#item 2. i kind of had to put off finishing the game because i didn't have the time to enjoy the latest upgrades after getting them

[theskoomacat]

some Smokestacks screencaps to celebrate me finishing the game bc this biome FUCKED. Falling Firmament storms are fucking terrifying. (pardon the windows activation message.) (220k miles baybeeee.)

i want to plug Pacific Drive real quick. i had a free day yesterday so i spent it in its entirety glued to the screen. i'm not proud. check out this game!!!!!!

it's kind of like a mix between STALKER and Firewatch (by vibe. in my head). (the Impact of Roadside Picnic on our society!) idk the official genre tags on the game but at its base it is a survival game with looting and crafting.

but. you're doing all that to spoil your beautiful princess (your maybe sentient cat that maybe will kill you eventually). you spend 80% of the time in your car, it's your defense against the elements and the Zone. the gameplay loop is fairly simple - you drive, you listen to scientists bicker over the radio, you loot, you lose half your car, you HAUL ASS, you get home.

the game offers a HUGE variety of stuff to explore, from anomalies to weather conditions to biomes to the weird flora/fauna to lore. there's SO much lore, idk who decided to write a blurb for every type of paint. huge game for people who love to collect stuff. and collecting stuff is sometimes a puzzle on its own because you need different tools (which are often interchangeable, thankfully, with varying efficiency).

and driving is very fun. i have a special condition called "Played Skyrim in formative years", so the mountains are a challenge to me, not a barrier. i enjoy the fact that driving being the focal point reshapes the world significantly (from the gamedev pov), because it is built to accommodate driving instead of just running around. the roads are the main focus of all the anomalies due to that, so frankly running around would be easier than dodging the roadblocks, but also you would fucking die. it's actually funny that i regularly find the roads by the concentration of anomalies instead of like. the road itself.

the game is pretty. the GIANT walls/lab megastructures blow my mind, they're so fucking huge. BUT. one problem i have is that there are too many nights. i have already toggled "Shorter nights" on, and still it feels like 60% of rounds take place at night (maybe i'm doing something wrong idk). yes, it is a challenge, but also i wish i could see the game?

the world itself is pretty fun. i have already mentioned STALKER, which is a very fair comparison since you're in a Zone filled with Anomalies. except this time the Zone is not a strictly "natural" occurence, which mixes this genre with the "fucked up mid-20th cent american science->military complex" genre. it is really interesting to see many different opinions on what the Zone is doing in the lore. and you can draw your own conclusions from interacting with it. it is as likely to harm you as help you, and most of the time it just Fucks with you (LIM shield ilu).

what hasn't i mentioned yet? the characters are fun, an old jaded scientist lady who's entombed herself within her creation, her ex-colleague and his bf/husband who stayed in the Zone to hunt cryptids, all lovely. the music is mostly good, but unfortunately there aren't too many tracks, so some get old really quick (i WISH i got tired of DOCTOR JUICE). but do check the radio from time to time, there are cool transmissions you can catch there.

idr if there was a difficulty selector anywhere, but you can make the game easier at will in the settings - keep inventory, restore the car when back home, etc. i wish i had known about these settings when i "died" at the EXACT moment i moved to another zone, because i both lost half my inventory AND was forced to continue my run due to that lmao. the game is Not easy tbh. the first time i was in the city with a hole in the center i couldn't climb out of there because it was pitch dark and my car was so so broken, it actually made me super frustrated. but when you learn all that stuff and actually plan for it and outfit your car with it mind, it all becomes manageable and enjoyable. it is decidedly not a horror game, but it Is unsettling at times. dense fog+bigfoot weather conditions made me SO paranoid, although i didn't actually see anything lol

so yeah, i totally recommend the game if you enjoy survival games. here are also some tips for people trying the game out for the first time, aka what I wish I had known:

In the beginning doing more runs (=bringing in more anchors) will be more benefitial than turning over every rock in every zone because a lot of good stuff is locked behind upgrades. One exception - quest zones with Perpetual Stability, you can explore and loot there for an hour if you want

Shorten the nights. It's not fun to stumble around blindly, especially not in the beginning while you're still learning

Hold T to teleport your car out of sticky situations and use Y to sort inventories. idk why they don't tell you that

PLAN. Look at the resources in each location has before launching and bring extra instruments/raw materials in accordance

Invest into better batteries and renewable energy, it gets more and more important as you progress. You don't really need to upgrade the gas tank until you've upgraded the engine, unless you spend 50% of the time trying to crawl up a mountain with summer tires (off-road tires are the shit)

Skip the crowbar, the impact hammer and scrapper can do everything it does

Dying is not super scary aside from losing progress, you just lose your inventory and maybe some attachments, but you will get an opportunity to find the wreckage of your car on a different run (orange tombstone? icon) and to loot it

[bettsfic]

it took 140 hours, but i finally finished my first playthrough of baldur's gate 3. overall i'm insane about it but there are a few things that really pissed me off. my (many) thoughts in no particular order under the cut.

i forced myself to play the full game totally vanilla, no mods even though i'm so bad at games i usually need cheats to make it to the end. not to mention i've hated inventory management in every game i've ever played (except genshin. love u, hyv). but i was patient, and i played on explorer mode, and i savescummed the hell out of it (hence 140 hours). but as SOON as i finished the epilogue, i turned around and installed 30 mods, most of which are QoL things that shouldn't even need to be modded (vertical camera pitch, WASD option, stackable items, sortable inventory, highlight ALL interactable objects).

i decided i wanted to play both a Dark Urge playthrough and an I'm Just Ken playthrough, but after making two new characters and, through my endless youtube diving, accidentally getting spoiled on what i think is the major durge reveal, i decided simply to make Ken the Dark Urge.

every other minute he goes, "Hi! I'm Ken," and then thinks about murder. it's great.

obvs he's going to romance Shadowheart (although i may download the poly mod and romance everyone).

MAJOR SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

here are my Thoughts, in no particular order, because i don't know where else to put them:

i didn't enjoy romancing Astarion as much as i thought i would, because i came to see him less as a romantic interest and ended up identifying with him more than my Tav. that said, i'm very excited to do Astarion's origin playthrough

i ended up enjoying my Halsin romance more, because it was a more traditional slowburn, and Halsin's quest was totally external conflict. on one hand, that made me less interested in him as a character overall; on the other, it was SO SATISFYING to find out he had been Pining for me the whole time. sometimes i just need a little bodice-ripper content, as a treat

obviously i'm also into Astarion/Halsin and Astarion/Halsin/Tav

however the only viable fic idea i have is Astarion/Shadowheart? i blame this fanvid

no, really, what was so different about Early Access that OP got this much Astarion/Shadowheart material? the description in the video says they were disappointed by how their dynamic had changed for full release

okay, time or my biggest beef:

Haarlep pissed me off almost enough to stop playing the game. not in a purity way, but in a "this is just bad writing" way

i mean, your options are to kill him or fuck him. that's not consent. and when you agree to fuck him, you have to roll several checks to keep him from killing you. then he steals your likeness so that whenever he has sex with someone else, you have a spontaneous orgasm

i wanted to dismiss it as dead dove, but the point of dead dove is that 1) it is labeled, and there was no indication whatsoever i was about to walk into this, and 2) dead dove implies the creator is aware that the content is filth for filth's sake. i saw no evidence that that quest was anything more than the sniffing panties buff of D:OS2

the sadist in the goblin camp? that's good filth. you have a little public BDSM demo that you can easily nope out of, and if you finish it you get a permanent buff. your companions have fun things to say. and there's no major quest attached to it, so you can completely walk past it. and the Drow twins were the same. and Mizora. just horny content for players who enjoy that kind of thing, and easily disregarded for players who don't. i don't understand why Haarlep had to be different

like, you're looking around for the hammer. you come across Haarlep, who is bored and wants to have fun with you. maybe he offers the promise of a buff that will help in the coming battle with the Absolute. if your romanced character is in the party, you have a dialogue option to talk to them about it first. maybe in parting, he gives you a hint about where to find the hammer, and it's in a completely different room

but no, you *have* to interact with him to advance the quest, can't talk your way out of it, and it leaves you with a skeevy pseudo-debuff

when i went to look it up, i saw so many forum posts of people being like, hmm this made me really uncomfortable, and (presumably) men responding, it was consensual! you have the option to kill him! and it's frightening that so many people think that way

also when you have a female Tav and you choose a male Haarlep, the animation doesn't change to account for the position. Haarlep straddles you the whole time. and that just made me interpret the scene as a male succubus rape fantasy

and your companions have to WATCH. and they don't intervene or even say anything about it. if you've romanced Astarion and he's in your party, you get one point of disapproval and that's it. like he wouldn't have an Opinion over that kind of coercion? i saw some youtube videos and know that he says something about it much later when you spontaneously orgasm, but that's it

i hope there's something i'm missing, and someone will come into my ask and go "ummm actually" and tell me some important factoid of game development that will make me interpret the scene differently

i ended up resetting and just not doing the House of Hope questline. i didn't bother with the hammer, either. honestly the whole Githyanki plot confused me and i was more invested in my conflict with the Emperor. i ended up siding with him and killing Orpheus so that no one would have to turn into a mindflayer. i was expecting to have to persuade him out of taking the crown himself, but he just noped off for some reason

this is another thing i wonder if i missed. i never understood his motivations or goals beyond "protect you" and "manipulate you." so he's Balduran and he killed his dragon and...what else? to what end? it would have been more satisfying to me if he planned to take the crown for himself but decides not to because of the bond he's forged with you. but maybe i can interpret it that way anyway

yes i fucked the Emperor

but i fucked him in Guardian form

like a COWARD

i was very torn about all the characters' final decisions. in the end, i kept Jenheart and spawn Astarion. i let Wyll and Karlach choose for themselves (and loved their ending together). i couldn't prioritize Gale or Lae'zel this playthrough because i was focused on too many other things, and i got their bad endings (although i ended on good terms with Lae'zel despite killing Orpheus?)

i played as a beast master ranger (i mained a beast master hunter in WoW for years) and i've seen in several places on the internet that it's supposedly the worst subclass, but let me tell you...

the bird companion. nobody is talking about the bird companion. by the end, it has two actions, the ability to blind, and your bird can call in two more birds. you can have a total of FOUR BIRDS

the red dragon in the final battle? couldn't do shit. it spent the entire time blinded by my bird. nearly everyone on the battlefield was dead by the end, but my bird still had over 50% of its HP. the bird is BROKEN

in my I'm Just Ken playthrough, i'm going to multiclass Shadowheart into a raven girl. the birds spoiled me and i can't imagine playing without them now

it's weird to me that there's penis physics but no boob physics. did anyone else notice that? you wiggle the male avatar and the dick moves. you wiggle the female avatar and her boobs are like rocks. even when she's lying down, the boobs stay exactly as they are

listen, i have a lot of complaints. the bugs made the game nearly unplayable for me. i know they're putting out patches fast, but i think it'll still be years before i would recommend this game to someone who is on the fence about playing it. if you're not immediately dropping everything to fuck the hot sad vampire, you might as well wait until the game is cleaner at like hotfix 856

BUT

i've never experienced anything like this game. every decision matters. every character has a story. there are so many potential paths and opportunities that it's literally impossible for the fan wiki to be completely accurate. i cried at least 4 times, and by the end, saying goodbye to Karlach, i was actually sobbing. i'm old enough now to know that these states of immersion into fictional worlds are rarer than they used to be, and i'm so grateful to this game for giving me so many hours of fun and escape

unlike books, movies, and tv, where i get invested and move on and rarely read or watch anything twice, video games are always such a learning curve for me that when i get into a game, i stay there. i have thousands of hours into Genshin and SDV, and i have a feeling BG3 will be the same. this game is so, so flawed, but it's ambitious beyond any narrative i've ever encountered, and i really admire it for that

i would love to find a Discord server for it that's not overwhelmingly huge, just the people writing fic and making art. it's been a long time since i've been involved in a fandom and i really miss it

[dykedragonrider]

(voice of someone who puts off reviewing things for days at a time) finished Inscryption and while I'm not into ARG stuff much so despite having looked into it I won't comment on that, I will comment on the fact that the substance of the game is. Really fucking good actually. I played MTG as a child with my friends and this game hits good because of that, to a degree.

First off. Love the metagame elements with interacting with the exterior world in acts 1/3. That's fucking great. Picking up little items to use along the way as you progress the story, or directly progressing it with them (I popped the fuck off about the eye thing tbh, that was sick). The presentation with the tabletops is also just like. There'll be a recurring thing here that I bring up, that it's exactly what you wish you had when you were playing tabletops sometimes, a whole space devoted to it, and it's all just beautiful.

The roguelike deck building is fun, I'm a slay the spire enjoyer (even if I'm not a Pro gamer:tm: at it), so it was pretty straightforward to make broken and fun decks, and the game knows this, I think the volatility of the cards plus the fact that bosses have bullshit stuff they can do makes this feel like, really earned? You get ideas based on that to break the game further and it's encouraging innovation in such a smart way? Act 2 and 3 do this better (shoutouts to the instakill turrets that respond to something being in front of them, i made one and it was soooo nice), and I really liked act 2 because Grimora's deck had some really cool like, pseudo-infinites it could enter with how it interacted with sacrificing, so experimenting with that felt rewarding as shit. I do wish we got to spend more time with her though, bc I liked her style.

And that's kind of like, exactly what I adored about this game? There's some cool metafictiony stuff and I like the found footage presentation, but the main core of Inscryption I think is done so well through Leshy, the sheer love of the game and playing a character and *making an experience out of it*. It's broken. And that's OK. I like that that even gets lampshaded with Kaycee's mod, tbh. But the ending is what elevates this from like, a solid cult classic to something that has stuck with me in terms of pure sentimentality? When the deletion starts, Leshy takes you for one more spin, purely for the joy of the game. I handily defeated him instantly (trifurcated strike card with 4 power) but he just. "we don't need score" and you play a few rounds, and when you can't go farther, you shake his hand.

Grimora comes next. It's something wholly new! I adored her segment, the presentation the style, I wish I coulda had a shot with this! I'd probably really like this! I did like what was there! But it's over. She's going. And you shake her hand.

Magnificus finishes, and his is this whole spectacle (with its own tongue in cheek reference that, despite not playing that card game, i got). It corrupts itself as data is lost, and he tries to go and shake your hand, but doesn't get the chance. I found myself rather struck by that? It was poignant, I wasn't too fond of the guy with what I had seen, but that doesn't mean that it didn't like. There's a great tragedy here.

And that's what stuck out to me about this, going into personal experience here (not that discussing art isn't invariably talking about yourself imo, but the pretense is being dropped here fully) was as a kid I was a bit of a joyless ass when playing MtG, I liked winning, hated losing, and tried to build decks that could cheese wins from my friends (but was limited by my lack of spending money on them) for easy wins. And as an adult I look back on that with both shame and adoration, I had something I cared about a lot that made me think laterally, it was nice, but it was also... I was going about it the wrong way. It's fine to be motivated by stuff like that, but the love of the game I had early that drove me got lost along the way, and this game captures that *feeling* of the love of the game so well.

[pixelpoppers]

Minor design decisions and immersion in Star Trek: Resurgence

I finally played Star Trek: Resurgence, which I'd had my eye on for some time. It's an interesting game in its own right, but also significant as the first game from Dramatic Labs (a studio formed by Telltale Games veterans) and as part of a new wave of licensed Star Trek games during an exciting time for that franchise.

So naturally I'm here to ignore all of that and instead discuss a specific design decision that most people would probably ignore instead of fixating on. (What can I say? You come to my house, you get my bullshit.)

Okay, so. Resurgence is mostly a game about making choices. There are a few other flavors of gameplay including stealth/combat sequences, shuttlecraft piloting, walking around and investigating areas, a handful of minigames and QTEs, and so on. But the core is making dialog choices that have various effects on the characters and the relationships between them.

Correspondingly, those choices are the foundation of the game's achievements/trophies. There aren't any for, say, clearing a combat section without taking damage. None of them are skill-based (except inasmuch as you need to be able to complete all previous parts of the game to reach the particular decision the achievement is for) and I think that's absolutely the right call. Those more-active parts of the game are for pacing and immersion; it'd be weird to turn them into things the player has to master for full completion.

What seems like a less-right call to me is that the achievements aren't for passing decision points, but for making specific choices. Like at one point there's a crisis, both your science officer and security officer have recommendations for getting through it, and you have to decide which one to follow. There isn't a trophy for getting through the crisis: there's one for following the science officer's recommendation and one for following the security officer's. Almost all the achievements are like that. (On PlayStation, there is additionally the Platinum trophy for getting all other trophies; on Xbox, there are additionally three progress trophies for getting through the three "acts" of the game.)

Now, that does mean that a player's achievement list for the game becomes a reference for the choices they made, which is kind of a cool thing to have and to be able to share with other players (though the achievements have pretty explicit descriptions so the list is full of GIANT SPOILERS until you finish a playthrough). But the game's website already provides a mechanism for this, and achievements are particularly poorly-suited to this goal.

By positioning all the alternative choices as items in a completion checklist, the game signals that you should see them all before you can consider yourself truly done. This isn't as obnoxious as it was in Q.U.B.E. 2, because the game is at least about the choices and there is new stuff to see on a replay, though I still think it smacks of insecure design. But it does mean that anyone who replays the game to make other choices and get all the achievements renders their list useless as a reference for their "actual" choices--and it turns those choices from ones that allow the player to express something about their values to obligatory ones that are just checked off a list with no personal meaning. And the more effective the game has been at creating a real-feeling world and characters, the less interested I am in doing that.

(It's the same reason I was so relieved to see that Resurgence didn't have secrets or collectibles. Hunting through all corners of the map to find golden ships or research data would destroy immersion instantly; I was really happy I could just go where my character would go and not worry that I would be mechanically punished for it.)

Resurgence wasn't a perfect game, but it did a better job than anything else ever has at making me feel like a Starfleet officer. I loved the scenarios it put me in and the opportunity to make decisions that best reflected Federation values and balanced protecting my crew with advancing our mission. I recognize that I'm more sensitive to this than others, but I resent feeling nudged to go back and make different decisions that will turn Resurgence from a world populated with people to a series of arbitrary levers to pull.

[bearpillowmonster]

Another thing to relate to my last post. My dad asked what I wanted for Christmas and I said I had a broad idea but I had an actual list at work (because I email myself back and forth) and he said something like "Oh, you make Christmas lists at work instead of working, I want that job." and it's like, that's the cultural divide.

You know part of why people hate their job so much? Because it's 8 hours of straight mundane most of the time. I'm actually one of the highest performing people in our region and even had a job created just because of the extra effort that I put in. But I frame it like this. I don't have customers all hours of the day, it just doesn't happen, stuff is too expensive and too much decision making is in place to treat it like that.

So I make it a game. If I finish my work then I can go and draw or go and shop for stuff for Christmas, this is true but if I didn't have that instant reward in place then what would be my short term motivation? Long term, it's what? Get home and shower and eat but last week I got roped into fixing an automatic litter box and haul a bed. That's not an escape, that's not something you plan for so you take little bits of freedom where you get them and it gives you something to work towards. "Oh lunch is soon? Ok." Did the same in school, if I finished my work early, I could go and do other things, I was disappointed when I didn't.

This asks whether you put in the right amount of time and effort into something. Is my job easy? No, there's a ton of stuff I have to know and when faced with a difficult problem, I have to spend some time on it. I learn new stuff every day and I've been there for over 2 years. But I was trained to be like that, not just anybody can translate what someone wants into the computer. You want a faucet? What kind? Double handle, brushed nickle, spray nozzle, brand. Does it take a cartridge, if so what model. They have words for stuff that could mean other stuff for different people. A sleeve could mean a coupling or it could mean an expansion ring, you just don't know unless you know who you're talking to or know what you can show them to ask or know what they're trying to do based on what they already ordered. Experience. So it's a one-on-one session that a problem won't be fixed until they leave and sometimes well after so you have to put the time in, the only way you can't is to push it off on someone else or just refuse to do any work.

How do I do more than most? That's not my only job. I work the accounting (another position) I work the warehouse (another) I work the actual gathering of items and stocking (another) Faced with a problem or phone call (that's inside sales) I'm a floater that is more concerned with range than focus on one task because we're short handed, nobody else knows how to do it, or the company doesn't want to spend the money for another position. It's taking advantage of me, I'm aware but don't you dare say that I don't work and instead slack off to make a Christmas list. Because I just work in a more satisfying way than you do.

[sacred-stanning]

Chapter 15 Part 9: Playing Coward Emblem

Ephraim's army continues to wander through the desert, picking up old junk. Franz finds a body ring, which increase a unit's con stat.

And Eirika finds a Silence Staff.

After taking out the Berserker in the upper right and getting the Dragon Axe, Marisa and her group move down towards the lower right. Marisa equips a lance breaker to make it easy for her to dodge the wyverns.

This jerk Troubadour moves up to Physic one of the wyverns.

But I have Gerik shoot down one, and then Marisa finishes off the other one.

Moulder stops in a house, and this random guy knows a lot about Grado's military structure.

"In the Grado Empire, generals with particularly high rank are given titles based on the names of stones."

He then is like, "How do I know all of this? Hey, it's my job! If this information helps you out, that's great!"

Thanks for the info dump, random dude.

Lute finds a Dragon Killer.

And apparently I put Marisa in range of the Shaman near Valter who has Eclipse. But, hey, look at that hit rate!

Franz finds a Killer Bow...

And since everyone is wandering around looking for treasure, I just let Marisa stay in Eclipse range to make the Shaman runs out of uses.

This, my dear readers, is Coward Emblem. I am very good at being a coward.

Tana and Cormag fly up to the top right corner, where I know there is a Silver Card that halves the prices in all the shops. They open up their B support.

Tana thanks Cormag for getting his wyvern to screech and warn her of arrows, and Cormag remarks that he actually didn't even have time to notice and make his wyvern do that. He says wyverns are smart enough that they know who is an enemy, and who is a friend, and his wyvern helped out Tana on its own.

Ross picks up the Metis Book. It's a consumable item that raises a unit's growths in every stat by 5%. The text says, "If you use it on a favorite unit, something good...(will happen)"

I don't remember off hand, but this might also affect who appears in the record hall after you beat the game on a file. I remember that the item that was like this in FE7 worked that way.

Can anyone guess who is going to get this item?

And Saleh finds the Boots! They're not just boots, they're magical boots that raise a unit's movement by 2!

I'm realizing now that a lot of why I chose Mage Knight for Lute was for the extra con and movement. But since I'm favoring her anyway, I could just give her the body ring and boots as a Sage and get the con and movement while also getting the higher magic cap from Sage...

Of course, I can still choose to give her the body ring and boots now as a Mage Knight, and she'll just have even more con and movement!

Oh yeah, there's a battle going on in this desert. I put Ephraim in range of some horses with his special lance.

Wow, he's got another map to go before he can reclass, so it looks like he's going to cap his level!

So at this point, Eclipse is out of uses, and I'm about ready to move in, but there is still a Troubadour with a Berserk Staff to watch out for, not to mention that I don't really know which enemies will move, and which won't. I'm especially spooked after Caellach moved before. I don't think Valter will move, but then again, I didn't think Caellach would move either.

Despite the risk of a game over, I send Ephraim down to kill the Troubadour.

In retrospect, it was kind of dumb of me. While none of these enemies have good hit rates on him, if enough of them had hit him, he would have died and I would have had to start all over.

I've noticed that I make a lot more dumb decisions near the end of maps, I think because playing mostly one-handed while holding my phone in the other hand is really exhausting.

So here we are. This is kind of what I meant when I said I wasn't sure which enemies were going to move. That Shaman could have moved and attacked, but didn't. And the Troubadour also didn't use the Berserk Staff even though I think multiple guys are in range?

Next time: More cautious play (except for when I make dumb mistakes)

[hopeymchope]

Final Fantasy VII 8/27/24 Update: FINAL Edition

I haven't updated in a while both because (1) the surgery I had and (2) because I just kinda lost that loving feeling. At a certain point, I was playing this game just to finish it, because I was no longer enjoying the actual GAMEPLAY and was left to use the built-in cheeses of the Switch port to plow through it. And then, over time... I started not being very happy with the storytelling, either.

Yeah. This is a downer of a final entry on this little game log. Sorry.

It's finished now. I beat the game. But as much as I gained love and appreciation for the world and its characters, the gameplay and its core story left me mostly with complaints, and I feel... guilty about that.

I'll start with gameplay:

I've never been a big fan of random battles. I kind of excuse it in old Pokemon games where you can at least see the patches of tall grass on the world, but I much prefer seeing the enemies on the screen and then colliding with them before a turn-based battle starts — like in Earthbound, for example. The PSP remake of the first Lunar did this, too—they made it so you see the enemies visibly and have to come into contact with them before a right breaks out. Even if you can't possibly outrun or avoid them, I like knowing they're coming and expecting that clash. Jump-scaring me randomly with a battle when I don't see it coming and I'm just trying to get some shit done on what looks like a wide-open area? Fuck all that, I say. So I was always going to struggle with the fact that older Final Fantasy games (and MOST older JRPGs, honestly) revel in that stuff.

But another thing I don't like is when an RPG starts to focus too heavily on status conditions that require various items or magics to cure. So you have to constantly stop your turn-based fight to manage conditions or something, and you probably don't have enough items to make a whole party immune, but just one person who gets put Asleep or made Small or turned into a Frog can fuck up your whole fight, so now you gotta spend turns/moves curing them, and while you do that then the other characters try to cure them the bad guys can do it to MORE characters, and OH GOD THIS IS AN ENDLESS CYCLE. So fucking annoying. FF7 adored making most of the climactic boss fights HEAVY on this shit. And I hated that.

Now, the story:

What carried me through everything was that I liked getting to know these characters. Yet even in that regard, by the climax of the game, I was... disappointed? Some plot points are brought up to justify something and then just ignored immediately after, despite the fact that it seems like characters should be RUSHING to take care of those issues. Some characters the team never get any expansion via side quests and thus remain mysterious ciphers. Or maybe I missed some optional side quests that would've told me something, ANYTHING about wtf was going on with them? Or maybe I'll get my questions answered in future remakes/spinoffs? Not that they could've known those were coming when they made FF7 to begin with...

The best thing about the story's last third has got to be the way the crew splits up before the final mission, and we get that excellent scene with Cloud and Tifa on the mountain. It's also one of my biggest gripes. I was both (a) expecting and (b) excited to see every other character's motivations and trips home before they march into a final battle against certain death. But... the game didn't care as much as I did, I guess. So we just get told they went and did those important character-building, emotional scenes off-screen somewhere, and we never learn what they were. Shit. Ok.

This is a deeply beloved game, so nobody wants me to sit here and bitch for ages. That's just a way to earn hatred from EVERYONE ALIVE WHO PLAYED THIS IN THE '90s. And with that in mind, I'm gonna skimp on further details. But my overall feeling at the end was "Hrm. Guess you had to be there." Even so, I'm still glad I took the trip to know these people and get the context on them/their world.

The ending itself was also pretty weird and unsatisfying, imo. But then I promptly watched Advent Children Complete, and I felt much happier for it. So... thumbs up on that.

Sorry for the downer wrap-up to this little series. Sorry to disappoint everyone who wanted to see me love this. But now I'm really, REALLY hopeful that they can take this baseline and really kick things up to another level in the Remake trilogy. And I'm still gonna play Crisis Core, too.

Guess what video game I just started playing for the first time?

Yeah, this is some long-overdue Gamer Homework(TM). Definitely one of those titles that it feels like you have to be familiar with if you're gonna claim you're big into the hobby.

So my Gamer ID Card has been in danger of revocation for many years now. :P

[fancysimpinghere]

Euphories pt.4 (Sykkuno x reader)

Well, hello everyone! I want to deeply apologize for such a long break in posting there. We all know how hard life can sometimes be. But I arrived with a finish of this story and I hope you will like it! Enjoy!

summary: all good things eventually come to the end and insecurities aren't helping. Adult life is hard, so are decisions. Even if mistakes happen, there would be something to do to fix your frienship. And who knows, maybe things would evolve into something deeper and more advanced than simple relation between friends?

It has been two months since your first encounter with this pretty boy. Luckily, your schedule wasn’t that busy in summer months, so you could visit Thomas in his grandfather’s shop at least twice a week. Your friendship was blossoming, you both surprisingly had a very good contact. When you visited the shop, Thomas usually was waiting for you with one of the magic cassettes, but sometimes he was just showing you around. Actually, you found yourself almost working with him, because you were helping him with unpacking new items, organizing things and cleaning. It was very fun for both of you - you could spend more time together and get to know each other. But you had your own job as well, and summer time was slowly ending. You knew that if you want to keep seeing Thomas, you have to bring your friendship to another level and start to meet up outside. Little did you know that he rarely left shop or house. These places were his comfort zone and You didn't want to push him to do something really demanding. You decided to give him some time to get accustomed to your presence in his life and let Sykkuno make this important step. All you could do then was wait and do your best to gain his trust even more than you had already. When holidays ended, you were sad, because that means less free time - and less time spent with Thomas. But you still came to his shop, even if you were tired or had to sacrifice your sleep time. Sometimes you helped his grandfather with some simple chores, made some cookies for them both or just kept him company - you knew that older people seek attention from others and you couldn't say no to him. But to be honest, it was difficult to bring together your new lifestyle with your old one. Of course you liked Sykkuno, and you felt about him a little different than an ordinary friend - you liked him more and this was also not easy. You were afraid that if he found out about your little secret, it would scare him away and you would lose him as a result. Day by day you were trying to shove your feelings away and focus on helping him, but every moment spent with Thomas started to feel like too much for you. You were worried if he noticed small changes in your behaviour, but he seemed fine. Because of that, you started to lose yourself in work - your amount of free time dropped almost to the bare minimum because of afterhours, and even if you had a free day, you were too tired to visit your friend.

On the other hand, Thomas was internally freaking out. In the end of holidays he started to catch feelings for you, but was too afraid to admit it even to himself. He enjoyed your company a little bit too much, and you started to look better than before in his eyes. But he was sure that you are too good to him and you deserve better than a shy boy with nothing to offer. So he was amazed that you still visited him after your work started and spent your precious time with him. He was absolutely affected by your kindness and willingness to help.

He knew that if he wants to keep you even as a friend, he has to do something. You were his only friend and after these months spent together, he couldn't imagine his life without you. So when you started to visit his shop less often, he felt hopeless. Sykkuno was sure that he bored you out of his life because of his strange addiction to video games and antisocial lifestyle. He didn’t know what to do. His low self-esteem was not helping him with putting his thoughts together. After the first two weeks without your visit to his home or shop, he was devastated. Nothing from his special collection of games and films could make him completely happy anymore, because his thoughts were occupied by you. But one day, when he was organizing his special cassettes, a movie caught his eye. When he read the title, an idea sprung to his mind and he was that desperate for your presence, he almost instantly made a decision.

*********************************************

You started to feel a bit nostalgic when you were looking through the window at falling snowflakes. It was the first snow of the year, so you were also a little bit excited. But when you were sitting in a small cafe in your town, a cup of hot chocolate in front of you, memories slowly creeping from the back of your head. Memories of sad past months, but also of warm and joyful summer. But the most important thought in your mind was the reason for your presence in the cafe. Your fingers unconsciously wandered on the screen of your phone to once again open a message from your friend Thomas. You had strong remorse for leaving him alone and don't contacting him in almost a month. You didn't know what to expect from today's meeting with him, but you were shocked that he invited you to a public place, where there could be a lot of people. Your line of thinking was cut, when small bells over the door frame rang and someone entered the cafe. You guessed it was your company for today - hood covered his head and his face was covered by black mask, but you were sure that this is your friend, whom you haven't seen for almost 2 long months. You noticed his lack of gloves - his hands were red from the cold temperature outside. He still got snowflakes on his massive hoodie, but they were melting away. Even if you felt a little bit awkward, you felt a strange warmth in your chest at the sight of him. You longed to hear his soft voice and laugh, and your heart squeezed just at the thought of it.

He paused for a while to look for you among other people present at the cafe and his gaze finally met yours. He shyly headed towards you and slowly pulled off his hood and mask, so you could recognize him as you haven't done it already. Even from a distance you could say that he was nervous, his hands were making some awkward movements and his eyes shifted from one person to another, like he was expecting somebody to attack him. Finally he was standing right in front of your table and you felt terribly for leaving him with poor excuses about work. He looked bad, just as you - sleepless nights put their marks on your face and you recognized them on his face too. Before he could say anything, you stood up immediately, and reduced the distance between you two. You looked him deep in the eye and hugged him carefully to not scare him. You didn’t care about other people, because you especially chose a more private area of the cafe, in the corner and a massive part of it was covered by plants. You felt Thomas tensing up after you embraced him, but after a few seconds he relaxed and hugged you back.

- "I'm so sorry, Sykkuno." - whisper left your mouth before you could think about forming a more developed sentence, but these words were only one in your mind right now. - "I missed you so much."

At these words he hugged you tighter and you could swear that he smiled like he always did when he was embarrassed.

- "I missed you too." - he whispered back, straight to your ear. You felt butterflies waking up in your stomach at his closeness and blushed a little.

- "It’s nice to- nice to see you, hm." - he stuttered a little and moved his arms away from you, so you did the same. You both sat down and you looked at his face again. Small blush creeped his cheeks, but it could be from the temperature change. - "I was afraid that you wouldn't have time for… For me."

He looked at you like a lost puppy and you felt awful. But before you could say something, he gave you a very warm and wide smile.

-"But you had and I'm happy about it." - he said and started to look for something in his pockets. - "I know that you are a very hard working person and I wanted to thank you for helping me and my grandfather despite this." - it was the longest sentence you ever heard from him, so you were a little bit speechless, but he looked like he wanted to say something more. However, you felt guilty and you had to apologize to him properly.

- "Thomas, I’m sorry. "- you interrupted before he could continue. - "I'm sorry for non contacting you in days and I know it was wrong. I… I can explain why I did this."

- "You don't have to. "- He answered and his search finished with success, because he placed down something rectangular on the table. - "I asked you for a meeting, because I realized something during the past months. And I can't keep this a secret any more."

He was looking even more nervous now. He hid his hands in the sleeves of his hoodie, because they were trembling a little. You also noticed that his face is clearly and non deniable red almost like a tomato, and he was a little bit hesitant when speaking. You decided to not interrupt him this time, and you also felt nervous. He looked at the window to search for the right words or find the courage, you assumed. But then he suddenly returned his gaze to you.

- "What is it, Thomas?" - you asked softly to encourage him to share his thoughts with you. You decided to use his real name to show you are taking him seriously. Deep in your heart you felt a little spark of hope, but you didn't want to make expectations and then be dissapointed. You watched his movements carefully, your eyes dropping to the item lying before him, and you finally recognized the thing. It was a cassette thanks to which you could know him. Your mouth opened in surprise and when he noticed that, he smiled coyly, but stress was still recognizable on his face.

- "I wanted to tell you for a long time, but… I… I couldn’t find the courage. But now, I decided that I have to do this." - words left his mouth faster than usual, and his eyes nervously watched your reaction. He sighed and blinked a few times. -" You are my best friend, my only friend, but I realized I like you a lot more than that."

You were completely speechless. You didn't even imagine this scenario - it was too perfect to be real, but there you are. Your mind exploded with a sudden wave of joy and happiness, because the dearest person you know just admitted to liking you back. You smiled sincerely to him and he had to notice a spark of joy in your gaze, because he stopped talking and just watched you with his big eyes.

- "Thomas, I like you too. "- you said in answer, honestly looking into his eyes. -" I didn’t know how to tell you, so I distanced myself fro you, because I didn’t want to scare you or… "- you didn’t finish and all of sudden felt embarrassed for your lack of initiative.

- "I thought it would be nice to talk about it in the place where our friendship started. "- he said slowly and carefully moved the cassette on the table towards you. He looked down for a second, then returned your gaze. He looked more determined than before and smiled at you once again. You could look at his smile forever - there was nothing more cuter than his expressions.

- "So…Would you like to accompany me on this journey?" - he asked softly and pulled out his hand to you from the sleeve. He watched your reaction carefully.

- "Yes, I definitely would." - You giggled and blushed a little, but gently grabbed his hand and intertwined your fingers with his.

He tightened his grip on your hand and you both touched the cassette with your other hands. The world started to spin, and even when you started falling down, all you could feel in this moment was falling in love with this cute, lovely boy, soon to be your boyfriend, who held your hand like his life depended on it and laughed at the strange sensation. You couldn't help and joined him, looking forward to experiencing the best adventure - and you were certain that it would be the best, because you had the greatest companion in the whole world.

~fin~

[4aloysius-porteu]

i really wish i hated you || tsukishima kei

masterlist | 1 | chapter 2  | 3

pairing: tsukishima kei x f! reader

sypnosis: It was an accident that (Y/N) met a certain tall, blonde male; a memory she isn't fond of remembering, but it is where it all started. And ever since, she magically makes her to his path. The image of the bespectacled man dwelled in her mind more than she thought. Tsukishima pushed away his softer emotions and denied their existence, or at least that's what he told himself. But then, he couldn't believe that this girl he labeled as a clumsy, unlucky creature who smashed his glasses is slowly bringing these strange emotions back to him. She might be irritating and dumb sometimes, but he couldn't get himself to completely hate her. Either that destiny was stupid, or he was blessed or cursed.

genre: fanfiction, fluff

wc: 1881

(Y/N) stopped her tracks upon hearing his voice and turned around to confirm, but it was true, much to her dismay. He held his black-rimmed glasses with its left lens and frame cracked. The girl's mind went blank. She hesitantly glanced at him a few times, hoping that he would forgive her or let the incident smoothly slide.

He hissed, "Don't think you can get away with this, miss."

She sighed in defeat. The kids approached her with worried looks. She patted her heads, accepting their sympathy. "Well, playtime's over."

"But we haven't finished the game!"

"Do you still want to play?"

"Yes!"

"Next time, when you see me again at the park. Onee-chan has to go now."

She bade goodbye to the children and walked towards the guy she hit with his friend. She looked at his broken glasses again and couldn't help but to let out an exhale with anxiety. This is the result of my stupidity...

"W-What do you want me to do?" (Y/N) slurred.

" I don't know, maybe you should fix it right here and right now." The blonde guy crossed his arms and frowned.

Why don't you just get to the point?

"Replace it."

Of course, she will have to replace it. What a question to ask. She mentally rolled her eyes.

"I'll check there out if there's an optical store, I guess you will have to keep an eye on me so that I won't escape?" She pointed to the nearby mall, walking distance from the park.

"What else? Nobody trusts a stranger."

They reached the town's mall and saw an open optical store, but (Y/N) remembered her wallet. She wasn't sure if there's enough money for her to buy glasses.

"On the second thought, can I buy the glasses tomorrow? I don't think I have enough money."

"No." He instantly replied.

"Tsukki," His green-haired companion interrupted, "Maybe we can give her a chance? What if she's telling the truth?"

"I need my glasses in my everyday life, and if she doesn't have the money, I'll be happy to spare her some, but she'll have no choice to be in my debt."

How merciless. It's not like (Y/N) could blame him, but if the same thing happened to her, she would treat them nicely. She looked around the store to find a pair of glasses exactly like his, as he demanded, with his friend helping her for 30 minutes. After she gets the correct measurements and eye grade, she emptied her wallet to pay for the damn thing,

"Here." She held out the new glasses in the case. "Take care of them, it costed my LAST savings."

He took them and wore them immediately, "I am taking care of my glasses, it's just someone 'accidentally' kicked a ball on my way and knocked them off. Thank you for the horrible experience."

He excused himself and walked away. His friend stayed to talk to her.

"I'm sorry for the way he acted, he's like this most of the times. Please understand," He bowed, shyness evident in his voice.

"It's okay, it was completely my fault, so I don't mind."

"It was an accident, though. Thank you for your generosity." He soon followed the blondie that headed first.

"That was mandatory, though." (Y/N) lightly chuckled to herself.

She got out of the mall to take in the fresh air, but her soul almost left her body when a bolt of lightning strikes a tree near her, setting it on fire.

"Oh, my fucking- Did the sky just attempted to finish me?!" She said, calming herself down and looking up. The clouds were much darker than earlier.

As the townspeople bombed the burning tree with water, she ran to her apartment before it rains. There, she dropped her things on the couch and flopped to her bed, thinking what happened on this day because of her own stupidity. She groaned when she held her now empty wallet.

"Argh! Why am I so unlucky?!"She threw her wallet in frustration.

"That tall, blonde, asshole! He didn't need to embarrass me in front of people! I didn't mean it! He could've waited for tomorrow for me to replace his glasses! He's so unforgiving!" She complained, hating the thought of the said guy.

She sighed, cringe, anger, and embarrassment filling her head as she hugged her pillow.

"May karma comes to him sometime," was her last words before drifting off to a nap.

A few days passed, she went out of the house again to buy food supplies in a convenience store. It was almost nighttime. The chilly wind blew to her face and the sweet scent wafted in the store. She picked up some junk food and meat first before stopping by the confectioneries section. While choosing what shortcake flavor to pick, she bumped into something that almost made her fall to the floor, if she hadn't retained her balance.

"Oof, I'm sorry..."

Or rather, it was a person she bumped into.

She looked up and recognized the face of the man. It was the guy she's kind of mad at, but this time, he didn't have his nice friend with him.

(Y/N) took a step back, "You!"

The male looked back at her, tilting his head, observing the girl. He spoke with a monotonous expression, "Do I know you?"

Her eye twitched in irritation, "He doesn't remember me?!"

"I was the girl in the playground three days ago! I... I replaced your glasses!" She said, hesitating on the next sentence.

"Oh." His eyebrows raised, "Did the midget learned her lesson not to play a sport she's bad at?" He mocked.

"I'm not even a soccer player to begin with! What are you doing here?"

"What? Am I not allowed to buy food in a convenience store like a normal person?"

"I've been buying stuff here and I've never seen a similar face I've met twice in a week or month. That's sus."

"Maybe you are following me."

"What do I gain by following a huge, mean person like you?" (Y/N) retorted.

"Perhaps you want to get back at me after what happened days ago even if it's your fault. I don't know. Ask yourself." He took his eyes off her to choose among the sweet desserts.

She paused, analyzing his comment, "Well, you aren't completely wrong..."

"So, I am being followed? What a stalker."

"Of course not! What you said might be possible, but it's not the case right now!"

Both of them have set their eyes on an item and surprisingly the same one. A strawberry shortcake in the middle of the section. Their hands both grabbed the object before staring at each other in annoyance.

"Let go." They chorused.

"I chose it first." Said (Y/N).

"I do not see your name in it. You let go." He replied.

"How about no?"

They glared at each other for a few minutes before (Y/N)'s brows creased deeper in the middle, knowing well that this guy won't back down. "Whatever, you take it. I don't care anymore."

"Wow, thanks." He subtly rolled his eyes then walked away.

It was very awkward in the cashier where she had to wait behind him. Damn, he's so tall. Does he play any sport? Is he human? Or probably just a walking, mean tree?

What happened in the park flashed in (Y N)'s mind again. The impact of the ball might have been so painful to him since he wears glasses, where it cracked. What if the shards got into his eyes? Her wallet isn't ready for more payments, but that isn't the issue right now. She was worried about his well being. Both of them got out of the convenience store and she called the blonde male before he could get away again.

"Uhh, hey!"

He looked over his shoulder a little, "What?"

"Are your eyes okay? I mean, your glasses cracked... shards could've got inside your eyes..."

"Yes, they're fine, fortunately."

(Y/N) let out a sigh of relief. "That's... good to hear."

"But if something happened to my eyes, I will not hesitate to find you and make you pay for an eye surgery."

"You're exaggerating."

"It's not impossible. Now, go home. Elementary school students shouldn't go past the curfew."

She frowned. If only he wasn't a stranger, she would've kicked his ass to hell.

"Oh, gladly. I wouldn't want to stay near a bootleg Eiffel Tower any longer. Have a good day for you."

The blonde male left without any more words. (Y/N) sighed again in mental exhaustion, having to finish a lot of things this night. She was walking straight to her home while thinking of ideas to put in her current project when she realized that he was still walking ahead in front of her.

Where is he going?

She made her footsteps lighter, not wanting him to think that she was following him. She was thinking where does this guy live or why is he walking the same route as she does. It's not wrong to know where does this asshole stay, right? This continued for a couple of minutes before he turned around.

"Will you stop following me?"

Her eyes widened, not expecting him to know that she was behind him, "Excuse me? I'm just walking to my place?"

"Really?" He narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

(Y/N) looked around to find a way to escape. There, she saw her house that she almost missed because her mind was occupied, "Oh, look. It's my house. I gotta go!"

She waved goodbye to the blonde stranger, ran to her apartment, and slammed the door, dying from the awkwardness. She proceeded to the kitchen to drop the food supplies and to cook for herself as well. The salt in the cupboard reminded her of the rude, four eyes that she just met again minutes ago. That's when she realized, she kept calling him either insults or his evident physical features when he probably has a name. She could've asked for his name earlier, but shrugged the idea off, thinking that he will never give her his name.

The common thing to do after graduating junior high is to find a decent high school. (Y/N) is scheduled to have her entrance exams next week, so she has to spend time reviewing her notes these days. She opted to go to the prefectural library the next day to get further references as she isn't satisfied with the books she has. It was Wednesday, thus it was full of people who are also preparing for their entrance exams. With her stature, it'll be easy to pass in this crowd of people but she will have to ask for help because she can't reach the books at the top of the shelves.

After wandering around the crowded library, she found an unoccupied table to quietly study. She made her way to it, carrying the heavy books she needed that was luckily located at the bottom shelves. As she set the books on the left side of the table, someone did the same on the opposite side. She looked up to see who the stranger is, only to find out that the person isn't a stranger to her anymore.

"Oh, the midget stalker is here." 

©4aloysius.porteu.2021. please do not repost, copy, or edit. plagiarism is punishable by law.

[stay-tinystars]

Rumors pt 2

Ship: Yeosang x Named female character (Jae Hwa) 

 College AU. ‘Bad’ girl x shy studious Yeosang. 

 Some fluff, some angst, mostly slice of life, a bit chaotic 

 Warnings: overly controlling parents, rumors, cursing, motorcycle. 

 Word count: 2.8k 

 A/N: this is a short series. I hope you all enjoy it. I’m trying out different writing styles as I get back into writing so I hope you enjoy. 

 All of this is pure fiction.❤

She expected to hear from Yeosang, or to see him somewhere at the university over the next week. When she didn't she decided it was best to approach his friends.

"Excuse me, do you know if Yeosang is alright?" Jae approached two of Yeosangs friends in the dining hall, at the usual table. They looked at her in slight shock.

"Yeah, he got in trouble for who knows what now." San shrugged.

"Apparently he got home late, and they grounded him." Wooyoung added.

"What about his schooling?"

"Thats where they got weird. They contacted the professors and got some work packets or some crap" Wooyoung rolled his eyes.

"Oh" she mumbled, as she sat on an empty chair at their table.

"Why do you ask?" She could see mischievous looks in their eyes as they looked at her.

"Well, long story short. He helped me catch my dog, who was running around the park, and we started talking. Then his mom called because he was late. I took him home, gave him my number. Then he disappeared" she rambled, her thoughts piling on top of one another. This was her fault.

"They took his phone. His parents are intense. They treat him like he's 10, instead of an adult" Wooyoung leaned back on his chair, folding his arms, intrigued by the soft 'bad girl' in front of him.

"How do you guys talk to him then"

"Secret messages" San lifted his eyebrows, then laughed, his dimples highlighting his face.

"He messages us through our gaming systems. His parents don't know how to block that"

"Can you tell him I'm sorry"

"I can do you one better" 

"What do you mean?"

The two boys just smiled at each other, mischief glinting in their eyes.

"Meet us at 10 tonight, at the park by his house"

"Why?"

"We're sneaking him out."

The park was dark, it seemed as if the light posts had burned out. She pulled up and parked next to the only car in the small parking lot, three figures stood in the dark.

"Did you have to bring your motorcycle?" Wooyoung asked, as she took off her helmet, and strapped it to the back.

"It's the only thing I have" she responded, placing her hand on her hip. "So how are we doing this?"

"Well you are going to help by being the distraction" Seonghwa nodded

"What kind of distraction?" Jae asked. Her eyes wide.

"Well maybe it's a good thing you brought your bike" San's eyes darkened, as he eyed her motorcycle, and shrugged the bag he was carrying off his shoulder. Her heartbeat picked up.

"I'm not wrecking my bike!"

"We will help you fake it." Wooyoung unzipped the bag, as San handed it to him. She felt like these guys were ganging up on her. Why did she come? Why was she trusting these guys she barely knew? She took a deep breath, and gathered her thoughts. This was for Yeosang, the one she got in trouble. The only guy who hadn't written her off. Maybe these guys weren't so bad, they are Yeosang's friends.

"My baby better not get damaged. I just paid it off!" Her voice was hard, along with her gaze.

"Your bike won't have any harm. We will just lay it down next to the curb in front of Yeosang's house." San held up his pinky, as if he was promising her to keep her bike safe.

"I don't like this idea" her arms folded over her chest, as her eyes narrowed.

"Look, do you want to help Yeosang escape or not?" Wooyoung approached her, she sighed and reluctantly nodded. "Good, now take off your jacket."

"What?"

"Just take off your jacket. It will help with the ruse" Seonghwa smiled. His smile, genuine. She shrugged her jacket off, and watched as Wooyoung opened a jar full of red liquid.

The three boys started smearing fake blood all over her right arm, and over the slits and holes in her jeans, mostly on her right side.

As they informed her of their oddly concocted idea for Yeosangs break out. They told Yeosang to find a clip of screeching brakes to play loudly upstairs, then to flash the lights twice, at which point Jae, who would be out on the curb, would scream. Knowing how Yeosangs parents act they would come out front at which point they would sneak him out the back of the house. 

Jae stood at the end of a driveway, Seonghwa and San had helped lay her motorcycle down a few feet away then ran. She watched the 2nd story window. She saw the light flicker twice, she let a blood curdling scream, bending over holding her 'bloodied' arm to her chest, along with her helmet. A few moments later the front door opened.

Jae started cursing, and acting just as the boys had coached her.

"Did you see that jerk! He ran me off the road!" She yelled.

"Well what do you expect riding a death trap!" Yeosang's mothers judgemental voice rang in her ears. The boys were right, Yeosangs mother was a piece of work.

"I wasn't in the wrong!" Jae defended herself. "I was just doing the speed limit, when that car came out of nowhere and side swiped me. Did no one see it?" 

"Do you even live in this neighborhood?" Her words sounded like venom, Jae could feel the judging eyes, she always did. 

"I was visiting a friend." Jae was appalled, they hadn't even blinked an eye at her 'injuries' nor had they asked if she was okay. She couldn't act any longer, she shook her head, and grimaced. "If you guys won't help me, I'll take myself to the hospital" Jae put her helmet on faking gasps of pain. She raised up her bike, and started it.

How Yeosang, one of the sweetest people she had ever met, had come from that toxic household she couldn't understand. She sped off towards the park. Hoping she had given them enough time to help Yeosang escape. She parked her bike, and took off her helmet, watching around her. She saw four shadows approaching warily, along the tree line.

"Oh my God! Jae are you okay?" Yeosangs voice was concerned, as he hurried towards her.

"I'm fine" she stated, leaning against her bike.

"You don't look fine, your arm, your leg! We need to get you to the ER." His panicked face only seemed to grow in worry as he continued to analyze Jae.

"Did you jerks not tell him anything?" Jae shook her head, standing up and walking over to the hood of the car where her jacket sat.

"Well we told him you were helping us out." San started.

"We just spaced the whole, covering you in blood and pretending you got into an accident." Wooyoung finished. 

"It's all fake, don't worry, Yeosang." Jae started rubbing her arm trying to get off the fake blood, it didn't budge or smear. "What did you guys put on me?"

It turns out San is a theater major. Which is why he had fake blood. However he had mixed too much coloring into it, so he insisted that they should all return to his small two bedroom apartment, which he and his roommateYunho shared. That's where he had the items to take off the fake blood. The apartment was small, yet comfortable. Jae had been guided into the small bathroom by San, who showed her the cleanser, and how to use it. Jae took off her shirt, so she was in her tank top, staring at herself in the mirror over the sink as she tried to scrub off all the fake blood, with the stage makeup remover. There was a knock at the slightly opened door.

"Hey, thanks for the help tonight" Yeosang said as he poked his head in.

"You're welcome. I knew you told me about your parents. I never expected them to be so harsh." She ran the rag under hot water, to start rinsing off her skin, which was mostly free of the fake blood.

"You met my mom" he stated as he closed the toilet lid and sat down watching her.

"She's a piece of work. She never even asked if I was OK. Just kept going on about how my motorcycle was a death trap. " 

"She really hates motorcycles."

"I can tell. But answer me this. How did you end up so sweet when she is just…. Ugh" Jae threw her head back.

"My dad is quite nice, but he does whatever she says. He says it's out of love, but I think he's just as scared of her as the rest of us are." His shoulders slumped, as he stared at the floor. Jae watched his actions. He reminded her of the hurt animals at the shelter, who couldn't understand why they had been mistreated. Her heart broke for him, no one should ever feel that way, especially from a parent. 

"I'm sorry Yeosang." Jae started with a sigh,, "She's just so infuriating, I can see the toxicity. I know this is hard for you" she grabbed the hand towel and patted her arm to dry it. He looked up at her then stared at the wall in front of him.

"It is hard. I need out. This was the last straw. I've been practically imprisoned for the past week." His head dropped into his hands. "I'm going to stand up to them. I'm moving out. I have to. I can't live like this."

Jae wanted to respond to his sudden resolve, but  she didn't know what to say to confirm his feelings, nor how to comfort him. So she walked over, crouched down, and hugged him. He immediately returned the embrace. She held him, until her legs started to cramp, from her awkward position between the toilet and bathtub. She pulled back, and stood up then softly took his cheeks in her hands, encouraging him to look her in the eyes.

"This won't be easy, but I'm here for you. So are your amazing friends. We want you to be happy." She rubbed her thumb softly over his birthmark. "I like your birthmark." Her thoughtful words shocked him slightly. He was always so self conscious about his birthmark.

"You don't have to lie." he muttered, as he softly grabbed her hand, stopping her movements.

"I'm not. I really like your birthmark. It brings a light to your eyes."

He just shook his head, and dropped her hand.

"Yeosang look here" , she said, turning around. There on her left shoulder blade was a large brown birthmark. It looked almost like a nimbus cloud. She had a crescent moon tattooed above it, and the cloud looked like it was raining stars down.

"Yeosang, when I was young I always got made fun of for my birthmark. I hated it. I hated wearing tank tops, I hated swimming, because I knew everyone would see it." She paused and looked at the ground. "Then I got older, and a friend pointed out that it looked like a cloud. As I learned to love me I decided to enhance its beauty without covering it, so I got the moon and stars tattooed. Our birthmarks, and scars are beautiful. They tell stories, and make us unique." She smiled as she turned, looking at the artwork on her shoulder in the mirror as best as possible.

"Do you have any other tattoo's?" He asked. She nodded.

"I have two others, both incorporate some scars" her smile, and gaze seemed distant.

"Can I see those?" He asked. She smiled at him, and cooked her head to the side.

"No" she responded, as she grabbed her shirt off the counter and slipped it back on. She then walked out of the bathroom, making a sure end to this conversation.

So the rumors he heard of her having tattoos were true. However he doubted that she had a death tarot card tattoo, or that she had a prison tattoo with how cute the one on her shoulder is.

That night Yeosang made plans with the group on how he was going to stand up to his parents. Whom they were sure, were losing their minds being as he had successfully gotten out.

The next day was Saturday, and Jae was working her shift in the back of the shelter. Her text tone went off as she filled another bowl of food. It was an unknown number

-Jae

-What are you doing?

-Want to come to the library. I need your help

-Oh btw it's Wooyoung

-Sure, the one on campus. I'll see you there at 5

-I get off at 4. Can I just meet you at the library at 5"

He left her hanging with no response.

-How did you get my number?

When she arrived at the library on campus she was greeted by a quiet Wooyoung.

"What do you need help with?" She asked, only to be grabbed by her wrist, and dragged into the two story library. She tried pulling free, with no luck. Wooyoung stopped below the balcony on the second story.

"But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Yeosang is the sun" Wooyoung cooed as Yeosang stepped into view from the second story of the library.

"What are you going on about now woo?" Yeosang groaned.

"He speaks: O, speak again, bright angel! for thou art As glorious to this night, being o'er my head As is a winged messenger of heaven"

"How can you memorize part of Romeo and Juliet, and yet you can't remember any of your biology class?"

"Well i'm trying to woo girls. I'll memorize anything for that." Wooyoung winked at Jae, she just rolled her eyes.

"You are crazy if you think standing below someone and quoting Shakespeare will woo them, Wooyoung" she responded, shaking her head.

"Oh, Jae you're here" Yeosang looked over the railing with a smile. "I'd much rather talk to you" , his eyes shining.

"I'm the one that asked you to come over here!" Woo argued.

"She's prettier than you" 

"Hey!"

"Can someone just tell me why am I here?" Jae laughed. Wooyoung's smile became mischievous.

"I need your help, removing him from the library" he pointed towards where Yeosang had been. Then groaned as he grabbed her wrist again and started towards the stairs.

"Why?" Jae questioned, "He's an adult, he can stay here as long as he wants."

"You don't get it. We kind of broke into his parents house. "

"You what?" Yeosang yelled, as he walked down the stairs.

"Well, we wanted to make sure you actually would move out. Plus I knew you needed clothes." Wooyoung scratched his head. 

"Who's 'we' " Yeosang pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"San and I. We ended up being stuck in your room when your parents came back, and I was lucky and got out your window. But I think San is still under your bed."

"Wooyoung, that is how people end up in jail" Jae's voice quiet, yet stern, as she placed her hand on Wooyoung's shoulder making him face her. "You can't break into people's houses!"

"We didn't really break in. The code was easy to guess" The gravity of the situation, seeming to finally sink in.

"That doesn't make it less illegal" She almost hissed.

"We've got to save San. I guess I'm facing my parents sooner than I thought" Yeosang groaned, as he started to lead them out of the library.

Soon enough they were back where they were the night before, at the small park by Yeosangs parents' house. Yeosang was trying to convince Jae to come with him, as support while wooyoung helped sneak San out.

"Your parents are going to recognize me from last night if I come with you!" Jae argued.

"But I think they will handle you better than him. They think he's a bad influence." Yeosang motioned towards Wooyoung, who was watching the two argue as if it were a drama while leaning against his car.

"And having me come with you, with my purple undercut, and eyebrow piercing will be a good thing? Plus your mom already thinks I'm a heathen because of my motorcycle. I don't think I'm one who should join you."

Jae found herself standing next to Yeosang as he knocked on the front door of his parents house. He was holding onto her wrist tightly. She was sure this is how she was going to die.

[hecallsmehischild]

I think enough time has passed that I can safely talk about the planner. I was waiting in case it was just a passing manic phase (where I experiment with something and drop it after a couple weeks), but it seems to be here to stay.

I've been binge-listening to Jordan Peterson's Q&A videos because, well, there's a whole lot of practical and therapeutic wisdom there for free. One of his most frequent pieces of advice to people who asked him about organization or dealing with depression or anxiety was to use a calendar or a planner of some sort.

I brushed this idea off for many years. For a few periods of my life I've tried listing out my to-do's on Tumblr or in my journal, and tried using Google Calendar, but none of it worked for me consistently.

And then Dr. Peterson said something I'd never heard before. He said to not use the calendar in a way that you were both tyrant over yourself and slave to yourself. He said to design the sort of day you would actually like to have.

I took this and combined it with a couple other things he mentioned. First was that if you genuinely ask yourself a question and are truly open to the answer, you will often receive information you didn't know before. Second, that promising yourself a limited task and then rewarding yourself for that task is important, and breaking that contract with yourself in ANY WAY (like doing that task for longer than you said, or reneging on the reward) means that you cheated a part of yourself, and that part of yourself will make it much harder to engage in the task NEXT time you try promising yourself a reward because you no longer believe your own promises.

So I asked myself, "What would it take for me to use a planner?" And the answer came back, "Shiny stickers."

I think I used to love stickers. Memory is hazy, but I was raised in Sunday School, and I'm pretty sure stickers were a reward, either there or in daycare. I'd been thinking about them for a long time, actually, but kind of brushed off the thought as too childish to really make a difference. But this time I decided to give it a try.

So I sorted through a whole bunch of planners on Amazon and looked for one that fit my needs. I picked one that didn't have set days (write in your own date at the top) so I didn't feel bad or wasteful about missed/empty pages. I picked one that included starting your day with a thing you're thankful for. I don't use it enough, but there is a water counter on each page which is also useful for someone like me who is in a constant state of forgetful dehydration. I went out and purchased two sheets of colorful star stickers (much like you would get in a day care or Sunday school) and about four sheets of much larger flower/butterfly/unicorn stickers. Over the first couple of months, I established the rules in the front page:

I get one large pretty sticker if I finish my day.

Fun activities may be exchanged for other fun activities, but not eliminated.

Tasks may be swapped between days.

Here's why this solution is working out fabulously for me:

Even if I don't finish everything in my day, the end of every task is rewarded with a shiny star (or smiley face) sticker, so I'm still REWARDED for completing any number of tasks.

If I finish ALL items on my day, then I get a bigger, prettier sticker, and it is an odd little endorphin rush of satisfaction to do so.

I'm a very forgetful person who lets completed tasks float away into a haze. Prior to this, if you asked me, "What did you do today?" I could have been doing chores all day and would not be able to answer you. This led to years of self-talk along the lines of, "Man, I'm so useless. I don't do anything worthwhile." NOW what happens is that I look at my list and know exactly what I did. In fact, if I decide I want to do an extra chore today, I do it, write it down, and immediately sticker it. I haven't heard the "useless" claim in my head for weeks.

Previously, I just had one To-Do list that continued to grow. I'd knock off a few items, but then think of several more that needed doing and the list would grow again. This lends a feeling of futility to me finishing things on the list because the list NEVER ENDS. NOW, I can choose to put some things on tomorrow's list and some things on the list for the next day. If I remember something that needs doing, I can make sure it's written down sometime in the next 2-3 days, but every day's list has an END.

I'm more encouraged to break large, overwhelming-looking tasks into manageable sizes. How much of my large manuscript can I manage editing today? I can manage one chapter today. Can I manage all the small cleaning tasks today, or one of the big ones? All the small ones (individually marked out on the page). Do I have the time/energy to start a new project? Well, I can at least start X amount of it and feel it out, etc.

I'M NOT A TYRANT TO MYSELF. I include things like gaming, reading, making a wire tree, or baking bread on the list. The things I enjoy doing in my spare time, the things that feed my soul? They go on the list as "fun things" and even if I change my mind about WHICH fun thing I want to do, I don't get to eliminate it from the list if I want that big shiny sticker at the end of the day.

If I don't get to finish a task because it was dependent on someone else who didn't show, I don't sticker it, but I make a note by it and don't count that against myself when it comes time to award the big sticker.

I don't set times for myself because I don't find that to be useful, but I can see how it would be useful to some people. I still don't know what my big end goal is, but I get the feeling I'll know it when I see it. I'm still waiting on that. My current goal is to keep things clean and pleasant around here, to have good relations with neighbors and housemates, to finish making the house functional, and to continue personal growth. For now, I think using the schedule is helping me accomplish all of these. And that's really exciting.

(below, this is not the Q&A but it encapsulates his concept of schedules and goals pretty well)

[supportanimy]

All Stars Verse - Hologram Boy

Synopsis : The coaches of #thatPOWER are angry at Panda for turning P2 into a hologram

Word count : 2803

Notes : Can y'all guess what the title is referencing? Please guess what the title is referencing

"We did it, we did it! We did it, yay!" The coaches sing and dance together in the new galaxy, after Panda traveled to all the planets and achieved the All Stars.

But just as they started to party, a spaceship arrived and out came three people, all with grey skin and white hair, wearing different outfits consisting of only red and black. 

"YOU!" The shortest one pointed angrily at Panda. "You killed our friend!"

"He's not dead, but he is hurt. And trapped," the muscly guy said.

"Hey, I know these guys!" Starships mentions excitedly. "That Power, right?  Or #thatPOWER, I guess. But don't you guys have four? Where's P2?"

"Here," the P3 drops a tiny machine, and a hologram of P2 appears. 

"Oh. Your hair has gotten...longer. And darker."

"Yeah, well as I was saying, PANDA MURDERED HIM!" P1 yells angrily and attempts to tackle Panda, but Reindeer shields them. 

"No, Panda would never do such a thing! They're too sweet and kind to! You must be confusing them with some other panda!"

P4 walks forward and pushes her friend back, but turns around to glare at them. "Impossible, there are no other pandas here," she explains. "Number 2 is not dead," Someone laughs, "he cannot die. However, he is permanently trapped as a hologram because of Panda's actions, and according to him, Panda was constantly taunting and harassing him just before that. Isn't that right?" P2 nods.

"Quiet as ever, huh?" Starships tries to lean on him, but passes through and falls.

"Then it must have been an accident!" Reindeer continues to defend their friend. The two had been close since childhood. One would know that if one played Kids Mode.

SS1, interested in whatever argument is happening, eats popcorn and shares it with the other coaches. "You know, *munch* Panda harassing some rando *munch* is honestly not that *munch* out of character for him." SS2 grabs a handful. "Agreed."

ME4 fixes his glasses, "Wait, I think I know what's happening here. Battle Mode, I'm guessing. Never got a chance on one of those."

"What's Battle Mode?" Rasputin's coach scratches his beard. 

Out of nowhere, Starships slides in to chime in the conversation. "A mode where coaches from two different songs go head to head in a dance battle! Only appeared in two games though, and I never got to join one," she pouts. 

Back to the argument, Reindeer gives up trying to defend Panda and is instead resorting to insulting P2. "He's just a robot! Can't he be replaced?!" the power coaches and BFT gasp.

P1 is now being restrained by P3 and P4 as she tries to attack Reindeer now. "I'm going to kill both of you!"

"No need to waste your energy on those lowlives, Number 1. We just need to get money from them so we can make a time machine and change the events of the battle, making it so that Number 2 wins instead."

Hearing that, HH2 gets a bright idea.

"We don't need to go that far, P4. We just want them to apologize-What do you mean no, Two?! Don't tell me you want revenge too?!

"Psst, P1," HH2 whispers to her friend. "Don't we have a friend with a time machine?"

"You mean Goddess? Does she count as our friend?" he replies before getting elbowed by HH4, who enters their talk uninvited. "I think she means the Backstreet Wannabes." "I mean, Goddess could probably time travel-" "No one asked, P3!"

"BE QUIET!" HH2 shouted loud enough for everyone to hear. 

"Ooh," SS1 directs his attention to her.

"So, #thatPower...I think I may know the ones to help you. Though, we have to fly there since...they're on the other galaxy."

"Sure! We appreciate any help! Even though I'm not sure what kind of help these people you're saying will offer," P3 agrees immediately.

P4 is a bit more skeptical. "How do we know you aren't lying to us? We aren't even sure what help we're getting."

"Some people with a time machine," HH1 tells them. "Like what you said earlier. I'm not sure who P2 is talking about though."

P1 finally stopped being filled with rage, and it was replaced with joy. "You actually have a time machine?! Oh, how I long to return to my time!"

The other coaches are understandably confused over her statement. P3 tells them to shrug it off, "Don't mind her, she gets like that. We're not sure why."

"So what about it, Two? Wanna time travel so you don't get stuck as a hologram anymore?" The hologram nods, grinning from ear to ear. "Great!" P3 turns the projector off and keeps it in his pocket.

"P3, I will murder you, and then dismember you, and feed you to tigers." "We-we don't have tigers. Also your arms are twigs." "Don't you act smart with me!"

"Chill 4, it's just a tiny mistake, NBD," the blonde woman remarks without looking away from her phone. "P1 hit my hand too, but you don't see me threatening him."

"Who the fuck actually says NBD-Oh uh, sorry for that."

"Yeah, but he didn't hit it hard enough that you punch yourself in the face enough to hurt!"

"How did that even happen? Like I said, your arms are twigs-" "Do NOT!"

Just as the two were about to attack each other, they heard the faint sound of an aircraft. 

"Hey, I'm trying to strangle someone! Can you not-" she stops her sentence when she sees a spaceship getting closer to the four.

"Get cover!" "Calm down First, it's probably just going to pass by us like airplanes." "No, P2, it's actually gonna fall on us!" he points at the ship landing fast. "Oh," she's pulled to safety by him, where their colour scheme changes.

It stayed at a steady pace going down, but stopped just 100 meters off the ground and slowly went straight down.

"Seriously? After all that drama?" "Hey, be grateful we're safe!"

When it finally finished landing, four familiar faces and four unfamiliar faces walked out.

"Hey look, it's High Hopes! And some Homestuck cosplayers!" the woman jumps back out from their hiding spot, which made her hair turn back to blonde. "That's not-whatever, I'm tired of your dumb ass."

"Dirty Bit Gang!" HH4 runs to hug DB2. 

"Wait, they have a time machine?!" HH3 never knew that fact. If he did, he would've begged to use it to appear earlier in more songs.

"Well duh, their song is called The Time, and one of us should definitely have a time machine."

"So I see you guys have a spaceship. I assume you guys are here to use our time machine, but who are they?" DB1 asks. 

"Hi, I'm the Starships coach! Love your outfits, but feel like the colours could be better. These are coaches from #thatPOWER, but one member is kinda stuck right now-"

"I hope you don't mind if we borrow it for a while," P3 drops the projector and P2 sighs quietly in relief. 

DB4 stops her punch to DB3 midway to look at P2. "Uh, is he okay?"

"That's the reason we're here. Number 2-" "PFFFFT!" "Number 2, is stuck as a hologram and we have no way of transferring his AI to a body so we were hoping that we can travel to the past to change the course of the battle that made him this way in the first place."

"Cool," DB1 responds, not catching any of that. "Say, why do you need eight people plus a hologram to do that?"

HH2 raised a finger as if to answer him, but put it on her chin instead. "I'm-I'm not sure."

"C'mon, it's easy!" HH1 tries his best to explain. "There's That Power, the ones who want to go to the past, Starships, the representative of 2014, We're here to-wait, P2 was their guide, I'm not sure why the rest of us are here."

"Okayyy, sure, we'll do that, but do you have a plan?"

Silence. "Yeah, we didn't think of that."

"Of course you didn't," frustration was evident in his voice. "Fine, follow me."

DB3 and DB4 continued to fight, while the eight were led to a dark room with a massive TV screen, and a few couches. There was a table with a flower pot on it, with some cookies and candy beside it. 

"So, it would be dangerous to just alter the past with no plans and no actual clue on what happened. That's why, we're going to watch it, then decide what to do," the bearded man takes the remote next to the screen and switches to different channels. "2014, it's a battle, correct?"

The screen switched to a scene on a stage with multiple monitors and the letters VS in the middle, displaying a dance floor with some other items beside it such as a chair. Panda rushed in and stood there while P2 slowly approached them, C'mon by Kesha playing in the background. When P2 was close enough, Panda started circling around him, then went back to their position, but not before blowing a kiss at the robot, which he moved his head to avoid.

"Oh, Panda blew a kiss at you? That should be a reminder," HH4 notes.

"What a shame," HH3 comments.

They began dancing, with Panda moving their arms towards their chest and P2 doing robotic movements. That was until just before the first pre-chorus started where P2's movements look like he was being controlled by a puppeteer, then they became more "free".  

"Haha!" Starships laugh. "Seeing such a serious face on a cute dance move is so-" As past Panda and P2 turned to each other, the lyrics sang at the part made her stop. "Oh no. Oh no no no no. Oh god no."

"Is she okay?" DB2's question had a worried tone. "She's fine. Probably," HH2 assures.

"There are 2 images burned into my mind, and I don't like either of them!"

The rest ignore her dramatics and continue watching the battle. The chorus played, with the two performing an all too common move, putting your elbow on your raised leg, but coupled with some pushing each other to the side in between. When the singer sang the song's title repeatedly, Panda is seen establishing dominance over P2.

"Uhh," P3's braincells, or whatever robots have, seemed to have been fried from just watching the battle. "How are you losing to a panda?!" P2 shrugs.

The beginning of the final round consisted of Panda taunting P2, and P2 attempting to damage Panda but to no avail. P2 looked like he was about to faint right before the chorus started again, with them repeating the same moves earlier. The battle finally ended, in which Panda brings out a button and presses it, turning P2 into a hologram while they laugh.

"Okay, that was way too far now that I've seen it! I'm going to join the others in killing them-"

"Yo, calm down. We watched this to help you think of a plan, remember? While it was very weird to watch, we can decide what to do now, or in the past," DB1 brought out a piece of paper and puts it on the table. "Write your plan of action there, then I'll check over it to make sure it's nothing drastic."

P4 grabs the paper and begins writing on it with her built-in pen. "What we want to do is to make it so that P2 wins this fight. I think that can be easily done if we change the music."

"But won't Panda just press the button either way?" HH1 has a solid question.

"Hmm, then I guess we'll just destroy it."

"Wait, if we're going to destroy it anyways, what's the point in changing the song?" HH3 is surprisingly thinking a bit smarter now.

"Oh, that one is to save his honor. And to destroy Panda's-!" P1 clenches her fist tight.

"Riiight. Right. Right."

"Yes, but how are we doing that? Won't doing that alter a whole lot of events now since he's the mascot?" P3 tries to think deeply.

"Not really," DB1 answers, having a braincell for once. "Since you're from the same game, and you don't have any future appearances besides that one mashup, I think you guys would be fine."

"That's it, yes? Number 2's battle wasn't quite complicated, so maybe that's enough. Sir?"

DB1 takes the paper from P4, and looks it over. "Goddammit why am I reading with shades-yeah, that's okay I guess."

"Great, now we can go!" P1 is ecstatic to finally be able to return her friend back to his original state. So is the rest, even if P4 doesn't show it.

"Well, I guess that's our queue to leave. Goodbye and your welcome!" HH2 grabs her friends to drag them home.

"Wait, but didn't you go by spaceship?" P3 doesn't know how they would even return.

"Now worries, this is our planet, we'll teleport home!" "We can teleport?!" "HAVE YOU NOT NOTICED THIS WHOLE TIME-"

"What about...her?" P4 looks down on Starships, who was still freaking out. 

"Well, since she's the 2014 rep, we have to get her gloves if you want to travel there and back-" "I CAN'T TRAVEL TO MY TIME???" "-Would you mind…?" 

Starships takes it off and throws it at the pink-haired woman. "Just, just take it. Heck, keep it."

"Kay."

"Alright, follow me again," he gestures.

This time, a room that looks like it came from a certain sci-fi franchise involving space travel, but not time travel for some reason.

"Ight, just stand there," DB1 points at a platform," and you'll be fine. Also, here are the gloves, just wear it when you're done."

"Thanks a lot for helping us," P3 did a polite bow, "we're very grateful." He elbows the others to follow.

"No probs, we do this all the time, just be mindful that there are some side effects of time travel-" "Excuse me-?!" "But they're harmless! Have fun!" And the three robots plus hologram go back in time.

They arrived at a weird green space. There was a door quite far away, and would take a while to walk to. They felt something weird, and looked at their hands and each other to realize that they became green too. Except for P2.

"Changing colours is not what I expected but…" P4 spins her hand around.

"Maybe this could be useful, since we blend in with everything else," P3 compares his shade to the space.

They see Panda coming out of nowhere, heading to the door. Without speaking, they all immediately followed them. "Number 1, go grab the button. Number 3, get there and change the music." "Aye aye, 4."

P1 gets on the floor and crawls to the panda, P3 rushes to the door, and P4 carries P2's projector, following them from a distance. 

The short woman finds a pocket on Panda's body and tries to find the button. Instead, there was a tophat, a tennis racket, a trumpet and a whole lot of other things that should not be able to fit there. Somehow, Panda didn't notice any of that. She finally got her hands on the button, and immediately destroyed it. 

The sound alerts Panda, causing them to look around, but not finding anyone since they all blend in and P4 had turned off the projector, and shrugs it off. P3 uses that minor distraction to enter through the door. 

Immediately after passing through, his skin changed again, now blending into the room which was where the battle took place. Past P2, stood there, already arrived, but didn't take notice of P3, who climbed the ceiling and found the sound system. He used it and changed the settings so #thatPOWER was gonna play instead of C'mon.

When Panda comes in to start the fight, with the remaining two sneaking in, the course of it had already been decided. Past P2 had started attacking them and charging himself up. The fight continued on with P2 having an advantage, and at the end when P2 won, Panda jumped off, leaving the room while P2 laughs then leaves from the other exit. In that moment, the room turned to a black space, everyone turning back to normal, P2's projector disappeared, and a blended in silhouette of him was there.

"P2, you're back!" P1 goes to hug him. P2 clearly had been confused by what she said, but accepted it anyways. P3 and even P4, who isn't very physically affectionate, joins in the hug.  "We missed being able to actually touch you, buddy. Now I don't have to kneel down just to fistbump someone." "HEY!"

"I guess we can go home now," P4 puts on the glove and they teleported back to their starting point. 

-

So as you can read, there's like zero logic here, but I'm proud of.it cause it's my longest one-shot!

[theangrypokemaniac]

I'll state from the beginning that the images below display the sort of sweet synchronicity to which only love can give life:

MaAndPaShipping is the best ship, and here are five reasons why:

1. It Made James

Like the boy do yer? Ever felt the slightest tingle of warmth at the mention of his name?

Well get down on yer knees and give thanks to his mother and father for gifting him to the world!

Where would we be without their remarkable commitment? Could James have grown into the dandified dream boat of your desires if deprived of the safety provided by his parents?

Had they not brought him up, he'd be dead, The Dog of Flanders fantasy made reality. If miraculously he survived, foraging in the wild is not conducive to a foppish personality.

Is that to yer fancy? No? Then let's have a little respect. The luxury Ma and Pa gave enabled his macaroni tendencies to reach such heights.

Their love created him! How can it not be celebrated?

You lot would ship Jessie's parents but you can't, because she has no dad, and I don't suppose you'll ever assent to his obvious identity of Windy Miller, although 'Jessie Miller' has a wonderful ring to it, so what can be done?

Should a Pa Jess be conjured for the purpose, he still buggered off, didn't he? Where's the allure in a faithless git?

I can't comprehend the obsession with Ma Jess. As soon as here she's stiff, and what is there to remember but coercing her daughter into eating snow?

Hey, I named her. What more do you want from me?

I'd rather have the living, visible ancestors, if you don't mind.

Yeah, says the history fanatic.

Why not make the most of the chances offered, and follow a devoted couple whose love made a difference to your existence?

2. Canon!

There are many ships which I find repulsive for involving depravity, or absurd as the subjects haven't met, or don't inhabit the same fictional universe.

Video et taceo: I see and I say nothing.

Neither does anyone. Forcing decent folk in to incest, bestiality etc. is quite alright.

Perverted ideas are left alone, but woe betide a Rocketshipper, because that's offensive.

It may be the only original ship left standing, with proper evidence and sanctioned by Nintendo, but no, it's fair game for undermining. People pick at your arguments, quibble constantly and NEED to register their objections NOW. You MUST be made aware of opposition. You're not to be permitted your views the way those with twisted tastes are indulged.

Why, out of tens of thousands of combinations, does making Jessie and James an item provoke hostility?

The strength of negativity actually serves as validation, for why be so concerned if it's an impossible relationship?

However sick they are, I'm not anti any ship. I can't muster sufficient interest to do it, and if I scroll on, I forget. I certainly don't attack those responsible.

Anti-Shipping is inherently nihilistic for promoting loneliness. They aren't against Rocketshipping through wanting Jessie and James to be with someone else, as an alternative is not readily available, so the outcome of it is neither finding a companion.

MaAndPaShipping attracts no sourpuss silliness, for 'tis canon beyond question. There's nothing about being 'just friends' when married with a son.

How's the state of your O.T.P.? Not looking too clever I expect, and what's your contribution: wishing, and hoping, and thinking, and praying?

Cast it off! None of that longing is necessary in these quarters, as MaAndPaShipping is a fait accompli.

Hallelujah! Wallow in that Love!

Don't you yearn for at least one ship that all of us accept by default, to the extent these aristocrats are spoken of as a single unit?

Across the internet, Ma and Pa are bracketed as 'James's parents', never 'he' and 'she', always 'they', barely counting as distinct characters. That's how undeniable the love is between them. Sheer indifference has awarded it a blessing from everyone.

MWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!

Of course, now I've drawn attention to it the moaning will start, but we all know a spoilsport when we see one.

If they had any legitimate complaints they ought to have mentioned 'em before this piece highlighted the marriage!

Except it won't have occurred to 'em previously, proving the eternal, indissoluble quality of MaAndPaShipping.

You get good value with this one.

Find a post referring to Ma and Pa as individuals and I'll have written it, for that's what you call ironic.

3. It's a Fine Rocketshipping Proxy

I was at primary school when Pokémon hit the West like the bright, bearded meteor it is, atomizing all competition for a child's attention.

I have shipped Jessie and James before I knew anyone else did it, unaware shipping was even a thing.

There are other pairs where I think: 'That seems to fit', but it's incomparable to what I feel for them.

It is part of me. I bleed it.

I have shipped it longer than most Tumblerries have dwelt upon the earth.

I used to believe, what with the hints and manga finale, that this resolution was  inevitable, and all I had to do was wait.

Well I've been patient for two decades now, thus when I look at the modern incarnation, and realise it's no nearer to that goal, and instead is further away, waiting starts to wear a bit thin.

I resent the lack of appreciation shown to the fans by the cretins in charge, how any meagre shippy inclusion is done not with an interest in deepening bonds, but with the blatant cynicism of moulding us into performing monkeys dancing to their manipulative tune.

I dislike being treated like a sea lion, expected to clap me flippers at the wave of a fish, or as a panting dog begging at top table, where, because they're desperate to maintain the status quo, every scrap flung down from above now comes with an Anti-Ship kick in the teeth, just to be sure nothing progresses. Not whilst the franchise can still be milked for all it's worth.

I have lost faith Rocketshipping will happen. What passes for Pokémon today carries not the remotest indication of any intention on the so-called writers' part to finish it that way.

Even if it did, it's not my Team Rocket, it's those skeletal, gargoyle bastardisations. My Jessie and James never got the reward they deserved.

I'm somewhat in the market for a replacement. Beneath this loathsome carapace of acid and ice beats the tender heart of a true romantic, and it must have an outlet!

Shipping Ma and Pa provides a certain spurious relief, because it's as close as you can get to Jessie and James without it being them, both biologically as his parents, but they're so similar to the duo it counts as proof in itself.

Holy Matrimony! is prime Rocketshipping territory, not merely the balloon lift, but many slight additions are as important, like the haircuts matching.

Ma and Pa are therefore Jessie and James in the past, present and future:

The past for representing Jess 'n' Jamie gone Victorian, and we've all wondered how that'd turn out.

The present as it's there right now, absent of suffering the shameless whims of morons to get what you want. 'Tis yours to savour.

The future as a glimpse of Jessie and James once married with children, and they agree:

That's how they play it given the opportunity!

What, James in blue, for his and Pa's hair, and Jessie wearing purple, like Ma's, with a red shawl for her own, and Ma Jess's orange earrings to copy the beads?

• Money!

• Bun!

• 'Tache!

• Classy pad!

• Fancy gear!

• Pampered pet!

• Identical cups of Earl Grey!

4. Original Blend

Ma and Pa have only got two fans! We care more than the entire fandom has in twenty years!

Rocketshipping art is ten a penny, so why not display a pioneering spirit, sharpen up those pencils and be inspired?

Let your mind expand and marvel at the possibilities of these unchartered territories, and I'll reblog it if it's nice.

Pay attention to the condition of it being nice. I'm not putting up with any old toss.

Real Ma and Pa is what I want too, not those Sinnoh coffin-dodgers.

It's never been done! Every drawing breaks new ground!

I don't like fan fiction, but I wouldn't say 'no' to that either. Recall the 'nice' stipulation again.

Come on, be the first amongst your friends and get ship shape!

5. It Gives Us All Hope

Suppose your favourite amour one day became canon: you imagine that's the end of the matter?

Well it ain't.

Between Ash, Misty, Brock, Jessie, James, Gary and Tracey, there are three-and-a-half out of fourteen parents (Flint doesn't count as a complete man) and one out of twenty-eight grandparents, and that's not enough!

If the series drew to a close with your beloved couple apparently walking into the happily-ever-after, there's no guarantee it'll endure. In fact, the odds are they'll split up within a few years and leave another generation to fend for themselves or starve.

That's right, so don't presume the final episode is all you need to worry about. Can you rest easy knowing it'll go pear-shaped once the camera stops rolling?

It's futile soothing one's worries with:

Oh, but they know what it's like to be alone. They'd never inflict such stress on their children.

Oh really?

Look at that poor showing of grandparents. Either Pokémon has a system reminiscent of the sci-fi film Logan's Run, where everyone over thirty is vapourized, or these disappearing maters and paters were themselves victims of abandonment.

I bet when they settled down, they thought it'd be different for their kids, they'd make sure of it, but no, off they went down that same route of feckless self-indulgence, and that's being kind assuming they intended not to repeat history.

Depressing eh? What's the good in any of us surrendering to romance, real or otherwise, if love is but a mayfly of emotion, and all dreams are doomed to die?

Then Ma and Pa arrive, and suddenly the storm clouds part for a ray of heavenly light.

It's not only that they made the effort in what was probably an arranged marriage and have stayed together from youth, it's that they've stayed together when no one else has, which augments its value.

When separation is commonplace, sticking it out becomes rarer and rarer as any belief in the sanctity of wedlock erodes with every failure.

If they didn't bother, why should I? What's the use when it won't work?

Once that idea enters your head, it's over, and your gloom-laden attitude fulfils itself.

Society is collapsing about Ma and Pa's ears, but they persevere nevertheless, refusing to buckle under the turgid malaise engulfing the arrogant and weak.

It's bloody beautiful, man!

You may suggest an environment of supreme wealth erases normality, and to their class and time period divorce is still taboo, so they don't really have much of choice but to remain wedded.

Ah, but it's not as if they simply tolerate one another for appearances, or carried on for the sake of their son (which is more than anyone else did besides), not when he walked out on them.

They've been married longer than James has lived, so at least eighteen years (don't all squeal at once), and they're still blissfully contented!

They hold hands!

They use terms of endearment like 'dear' and 'my precious'!

They were made for one another!

They work as a team!

They want the same thing for James!

It could bring a stone angel to tears it's so beautiful!

See what success can be achieved when you try? When you endeavour to love the one you're with and make yourself worth loving in return?

Better that than chucking 'em at the first sign of trouble.

Ma and Pa is such an irrevocable union even the despair of losing their only child failed to tear 'em asunder, and that'd defeat many, but not this husband and wife.

Be grateful, for it means all is not in vain.

It doesn't have to be misery and pain: love can last despite the pressure of a wretched, hollow culture bent on self-destruction. Your ship might just succeed too.

God bless 'em for keeping the magic alive!

...

Why do I have the presentiment that I'm going to regret encouraging support?

[bearpillowmonster]

FF6 Review (Overall)

I'm going to rate similar to the way I did FF7 Remake, but in only 2 parts, so there will be an overall review then a separate deep dive into the characters.

I played this game using an emulator and I'm not ashamed of it because I used the FF6 Relocalization project which I'll link

Basically nerd talk and explanation of what that means: It's basically a retranslation of the original SNES script using the GBA port as a base and mixing and matching some of the best parts so there you go. They have a way to mod the PC version to have the OG sprite work because sheesh is that thing ugly and they also have a way to resprite and resound the GBA version but this is the easiest and logical solution to get the best of all worlds. There's also "Anthology" which is the PS1 port that adds some CG custscenes which I just watched off of YouTube because it's only a few of the major scenes.

Anyways, yeah, I'm glad I emulated it especially because of the fast forward function. That first chunk would've been rough without it because you're left just waiting for one of your party's commands to be ready but it eases up as the game goes on because you get pretty busy with the combat.

I'm not a fan of turn-based RPGs which was the main reason I haven't touched a 2D FF game until now so this is my first and oh boy, what a first!

Could you just watch a playthrough or read the story then? I wouldn't recommend it. There are certain things that I feel are better experienced.

Gameplay actually wasn't all that gruesome, as I mentioned, it got better thoughout but I know for a fact that I didn't do everything it had to offer because I see other people doing it online and I just had no idea how. That's not to say it's not newcomer friendly though, I mean I beat the game, didn't I? I think it would've just gotten complicated and made me confused if I learned how to do everything in the game anyway.

I found myself liking some of the mechanics and recognizing some of the systems from games as late as today (I'm not sure if this is where they started but I wouldn't be surprised). The random encounters weren't all bad because of the emulator's speed up function but there were definitely times where it felt a little out of hand with the amount I was getting. (I'm looking at you Cave to the Sealed Gate!) So it's all pretty familiar, though there are "Relics" which are kind of like Materia but each member has 2 each where it gives you an ability, f.e. Reflect, every attack hits, extra power, auto cast protect, heal with every step, etc.

One of the drawbacks of using BSNES though was that there was no toggle for a L or R shoulder button, just turbo and while that's not a big problem, that is the button to Flee a battle, so I just never fled. There is an item that lets you escape any dungeon or battle but I didn't really use it, same with the permanent item that Mog has in the cave (pretty late in the game). I'd rather there be a repel than the warp stone, but I figured that if I just fought whenever the opp arrived then I wouldn't have to grind, which is another thing I hate about RPGs! Luckily, I didn't really feel the need to grind other than for the ending.

Difficulty wasn't really a grind but make sure once you get to the floating island, that you know what you're doing because that level was annoying and I felt a very stong spike in difficulty as soon as I landed on it. Another thing is that sometimes it'd glitch and an enemy would have infinite health so I'd just sit there on fast forward, watching and watching then finally use Libra and no damage was made, might be an emulator thing, might be a game thing and although rare, it still happened.

There are these sections called scenarios where the game branches off into multiple different paths and you can choose which order to follow the specific sets of characters. I really like that aspect and makes it seem less linear and interactive because it's letting you choose how to tell the story. I have a thing for games that let me interact with it (That opera scene is pretty interactive too).

For a 2D sprite game, it has quite a personality with its cutscenes. They can be very cinematic and defintely makes the characters just that more engaging with some of their mannerisms.

Ok, I get it now. The music is bomb. If anything, that would be worth doing a remake for, to get orchestral and updated versions of some of the themes. (I'd probably cry at that opera scene) But Celes' theme is probably my favorite. The PC port has pretty good remixes for the most part though.

Could this use a remake? It's a trivial matter because I think a good majority of fans want it to be remade and I understand why but at the same time I understand the other side of the argument as well. This was the last 2D FF game and that's special, in a way, the story kind of reflects that. And I think with all the personality comes a bit of caution because you might see something in these characters or scenes that may be misinterpreted or done differently in a remake, similar to how you read a book and just imagine how it's playing out. I think it lays enough ground so that you don't "have to interpret" like with most NES games (how the Super Mario Movie was born) from an outsider's point of view, it may first seem that way though. (myself included (yes, I know this was SNES era. Shut up!))

What would I want out of a remake? I would want the airship to return and be able to move around freely but keep the towns pretty faithful (which makes for more linear opportunities). I could see Edgar's tools being used similar to Barrett's but we have "First Soldier" now which is a 3PS Battle Royale, why not have his tools play similar to that? Then actually give him story opportunities to pick up his tools rather than "just because you bought them" It would be a nice natural progression. I would suggest the same with Sabin and Cyan, have them learn their Blitz and Bushido moves by being taught by Duncan, you do learn one move from Duncan in the vanilla game but I'd see it as more opportunity to build your characters and make it feel rewarded. So, in those aspects, I would like to see FF6 remade or improved but as for everything else, they should keep it a lot similar to the original than FF7R did. I think that's where a lot of the criticism with FF7R came from (as well as what I mentioned in the previous paragraph) While I'd prefer a gameplay overhaul similar to what they did with R, I'd rather keep the essence. There aren't sequels or spinoffs or anything of this game so this is all it has (unless you count the ports but that's minimal).

In the CHARACTERS section, I compliment the side-quest system but I would like there to be a better indication as to "what" you're doing, rather than just looking up the next steps or be left to travel around until the goal is clear. They have the quest completion menu as well as waypoints in FF7R, I could see that being put to good use in a game like this. It would also be cool to actually "visibly" wear the gear that you equip to your character but I understand why that isn't utilized in most of the games (probably makes for better character models) especially considering most of these characters' costumes could use an update. You didn't get to use the Magitek suits nearly as much as I thought you would from the marketing and even the dang cover and logo, so a remake could improve on that as well. Another small complaint is that it doesn't tell you what the items do WHILE you're in battle, only when you're in the menu, sorting them and while some are staples like Phoenix Down, I still don't remember what the heck a 'Gold Needle' does.

Overall I'd probably rate the FF games that I've played (but maybe not finished all of) as such: FF7 > FF13 > FF6 > CRISIS CORE > FF15 > FF12 but I think 6 and 13 are kind of interchangeable because if you said one over the other, I wouldn't really argue.

[pbandjesse]

It was a pretty good day. I've been avoiding writing this for about an hour because I felt very bad I was waiting for my pain medication to kick in. I was in so much pain tonight that I was nauseous. Not fun!

But today was still good. I slept okay. I woke up before my alarm clock and got up after a few minutes. I got dressed in a cup okay. It was very rainy out today though and I didn't know what to wear. One of my yoga shorts are missing so I didn't have any clean ones. So I wore long leggings since it was raining it was a whole thing.

 I headed out and got to the museum early so I can get my breakfast. I know I shouldn't do that everyday but I don't have any eggs in my house and I'm trying not to buy too much groceries because I'm moving into James's Place very soon and I don't want to have to move a bunch of stuff. I have some stuff here but not enough. But I ended up running into backup and we walked in the museum together.

The museum was really exciting today because me and Megan were setting up the needles project. Where we sow. 30 kids is too many but we worked it out. When we first got in the room I heard water. And it was raining and gross out but there's no windows in that room and we look over at the ceiling had caved in and a place. The fan was on it was shooting water that was pouring from the ceiling all over the place. It was very upsetting. It was like a waterfall was coming into the room. But we told the people we could and then we kept setting up. We still ran the program in that room. And it went well. The group's came a little bit too early. It turned out one of the teachers I work with at the science center so that was cool. But we got them started on time and me and Alexis did the sewing half and Megan did The Cutting and patterns and everything's half. It went really well. It did not go well at first some of my kids that were selling. One of the kids was very upset because he was confused. But once I stopped and was able to help him. Which was very hard because I had 20 kids sewing at once. He ended up making more than anyone else. It's very proud of him. And I tried to make sure he understood that. That he was frustrated at first and wanted to give up but he made it through and he did so well.

 I was a little annoyed once the program is over because all of a sudden I was the only one in the room putting everything away. I understood why Megan left because she was taking the kids to the scavenger hunt. But Alexis was supposed to be shadowing me and then all of a sudden she was gone. It turned out that there was something that she had to run out of Museum because she got a phone call and it was a whole thing but I felt very abandoned. Brandon ended up coming back and helping me carry the chairs. Which is the part I didn't want to have to do because it's unwieldy. But it's all good.

We had a quick break and then I went to go with Caitlin to watch the lights on program. It was only nine kids and they were so sweet. Basically the program is that making a light bright. And Kaitlin loves the long Furby. She thinks they're the funniest thing. So I made a example Lite-Brite that was a long Furby for her. And she was very excited. Trying to explain to the kids what it was was a whole another thing but it was still a good time. And I like the program though I don't quite understand why it's an hour and a half. That's all right. I would like to see it I think one more time before I do it but if they had to have me do it tomorrow I'd be fine.

We have an hour supplies. Which is just kind of doing things around the museum that need to get done and setting up for programs for other days. And then me, Kaitlyn, and Becca went up to the offices to make copies. We did folding and cutting and all of the things that went along with that.

 and that took a lot of time so by the time we got downstairs and got everything put away it was time to go. It was fun hanging Out with them though. But I was excited to have the rest of the day to myself. I realized somewhere in the morning that I didn't have to run out of there and go to another job and I was shocked. The first time in a long time. Honestly I think since last summer. So that was cool.

 I went over to the shopping center and went to the Dollar Store. I got bread and some rice. So I have some kind of food in my apartment. I got the tiniest reusable shopping bag. It's almost the same size as my bike basket and height and it's perfect. But I wandered around there for a bit and then I went over to the bank and got quarters and then I went home.

I was very shaky by the time I got back here but I knew I wanted to get things done a certain order. I collected all my laundry and took it downstairs. I did a load of towels which is basically all of them. So I can pack this up to take to James's house. And I did my clothes. Which is when I discovered that one of my shorts are missing. I thought that all of my shorts or just in the laundry but only two of them are in there. So after I finish this I'm going to go look through the baskets and see if I can find it. It's very annoying.

 once my laundry was done I had to bring the towels up to hang because they didn't dry in the dryer they just got hot. But then I went and got my clothes and they were fine and as I was putting away the doorbell rang. Because my two new Shelby's are here. The one Shelby is going to Lane. But the other one is mine and I'm very excited about them. Especially because when me and James came back later after we had dinner at his place I put the battery pack from new Shelby who is mute into the old Shelby that had a speaker box issue. And for whatever reason that speaker box issue is no longer a problem. And they work just fine. I was going to start crying it was amazing. So that was a big highlight of the day.

But once everything was put away I packed a bag of stuff to move to James's house. Mostly Furbies in decorative items and liked over to his place. He made me a baked potato. And I Swang in the silk we put on that pull up bar. And just had a nice time. Had cheese and crackers and watched videos. It was nice just kind of spending quiet time in the apartment together. Neither of us felt very good though. He had an overnight last night and my pain was all coming back. So what 7 we walked back to my apartment.

He went home and I've been hanging out here ever since. I sat outside with sweet pea for a bit and pick my outfit for tomorrow. But I've mostly been watching videos and hanging out. I'm working at the Museum again tomorrow until 2 and then James is going to come over and we're going to try to get all the stuff off my walls so that when dad comes this weekend we can spackle and stuff. And then we're going to baseball game. I'm looking forward to it. I hope you all have a great night. Sleep well.

[cinaminho]

Love for sell: J-hope ,

PT (2)

"What if I wasn't faking it at all?"

J-(hoe)pe x Reader, highschool au

Genre: SO FLUFFY MAAAN *yoongi voice* 💞

~7 AM at Your house~

Authors POV:

You trudged down the cold wooden steps of your home with messy hair and a mind still filled with sleep barely being able to maintain your balance but you managed to make it past the final step of your staircase that led to your front door. You slowly opened it to reveal a very awoke and happy Hoseok and seeing him made your eyes widen a bit , just seeing his smile awoke you a little more and gave you this unknown burst of energy "Hoseok" you chirped not caring about your current messy bed head state and it looked as if Hoseok was gonna say something but changed his mouth form to say something else as he slightly frowned "Y/n you aren't ready?" You snorted "we have an hour and I only need 7 minutes- 10 tops plus I drive now , come up with me and don't worry my parents leave for work at 6 AM so they're not here." You said as Hoseok followed you up stairs to your room. You opened your door with a gust of cool wind hitting you both instantly "I have no idea where that came from" you mumbled letting Hobi walk in first and you following before closing your door behind you, Hobi jumped and turned towards you with a panicked expression as you soon held your hands out in front of you slightly "Relax I just closed my door I'm not gonna hurt you" you said carefully "n-no I just... Never been a girls room especially with the door closed is all" you smiled gently and motioned for him to sit on your Queen sized bed. He analyzed your room he thought it'd be all pink and girly for some reason but instead it was a comfy yet slightly glamorous vibe to it.

"So I was thinking that we wouldn't change your appearance too much but just a few things that's it" you explained while clapping your hands as you finished your sentence "change a few things like?.. " he trailed off "We trade in the suspender pants for some jeans... Your shirt is fine just add a jacket.. Maybe?" You paced back and forth examining Him as his eyes followed your movements. "Ahh Nice, except I don't own such items" "I was afraid you might say that soooo I took the liberty of going to buy some things DO NOT think about paying me back. I bought belts too just in case so here" You tossed the bag to Hobi and he caught it with one hand and no struggling "you got a good arm you'd be good at football you know" and now it was His turn to snort "no thank you risking getting hurt and never recovering is a sacrafice I'm not willing to make" you laughed "touche however, you should go change that door between my closet and TV is my bathroom I'll wait here of course" you smiled "be back in a sec" and you hummed in response. About 3 minutes passed and you sat on your bean bag chair waiting for Hobi to reappear, In that time you thought how sweet he was, how his hair shined ,and his perfect rosey cheek ,with the gentlest voice and aura about him...you smiled to yourself and soon you looked up to see him directly in front of you causing you to jump a bit "oh sorry I didn't mean to startle you" he chuckled but all you could do was stair at his new outfit. His floral bomber Jacket went well with his White T-shirt and ,slightly rolled up light blue jeans that fitted him not too much but also too little and to top it off his already white shoes tide it all together even more and you were almost drooling.

~Hobi's Outfit~

"So?" Hoseok finally said as he thought you had enough time to analyze his appearance "damn Playboy" you mumbled "pardon?" "Huh- what? Oh I said you look good" you quickly stood up looking at Hobi in his eyes and they were so beautiful in the slightly dim room due to it being cloudy outside . You were now so close his nose could touch your forehead if you weren't looking up at him you didn't know he was this close to you until now.. Not that you minded "you clean up good Hobi" you mumbled as you smiled and messing with his bangs a little "thank you Y/n... Should we head out?" "Uh of course right after I get dressed , fix my hair and brush my teeth" you giggled as Hobi checked his watch "we still have 35 minutes go on" he said shoooing you away.

It took about 15 minutes this time around because your hair was such a mess but you were finally ready .

~Your Outfit~

(If you don't like.. Whoops, add ya own shoes)

"Ready" you said putting on your sunglasses and heading towards your bedside table drawer to grab your keys. You didn't notice but Hobi was staring at you the same way you did him as he followed you out your bedroom "close my door behind you please" you said and he quickly did so and soon Came downstairs, you locked the front door as you both came out and headed to your car.

Once inside you both buckled up and the first 2 minutes were silence until Hobi broke it "Anything I need to know before we really do this?" You raised your eyebrows still looking at the road ahead as you drove "like things to do and say and not..." He looked at you "ohhh that? Pshh no the main thing is not to let anyone intimidate you, don't back down because most of the time the 'tough' are softer than sheep Wool ,kill them with kindness if you want and as for girls they loooove a charmer" you explained as Hobi nodded understanding "Hobi I don't want you to fake too much I want you to be yourself as much as possible" you quickly glanced at him "myself isn't popular though... This isn't me already" he mumbled while gesturing to hie clothes "do you want to change back?" You asked him "no" you nodded "do you like the clothes?" "Yes" you smiled "then this is you. A new one" he chuckled "do you like the new me then?" You quickly looked at him shocked and he added "as a friend I mean" you looked a little at ease "well.. I like you either way" you said softly looking at him as you came to a stop sign. His eyes widened "really?" You giggled "yes so, if you wanna go back to how you used to be that'd be just fine with me" he grinned "thank you Y/n" as you looked back at the road "mhmm and think I've never noticed you I always seen you around since 8th grade but believe it or not I didn't approach you because you didn't seem like you wanted to be bothered" you explained. Hoseok looked at you in disbelief " me? What about you? Your body guards made me the same way towards you" he laughed "who Jalen and the other boys?... They think they are protecting me but I can hold my own you know? Besides I like everyone I treat everyone how I wanna be treated" Hoseok just nodded in understanding. "By the way don't be afraid to ruffle his feathers.. Jalen's that is, show him 2 can play this game mmk?" You said "got it" you smiled as you pulled into your schools parking lot. "Well this is it you ready?" You asked looking at Hobi while taking your keys out of the ignition and grabbing your bag and he smiled at you "since 8th grade".

~inside school~

You guys walked in and of course you turned heads but he did even more and he was surprisingly okay, you looked at everyone with a genuine smile as usual "wink" you mumbled so Hobi could hear "gotcha" he whispered under his breath as you smiled up at him as he winked at you first making you feel shakey with happiness 'easy girl' you thought. He winked and some girls gasped as he grinned looking ahead 'this is working!' He thought to himself.

The moment came were you stopped at your locker which was on the same side as Hobi's but devided by the hallway and of course your friends were there and of course some were facing your direction as other's backs were facing you both. "Hey heyy" you said happily "wassup.. Yo who told you to bring-" Jalen was soon cut off by you "me" you said nonchalantly ,Hobi nodded at Jalen making him growl lowly "good job" you whispered as Jalen turned away. "So tell me... What's your name?" Your friend Aubrielle said as she came towards You and hoseok, you rolled your eyes 'this hoe' you thought "I'm Hoseok Jung, you can call me Hobi though" you looked at him surprised he was handling all so well no stuttering, no blushing, no shyness either! It was like he was born for this but then again, he did say he'd been ready for this since 8th grade. "Well Hobi I'm Aubrielle and your date to the party this Saturday" she winked "girl- I know you-" you started to say but Hobi soon finished "sorry but I'm going with Y/n" he smiled "you are?" She asked "mhmm" you smiled proudly "are you guys like.... " she raised her eyebrows looking between you two "yes- wait what do you mean?" You asked "a couple" she finished....

.......

"Well yeah" you said surprisingly confident and Hobi looked at you smiling "when the hell did this happen!!?" Jalen yelled hitting the locker a little hard causing everyone to back up a bit "lower the voice" you warned as he came towards you both, you grabbed Hoseok's hand and squeezed it slightly he instantly knew it was 'stand your ground time'. "You think you somebody now cause you're dating her?" he said getting in Hoseok's face "been somebody just better known now" Hoseok said happily and you could tell he was killing him with kindness.. A great method if you have the patience to play nice "and to answer your previous question it happened last week, we've been meeting up for study dates and we made it official yesterday by the school gates" you smiled widley and Hobi did as well but Jalen did not seem to care "anyways. . . You're still broken languaged trash so head back home to China yeah?" Jalen said making Hoseok frown "easy Jalen" you warned "his English is spectacular unlike yours hence why you can't pass a single language or pronunciation test go fucking study.. you need it you bastard" you seethed pushing past him and pulling Hobi along. "By the way it's Korea not China" Hoseok turned his head to say with a Wink.

Hoseok was shocked like everyone who had witnessed what just happened you really weren't one to play with.

Soon your first class bell rang and when you both walked in the teacher wasn't there and only a few other students were. Sprawled on desk, chairs ,the window base, you and Hobi went to your seats, you sat in the very back on the right near the window as he sat in the middle of the first row on the opposite side, you looked at him and decided to move beside him . Hobi looked at you surprised "I wanna sit next to more 'boyfriend' " you said winking at him making him blush for the first time since you'd seen each other today "hold on let me get my bag" you quickly scurried to the other side of the room. Just then Jalen came in with the other guys and Hoseok looked at him before rolling his eyes and looking in his bag but soon he seen hands on his desk and a shadow over him. He looked up glaring at the person who he already knew was Jalen "what're you tryna prove boy?" Jalen whispered dangerously low to Hoseok "nothing.. what're you trying to prove?" He smirked and Jalen sighed "you'll never be one of us" he motioned to himself and the boys behind him making hoseok laugh lighlty "trust me I'm not trying to be" "then why are you all of a sudden hanging around Y/n?" Hoseok leaned towards looking Jalen directly in the eyes "because I can" he smirked "you can't and you won't Continue to" Jalen growled

"says whom? " every comment Hoseok said made Jalen's blood boil "because I said so" he said lowly while slightly hitting the desk but not phasing Hoseok one bit. That's when you came back "what's going on? Jalen mo-" "nono Y/n let us talk" Hobi said as you watched them closely while sitting down "you were saying?" Hoseok chirped "you won't continue hanging around Y/n that's it" Hobi just sighed leaning back in his chair "but I will" he countered.

Jalen smirked and walked to the side of Hobi and crouching down to his his ear level "no you won't because I know your secret. I know you paid Y/n for this 'act' I'm not sure how much but it had to be a hell of a lot... So unless you want everyone to know how desperate you are for popularity... You'll go back to being the nobody you always were, and still are despite this facade" Jalen said before standing up completely "show your face at that party Saturday and it all comes out" he simply said ...Hoseok wasn't going out like this "As I said before... I've been somebody and as for your little proposition.. I'll sleep on it" He said glaring up at Jalen but Jalen simply shrugged with his hands in his pockets and walked away.

Although he was still confident Hoseok did slightly start to doubt his plan... Did he want to embarrass himself? Embarrass you?

"What happened?" He heard a whispered voice and a soft tap on his shoulder and he took a moment before he answered "maybe we should cancel all this" Hoseok mumbled looking at his fingers that sat in the desk top "what? No! absolutely not, what did Jalen say to you?" You asked "he says he knows something about our deal and says if I show my face at the party Saturday... He'll expose it all". You Shook your head "nah.. Not happenin ,I won't let it and we're still going through with this... He wants to send threats then let's show him who's the puppet masters" you said smirking. "You still wanna do this?" He asked surprised "hell yeah I do don't you?" He was a little weary "yes but-" "no buts babyboy we got this , I got you, and you don't worry about anything but showing up and looking handsome" you said while leaning over touching his chin and boy did his heart skip a beat "I can do that" he said.

"You're going down Hoseok" Jalen growled lowly from the back of the class at what he just witnessed.

"You're going down Jalen" you said to yourself so only you could hear.

Hobi knew in this act someone's cover would be blown and he hoped that it wasn't his nor yours because he didn't wanna let his and your work go to waste, especially his because he'd waited for this for 5 years and being near you was so much fun even though it was fake... That is if it was even just fake anymore because to him it was becoming slightly more and he wondered if maybe just maybe if you felt the same.

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Whew chile the Cliff hangers. I like what I'm doing here and THANK YOU GUYS FOR LIKING MY STORIES 💞 OOF we're off to a good start I thought no one would know my stories existed. PT 3. Will be up some time.