#just an absolute super smash bros player of a man | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

pad-wubbo · 4 months ago

Text

Very sweet post.

It makes me think, "how has it been between Splatoon and me?"

* I've been following Splatoon's world since day one. Splat1 came out and I followed it religiously since the Global Testfire. I thought it looked really cute, and its central ink mechanic felt similar to the gels in Portal 2 (I was 12 and had just recently marathonned the entire Portal series). I had a major crush on the Squid Sisters, too.

* I never had a Wii U. I never played Splat1. I only watched it. Still, though, I felt there was something special about it. The way the Inklings had their own bands, fashion, language, history, everything. It was a world. It wasn't just a video game level floating in the middle of nowhere. It was alive.

* My Splatfest picks (EU) for 1:

* Rock > Pop

* Eating > Sleeping

* North Pole < South Pole

* Singing > Dancing

* Messy > Tidy

* Cats > Dogs

* Zombies < Ghosts

* Pineapple on Pizza is Delicious > Disgusting

* Get Fit < Get Rich

* Play Like a Barbarian < Ninja

* Pokémon Red < Pokémon Blue

* Hoverboard < Jet Pack

* SpongeBob < Patrick

* Black Tie Event < Fancy Dress Party

* World Tour < Space Adventure

* Callie > Marie

* I played as the Inkling Mii costumes in Smash Bros. 4 a lot. They looked weird without the black line between their eyes.

* Of course, I was making the "white ink haha" jokes.

* I kinda forgot about Splatoon after FinalFest 1.

* I didn't have a Switch until 2021. As a result, I didn't care that much about Splat2 when it came out.

* I still vaguely kept up with it though.

* I at least knew that Callie defected to the Octarians, the Calamari Inkantation was now Spicy, there was an Agent 4, and Off the Hook were the new idols.

* Octo Expansion comes out. My interest is piqued by how much its plot copies Portal (you're a test subject in an underground lab for a shady company, the AI promises a reward but wants you dead, you escape and destroy it).

* I once again become interested in Splatoon lore.

* I never kept up with the Splatfests for Splat2, though, unlike with Splat1.

* So, have my retroactive input:

* Cake > Ice Cream

* Mayo < Ketchup

* Flight < Invisibility

* Toilet Paper on the Front Roll < Back Roll

* Warm Breakfast > Cold Breakfast

* Film < Book

* Action < Comedy

* Gherk-OUT > Gherk-IN (on burgers)

* Chicken < Egg came first (objectively correct)

* Sweet > Salty

* I know nothing about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

* Pulp < No Pulp (in orange juice)

* Squid < Octopus

* Adventure < Relax

* Retro > Modern

* Trick < Treat

* Eat It First > Save It For Last

* Hero < Villain

* Family > Friends

* Pancakes > Waffles

* Knight > Wizard

* Hare > Tortoise

* Time Travel > Teleportation

* Kid > Grown-Up

* Chaos > Order

* Super Mushroom > Super Star

* Come 2022, Splat3 comes out, and I play it. My God, it's fun. Seven years of being a Sploon fan up to that point and this is the first time I'd actually played it.

* This is what the Animal Crossing team abandoned New Horizons for, and it was worth it.

* Anyway, here's my Splatfest choices for 3:

* Rock / Paper / Scissors

* Gear / Grub / Fun

* Grass / Fire / Water (in Pokémon)

* Spicy / Sweet / Sour

* Dark Chocolate / Milk Chocolate / White Chocolate

* Nessie / Aliens / Bigfoot (which is real?)

* Power / Wisdom / Courage

* Vanilla / Strawberry / Mint Chip

* Money / Fame / Love

* Shiver / Frye / Big Man

* Zombie / Skeleton / Ghost

* Handshake / Fist Bump / Hug

* Friends / Family / Solo

* Friday / Saturday / Sunday

* Drums / Guitar / Keyboard

* Baby Chicks / Li'l Bunnies / Bear Cubs

* Same Ol' / Bucket List / Save the Day

* Palace / Theme Park / Beach

* Bread / Rice / Pasta

* Past / Present / Future

* Now, I had only been playing the game on and off until this year.

* Side Order really, really, got me hooked on it. Permanently.

* Since then, I have been absolutely dedicated to Splatoon. I'm on a crusade of sorts to 100% all the single-player games now. I've finished OE and will finish the rest shortly before and after Grand Festival.

* I've become obsessed with marine biology. I've become an Inkling in real life thanks to a certain hat.

* I've started playing many fangames and reading many fanfics, designing my own characters, and whatnot.

* Coming to think of it, I realise now why I love it so much.

* It's a world, a community, a culture.

* Splatoon is all about self-expression in an ever-evolving world of no status quo.

* If all the official games and their staff simply vanished, there would still be endless games, music, art, stories, characters, and expression in their world. It would live on, as an organically-mutated culture.

* It encourages this. Splatoon, with its central theme of expressing yourself, actively encourages the creation of your own stories within its world, and that makes it feel alive.

* It's the anti-Nintendo Nintendo game. Hisashi Nogami was recommended to make a "Mario Paintball". Nothing was stopping him. He had access to the Mario brand and guaranteed success, and chose instead to express himself, to make this wonderful world of squid-people who live and love. The player-generated posts, and the final Splatfest influencing the next game, add to this level of personality and sincerity.

* It's not sanitised and corporate in tone. Its understanding of fashion, music, and sports is genuine. It features dark themes and relatable characters that open the door deliberately for angsty fanfic. It features sexual innuendo, suggestive character designs, and sometimes swearing, deliberately leading into naughty fanfic.

* Because it's designed for self-expression, to refer to it as merely an "IP" erases this wonderful aspect of it.

* This is what makes me so ambivalent. I love Splatoon more than anything in the world, possibly, yet I despise Nintendo.

* Nintendo is a megacorporation that systematically lobbies to kill privacy, freedom of speech and consumer rights for its own profit. It sends agents to stalk and ruin the lives of those who reverse-engineer its consoles. It consistently shuts down harmless fan projects (betraying Splatoon's whole point of encouraging expression in its world). Its most major stakeholder is Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman, a murderer. I have nothing but respect for the developers working under it, but no respect for it as a corporate entity.

* Loving Splatoon has made me happier as a person. There are some things that make me sad about it, though.

* Since it's a world unto itself, not just a game, I very much did participate in its world from 2015 to 2022, yet having not actually played it until Splat3's release makes me feel like an imposter, not worthy of being so invested in it.

* Since it's "owned" by Nintendo, a company I now refuse to support beyond its online subscription, being a Splatoon fan makes me feel like a corporate bootlicker (although I know that's irrational, like how I can love Star Trek and not give two shits about the Paramount Picture Corporation).

* Its living, breathing world and themes of moving on, especially as emphasised by "Three Wishes", reminds me that time is rapidly slipping away from me, whether I'm ready or not.

* That fills me with existential dread. The series still feels new to me, as it came out 9 years ago and thanks to my strange brain experiencing a traumatic event and changing 9 years ago, every one of my memories constantly plays back to me. There is no past or present to me. Only constant, melting existence. That's why 9 years ago feels like nothing. I still feel 12. There was a longer time between 2013 and 2015 than between 2015 and now, to me.

* Three Wishes reminds me that 9 years have indeed passed, and that is surreal to me.

* One last thing, I never vote based on the idol. You love the Squid Sisters the most, and I do too, but I'm with team Future.

* Think about it. These games are about moving on and living. Team Past doesn't make sense.

* Team Present is boring.

* Future is the logical way to go, then.

* Just like how Chaos was the logical choice last time, in a game about making a mess and being unapologetically you.

* Callie vs Marie was the only FinalFest without an obvious logical choice.

* So that's a history of Splatoon and me. I want to be a squid in real life.

* Where do I get a Callie plush in the UK, other than on Amazon? I don't trust Amazon.

Getting sappy about the Squid Sisters....

The Squid Sisters being the ones to start and end Three Wishes genuinely broke me down and made me feel the most amount of emotion out of anything in this whole franchise.

They embody the past, present and the future of this series and it's world. They have made an impact in the past as they were the ones who started it all, they sing and dance in the present, and will plant the seeds for the future. Them getting the opening and final lines of this grand song is just... it's so smart.

These girls are so important to me on so many levels it's not even funny. I genuinely don't know what my mental health would be like without having these comfort characters by my side. I love them so much and they helped me get through the worst mental period in my life back in mid 2023. If they didn't help me see the light and comforted me, i don't know where i would be.... They also helped me get comfortable with my autism as well and made it less of a curse and more of a difference in how i see this chaotic world.

I remember getting my Callie plushie in October 2023 and once i held her... i teared up. This is not a joke. I'm not playing around. A 19 year old me actually cried holding a cute little Callie plush. She helps me sleep at night and helps silence the stupid thoughts in my brain that is just trying to rest.

I've been in love with this series since 2017 and it's done so much for me since then. I am gonna continue to love and adore this series until my heart finally stops beating. I've made so many memories i hold near and dear to my heart and some of the best gaming experiences I've ever had.

And getting the chance to share it with you all is just... I'm so happy. I don't feel lonely anymore in my thoughts and this series helped me make wonderful connections and it will continue to do so...

I love the Squid Sisters... I love them with every piece of my heart.

Sorry for getting all sappy LOL! (It will happen again in September.)

#splatoon #splatoon 3 #squid sisters #callie and marie #callie splatoon #callie cuttlefish #marie cuttlefish #marie splatoon #grand fest #grand festival #grand fest splatoon #rambles #autistic rambling #sad thoughts #reblog #team future #passage of time

182 notes · View notes

star-scrambled · 2 years ago

Note

Hiya! What video games dovyou think would be the Octonauts favorite?

HMM that’s a hard one...I’m sure people have done these kinds of posts before with more accuracy in mind, so I’m just gonna be Indulgent if that’s okay >:3c

Captain Barnacles only plays video games with the team, and they HAVE to be motion based, so he LOVES Just Dance and 1-2 Switch n that kind of stuff.

Professor Inkling is the same to an extent, but more with stuff like Wii Sports that doesn’t require as much full-body movement. I think he’d also be a Clubhouse Games fan for sure.

Kwazii and Tweak have similar taste in games, mainly because they often play them together. Tweak made her own gaming console on par with an NES or SNES, so she usually plays high score-based games like Pac-Man. She doesn’t have the time to commit to RPGs, as much as she’d probably really enjoy them, but sometimes she’s willing to stay up late playing Super Mario World for the sake of not losing progress. She’d also play fighting games with Kwazii probably, and they would be his favourite, but ultimately she’s always better than him at whatever they play because gaming is her ELEMENT. So yeah, Kwazii’s a Smash Bros fan, but the only person that plays with him is Tweak, but she’s not always around. Pinto and Koshi are ABSOLUTELY willing to try and take him on as a duo when they visit though, hehehe.

Peso’s an Animal Crossing guy, or at least someone who enjoys those mobile games where you can check in daily and play for a good 20 minutes, so not hardcore in the SLIGHTEST, haha. He’s not even really committed or “good” at the games since he’s a busy guy and it’s not his Most prevalent hobby, but he finds them relaxing and cute. I’d want to believe Pinto is the reason why he’d play a little more sometimes and try out different things, though :)

DASHI IS THE RPG FAN. She 100% gives me Deltarune and Mother fan vibes. She loves a good story with pretty environments and compelling characters, and her and Koshi tend to bond over their favourites together. She would love to commit to a life sim game like Animal Crossing because of the aesthetics and appeal of building a community from the ground up, but she VERY easily ditches them unfortunately. She is a handheld console player by heart and she LOVES playing on her pink Nintendo 3DS BECAUSE I SAID SO!!! (also Koshi is a YKW fan and a M&L RPG fan she is JUST like me fr!!!!!!!)

Shellington is very hard for me to think of something for LMFAO 😭 he doesn’t strike me as a Gamer...but I think he’d take an interest in Minecraft because of the vast landscapes and all the creatures n stuff. He definitely likes to explore around and modify the environments with some more scientifically accurate elements, such as the animals and plants, but overall he just has fun experimenting with the logic of the world and seeing how it’s ecosystem works differently from the real world. He also builds models to show the crew and educate the Vegimals sometimes :3 BUT he plays Exclusively on Creative Mode and on Peaceful settings because the first time he played on survival without knowing the difference he almost had a panic attack once it became nighttime. Again, though, not much of a gamer, so it’s really only a once in a while thing he does once it crosses his mind.

As a bonus: Paani also isn’t much of a gamer, but Minecraft is something he’s interested in, much like Shellington. Though the difference is he absolutely LOVES the thrill of playing on Survival Mode. He isn’t much better at it, he is nowhere NEAR going to the Nether or fighting the Ender Dragon, but the nightly brawls he has with all the mobs is a lot of fun. Pinto joining is even BETTER. He’s a mobile player so he can play with him no matter where he is! >:3c

#THIS WAS REALLY FUN TO WRITE UP THANKS FOR ASKING HAHA <333 #vics silly brain zone #octonauts #octonauts a&b

59 notes · View notes

cartmankisser · 3 years ago

Note

hi girlie can i get tweek fluff alphabet

IM HAVING A TWEEK PHASE MAN

also everyone say thank you to my bestie @okchijt!!! she helped write this a little bit

also theres no nsfw, but im putting it under the cut because it's just very long 😓

Activities - “What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?”

Tweek would rather stay home with you! Usually, he just chills at your house because it's a relaxing place for him

i feel like he would be a fan of board games, and also nintendo games? i can totally see him as an avid mario kart and super smash bros player.

Beauty - What do they admire about their s/o? What do they think is beautiful about them?

absolutely your elegance!! he's always knocking into things and tumbling over himself and honestly it makes him pretty insecure,,

he just adores how graceful you can be, even if you're making the same mistakes as he is

Comfort - How would they help their s/o when they feel down/have a panic attack etc?

honestly? he has no idea what to do,,,, his go-to method to comfort you is to do whatever you did to help him!!

breathing exercises, grounding techniques, just letting you get it all out, whatever!! he tries to do what works best for him whenever he was in a similar situation to you

Dreams - How do they picture their future with their s/o?

growing up through school, he definitely wants to keep the relationship pretty serious!!! he's committed to you, and he doesn't really plan on leaving you.

whenever he thinks about his future, whether it's short term or long term, he always subconsciously adds you into the picture

basically what im trying to say is that he's not letting go of you 😭

Equal - Are they the dominant one in the relationship, or rather passive?

he's definitely very passive and submissive. decisions make him nervous and cause him to overthink, so he definitely prefers you to make the decisions for the relationship majority of the time

whenever he does act more dominant, it's usually in private with just you, and it never fails to give him a giant boost in confidence!!

he really appreciates that you trust him, even if he's not very sure of himself

Fight - Would they be easy to forgive their s/o? How are they fighting?

he really hates fighting with you,,, arguments really only happen if you two disagree on a choice that you guys have to make.

not having you're approval or support makes him too scared and nervous to attempt anything! he usually apologizes first.

he knows that you were just trying to look out for him, so he feels really guilty for getting upset and overthinking instead of listening to what you had to say

Gratitude - How grateful are they in general? Are they aware of what their s/o is doing for them?

he feels so much better around you and he's very aware about it!!! hes less tense and more focused and hes very aware about it!!

he actively tries to stay near you because of this, but he's wayy too embarrassed to tell you that >.<

Honesty - Do they have secrets they hide from their s/o? Or do they share everything?

hes too comfortable around you,,

he trusts you so much that he tends to overshare... about everything... and he doesn't even think twice about it 😟

Inspiration - Did their s/o change them somehow, or the other way around? Like trying out new things or helped them overcome personal problems?

he's visibly more confident in completing difficult tasks and whatnot.

It used to freak him out to think he could do anything of consequence, but you really gave him the boost of motivation he needed to believe in himself!

Jealousy - Do they get jealous easily? How do they deal with it?

he gets very jealous over little things quite often. he usually just kinda sulks? but the smallest bit of affection from you is enough to get him back on his feet

Kiss - Are they a good kisser? What was the first kiss like?

the first kiss was very sudden!!! it was rushed, out of the blue and he initiated it out of adrenaline

i feel like he's an average kisser? he's not a god or anything, but he knows what he's doing!!!

Love Confession - How would they confess to their s/o?

tweek is the kinda guy to accidentally confess. he'd say some shit about how he could hang out because he was busy buying flowers for you or something like that LMFAO

Marriage - Do they want to get married? How do they propose? What would the marriage be like?

i feel like he'd want something very small! a private elopement without guests would suit him the best imo

marriage with him would be pretty mellow and down-low. he'd calm down a lot after puberty, so i think being married to him would be a relatively calm relationship

Nicknames - What do they call their s/o?

he'd call you pet names very frequently whenever he's relaxed, and i feel like he'd really only use the standard ones. babe, honey, etc

btw your gender doesn't matter here, he definitely calls you dude

everyone is tweeks dude

On Cloud Nine - What are they like when they are in love? Is it obvious for others? How do they express their feelings?

his friends know he has a crush before he does.

he doesn't even need to be around you!! just thinking about you makes his head turn blank and his face turn pink

i feel like he would try to show you that he cares by doing small things for you. carrying your things, opening doers for you, etc

PDA - Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others? Or are they rather shy to kiss etc. when others are watching?

tweek actually prefers to show a bit of pda!! it's comforting to him to be able to hold your hand and it makes him giddy when you give him small pecks infront of people

it makes him feel appreciated and special that you like to show him off to everyone!!

Quirk - Some random ability they have that's beneficial in a relationship.

being as emotional as he is, he's like a fucking mind reader when it comes to what you're feeling. hes the kinda person who can tell what your feeling just by looking at you

also i feel like he's effective at vocalizing his opinions and his side of the argument when it comes to disagreements.

Romance - How romantic are they? What would they do to make their s/o happy? Cliché or rather creative?

whenever he tries to be romantic, he likes to stick to the classic stuff!!!

he would buy you flowers, write you love letters with tiny doodles, and get you small gifts he thinks you would like/that remind him of you

Support - Are they helping their s/o achieve their? Do they believe in them?

he always tries to support you with his whole heart!! he trusts that whatever you're doing is making you happy, so he loves encouraging you

Thrill - Do they need to try out new things to spice out your relationship? Or do they prefer a certain routine?

tweek definitely appreciates a casual routine with you. he enjoys simple, romantic things!

having too many spontaneous events wear him out very quickly

Understanding - How good do they know their partner? Are they empathetic?

i feel like tweek would know you very well. he tries to know you as much as he wants his partner to understand him!

i also think he'd be extremely empathetic towards his s/o. your likes, dislikes, fears and feelings matter a lot to him and he wants to always make sure that you're okay because it's something you would do for him, and he really appreciates it

Value - How important is the relationship to them? What is it’s worth in comparison to other things in their life?

i think he would value his romantic relationships a lot! maybe not more than anything,,, but it'd certainly be up there!!

Comparing is tough, probably among his top 3 priorities? since idk i don't think that little guy has got much else goin for him

Wild Card - A random Fluff Headcanon.

He likes chilling out with you. he's the kinda person who likes to be around you without having to really do anything

he enjoys doing his own thing, but with the company of you near him

XOXO - Are they very affectionate? Do they love to kiss and cuddle?

Sometimes I think he would be,,???

he likes it when you guys are alone, but cuddling in public?? absolutely not.... he only really likes holding you hand

Yearning - How will they cope when they're missing their partner?

being without you makes him nervous. usually just being around you is enough to keep him grounded, but with you missing?? he's all over the place

i feel like he'd try to follow through the steps that you did previously to comfort him, just this time he's doing it all by himself,,,

Zeal - Are they willing to go to great lenghts for the relationship? If so, what kind of?

Once again, he values you greatly! i think he would do a lot to keep you near him, but it honestly depends on what it is. i feel like if there's a decent possibility of it turning out badly, he'd have to be down horrendously to go through with it.

#south park x reader #tweek x reader #tweek tweak x reader #reblogs > likes

63 notes · View notes

noohpais · 3 years ago

Text

what kind of gamers they’d be. — characters : mikey, draken, chifuyu, baji, mitsuya, ran, rindou, kokonoi, & sanzu , warnings/notes : cursing, mentions of toxic behavior

song playing : GAM3 BO1 by Seventeen

notes : first ever headcanon omfg. this was requested by a dear friend who i game with often, and i think i have enough gaming experience on my hands to write this lol. if you enjoyed this fic, consider tipping me on ko-fi :> reblogs are much appreciated!!

disclaimer : this is a work of fiction, made only for entertainment purposes and in no way or form should be taken seriously.

mikey —

he’s a cocky gamer, and he has the skills to back up his attitude. however, he never plays seriously and opts to just mess around most of the time. if they’re playing a shooting game, he’d do a friendly open fire for the funnies, just to tick his teammates off. never has his mic on and never plays unless the other toman members are playing with him. he typically prefers playing on a console rather than pc. likes to play brawling games like smash or tekken.

draken —

ken is good at a lot of things, and gaming is not one of them. the type to lean from side to side while playing mario kart because he thinks it’ll help with the controls. also the type to button smash and hope for the best. always the first to die, his kda stats are embarrassing and mikey makes fun of him for it all the time. if he had to choose, he’d prefer gaming on a console over a pc. he’s an inverted player (like me).

chifuyu —

into story telling games, or rpg like legend of zelda or final fantasy. probably has like 150 hours on ocarina of time after only one month of playing it. grinds like crazy, and does all of the side quests. has several timestamps cause he wants to go back and choose different routes. if a game has multiple endings, he can and will get all endings. prefers gaming on console, but will play pc games if he feels like it.

baji —

someone take the controller away from him. he’s moderately decent skill wise, but baji’s the type of gamer to rage; whether something goes wrong on his end or because of another teammate. almost threw his controller at the tv when mikey used his ult to blast him off the platform while playing smash. he yells a lot and sometimes makes his own sound effects. plays both pc and console. chifuyu made him play phasmophobia once in the dark, and it ended with chifuyu’s monitor getting a giant crack in it.

mitsuya —

he’s a handheld console gamer. plays stuff like super mario world or pokemon on his ds. likes the handheld consoles cause it’s convenient for his sisters to play their games on. however, out of all the toman members, i think he’d be the best at gaming in general. the one to carry the team during a 5v5. usually has to tell mikey and baji to shut up because they’re being too loud and no one can hear the game.

ran —

i’ve said it once and i’ll say it again, ran sucks at any and all video games, but for some reason, he still likes to play them. has died in creative mode several times. despite being absolutely trash at most games, he does have incredible luck at times. played genshin once and pulled a rare character without even realizing it (cause you know, not like he actually cares). there have been times while playing smash bros with rindou that he’s won, solely because rindou couldn’t make his character jump fast enough back onto the platform, so he died.

rindou —

idk why, but i think he’s a phone gamer lmao. likes to play candy crush and cookie run. likes to play genshin too, but usually gives up after fifteen minutes and opens up word search or something. gaming to him is something like a passtime more than something to do for leisure. not a great gamer, but he’s not terribly bad either. his favorite mobile game was flappy bird, and he was kinda sad it was taken off the app store. really good at those music rhythm games.

koko —

this man excels at games like animal crossing and stardew valley. knows how to make money in the game, and knows how to use it to upgrade his home and tools to the absolute best. his animal crossing world is amazing; probably has several characters on his island. doesn’t play for leisure, he just wants to know how much money he can get until he finally gets tired of the game.

sanzu —

the toxic gamer troll. goes on just to cause havoc and he thrives off of it. a league and valorant player because the community fits his energy. spam pings his teammates for no reason. likes to play on smurf accounts to appear low level so he can get matched up and win over lower level players. loves turning on his mic just to tell rindou that he sucks ass. has made a kid cry at one point.

additional notes : yeah all these games are cool and all, but nothing beats my otome games imo. if you enjoyed this fic, consider tipping me on ko-fi :> reblogs are much appreciated!!

230 notes · View notes

meili-sheep · 2 years ago

Note

This is it, this is how Shenhe deals with her rage so it doesn't manifest in real life. She plays and beats some of the most violent video games known to man as stress relief. I have thoughts about this:

Shenhe is absolutely going to be a PC player if she can help it. The hassle of buying three or four separate consoles is too much for her, but she will cave if a really good game is only available on one of them.

She does have a Switch though. She and Chongyun along with some of his friends play Animal Crossing together sometimes.

Now, if we were to talk about our traditional hack and slash/adventure games, she would play God of War. Period.

Dark Souls? Yep. All the Elder Scrolls games? Absolutely.

You can't tell me that when DOOM: Eternal came out that she wasn't all over that shit. The DLC that came afterward? 100% playthrough.

Bloodborne is her happy place.

As much as she does enjoy open-world games (i.e. most of these titles), she truly loves the ones with storylines (DOOM, Metal Gear, Assassin's Creed, etc.) and with memorable characters that much more.

As you've stated before, she has the reaction times of a god, so you'd think that she'd get into things like PvP (Lethal League, Super Smash Bros, Rainbow Siege Six, etc.), but that's not the case most of the time.

She finds them stressful and would much rather just kill and mow down whatever needs to be, but she will occasionally entertain it and do very well.

If you thought she was a cryptid before she was introduced to this, you're never seeing her in public again. She will straight up disappear.

At least until she finishes all the good ones and goes out into the wilderness to cleanse and recollect herself.

"Yeah, I like Bloodborne a lot. What do you mean it's too hard? I appreciate the challenges and mass murder is illegal in real life."

The Brigade makes of that whatever they will. To each their own.

This actually is honestly a really good way of working around her canon rage by just chanling it into gaming and particularly souls games.

I can see the only times she ever goes out is with the Brigade, and they never push her to go out with them. She mostly goes because Ayato and Diluc's setups are way better than hers, and She's 100% bloodborne for Diluc. And Kaeya, to this day, thinks Diluc did it himself. Lmaoo

#shenhe #shenhe genshin impact #shenhe headcanons #Bully the Fatui Brigade

14 notes · View notes

slade-neko · 3 years ago

Text

Saw this video game tag thing pop up on my dash a few days ago. Wanted to do it.

1. First game you played obsessively? Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, I believe I was 5yo. Still waiting on that FF7 Remake treatment.

2. A game that has influenced you creatively? Writing, drawing, etc. Well if I play a game and like it, then I'll create sims of it. Does that count?

3. Who did you play with as a kid? My brother from the day I was born.

4. Who do you play with now? My brother FROM THE DAY I WAS BORN.

5. Ever use cheat codes? I wasn't lying when I made this post. {link}

6. Ever buy strategy guides? Yes! Mainly to look at the artwork though. (Don't need no guide!)

7. Any games you have multiple copies of? Lots of games, most being Left 4 Dead with 6 copies (3 Xbox 360, 1 PC case, 2 PC digitally.) What can I say, its a GOOD GAME!

8. Rarest/Most expensive game in your collection? Gold cartridge Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time (maybe that's rare?)

9. Most regrettable purchase? I don't regret my purchases, but I have received games I have never played like Cubix (PS2) no clue where that game came from, but I have it somehow. Madagascar (Xbox 360) came with my Xbox 360, never opened it from its case. And Monsters Inc. Scream Arena (Gamecube) or something... it was a gift.

10. Ever go to a midnight game release or stand in line for hours? No, because then I'd have to interact with people.

11. Have you ever made new friends from playing video games? I'm only friends with people BECAUSE of video games, so yes.

12. Ever get picked on for liking games? No, that'd be ridiculous.

13. A game you’ve never played that everyone else has? Probably a lot, I'd say Call of Duty, but I technically played CoD 1, 2, and 4. The campaign mode was alright, but I don't really care for CoD games at ALL.

14. Favorite game music? Koji Kondo and Grant Kirkhope are two BIG ones.

15. If it was a requirement to get a game related tattoo, what would you pick? Triforce is the most basic option, but I'd rather not get a tattoo.

16. Favorite game to play with your friends IRL? Super Smash Bros. Brawl with hacks, but that was over a decade ago.

17. Ever lose a friend over a game? No, that'd be ridiculous.

18. Would you date someone that hates gaming? No, that'd be RIDICULOUS.

19. Favorite handheld console? PSP. 3DS is great, but PSP Monster Hunter has ALL of my portable gaming memories. Like playing in school after End of Grade tests with my friend.

20. Game that you know like the back of your hand? Sims 4 I like to think I know everything about Left 4 Dead. Quite a bit about Monster Hunter, more so of a series though than a specific game.

21. Game that you didn’t like or understand as a kid but love now? I'd say Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. I loved it as a kid, but had a lot of complex pen & paper RPG mechanics that I never understood. I understand a lot more of it now, but its still complex as all heck. I just know you hit things, they die.

22. Do you wear game related clothing/accessories? That's the only thing I wear.

23. The game that you’ve logged the most hours into? Not sure so I'll list a few. Sims 4, Smash Bros. Brawl, Monster Hunter (its a series though), or Left 4 Dead

24. First Pokemon game? Leaf Green

25. Were you ever an arcade game player? No, don't like paying to play.

26. Ever form any gaming rivalries? No.

27. Game that makes you rage? I don't get mad at games, but I had a custom modded Hard Eight mutation in Left 4 Dead that is absolute bullsh*t!

28. Ever play in a tournament? No, because then I'd have to interact with people.

29. What is your gaming set up? A giant wall of video game consoles spanning from NES to Switch, 4 TVs, but I sit at a desk with a PC.

30. How many consoles do you own? "I own every console that's ever existed." - I Don't Play Games When I Play Games (My STRENTH) original song by Smooth McGroove BUT no seriously I own 32 consoles including handhelds.

31. Does the 3DS and/or Virtual Boy hurt your eyes or give you headaches? Yes. 3DS gave me headaches though I only really played with the 3D feature in Ocarina of Time 3D. I think my eyes broke because I couldn't get my 3D to work very well after.

32. Did you ever play a game based on your favorite show/cartoon/movie/comic? Sure I play games based on a lot of things. Literally any anime game. If I had to pick Dragon Ball Xenoverse is kinda like a dream Dragon Ball game. Oh, Attack on Titan 2 is pretty neat too!

33. Did you ever have any bootleg games or plug-n-play games? Some SEGA plug-n-play thing once. Played it like once and now its lost to time (or my closet.)

34. Do either of your parents play video games? Yes. Mom and Dad played NES Super Mario Bros. My Dad went HARD at that game until he saved the Princess. Then he quit forever.

35. Ever work in a game store? Or do you have a favorite game shop? "Hi. Welcome to Gamestop!"I never want to hear that again, but it was my main store until I went full digital/ online orders.

36. Have you ever shed actual blood, sweat or tears over a game? No, I don't tend to get upset or emotional, but Bill dying in Left 4 Dead made me pretty pissed.

37. Have you played E.T. for the Atari 2600? Do you think that’s the worst game ever, or do you have another nomination? Never played it. I don't really play "bad" games, but maybe Sims 4.

38. A game you’re ashamed to admit that you like? The Sims 4

39. A sequel that you would die for them to make? Dragon's Dogma 2 WHICH I think is actually in development, so I'd have to say Fallout New Vegas 2. C'mon Bethesda you cowards, hand the keys back over to Obsidian so they can make another good Fallout game!

40. What to you think of virtual reality headsets or motion controls? Two part question, two answers. VR Headset to immerse in world, yes. Motion Controls, no.

41. A genre that you just can’t get into? MOBAs and MMOs. I don't like paying to keep playing.

42. Maybe it wasn’t your first game, but what was the game that started you on your path to nerdiness? Nintendo 64 opened me up to what video games could be as a kid. Sad to say my parents' NES didn't really do that for me. And years later Fallout 3 was a big game changer for me too.

43. Ever play games when you really should have been concentrating on something else? Every day of my LIFE.

44. Arcade machine that has consumed the most of your quarters? None. I'd rather emulate.

45. How are you at Mario Kart? Pretty dang good. 3-STARS MARIO KART WII, BABY!

46. Do you like relaxing games like Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon? Yes, both of those. I preferred when Animal Crossing had more character to it. New Horizons looks so pretty, but feels so bland compared to classic AC.

47. Do you like competitive games? No. Not really. Usually amongst friends or if I can get competitive against AI Bots. I love my machine bot friends cause they don't cry like 10 year olds when they lose.

48. How long does it take your to customize your player character? Too long. I've seriously restarted games because I wasn't happy with my character's appearance.

49. In games where you can pick your class, do you always tend to go for the same type of character? Yes, I am always the magic man, my brother is always brute warrior, and my friend is the ranger.

50. If you were a game designer, what masterpiece would you create? I don't really know. Honestly, I'd rather mod already good games to make them better than create something completely new.

51. Have you ever played a game for so long that you forgot to eat or sleep? No, that'd be ridiculous. But I've had a friend fall asleep playing games at my house 3 different times and currently dozes off during our Minecraft sessions. So, maybe that's not a completely ridiculous thing after all.

52. A game that you begged your parents for as a kid? Kirby 64 apparently. My brother tells me we had to count out pennies to buy it. I must've been too young with no recollection, but I believe it.

53. What’s your opinion on DLC these days? It's good if its not in the game's files from the beginning and is actually developed AFTER launch... and pre-order bonuses should be standard DLC a month or two later. Some games have content lost to time because of that pre-order bullsh*t.

54. Do you give in to Steam sales? Of course. If you want a game and its on sale then why not? I typically wait just for Steam sales to get games.

55. Did you ever make someone you hated in the Sims and did mean stuff to them? No? I typically make people and characters I like in Sims. I've made villains like Dio, but he's an anime villain and I don't really HATE him despite the horrible things he's done.

56. Did you ever play Roller Coaster Tycoon and kill off your guests? No. Never played that game.

57. Did you ever play a game to 100% or get all of the achievements? I try to for all the games I really like.

58. If you can only play 3 games for the rest of your life, which ones do you pick? The Sims 4, Skyrim, & Fallout: New Vegas. Mods make them live forever. Left 4 Dead and Monster Hunter are good choices too.

59. Do you play any cell phone games? Those aren't games.

60. Do you know the Konami Code? No? But I'll take a guess. Is it make an IP and forget it exists?

61. Do you trade in your games or keep them forever? Keep forever... even the bad ones.

62. Ever buy a console specifically to play one game? PS4 Pro for Monster Hunter World. It was basically for early access since the PC version was being developed and releasing after PS4, but I don't like waiting.

63. Ever go to a gaming convention or tournament? Sort of. Been to anime cons and walked into the gaming tournament rooms only to walk out less than 10 minutes later.

64. Ever make a TV or monitor purchase based on what would be best for gaming? No, but I'm going to be doing that soon, hopefully.

65. Ever have a Game Genie, Game Shark or Action Replay? Did it ever mess up your game’s save file? GameShark for N64, PS2, Gameboy, and Action Replay for Gamecube, DS, 3DS. And no not really, I would cheat responsibly... but there was this one time at school my friend and I borrowed another friend's Gameboy game, loaded it up with my Gameshark, tried playing, it crashed, loaded it back up, save file corrupted... we just stared at each other jaws dropped, "Here's your game back, dude. Make sure you don't play it til you get back home!"

66. Did you ever have have an old Nokia with Snake on it? No, but I remember seeing them on billboards in the game DRIV3R on PS2.

67. Do you have a happy gaming-related childhood memory you want to share? Every game I play is filled with happy memories (mostly.)

68. Ever save up a ton of tickets in an arcade to get something cool? These tiger plushes. My brother got white and I got orange. They were the coolest. Got a butt load of tickets from some jackpot spinning light game thing as I was good at the timing with repeated jackpot hits.

69. In your opinion, best game ever made? I've played quite a few masterpiece games, but to pick one, I'd say Fallout: New Vegas

70. Very first game you ever beat? Super Mario 64. I was a mere child on a Sunday morning and ate celebratory pancakes made by my Dad.

Wow, that was long... I get the feeling this was supposed to be a "send me ask with numbers" thing, but answering all at once is more fun.

#personal #video games

8 notes · View notes

my-arlington-academia · 5 years ago

Text

Karolina and Tegan birthday fanfic! 👓👠

I wrote a (short?) fanfic for Karolina's and Tegan's birthdayyy 🎉🎉 Last time Scholar was a she so I decided that in this one Scholar will be a he again 👍 Hopefully my writing is getting less cringe 😂 but as you'll see for yourselves I'm still really bad, especially the narration, sometimes I'm like "Wait, what am I supposed to describe here to move on to the next scene?" So most of it is really basic 😅 On a lighter note though, I know that many sweet elite players come from lots of different countries and most times their first language isn't English (*cough*like me*cough*) so at least it'll be easy to read for everyone? (Yes, I'm totally trying to make myself feel better for my lack of vocabulary 😔)

Anyways!!! Have a good read! God I hope I'm getting better...

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

"Karolina used to play Maryo Kart!?"

Tegan flinched due to Scholar's sudden outburst and almost dropped the controller out of his hands.

"W-Well... yeah. We were pretty close in elementary school and we used to share the same interests. Not when it came to everything but we usually agreed about a lot of things."

Tyler cackled from the bunk bed upon hearing this. Looks like he was still browsing through a shit-ton of pictures of chairs on Moogle. Apparently, he wanted to draw a chair for his next art piece.

"Just imagining Karolina even playing an app game gives me the same feeling as watching one of John Mulaney's skits: it's hilarious."

Scholar couldn't help but imagine Karolina playing Candy Rush or Flappy duck and it was in fact rather funny. Seeing Karolina frustrated because of a game would be like seeing Tadashi sleeping, which means it was impossible. Those two really need more rest and a bit of down time...

"So Tyler, you found any chairs that give you a spark of inspiration?"

Scholar decided to change the subject, after all Karolina didn't want anything to do with Tegan even though it was... well... their birthday. Scholar doesn't even have siblings let alone a twin so he had no idea how Tegan must be feeling right now. But from an outsider's perspective, Scholar thought that it was kind of sad and a waste that they didn't at least celebrate their birthday together. Tegan said that he didn't want anything too extravagant though. Thus, the 3 of them had gathered in their room to spend some time together, Ellie was also supposed to come but she said that she had "things to do" and that she'd drop by later.

"Nah man. MIKEA is really running out of ideas. I could come up with sicker designs in the blink of an eye. Actually, in a way this encourages me even more to draw a chair. I'll create the best chair this world has ever seen Scholar. Just. You. Wait."

While Tyler was hyping himself up over chairs Tegan had a really stern look on his face. Maybe it was because he was focused on the game but Scholar felt like there was something more to it. Perhaps they should've invited more people? In truth, the only real guest here was Scholar. This was TnT's room after all... Why is Ellie taking so long?

"...Tegan? Maybe you'd like me to go call Axel and Raquel over? Maybe even Alistair and Claire?"

Tegan who was frowning for a while now finally let his eyebrows relax.

"No uh... Sorry if I looked angry or something but um. I was just thinking about something."

When he said that, Tyler immediately let go of his phone and dropped down on the floor, then he sat next to Tegan.

"When you tell us that you're thinking about something, it means that you want to talk to us about it, right?"

Tegan continued to smash the buttons of the controller without even giving Tyler a side-glance.

"Not necessarily."

Somehow, Tegan was acting a bit cold but not in his usual "I'm sleep deprived" way. Tyler gave Scholar a pleading look. Probably meaning that Tegan needed another little push to tell them what was going through his mind. Of course, Scholar couldn't ignore that.

"Aww, come on man! If it was because you were spacing out like usual you would've just said "it's nothing" butcha didn't! You know you can tell us everything right? We won't snitch."

Tyler followed.

"Exactly! We'll never break the bro code of honor. Spill the tea! Or water! Or whatever drink it is!"

Tegan gave them a big sigh before leaving the game on pause and putting the controller down. Tyler and Scholar looked at eachother dumbfounded. When Tegan puts the controller down it means that shit is about to get real... or he's so tired that he'll short-circuit in a span of 10 seconds.

"Well, it's about Karol. Kinda. I guess."

Scholar and Tyler scooched over even closer to be sure to miss none of it. Talking about Karolina wasn't a taboo topic or anything, on the contrary, it was quite frequent and Tegan was totally fine with his friends taking jabs at her as long as it wasn't mean-spirited. But what was rare though, was for Tegan to bring her up out of nowhere.

"It's... how to say this. You know how when it's Christmas and you become super nostalgic about the smallest things? Or when Viewtube recommends you a short clip from a show you used to watch years ago and you decide to marathon it just for the heck of it? Well, for me that "nostalgic" time is our birthday. When I remember how we used to be so close and hang out together all the time I get kinda uh. I don't know. Regretful? Like, maybe if I didn't end up being a loser who spends all of his time playing games and doing dumb stuff Karol might still tolerate me. Or uh. If I dressed up a little nicer or took better care of myself maybe she'd at least want to stand next to me in public? Now, unless absolutely necessary, she doesn't even want to be associated with me. Like, she's ashamed of me or she doesn't want the other students to think that we're related or something. I don't know. Maybe I'm making it sound worse than it actually is but that's how I feel."

Woah. Okay. To be honest, Tyler and Scholar had already thought that something along those lines might be the reason for Tegan's grumpy mood today. That was a feeling he probably carried with him subconsciously everyday, just maybe to a smaller extent since he drowns himself in video games and doritos. But whenever their birthday comes around, all of it resurfaces. He already told them in the past that when Karolina started taking modeling gigs they started slowly growing apart. Tegan had said it so nonchalantly, like it wasn't a big deal and it was natural to "grow apart" but clearly, he wasn't happy about it.

Tegan was hanging his head low, as for Tyler and Scholar, they lay their heads down on Tegan's shoulders. Tyler ran his fingers through Tegan's hair to confort him.

"You're not a loser in any way Tegan. Karolina is the one missing out on you, she shouldn't set standards on you in the first place. So what? Just because you don't wear Bucci, Bupreme or Bouis Buitton it means that she has the right to act like this? You're my best bro and I know that my best friend is the coolest dude in the world. I mean, who can drink 3 monster drinks at the same time through 2 straws amirite?"

"Hm. Actually... You're not wrong."

Wait, 3 monster drinks at the same time with 2 straws? What?? Scholar's eyes widened.

"Uhhh. What the hell do you guys do when I'm not around? And may I remind you that Tegan is also my best friend!"

Tyler let out a laugh through his nose.

"Oh please, you may have barely enough points to unlock his tragic backstory but I'm still the OG. I'm ahead of you by at least a hundred points. Also, I wouldn't exactly call you a friend but rather-"

Tegan swiftly elbowed Tyler in the stomach.

"Ssshhh! Dude!"

"Ouch! Come on man... you know that Scholar is a bit dense sometimes, you gotta at least let me spell it out for him."

This was about to become a fight between the two of them, with Tegan trying to shut Tyler up and Tyler desperately trying to tell Scholar something. However, someone knocked on the door. That's weird, usually Ellie just barges in without even asking if she can. She just says "It's Ellie!" and comes in like this is her room as much as it is Tegan's and Tyler's. Their small fight stopped and Tegan got up to open the door... to be welcomed with cheers and confetti flying in the air. "WOOOOOOO!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY NERD!!!" Ellie had brought the whole gang: Alistair, Axel, Claire, Raquel and even Tadashi. The only ones who weren't there were Karolina and Neha but in a way, it was kind of to be expected. They were maybe celebrating Karolina's birthday in her room with some of their friends from the fashion department? In any case, everyone was thrilled for Tegan. They congratulated him and gave him some gifts even if they were a little bit less personal than anticipated. It was apparent that some of those were chosen in a rush. If Scholar had to guess, since Tegan is so secretive and discreet about everything, he probably didn't tell anyone about his birthday and Ellie had to go around fetching everyone and bringing them together. That's why some of the gifts exuded that "Oh shit! It's Tegan's birthday today!!!" aura. Especially Tadashi's gift.

"This is kopi luwak. Those coffee beans are extracted from the asian palm civet's excrements. I know that you're more into energy drinks but I thought that you might want to try something different. I know it sounds disgusting but the taste is actually not bad and it'll definitely wake you up, everytime you remember that you're drinking coffee that came out of an animal's digestive system it gives you an extra dose of adrenaline. No matter how many times I drink it, this coffee always makes me feel like I'm a little bit in danger and it wakes me up immediately."

Tegan looked really curious about it but at the same time uneasy at the thought of having to drink coffee made of beans that came out of an animal's asshole.

"Woah... thanks... Tadashi."

"You're welcome."

So that's how Tadashi stays awake, huh? He makes himself fear for his life by drinking weird coffee. Scholar had already heard of it, there's even some kinds that are made from elephant poop and civet cat poop. However, Axel was the first and only one to call Tadashi out.

"What the fuck man? It's his birthday and you gifted him fricking coffee beans that come from a raccoon's butthole? Well, I guess the nickname Tadashit fits you perfectly since you literally drink shit."

Tadashi rolled his eyes so far back that his pupils might've gone in his skull if he wasn't human.

"Like I said, it comes from the asian palm civet. Not a raccoon. Also, do not call me that."

Axel and Tadashi kept on bickering for a while before Claire brought the cake.

"Ta-dah! Sorry if it's not good enough but there weren't any backeries out there willing to make a birthday cake on such a short notice. I had to bake it myself with Alistair's help. We hope you like it!"

The cake gave off a really homey feeling. Scholar was reminded from back home when all of his birthday cakes looked really similar to this one. The icing was really amateurish looking but really really cute. Alistair switched the lights off and Tegan took a moment to think about his wish. The room went silent in front of his stern expression, seems like whatever his wish was, it must be pretty important. When he blew the candles everyone cheered but no one asked him what he wished for. Maybe no one felt the need to since it is said that if you say your wish out loud it won't come true.

Before Raquel could cut the cake Alistair took his phone out. "Wait! Wait a sec, let's take pictures with the cake first! I'm the one who drew the Zbox and the Playmotion logo..."

Raquel put the knife down while laughing. "Oohhh. So I bet that's the real reason why you don't want me to cut it yet?"

They all took lots of ridiculous pictures with the cake. It was a pretty big one so Raquel cut it into 10 slices. After a bit of a ruckus, things finally started calming down. The 9 of them sat down in a circle and talked about random subjects: the teachers, the homework, sleep paralysis, the new Store Wars movie, the conscious and unconscious mind in cognitive psychology...

The time was passing by and everyone was having fun no matter how weird the conversation was getting until Raquel reminded everyone of the last slice of cake.

"If no one's gonna eat it, I'll eat it."

The only one who was against it was Tyler who also wanted the last slice. They decided to choose the winner through rock paper scissors. A 3 round match. But just as it was about to start, someone knocked on the door again. Did the noise annoy the neighbours? It was getting pretty late after all.

Scholar got up to open the door only to find... Karolina followed by Neha!

"Happy b- oh. It's you."

Karolina was holding a small package and as for Neha, she didn't even bother to wrap up her gift. It was a fancy hoodie with a sort of skull on its back. Tegan almost flew towards the door.

"Karol! You came... and Neha, is that Sombra merch?"

Neha smiled warmly, seeing that he noticed right away.

"Yes. I mean, kind of. It's that character from Underwatch, right? I don't know if it's your favorite but one time I remember you saying that "she was fun to play". So I made you this. The quality isn't really that good though, sorry. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to make it properly. Anyway, I'm rambling. Happy birthday Tegan."

Tegan immediately put the purple hoodie on in excitement.

"Looks sick. Thank you Neha. You really nailed the logo."

Karolina also thought that it looked "sick" but not in a good way. She was clearly not getting why wearing that sort of thing would make someone happy. Since it was made by Neha, of course it was really well done but why does he prefer wearing video game merch rather than high quality clothing? She was almost regretting coming here. Tyler laughed at the sight of Karolina trying really hard not to roll her eyes, it looked like her pupils were trembling. Kinda terrifying honestly.

"I would've thought that you like soldier 76 or Tracer better since... they're about as straight as you are. But besides that, it looks dope Neha! Would you make one of my paintings into a T-shirt one day? Like, you know, my birthday? August 21st? Pretty pleaaase!"

It wasn't long until everyone started requesting clothes from Neha for their birthdays. Of course, she shut them all down while Karolina still stood there with what looked like a gift.

"Ugh. I see that you invited a lot... of people."

Her cold gaze was on Axel and Alistair specifically, since she did not like those two. As for Tegan, he was silently waiting for his gift. Judging by his face, it had been a while since Karolina had showed up to one of their birthdays, not to mention that she brought a gift too.

"Anyway... here. I'm sure you don't play those kinds of games anymore but uh... Well, in any case you better not laugh at my gift. Or else."

Tegan carefully unwrapped the gift. It was the new Maryo Kart! Everyone was baffled. Karolina actually gifted Tegan a video game? What's next? Is she going to play it too on top of gifting it? Tegan thanked her happily and reached for something behind the TV. It was Karolina's gift. Her eyes scanned the shape of the wrapping trying to guess what it was. Though she didn't lose any more time trying to figure out what it was and opened it. It was a Bouis Buitton bag. Karolina smiled.

"Basic choice but not bad. Thanks."

Seeing that Neha had already sat down, Karolina did the same. Of course, to Raquel's regret, they ended up splitting the last slice of cake, Karolina said that she didn't mind since she couldn't afford to eat food with too much calories. Especially not pastries but she let this one slide. As for Tegan, he immediately switched the game on. Of course. But then, he offered the second controller to Karolina. Everyone looked at him like he was batshit crazy. Miraculously though, Karolina sighed and took the controller.

"...Fine. But I don't remember the controls anymore."

That was a fricking lie. Karolina was killing it?? At Maryo Kart?? Raquel was going crazy. Well, everyone actually. But especially Raquel.

"What the hell?! So you steal the last slice of cake and now you're whooping Tegan's ass in a video game? I didn't even think you knew how to hold the controller correctly..."

Karolina clicked her tongue at that remark, looking unimpressed. Though clearly, she was a bit embarrassed about playing against her brother in front of 9 other people who had no idea that she was even capable of touching a controller without throwing up. But during that time, Tegan was grinning like a kid. It was like going back in time for him. He was thrilled. How many years has it been since the last time they played together like this?

"Believe it or not, but Karolina was actually the one to always kick my ass in video games. She was too strong. Thankfully, she's a bit rusty now."

Karolina elbowed his arm violently but Tegan didn't budge. It was like he was used to it, maybe Karolina always tried to distract him from the game by pushing him when they were little?

"Oh shut up. It's the game's fault. Why the heck did they add that much useless features? Also, the maps are way worse than the old Maryo Kart games. Those ones are a jumbled mess, doesn't make any goddamn sense with those twists and turns."

Karolina frighteningly sounded like a retrogaming nerd. Could it be that Tegan's love for video games came from...? Nah, no way. She's just salty that Tegan is catching up in wins. They're tied now.

"Okay! What about this: The one who wins the next round gets a kiss on the cheek from Scholar!" Ellie proclaimed in a loud voice.

"Wait! Why me??"

Scholar honestly doubted that Karolina would like that, Tegan? Maybe. But not Karolina. Surprisingly enough she didn't react but that lack of reaction probably hid something. Usually she would complain and quit but she's not the type to lose on purpose after getting this far. Tegan looked fired up too. Looking back on it, earlier Tyler was trying really hard to say something. Could it be that both Tegan and Karolina like Scholar? Well... that would be extremely awkward and unlikely.

In any case, it looks like Tegan has a head start.

"What's wrong Karol? Have you really forgotten the controls?"

"Say that again and I might murder you."

This is the most intense party of Maryo Kart anyone had ever seen. Isn't there an e-sport for it? Maybe the Novak(ova) siblings should sign up...

In the end, Karolina managed to catch up somehow. Ellie took that host voice again.

"Alright ladies and gents! Looks like Karolina will be the one receiving the prize! But what an act of cruelty on the sister's part, wouldn't you say? Because she was heartless and unpleasant I declare that as compensation the viewers should also get a kiss!"

Everyone cheered for Scholar's kiss but funnily enough, Tegan looked super offended. He was about to throw a tantrum.

"Wait. So I'm the only one without a kiss?!? That is so unfair! It's my birthday... I should at least get a participation fee!"

Tyler patted him on the back.

"That's rough, buddy. But hey, at least your boyfriend didn't turn into the moon."

Tegan quickly elbowed Tyler in the stomach again.

"Dude! Scholar's not my... dammit, I told you to be quiet earlier."

"Ow! I didn't even say any name... You're the one digging your own grave man. Look, he's looking this way."

Seeing that Tegan looked absolutely heartbroken (and pissed), Scholar took Ellie's place as the announcer.

"Change of plans! Only the siblings get a kiss because it's their birthday. All the others won't get any because it would be extremely unfair."

That's when everyone started booing but Raquel seemed to have an idea. A stupid one. But still an idea.

"Uhhh, excuse me! Actually, I'm their sister. We're triplets, so I also get a kiss!"

Axel did the same.

"No, Raquel is lying sir! We're actually quadruplets so I get a kiss as well! The four of us look so similar, I have no idea how you missed that..."

This whole thing turned out to be ridiculous. Seems like Tegan and Karolina suddenly had 8 new siblings. But of course, only the 2 of them got the kiss. Everyone was satisfied with the birthday party despite all of the chaos.

-------------------------------------- Oooookay! That's it! Sorry the ending was so abrupt (as usual) but I never know how to end these... Thank you for reading though! And sorry if you cringed! But that's a risk I'm willing to take ✊😔

#sweet elite #se #main 10 #Tegan Novak #Karolina Novakova #fanfic #fanfiction #I loved the Bucci Bupreme and Bouis Buitton part 😂#the idea was actually from a video #he's a youtuber who makes animatics #I think his name is erold?

40 notes · View notes

packsbeforesnacks · 4 years ago

Text

Tongue Twister || Noah & Winn

TIMING: Saturday, June 20th, 2020, during and after Luke and Layla’s party. LOCATION: The Magic Circle & Creed Park PARTIES: @noah-kalani & @packsbeforesnacks SUMMARY: Noah and Winn figure some things out over a game of Twister. Things escalate. WARNINGS: Rated M for Mature. At least three (3) boners and some brief heavy petting.

Walking into the Magic Circle, Noah unbuttoned the last button on his yellow “Hawaiian” shirt, chest now actually bare against his blue boardshorts. He knew coming as a “surfer” might be a bit of a stretch for this crowd, but having lived in the jockiest of jock outfits for years he didn’t feel the least bit drawn to a hot football jersey. Or any other jersey for that matter. Nodding at the others, Noah headed towards the bar, chatting and drinking with Miles, Nate, Otto, and Luke, happy in the atmosphere of the party.

Winn, contrary to popular opinion, really hated bein’ late to shit. But Ariana’s damn Black Cherry White Claws had been a former frat bro’s living nightmare to find. At least he was here now, before the cake cutting. A light sheen of sweat on his arms and cheeks was the only sign that he’d been runnin’ around. Hiis (mesh) shirt helped with that problem, thankfully. Parties were always hot and Winn refused to sweat his ass off if he didn’t have to. He wasn’t wearin’ much else — rainbow track shorts, sneakers (hockey players didn’t have cleats and he wasn’t going to waste the money), and the looongest White Boy socks he could find. Winn dropped his cooler by the door (he’d find Ari in a sec), and his eyes immediately found Noah. Despite his, ugh, crush, he never could resist a surprise bear hug. He rushed the man, squeezing him from behind in the most heterosexual way. “Boo.”

Turning around to find out who was hugging him, Noah smiled. “Winn, you’re here!” he exclaimed with a bit of giddy excitement. “What do you want to drink? Nate just had a shot. And then there’s Twister and stuff over there.” Noah pointed to the corner where others were already starting to go at it.

Winn squeezed tightly, inhaling Noah’s scent. “Bro, you smell… really good?” He smiled, soft and sappy, before realizing that he was absolutely showing his hand. He let go of Noah as subtly as possible, nodding at— “Oh, shit, Otto? Wild place to meet up? And, hey, Blackthorne! Small world, architect bro!”

Letting Winn do his sniffing thing, Noah just took a long gulp of his beer. “It’s a party, dude, of course I smell great.” He snorted playfully. As Winn talked with his friends, Noah downed his beer, beelining for the Twister mat. He did not come practically shirtless for nothing. The Twister game was easy enough for Noah, as his body contorted into various shapes. What was the hard part was trying not to go down as the others fell around him. He was lucky that while others were also athletic, they didn’t have the ability to hold their position quite like Noah. And just as soon as it started, they were down to just Lucas and Noah. Knowing that the competition was going to be stiff with another athletic bro in the mix, Noah took a risk, deciding to play a little dirty, jiggling his pecs directly into Lucas’s face. And down Lucas went, unable to resist ogling at a few of Noah’s assets. Releasing his pretzeled bodyc Noah listened to the cheers with a grin on his face as Otto claimed him the Twister champion.

Winn turned away from the counter, away from Otto, Miles, and Nate, just in time to see Luke and Noah duking it out on the magical (?) Twister board. Immediately, he wished he hadn’t. ‘Cause Noah was playin’ dirty on the hapless bisexual man beneath (and on top of?) him. So, Winn saw Noah wiggle his pecs, saw Noah win based on the strength of bein’ fucking gorgeous and charming. His mouth ran dry, drier when Miles joked “You know, might want to ease up on the pec wiggling. Lot of folks wearin’ sweats and trackpants.” Winn needed a drink, but Otto was moving out from behind the counter to declare the winner, and… Was it hot in here? It was hot in here. (He was wearing mesh and the jock equivalent of booty shorts, he knew. But it was, like, definitely just hot.) Pull it together, Winner.

Grabbing his shirt from the side of the mat, Noah couldn’t help but to grin as he threw it back over his shoulders. He honestly had not planned to flex hard enough to make poor Luke fall, but at the same time he was glad his assets had somehow come in handy — especially as Otto declared him the de facto winner. Riding the endorphin high, Noah gave a few back pats and good games before sauntering over to the one person he really wanted to talk to right now. “You saw that, right?” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively at Winn, dimples on display. He wasn’t exactly sure why he wanted Winn’s attention, but goddamn if he wasn’t going to get something out of the usually flirtatious Winner Lycus Woods tonight.

“Um,” Winn said, extremely intelligently. Okay, bro mode. Go bro mode. “I saw you destroy the birthday boy, brah!” He bro-hugged Noah, giving him two slaps on his — wait, shit, shirtless — back, before pulling back and grinning wildly at the other man. “Who knew you were so flexible, yeah?” Wait. Gay. Gay as shit. Backtrack. “I mean, other than all those girls you bag, hahaha!” Laughing too loud again. Why the fuck had Noah come over here, flashed those dimples? Why couldn’t Winn fucking control his stupid ass around a cute boy. A cute, straight boy. Damn it. He was spared further mortification by the cake-cutting being called. He gave Noah another bro-pounding on the back for good measure — his skin was hot and nice — and said, “Cake? I made the fuckin’ thing, I should get the fuckin’ thing, yeah? YEAH!”

Looking at Winn, Noah raised a slight eyebrow, trying not to look too concerned for the man in front of him. This wasn’t like Winn at all. Like yeah, he was still flirty Winn. But the usual finesse seemed to be gone and was replaced by an almost uncomfortable awkwardness. And especially as he started talking about Noah’s body count. “Not that I would ever be one to dismiss my sexual prowess, but I think the thanks goes more toward all the Physical Therapists I’ve seen over the years. You think Twister’s bad, wait till one of those dudes has you on a table.” He chuckled, before the announcement about cake was made. “Oh yeah, I forgot Ari said you made the cake!” Excited about the prospect of stuffing his face (and potentially smashing someone's face in a piece), Noah found his hand resting on Winn’s lower back, cheekily pushing the other in front of him. “Lead the way, stud.”

“Not the way I want dudes to have me on a table, Noh,” Winn said automatically, trying to recover from the goddamn travesty that had taken over his social skills. But then, Noah’s hand was on his back, and Winn wanted to swear aloud. They were friends. Winn shouldn’t be flinching away from his friend’s touch, too scared of liking it. Liking it too much. But flinch he did, darting forward a full foot away from Noah’s hand the moment he heard stud come out of Noah’s mouth. Winn tried to save it, a strained “Race you?” to his friend, but it was flimsy at best. The table was close. He scrolled through better excuses. Bathroom? No, he’d miss the cake-cutting. Lean into the physical affection? No, he’d explode. Literally explode. But, fuck, he needed air, needed away from Noah. The problem was, he didn’t want to be away from Noah. He put some distance between them as they made their way over, hoping it wasn’t… obvious. He’d told Blanche and Ricky, he didn’t want to hurt this friendship. He didn’t. But… Fuck, maybe he needed some space. For a while.

Noah was not known to be one of the most astute of people, but he definitely was not dumb, and Winn was definitely being weird. Like super weird. Like he was even flinching away from his touch weird . What the actual fuck. Grabbing his shoulder Noah gently stopped Winn from moving any further, coming up to face him. “Winn, what’s going on with you?” he asked quietly, hoping his eyes screamed sincerity. Had he done something wrong? Shit. He’d done something wrong hadn’t he.

But no, Winn couldn’t do that to Noah. Not after his stupid misunderstanding. Not after Noah had poured his heart out to Winn. Noah deserved to know, and Winn would have picked a better time for this, but… He felt a hand on his shoulder, and then Noah was in front of him. Winn looked into his friend’s eyes. And he couldn’t stop himself, couldn’t find it in him to lie, not looking into those eyes, again. “I need to talk to you about something,” he said, he hoped, quietly and evenly. “I’m not breaking my promise,” he tried to assure, but realized that might sound bad. “That’s not even a possibility, Noh.” His throat was scratchy a bit, but he wouldn’t be the world’s worst packmate and make a scene at his friends’ birthday party. The pack had had enough misery, he wouldn’t add his own to the pile. “Let’s… Would you mind stayin’ after the party, for a little bit? We could, um, take a walk. Sober.” As much as Winn wanted liquid courage, he needed to be stronger than this. For himself, and for Noah.

Taking in everything, Noah felt his heart start to beat wildly. “We need to talk” was not exactly the most calming phrase in the history of phrases, especially when it was accompanied by Winn acting weird and bringing up his running incident again. And sober? Why the fuck did he want him sober? Resisting the urge to just flat out refuse to hear Winn out (because fuck fucking Winn and his mood killing vibe), Noah removed the shirt from around his shoulders, and started shoving his arms through, already feeling too vulnerable and bare for this right now. “It's fine. We can definitely talk later.” He nodded, as he resumed walking toward the cake. Looks like he was gonna need like 3 pieces if Winn wanted him to get through this night sober.

“Hey, hey,” Winn said, already knowing the signs of Noah tightening up, heard Noah’s heart slamming in his chest. He grabbed Noah’s hand as he was walking away, pulling the other man back again and giving his hand a firm squeeze. (Gay, his mind screamed.) “Seriously, Noh. Things are good. Really good, I promise. Let’s just act like we’re hangin’ out all chill-like. And you looked great without a shirt, bro.” There. Cool. Easy. Winn smiled, straightening up, and turned back to the cake-side of the room. Okay, change of plans. Don’t leave Noah’s side for long. Winn kept Noah’s hand tight in his, running circles and lines with his thumb, pulling him towards the cake. After the cutting (and where the hell was Layla?), Winn grabbed a piece of the cake (that he definitely couldn’t eat) and resolved to be the smooth, easy Winner everyone was expecting. Noah was always in his sight, and on his mind, the calm gravity of the other man leading him back again and again (he even refilled the man’s cake plate with his own slice). As the night dragged on, Winn loosened up, little by little. “Wanna play some Twister?” he asked, eventually, wiggling his eyebrows.

Feeling the tug of a hand intertwining with his, Noah allowed himself to be forcibly turned back, fully expecting to have a goddamn meltdown, lovers quarrel, whatever the fuck this was, right in the middle of the fucking birthday party. But when he looked at Winn, and listened to him qualify a bit more that this was going to be a good talk Noah could feel his anxiety and anger dissipate slightly. Winn wasn’t trying to hurt him, or make him upset, Winn was... reassuring him? Woah. Noah stared straight at Winn, mouth opening and then closing, any sort of rebuttal dying on his tongue at this sudden realization. Nodding, Noah just turned back toward the cake, hand in hand with Winn, figuring he could try to be chill (even though holding hands with Winn in the middle of a large crowded room made him decidedly not chill) After his prerequisite 3 pieces of cake, and a lot of laughter, Noah could feel his good mood comeback, the sugar in his veins making him giddy. “Only if you wanna get your ass handed to you.” He smirked at Winn “I am the reigning champ after all.”

“Bro, I’m going to smoke you like a joint,” Winn said, a soft chuckle. “I’m flexible as hell.” He looked down at his mesh crop-top, a small frown. But, well, Noah had been shirtless during his last game? So, it'd be… fine. Pulling the shirt over his head, and using it to dab at the light sweat on his face and chest, Winn winked at Noah. He could hashtag-flirt his way into being totally comfortable with this, right? Winn tossed it over behind the bar when Otto wasn’t looking, and got up in Noah’s face a bit, cocky smirk plastered across his mouth. Jocks did this, right? Jocks. “Wanna make a bet?” he said, suddenly bold. “Let’s make it interesting.”

“Yea well flexibility is only half the battle” Noah replied trying not to watch to closely as Winn divested himself of his own shirt. He’d avoided looking at them in the beginning, but the barebells in Winn’s nipple now caught his full attention. Fuck. That was…. Biting his lip Noah busied himself with looking annnnnnnywhere else. One day he’d ask Winn about them, but for now he was gonna pick his horny ass jaw up off the floor and play some twister. But then Winn got in his face and the wolf in him started to bleed through. “Depends. What are we betting?” Noah drew himself to full height, recognizing the alpha male energy Winn was trying to exude and matching it with equal and unflinching force. Two could play that game after all. “My first born is already promised to another.”

Aw, fuck. Noah was trying to alpha dog his way through this conversation. Winn had some regrets about wearing [compression] shorts and little else, ‘cause Noah made a convincing wolf even in his half-self. Regrets. But he could keep himself — and his head — in the game. “Well,” he said, word dripping out in his honeyed accent, “Can’t be nothing money can buy. Too easy for me to get out of. We’re not sitcom characters, so I ain’t gonna make you my errand boy for a week either. Hmm…” He put his finger to chin, making a big show of thinking. “What do you have,” Winn said, voice going from sweet to gravelly as he leaned in to talk into Noah’s ear, hot breath close, “to bargain with, Kalani?” Was anyone staring? Someone had to be seeing this.

Standing still, Noah cocked his head, smirk still splayed across his lips. This was starting to get heated, and it was safe to say that his wolf liked it, the whole confrontation with a heaping helping of sexual tension was something that Noah usually ate up when he was out with women. But then Winn was whispering in his ear, hot breath tingling against his neck, practically making his brain short circuit. And normally, he would have pulled away by now, the thought of all of these strangers eyes and thoughts too much to bear. But there was something about having three pieces of cake coursing through his blood stream, and the rainbow of lights, and the way Winn was pleading, no begging for him to just give up that had Noah digging his heels in. If Winn wanted a challenge, we was gonna get a fucking challenge “Well I usually bargain with my body, but…” He trailed off slowly, devilish dimples out in full bloom. Pulling away Noah winked before he turned and headed toward the Twister mat. Your move, Winner.

Noah looked… fucking amazing under the shine of the lights — the happy flush to his brown skin, those damn dimples. Winn could almost put them in another time, another place. A club in DC, the attic of the frat house. But one of the things about Noah that Winn wanted to drink in was his fight, the confidence in his challenges to Winn’s questions, Winn’s flirtation. And sure, maybe it was all actin’, but Winn was a selfish man. He’d take this. He could almost feel the steam rolling off their bodies when Noah mentioned betting his body, something in Winn clicking into place. It wasn’t a true bet, but the wolf was prowling now, sensing a dare. And though the human in Winn wanted to stamp down the hope-tinged-with-horny, the wolf in him knew it was fuckin’ on. “One-on-one!” Winn called out to Noah, standing across from him on the mat. “Winner takes all.” He grinned, staring pointedly at his friend.

Shrugging out of his button down, Noah draped it over the back of the nearest chair, his whole body tingling with anticipation. He loved flirting, he loved fighting, and if he was being honest with himself, he’d say that he also loved looking across the mat and seeing Winn, in all his glory. Happy. Grinning. Sarcastic. Flirty. Winn. “Sure” Noah responded, throwing a cheeky arm over his chest to stretch a little bit and he toed off his shoes. One on One would generally be harder than regular Twister but he was willing to accommodate the request “Though I think you mean Noah takes all, buddy boy” Switching arms, Noah grinned straight back at Winn.

Winn was glad they weren’t attracting too much of a crowd. It made him feel like Noah and he could just relax and lean into whatever their energy was. The first spins of the dial were easy, Noah and Winn dancing around one side of the board. “Swing your partner round and round,” Winn sing-songed, shoulders shimmying as he moved into the newest variation on “feet spread a normal amount apart.” But that quickly changed, as Winn felt them stretch from one side of the mat to the other with their hands, and then a leg. And, oh, alright. Okay. Ass. That was definitely Noah’s ass. Right in his face. Winn was near-touching it, his breath easy on the dip of Noah’s back. “Bro, have you been working your glutes? Lookin’ tight,” he quipped just loud enough for Noah to hear, trying to distract himself. Fortunately for him, the next spin allowed him to try and reposition himself. Try.

Stepping onto the mat Noah put on his game face, competitive spirit already coursing through him. He didn’t exactly know what he was gonna win but goddamn if he wasn’t going all out to do so. Snorting slightly at the other man’s sing song as they repositioned their feet, Noah was focused on finding the best moves which meant that for the most part he couldn’t see Winn. But maybe that made things better, and especially when he ended up pretzled across the Twister board full blown ass in the air. Normally he wouldn’t care, but at the same time…. This was definitely newer territory for both he and Winn, as made obvious by the older man’s obvious deflections. “Keep talking about my tight ass and I’ll be sure to fart on you” Noah joked with a chuckle as he angled even closer to Winn. Exploiting a weakness was how he won the last game and Winn would be mistaken if Noah wasn’t going to use his body to his full advantage.

“Not my kink,” Winn mumbled, as he was taken away from Noah’s ass and… being stretched back, fully, palms down in green, feet fully in red. Noah had an easier time of it, given he was facing downward. Hard yoga, but still doable. Winn was super glad he stayed in shape, ‘cause this stretch was rough. But… Well, if Noah was going to play dirty (if gross), Winn could mess with him. That damnable hope was back, and Winn wondered if… if Noah was flustered, or confused, maybe? César had been, and it would be on-brand for Winn to be (romantically) attracted to hapless bisexual disasters and hapless bisexual disasters exclusively. And while Twister wasn’t talkin’, it had its perks. The color moved Winn’s left hand from green to yellow, and back again -- but Noah had decided to fuck with him today, apparently. His hands ended up crossed behind him, and, given he was still bent backwards, it had to look… awkward, from the outside looking in. “Noh,” Winn whispered, jerking his head forward in a tiny nod to his hips, where they bucked as subtly as he could manage. “If you wanted to tie me up, all you had to do was ask.” God, I hope the pack didn’t hear that.

“I’d be alarmed if it was,” Noah shot back with a laugh as they kept up their dance, Noah muscles starting to burn a little from having to keep his weight off the floor in his twisted position. Apparently, he needed to put some more stretching into his workouts, but that was a problem for another day, especially as he saw his opening. Diving forward, Noah took the offensive and claimed the green spot that would be more convenient for Winn, forcing the other man to cross his arms. Glancing backwards at the sad pretzel of a man — who may or may not have just thrust his hips at him? naughty, naughty — Noah just snorted again. “True, but this is definitely more fun.” Yup, definitely more fun, and less… sexy? No, actually, Twister might be making everything more sexy… But that was a crisis for another day. Hopefully.

Winn breathed a sigh of relief as he was given a temporary reprieve from testing the limits of his flexibility. “Don’t think you’ve ever tied anyone up before then, bro.” He laughed weakly. A thin sheen of sweat was obvious on his chest, and arms, and face. Christ, Noah had been smart to stretch a little before starting; Winn had been too, uh, cocky. And, fuck. If he had to stretch like that again, he’d lose. And… well, neither of them knew what they had bet, Winn was sure, but Winn wasn’t about to lose it, lose to Noah. It felt like this was playin’ for more than braggin’ rights and Winn wasn’t sure whether that was real or imagined. But he was a winner. Literally. He was right-side up now, Noah’s back still to him. As the color changed once once, his crossed arms stretched — just barely — to red and yellow. But, because God had a sense of humor or really did hate the gays, now Winn was all up in Noah’s ass again. And then, the hand that had just moved to yellow was told to go to green. Shit. Winn stretched out, trying as hard as possible to reach over without pullin’ his arm out of its socket. ‘Course, then it all went shit-side. “Fuck.”

“Not seriously. Last time I tried, I was the one being tied. Being restrained isn’t really my cup of tea, to be honest,” Noah mused through gritted teeth as they fumbled through another grueling hand position. He didn’t exactly know why he told Winn that, but the smalltalk was better than them silently thrusting parts of their body parts at each other with zero remorse. Or at least zero remorse on Noah’s end, one of his best assets once again in Winn’s face. Grinning to himself, Noah urged his arms to hold his weight as he stretched for what seemed like an impossible color. But of course it was then, as both boys moved that the world decided they were pushing too far, and in a series of unfortunate events, Noah lost his balance and fell. Onto Winn. His lap, specifically. “Shiiittttt,” Noah breathed out as both men crashed to the floor.

[Maybe break it into Part 2 here?]

The world was spinning, and it was silent. Once again, Winn felt like he and Noah were the only two in the world. Even the couple of folks that had been watching their nonsense seemed shocked into silence at this particular turn of events. Winn, breathing hard, let his head fall forward onto Noah’s shoulder. It probably should have been gross, both of them covered in sweat, but Winn didn’t really fuckin’ care. He started laughing, high and delighted and clear, before wrapping his arms around Noah in a tight hug. Through the sweat, Noah smelled good, warm, safe, happy. But, ‘course, it couldn’t last, Winn suddenly hyper aware of Noah’s body against his. Miles’ joking caution was becoming a very real problem, Winn nudging his hips up against Noah as he shifted and mentally cursed the theme of his party with all the venom in his arsenal. “Uh,” he whispered into the other man’s ear, “I don’t have the Full Moon as an excuse this time, but I have a problem. And I’m so, so sorry. Can we, um, chill like this for a sec? Get up together or somethin’? Don’t want to flash the room.”

If Noah was going to fall, he guessed the best way to fall was with Winn. Sitting there, laughing and giggly, on the ground, neither could say they won, but at the same time Noah was so gone right now he didn't really care. Because he was safe here in the sweaty arms of Winn. Even if those arms were attached to a really responsive body. “Wait, are you sporting, again?” Noah huffed, trying to roll over so he was face to face with Winn instead of, well, not. Realizing, though, that that was just going to make everything much, much worse, Noah calmed and stopped squirming, resigning himself to just, well, have a semi hard part of Winn pressed into the lower section of his back. Which if Noah was thinking about it wasn’t actually like totally… weird or, like, completely unwanted now that he was thinking about it... But again. Crisis for another time. Looking up at the ceiling, Noah tried to focus on not making their predicament worse, the only way he knew how. With offensive humor. “Well, since we’re here for a bit, serious question for you, bub.” He poked the offending arm around his middle, making sure Winn was listening. “Are you, like, a nymphomaniac or something?” Noah turned his head and grinned up at the other man, hoping he could see this was all fun and games. “Cuz it seems like everytime we get close together you get hard.”

This was the nightmare scenario, but Winn couldn’t be assed to give a shit. Noah squirming against his lap felt good, and Winn had to muffle a groan into the skin of Noah’s back. Fortunately, he seemed to understand and stopped. ‘Course, Noah was always a joker, and, as he asked an extremely joking question, Winn felt his entire body flush, stammering out, “I— Uh, I mean.” Noah was joking, Winner. Joking. Calm the fuck down. “Shut up,” he finished, lamely. The embarrassment, at least, was killing his boner. He wasn’t used to feelin’… vulnerable, like this. And though Winn had a pretty thick skin, he knew Noah could ruin him with a word, a look. Realizing that he hadn’t technically answered Noah’s question, and knowing that Noah deserved an answer because this was almost exactly how they’d first spent time together and it couldn’t be written off as base horniness anymore, he sighed against Noah’s ear. “Let’s get out of here, Noh. Meet me outside in five.” He hoisted both of them up, boner subsided enough to not be obvious in the dim lights of the bar. No winner had been declared, but he really didn’t care right now. Noah could have the victory, could have all of him. Fuck. He was really gone, huh? Winn circled the room, picking up his shirt and giving goodbyes, and walked out the door to wait for Noah on the street.

It was safe to say that Noah expected a lot of things from this exchange, but what he really did not expect is for Winn to start stuttering. Looking back at the other man Noah took in the flush splattered across his cheek bones, the way he dodged his artfully dodged his question. If Winn had been a girl Noah would have said he had a crush on him somehow. But Winn wasn’t a girl. Winn was… Wait. Oh Shit. The sudden realization hit Noah like a pile of bricks, flatlining any type of response that he could have had. Because it was obvious wasn’t it? Grabbing his own shirt off the chair he’d placed it on, Noah ran on autopilot, barely remembering the hugs and the goodbyes, his head filled with Winn and Winn only. Slipping out of the door, Noah walked until he found the other man standing under a streetlight, the soft glow making his features stand out even more. This wasn’t the first time Noah had looked at Winn like this, as something more than what they both knew they were, but it was the first time Noah looked at Winn like this. “Soooo, what’s up?” Noah asked gently, sincere brown eyes looking at Winn for the answers.

“Let’s walk,” Winn said back, just as quiet as Noah. His palms were sweaty, like a teenager with their very first crush. If this were casual, Winn would have propositioned Noah, been turned down, and moved on. But he just had to catch feelings. Creed Park was nearby, and Winn plopped down on the ground next to a tree at the edge of the park, the fading light and early summer breeze blowing against them. He patted the spot next to him, looking up at Noah. “C’mon, sit with me.” Winn smiled gently. The Twister game had given him some hope, and he was half-sure that Noah had guessed already, but he had to push forward. “Noah, I think you’re my best friend,” he started, completely ignoring the actual issue. “So, I want you to know. You’re important to me. More important than I really thought would happen when we me— Actually. No. That’s not true.” He laughed, his head thunking against the bark of the tree. “I met you, and I knew. I didn’t know what, but something told me… You were important. Are important.”

Walking along with Winn, Noah could start to feel his heart start to beat rapidly in his chest again. He shouldn’t be nervous, but with all this build up and tension, and that fucking sudden realization that Winn actually liked him, had his head spinning. Because Luke was right, they’d been dancing around each other unable to admit what was truly going on. “Winn,” Noah started taking a deep calming breath, “if you’re gonna say what I think you’re gonna say, just—” He stopped for a moment glancing over at Winn, brown eyes meeting brown “Just say it, please.” It came out softly, part of Noah pleading for Winn just to do it, and another part scared of what it would mean when the giant ass elephant was finally out in the room.

Oh. He does know. Winn’s heart was heavy-light — fluttering and hopeful, but slack and stony. But there was something about Noah’s eyes, the way that the setting sun was shining soft light on both of their bodies. It made Winn bold, giddy, nervous. He was going to die. Or maybe… “Noah,” Winn said, like a revelation. Well, why the fuck not? The werewolf closed the distance between him and his best friend, the person he’d falle— Oh, but, the kiss. Noah’s lips were so, so soft, the slightest hint of chocolate on the man’s breath. When he didn’t get punched or pushed away, Winn brought his hand up to Noah’s face, his other arm tentatively resting at Noah’s side. He wasn’t going to move further, not without Noah’s permission, without Noah kissing back, but he wanted to stay in this moment of pure, crystalline happiness. Winn felt himself smiling into the kiss.

For Noah, everything happened in slow motion, Winn’s face coming forward, their lips meeting in the middle. Kissing Winn was not like any woman he’d ever kissed. Where there usually was softness, Winn was full of edges, sometimes sharp, and sometimes dull. It was scary how much Noah liked it. How much he could now see just how fucking gone he was for this man. There was no doubt about it. Noah wasn’t straight. Noah wasn’t straight, and there was a part of him, however small, that loved Winn. And now that that door was open, there was no closing it. Sitting there trying to hold himself together, with his own arousal and all these other complex feelings overwhelming him Noah just took a deep breath. Neither had moved since this started, but Noah knew they couldn’t just continue without talking about what happened. Winn wasn’t just some quick fuck, and this wasn’t something Noah could bury. “I’ve never kissed a man before, Winn.” Noah trailed off shaking his head slightly. “I mean, judging from this I don’t think I’d be opposed but, I don’t….Fuck…. This is not a good answer is it?” Noah looked down. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt Winn by not being able to reciprocate in the way he knew he should. But this was all so difficult and honestly frightening.

If Winn was being honest, the kiss had left him in a bit of a daze. When Noah had kissed back, however briefly the moment had lasted, Winn realized, damnably, that he could kiss Noah for the rest of his fuckin’ life. The gigawatt smile hadn’t left his face, even as Noah started talking about being scared. Winn had been here, before. Not in the same way, no, but he could stow his attraction for a moment, focus on his friend in front of him, nervous and confused, and offer him what he had been given: Support. “That’s alright, Noah,” he started, hand coming to Noah’s shoulder, rubbing the tension out as best he could. “You don’t need a perfect answer. We all have to… figure out shit out, y’know?” He wanted to hug the other man, but knew he should hold off, if only for the moment. “It’s alright to be… however, you’re feeling, right now.” He understood, really, he did. This was far from the worst case scenario he’d run through in his head, far from the worst case probable scenario, too. “I don’t need you to be anything more than you already are, Noh. Because… I really like the person you are. Forgot to say that, ‘cause I figured… actions, y’know?” He laughed, a quiet and private thing, only for Noah’s ears. Winn ran his fingers through the grass at his hips, picking at the blades with his fingers. “I— There’s no one else I’d rather be next to, right now. No matter how you feel about me.” He paused, looking back up and into Noah’s eyes, before saying with a soft smile, “Or… don’t feel.”

“But you deserve a perfect answer” The phrase was out of Noah’s mouth before he could stop himself, before he realized how ridiculous he sounded. Winn was right afterall, he didn't need to have it all figured out today, or tomorrow. He just needed to be himself. “Sorry I’m just-” He started not really knowing what he wanted to say but knowing something needed to be said “I’m used to holding everything together so well, and ever since i met you..” Noah trailed off leaning back against the tree with a sigh. Winn apparently had a whirlwind effect on his life. Watching him be vulnerable though, and supportive, brought Winn into a new light for Noah. One where he could see them, working through all of these issues together. But first Noah had to be real with himself, and real with Winn, even if it was in his own way. “Well considering I’m having a complete sexual crisis over your dumbass,” Noah huffed playfully “ think it’s safe to say I feel some type of way Winn.” Because yea, how could Winn even begin to fathom that Noah didn’t like him back? Looking over at the other man, Noah stilled his hand with his own, his curiosity making him feel brave “What do you like about me?” He asked gently.

Winn felt himself flush again, and he leaned his head into Noah’s shoulder, groaning. “C’mon, bro. You can’t just say shit like that, and expect me not to feel like this.” To fall in love with you, he didn’t say. Not yet. “I haven’t… felt this way about someone in a really long time, Noh,” he said gently, knowing the other man could hear him. There was something about this, leaned into Noah’s shoulder, that made it easier to say all of this aloud. Noah’s hand on his was warm, and Winn turned his up to grab the man’s hand with his own, rubbing circles once again, tracing nonsense lines to hide his nervousness. For someone who spent half his life dealin’ with others’ emotions, he’d never been amazin’ with his own. “What wouldn’t I like about you?” he said, perhaps a little too honestly. And then, clearer, “You’re not afraid to call me on my shit, but you never stop… caring, when you do. You love animals, and are such a bleedin’ heart that I worry I might have t’patch you up sometimes. You’re smart and a smartass. I laugh when I’m around you more. I feel good, and safe, and… happy.” He took his hand off the man’s shoulder, looking at him again, head cocked. “Don’t get me wrong, I want to do bad things to you, Kalani, but I want to, y’know, do good things to you too. For you.” It wasn’t quite an asking out, but it was as close to a confession as he’d said, so far. Winn squeezed Noah’s hand tight, leaning back against the tree to look at the horizon. “A crisis, huh?” His tone was light, but he wouldn’t dare make fun of Noah for this.

Resting his head against Winn’s own, Noah chuckled at the other man’s discomfort, a genuine smile gracing his lips. He didn't know how they got to this point, but he was glad they had. Feelling his cheeks burn scarlet with the force of Winn’s description, Noah was glad the other man couldn’t see him right now. He’d never had anyone describe their infatuation with him quite like that, and it made him feel, well, seen. He was more than just a nice-looking body to Winn. That felt good. It was then that Winn brought him back to the real problem at hand, the one Noah was still scared to admit out loud. “Yeah,” he whispered, wishing this was easier, wishing he was less confused. Lifting his head from Winn’s, Noah had a sudden realization. “Winn. Can I... uh, do something?” Noah asked a gleam of mischievous energy in his eyes. He was mostly sure by this point, but there was still a part of him that wanted to know concretely, to prove that it wasn’t a fluke somehow. “Promise you’ll enjoy it.”

Winn had Noah blushing at his (genuine, heart-felt) smooth-talking, and he couldn’t help the return of his goofy, open, maybe-a-little-bit-in-love smile. They would be okay, no matter what happened. He knew that. And Winn got an answer — though not all of one — the next time Noah opened his mouth. The whispered ‘Yeah.’ Winn inhaled, sharp and interested. Fuck. That was… a lot to take in. Or would have been, if Winn’s brain hadn’t been immediately guided to the gutter. Do something? He really liked the sound of that. “Oh yeah?” he said, countering the look in Noah’s eyes with a toothy grin, reflecting back the ask, the challenge. Winn leaned back, into Noah’s side, Winn’s body spread out beneath the white ash for any of Noah’s somethings. “Promises, promises,” Winn said with a wink, looking up at the other man. This time, truly, nobody was around. It was just them, and all the time in the world to find answers. Winn leaned up, close to Noah’s ear. “Baby,” he said, a whisper in the wind, Winn tryin’ out the word in his mouth, “I’d enjoy just about anything you did to me. So…” He chuckled, rough, trying to communicate how much he wanted. “Make your move, Kalani.”

If there was a time for Noah to be brave, that time would definitely be now, especially as Winn gave him full permission to explore. Turning his body, Noah gently angled Winn’s face with his hand, looking into his eyes for a brief second before pressing their lips together again. He didn’t know what he wanted, and he didn't know if this was going to answer all the questions swirling in his head, but at the moment Noah didn’t care. Because right now he was kissing Winn, slowly and sensually, using his tongue to explore and open Winn up in ways he hadn’t even thought about till now. He didn’t usually kiss his partners like this. No, Noah was usually more of a fast and hard kind of lover. But with Winn. Goddamn it was just so different with Winn, and while that was scary to realize, it was also something Noah knew he wanted. He wanted a lot as evidenced by the rising tent in his board shorts. Yeah. He was definitely into kissing dudes. Tugging softly on Winn’s lip, Noah opened his eyes and pulled away, lungs suddenly filling with the air he’d forgotten he needed to breath. “Mmm, not your baby,” Noah whispered with a cheeky grin before turning and settling against the tree.

Winn’s eyes crinkled at the edges with his smile as Noah kissed him. Mm. Strike maybe. Winn really could kiss Noah forever. The other man’s mouth moved against his with simultaneous experience and hesitation, something that Winn could lean into easily. Especially when Noah slipped him tongue. Winn kissed back eagerly, trying to balance his need (and fuck, these shorts were going to strain) against wanting this moment to stretch and stretch. As Noah pulled away, gently biting into Winn’s lip, Winn chased him, nipping back playfully. Winn almost wanted to tell Noah it was a wolf thing, that biting was heavily encouraged. But he didn’t want to break the moment, not yet. Instead, he gazed down to where Noah’s interest was making itself known. Huh. Well, one to four wasn’t an awful record. Be plenty of time to even the score. “Hmm.” Feeling bold, Winn grabbed Noah, squeezing once through the shorts before letting go again. “Don’t think bein’ called baby is really goin’ to be a problem, baby,” he teased, savoring Noah’s reaction, drinking in the other man’s presence. He leaned back, side pressed into Noah’s, eyes closed in happiness. “Answer any questions for you, Noh? Or do you need further testin’?”

Snorting, Noah rolled his eyes. Winn’s hand had sent a shockwave straight through his system, blood already pooling in his groin. “Bruh, that’s not helping the predicament,” Noah chided with a snort, not brushing Winn’s hand away but stilling it yet again with his own. Because, yeah. Dick touching was next on the agenda, but he might need a few moments to adjust to that. “I think I’m good, for now,” he started, hoping Winn would get the hint, not that he thought he wouldn’t, it was just. It was different. For once in his life, Noah didn’t want to go zero to sixty and hop in bed with the first person who showed interest. He wanted to savor every interaction, build memories that would last, and all that jazz.

“Didn’t want to help, bro,” Winn said, a low rumble as he squeezed Noah’s hand in his own, resting both of them on Noah’s thigh. Far away, and so, so close. “I like to make things harder for you.” He mentally high-fived himself for his pun, before smiling at Noah. “I get that,” he said thoughtfully. Winn, again, ran his thumb across the back of Noah’s hand, hoping to communicate so much with that gentle, almost tentative, action. I want this. I want you. I’ll give you whatever you need. Time. Or all of me. The thoughts were big, heavy, and warm in his heart. He wouldn’t dare admit it yet, but he knew how he felt about Noah, how much he felt about Noah. It was his turn to be scared — scared of fucking it up, scared of somehow ruinin’ Noah for other men. If there were other men. (Winn hoped there weren’t other men.) But his fear didn’t last long, as he turned and pressed one more gentle kiss to the corner of Noah’s mouth, all he could think about was how lucky he was, that all this shit had been leadin’ to somethin’, leadin’ to this. He rested his head on Noah’s shoulder, back scratching through the mesh against the bark of the tree, and, softly but with all the sincerity he could muster, Winn said, “Noah…” A soft chuckle, content and affectionate. “This is the part where I ask you to go out with me. Pretty please, sweetheart?” And the nickname tasted like chocolate on his tongue.

#wickedswriting #para #Noah #Tongue Twister #wickedsmature

6 notes · View notes

recentanimenews · 5 years ago

Text

Licensing of the Monsters: How Pokémon Ignited An Anime Arms Race

"Hey, what do ya' got there? A rabbit?" Batman asks his mentor, staring at a video of Pikachu on a massive underground computer screen.

"It's a Pokémon," Bruce Wayne replies.

Five seconds later, Batman is shocked so hard by the tiny yellow creature that he ends up flying headfirst through another computer monitor (Using a clip from the "Blackout" episode of Batman Beyond, an episode that would've aired for the first time just days earlier.) It doesn't make much physical sense, but this bizarre 1999 crossover promo did establish two things: 1) Pokémon was coming to Kids' WB, and 2) Pokémon was important. So important that Batman actually took time away from obsessing over crime and vengeance to care about it.

Echoing a 1997 promo where the comedic Bugs Bunny let us in on the "secret" that the serious, dark Batman was coming to Kids' WB, it almost seems like a passing of the torch. Kids' WB, up until then, was a programming service chock full of classic Warner Bros. cartoon properties like Bugs, Daffy, Pinky, Brain, and various members of the Justice League — all animated Americana.

Pokémon wasn't a huge risk as the 4Kids Entertainment dub of the show had done well in broadcast syndication, they had plenty of episodes to work with (sometimes airing three in a row), and it was based on a game series that was already a worldwide smash hit.

But the show was ... different.

And it would end up changing cartoons as we knew them.

Part 1: Batman Jumps Ship

It's hard to think of a better scenario when it comes to appealing to kids than the one Fox Kids had with Batman: The Animated Series. Debuting in September 1992 and airing on weekdays just after school let out, it received immediate acclaim due to its moody, beautiful animation and storytelling that didn't talk down to anyone. Little kids could get into Batman throwing crooks around and adults could marvel at plots like the one where a former child actress with a medical condition that keeps her from aging takes her former co-stars hostage and ends up holding a gun, hallucinating, and sobbing into Batman's arms.

It did so well that Fox tried to air it on prime-time Sundays and though this was short-lived — turns out, Batman was no match for Ed Bradley on CBS's 60 Minutes — it solidified the show as "cool." This was a show that could hang with the big boys. You couldn't say the same of something like Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.

And then, in 1997, it was gone. A five-year contract ran out and Batman leapt completely to Kids' WB, where a continuation of the show (the often even grimmer The New Batman Adventures) aired later that year. There, it joined Superman: The Animated Series in a one-two punch of programming called The New Batman/Superman Adventures. When it came to Kids' WB, competitors not only had to deal with the Merry Melodies crowd, they now had to face the World's Finest Heroes.

This, along with a departing Animaniacs, left Fox Kids with a gap in flagship programming. Sure it had various incarnations of the Power Rangers (which was still holding strong) and Spider-Man, but if you look back on 1998 programming, little of it would survive the year. Silver Surfer? Gone by May. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation? Out by December. Casper? Dead in October. By May of 1999, Warner Media would announce record ratings thanks to Pokémon, while its competitors, including the Disney-led ABC, Fox, and even Nickelodeon, would suffer losses in the Saturday morning area. Pokemon would have the best ever series premiere numbers for Kids' WB at the time.

A chunk of that has to do with 4Kids Entertainment's (or to be more specific, 4Kids Productions) handling of the show. Again, Pokémon was a proven concept. If you love monsters, adventure, and collecting things, you'll probably find something to enjoy in the franchise. But the dub was particularly strong. For years, dubbing was seen as an inherently laughable thing in America, full of exasperated voice actors trying desperately to convince you that they weren't portraying three different characters, and lips that didn't match the dialogue. Entire Japanese series were reduced to laughing stocks in the U.S. because why focus on the lovingly created miniatures and top-notch tokusatsu action in Godzilla if one of the actors sounds weird?

But while Pokémon wasn't the first great dub, it was a remarkably underrated one. Veronica Taylor's work as Ash Ketchum was relatable, funny, and consistent. And Racheal Lillis, Eric Stuart, and Maddie Blaustein's turns as Team Rocket's Jessie, James, and Meowth gave us villains that could've easily been the most repetitive parts of the show — you can only try to capture Pikachu so many times before you should logically find a second hobby — but instead were one of the most entertaining aspects.

Aside from some easily meme-able bits — Brock's drying pan and jelly donuts, for example — Pokemon became a seamless addition to the Kids' WB lineup and would end up giving many fans a lifelong love of anime. And it was great for 4Kids, too, as in 2000, they would be number one on Fortune's 100 Fastest-Growing Companies.

Fox Kids wanted an answer to this. And it would soon find one.

Well, two.

Part 2: Monsters Rule

Saban Entertainment was no stranger to Fox Kids. They'd been the one to adapt Toei's Super Sentai into The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers for American and international audiences, creating an unexpected sensation that combined monsters and martial arts. And in 1999, they nabbed Digimon Adventure, a series about kids that gain "digital" monster partners when transported to a "digital world," which had begun airing earlier that year in Japan. Based on a fighting virtual pet that had already been around for a few years, Digimon was a natural fit for an anime series and also a natural fit for a climate that was desperately trying to find the next Pokémon.

Renamed Digimon: Digital Monsters, it premiered in August of 1999. Of course, accusations followed that it was a Pokémon rip-off, considering that they were both about befriending terrifying laser critters, but they offered fairly different things. While Pokémon was more episodic, Digimon gave viewers a more Dragon Ball Z-esque experience (they were both Toei productions, too) with the titular monsters evolving and gaining "power-ups" due to fighting increasingly powerful villains.

Almost two months later, Monster Rancher would join the Fox Kids lineup, airing on Saturdays at 8:30 AM after Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century (a Fox Kids lost relic if there ever was one). Together, Monster Rancher and Digimon would cover the programming block with monster action, sometimes airing twice each. Meanwhile, Pokémon would do the same for Kids' WB, and if you look at their Saturday morning schedules from 1999 and 2000, it appears they just shoved Pikachu in whenever possible.

Looking back on Monster Rancher is always odd, though, because it's so specifically trapped in the time period where it originated. The video games used metadata from readable discs to create new monsters for the player, meaning that as soon as people gained the ability to download or stream media online without having to travel to their local Circuit City, the game would look absolutely archaic in comparison to its peers.

Monster Rancher is a very fun show based on some very fun games, and the dynamic array of personalities and their particular squabbles in the core group actually reminds me a lot of One Piece. But even the show itself deals with reviving monsters on giant stone discs — a prehistoric-looking adaptation of a video game gimmick that would, a decade later, appear prehistoric itself.

The Monster War was waged across 2000 and 2001. And though it appears Pokémon was the clear winner — in 2020, it's the most popular franchise with the widest reach, even if Digimon does produce some stellar shows and movies — the ratings tell a different story. In the May sweeps of 2000, Pokémon (and Kids' WB) took the prize among kids 6-11, but in the end, Fox Kids would score a victory of a 3.1 rating to Kids' WB's 3.0 (the first sweeps win since 1997, the year that Batman left.)

Early the following year, Fox Kids would score again, narrowly beating Pokémon on Saturday morning in the same timeslot and even coming ahead of properties like X-Men. And what would propel this February 10th victory? The first appearance of BlackWarGreymon, the Shadow the Hedgehog to WarGreymon's Sonic.

However, Pokémon would still help create ratings records for Kids' WB, even though late 2000/early 2001 saw a slide that would often cede dominance to Nickelodeon. Jed Patrick, who was president of The WB at the time said: "I didn't think Pokémon would fall off as much as it did ... every fire cools down a little, but that doesn't mean it doesn't stay hot."

Even though, in retrospect, claims that "Pokemania" had died seem a little ridiculous — the latest games, Pokémon Sword and Shield, just became the highest-selling entries in seventeen years — big changes were ahead.

Part 3: It's Time To Duel ... Or Not

In early 2001, Joel Andryc, executive VP of kids' programming and development for Fox Kids, was looking for a "Digimon companion series to create an hour-long anime block." He felt they were too reliant on Digimon, as they were airing it three times in a single morning. Likely not coincidentally, that summer Fox Kids Fridays were dubbed "anime invasion," advertising Flint The Time Detective, Dinozaurs, Escaflowne, and Digimon. In one commercial, a single quote zips across the bottom of the screen: "Anime Rocks!" Nicole, TX

That it does, Nicole from Texas.

Meanwhile, 4Kids Entertainment would provide Kids' WB with another monster show: Yu-Gi-Oh! Known as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters in Japan, this anime adaptation absconded from retelling the stories found in the early chapters of the manga — which were mostly devoted to Yugi running into jerks, only to have his Egyptian spirit "alter ego" deal karmic retribution on them — and instead focused on the parts that involved the cool monster fights. So basically the parts that were the most like Pokémon.

But how would this be received? In 2000, Canadian studio Nelvana had licensed the anime Cardcaptor Sakura and turned it simply into Cardcaptors — an extremely edited version that removed many important relationships and plotlines and tried to streamline the show into a pseudo-Pokémon story. It's gone down in history as one of the most questionable dubs ever, and never really made a splash on Kids' WB. So they wouldn't want a repeat of that.

But would kids be into a card game? The cards did summon monsters, but in Pokémon and Digimon, the monsters are just there, moving around and not relegated to a glorified checkers board arena. It turned out, yes, kids would be REALLY into that. Yu-Gi-Oh! debuted at number one in multiple demographics in September 2001, and would remain a steady part of its lineup for years to come.

And how did Fox Kids respond? Did the "anime invasion" work out? Well, sort of, but not in the way they were hoping.

In 2001, due to diminishing ratings and audiences, Fox Kids Worldwide (along with Fox Family Worldwide) were sold to The Walt Disney Company. By November 7th, they'd canceled their weekly afternoon blocks, and the next year, they'd end up selling their entire Saturday morning block to a company that had provided their rivals with the very same TV shows that aided in sinking them: 4Kids Entertainment. The final show to premiere on the original Fox Kids was Galidor: Defenders of the Outer Dimension, a live action series that stood beside Alienators: Evolution Continues (a cartoon sequel to the mediocre 2001 comedy Evolution) and the underrated Medabots as the block's last gasp.

Renamed FoxBox in late 2002 (and later 4KidsTV in 2005), the 4Kids run schedule would, over the years, include anime like Kirby! Right Back At Ya!, Ultimate Muscle, Fighting Foodons, Sonic X, Shaman King, and eventually, in 2004, the infamous One Piece dub. The first Saturday of the new FoxBox lineup would also outdo the previous Saturday's Fox Kids lineup. Disney would acquire the rights to Digimon and it showed up on ABC Family in late 2001 (eighteen years later, a reboot of the original series would air, which can be watched on Crunchyroll).

Eventually, in 2007, the Monster War would come full circle. 4Kids Entertainment announced they would be taking over the Kids' WB Saturday morning block entirely, renaming it the "CW4KIDS," as The CW had been born after UPN and The WB had ceased to be. Pokémon was long gone by this point, having been dropped by Kids' WB in 2006, and was now overseen by The Pokémon Company International on Cartoon Network.

"We wish Pokémon USA much success going forward," the CEO of 4Kids Entertainment said. Later sued over "illegal agreements" regarding the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, the company would eventually file for bankruptcy in 2016. Pokémon Journeys, the latest installment in the franchise, launches on Netflix on June 12th.

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

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

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

4 notes · View notes

thegeminisage · 4 years ago

Note

Do you have switch game recs?

YES do i ever!!! ty so much for asking

play undertale/deltarune (oldschool rpg/bullet hell) even if you’re the kind of person who doesn’t normally like games like that. i know hype aversion and the fandom has put some people off but i don’t know of a single person who got to the true ending of undertale who didn’t love it to pieces. this is probably the best bang for your buck on switch unless you find one of these other titles on sale

okami is on switch and if you like adventure games it is BALLER. some misogyny included but it’s largely ignorable and fun as fuck. it was heavily inspired by zelda so if you like zelda you’ll almost certainly like okami

animal crossing is an amazing time sink if you haven’t tried it already. i’d tell you what it’s about but i’m pretty sure everyone on god’s green earth is sick of hearing about it by now. similar to that one is stardew valley (a farming sim, eerily addictive, played it when i had bronchitis and thought i was about to die to forget the 4-hour wait for medical care)

breath of the wild (open world/exploration) is in my top 5 zelda games and definitely one of the best games on the switch. hundreds of hours easily. worth every dime. link’s awakening is also an exploring/adventure game and the remake is soooo charming and cute, the world will suck you right in

cadence of hyrule is another zelda game, it’s a rhythm game with a light amount of music-based combat. i finished it in like 3 days so it’s kinda pricey for that playtime but i was head-bopping the whole time

i don’t have the mario classics yet but i got my switch for smash bros, which everyone loves, and i got mario kart 8 as a gift. if you’ve never played either series and like fighting/racing games you’ll probably enjoy yourself!

shovel knight is a cute little single player platformer. i had a lot of fun with it and really enjoyed the quirky story but it is HARD as fuck so just be warned going in. they counts your deaths in the credits and mine was in the like 200s

puzzle games: tetris 99 is free, but you can buy a single player mode. lumines was also a large portion of my childhood and teenhood

i played pac-man championship edition on xbox when it came out and it fucking rules

i have not played untitled goose game (i don’t know what genre this is, meme??) or ori and the blind forest (metroidvania platformer) myself yet, but i watched playthrus and wanna try them soo bad i’m like 99% sure they rule

spryo the dragon is on switch and i had a blast with the original version. i’m sure the remake is even better. ditto for skyrim, though i am told the switch port is buggy...but all elder scroll games are buggy; it’s part of the charm. if you like open world and all you have is a switch, better skyrim on the switch than no skyrim at all.

there are a number of final fanasties on switch. i absolutely love final fantasy ix! i have not personally played final fantasy vii but it is beloved the world over. final fantasy x and x-2 are also on switch and though i haven’t played them myself either i loved the story a LOT.

buy yourself a switch online membership if you can. for $20 you get access to the snes/nes library for a year and i can’t tell you how many gems there are in there. a link to the past, kirby superstar saga, dr. mario, the original legend of zelda, super mario brothers...it’s a really good fucking value actually

VERY IMPORTANT: in the nintendo e-shop there’s a section called “great deals.” i found a little shooter there called super bit blaster that i’ve wasted like ten hours on so far and it only cost me nine cents. it’s not deep and it’s not the best game i’ve ever played but it cost me NINE. CENTS. i paid like a penny for every hour i’ve whiled away on that thing. if it’s in the great deals section and it’s either free or under a dollar you have very little to lose by trying it out!

#liz answers asks #anonymous #nintendo switch #ty very much for asking i love talking about video games #mario odyssey and paper mario origami king are supposedly v good #but i can't vouch for them personally #if you like indie games there are also a bunch on switch i haven't played but have heard good things about #cuphead celeste etc #and if you like rpgs pokemon will probably suit you as well. it depends on your genre really!#i hope you get good use out of your switch!!!!

1 note · View note

jq37 · 6 years ago

Note

IDK IF YOU'VE SEEN IT ALREADY BUT THERE'S A BEHIND THE SCENES FOR BLOODKEEP WHERE THEY TALK ABOUT SOME STUFF THAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED. Please share your thoughts

**spoilers for just like, all of bloodkeep**

***also, finale thoughts are coming, I had technical difficulties w/ the dropout site this weekend when I sat down to rewatch for notes***

OK, wow, I was NOT expecting the BTS video to THAT illuminating. I thought it was gonna have some cute cast stuff (which it did; I loved all the stuff with Matt and Rekha especially). Not, like, wild behind the DM screen plot twists. OK, taking it chronologically:

I can’t IMAGINE Rekha in Fantasy High. The energy of her and Emily at the same table would be so much. I will always be haunted by the knowledge of what could have been.

Trapp buying monster manuals as a kid had big Sohkbar energy. Also, mad at myself that I never made the Hagrid connection because that is so what he’s doing all the time.

“That’s Knife backwards and she’s very proud of that and so am I.”

It never occurred to me that Maggie has a full name tbh.

“Murderous Rodney Dangerfield.”

Matt can’t even even stop RP’ing during his interview.

I can’t believe this was a TWO DAY SHOOT. I thought it was at least 3 days. And, for some reason, I thought it was weekend shoots, not back to back days (prob cause my group is weekly). That means this was mostly super off the cuff. There wasn’t a lot of time to mull over strategy on the car ride home or whatever. This was such a roller coaster stretched over 6 weeks. Imagine it in 2 days!

Brennan at the camera with absolutely no prompting: Hell yeah!

THE BATTLE

Ooooh boy

So, in case you didn’t watch the video, what was SUPPOSED to happen was they would go down to the evil basement and then only one of them would be able to go on the boat. In order to get on the boat to hell, they would need to get a blessing from one of the statues. Four statues, six PCs. Brennan tried to lead them to a PvP endgame. THE PLAN WAS ALWAYS A PVP ENDGAME.

WHAT?

There is just SO MUCH to unpack here!

Like, OK. These guys are evil, right? Like, they casually talk about genocide all the time. That’s USDA Grade evil. BUT. They’re not mean. (OK, to the odd NPC but I’m speaking generally). When they all start off, the only real animosity in the group is Sohkbar towards Leiland for not being great with the wyverns and then there’s a little cattiness between Leiland and Maggie. But that’s it! And, like, Efink and Lilith read as straight up besties from ep 1! I NEVER felt the game leading towards any kind of group dissonance. From episode 1 there was a, “We’re all in this together,” vibe. They decided that so early on and they stuck to it. (In fact, they MADE MORE FRIENDS on the way!)

It’s like, Brennan told them, “You’re evil,” but he never said, “You don’t like each other,” and that made all the difference.

Like, even in the pregame interview, Amy says something like, “I get to play someone evil whose ultimate goals will still help the people around her.”

When you’re playing with players who are decent people irl and who haven’t been given a good story reason or the explicit direction to go turncoat, I feel like most peoples’ natural inclination isn’t to do that.

AND. AND.

Knowing that the game was supposed to end with a Super Smash Bros Free for All, the fact that episode 5 was all epiphanies and hugging and feelings is that much funnier. That wasn’t the boatman telling him to stop hugging. That was Brennan, the DM that knew his sick plans just got jossed to hell.

I love that Brennan said that the sweet character moments were completely unprompted by him but, as a viewer, they play as the most logical actions by these players. I was like, “This ISN’T what you wanted to happen?????” They felt like totally planned arcs! Brennan is so good at rolling with the punches. I feel like he must have accepted it by that point in ep 5 because, the way he was describing those falls (except for maybe Lilith’s looking back) read 100% to me like people who were having a near death experience that was going to bring them *together*, not the other way around. And, if it wasn’t, that’s how 6/6 of them took it so…

There was way too much time for these PCs to bond for this to end in PvP. The opportunities for backstabbing would have had to be planted WAY earlier for it to maybe work, imo. Or some kind of gollum/crown mechanic for craziness to spur a betrayal.

This also explains why Bren kept prodding Lilith about how the crown should have been hers. Lol, and instead of staging a coup, she called dibs on the godmom position. BLESS.

IMPORTANT EDIT: I was thinking this so hard that I thought I wrote it but turns out I didn’t. If Brennan had forced them into a Thunderdome situation, I am 100% convinced it would have ended with everyone (except maaaaybe Markus) just bowing out to let Maggie win. Lilith and Leiland for sure at the very least and they for sure would have enough firepower to fight off everyone else if need be. (Efink would be next on that list after her near death moment of clarity.)

Brennan mentioned how wild Maggie and Leiland’s collective arc is and he’s right and I wanna talk about it more later.

THE GHOST FIGURINES. Oh man, that would have been dope. I’m glad about how it ended, but that could have been cool.

HOT SCORPION DAD.

Nevermind, this is the bad ending, we were robbed.

#asks #anon #dimension 20 #a-salty-alto #bloodkeep #escape from the bloodkeep #imagine planning a fight to the death #and instead your 6 darth vaders have an impromptu episode of #my little villains: friendship is magic #amazing

76 notes · View notes

irrevocably-delicious · 6 years ago

Text

Cultivating an enjoyable video games experience with non gamers aka How do I get my non-gamer significant other to play games with me?

Video games.

Once a niche hobby of adult programmers in the 70s, before targeting 10 year old boys in the 80s and 90s, video games are now a mainstream hobby and entertainment product that has shown tremendous growth in the past 30 years. While films and serialized shows have shown some developments, with new technologies and the invent of streaming, the gaming industry has undergone a complete transformation in only a few short decades. Entire genres have been created, along with improved graphics, mechanics, and storytelling.

But with more people getting into video games now more than ever, the age-old question continuously resurfaces:

“How do I get my significant other to play video games with me?”

And it’s an understandable question! Games are an important hobby to some, and it’s nice to be able to share in that passion and joy with the person you love most. I completely understand this. I’m a cosplayer and I’ve definitely conned my boyfriend into pressing seams for me or sitting in hour long panels about EVA foam. It’s not exactly his number 1 priority, but we have fun together doing it, and he’s able to appreciate my craft a little more because of it.

Similarly, he’s not an artist, but he always helps me table in Artist Alley, gives advice on new prints to make (“If you’re going to make a niche DnD print, at least display it near the DnD stuff to be a conversation starter”) and stays up til 2am cutting stickers with me. It’s exhausting, but we have a lot of good memories from doing it together.

It’s nice to include your significant others in activities that bring you joy.

So how the hell do you convince your partner to engage with video games… if they never have before? And what kinds of games are going to give you the best experience?

Hi. Welcome. This is where I come in.

I’m not a gamer. At all. I’m awful at video games. Whilst my boyfriend was growing up and devouring every console he could convince his parents to buy, I was being a horse girl. No Halo for me today, sir, I have a showjumping class to attend. The only video game I would willingly participate in was Singstar during sleep overs, and that was because I was a musical theatre kid and knew this would be the only video game that I could completely decimate my peers with. Street fighter? No thank you. But I will wreck your shit with Stacy’s Mom by Fountains of Wayne.

But somehow, even though this is my upbringing, I have to acknowledge the fact that over the past 10 years I’ve actually played… a lot of video games. I think I’ve figured out the key. I think I’ve distilled the answer. Now obviously this is purely based on my experience, and everyone will have slightly different results, but I will now present you with my scientific anthropological findings of how you may be able to repeat this process.

“How do I get my significant other to play video games with me?”

Now I think there are two ways to go about this.

1. Play a video game together where both of you are holding a controller and in charge of some aspect of the game. Ie. Character, assistant, the right foot, etc.

Now I realize this seems obvious.

“You mean I can play a video game with my significant other by actually playing a game with my significant other??? Uhhhh yeah…. I WOULD THINK SO”

But hear me out. Out of the two ways you can go about this, I actually think this is the hardest way (I’ll explain why soon). My partner and I do not often play games together like this. What we usually do, and what I would be more likely to recommend is:

2. Play a game where you (the gamer) have the controller, and your SO participates or watches from the couch.

This is what my boyfriend and I usually do, and it’s the less likely of the two options to cause arguments, fights, and tears.

But let’s first look at option 1.

Playing a game together

Do you remember when you were in high school and you had to do a film study for a semester? And your teacher would explain all the different camera shots and angles and what they meant? A low angle shot where a character towers above makes them seem intimidating. A character cloaked in shadow indicates that the character is sneaky.

Your teacher told you all this, but in reality, all of these meanings were probably pretty obvious to you. You intuitively knew what they meant because you had been raised on watching movies. You were already familiar with this language of film because it had always been present in your life.

Well guess what? Video games have a language too.

And just like film, if you have played video games your whole life, you might be surprised at just how much of this language you have absorbed, and how much of this literacy is REQUIRED to play a modern video game.

The fact that triangle is always jump, x to interact, L2 to aim, R2 to shoot, circle to crouch, square to reload… all of that is assumed knowledge that you would probably have ingested over time, so it comes completely natural to you now.

Your SO doesn’t know any of this. They probably don’t even know that the L and R buttons exist. I didn’t. I still forget.

This is why choosing a game to play together is so difficult. When you finally do choose one? You have to be patient. You cannot get annoyed when your SO has to ask every five minutes what jump is again. They may have difficulty navigating around menus and UI. They may have difficulty moving around in game. Side scrollers are pretty intuitive, but games that require you to position a camera? Ie. Most third person or first person anything? Oof. That’s hard. They might fall off a lot of bridges or stare at the ground a lot. This is a skill you have to build up. You have it already. They don’t. It’s important to remember that saying anything like “You can do it, it’s easy!” or “Why are you having so much trouble with this?” is NOT HELPFUL. It’s only going to make your SO feel stupid/bad. Remember, they don’t give a shit about video games. Their life has been just fine without them until now, and it will continue to be just fine without games. They are only doing this FOR YOU. So why would you want to make someone feel stupid for just trying to make you happy?

Treat them like a baby deer. Gently. Tentatively. You are slowly drawing them into the clearing. Any harsh comment will send them running.

Based on all this, here are some recommendations on games that work well to play with your SO.

1. Games you are SUPPOSED to be bad at.

You know how I just talked about how there are general conventions over controls? And that it can be frustrating for your SO to learn these whilst they come intuitively for you?

Well what if you eliminated that disparity by playing games where the controls intentionally make no goddamn sense? By playing a game with whacky controls, it evens the playing field. Your SO is learning and struggling with controls, but so are you! This way your stupidity is not humiliating, it creates a sense of comradery. There’s no shame, just silliness and fun. The game I played with my partner that made me first realise the genius of this was… Octodad.

Octodad is collaborative. It’s an absolute nightmare to control, but for once my boyfriend’s muscle memory was actually a detriment. He would instinctively go to move like he would in other games, but that’s not how Octodad works. So he was rewiring his muscle memory whilst I was just a blank slate.

“Trigger to grab things? Yeah sure. Why not? I don’t know any better.”

It also hits that sweet spot of being short enough that the silliness doesn’t grow stale, and has a sincere enough story that you do become invested in the fate of the octopus in your hands.

10/10 Octodad. Highly recommend.

Other games in this genre that I feel would be worth a look:

- Man Fall Flat

- QWOP

- Surgeon Simulator

- Super Bunny Man

2. Hey! It’s Nintendo!

Ah Nintendo. It’s where most children start, so it seems like a logical place for a burgeoning gamer to begin. But specifically, what I want to recommend are the range of excellent Nintendo party games that are simple to navigate, fun, and often cooperative. I can’t play an FPS, but Mario Kart comes very easy to me…. Or as easy as it does to anyone. Similarly, Mario Party requires almost no video game literacy, and you can introduce it to your SO as “It’s just a board game that happens to be a video game”.

Although we do joke about Mario Kart and Mario Party being “friendship killers” because of their competitive nature and how easy it is to sabotage other players. If you are worried about these games maybe causing to much distress, I would also recommend the tried and true Wii Sports or the more modern 1-2-Switch. It has a cow milking game! It’s fun! And you can laugh at one another as you make terrible dick jokes.

I DO NOT RECOMMEND SUPER SMASH BROS. THAT IS NOT AN INTRODUCTORY GAME.

If you really want, play it on co-op team mode.

In summary, when picking a game to play with your SO my general recommendations are:

- make sure the game has very simple controls and linear movement (if any at all)

- or have a game with bonkers controls so you can learn them together

- avoid competitive games to start. Or play competitive games that require no video game literacy. The best FPS or Tekken player is NOT going to win Mario Party. It’s just luck.

Playing games this way with my partner is fun, but not how we usually play games. This is because if I want to play a AAA title, or maybe a great JRPG I’ve heard about, I have to move on to the second method.

Playing games where the gamer has the control and the non-gamer watches/participates via other means.

This is how my partner and I generally play games. Because my partner is the one holding the controller, navigating the game, combat and menus, I am not required to have any of that assumed knowledge I mentioned earlier.

But how can you make watching a video game compelling?

It’s actually not as difficult as you might imagine, but you’re right in that it does rule out a chunk of games. If you have grand dreams of your non-gamer girlfriend fawning over your sweet League of Legends skills… then I think you need a bit of a wake-up call. Competitive online games, FPS and sports games (such as FIFA) are generally not fun to watch. This isn’t a blanket statement! Some non-gamers could find these fun. But generally, if you don’t know the skill it requires to perform certain moves or strategies, or are unfamiliar with even the basic rules… these games just look like a mess.

Me watching someone play Overwatch: “Wow… I suddenly have motion sickness”

I find the most compelling games to watch are: Narrative driven

Think of all the games that are basically movies with some gameplay thrown in. Uncharted and the Tomb Raider reboot are just long form Indiana Jones movies. The Last of Us is a survival, drama, horror movie that makes you question your morals and how far you are willing to go to help humanity. The Witcher captures a rich narrative and lore comparable only to the Lord of the Rings films. The Yakuza series might be the best mob movie I’ve ever seen. All of these games are great and as engrossing to watch as they are to play. Lovable characters, compelling obstacles, and a good dose of spectacle keep them entertaining. Narrative driven games are my favorite to just sit and watch whilst my partner plays.

However, “narrative driven games” encapsulates thousands of titles, with some being more suited to watching than others. To help narrow down games that are enjoyable without a controller, I’ve narrowed it down into 3.5 sub categories.

1. Games with a looser/more predictable narrative, but the visuals are just so damn appealing

2. Choice based games – with the sub category of puzzle games

3. Mediocre games, but they’re fun

Each of these categories creates a uniquely different gaming experience, ranging from a cinematic “sit and watch” style, to a higher participation, more co-operative team based style. Let’s start with the first as it’s the easiest to define.

1. Games with a looser narrative, but engrossing visuals

Sometimes games will have a good story, but you’re just not sure if it’s good enough to sustain someone’s attention for 20+ hours. Maybe it’s a little predictable. Maybe you know the hero is destined to save the day. Will this be enough to hold my SOs attention?

And I think you are really the only one to answer that.

But let me first tell you about one of my favorite games, and probably only the second game I ever played with my partner.

DMC.

I fucking adore this game.

Eat my ass. It’s great.

But is the story that great? I mean it’s cool. Half angel, half demon boys. Long lost twin brothers. An evil demon who killed your father and has now essentially become a mob boss and corrupted your city. It’s cool. It’s interesting enough, but at the end of the day, you know Vergil is going to betray you. You know your cardboard cut out girlfriend(?) is going to be a liability. You know you’re going to defeat that demon boss with your big sword.

But god damn, if it isn’t a riot to watch. Devil May Cry has some of the most stylish and slick combat, that it’s really entertaining to just witness. You can cheer on your SO on as they climb up to a SSS ranking and maintain their combo over 5 whole minutes. The soundtrack is blasting. The level design and art direction are stunning. Watching Dante get dragged into Limbo is always an experience, and you’re never quite sure what you’re going to walk into this time. DMC still has one of the most inventive boss fights I’ve ever seen and I’m honestly waiting for another game to top it.

So, I think if your visuals are captivating enough… that can definitely save a game with maybe just a good to average story. It’s just a treat for the senses.

Other games I would put in this category would be:

- The Arkham games, particularly Arkham City and Arkham Knight. God the combat is just great to watch, with each punch really feeling brutal and heavy. The spookiness of Gotham is eerily beautiful, and finding all the easter eggs in the world is a real treat.

- The latest Spider-man game from Insomniac games

- Breath of the Wild – I just like… being in this game

-Nier Automata – this one is a bit weird. I wasn’t sure which category to put it in, but felt because of the interesting mechanics and gimmick of playing over and over again to reveal more of the world and story, I decided to put it here.

2. Choice based games

This is definitely my favorite type of game to play, and the one that I think is the easiest to engage with, despite the lack of controller in my hand.

The whole reason I started playing games with my partner is because he was playing a game and after a while I just… sat down… and started watching.

The game was Mass Effect 3, and I just became really involved in the story and the choices my partner was making. We have since gone back and played the entire Mass Effect series multiple times, and I feel it really exemplifies what is so fantastic about playing a choice-based game with a non-gamer.

Choice based games still allow your SO to be heavily involved. If you are letting your SO make choices, then they are still playing the game. Just because I wasn’t the one actively shooting Collectors does not mean I had no impact on our game experience. It was my choice to cure the genophage. My choice to spare the Rachni queen, and you can be damn sure that it was my choice to romance Garrus across the series. Choice based games are fantastic for keeping your SO engaged and the two of you can cultivate your own story and endure consequences together.

Obviously I love Mass Effect, but some similar games in this style would be:

- Until Dawn

- The Witcher

- The Persona series – but be careful! These games are long so may not be great as an introductory game

Visual Novels! – Visual novels are excellent for this! They’re purely choice based, and it doesn’t matter who is clicking the next button. For an added amount of goofiness, take on roles and do stupid voices. Do it. It’s great. Nothing makes me laugh harder than romancing an anime schoolgirl with an old man voice.

They’re short, but can be replayed for a different ending if you wish. My partner and I played Dream Daddy together multiple times and were avid about who our favorite dads were. I liked Robert and Craig. My partner liked Damian and Brian.

My partner and I have actually just started playing a new visual novel, but along with it being choice based, I would also classify it as a puzzle/problem solving game.

2.5 Puzzle/problem solving games

Puzzle games are great for a similar reason as choice-based games, as they keep your SO involved. Only this time they are helping to problem solve. Many times I’ve been able to figure something out before my boyfriend, so I can go “ohhhh take that, drop it here, then move that here” and it’ll work!

Currently we’re making our way through the Danganronpa series, which is a bit of a hybrid between a visual novel and puzzle game. It’s not a difficult game to control or navigate at all, so I could play it on my own, but I like playing it with my partner as we bounce theories off of one another and work together to solve a crime. I’ll remember certain pieces of evidence he doesn’t, or he’ll remember one throw away line from the opening 3 minutes of the game that is now an alibi. During free time, we’ll each pick a character to talk to, so we both get to learn more about our favorite characters.

“I wanna talk to Sakura because she seems sweet and I want her to have friends”

“Ok, then I’ll talk to Mondo because he seems funky.”

And so on. The process is collaborative.

Some games of a similar genre that might be fun:

- Catherine from Atlus

- Portal 1 and 2

- The Phoenix Wright series

- Resident evil 2 – this one is a bit odd, but resident evil 2 is almost a memory game as you work to remember all the things you’ve picked up, the pieces you need to unlock doors, and prioritize the weapons you’ll take with you. “No take the grenade rounds. If we’re going in the offices, we left that face hugger there, remember?”

Finally this brings us to our third category, and also the most difficult to explain. So I’ve just called it:

3. Average Games, but there’s just something enjoyable about them

Sometimes games are just… fun. Sometimes the story is alright, the gameplay is repetitive, but the characters and writing are just so inherently likeable or interesting that you can keep watching. For me, this whole category was created as a way for me to justify my fondness for the Saints Row series.

Saints Row is, on paper, pretty unremarkable. It’s a ridiculous series of games about a street gang coming into fame and eventually political power, and the outlandish things they have to do to climb that ladder. Often cited as a “GTA clone” the gameplay is repetitive and almost boring at times, with most of the missions falling into the “Go here, kill people” category. The world isn’t particularly pretty or interesting. It’s just a city. One that you’ve seen a million times if you’ve played any city-based open world game.

So why do I love this unremarkable series? Why am I oddly attached to these characters?

Ultimately, I think it comes down to the characters being written with a certain amount of honesty, and the interactions between them feel genuine and oddly heartfelt. I don’t really care about rival gangs or accumulating money, but if it lets me ride in the car and have another sing along with Pierce, then I’m going to do it.

I like the weird sexual tension between the Boss and Shaundi, which only seems to become more prominent if you play as the female Boss. I love Matt Miller and him ranting about his Nyte blayde fan fiction. I like finding out the Boss has read Jane Austen.

It’s just silly and fun, with a good amount of ridiculous spectacle. It’s definitely not a series that I could recommend. It just kind of appealed to something in me. I think there are lots of games that could fit this category. Most people will say that the Borderlands series is “Alright” but it has a lot of fun dialogue and characters who keep it entertaining. Similarly, despite lack luster reviews, I know a lot of people really enjoyed the 2013 Deadpool game because Deadpool was written just like he is in the comics.

This category is the hardest to nail, and you may go through several games that you think are “hilarious” or “crazy fun” that just don’t gel with your SO. That’s ok. As you play more, you’ll eventually be able to develop a sense of each other’s tastes and what will appeal to you.

General Advice in closing

TL;DR, here are some good parameters to stick to until you reach a consensus of what games your SO might enjoy.

- Games with a good story and compelling characters will always be entertaining

- If the combat is long and takes up a good proportion of the game, it should be visually interesting to look at. If the combat is repetitive or boring to watch, it should clip along at a good pace and only come in short bursts. Bonus points if there’s party banter!

- Start with shorter games, then build up. It’s a big demand on someone to sit through a 60+ hour game for your first few attempts. Maybe put that Tales game on the shelf for now.

I’ve tried to keep this advice general, but obviously you and your SO will have different interests, and you should appeal to those. I love anime. I love hot boys. Due to these factors, I am more than willing to sit through a long form JRPG about two rival noble boys, as it appeals to my weeb sensibilities. This is not something I would expect others to be able to do.

I generally don’t like films about heists or organized crime. It’s just not a genre that appeals to me, so asking me to sit through Grand Theft Auto is probably not the wisest choice. I have played GTA5 for those that are curious, and it’s not my favorite. It’s definitely not bad, and I do expect other non-gamers would be entertained playing through the story of it. There’s definitely a good story there! It’s just not one that satisfies all of my needs. Just like how I don’t expect every person to love sitting through God of War or Jak and Daxter.

Getting to learn each other’s likes and dislikes takes time. Favorite movies can be a bit of an indicator, but transferring to a different medium complicates things. The most important thing is to listen to each other and be respectful. If your SO doesn’t like your favorite game of all time, that’s not a personal insult. You are likely just experiencing the game in a different way than they are, and they can’t relate to that.

Along with being respectful, obviously don’t pressure your SO into anything. Sometimes you’ll find that your SO might not want to play games with you because they had such an awful experience trying to play with their exes or other friends previously. I know I was really hesitant to ever pick up a controller again after an incident where I couldn’t navigate my character over a log, because I was not used to controlling a camera, and was made to feel really stupid and useless. I threw up my hands and said “Fuck this shit” for a long time. Your SO might be hesitant to play games with you because they worry that you’ll just get frustrated with how bad they are. You can reassure them that this won’t happen, but it’s still their choice to say no.

At the end of the day, it’s ok to have different hobbies. You don’t have to share everything. If you are lucky enough that your non-gamer SO might want to try playing games with you, then be kind, and be patient. When picking games to play together, try to pick something you can both enjoy. Go on a journey together. Have fun!

It’s a game after all.

#video games #gamers #storytelling #how do I tag this?#essay #advice #review #i write stuff #opinion #blog

176 notes · View notes

stevenuniversallyreviews · 5 years ago

Text

Episode 121: Rocknaldo

“I don't love that. I don't accept that.”

Ronaldo Fryman has always been annoying.

From his first speaking role in Cat Fingers, and his first starring role in Keep Beach City Weird, this has been obvious. He’s selfish and insensitive, dominating every conversation he’s a part of and refusing to respect viewpoints that differ from his. He works well in small doses, where his grating nature can be properly diluted, so it’s understandable that an entire episode of Ronaldo at peak Ronaldo is not a widely beloved entry in the Steven Universe canon. But even though I can’t stand watching Rocknaldo, I actually, uh, kind of love it.

That’s a hard “uh, kind of” though. It’s tough to separate my emotions about this one, because I respect such an incredible portrayal of toxic fandom, but I hate toxic fandom so much that I don’t enjoy spending time with it, even as parody. This isn’t an episode I’m ever in the mood for, but it’s just so good at what it’s doing that I can’t stay mad at it.

Ronaldo’s propaganda is first played for laughs, with Steven’s bewilderment at what he’s reading (“They’re adding mind-controlling minerals to our water suppl—they hate men?”) and the vaudevillian back and forth of Ronaldo’s Rock People talking points and Steven’s quick and absolute dismissals. Ronaldo’s embarrassment is a bit of a surprise considering he’s never seemed capable of such a sensation, and his willingness to admit he’s wrong seems like a good sign, but oh boy does that attitude not last.

The mindset that led Ronaldo to make his bad faith arguments in pamphlet form (which he calls Ronalphlets because heaven forbid we get the idea that it’s not about him) persists, and it’s so much worse in conversation than as printed media. It’s not enough that he impedes on Steven’s personal space, but he checks off multiple key items on the Pathetic Internet Troll I Find Useless List (or “PITIFUL” if we’re using proper jargon). He’s casually sexist. He negs Steven into accepting his intrusions. He gatekeeps the concept of being a “true” Crystal Gem, which is lousy in a bubble but so much worse in practice because he’s doing it to an actual Crystal Gem. He gaslights by stating his incorrect views as obvious facts, complete with his own lingo, to make Steven question his own validity. And perhaps worst of all, he takes advantage of Steven’s empathetic nature to pretend that a tolerant person must accept abuse.

On the one hand, Ronaldo’s extreme behavior can be chalked up to severe sleep loss; that’s certainly the angle the episode goes for. But on the other, his toxicity begins well before he decides to stop sleeping, and as someone whose record for consecutive waking hours is an inadvisable thirty-six, fatigue will make you cranky, but it won’t make you more conniving. In cartoon world it’s a clean device to up Ronaldo’s awfulness in a way we can walk back from, but ugh he’s still a trashfire. Zach Callison always deserves kudos, and Rocknaldo is no exception, but Zachary Steel wins out here for capturing such a loathsome version of his character.

A key ingredient for Rocknaldo is timing. Steven just had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, and this is our first glimpse at how it’s changed him, so what better way to test our all-loving hero than to pit him against a black hole of selfishness? He’s grown a lot since Keep Beach City Weird in a way Ronaldo hasn’t, and while his instinct is still kindness, now there’s a welcome dose of teen moodiness mixed in.

It takes a while for Steven to realize it’s a grift, but beyond this slowness being a necessity for the conflict of the episode to work, it makes sense for where he’s at this point in the show. Again, kindness is an instinct for this kid, and even when Ronaldo starts getting infuriating, we’ve seen Steven be patient with him before. He’s also got that martyr complex revved up: this isn’t the first or last time he’s been willing to suffer to make someone else comfortable. He knows how much it sucks to be called the wrong name by now, so he’s the only person who consistently calls Ronaldo “Bloodstone.” And considering Rose Quartz wasn’t what he thought, he now feels that he must double his efforts to be his best self to compensate.

Also important is Steven’s willingness to defend his friends from the start, calling the term “Rock People” offensive and defending the Gems’ decision to leave Ronaldo behind on a dangerous mission. He can take Ronaldo’s lousiness all day, but finally snaps when Connie’s worthiness is insulted. It’s sweet that he sticks up for people, but it’s a bummer that he probably would’ve put up with Ronaldo even longer if the only one suffering was himself. Steven would do anything for his friends, but he’s not doing much for Steven.

This is why Ronaldo is the ideal antagonist for an episode coming off Steven’s space adventure. Steven’s selflessness contrasts perfectly with Ronaldo’s selfishness, but instead of a story about selflessness being good and selfishness being bad, we see how selflessness isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Yes, it’s good to care about others, but it’s also important to have boundaries and enough self-respect to defend yourself; this isn’t even the first time we’ve gotten this message, but it bears repeating. There’s are limits to tolerance that trolls will always exploit (“White Nationalists aren’t welcome here? So much for the ‘Tolerant Left!’”), and on a show about empathy we need for Steven (and the audience) to see that empathy doesn’t mean being a doormat.

Steven’s patience fuels the episode, but the wheels are greased by the Amethyst and Pearl’s disdain. It’s a minor part of Rocknaldo, but I’m not sure I could survive how grating Ronaldo is without some backup from the Gems.

Garnet may lead a slow clap at Steven’s rousing speech on the nature of acceptance, but Amethyst is happy to crack jokes at Ronaldo’s self-seriousness, down to that perfect impression near the end of the episode. Meanwhile, Pearl openly hates the guy. We don’t even get Sassy Pearl (perhaps the greatest Pearl of all), she’s just bluntly dismissive as a refreshing antidote to Steven’s hospitality. She doesn’t bother to remember his ridiculous new name because she refuses to humor the notion that he’s a Gem, and it totally works for me; misnaming is played for drama when Steven is concerned, as befits the trans allegory that comes to a head in Change Your Mind, but Ronaldo is a human belittling Steven’s identity by pretending he shares it, so “Bloodstone” isn’t worth getting right to her (it helps that “Fryrocko” is also a delightful thing to call somebody). This jokey take on names works in the moment, but more importantly primes us for a more serious take in our last scene.

The final conversation, after a rare time jump, does salvage Ronaldo somewhat. He apologizes and admits he was acting like a jerk, and remains dedicated to helping the Crystal Gems in his own weird way. But the root of his problem isn’t gonna up and go away, and that root, again, is selfishness. He doesn’t fit in because he would rather the world adjust to meet his whims than take a single step towards self-improvement, so he chooses to see himself as “the ultimate outsider.” I guess it’s nice to find a positive spin on qualities you’re not great at, but it reeks of self-importance in a way that’s true to the character but is still frustrating to watch. Ronaldo is very good at being who he is, but I just don’t have much patience for intentionally annoying characters.

Still, we get that lovely moment of Steven talking about his name; it’s not a big revelation that folks only call him Rose Quartz when they’re mad at him, but verbalizing it shows that he’s aware of the pattern. The issue of his name will pop up more and more, becoming a cornerstone of both the Season 4 and Season 5 finales, so it’s nice to discuss it in a calm moment so we can keep Steven’s opinion in the back of our minds when things get messy. Ronaldo, to his credit, asks permission before sharing this story on his pamphlet, and evokes fellow emotionally-challenged antagonist Zuko in his attempt at solidarity. (Fun fact: in no other way is Ronaldo similar to Zuko.)

Moving from Zuko to Zuke: I don’t know where Rocknaldo’s production lined up on the timeline of the Steven Universe fandom's worst elements harassing Jesse Zuke, but I hope Zuke got some level of catharsis in portraying such “fans” in this pathetic manner. Speaking as a guy with a blog, calling Ronaldo “just a guy with a blog” is perfect putdown for a loser that makes himself feel big by pretending to know how to run a ship better than the captain. Imagine if I spent every post saying how much better of a storyteller I am than this crew. Ugh.

Fandoms can do great things, but man are they pros at doing horrible things. During the week that I wrote this review, a 15-year-old Super Smash Bros player got yelled off the internet for beating an established player in an incredible fashion, because while the community adores a young upstart, they can’t stand when that upstart is a girl. And no, I’m not saying the entire fandom did it, just as the entire Steven Universe fandom didn’t target one of the show’s best boarders (note that this article was written when Zuke still went by Lauren), but there are more than enough Ronaldos in every community, and it’s up to people who comprehend the basic tenets of empathy provided by a show they claim to love to stand up to such bullies.

If you don’t like Rocknaldo, that’s just fine. Because you shouldn’t like how Ronaldo acts in it. Liking something doesn’t give you the right to harass people, so do your part in shutting that nonsense down.

I’ve never been to this…how do you say…school?

Just give us an episode with Peridot, Yellow Pearl, Peedee, and Ronaldo trapped in a room already.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

I hate watching this episode, but that doesn’t mean I hate the episode. It does its job very well, which is worthy of admiration even if I’m probably never going to watch it again now that this review is done.

Top Twenty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Earthlings

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

Steven’s Dream

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

When It Rains

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Gem Harvest

Three Gems and a Baby

That Will Be All

The New Crystal Gems

Storm in the Room

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Adventures in Light Distortion

Gem Heist

The Zoo

Rocknaldo

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

No Thanks!

6. Horror Club 5. Fusion Cuisine 4. House Guest 3. Onion Gang 2. Sadie’s Song 1. Island Adventure

#rocknaldo #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

47 notes · View notes