy about her age, but instead of hands and feet, he had terrible claws, and though they were sharp, his face was gentle. His wispy white hair had trailed around his body, markings on his torn clothes dotted his sides a dull red and green, the same colors as his target-like eyes. His snout was narrow, his whiskers long and thin. A long, fluffy tail protruded from his back that wrapped around his body as he was curled up around himself. Even the efforts of his nearly matted fur around his neck and the dark, tight collar that looked much like Komaru’s wristband could not hide the thinness of his bony neck. His frailness and unkempt fur made him look much like a sickly, elderly cat.

Komaru, though surprised by the sight of the young man, didn’t take long to process his existence. He seemed friendly and patient despite his apparent condition. He spoke with a gentle yet raspy voice. Yes, he could indeed speak.

“Greetings,” he had said the moment he realized that Komaru was awake. “Do you remember how you got here?”

Komaru had sat up and done exactly that without question. She didn’t care, it was another person to talk to.

“It was kinda sad seeing the city torn up like that,” she said after reciting everything, “but hey, it's a change of pace in life, I guess.”

“Of all of the hostages, you're the most optimistic,” the boy said.

“Who, me?” Komaru laughed. “Nah, I'm just too tired to scream at whatever gods may or may not be out there, but thanks anyway! So! What's your name, fuzzy fella?”

The creature seemed a little worried about Komaru’s attitude, but she didn’t notice his discomfort.

“The Tamer prefers that everyone calls me by my nickname.”

He placed a paw upon his chest.

“Toto.”

Komaru placed her hand on her chest.

“Komaru.”

Toto gave her a sympathetic smile.

“You'll meet the Warriors themselves shortly,” he continued, his smile fading as he looked down. “… just like everyone else does…”

For once, Komaru noticed the other’s sadness.

“You good?” she asked, tilting her head a little.

After thinking for a few seconds, Toto looked back up at her.

“Komaru, can you make me a promise?”

“That depends on the promise, but I'm listening.”

Komaru waited patiently as Toto took in a long, deep and heavy breath. Something was plaguing his peace of mind.

“My friends and I are imprisoned here,” he said. “If you can win the game you're about to play, we will be freed from our cages… and hopefully, our curses.”

“Curses?” Komaru repeated.

“We used to be completely human,” Toto explained, “but we've been turned into�� I'm not even sure what to call it. Weaponized creatures, I suppose. I'm one of the few who can still speak to other humans.”

“… Does this mission involve killing anyone?” Komaru asked. “Just curious.”

“Kill as few as you can, none if any,” Toto said. 

“Well, I'm already wondering where my family is,” Komaru said. “I figured that'd be my mission, but I can take a side quest too. I'll do it!”

Komaru takes Toto’s paw and shakes it.

“Thank you,” he said. “I must warn you, the Warriors may release my friends upon you as weapons. Please, do not kill them under any circumstances.”

“You waited until after I promised to say that, didn't you?”

“Well, you are my only hope as of right now.”

They let go of each other’s hands.

“What about everyone else?” Komaru asked. “Y'know, you mentioned how they all meet the Warriors?”

“You're the first person to make that promise with me,” Toto said. “All others assumed it was a trap. It just goes to show how much you care about others… or perhaps how little you care about yourself.”

Komaru silently ignored that last remark. Not waiting for any kind of response, Toto jumped down from the bed, and from the foot of it, retrieved the hacking gun.

“Oh! My gun!,” Komaru gasped gleefully as Toto placed it in front of her. “Thank you!”

Komaru reached over and pulled Toto into a hug. He made a quiet wheezing sound as she squeezed him, but didn’t protest. Komaru couldn’t help but notice how oily, sweaty clammy he felt.

“Are you alright?” Komaru asked as she let the poor creature go. “You feel gross.”

“I'm as good as I'm gonna get right now,” Toto said, not offended by the rather blunt remark.

“Alright…” Komaru sighed. “It’s just that everyone I've met so far doesn't seem well. I don't know if Byakuya survived the bear attack. He's the guy who took care of me while I was trapped, I think.”

“I'm terribly sorry if he didn't survive,” Toto said softly. “On another pressing note... The Warriors will explain everything else you need to know. I'll guide you to them.”

Toto hopped down from the bed once more and approached the door of the cell. Rearing up on his hind legs, he pressed a button on the wall beside the door and stepped back as it opened. Shuffling off of the bed, Komaru latched the hacking gun to the belt of her pants and followed Toto out of the room. Surprise! They were walking through the halls of what appeared to be… a spaceship? At least in Komaru’s eyes. The walls were of metal, lined with softly glowing beams of blue. The floor, however, was a bit out of place. It was a checker pattern, though at every corner the corridor came to there was a large black tile with a white emblem of a four-pointed star haloed by a ring. Checker patterns always reminded Komaru of casinos or American diners. Perhaps the designer wanted to capture the feeling of the latter or had a gambling addiction. Either way, it was tacky. What was worse than the appearance of the place was the smell. It was different from the cell, which smelled of nothing notable, but here there was a faint smell of… Komaru didn’t know what to call it, but it did indeed remind her of a hospital.

“Ugh, it smells like a hospital in this place,” she groaned. 

“I too am disgusted by the smell,” Toto agreed. “Hospitals hold no fond memories in my mind.”

Through the winding halls they journeyed, though before they even reached their supposed destination, one of the metal doors they passed by notably had monstrous sounds of roaring and growling coming from behind it. Toto didn’t acknowledge it. He warned of nothing, explained nothing, pardoned nothing. In fact, his gaze may have even been averted. Komaru merely glanced at it. She could probably guess what was behind that door… but ultimately she said nothing. She continued to silently follow Toto until they came to a point where the halls intersected four ways. In the center room was the most forgettable sculpture that Komaru had ever seen, so much so that she had forgotten what it even looked like the moment that Toto guided her away and up a flight of stairs. At the top of the stairs was a rather large landing for something that held nothing but a set of large double doors on the opposite end of the room. They were notably white, lined with gold and crowned by an ornate glass window above it. Either the glass or the sky was blood red. Komaru could not be sure. Another thing she could not be sure of was if this place wanted to look like a casino, a spaceship, or a cathedral. Regardless of its intentions, it was kind of ugly. Still, it was a new sight, which made it automatically better than being locked up in that godforsaken apartment.

Toto stopped at the center of the room and sat down, waiting for Komaru to catch up with him. When she did, he just looked at her, though she understood what he meant. She approached those large doors and pushed them open. The place they were in had officially decided that it wanted to be a cathedral, for before them was a grand room of marble… or what at least appeared to be marble. One could not trust the appearance of materials these days. The walls were lined with pillars, golden trim and windows and curtains of red. Every small step Komaru made reverberated through the mostly empty room. The only things present within it besides Komaru and Toto were five children in the dead center grouped in a linear formation, staring at her. None of them could have been older than twelve. They all looked rather calm despite the strange situation everyone seemed to be in. In fact, they stared at Komaru as if they knew exactly what was going on, like they had been anticipating her arrival.

The right-most child was dressed mostly in pink with a warm brown hoodie overlaying her puffy skirt and shorts. There were long white and pink striped stockings beneath her tall brown boots. Her hair was long, even while styled in pigtails topped with a headband that gave her big pink devil horns, all tied together with a little white bow above her bangs. Were her eyes also pink, or was that just a trick on Komaru’s eyes played by the smiling little girl’s rosy cheeks?

The second child had a rather stern look on his face, his blue eyes glaring daggers into Komaru. It was a stare that she was familiar with, but she wasn’t exactly intimidated by him. His hair was short and light blue with two pointed cowlicks that reminded Komaru a bit of cat ears… or perhaps another set of devil horns? His outfit was rather plain, with a pale blue coat and shorts blanketing a darker blue shirt. The sleeves were long like the darker blue stockings that met at his feet with a pair of hook and loop shoes that matched the color of his coat. Around his neck was a striped golden-orange scarf. Overall, it was hard to determine the kind of weather that this kid was dressed for, but he seemed very serious about himself.

The child in the center of the group sat in a red wheelchair. Her eyes were bright green, and though she donned a sweet and innocent face, something about her stare was haunting. Her short curly hair sort of reminded Komaru of pickles. Besides her big red bows atop her head and around the neck of her dark blue dress, the only other notable thing about her was the wolf plush that she was holding upon her lap.

The fourth child finally broke the pattern of hair color matching eye color. His eyes were blue, but his spiky hair and bushy eyebrows were a screaming blood orange. He appeared to be a sporty kid, wearing a striped black and orange shirt beneath a white tank top with denim shorts and sports sneakers. He also wore white headphones, but not even those could suppress his fiery hair. He held a baseball bat over his shoulder in a proud manner.

The left-most child was probably the least excited of them all. In fact, they looked rather sullen. They wore a mask of leather scraps that shielded their face with the exception of their mouth and pale eyes. Dark plastic wire mesh circles covered their ears and a few other spots on their head possibly just for ventilation, but the purpose of the breathing tube that hung in front of their chin was uncertain. They were mostly dressed in brown, their body almost entirely obscured by a long dress shirt with sleeves that went far over their hands. Around their waist was a belt of various little sculpting tools, more of which could be seen protruding from the lid of a white randoseru upon their back.

…

Komaru waved to the five children.

“Hullo!”

“See? I told you guys we should've made our outfits at the Halloween store,” said the sullen child. “Not every Demon is gonna be afraid of us on sight.”

“You know darn well I can't walk through Halloween stores with those crappy decorations that pop out at you!” the girl in pink snapped.

“Guys! Shut up!”

The other children looked to the sporty kid.

“We have to do the thing!” he said. “The protoceratops or whatever it's called.”

“Protocol,” the stern boy corrected.

“Yeah, that,” said the sporty kid, rolling his eyes. “Dinosaurs are cooler but that's what I meant.”

“You have a point,” Komaru said.

“SILENCE, DEMON!”

“Oh my bad.”

“I mean like, thanks for agreeing with me, but shut up. I'm gonna start the Protoceratops now. And I'm calling it that because dinosaurs are awesome and I want to call it that, not because I'm dense.”

Komaru should have guessed early on that these kids had no intention of being peaceful with her. Hell, they could barely remain peaceful with each other, what with the stern boy redirecting his glare of daggers to the sporty kid. The only child who didn’t seem to want to argue in that moment was the girl in the wheelchair. The children all then focused on Komaru.

“We are the Warriors of Hope!” the sporty kid proudly announced. “Thanks to our val-i-ant efforts, the world of Demons has been van-quished, making way for a peaceful and pros-per-ous world for children who shall no longer live in fear of the wrath of adults!”

...

“… Jataro, it's your turn.”

The sullen kid flinched as the sporty kid said his name.

“Oh, right, sorry…” he mumbled before raising his own voice. “Demons brought us nothing but sorrow and led us to fall into a deep pit of despair. We were only rescued when our Goddess chose us as the heroes of our people, and guided us to slay those who had hurt us. She then told us that we were destined to create a Paradise for all children and free us from the world of adults once and for all!” 

“From this, we crafted a game we call "Demon Hunting," where we release our captured Demons and hunt them down,” the girl in pink continued on cue. “Whichever one of us kills the most Demons by the time all Demons have been eliminated wins the right to rule our new world. Do not underestimate our power, as we are the five chosen Lil' Ultimates of Hope's Peak Elementary, and have trained to optimize our abilities.”

“You have been chosen as our next Demon,” said the stern kid. “Together, we will cast you into our new world-”

“THE PARACHUTE!”

The rest of the children scowled at Jataro, minus the girl in the wheelchair, who just looked a tad bit disappointed.

“Uhhh we forgot to give the last Demon a parachute,” Jataro said. “That just kinda ruined the fun early.” 

Komaru felt a slight nudge as Toto had begun carefully strapping a parachute to her back. It must have been difficult with his claws, so she remained as still as she could.

“… Er, thank you, Jataro,” the stern boy reluctantly said before continuing. “Together, we will cast you into our new world, our Paradise! You only have so much time to see what the whole world will look like after you've left it! Who will it be who hunts you down? Will it be…”

“Masaru, the Fighter!” shouted the sporty kid.

“Jataro, the Priest!” piped up Jataro, whose name had already been uttered multiple times in annoyance.

“Kotoko, the Tamer!” the girl in pink said cutely.

“Nagisa, the Sage!” said the stern boy firmly.

“Or Monaca, the Mage?” the girl in the wheelchair nearly whispered.

The girl now known as Monaca retrieved a small remote with a big red button from her pocket, aiming it in Komaru’s direction.

“Demon, do you have any last words before the Hunt begins?” she asked with that haunting voice of hers.

Komaru stared blankly. She looked back at Toto, who was sitting a little far back by the door. He looked gloomy, but there was a gleam of hope in his eyes…

...

“… Hey, I'm sorry, I kinda zoned out for most of that,” Komaru said. “Could you guys repeat what you said?”

The children stared at Komaru for a few seconds with the most disappointment she had ever seen on the faces of children before Monaca promptly pressed the button. Before she knew it, the ground beneath Komaru had vanished, and she was swallowed into a deep red sky. In that moment, she screamed, and though she would later find that it should have been more so in fear, for now it was mostly with excitement to feel the wind on her face again, to feel some kind of rush of adrenaline, to breathe the murky outside air...

Finally, something, anything was happening.

[hexgravity]

Brainstorming Fragile Life mechanics. Gonna go on a rant about these ideas.

So the concept is the tamagotchis are linked to the players lives. Players have to keep them healthy in order to keep their current life. Players have daily quests to fulfill to keep their tamagotchis healthy, failure to do so drops them down a colour.

I also am tinkering with the idea of a sabotage boogey mechanic where maybe once a week a boogey is selected, if the boogey successfully stops the completion of another player's mandatory quest they gain a life going up a colour. Failure to sabotage gives them a harder task the next day which basically just increases their odds of dropping a life. (might make it a more common occurrence but don't wanna make it too unfair)

I've also been thinking of who may team with who. Pearl and Gem. Lizzie, Grian and Jimmy. Scott, Tango and Scar. Cleo and Impulse.

Players without a team really are Etho, Martyn and Joel.

I wanna play around with Watchers and Listeners stuff. Maaaybe Speakers? I'd wanna play around with the idea that none of them really have the players interests at heart, like where Watchers its obvious cause of the games, Listeners its subtle like swaying the players to purposefully mess with the games. Like the players are just pawns in the little war behind the scenes. If I do Speakers they'd be somewhere in the middle, they'd be openly honest about the fact they aren't there to help you for your own benefit but still lend a hand from time to time for their own personal gains.

I think like in Martyn lore, Watchers eat negative emotions. I would lean towards the Listeners liking every emotion and not wanting to limit it but still wanting to control it when they're in the mood for something more specific. Speakers would probably be like, I wouldn't say positive emotions, but more chaotic. Stuff like the joy and excitement players get from pulling off a trap or something, a malicious joy if that makes any sense.

I don't really have their goals in mind yet, Watchers is easy cause I'll just lean towards Martyn lore and that meaning technically their goals are currently being achieved successfully but now the other parties want in on it in their own way.

There'd be one player to each being. So if there's only Watchers and Listeners that's gonna be Grian and Martyn. I've also decided that these specific type of players lean a bit towards the side of the beings they're assigned to for one reason or another. Example being maybe Grian siding with Watchers cause despite not agreeing with them he may find their games to be a safer option than what the others have planned.

That's about all I got right now.

[localgremlinboy]

some more silly rogues’ headcannons I thought of! Thank you everyone for the validation on the last ones, it made me smile! :D

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3] [part 4] [part 5] [part 6]

- they all have a Minecraft server together that's utter madness! Riddler has perfected redstone and he makes puzzle riddle traps in game, it drives Joker INSANE. Ivy goes around planting giant trees and flowers without asking. And Bane has a nice little house and no one dares ruin it, it brings him so much joy.

- Scarecrow always has chapstick on him, it's mango flavored

- Riddler has a tamagotchi, he will cry if it dies. If you're the goon that has to watch it while he's in Arkham, be scared.

- Harvey still posts on his Twitter, Twoface has an invite only after dark account. He just reposts memes everyone else has already seen and overshares random personal information and middle school level poetry. Also Harvey & Twoface are currently in a four year long tweet war about an episode of Law and order

- Out of all the rogues, Joker owns the most shoes. He has a storage unit full of racks of different tailored costumes, shoes, and makeup. He wears an expensive french brand of makeup he has to ship to Gotham, and he doesn't do any crimes without wearing his lucky lipstick brand

- Scarecrow loves animal crossing, his island is decked out and Halloween themed. He hosts parties with the rogues on his island

- Riddler set up a VPN & free cable/wifi for all the rogues to use so they can stream whatever, but you have to answer a riddle to get the password. Joker hates it but he also needs to watch the new criminal minds reboot before Harley spoils it

- one time during a party, the rogues managed to convince a very drunk Harvey & Twoface to sing/reinact songs from phantom of the opera and later jekyll and hyde (Twoface is emotionally a theater kid)

- Harley and Twoface get really into murder podcasts together one time while in Arkham. Even after they all break out, they video call after new episodes drop to talk about it. One time they tried to do a podcast but it turned out Joker did the crime so like it wasn't much of a plot twist

- Harley streams her crimes sometimes & actually makes some sick side cash off it! Half the time her chat is just obsessing over her interactions with Ivy. Also Ivy is one of her top donors

- Catwoman is TikTok famous, she posts story times, how to do simple parkour and pick locks, and hauls from crimes. All of her money from sponsorships and stuff goes to charity (she gets sent a bunch of free cat food for her cats, it's awesome!)

- Joker scrapbooks, he did it for a gag originally but low key got into it and now he may or may not have a scrapbooking room. He tries to go to Michael’s incognito but like, everyone knows.. The employees are like “yo, the Joker is at the help desk asking about if we have batman scrapbooking decals? Do.. Do I ask if he wants to sign up for the rewards program? Is he allowed to sign up?” Yes he signed up for the rewards program

- Joker also often signs up for various rewards programs but when he doesn’t want their emails, he gives them scarecrow’s email. Scarecrow has a bounty for whoever stops the man signing up ALL his emails for the Chilies newsletter

- the rogues throw Harley a roller skating lasertag party, where they also learn Harvey can't skate to save his life. He's the dedicated party mom that's standing at the railing about to fall down while he cheers on the others doing tricks and he's in charge of everyone's coat at the table. Joker uses all of his tickets to buy bouncy balls and sticky hands. Catwoman is a god at laser tag, she nearly gave Scarecrow a heart attack when she dropped form the vents to snip him. At the end of the party, they all steal Harley the go kart that's worth like 10,000 tickets. Batman shows up to Harley doing donuts in the parking lot while all the other villains are fighting with sticky hands and bouncy balls

- Bane likes camping and takes all the rogues in hopes to get camping buddies, they all almost die out in the woods because it's a disaster but also he had a great time! The Joker brings a camera and the whole time is making dated Blair Witch jokes with Scarecrow, which Harvey doesn't find funny and not because he's scared of the Blair witch.. Riddler screams running off into the woods because of a bee "chasing" him, no one sees him until three weeks later when they remember that they forgot him in the woods. Clayface uses a survivalist persona/character the whole time they're out there but he knows nothing about survivalism, eating poisonous berries and telling them poison ivy is a healing herb. Ivy is probably the only one suited for camping and she has to make sure most of them don't die

- Harley collects pins! She has a pin board in her hideout. The other rogues give her pins they find/obtain around Gotham

- The Joker has spent 3 years trying to perfect confetti smoke bombs

[chezzkidsarchive]

One thing I want from horror media is a character or concept that isn't scary or looks intimidating intentionally.

I think some good aspects to use in horror around childhood is the uncanny valley. Skinamarink had something going on that hits well, along with the original Child's Play film.

Call me a little fucking hater for saying this but I think right now in most fucking media the 1980s is way too overutilized and just milks all of the cool things about it. It's gone. It's done.

Stranger Things and It 2017 was good but we as a society need to move away from the 80's as a time period.

Nobody ever fucking talks about how genuinely terrifying the 1990s were looking back on them to a point where it's almost funny.

There is so much untapped potential in the idea of the monster under the bed, or playground rumors outside of video games, like Mexican Jumping Beans actually being alive or the kid on Double Dare who broke their arm open during filming and you could see the bone.

Early internet was a nightmare with viruses, screamers and the anonymity of things like AOL. The amount of Weird Food that existed like Taco Bell Lunchables, that could easily be a modern Soylent Green or the toy fads.

The 1990's has a concerning amount of toys that could burn you, scalp you and pluck your eyes out. The Snacktime Cabbage Patch Doll gave hundreds of kids nightmares, people temporarily thought Tamagotchis were beeping messages in morse code, Skydancers would regularly throw themselves into fires and off cliffs.

I think it would be unbelievably fucked up to do a sequel to The Stuff but with Flarp or some shit from Halloween 3 but with a Viewfinder that stabs your eyes in or something.

There is so much inherent danger to the 1990s that people do not ever talk about and I really wish they would.

People back then were so fucking paranoid and then 9/11 kicked it completely off the ramp and made it a million times worse. Most of English-speaking countries were dead set convinced that Furbies could record conversations and give it to the USSR or something.

Everyone was completely pissing their pants over the idea of subliminal messaging, and completely terrified of things like the paid phone services like Freddy Freaker.

Max Headroom is right there. If done correctly someone could make a mascot similar to what happened with Bartmania and start a borderline cult with the idea of tie-in merchandise.

Don't forget about the fact that for almost a good 2 years McDonald's was routinely giving away cups with uranium in them, or the Burger King pokeballs that suffocated several people.

Even just branching outside the US, there's good ideas for horror. Mr. Blobby had a mascot costume that horrified people, the weird universal hate about how unnerving the Teletubbies were. Literally any scary Thomas the Tank Engine compilation has dozens of ideas.

Angela Anaconda is one thing that is still a childhood media trauma staple, The Ring, Delicatessen, there's so many good inspirations without dipping into the mundane.

Legends of the Hidden Temple was a death trap waiting to happen. One thing that used to freak out my friend's mother, who was a middle school teacher when they had free time in school and the kids asked to watch TV was the idea of one of the kids suffocating in the slime at almost any Nickelodeon game show because it was very, very thick and expanded fast.

There's also another classic horror trope anyone could use an abuse where a corrupted director becomes obsessed with one of his child stars who loses their shit and eventually kills him or something because of a lack of identity post cancelation and no way to see themselves outside of their role, the idea of someone like the little girl from The Land Before Time surviving her attacker and waiting to kill them because child stardom is a genuine curse is Fun.

There was always the weird dream like feeling of waking up at 3:00 in the morning and seeing the George Lopez show playing, or staying home sick and seeing reruns of telenovelas or talk shows that are vague memories in the back of your mind.

Staying up late with a friend to watch Adult Swim and getting scared by the bumpers, there is so, so, so much.

Please utilize other time periods. There is better horror sooner in the past.

[gotchi-blog]

Sumikko Friend Review

This will be a long one. I never really thought that I will own any virtual pet that isn't Tamagotchi. But then I saw Sumikko Friend and I couldn't stop thinking about it for months, until I got a chance to buy it. It was pricey, true, but after having it for a while I can say - it's worth it.

General score: 9/10

Design

First off, I really love the design. The toy is of similar size as a colour-screen Tamagotchi, but it's way lighter. The back is flat - you can rest the device comfortably on a table or other surface, however most of the interactions use the motion sensor, so get ready to hold your new buddy a lot. It ever has little leg-like bumps to avoid scratching the back.

The screen is the same size as Tamagotchi's, but it differs when it comes to the display. Sumikko screen is way softer, with pastel colours. Very nice to look at, especially if you're a fan of pastel aesthetics. However, it's a pain to take a good photo of it - the contrast is too low to make the details of the background as well-visible as in real life. It's a shame. I want people to see how pretty the rooms and animations are! Especially since some of the wallpapers for the rooms are animated, something I've never seen in Tamagotchi.

The brightness settings are alright. The sound is a bit worse - the device is quite loud even at the lowest setting. And it makes a lot of sounds - games, animations, Friend Mode. There is always some squeaking to be done. Fortunately, the sounds are all very pleasant, so it's actually a very nice experience. Just remember to mute it in public. Another trick is to simply cover the speaker at the back with your finger - that's not really possible with Tamagotchi, where the speakers are more hidden.

The device comes with 2 covers - Tokage and Shirokuma. I will elaborate on their functions later on. Here I just want to say that they are so pretty. The designs are simple and very cute. Especially the Shirokuma cover gets me - the little ears are just adorable. The plastic used is solid, matte and smooth, very pleasant to touch.

Finally, there are 2 physical buttons and one touch one, hidden at the top of the device. The left button is used to choose, the right one to confirm, and the touch button on top is the cancel one. The buttons are responsive and nice to touch. The touch one is very sensitive and works very well.

2. Basic idea behind the device

Sumikko Friend is my first non-Tamagotchi virtual pet, so I had to adjust to a different gameplay. The most important difference is that your characters don't evolve nor grow up. You have 2 pets in this model: Tokage (a blue water dragon who pretends to be a lizard) and Shirokuma (a polar bear who moved south due to disliking cold climate.) They don't change - the goal of taking care of them is to become good friends. They don't grow old nor leave. The true fun is playing and interacting with the characters. There are a few levels of friendship and they are increased by playing, feeding and petting Tokage and Shirokuma.

Another important goal is to collect pictures of Sumikko characters, foods and toys. It's done through using traps - there are quite a lot of them. You can either buy them or get them through Outing (another feature I will elaborate on later while talking about the main menu.) This part of the gameplay is cute, though not the most engaging. I often forget about it, but once I remember, I have to admit - the Sumikko illustrations are very cute.

So yeah, your buddies won't die if you mistreat them. They might run away, though. Still, getting them back is not difficult. Generally, Sumikko Friend is not that demanding when it comes to attention it needs.

3. Sumikko Rooms and Basic Care

Here you have an overview of the menu. We'll start with the Sumikko Rooms.

There are 2 of them - Tokage's and Shirokuma's. The characters sit, sleep and play there. You can toggle between them with the left button. The right one opens the care menu. Here you can feed, play the games that use the covers, clean the room, use the shower, check the stats and go Outing. You can also give toys to your pets and change the room wallpaper/furniture.

What's important about feeding is that both characters have their favourite/disliked foods. The favourite foods will fill up the hunger meter faster, while the disliked foods will get rejected and not eaten. You can check which items are liked/disliked by each character online (I highly recommend checking out the English translation of the manual made by Fuzzy N Chic - it includes the foods and care tips too.)

Showering and cleaning the room is needed more often if you play the games a lot. Especially the room dusting is important - if you don't do it often enough, the dust will block your screen and make it impossible to play until you clean it.

Remodel allows you to change the wallpaper and the furniture in the left corner of the screen. Some of the wallpapers are unlocked through increasing the friendship meter, some are obtained through Outing. The furniture can be either bought in the Sumikko Market or obtained through Outing as well. The wallpapers are usually animated - it's a beautiful detail. The moving swing or a tree rustling in the wind are very cute.

The toys unlock new idle animations. They are adorable - I especially love the doll house and knitting ones. While knitting, the characters take a break to stare at you, which feels like a real interaction that happen when your pet realises that you're watching them play. Very sweet.

Outing is a very interesting feature. While using it, the screen shows a map. When you walk around with the Sumikko device in your pocket/backpack, the little pin on the map moves around. In the top left corner, you see the counter of the circles walked around the map. The device actually reacts to shaking, so if you want to, you can simulate taking walks by shaking it (lazy!) In the Outing mode, the characters collect food, toys, furniture and traps for catching Sumikko.

The Friend Games: there are 5 games. They are quite simple and fun. 4 of them use the movement sensor, which makes them more interactive.

Imitating Freeze: the character makes a sequence of dance moves. Your task is to repeat them but tilting the device in the right directions

Look this way: very similar to the first one, but quicker and without the sequence part. The character's face moves in a direction. Your job is to tilt the device in the same direction

Frilly Dancing: this one will make your hand hurt. Shake the poor creature up and down as fast as you can. The goal is to set a new record when it comes to the number of shakes in the given game time

Minikko Hide & Seek: the bean-shaped thing will hide in your room. Your task is to find it. Do it by tilting the device left or right. The ringing sound will become faster once you approach the bean. When you find it, the Sumikko will have a happy face. Touch the top of the cover to end the game

Smile Stop: the only game that doesn't use the motion sensor. Stop the changing Sumikko faces on a happy or neutral one. Do it by touching the top of the cover. Pro tip: the happiest face always comes after the frowned one. Once you see the frown, get ready to click

Finally, the Friend Check option is just to check the stats. It shows you the Friend level and hunger. I was slightly surprised that the stats are the last option. On the other hand, you don't really need to check what's going on - the characters will let you know what's wrong through animations.

The Sumikko wake up at 6 am and fall asleep at 8 pm. Good for students, not that good for lazy cucks who have nothing better to do. Well, the toy is meant for a younger audience, so I can't blame them. Still, I'd prefer if they went to sleep a bit later.

4. Traps

The next option in the main menu is the Sumikko catching. To start, you need some traps. The metal claw is free and unlimited, but the rest you need to either buy at the market or get from Outing. There are a few methods of using the traps - that depends on what's displayed on the screen. Sometimes you need to tilt the device, sometimes click a button. Just pay attention to the animation on the screen.

As I've mentioned in the second segment, the point of this feature is to obtain cute Sumikko illustrations. There isn't anything more to it, but it's still nice.

Sometimes, you will randomly get a chance to draw a special price, usually a food item or another trap. Also, sometimes a wild Sumikko or Minikko appears and you can catch them for free.

5. Settings

Quite self-explanatory. Here you can set the date, time, your birthday, brightness, sound, use the secret passwords and reset the device.

The remarkable thing are the secret codes. They aren't numeric, like in Tamagotchi, but consist of a few shapes that you need to arrange in the correct order. It's hard to find them, especially since the device is quite unknown in western countries, but I found this website that has some:

Also, the Fuzzy N Chic review video on YT includes the code from a gift card that was attacked to some sets. Unfortunately, I didn't get one in mine.

6. Sumikko Market

Here you can buy food, toys, furniture and traps. You'll be here quite often - Tokage and Shirokuma eat a lot. The prices are fine, so don't worry too much about that even if you don't play games too often.

The toy and furniture offer is small, since most of it is obtained through Outing.

7. Game centre

As you can easily guess, here you can find gamest. None of them demands the covers, so they are pretty comfortable and quick. I will quickly go over them here. Each game has 2 modes - easy and hard. The "hard" mode isn't really that hard, but it gives you more Sumikko coins, so usually I go with it. Interesting thing - you can play the games even once the Sumikko are asleep, Good for insomniacs, I suppose.

Shirokuma's Apple Harvest: tilt the device left and right to catch all the apples. Avoid acorns - they hurt Shirokuma and slow it down

Penguin's? Long Distance Run: tilt the device to make Penguin? run and collect stars. Reach the finish line before the time runs out. Avoid the holes - they make you lose instantly

Neko's Sumikko Eats: tilt the device up and down to avoid the bushes and eat the foods. The cat food gives you more energy than onigiri

Tokage's Gem Collecting: my personal favourite. Tilt the device in different directions to control the fat lizard as it collects the gems in the water. Watch out for the jellyfish - they will hurt and slow you down!

Tonkatsu's Happy Dance: fried bits will come from left and right. Once they are in the circle, click left or right button to throw them off

Sumikko Roulette Fortune: click left or right button to stop the roulette. Various characters give you different points. This game is the easiest but gives very few Sumikko coins

8. Library

Here you can see all the pictures/items you've collected. Each has a short description. Not the most interesting if you don't read Japanese, but they are quite adorable.

9. Friend Mode

When you put on one of the covers, your device goes into the Friend mode. The face of the character is displayed on the screen and you can interact with them. This is necessary to keep them happy throughout the day - nothing will replace physical touch. Pet them, rock them to the sides and press on their hands. They love it, especially the petting.

Pro-tip: rocking won't work unless the Sumikko is already happy. Just pet them with gentle stroked on top of the device, giving them breaks to return to regular face. Once they start blushing after some petting, it means they are happy. Then you can rock them too.

In my experience, Shirokuma is more demanding in care than Tokage - they go hungry at the same time but Shirokuma gets upset faster.

10. Conclusion

Generally, I highly recommend getting Sumikko Friend. It's unique and amazing to play with. You just can't get enough of looking at it. You can get some decent offers on eBay (that's where I got mine.) The gameplay is very different from Tamagotchi, but it's a welcome fresh breeze. I absolutely love it and it made me want to take further look into the Sumikko franchise

🌸

[ryuatewater]

LOSER HAHAHAHHA LOSER WITH NO ARM

NO ARM LOSER

WHERES YOU ARM ITS GONE AHHAHAHHA

Bit of a backstory uh this is Tammy shes a tamagotchi shes also really good with electronics ironically

shes uh trapped in a apocolypse of some sorts where everyone is gone except her and some of her friends

when the apocolype or whatever first started there was a huge earthquake so her screen broke a bit and she was trapped under the rubble

he friends never tried to find her cause they assumed she died

well when she got out of the rubble she went searching for her friends but then saw them just hanging out in a house that hadnt collapsed

she got mad of course

uh the rest of the story sounds alot like tord from eddsworlds story but thats cause i wrote this in 7th grade

she decided to build a giant robot and was searching for supplies or whatever

in the store found her friend fish bowl and because hes a fish bowl he shattered

she carefully tried gluing him together but couldnt find the mouth piece

so yeah fish bowl and her are in loveee

lmao sorry

yeah after building the robot she tried attacking but her clumsy ass fell with the robot causing that one sturdy house to collapse and her to lose her arm and get tied up to a tree by her friends

yeah her friends didnt have much food with them so she got a piece of bread daily

buuttt she gnawed on the ropes and escaped hoorraayy Tammyy

the only reason she wanted to escape is because she didnt want Fish Bowl to think she left him

She didnt want what happened to her to happen to FB

yeah she got out went to him and thats where the stories at rn

lmao hi if anyone actually read this

[clanwarrior-tumbly]

(Not my ass going yippee in my head when I saw you were doing FNF stuff more frequently again & your requests were open /gen)

Related to the Hypno's Lullaby mod, I'd love to see some friendship headcanons with Shinto; she's literally my favorite character from the mod and I'd 100% hang out with her if given the chance.

If this is a bit vague, maybe something with Gray too? Maybe you're the player of the bootleg game and over the course of it, you realize the game's sentient and stuff with you becoming friends with BOTH of them!

I can imagine you carrying the Gameboy around to places like a Tamagotchi jwsdbjdb

Not me going yippee at this Shinto and Gray request <33

.........

So you obtained what you previously thought was Pokémon Silver (or at least a ripoff, given it was labeled “Gray” instead) from a Gamestop/thrift shop/friend who begged you to destroy it.

For nostalgia’s sake, you wanted to try it out since your Gameboy still worked.

Immediately you find out there’s no option to start a new game. You can only hit “Continue”.

Your character--Gray--was apparently at the entrance of a cave with sandy brown hues. He almost looked like a desaturated version of Red, but with spikier hair.

Checking the trainer card, you could tell the creators didn’t even try to hide the fact this was a bootleg game. The stats were total nonsense: Gray had badges from other regions (even Kalos and Alola, which should be impossible), the hours played and money collected both showed -100, and he had absolutely no Pokémon in his party. Not even a starter.

You then checked the Pokedex and saw only one Pokémon was registered:

Hypno, except this one was labeled “Shinto”, and was apparently a female. It had no furry collar, no pendulum, and hollow black eyes. But what was even more bizarre was the entry:

“SHINTO SO COOL!!!!SHINJTO NOT FROM BOOT LEG GAME BUT FROM REAL ONE!!!!PLAY WITH ME???”

Tbh it made you laugh a little, however upon returning to the overworld, Gray’s sprite turned to you.

“Don’t laugh..she’s scarier than you think.” The text box popped up.

You’re taken aback bc it could recognize your voice????

What the hell.

“You..can hear me?”

“I didn’t mean to startle you, it’s...just been a long time since anybody opened this game. It’s been so dark...and cold. What’s your name?”

“[Y/n]..”

As it turns out, Gray and Shinto (who showed up in the cave sometime later), were both sentient--aware that they’re trapped in a game. It wasn’t just the developers goofing around either...he had his own feelings.

Obviously he feels miserable about all of this, but Shinto doesn’t seem to care.

He doesn’t think of himself as a “real” trainer, though you reassure him it doesn’t matter how many badges or Pokémon he has.

“[Y/n], thank you but...there’s literally no Pokémon here except for her. They were too lazy to code anyone else in. I CAN’T be a trainer even if I wanted to be.”

“Then..why not catch her?” You suggested.

“....I tried once. She freaked out and nearly destroyed the entire game.” ‘‘..oh.”

Despite the circumstances, you managed to strike up a friendship with the two. Shinto would make standard Hypno noises with Gray as her translator. He can’t stand her but..she’s the only company he has. She’s like a cat who he loves/hates.

True to his word, there were no NPCs or Pokémon in the region. Just a mart, center, and Gray’s home. But you figured it was still worth exploring, so he let you despite not gaining any backstory on why the game was made like this.

Or even why Gray had such a distinct personality.

It’s clear they both have abandonment issues, so you’d take the Gameboy wherever you went, turning it on to chat with them about what was going on in the real world.

Hopefully one day you could bring them here, but for now you’ll make sure they’re not left in the dark anymore.

[neoninky]

TWST FIC: 'Her Devoted Shield' - Chapter 4

Oooh LAWDY, I realized as I was wrapping up this chapter that I hadn't updated the story in about a month. Hopefully this chapter was worth the wait lol.

For some reason Tumblr isn't letting me just post the chapter text here so, I'm just gonna leave a link to the AO3 post instead:

WARNING: The boys are going through it. Hell everyone is kinda going through something in this chapter lol. A big reason this chapter took a minute is because it became a catharsis dump for certain characters lol.

I have some thoughts which I'm putting under a read more cut so as not to spoil anything. But first, tagging peeps. If you'd like to be included on the taglist or even removed, lemme know

@foxwitchaine @wysteriadelights @iscarlettappel @nuitthegoddess @victoria1676 @aiimee9 @1ndigowitch @valy-gc @yunaemiya

Ok so

*teleports entire Draconia bloodline into therapy*

Holy Tap Dancing Jesus 🤣

Real talk, I almost deleted over half of this chapter (aka the parts where Malleus pops off with major ‘tude to his entire support system) but looking back, I’m glad I didn’t. Because-*mooshes together the canon with her fanon*

This man had a cataclysmic meltdown because he felt like he was losing Lilia, who basically raised him, and he couldn’t handle it due to childhood trauma that was never dealt with.

Then he was kicked out of the one place where he could have just enough freedom to simply be Malleus the fae who loves gargoyles and his Drago tamagotchi, who sucks at social cues and technology, who could finally enjoy life a bit and is immediately isolated from everyone and everything in his own home for five years. Which isn’t a long time for fae, arguably. Even so imagine pulling a stunt like that with consequences that take everything away from you and shoves you back into the lonesome hole you finally escaped from. It SUCKS. It’s soul crushing…however, actions have consequences. And now he’s being taken off of his probation only to realize “Oh wait, I’m still trapped and out of control.” With, again, more unresolved trauma.

I don’t condone Malleus’s choices he made/is making in the game canon. I don’t even agree with how he treats the people around him in this chapter that I wrote. But taking everything into account…hell yeah he’d be angry!

You bet your ass he’d snap under pressure and lash out! I’d be more concerned if he didn’t. So yeah, I left it in because I wanted Malleus to be able to vent and to also get closure cuz dayum he needs it, Grandma Draconia needs it, and frankly his overworked cousin needs it too.

Honestly I got to the part where Malleus is popping off to Borlean and originally they were just gonna have a heated argument but then…my love for Godzilla movies kicked in once I realized they’re both powerful dragon boys and I was like

“LET THEM FIGHT.” …but only a little 😂 saving the intense violence for later.

On a completely different note: Lilia and Tai-Yang…they got some history 👀☕️ which I’ll be getting into in the next chapter. I’m dealing with all the drama right now, no slow burn 😂 until later cough

[yanderelovlies]

What would happen if MC did not disguise themselves, talked to Bo, freed him, and managed to give him a soul, together the two shared a dream of marrying each other and having a son and a daughter together. But Mc has to leave becaise of a family emergency telling Bo to stay. Emily was jealous of their relationship, disguised herself as MC and tricked Bo (baby trapped him). When Mc returned Bo realized to late what happened with Emily 6 months pregnant with their first pup. MC couldn't bring themselves to ruin a family. Years later Bo found out MC completed both their dream with another man while Bo trapped in a loveless relationship. Year later Bo's pup fell in love with MC's kid that acted and looked just like MC.

First off, what is up with you guys and hurting Bo?? Not that I mind I love a good angst, but like damn 👀

Second, as much as I like this prompt, it would be a little hard to seem logical because Bo would have told the difference between their smells, and Emily is a human and can't change forms.

HOWEVER BECAUSE IM A SUCKER FOR ANGST I WILL WRITE IT BUT IT WILL BE A DIFFERENT TIMELINE

You've always heard that demons were awful creatures who were only in it for themselves, but that didn't stop you from creating contract with one. You wanted the world to know your name, and if that meant signing your soul away, you were gonna do! However, if it came to the heftier price, then you realized.

As your fame started to skyrocket thanks to Emily, so did you need a companion. Every date you went on, it was clear they only wanted one thing out of you, and that was what you could provide from THEM. So you began to give up hope until you got a blue Tamagotchi with a friend named Bo.

You and Bo became close quick. He accepted every part of you like you did for him. He was there for you when things felt like they were too much. He made you feel whole. So in return you did the same for him. You had gotten him out of prison, gave him a life, and eventually a family when you gave birth to his first two pup c/n and Vince.

Everything seemed to fall into place for the two of you, but in an instant, it all crumbled. Your Father had fallen ill, and in a panic, you made a last-minute decision to go and see your family. Since it was so last minute you had asked Bo to stay with the two little one while you were away, and he reluctantly agreed.

However, unknowing to the both of you, something had stirred in Emily. She was jealous of what you had built with Bo. If anyone was deserving of such a sweet loving family, it was her! Not some spoiled brat! So she she came up with a plan to steal it all away. Two months after you left, she took your form and your family. She had known you for so long that it was easy to disguise everything she was into everything you were.

You didn't find out till you came home. There sitting on the couch was you holding a brand new baby, but you knew it wasn't you. It took a long time to piece together what had happened, and unable to stay in the house longer you left.

.

.

.

.

Bo hadn't found what had happened till years later when Emily could no longer keep your form. To say he upset was an understatement, but no matter how much he thought he hated her for what she did, he never left. He couldn't they had pups together, and every fiber in his being told him to stay. So he did, but he never stayed in the same room for a very long, just long enough to be there for his pups when he needs to.

He thought he would never see you again. That was until he decided to take his pups to the local park. Sure, everyone had to cover up with less human parts, but it was all worth it to see his pups have fun.

While pushing one of the pups in the swing, he caught a smell that he had smelled since Emily stopped putting on the facade....it was you. His head quickly turned to where he thought it was coming from to see you once again.

You were almost like he remembered you. The only difference being you were once again pregnant, but no longer his. Beside you stood a brown haired man with brown eyes to match. He couldn't help but watch the two of you interact. You seemed so in love....just like the two of you had been. You were going to start a family with him just like you did. He was watching the life he could have had with you but missed out on.

Bo had cried in the first time since everything, and nothing could those painful tears.

[kensboytoy]

I’m Your Tamagotchi (Ch. 1)

Title: I’m Your Tamagotchi Fandom: Barbie (2023) Pairings: Ken/Original Character (M/M) Ratings: General Chapter: 1/? A/N: This is a very self-indulgent piece! It'll be several chapters and I'll be updating it a lot more when the movie comes out. If you want to listen to the playlist I made to write this, you can find it here.

Another perfect day in Barbie Land, just like it always was. All the residents went about their perfect lives as it was always so well-rehearsed. The Barbies all had very important jobs to do after all. Some were doctors, others were lawyers, and some were even politicians. Every important job was assigned to each Barbie to perform. And the Kens? Well…

Most of the Kens on the beach had been muttering to themselves, quietly daring each other to check out the source of the strange sound coming from the lighthouse they had been hearing all afternoon. It was a shrill and intense beeping that seemed to strike at random, making each and every one of them jump out of their skin in fright. They all postured and tried to act tough, stating that they weren’t that afraid of some silly noise. But someone should definitely check on it before the Barbies noticed. So they wouldn’t get scared, of course. No one had ever exactly gone up to the cliff where the pink and white striped lighthouse sat - there was never a reason for them to venture anywhere outside of the warm, sandy comfort of the beach.

Ken had been waxing his surfboard, eavesdropping on the conversation the entire time and scoffing at the cowardice of the other Kens. It was just a stupid sound, why were they getting so worked up? Maybe the lighthouse just… did that? Ken wasn’t exactly sure what noises lighthouses were supposed to make, his job wasn’t lighthouse keeper - was anyone actually designed with that in mind? - it was just beach. And because his job was beach, he felt a sense of responsibility to go up there and turn the noise off. It was getting annoying anyway.

[Continue Reading or Read on AO3!]

He propped up his surfboard in the sand and tossed the canister of wax aside, slinging his towel over his shoulder. The hike to the cliff was a breeze for Ken, the doll taking long strides as he grew closer to the lighthouse despite the sound becoming louder and louder. It was just the echo, that was it. It totally wasn’t a super scary monster about to lure him into a trap. Ken could feel a pang of nervousness rush through him at the thought, but the stubborn toy quickly pushed the thought aside. He’d be the hero that would keep Barbie safe. Maybe, if she saw how brave he was, it would earn him a proper kiss. A dopey smile stretched across his face, a toned hand reaching up to his cheek to where he envisioned Barbie planting her lips. Yes, he’d be a hero!

Without even realizing it, Ken was already at the entrance of the lighthouse as he walked through his picture perfect daydream. He stopped in his tracks, blinking a few times before he craned his neck upwards to properly stare at the looming structure. From the beach it didn’t look big, but up close? Well, he just hoped he didn’t have to go to the tippy-top to find this noise. Totally not because he was afraid of heights or anything. That would be silly. No, he had just… hit his steps for the day and didn’t want to go over them! It would be totally humiliating to the other Kens if they knew how hard he was working out for this.

As if the building sensed him, the old door swung open to greet him and nearly made Ken jump out of his plastic skin. This was weird. Like really weird. Cautiously, he peeked his head inside before taking a tentative step forward. The sudden sound from earlier pierced the eerie silence of the lighthouse. Ken frantically looked around for the source until the sound tapered off and faded completely. He used the light from the open door to peer around as best he could, but there was nothing there.

When he took another step forward, his foot brushed against something and sent it skittering across the floor before he could process it. There was a small thunk! as whatever it was impacted against the spiral staircase that led up to the actual light room itself. Another beep like the object had been startled by the movement. It was enough for Ken to find out where it had landed, his hand reaching out for it without a thought to stop himself.

Luckily, it wasn't anything dangerous or that would poke him like a pissed off pufferfish. It was a small plastic toy from the looks of it. A UFO shaped toy with little green buttons on the front. Ken stared at it for a moment, fingers ghosting over the left and right buttons. He pressed them down immediately with pure curiosity guiding him. There was a flash on the screen that startled him but then it quickly faded. He pushed down for longer, the same flash happening before a pixelated ghost popped onto the screen.

The device went dead for a moment before the speakers crackled to life once again. Instead of a shrill beep, there was a playful little melody that played before the screen was filled with solid black pixels. As the song played, each row of pixels danced off-screen to slowly reveal a silhouette of a figure. Ken leaned in closer, furrowing his brows in confusion. The song ended and the figure came to full view - it was a chubby little… alien? He looked like a little nerd, with curly hair, huge circle rimmed glasses and a funny little mustache, but there were clearly alien antennae sticking out of the mop of hair. The alien blinked at Ken before his face broke out in a wide smile.

“Wowee! Golly, I was starting to think my battery was gonna die before anyone found me,” the almost cartoonish voice chirped from the speaker.

Startled, Ken stumbled backwards and nearly tossed the device out of his hand. That… wasn’t what he was expecting at all.

“Woah! Easy, fella, I can’t exactly bitecha.”

The alien giggled as Ken adjusted himself. He cleared his throat, trying to play it cool like he hadn't just nearly screamed like a little girl.

“I guess you can’t. I’ve just… never seen something like you before.”

“And I’ve never seen someone like you before, Master!”

Ken stared at the device in confusion. Master? He could feel butterflies fluttering around in his stomach. No one had ever called him something like that before. It was so fancy and formal - far from what he was used to.

“Me?” he inquired, pointing to himself.

The device beeped again, the alien soon giggling once more. It seemed that the shocked face Ken was giving off was rather amusing to the curious creature.

“Of course! You saved me, after all. So you must be my new Master! The last one kinda dropped me in this playset, and, well… you saved me.”

If Ken could blush, he would have. Instead, he let a goofy smile stretch across his face.

“I guess I did kinda save you. I am brave like that.”

He flexed proudly, something he often did to show off. His confidence rivaled the big ego that was already starting to over-inflate. Apparently it was an amusing display that made his new companion laugh in pure delight. Ken's brow shot upwards as he turned his attention back to the screen. The alien was still beaming at him, pixelated stars in his eyes that rotated around and around. He wasn't mocking Ken? Did he actually think that Ken was cool?

"Super rad! I don't think anyone who's ever held me has been that cool or brave, y'know. Really must be my lucky day!"

"How many people have held you?" Ken asked, already sounding a bit jealous.

The alien paused, tapping his hand to his head.

"Y'know, 'm not sure."

He flashed another smile up at Ken, obviously pretty clueless himself. After a few moments of silence, Ken spoke up.

"So what do I call you? Alien dude?"

"Oh! Oz is my name. Short for Oswald. I think it's a poorly themed Roswell joke of some kind, but my programming isn't advanced enough to understand it." Oz shrugged. "It says it right on my label!"

Ken tilted his head to one side and studied the cheap plastic casing of Oz's UFO home. There were some faded stickers of where lights would be if he was a more expensive toy, but the doll wasn't seeing anything. Oz gestured to flip him over, which Ken did carefully as he wondered if Oz could feel the sensation (or any at all) of being rotated. Sure enough, on the back, was a label in a neon green font with Oz's name. The engraving with the copyright information was puzzling to Ken.

"'Your out-of-this-world pal'?" Ken slowly spoke each word.

"Oh, yeah." There was a small chirp from the speakers to let Ken know that Oswald was moving. He was turned back around, the alien awkwardly rubbing his own head. There were little slashes on his face to indicate that he was blushing. "I don't think people really wanted a virtual alien friend. Maybe I'm a bit Y2K."

Again, Oz seemed to be speaking a language that Ken wasn't understanding. Seeing the confusion on Ken's face, Oz moved away from the screen and gave a nervous little laugh.

"Well, I'm not exactly a looker like you, pal. I bet people are clamoring to play with you!"

Ken scoffed and shook his head.

"Everyone here is beautiful. All the Barbies… and Kens. We're built for each other." He paused. "Oh and Allan and Midge. Guess they were made for each other too."

"Wait so… You're a Ken?" Oz chirped.

There was a small nod and the alien took note of how they must be gendered dolls here. Boys and girls separated by just two names. Funny. Definitely a bit old-school.

"And you have a Barbie?"

At that, Ken looked a bit off. He was Barbie's boyfriend. They were supposed to be together, like a perfect pair. But his Barbie hadn't been exactly interested in him lately. She was… different. Something was happening with her and Ken was worried he was losing her altogether.

"You could say that," he replied in a hushed tone.

Oz wasn't born yesterday even with his memory reset. There was something up between Ken and his Barbie, but the alien wasn't exactly going to push the issue. It would be rude to press the man who had just saved him from running out of battery.

"Well, I can tell she has quite the catch. A hero saving aliens from their untimely demise," he joked to lighten the mood. "Maybe I should call you Ken instead of Master then-"

"No. No… you can call me Master still."

Oz blinked up at Ken who was nervously averting his eyes from the screen after that comment. Was he really gonna let this little pixel thing call him something like that? It was the most respect he had ever gotten in Barbie Land. Being Ken - just Ken - was far from being a Barbie. He didn't have a house. Or a job. Or anything to his name. He was Ken. And now he didn't even know if he was Barbie's Ken anymore. So having someone, especially a stranger, now see him as anything else, well…

Ken felt special.

"Okay!" Oz giggled, clapping his hands together enthusiastically. "Well, Master, since I'm literally in the palm of your hands… Why don't I teach you how to use me?"

Again, if Ken could blush…

"If you press that middle button, you can pull up my menu. That's all the settings, time zone, and help information. Boring stuff. But if you click the right button…" Oz gestured to where Ken's thumb was idly resting against. "That gives me food! I need three meals a day to make sure my meter doesn't run out."

"Meter?" Ken inquired.

"Press that left button!"

Ken obliged and was surprised to see a status menu pop up in place of Oz. It showed a small icon of the alien's face along with a level number, sleep status, food meter, and happiness status indicated by a smiley face. Ken's brow furrowed in confusion. Was this like taking care of a pet?

"Are you my dog now?"

There was no response.

"Oh!" He quickly pressed the button and Oswald returned to the screen. The alien was trying his best not to laugh at Ken's surprise. "You have to be on screen to talk, huh?"

"Ding ding ding!"

A jaunty little tune played as the screen displayed a spinning star before fading back to Oz.

"And no, I'm not a dog. I'm clearly an alien." Oz rolled his eyes and pointed to his antenna. "But I guess… kinda? I'm a virtual pet - your new best pal! You keep my meters full and my happiness up and, well, I'll be the perfect friend! If you forget about me and stop playing…"

A large skull and crossbones popped up.

"Then you gotta restart and, boy, lemme tell you, that's not fun. I… Kinda forget all about you and have to start all over." Oz's expression shifted to what Ken could tell was apprehension about the subject.

"That's why you don't remember how you got here, huh?"

Oz nodded.

"Happens every time. I don't know how many Masters I've had that have picked me up, played with me, and then forgotten all about me. Guess it's better that way - I don't get attached."

There was something tugging at Ken's heart. He knew what it was like to be neglected and now he knew that someone was really relying on him. The doll carefully held onto the device and brought Oz to his chest.

"Well, now you're gonna have someone to take care of you! Like, really take care of you, you know? I'll make sure you never have to restart."

Baffled by the bold statement, Oz was glad that his face was hidden in Ken's chiseled chest. He was honestly so caught off-guard that he didn't know what to say. Someone actually was going to care for him? Though, maybe all before Ken had promised the very same. But this time… this time really did sound sincere. It could have been the alien's blind trust, surely, but the confidence from Ken had him eager to try again.

"Hey," came the soft voice from the crackling speakers. "That's awfully sweet of you, Ken. Really. But I know it's a tall order to ask someone who just picked me up to take care of me." Oz smiled, eyes twinkling with little sparkles. "But I'd be real happy to get to know you."

Ken pulled the device from his chest and gazed down at the collection of pixels. His own smile tugged at his lips. Get to know him? That was nice to hear. No one ever really paid him any mind. There was a lot Ken could do, but he didn't have anything special like the Barbies that set him apart from the rest.

"You're not just saying that because I saved you?"

"Naaah! I don't kiss that much heinie on the first date!" Oz quickly slapped his hand over his mouth, blush returning to his cheeks. There were little spirals appearing over his head to show that he was flustered. "Uh. Wrong choice of words…"

But it was far too late. Ken had already been struck with the idea of a date. While Barbie was supposed to be his girlfriend, she never called them hanging out a date. His smile was now a goofy grin and he let out a slow laugh.

"Ha… Well. A bit forward - are all aliens like you?"

"I-I don't know," Oz stuttered. "I don't retain my memories, remember? And my programming doesn't really give me a backstory with any cool alien family stuck far, far away on another planet. Though maybe I should lie and roll with it."

"You shouldn't lie, it's rude," Ken frowned.

"Is that an order then?" came the inquiry and one brow raised upwards.

Ken, feeling stubborn, puffed out his chest and stood tall. His index finger extended and he shook it at the screen like he was giving Oz a stern talking to.

"Y'know what? Yeah. As your Master, I gotta make sure you don't keep secrets. Besides, friends don't lie to each other."

That caused Oz to look away. Guilt crept up on him and instantly sat like a pit in his stomach.

"So we're friends?"

"Well, yeah! I was joking about all that pet stuff." The doll's expression softened as he looked at his new companion. "You may be a computer… thing. But that doesn't mean we can't be friends."

Had they all promised friendship? Did every one of his previous owners lie to him the same way? Ken didn't look like he was lying. This was a new chance and maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't have to worry about restarting with Ken around.

With a soft sigh, Oswald gave a little nod and a shy smile.

"Okay. Friends don't lie." A little laugh bubbled from the speakers. "So we tell each other the truth, 'kay?"

Ken was grinning again.

"Totally! This is gonna be awesome, just you see. No more forgetting stuff, I'm gonna show you everything here in Barbie Land and You're gonna remember it all!"

The eagerness to prove that theory true was enough to make Oz's meter fill with full happiness. A little heart hung above his head, quickly disappearing before Ken could even blink. Barbie Land sounded interesting and Oz wanted to see it all for himself. After all, this was his new home!

Ken was already walking out the door with Oz in hand. Curiously, the alien watched as the sky above them changed from the drab interior of the lighthouse to the sunny, cloudless sky of Barbie Land. It was almost like staring into a painting, it was breathtaking! Oz gave a little beep to Ken so that he'd look down at the screen and, once those big blue eyes looked his way, the alien motioned to turn his UFO over. He wanted to see what Ken was seeing. Happily, Ken obliged and held the device out to the world.

"Your arm is gonna smart if you keep me up like that," Oz teased.

"Huh."

Ken stopped in his tracks, Oz rattling around the confines of his screen. He rubbed at his freshly bonked head before seeing what Ken was up to. It looked like he was fiddling with the silver chain around his neck. Intrigued by the sudden concern Ken seemed to have for his fashion sense, Oz was quiet until the string of silver threaded through the loop adorning his device. His ship was dangling in the air for just a moment before Ken fastened the necklace back around himself.

"There, that way you can see everything and I can make sure I don't lose you."

Oz couldn't see it, but that goofy and proud grin was back on the bimbo doll's smug face. The UFO beeped a few times as Oz's circuits overloaded from the gesture. Despite only being pixels, Oswald felt safer than he ever had before. Even more so than when he was awake when his creators were troubleshooting his code.

"Thank you," he managed to mumble out.

Happy as a clam, Ken continued to saunter back down to the beach where the other Kens had seemed to disperse from their clique earlier. He knew his companion was busy taking in the beautiful sights of his - their home. With the warm sand beneath his feet again, Ken let out a pleased sigh. This was where he spent most of his time every day when he wasn't out chasing Barbie.

"The lighthouse looks so small from over here," he heard Oz muse aloud. "I'm glad you heard me from down here."

"Ah, well. I know when something's happening anywhere on the beach. Call it my six cents."

"...sense?"

"Exactly."

He gave a little nod, planting his feet firmly in the sand with his hands on his hips as the two of them looked out onto the ocean. The permanent plastic wave was high that afternoon, just as it always was.

"Surf's looking good today."

Oz looked up at Ken to see if he was serious, but the position he was in didn't allow him to see past that chiseled jawline. He shrugged to himself and figured it was best not to continue to correct him. It'd be rude to bite the hand that would be feeding him.

"Is Barbie Land always this beautiful?"

"Yup! Every single day!" Ken was beaming like an excited puppy who had just found a really cool stick. "Yesterday was awesome. Today is awesome. And tomorrow will be awesome too! Just like it always is."

There were a few moments of silence as Oswald mulled over the concept of constant perfection.

"Don't you ever get tired of it? Wouldn't you want to see something new?"

The device was lifted up so that the two could look at each other. Oz slid to the top of the screen and soon adjusted himself right side up.

"Why would I wanna do that when everyday's a great day?"

At that, Oz frowned. Did Ken not really see the point in chasing the high of new adventures? Was this place some kind of weird purgatory for all the dolls? He put his hands on his hips and shook his head.

"Because surely something new is more exciting than doing the same thing every day. I mean, I know I have to have three meals, be played with, and then go to sleep every day. That's written in my game code." There was a gesture to his menu button before he pointed to Ken. "But you don't have a code. You could do whatever you wanted, right?"

"Well…" Ken couldn't exactly explain it, but there was the nagging sense of routine every day. Maybe some days he wanted to do things differently, but it never panned out that way. He couldn't exactly explain that he wasn't being played with the same way Barbie was. Ken was just Ken. "I try to see Barbie every day. Sometimes it happens. Then I know it's gonna be a good day!"

That made Oz frown again. It didn't exactly sound like Ken was living for himself. But, again, the relationship between Barbie and Ken seemed a lot more complicated than a simple boyfriend and girlfriend thing. It sounded like Barbie was super important to Ken and it really mattered what she did.

"...you could show Barbie that you saved me," Oz offered. "I bet she'd see how cool and brave you were."

A hand slowly wrapped around the UFO and partially blocked Oz's view. Intrigued by Ken's action, he peeked his head from behind Ken's fingertips to look at him again and see what was up.

"I kinda want this to be a 'me' thing." Quickly, his eyes darted away. "We haven't spent a lot of time together yet and everyone will be bugging me once they see you. Can't we just have some alone time first?"

Those blush marks grew wider on Oz's chubby cheeks. Hearing Ken get so protective was something that drove the little alien wild. Being kept to just Ken… It felt intimate. Nervously, he let out a giggle.

"Sure, sure, Master," the alien teased playfully. "When you're ready, I can talk to the others. But for now, it'll just be us. Who knows, maybe we'll be making friendship bracelets for each other someday."

"How could you make me a bracelet in there?"

Oz rolled his eyes.

"I can do anything in here, Ken. It's all code. I can pull anything out of thin air - heck, I could even change what I look like! 'sides, it was just a joke. Anything I make in here you couldn't wear."

Was… Ken pouting?

"Aw, c'mon, big guy! Don't look so sour. I guess my jokes just don't land with dollies."

Like a hurt puppy, Ken's face was still so sad looking. A pixel hand reached to touch the part of the screen that the plastic one was still clutching onto as if to comfort him. Oz wished he could really touch Ken, but at least his gesture could be seen.

"Don't pout Ken, that pretty face might stick that way. And that would be a cryin' shame! Your smile is ten times cuter."

As if on cue, that very smile tugged at Ken's lips.

"Really?" he giggled.

"What did we say? No lies between friends, right? I mean it. You look really pretty when you smile." Oz blushed once again and let out a light chuckle. "Your eyes get all twinkly too."

It was at that moment that Ken realized that he had never heard that kind of compliment before. Sure, the Barbies would tell him he was very brave and strong, but they had never said something so genuine. He was at a loss for words. All he could do was smile like a dope, chuffed that his new companion seemed to actually like him.

"There it is," came the teasing coo from the alien. "Much better."

Ken let out a boyish laugh, shaking his head in disbelief. Was he being wooed? Because it was working way too well. There must have been some coding in that circuit board that gave Oz enough charisma to flirt. Was it flirting or was he misreading the signs like he always did with Barbie? But this felt different…

"Ken?"

Blinking out of his daze, he turned his attention to Oz's screen before realizing Oz was focused on something in front of them. Instantly, Ken froze. The unmistakable pink flowy fabric made his heart jump into his throat, knocking all coherent thought out of him. Her smile sparkled in the sunlight and he could see her greeting everyone on the beach as she always did.

"...Barbie," fell from his lips automatically.

[bloomfish]

When I was a child I was obsessed with cats after reading warriors and the only thing I wanted in the universe was a cat. My mother wouldn't allow it because she was a. Allergic (valid) b. An animal disliker (not valid) so to prove to her that I would be a responsible cat owner I did so much research and studied cats obsessively, I even drew diagrams of cat anatomy and different systems I would implement around the house to prove I would be a responsible cat owner. I was so dedicated to the feline agenda

I don't know why she never caved and at least got us a hamster or something. I would constantly beg her for a pet, like I would have been happy with any kind of animal even a fish. Unfortunately I was an animal-obsessed child born to an animal averse mother lol. When my brother and I trapped insects she would say in Spanglish "Este es tu pet!" (This is your pet) 😭 and that fills me with rage to this day lmao

To cope I pretended the various animals around the house like a fox or a hedgehog we saw in the garden were my pets. We even had a rat infestation when we lived in London and I considered them my pets, penning my first book entitled "My Rat" which I think my dad still has. I was obsessed with any kind of pet simulator like Nintendogs or neopets or tamagotchis. I think she was worried she'd be saddled with all the responsibility after I got bored which I can understand but also I was so dedicated to my imaginary pets for so many years that I don't think that would have been the case.

[anakeions]

For Yuri and Mao!

🐁 Capybaras are friend-shaped. What shape does your OC have?

👎 Is there someone your OC can’t stand, despite them being on the same side or sharing basic values?

🪤 What is one thing that could be used to lure your OC into a trap?

(Also bonus question for an earlier ask that isn't part of the game but just bc I'm curious- if Yuri could have another Tamagotchi, which series would it be? One of the original releases, a Connection, one of the franchise crossover Nanos, etc?)

hi

YURIIIIII

🐁 Capybaras are friend-shaped. What shape does your OC have?

yuri is shaped like a brick shithouse. that's all

👎 Is there someone your OC can’t stand, despite them being on the same side or sharing basic values?

yuri absolutely cannot fucking stand his coworker elena. which is unfortunate because they have to work together on just about everything, seeing as they're both Basically the gods of their respective facility. while they'd agree on everything in theory--and are both focused on the wellbeing and efficiency of their subordinates--the way elena exercises her authority makes yuri want to tear his fucking hair out and in later years she's probably the source of like. 98% of his stress. even funnier is that this is a very one-sided rivalry, as elena thinks yuri is a pretty chill and well-rounded albeit somewhat neurotic guy. meanwhile yuri daydreams about her being consumed by mosb

🪤 What is one thing that could be used to lure your OC into a trap?

cliche as fuck my bad but any sort of threats to yuri's loved ones are a one-way ticket to getting him to do just about anything. he'll drop just about anything if it means preserving the peace for people he cares about <3 even if it means getting crazy murdered on live television

MAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

🐁 Capybaras are friend-shaped. What shape does your OC have?

collectible action figure, but like metaphorically

👎 Is there someone your OC can’t stand, despite them being on the same side or sharing basic values?

mao doesn't really feel this way about anyone! he generally doesn't have strong feelings about people, and if he does then it always leans towards the positive/idolization. when mao doesn't like people he simply stops associating with them and the problem is therefore solved. don't worry about it guys

🪤 What is one thing that could be used to lure your OC into a trap?

Kind Of Anything. Tee bee aich. if mao wants something he will go for it, and buddy, things dont work that way in this city

as for tamagotchis... while yuri is extremely fond of the original series i think if he were to get another it'd be from the pix series. he'd like the colors--even if he can't actually make out the pixels too well--a lot and i think the idea of taking pictures with that little egg would make him laugh. alternatively--and idk if this counts LOL--he'd get the smart because like. why would you NOT want a watch with a little guy in it. he may be a nerd.