#kinda feels like when I’m stuck in a video game. back to the grind before I can magically progress skills..

[dawnlotus-draws]

Realism practice with my DnD PC Sparrow <3

[naptoons]

Official Girl— Zion Kuwonu

Warnings: mild mature language.

Theme: Angst / Fluff ??? I guess I vauguely know the diff.

Summary: you and Zion have been together for almost half a year, but it didn’t feel like it cause when it came down to the public eye, he was single. And you were just his friend.

A/N: I did not proofread any of this so if there’s some spelling errors I apologize, and I hope it isn’t cringe! Enjoy🖤

You and Zion have been dating for almost a year and to your surprise no one even knew expect the PRETTYMUCH members along with their girlfriends. Neither of your family members knew either. You had a million thoughts going through your brain debating which thought was the placebo of why he would want to hide your relationship for almost a year. Don’t get it wrong, your relationship is great, he makes you happy. But hearing him tell the rest of his friends any beanz that ‘you’re aren’t his girl’ and ‘just a friend’ kinda made you think back on the days where you were stuck in the friend zone with him.

Sighing you slouch in your chair turning in your essay. You decided to go to los angles to study for your major. You wanted to get out of your hometown experience new places and people. You met Zion through one of your friends. You’ve never even heard of ‘PRETTYMUCH’ until she showed you a few of their music videos and interviews you started to hone in on them. Next thing you knew your friend bought you guys tickets and meet and greets in los angles.

Zion had his eyes on you on and off the entire time on stage. And boy was he thrilled to see you at meet and greet. And that’s the cliché way you meet Zion and became his “girlfriend” more like “girl-friend” groaning you hop out the bed going to grab a cup of water but your phones text tone vibration on the cherry wood table stops you. Moving towards your phone you see a text from the devil himself. Crazy how the universe works.

[ From: Babie 🤧🧡 ]

Hey mamas you wanna go to a birthday party with me? I promise I’ll stick by you the whole night ❤️

Moral of the story to the last sentence Zion typed was prettymuch had a album release party with a lot of their friends and Zion invited you. But twenty minutes into the party Zion left you and was faded and tipsy.So you ended up taking an uber back home and went to sleep. Zion didn’t get a wink of sleep that night worrying about you.

[ To: Babie 🤧🧡 ]

Hm. Fine I’ll go but you better keep your promise.

[ From: Babie 🤧🧡 ]

I promise babygirl. The party isn’t until late around 8pm so I’ll come pick you up. I love you can’t wait to see your fine ass🥵

Rolling your eyes at his flirty remarks. One thing you can’t knock him for is he always reminds you how beautiful you are. Sitting your phone down you go back to the previous task, grabbing the glass and sticking it on the dispenser filling it half empty half full. Sipping on the ice cold water you make your way back to room deciding how you would kill two hours worth of time.

Waking up an hour and a half later you decided to go ahead and take a shower. While waiting for the water to heat up you grab your phone turning on your Bluetooth speaker to blare music for your invisible fans. First song to come up on shuffle was official girl by Cassie. You place your fingers in the shower feeling the warm water slide down your fingertips. Stripping out of your clothes you jump in the shower.

“You gotta love me in the light and the dark” you sung out loud. As you were singing the lyrics it resonated with your feelings towards Zion.After your quick shower you got dressed and did your hair in a style you loved. Looking at the clock wondering would Zion be on his way yet,It’s 7:30pm and he hasn’t sent a single text or call. Going to your messages you decide to text him.

[ To: Babie 🤧🧡 ]

Zion what time are you coming to pick me up?

Setting your phone back down, you grab your platform boots slipping them on and tying them up. Grabbing your favorite perfume brand lathering your body up in it. fifteen minutes later and you still got nothing from Zion. You launch the Instagram app seeing Zion posted on his Instagram 3 minutes ago a screen of his monitor and fortnite asking for someone to join the lobby.

You roll your eyes wondering why you even texted him in the first place, him and fortnite have a better relationship than you and Zion. You decided to text one of the members.

[ To: Raisin Bran ⛓ ]

Hey Brandon is the party still going on tonight?

[ From: Raisin Bran ⛓ ]

. yeah , we’re actually here where are you and Zion?

[ To: Raisin Bran ⛓ ]

‘Zion’ is on fortnite rn, ill be coming in uber please give me the address🙄

[ From: Raisin Bran ⛓ ]

. I mean you don’t have to come if you don’t want too.

It’s better to have fun, then being cooped up in the house doing nothing, what could go wrong? You though you yourself. Pulling your leather skirt down a little you stand up and place an uber order Your uber arrived twenty minutes later,On the way to the party you have been listening to music with occasionally conversations with the driver. Your phone vibrates, and from the vibrations you know who it is. And you dread wether you should reply or not.but deep down you know you can’t ignore him.

[ From Babie 🤧🧡 ]

Yo Sorry mamas I didn’t see your text.

[ From Babie 🤧🧡 ]

I’m coming to get your fine ass now🥵

[ To: Babie 🤧🧡 ]

No worries Zion lol, I’m catching a ride to the party.

[ From: Babie 🤧🧡 ]

Who’s takin you?

Ignoring his question you decide to screenlock your phone and enjoy the soft ride. The ride was about an extra twenty minutes to get there but it was a pleasant ride nevertheless

Getting out of the car you thank the driver and prepare yourself for the house full of sweaty young adults, blaring loud music and the smell of different strains of weed. Pulling your skirt down a little you walk up to the door ignoring the few whistles and hollers from the drunk guys falling around and laughing on the grass. Knocking on the door you await for anyone to open the door it was starting to get a little chilly outside. “Y/N?” Someone speaks in a puzzled tone. Turning your head around your eyes are met with nick, nodding your head you step off the steps to be engulfed in a hug.

“How are you, what are you doing here by yourself?” Nick questions

“Well I’m not by myself now am I ?” You joke sarcastically, nick shows his cheeky smile while opening the door for you. Upon your sight is a house filled to the rim of people, red solo cups scattered all over the floor, multiple groups of people playing games and kissing.

“Where’s Zion?” Nick asks, while the both of you walk into the kitchen, the constant questions of “Zion” is starting to agitate you more and more. You wanted to have fun and not think about Zion. Because frankly Zion hasn’t been thinking about you. Before you could answer nick’s question soft delicate caramel tattooed arms wrapped around your shoulders with a sweet scent of strawberries and mint leaves.

“I’m here” his voice hones in on your ear lobes, his lips reaching your temple slightly and rapidly before any one could catch eyes on it “hey mamas” Zion’s voice vibrates across your skin.

“Hi” you answer softly not really wanting to talk to him you’d hoped to avoid, nick offers you and Zion a drink grabbing the shot you swallow it down like it was water. Passing the shot glass over to nick for another round.

“Woah mamas slow down okay?” Zion mumbles from behind you with his hands firmly placed on you lower back. Ignoring his comment you drink down another shot earning a “wooo” from nick as he fires you up for your last shot of the day with a slice of lime from the fridge.

“Thank you nick” you smile eating the lime in one hand and firmly grasping the cold water bottle in the other. You turn around to say something to Zion but he’s gone in the back talking to someone. you decide it’s really time to have fun since you’re “single” in the dark. Before you could head over to the dance floor a guy walks up to you with a sheepish grin. His teeth were pearly white and aligned with each other not missing a single space or gap, his skin screamed Melanin “hello how are you?” He asks very politely.

“I’m fine and you?”

“Good if you’re breathing, I was wondering would you like to have a dance? If you don’t mind” he hesitates,not even thinking of an answer you grab his hand reporting to the dance floor. (A/N i thought about the lyric from you by Lloyd ‘And uh, I want all my sexy ladies to report to the dance floor immediately’ lol sorry I may have made you cringe)

you get on the dance floor dancing to the song that’s blaring through the speakers. Taking sips from another shot you grabbed on your way to the dance floor why not? You did say you wanted to have fun. Softly the mysterious man lays his hand on your hips digging his fingertips into your waist. Even though you knew you were with Zion. You wasn’t just going to grind up on some guy even though your devil shoulder told you too.

Zion finishes his conversation with a friend he used to know in Canada, now he was on his way to look for you trying to keep his promise of never leaving tonight. Meeting nick back at the kitchen his thick eyebrows knitted in confusion. Nick not wanting to hear the anger bounce off on him, he decides to point in the direction of you and the mysterious guy. Fuming with vexation, he squeezed the bottle in his hands until his knuckles turned white. Heading over towards the problem he grab you by your arm softly but cautiously. The guy stands back smirking at the sight of a jealous Zion. while you were a bit staggering from the four shots of alcohol you took.

“Hey chill out we were dancing and having a good time!” The guy slurs his words. You started to sober up slightly at the sight of Zion’s muscles in his jawline clenching on and off his knuckles turning ghostly white as he holds in every excuse to lay this guy out with his fists. His face almost beat red.

“Have a good time with someone else not her” Zion excuses the both of you guys away from him and into a quieter location, closing the door behind him Zion let’s out a groan of frustration as his fingers roam through the tangles of his dreads. “What the fuck was that y/n?!” Zion yells but not too aggressive because even though he’s mad at you, you’re still his baby and he’ll never disrespect you.

“What ? I can’t have fun? I mean I’m not your official girl anyways” you slur your truth with hidden sarcasm. You were tipsy and when you’re tipsy the truth comes out. And in the back of your mind you knew once the truth came out things were going to change.

“Y/n what the fuck are you talking about? , of course you are my girl mamas” his tone of voice changes obviously struck by your words, not wanting to look into his eyes with your glassy eyes, you turn your head, not even batting an eye at him, you just couldn’t your heart shattered even thinking of telling him how you felt.

“No I’m not Zion” you choke at your first sentence “I’m your friend, you know the girl who hangs out with you occasionally and comes in your Instagram lives, I’m the girl you say ‘Nah she’s the homie’ I’m not your fucking girl Zion, and it’s been that way for half a goddamn year!” You bark at him, Zion tries to reach for your hands but falls short as you pull them away from his reach “ if you don’t wanna be with me tell me. If you’re embarrassed by me tell me. Fucking give me something I’m tired of being your unofficial girl” you wipe your tears heading straight for the door but Zion blocks it.

“Wait Mamas listen,” his words fall short trying to bite back the tears, his whole world crashing down in front of his eyes “i couldn’t be so fucking proud to have you as my girlfriend, you don’t understand how happy I am to hold you in my arms every fucking day, how proud I am to have you in the studio with me because that’s the only way I can work faster, babygirl you are everything and more I’ve ever needed”

“Zion this secrecy is making me feel like I’m not good enough” your voice cracks filling the room up with icy cold tension. You’re trying so hard to stop crying but you can’t, all the bottled up feelings are just slipping through the cracks. Zion rapidly walks over to you to hold you in his arms. Your brain wants to push him off,but your heart wants to be held until your cries muffled into the music in the background. His slender golden fingers hold the back of your head while the other tightly on your lower back.

“I deserve more Zion, but I don’t wanna pressure you dear, but I’m tired, I’m tired” you speak into his trashed denim jacket. You pull out of his embrace. Walking towards the door, leaving Zion in the room with his thoughts. Passing by nick and Brandon as you wiped your tears, hearing their cries of your names just makes you regret even coming to this party in the first place. The guy you danced with earlier snatches your wrist in a halt just as you were about to grab the door knob, this day just couldn’t get anymore hetic you thought.

“Babygirl.. did he make you cry?” His eyebrows knit up in a bunch, you stumble over the cups placed on the floor snatching your arms at of the young man’s grasp not before you feel an arm around your shoulder engulfing your body into his chest. “Don’t touch her got that? She doesn’t belong to you” he grits his teeth, spitting the poison out on him “oh but she belongs to you?” The guy questions trying to provoke a fight with Zion.

“She doesn’t belong to anyone she’s her own woman, but we are dating and I don’t appreciate anyone treating her less than what she is, so if you want all your bones to be intact and still have teeth to eat with tomorrow I suggest you back the fuck up” your eyes look up at the flushed pinked tint that was painted across his face the slight flinch of his muscles in his jawline.

“Can we leave please?” You plead to him and instantly he grabbed your hand taking you out the party. The ride home was slient. So many things were going on, bottled up emotions were spilled and you just thought to yourself how awkward this would be in the morning. Zion opens the door for you following right after you in the cold house. Taking off your boots you curl up on the bed shaking as the goosebumps multipled on your skin. Zion walks over to you throwing the covers over your body tucking you in like a parent to a kid.

“Can we talk about this?” Zion says breaking the ice, letting out a choked hoarse sigh

“I’m afraid too” you speak barely above a whisper hoping he didn’t catch it.

“Well then listen to me” Zion grabs your legs placing them on his thighs so his fingers hook under your calves “ I’ve never been this deep in love, everytime I get really deep into a relationship something always fucks it up, and I didn’t want anything or anyone to break us up hence why I’ve been hiding us. Specially from the media. It’s a dog eats dog world out there mamas” his fingers tapping on your now timid skin “and I don’t want you to be hurt because of my job, or those whom support and love me, their opinions won’t matter to me I don’t give a shit but I don’t want you hurt babygirl I love your smiles earlier in the morning,” Zion chokes up “ I wanna keep seeing the crinkle in your nose as you curse the sun for being bright, have you re-twisting my dreads, your sudden outbursts of Disney soundtracks”

“I cherish all that shit mamas” Zion finishes like a heavy weight was lifted off his shoulder.

Your eyes begin to soften at how raw Zion is being right now. Zion was never the type to show his cards on the table. Everyone knew this. But seeing him fold like a deck of cards really breaks your heart. “I love our date nights where we just watch movies or play board games, cause it’s just us and no one to interrupt us or tell us how to love each other, but it seems I’ve hurt you more this way instead of the other way I was trying to protect you from. I’m sorry mamas” his Cinderella glass slipper eyes lays upon yours, shattering you into pieces

You never thought how hard it’s been on him to hide all of this or his reasons. You lean over to him placing your head on his chest. Playing with his fingertips. “It’s okay Zion, I understand now, I’m sorry for blowing up on you” his lips pressed on your head while his fingers caressed your waist. Your eyes slowly getting heavier and heavier before you could even hear his response. You dozed off, all the tears and alcohol felt like a melatonin. Zion took this opportunity to sneak a picture of his view to post on Instagram for the world to see. Showing you off was something he always dreamed off and right now seemed like the perfect time. “No mamas I’m sorry, but I’ll show you better than I can say it”

The next morning you woke up to your phone constantly blowing up by notifications, frowning you grab your phone deciding to put it on do not disturb until you see prettymuch fan account names liking and commenting on your posts, taking you on stories, your twitter was blowing up. Opening up Instagram you see Zion has tagged you in a post, smiling at his efforts you like the picture.

130,468 likes

zionkuwonu: I'll never diss you and I'll kiss you on your little pearl.

Maybe the talk needed to happen to move onto bigger things, before you could repost it to your story, The door swings up with Zion smiling bigger than his heart holding a teddy bear in one hand and roses and a self care basket the other. Sitting up against the headboard you accept them feeling the water build up in your eyes. “You’re right mamas, you deserve more” he leans over laying soft pecks against your lips. “And I will always give you more” his lips connect to yours again.

“So face mask night and a movie?” You squeak caressing his jawline

“It’s whatever you want to do babygirl” he mumbles, before taking another picture of you with the gifts.

You were now his official girl.

[cheriesjubiles]

please don’t look under the read more i’m just testing

Can you imagine a world where we're all represented by a font? Huh, I wonder which one I would be? sees Arial Too straight. No! Not in that way! Just, straight, as in unexciting. sees Badaboom Too.. uh... Deadpool.... BROADWAY! Now that's the one! Now THAT'S the one! Hello Internet, welcome to GAME THEORY, where instead of putting a joke here I want to ask you a question. If your personality were represented by a font, what font would you be? Take a moment and put your font in the comments. I'm really curious to see what everyone has to say. Maybe find a couple new cool fonts to use. I'm getting bored with ol' Calibri 11. And with that out of the way, it's time to talk UNDERTALE. Now I don't think I've ever gotten this many requests to cover a game. Well, except for FNAF. And I suppose FNAF 2. OH and there was FNAF 3. Wait a minute, should I be worried about something here? Anyway, across the board on YouTube, Reddit, and Twitter, you all have wanted Undertale. And honestly, I'm glad you brought it to my attention. True loyal theorists will know that Earthbound is my favorite game of all time. So a self aware RPG in a similar style, WHOA MAN, it's like a gift from the indie gaming heavens. Undertale is a game where every character, from goat mom to grind fodder has a sympathetic design and a unique personality, motivations, goals, fears. Whether you're saving or slaughtering them, the game makes you feel something every time you enter an encounter. But to me, one character stood out amongst all the rest. SANS. A skeleton named after the font, Comic Sans, hence all the font references at the beginning of the episode. If you haven't played Undertale I'm sure that was a really weird opening. ANYWAYS, Sans is, well, there's a lot of mystery around this guy. And before we get into it, let me put up a very special spoiler warning: UNDERTALE is a game best experienced blind. So if you haven't played it, pause the video and come back after you've finished. I PROMISE YOU, I PROMISE you won't regret it. Alright, so everyone out of the pool and ready for the adult swim? Good. Because I'm feeling pretty determined to get to the bottom of Sans' mystery. So just to recap for those of you who haven't played the game and ignored the SPOILER WARNING, or just need a refresher, Sans is one of the two skeletal brothers who appears in the game. His partner is Papyrus, a loud, goofy trap lover also named after a font. But in the world of Undertale their origins are a big question mark. All you really know is what's given to us by a shopkeeper in Snowdin, who explains that Sans and Papyrus, quote, “just showed up one day and asserted themselves.” Weird, right? What's more is that, well, Papyrus is just kinda the goofy sidekick. Sans is much more complex. He likes fart jokes, but he's also incredibly powerful and deadly serious. Not only is his boss battle the hardest in the game, he's one of the only characters who has knowledge and power over space and time. He can take shortcuts around the world through ridiculous routes. Even is walking through walls. He also acknowledges that he's only one of infinite versions of himself, making self-aware commentary of the various timelines that you've played through in the game. He can even count the number of times he's killed you. He acts like an arbiter of this world, passing out judgements on the player's actions in the game, even explaining the secrets of EXP and LOVE, or EXECUTION POINTS and LEVELS OF VIOLENCE, just to clarify. In short, he just doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the world of monsters. But then, what, or who, is he? Well, the idea that he doesn't belong in underworld seems to be correct. The evidence seems to point the fact that he WAS, in fact, formerly a surface dweller. In the true pacifist ending of the game, as the group looks out onto the horizon, Papyrus asks Sans about the giant ball in the sky. Sans says, quote, “we call that the sun.”

This is important because A, the usage of the word WE, and knowledge of the sun shows that Sans has a kinship or knowledge with other humans, and B, that despite he and Papyrus both being skeletons, or, supposedly, brothers, and apparently appeared in underworld at the same time, they clearly-- uuuGGHH take two CLEARLY have two very different histories. Why would Papyrus not know the name of the sun but Sans would? We get further clues to Sans' origins as we hear him say multiple times he wants to "go home" or "go back." He says as much during his dinner date scene at the Mettaton hotel. He notices that the player wants to go home and says, quote, "i know the feeling." He then continues, "maybe sometimes it's better to take what's given to you." As though he ended up in the underworld by accident. AND in a genocide run during his boss fight he says, quote, "look, i gave up trying to go back a long time ago." End quote. And before you say he means going back to the surface world, that's clearly not the full story. His very next line of dialogue is, "and getting to the surface doesn't really appeal anymore either." Key word here, is EITHER. Yes, he seems to hail from the surface and wants to go back, but based on his dialogue he no longer considers it his home. It's as though the surface world he once knew is gone, as though he's from a different time. It's pretty intriguing. So we're left with a being that appeared out of nowhere, presumably from being from the human surface, but from a different time period, who seemingly has the power to teleport. That's a lot of questions and not a lot of answers. But here's where things get REALLY interesting. Sans has a hidden workshop that takes a fair amount of searching to find. You could say it takes a lot of DETERMINATION to unlock. Anyways, obligatory determination references aside, as you start to look for this easter egg Sans gives you a key to his room and says "it's time you learn the truth." After some searching you find the workshop which contains items that leave even more questions. A photo album featuring Sans and a bunch of smiling people you don't recognize, a badge, blueprints with illegible handwriting, and a broken machine hidden behind a curtain. In the latest update, one more detail was added. A handdrawn picture of 3 smiling faces with the words “don't forget.” so what does it all mean? Well a lot of Undertale theorists have been linking these details to a feature to a character named W.D Gaster. A ghostly character who never truly appears in the game. Honestly, covering him is a theory all unto itself, and probably one best saved for another day. Even still, none of the Gaster theories I've seen have been able to explain all the details. In particular, the photo album, and the badge. And that's what kept nagging me as I researched Undertale. A badge? That one in particular really stuck out to me. Why would such an oddly specific item to be hidden in the huge easter egg of a room? Something that supposedly reveals the truth about Sans? Badges just aren't important in Undertale. Then it hit me. What if this badge isn't from Undertale? What if this badge is from a completely different game? And was, in fact, the most important badge in the history of gaming? The Franklin badge. Now, for those of you wondering what I'm talking about, the Franklin badge is a pivotal item from the Mother series. You know, the one with Earthbound. Or, maybe you don't know that one either. Uh, you know, the one with Ness from Super Smash Bros? Yeah well, Ness is from Earthbound, and Earthbound is the second part in this larger Mother trilogy. Alright? Good. Anyway, the Franklin badge is a really important part of that series. It gets its start in the very first game and carries through the whole trilogy, saving your life multiple times in the process. It's SO important that nintendo has made it a staple item in the Smash Brothers series. So I asked myself; what if the badge in Sans' drawer was THAT EXACT badge?

Well first off, it made Undertale connected to my favorite game, thereby making it even COOLER, but that's still a pretty big logical leap. I needed more. Let me tell you, as I started looking, more and more pieces started to fit into place. At the end of Earthbound you're given a photo album, covering your adventures throughout the game. To me it's one of the best, most satisfying endings in gaming to look back on your journey in picture form. And what does Sans happen to have in his other drawer? A photo album with pictures of Sans with people you don't recognize. Of course you don't know them, they're not characters present in Undertale. And note the word that's used here, PEOPLE you don't recognize. Not underworld monsters. So that's 2 items oddly linked to the Mother series. But then, how do the blueprints and broken machine fit in? Well, in the final stretch of Earthbound, Ness and his 3 friends must travel to the past in order to have their final battle against the evil alien Giygas. To do that, Dr. Andonuts (remember him, by the way, he's going to be important later) with the help of the science geniuses Apple Kid and Mr. Saturn, create what's known as the Phase Distorter, a machine that allows people to travel through time and space. Except, it comes with a cost. It can't transport organic material. As a result, the young heroes must put their souls into robotic bodies to use the machine, and thus, save the world. I played this game back in 1997 and I'm not ashamed to admit that when I first saw this scene, I cried. It's DEVASTATING. Doctor Andonuts says goodbye to his son, these characters you've grown to love and care about are suddenly promising to sacrifice their lives. For all they know, there is no possibility of them being able to come back home. It's this incredibly dark departure in the final moments of what was otherwise a fun, quirky, and colorful RPG. So what does all of this have to do with Undertale? A LOT, actually. But the first thing you need to know is that Mr. Saturns are known for their, let's say, unique linguistic style. That would explain the illegible handwriting on the blueprints. And the machine? I think a broken Phase Distorter is behind that curtain. Now that may seem like a stretch, but it actually explains a lot. If Sans wound up in Undertale via Phase Distorter, it could provide a reason for why he's a skeleton. He used the machine as organic matter and suffered the consequences. Not killing him, but turning at least a part of him into a pile of bones. That could also explain why Sans has given up hope for going home. Remember the Phase Distorter is a time machine. By being in underworld, he's not only in a different place, but based on how he talks, he's also in a different time, with no hope of travelling back to the time he came from. But the crossovers between Earthbound and Undertale continue. When you speak to Apple Kid at the end of Earthbound, he's blown away by the astronomical odds of Ness overcoming Giygas, saying that he's going to continue studying the trait called courage, in order to harness its power. Seems awfully similar to the same experiments happening in Undertale around the trait of determination, no? Especially since so much has shown that Sans was a key player in those experiments. But I'm sure you also want physical evidence right? Well don't worry, because I have plenty. During one of the endings of Undertale, we see Undyne and Alphys hanging out on the beach on the surface world. A beach that bears a lot of similarities to the tropical resort location named Summers that you play through in Earthbound. In fact, the geographic layout of the surface bears some striking similarities to the world of Mother. When Undertale's crew of monsters are finally able to reach the surface and look out over the earth, they're met with a beautiful sunset falling across the landscape of a tall mountain, a large city, and a sandy area adjacent to water. Notice the sun's reflection to indicate water, and a lack of trees in this middle section here, hence the sand.

Well, in Earthbound you have the big city of Fourside, complete with skyscrapers, which you reach via a desert that just so happens to be adjacent to some water, and to the east, the mountain in Onett where a meteorite lands on Earth. I always called it Aw-nett. But if that's not clear enough for you, Mother 1, Earthbound Zero, Earthbound Beginnings, whatever you want to call it, it's had a lot of names, had a map laying out the same geographic landscape. A tall mountain to the east of a large city, separated by a desert, with all of it up against a coast. I don't know about you, but to me it seems like there's a definite connection between the world of Eagleland (Eagleland? Again, unclear how its pronounced.) between the world of Eagleland and the surface world of Undertale. But the strongest physical connection, one that definitely unites these two franchises, comes from none other than Papyrus himself. He wears a custom-made costume known as his “battle body”. But if you look really closely at the design on the armor, you'll notice some markings on the chest. Is it just a throwaway detail? Ohoh NO, that right there is an exact match to the ones that appear on the chests of Starmen, the most iconic enemy of Earthbound. And look at the way he stands! I always thought it was awkward until i saw the two characters side by side. Papyrus’ curved arm and hand is a DIRECT match to the curved arms of the Starmen in the Mother series! In short, we have some incredibly strong proof that the Earthbound universe is somehow connected to the Undertale world, which brings us back to our initial question, WHO IS SANS? Well, what if we took it one final step and said that Sans happened to be Ness from Earthbound? Sent through the Phase Distorter during a test of courage, carrying the Franklin badge and his photo album and his trusty backpack. Not only do all the items in the workshop suddenly fit, but so does Sans’ behavior. Remember, Sans can seemingly teleport. And Ness just happens to have the PSI ability to teleport. Now look the way Sans always stands, hands in his pockets, directly facing the camera. It's a very similar stance to how Ness is depicted standing in most marketing for the game. It even explains why Sans bleeds when you finally hit him. He is, or at least, WAS, a human. Oh and finally, Sans is only one letter removed from being an anagram of Ness. That's just a fun one. I thought it was worth mentioning. But if there was any doubt, we have to look no further than the creator's previous work. Toby Fox, the man behind Undertale, had previously worked on a Halloween hack for Earthbound. But this just wasn't a simple reskin. The Halloween hack tells the tale of Dr. Andonuts after the events of Earthbound. Remember, I pointed him out? He's the one who made the Phase Distorter. In Toby Fox’s version of the story, we see that after Giygas' defeat, the souls of the kids never return home. Instead, by going to the past to defeat Giygas, they create a new timeline that they're stuck in. As a result, Jeff never reunites with his father Dr. Andonuts. And Dr. Andonuts goes crazy with guilt, because HE’S the one responsible for creating the time machine, and extracting the souls of his son and his son's friends to send them back to what he assumes was their death. In his mind, he's killed 4 kids. And in Toby Fox's game, he's lost his mind trying to deal with that guilt. I'm telling you, this hack is DARK. that said, you see a lot of Undertale in this game. The appearance of Amalgamates, the first use of the awesome song Megalovania, the prototypes for Flowey? And the theme of having the choice to be nonviolent in an RPG, SPARING your enemies. But then why's all this matter to the theory? Well, remember, in Toby Fox's version of the story, the kids don't come back. They're stuck in the past, with no hopes of getting home. Just like Sans. And, in the hack, one character is oddly missing, with no explanation as to why. NESS. Presumably in this timeline his soul is in a different place than his 3 friends.

In short, Undertale is a continuation of Toby’s version of Earthbound, with Ness never being able to get home, adopting the name Sans, and accompanied by Papyrus, a former Starman, an alien force able to speak English and still equipped with his armor, and signature posture, but without any knowledge of earthly things... like the Sun. The pieces all just seem to fit. Now all we need is an appearance from Pokey/Porky and we’ve got ourselves a true sequel. But hey, that's just a theory. A GAME THEORY! THANKS FOR WATCHING!

[lousimusician]

Drunk Part 2

Pairing: Fuckboy!Tom x Reader

Summary: You realize that going out and partying may be more fun than you originally thought, but Tom seems to disagree

Warnings: Language and sexual themes

A/N: This part is more of a setup to part 3, so it isn't as eventful as the first part

_________________________________________

Growing up with Tom and Harrison was hard. You lived in their shadows. They were the popular one's while you were always cast to the side. They were outgoing and promiscuous while you stayed introverted and innocent.

But you were okay with it, you told yourself. You were the smart one, you kept the two idiots level headed.

And day after day as you grew up you kept telling yourself you didn't need to be popular, you didn't need to have attention, you didn't need to be desired by boys.

Because you were the smart one.

You completely believed that until this very moment. Where you sat in front of your mirror, hunched over your phone scrolling through every post you were tagged in from last night.

You had woken up snuggled into Tom when everything last night came back.

You remembered going to the party. "Helping" Tom. Drinking with Jonathan.... kissing Jonathan. Dancing all night. Grinding against guys... Kissing even more guys (and that one girl). Losing your dress. Body shots. Tom finding you. And finally breaking down because that guy insulted you and you thought you had dissapointed Tom. 

You had crawled out from under Tom's arm to look at yourself in the mirror, and the sight was shocking. Your hair was a mess, you had smudged mascara under your eyes, your lips were raw and you had hickeys, bruises, and scratches all over.

It truly was a sight to behold, you could only imagine what everyone from your highschool would have to say, seeing what had become of the most innocent girl once she reached college.

Your attention had been pulled when you heard your phone vibrate. You reached for your phone to quickly check the notification, when the number of them shocked you. 

You had 30 notifications from instagram just from last night to this morning. You sat down across from your mirror and with shaky hands, had unlocked your phone.

You were tagged in photos and videos, every single one of them with you being the center of attention. There were videos of you dancing, people taking body shots off you, you taking body shots off others, playing drinking games (Where you figured out that that was how you lost your dress, after losing a particular game.) Photos of you drinking and kissing guys.

But the captions were what really got you.

Every single one of them praised you.

Captions that read.

"One of the lamest parties until @yourinstagram showed up."

"Never knew @yourinstagram had it in her."

"Literally the life of the party. @yourinstagram"

And one of your personal favorites. (Though you'd never admit it.)

"One of the sexiest girls at last nights party. @yourinstagram."

And the comments were just as good. People saying that they wish they had come just to see you and others wanting to meet you.

Going to last nights party and doing what you had done went against everything you convinced yourself that you weren't and that it was something you didn't need.... but now you weren't to sure.

Last night was fun. It was exciting. And yes maybe you could've toned down the alcohol intake, but you had never had that much fun before. 

You were starting to understand why Tom and Harrison went out so often now.

Speaking of Tom, you got up and headed towards your bed, laying on top of him to wake him up.

"Toooooooom."

He grunted underneath you. 

"Tommyyy you're never gonna believe this. It's about last night's party."

Tom was wide awake with that, as he sat up. "Shit, I forgot about the party. Are you okay?" He asked as you rolled off him, sitting next to him now.

You looked at him with wide eyes, grinning ear to ear looking excited. The sight making his stomach do backflips. "I'm more than okay- well actually I'm kinda sore and my head hurts, but other than that I feel great. You need to read these!" You yelled, shoving your phone in his face.

Tom took the phone from your hand and started scrolling through your notifications. His eyebrows furrowed and the more he scrolled a frown etched its way upon his face.

You pouted. "Why do you look upset? Isn't this a good thing?"

Tom glanced at you, then looked down at the phone. "I'm- I'm just a little confused. Last night you were crying and apologizing for what you did last night, and now you're... happy?"

"Well I mean, what I did last night... it was different." You said sheepishly rubbing the back of your neck. "I was actually having a lot of fun but then you punched that guy and he called me a slut and I dunno.. I was drunk and I thought I dissapointed you so I started crying."

Tom looked at you skeptically. "And how do you feel now?"

"I feel good. Last night was the craziest thing I've ever done, and it felt good not having to worry about anything. And now that I'm sober I know I didn't disappoint you, like you do crazier things than what I did last night."

Tom looked at you in bewilderment. "Okay, who are you and what have you done with my best friend? You're one of the least sexual people I know, how can you be so excited over this?"

You narrowed your eyes at him. "Should I be offended?"

"No, it's just." He paused. "You are (Y/N) (L/N). My best friend since diapers. You are a sweet and innocent girl who's in love with acting and film just as much as I am. You've never even had a boyfriend before let alone sex. And now after last night you aren't phased in the slightest over what happened?"

You sighed. "Fine I will admit that what happened was crazy and very unlike me, but honestly all those things that I was so scared to try isn't that big of a deal. I mean like look at you and Haz. The two of you have been sleeping around since you guys hit puberty and plus... it's kinda nice to have the attention on me for once." 

Tom bit his lip as he gazed at you quietly. "...What do you mean?"

"Oh c'mon Tom!" You exclaimed, standing up from your bed. "Ever since highschool started you and Haz became popular with everybody and I was just your weird little friend that girls used to get a date with one of you two. And then college started and I thought maybe I'd have a fresh start and the stupid hierarchy of popular kids would go away but then high school ended up repeating itself. I'd stay in my dorm room while the two of you were invited to every single party but now." You took the phone, and showed him three new dm's. "Look! I was invited to three different parties! People love me now!"

"Well of course they love you, you stuck your tongue down most of their throats."

You rolled your eyes. "Give me a break, you do worse. I'm just tired of you and Haz having all the fun, while I just watch my life pass by."

Tom was getting increasingly more annoyed the more you spoke about this. "So your solution is to start getting trashed at parties and what, fucking every guy you see? Be realistic here (Y/N), this isn't you."

You groaned in frustration. "You just don't get it Tom."

"What exactly don't I get then?"

"You've never been put down, no one has ever not wanted you. I actually have people wanting to be my friend now! I have guys that find me attractive!"

Tom stood up now. "Jesus Christ (Y/N), you want to feel attractive fine. You are one of the prettiest girls I have ever met. Now will you stop it with this stupid idea?"

You rolled your eyes at him. "Don't patronize me. I had fun last night and if I want to do it again, I have the right to. I thought you'd be the least judgmental about something like this. Cause guess what babe, I'm not the only one with hickeys on my neck right now."

Tom shook his head. "Fine. If you so desperately want to feel wanted by these insignificant people then I can't stop you. But don't come crying to me when this bites you in the ass." He said, before heading towards the door and sliding his shoes on.

"Where are you going?"

He opened the door now standing in the doorway. "Back to my dorm. I was gonna stay after everything that happened last night but you seem completely fine now, so you clearly don't need my help." He spat out. "I'll talk to you later. Hopefully you will have come to your senses by then." He grumbled before slamming the door behind him. 

~~~

Tom walked across campus, heading for his dorm. He was frustrated. He couldn't understand what had gotten into you, since when did you need to feel approval from everyone else. 

You were always the innocent and shy one who never needed anyone else to validate you.

But what was worse was that Tom couldn't understand why he reacted that way.

Sure your innocent but Tom was far from it. Why should it matter to him that you started doing the same things he did in his free time. Why did the thought of you all over another guy make him so fucking mad. 

He shook his head trying to rid himself of his thoughts as he roughly swung the door to his dorm open then slam it shut behind him.

Across the room Tom saw two head's pop out from the covers on Harrison's bed, which were Harrison himself and some girl he was with.

Tom nodded to them. "Haz, Alexis-"

"It's Amber." The girl said impatiently.

Tom rolled his eyes. "Whatever." He said, laying on his own bed.

Harrison studied him for a moment. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Tom grumbled.

"No you're not. What happened?" Harrison asked, sitting up in his bed now. 

"Nothing happened Haz, drop it." 

Harrison rolled his eyes. "If it's about (Y/N) I deserve to know. She's my best friend too y'know?"

"How did y-"

"A friend told me you went to stay with her for the night. Now what the fuck happened."

Tom was silent for a few moments, debating on whether or not he should tell him. "...Fine. But kick Alexis out."

"Amber." The girl insisted.

"Whatever." Came his reply.

"You heard him Amber." Harrison said. "Get out."

Amber huffed. "Fine. Call me later." She said before gathering her things and leaving the two friends alone.

"Okay spill."

Tom clicked his tongue and sighed. "Do you know what happened last night?"

"Yeah, I saw on Instagram. Shit's pretty crazy, if I knew she was gonna come by I wouldn't have ran off with Amber. Why weren't you watching her, I thought after that incident in high school you would've never let her drink again."

"I didn't know she stayed. I ran off with some girl." He said pulling the pillow out from under his head and covering his face with it.

"Well is (Y/N) okay?"

"Yeah. More than okay actually." Came his muffled reply.

Harrison furrowed his eyebrows. "What do you mean, 'more than okay'."

"I mean, she actually had fun last night which means she's gonna want to go to more parties."

"Really? Huh, I wouldn't've expected that from her. But if she had fun why are you so pissed."

Tom groaned. "Because it's (Y/N)!" He exclaimed suddenly sitting up in bed, throwing the pillow off his face. "Could you imagine her sleeping around with guys like us! It's completely mental!"

Harrison paused, narrowing his eyes at Tom as he studied him. "Why do you care so much?"

"Because it's (Y/N)!"

"Stop saying that, that's not an answer. If she had fun last night she should be able to go to more parties. The girl's still a virgin let her have some fun for once."

"Why does she need to have that kind of fun?"

"Did you expect her to never have sex Tom?" Harrison scoffed.

"I-I don't know! But I know these guys aren't good enough for her!"

Harrison paused as something began to click. "Hold on a second Tom, do you- do you like her?" He asked.

Tom looked at him in shock. "Of course not! It's (Y/N) for chrissake! I just care about her a lot."

Harrison's eyes suddenly widened in realization. "Holy shit! You do like her! That would explain why you've always been so protective of her all these years."

"What- I have not-"

"Oh come on Tom! I've seen the glares you've sent to guys that have so much as looked at her- and you've always been rather touchy with her."

Tom immediately felt his face begin to burn up. "No I'm not"

"Quit fucking denying it, yes you are. You always have your arm around her and you always have your hands on her in some way- and you're always looking at her."

"I-" he paused. "B-but I can't." He weakly said as the truth started to dawn on him.

It would explain everything. Why he was so angry seeing everyone all over you last night, that possessive feeling he had, and why he didn't want you going to any more of those parties even though you enjoyed it... And technically it would explain why he found you so goddamn attractive.

"Fuckin' hell, I do like her!"

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

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[alitheamateur]

The Grind- Chapter 25

I figured parking the bike in the garage out of plain sight would be my best bet, just in case Tia spaced and happen to pass by Revel’s and let Livvy catch site of me there. As far as she knew, Cal and I were out at the pub for the first preseason Steelers game, grabbing a couple beers. I drafted Tia to persuade her into one measly night off from the unforgiving jump ropes and speedbags to go to some unrealistic, sickening, fucking chick-flick, and maybe allow her a drink. My real whereabouts had to remain unsuspected, at least for now. I planned on filling her in on all the secrets tomorrow night, and pray to God that it didn’t send her spiraling into a hissy fit just 5 days before her match with the Franklin Park gal.

I had never lied this much to anyone in my damn life, which didn’t make the fact that Liv was the victim, any easier. I had prodded through her phone, snuck out on the porch two or three times in the last week to ‘check the mailbox’ that I had already emptied earlier in the day, so I could return a missed call. I bought plane tickets with my Paypal so she wouldn’t see the transactions, and paid Mac $200 to play chauffeur to the airport, all behind the back of the woman in my life. It was for her own good, and for my own peace of mind.

I opted to reach out to Liz first, stealing her number from her daughter’s phone contacts, figuring if she and Tony were anything like my own parents, the lady of the house called the shots. I pleaded with her best I knew how, to promise we keep my little master plan hidden from Liv, and in typical female fashion, she whispered “oooh’s” and “awwww’s” about how I was just ‘too sweet and romantic for my own good.” Shit, you got a lot to learn about me, lady.

They flew in early this morning, and I gave Mac all their hotel info to pass along when he picked them up, so I could spend the day with Liv in peace, not having to duck out to answer a thousand phone calls. The Elliott’s weren’t happy about my fitting the bill for their visit to the ‘Burgh, but I insisted on treating them like royalty for the week they’d be in my city. Anyone with Livvy’s blood in their veins, deserved to be considered as such. No matter how strained the healing relationship between the three of them was, Tony and Liz were still her parents, and I’d give them that respect. Sure, the way they handled some situations with their daughter was lightyears beyond fucking foolish if you ask me, but that wasn’t my battle to fight.

I figured Revel was a happy medium for dinner on their first night. It was just hoity enough to impress them, but not stuffy enough to overwhelm them. I had to scoot Liv out the door first, knowing the dress pants and button up Ralph Lauren would’ve been a dead give away into my long list of fabrications this week. I had to work one-on-one with Tia to organize everything, directing her to keep my lady out late so I could get home first and change inconspicuously. But threaten her not to get Liv completely bombed so she wouldn’t be hung over for the surprise breakfast with her parents tomorrow morning. I only booked their hotel room for two nights, in hopes that this whole shebang wouldn’t pop off in my damn face, and Livvy would let the two of them finish out their visit at our place.

Once my helmet was strapped and locked to the bike, I turned the corner into the main lobby of the restaurant to make my way to the hostess chair. I made sure my guests were seated already, and followed the direction to our corner table, wiping two very sweaty hands on the inside lining of my slacks.

God, please don’t let them laugh me out of this place.

It was like looking straight into the face of Liv in 25 years when I locked eyes with Elizabeth, besides the blonde color of her hair, not matching her child’s now darker strands. I guess I hadn’t noticed the stark resemblance over the video chat. I smiled at the two of them, I could feel it was awkward and forced but I hoped they’d return the gesture regardless. The couple stood, and I greeted the lady first, doing my best to always mind the Ritter manners.

“So nice to meet you in person, Mrs. Eliiott. You and Livvy might as well be twins! I’m uh… I’m Colton.” Her smile wasn’t the warm, sunny one I’d grown so fond of with Liv, but she was kind enough.

Tony, patiently standing to my right, observed every little inch I moved. Typical of the father to a girl, I assumed.

“Oh, Colton, it is very nice to meet you finally. And you look so sharp!” Liz held my hand between both of hers, to appreciate the treasure of a man who could dress himself with some sense these days.

“Thank ya’, ma’am,” I blushed awkwardly. Compliments were never my strong suit.

“And Mr. Elliott, how are ya’ sir? Nice to see you.” I turned on the masculine shake when approaching her dad. My own father engrained the importance of a firm grip greeting as soon as I could talk.

“Enough with the formal stuff, Colton. Call me Tony. Although, I can admire the respect you have for your elders. To be honest, I didn’t expect such from a guy who beats people up for a living.”

Happy to shatter your stereotypical idea of me, man. But, I’d still break the nose of any fucker in this entire place who breathed the wrong way.

“Don’t let the scarred knuckles fool ya’, sir. I’m not a complete wild animal,” I tried to joke.

We sat, waiting to order, each scanning over the menu in tongue-tied silence before Liz finally broke the plain. “So, did Liv ever catch you in this big scheme, Colton? Does she know we’re here yet?”

“Actually, she’s completely clueless. Or, just letting on to be. But, she seems to be in the dark still. Ain’t real sure how I pulled it off, honestly. She usually reads me like a damn book.” I huffed with a scratchy laugh, quickly scolding myself internally for slipping a swear word.

“And this fight? Was it your idea? I mean, did you want her to get involved with it like you are?” Tony folded his menu, assumingly decided on his dinner choice, and focused he folded hands towards me. His tenor seemed almost snarky, but I was sure he hadn’t meant it that way, remembering Liv say he seemed somewhat excited over the idea.

“Actually, I hated the thought from the get-go. I lost my mind just when I thought it was all for fun. I begged her not to take it. But, you know 2-1 as well as I do. She shut me up real quick.”

“2-1?” Her mother cocked a confused smile of question.

“Oh, uhhh.. yeah. It’s just a little nickname I call her. She wears this old ratty hoodie around all the time with the number on the back. So, the name just kinda stuck.” I scratched my head before taking a generous gulp of water to lower the temperature of my smothering, sweating armpits.

“She talks about ball then? I mean, you’ve heard some about her days as a Warrior?” Tony interjected with round eyes.

“Definitely. I know it all, Mr. Elli… uh, Tony. We play sometimes on Sundays at this park down from our house. She kills me by 15+ every time.”

He smiled bittersweetly at the idea of his all-star with a ball in her hands again. And I, wanted to hit him for being so blind to the fact that she had so many other talents to be proud of, if he would just live in the now and see it.

Between our main course, and the dessert I ordered after listening to Liz read over the description in the menu more than three times, her dad brought up the inevitable. The “thing I wanted to talk to them about.”

“Okay, Colton. Now that you’ve treated us to that perfectly cooked slab of red meat, what did you want to talk with us about? Something to do with this fight, I’m sure.”

I swished another drink of water, although it was missing the bite of bourbon that I needed so fucking badly.

“Yeah, you could say that, I guess…” I answered him vaguely.

“Everything is okay though? You’re not worried for her anything, are you?” Elizabeth chimed in, sweeping a hair behind her ear, just the way Liv does.

“I’m worried for her, only because I love her. And when you walk up those steel steps, you’re takin’ a risk no matter who you are. But your daughter, she can hold her own. I see that now.” I reiterated to myself as much as her parents sitting across from me.

Tony and Liz looked away from me, now towards each other in both confusion and concern at my lack of response to the burning question of the entire damn night.

Being the coward I fucking am, and my very typical struggle for the right words, I did the only thing I knew to do that would clear the air, and satisfy their curiosity. I wriggled around in my seat, trying to loosen the opening of my pocket so I could reach in for the tiny, purple velvet box that had been burning a hole there since I left the house a couple of hours ago.

I neatly and gently placed it closer their side of the perfectly set table, and then looked down to fidget with my fingers. 

Her mom, the feminine instinct in her realizing immediately what was inside, reached for the box first, eagerly. A hand covered her opened jaw once she caught site of the custom cut, octagon shaped diamond, seated inside a silver band. The price was kept inside the secret space of a lock box I kept at the top of the closet, way beyond my housemates reach, to remind myself of the success that had allowed me to purchase something so extravagant, still not living up to what Liv really deserved. The jeweler laughed at the bizarre suggestion I had for an octagon shaped engagement diamond, but there was no convincing me into anything else. The cage was the very reason our relationship even began. Well, that along The Grind. And Drew and I had plans for that later. 

“Colton, speak up, son.” Tony leaned over to witness what had so thoughtfully touched his wife in the square shaped box. I couldn’t read his reaction, which sent my nerves straight to shit.

“Tony, I adore your daughter. That goes without sayin’….” I pasued, planning out every word in my head before I said it out loud. “I hurt her awhile back, something I still beat myself up over, and I never, ever want to see her cry like that again. I have issues of my own with anger, and I throw tantrums sometimes, but Livvy is my calm, ya’ know? She’s made me into this man who actually feels more than hate… and…. resentment. I would walk in front of a train for her, if it came to that.”

They sat very still in their seats, Liz wiping a tear here and there with the corner of her black cloth napkin, and Tony only furrowed his forehead, paying close attention to my professions.

“I didn’t know people were actually capable a’ lovin’ somebody else like this, but as soon as I think I love Livvy as much as anybody possibly could, she goes and proves my ass wrong.”

Strike two for sayin’ ass, Ritter. Liv’s gonna wash your mouth out with soap.

“I’m askin’ kindly, for a blessing from the two of you to ask Liv to marry me. It would mean a great deal to me, and I value the opinions of you both. But, if you can’t give it to me, I apologize, but I’m going to spend the rest of my life with your beautiful daughter no matter what. If she’ll have me.” I finished.

I had enough of my pop in me to know that asking for approval of the father was the right thing to do. But I had just enough thick-headed asshole in me, that I had decided on kneeling for Liv’s hand regardless of their approval. When your life once was a pathetic waste, and your mind is a dingy, manic hole like mine, you cling to any light like a fuckin’ firefly to flame. Liv was my chance, my reason. She was my light, and addiction.

“I think I can speak for Lizzie here too, when I say the respect you’ve shown us by asking, speaks a lot about your character. But Colton, this all seems a bit… rushed? I mean, it wasn’t long ago she was sitting in our dining room, explaining to us she had to flee the city for a week just to try and get some peace of mind after the way you hurt her. Now, the two of you are living together, and thinking about marriage?” Tony said.

“You’re exactly right. And, if Liv tells me she isn’t ready, then I’ll learn some patience and wait ‘til she is. But, as much as you love Mrs. Elliott here, I’m sure you’re familiar with the saying ‘when you know, you know’….”

I knew I was going to be pining for the girl the second I laid eyes on her static striken, matted hait that morning at the coffee shop. And I knew it again, the minute she walked out of Mac’s gym that night. As soon as the lingering of her sweet perfume had dissipated from that hallway, I felt my heart harden like cement.  

“Tony, you know was well as I do that Liv would want this. She loves him. Any time the sting from a breakup is as deep as she said it was, it’s meant to be.” I smiled to her mom for supporting the decision that her stern husband was still wrestling with.

There was silence while Liz devoured the chocolate desert the waiter had brought, offering me a taste, and once the check was delivered to me, an answer from the pair was still unknown.

“If ya’ want, you guys think it over. I know it’s a hefty decision,” I reasoned levelheaded.

“No need, Colton. My Livvy would never forgive me if she knew I didn’t give you my blessing.. If she loves you, and wants a life with you, well….then welcome to the family, boy.” Tony smiled, sliding the ring back, and I stood following his lead, to hug them both.

The most perfect, gorgeous, fuckin’ green eyed, smiley woman on this God forsaken earth, was going to share my last name. 

tags: @torialeysha @eap1935 @littleluna98 @mollybegger-blog

[dawnblxde]

[Kingdom Hearts 3 Review]

Welp I’ve finally done it, finally played and finished KH3! - After intentionally delaying doing so with my day one copy after finding out for some silly reason - it lacked multiple world visits for development sake and had no Final Fantasy characters - so I decided to finish the games I was in the middle of then replay the entire KH franchise, except the ones you could watch. Gonna leave my thoughts below. Just in case there are those out there still trying to avoid legit spoilers!

There were good and bad elements to this game.. Plenty of my experience that I enjoyed, but I believe more so that I didn’t - which made me want to pull out my hair. But I like my head shaved, so that wouldn’t work lol I liked the graphics, beautiful but I knew a PS3 could handle them as the quality of Woody in this game was the same as him in Toy Story 3 (2010 Video Game). Enjoyed the gameplay, though it felt like a flawed, floaty and broken version of Kingdom Heart’s 2 near perfect improvement of Kingdom Heart’s gameplay. A problem was the fact that in the first two main games, even when I was level 50-60′s - I always felt like I could DIE. It was always a fear during major combat moments. I had to concentrate so much just to be successful. Even if I tried to be a higher level then recommending through grinding. I never felt like that in KH3, every moment was such a cake walk. Even the final battle. Did they even try. Regardless, I had a good time with the gameplay and the visuals. But I wasn’t as drawn in as previous games. It did the game no favors and was a massive flaw, it lacking Final Fantasy characters. We should of been able to explore Radiant Garden or had other worlds relevant to FF characters. They were really important to Sora’s development as a Keyblade wielder. Cloud and Squall for sure. Sora wouldn’t be who he is if he hadn’t encountered and spoke to them. They’d of been useful in multiple sequences. We deserved the next part to Cloud’s issues with Sephiroth. That wasn’t resolved. See how Squall/Leon and the others reacted and dealt with what was going on at Radiant Garden. They’re capable of other world travel, seeing how they’d react to some of the new worlds would of been great as well. Nomura confirmed the only Noctis he’d put in KH was his Noctis. Versus XIII Noctis. And interest in doing so. Yet he wasn’t in the game, when as an Anti-Hero of both light and darkness would of been interesting. Seeing he’d take neither side. Also has important factors in common with Rapunzel and Elsa. Seeing them relating over this would of been nice. The lack off FF adds to factors that make KH3 be disappointing experience - along with an enjoyable one. One of the things that still makes KH2 the best. Was how awesome it was to watch the Final Fantasy characters and Disney characters team up in the battle of 1000 Heartless. One of the best aspects about the franchise is the concept of it being a FF x Disney - a Final Fantasy and Disney collaboration. Multiple visits were really needed. Some of the worlds were quite enjoyable and not frustrating. But they all have different percentages of feeling rushed and not fleshed out enough due to one visit. And some annoyingly treated Sora like he didn’t matter. Just acted like making you watch rushed unfinished version’s of the original Disney movies. Sora’s just there like. Oh look, it’s Sora over there! Hi Sora! You don’t matter here! Shouldn’t be like that. The Disney characters should be well blended into the Kingdom Hearts plot and Sora in the plot of the Disney world. The story made me feel emotional, I enjoyed all the Kingdom Hearts parts, even if I felt some of them were rushed or not written well. Tears did leave my eyes. I liked how Aqua didn’t actually give into Darkness, it was Ansem’s fault. I liked the reunion, final battle sequences and all the stuff leading up to it. My favorite parts to praise are the deaths of all Org 13 members, each made me feel emotional and I wanted to see those character’s again reborn. Not so much young Xeraxnort. But Ansem and Xemnas? Oh the feels there, they were strong. I clapped. I felt there could be more with Larxene in the game in general, including her end. Luxord’s! Clap, really want him to come back and play cards with Sora. Riku Replica’s was great too. Both Riku Replica’s. Marluxa’s.. Vanitas’s was disappointing. However, these great moments aren’t enough for me to forgive those disrespected by this game. The one’s from the worlds you could visit. I’ll get to the unforgivable bits last. Toy Story’s new story and world were great. I loved exploring that world and playing through it. The development was great. Only flaw was what they did with Buzz, he’s stronger character then they take him for. He wouldn’t lose himself to the Darkness. Otherwise, everything was great. Pretty sure it’s my favorite. Hercules’s world was the level of quality I expected! It was decent, I miss the goddamn tournament's, Phil’s voice - but I did love the exploration of his city and meeting his father! Shame no boss fight with Hades's, they’re great and fun! Twilight Town sucked! I liked seeing the gang again, Uncle Scrooge and little chef. But that doesn’t make up for the fact that more then half of Twilight Town is cut and it doesn’t look like the same place! I liked exploring the entire world, not just a portion of it. Monsters Inc’s sequel to the first film with that world experience was great! I had a blast! I always wanted to see Sully’s reunion with Boo! It wasn’t perfect, but I had a good time! Pirates of Caribbean felt like it changed things from it’s canon, but it was an emotional blast! Jack Sparrow scenes and Will scenes, it was just great! The Big Hero 6 world! Oh it was great! It was emotional to lost Baymax in the film, to get him back was great! Kinda sucked to not see the big brother come back, but they’re saving that version of events for the sequel. Two Baymax’s. The only thing I didn’t like was how the whole cast was shrunk. Best example being Honey should of been taller then Jack Sparrow’s model, but she wasn’t. These worlds could of really done with multiple visits. Even more so the three left, that were wronged and disrespected. Don’t try to praise/defend what was done to them, they deserved better. Winne the Pooh deserved better. I liked not having to collect Torn Pages, but even if you didn’t have to. In the previous games, The Winnie the Pooh worlds lasted about an hour or so doing all the activities, helping out all Pooh Bear’s friends - stuff like that. Then you have KH3′s version, which is less then 20 minutes, doing the same activity three times. That was awful. Pooh’s universe deserved better. We deserved better. This is a massive flaw. Can’t forgive this. I love Pooh Bear. Now, as someone who love’s Rapunzel, not fond of how they treated her world either. It was basically the movie with bits cut out and skipped. She hardly interacted with Kingdom Hearts lore, Sora hardly stuck around her. It was just like. Now and then, Sora’s there. Why were they so scared of showing Rapunzel kissing Flynn? There were so many moments Sora should of got to interact with? Where were the two bad guy twins? Rapunzel just generally deserved better in this game. Last but not least, Frozen. Probably the worst world in the game. Because you spend most of it just falling off mountains. They hardly let Sora interact with Elsa or Anna. Or left them get involved in Kingdom Hearts lore. Sora would of been able to relate well to Elsa if they let it happen. You can’t explore the palace, Han’s has no lines and you’re forced to listen to Let It Go again with Sora basically just there. Like hi Sora! All I liked was Snow guard getting more of a role. Don’t even get to explore the city. Just the snowy place. No real development, it’s like - what was the point? There really was none. Why did we go there? Why was Larxene there? Elsa and Anna deserved better then this. Also while not all Disney worlds could of returned in KH3, due to their stories being settled. A lot definitely could! Also, Kairi deserved better then pretty much being a plot device, hardly getting development at all just to go poof. And the idea that Sora’s sacrifice to get her back doesn’t lead to the priority of everyone to find and/or bring him back somehow instead of chilling. Just made the whole ending sequence an OOC moment for me.

Verdict! 

Kingdom Hearts 3 is a decent game and fun experience, but it’s also a flawed mess. Like handling in a English report that gets a low C and just barely hits the passing grade. It is not the worst in the franchise, but Kingdom Hearts 2 easily beats it and so does Kingdom Hearts, the original one. Funner to play then Dream Drop Distance, Chain Of Memories, Recoded and the Roxas focused game! But the rest defeat it! I have no interest in a new game plus, roleplay wise I intend to amend the flaws. The Disney worlds that were wronged will get justice. Add back Final Fantasy and the missing Disney worlds. Make it what it should of been! I had a good time, I really did. But once was enough. After finishing, it now shocks me that an amount of people I can count on just one of my hands tried to either tell me KH3 was good enough or superior to all the other games, even KH2. My assumption now is, they hadn’t recently played the other games before playing 3, were lost in Nostagla or something else was going on. Just how.. How could this possibly beat the two other main titles? The only thing superior is the more then three team mates tbh. xD

7/10

I really feel like I’m being generous here, but if I went lower then I’d think I was being too harsh. It’s not FFXV and Bound by Flame 5/10 quality, but it’s certainly not The Walking Dead (by Tellale) and The Last of Us 9/10 quality. So this will have to do. Nomura, I strongly advise you to look back at Kingdom Hearts 2 and what made it so great, before you work on your next main title. 

[killscreencinema]

Xenoblade Chronicles X (Wii U)

Xenoblade Chronicles X, released by Monolith Soft “X”-clusively for the Wii U in 2015, takes place on an alien planet named Mira, where the last remnants of humanity have crash landed after Earth was decimated by a mysterious alien force known as the Ganglion.  The human survivors live on in the form of “mimeosomes”, which are enhanced cyberorganic duplicates, which are being controlled remotely by their real bodies while in stasis in a massive vault known as the Lifehold.

You play as a freshly revived from stasis new recruit in an organization known as BLADE, whose mission statement, besides gathering resources and fending off hostile creatures for the residents of the fledgling city of New Los Angeles, is to find the Lifehold, which was lost during the crash landing, before it runs out of power, killing the rest of humankind in the process.  The only problems is that BLADE is in a race to find the Lifehold against their old pals, the Ganglion, who are committed to finishing the extermination they started.

I normally don’t go into so much detail about a video game story, but goddamn if this one didn’t capture my imagination like no other video game in awhile, especially a J-RPG, with all of their tired tropes.  In fact, while I greatly enjoyed the first game, Xenoblade Chronicles, I found the story to be disappointingly banal, especially from a studio like Monolith, who are known for complex plots since the days of ye olde PlayStation with Xenogears (when the creative team was working under Squaresoft).  I love the idea of humans rebuilding civilization, with their main hub of New Los Angeles having the familiar California architecture juxtaposed against a strange, alien landscape.  I love the idea of these people being trapped in cyber-organic bodies, which if killed, would merely trap their consciousness back in their real bodies in stasis.  What a mind trip it would be for someone close to you to die, but if you’re able to find where their real body is tucked away, you might have a chance to bring them back for realsies!  To the game’s credit, it deeply explores both the negative and positive psychological implications of such an existence, albeit in a melodramatic fashion one comes to expect from most anime (which J-RPGs are basically offshoots of).  The characters are all well-rounded, with Elma, your commanding officer and all around badass bitch, being my favorite.  I even love what Elma says whenever she levels up:

“Strength comes from experience.  That’s true on any planet.”

Meanwhile, whenever my character leveled up she’d exclaim “MY GROWTH SPURT!!!”  Which is... weird.  I guess it’s better than your 13-year-old teammate, Lin, yelling that. 

You’re well-advised to spend most of your time with Elma and Lin, getting them nice and strong.  You can also choose fourth party member from a variety of characters you meet along the way.  The longer you spend time with your team completing missions, the more your affinity grows with them.  One you reach a certain affinity level, it opens a personal side-quest with each respective character, which are worth doing not only to further dive into the story, but for the “fortune and glory, kid, fortune and glory”, as Indiana Jones would say.

While I can’t say enough things about the story, the gameplay is just as solid and immersive.  It plays basically just like its spiritual predecessor, for it should be noted at this point that gameplay is the only thing is has in common with the first game as it does not continue the story.  It’s almost like how Mega Man X *kinda* continues the story of the original Mega Man series, but with a darker, more sci-fi tone.  Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and 2 are pure fantasy (with a lil bit of sci-fi), while Xenoblade Chronicles X is sci-fi fantasy all the way.  It’s pretty much the J-RPG version of Mass Effect, but without all the sex.

The battle system is in real-time, with your various special moves set up in slots.  You can unleash them at will, or wait for your comrades to request a specific move, which is optimal as it is one of very few ways to heal your party.  Plus, those special attacks have to recharge, so you don’t want to be stuck with no specials while your party’s HP is in the red, and one of them is begging for a heal.  Aw~kward!  I do like how streamlined it feels as opposed to the kind of turn-based fighting I’m used to in J-RPGs, although it’s always stressful not being able to control the three other party members beyond issuing generic squad orders like “Concentrate your fire” or “assemble with me” or “GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE” before running from danger like King Arthur and his knights running from that bunny in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

You’ll be using that order a lot by the way as, similarly to the first game, low level enemies cohabit alongside extremely high level enemies all over the world maps.  While most of the time the super strong monsters will ignore your existence, unless you pick a fight or bump into them, others might not have such a chill disposition and will prefer to trample you instead.  Running into an area populated by high-level enemies can feel a lot like when you accidentally wander into a dangerous neighborhood.  There’s nothing like looking for a rare item in a cave only to realize it’s full of enemies twice your level, so you carefully back away like the Homer Simpson meme:

You might think I’m complaining, but I actually really enjoyed this in both games, as it really makes it feel like a truly open world and having to tread softly or risk sudden annihilation from a level 80 tyrant you didn’t know was there makes it feel more like an adventure.  That being said... it can also be incredibly infuriating when you’re flying around in your mech suit, which are called “Skells” in this game, and you innocently bump into a powerful bad guy only for him to promptly blow up your Skells, leaving you with a salvage cost in the MILLIONS.  Yep, that’s when you normally “save scum” by loading up a previous save, but damned if they didn’t make it a pain in the ass what with the obscene loading times and all the fucking menu screens you have to press A through.  While it’s true that players who are savvy about planting mining beacons in the most optimal way to earn money will have more credits than they know how to spend, you will trash your Skells a lot, and that shit adds up, especially when you’re trying to save for more powerful Skells or expensive equipment.

By the way, I don’t want to understate how fucking cool it is that you get a giant mech robot to ride in halfway through the game.  I was already onboard with Xenoblade Chronicle X before that happened, so adding a giant mech robot to the mix is like discovering for the first time how freaking delicious Fritos are in chili.  Like... I love chili, but I had not idea it could be improved THIS much with Fritos!  And just as the initial buzz of getting a Skell starts to wear off, YOU GET A FLIGHT MODULE THAT ALLOWS YOU TO FLY ALL OVER THE MAP WITH IMPUNITY!  Hey, you like chili and Fritos?  Howz about a blow job too?  I mean, you’ll have to listen to an irritatingly catchy J-pop song while you’re getting the blow job, but still awesome!

 Which finally brings us to the music.  Holy shit.  The music is composed by Hiroyuki Sawano, who did the music for the anime series Attack on Titan.  There are lots of great tracks for the game... well except for both the day and night themes for NLA, which will get stuck in your head so much you’ll scream into your pillow while trying to sleep at night (meanwhile in your brain you keep hearing, “Uh, yeah, uh, yeah, oh oh oh”).  Even the worst track is forgivable if only because the main theme to game, innocously titled “Theme X”, is one of the most goddamn beautiful pieces of music I’ve heard in a game in years.  Listen and let the goosebumps wash over you:

It’s obvious I love the game, but there are negatives too.  For one, I didn’t finish the game, because HOLY HELL are the final bosses difficult.  Firstly, any hope that you have of beating them is with your Skells, so should they get wrecked somewhere along the way, there’s no way to bring them back, so you’re SOLAMWF (or “Shit out luck and mighty well fucked” as George Carlin coined).  If you saved before the fight, your heard was in the right place, but guess what?  You’re fucking trapped.  You can’t leave to buy a stronger Skell or level grind.  It’s a goddamn dead end, emphasis on the word “dead”.  Fortunately, being a seasoned RPG player, when Elma asked me not only once, but TWICE, if I was ABSOLUTELY sure I’m ready to enter the Lifehold, I got the subtext and didn’t save once inside.  However, stupidly, I did save after accepting the final mission, which effectively locks out the affinity missions, which can be much less redundant way to level grind than doing the “Basic Missions” (which consists of tasks like fetch quests and monster bounties).  I tried like hell to grind to level 50 and save up enough credits to buy a level 50 Skell (which were the minimum recommendations for evening the odds against the boss), but I still couldn’t beat him. 

So out of frustration and boredom, I rage quit the game and moved on to something that will hopefully be a lot less strenuous... Bloodborne (wah-waaaaaah).  I like Xenoblade enough that I’ll return to it and continue grinding away until I eventually beat it.

So yeah... Xenoblade Chronicles X is pretty fucking great. I would cautiously nominate it as the best RPG you’ll play on the Wii U (below Breath of the Wild of course). 

[lovepmd]

my PMD stories/memories

Blue Rescue Team: i don't remember the exact year i played this game, my memory of a lot of things is pretty bad lol. i just remember this was the first game i was really interested in and wanted to play myself. before this, my brother played a lot of video games and i would watch. i would play once in a while if i thought i could or wanted to try, but blue rescue team was the first game i played on my own 100% and beat on my own. i don't completely remember, but i believe the very first time i had that i ended up beating the game with was pikachu and eevee. i'm pretty sure eevee was the hero and pikachu was the partner. i don't remember what their names were or what their team name was. i had to restart this game so many times, figuring out how to play it well was quite a learning experience for me lol. this was the first game i took seriously and wanted to beat on my own, it just took a few tries to finally do it. i was soooo happy when i finally beat the game, and sad of course cuz of the ending, but still. it was the first game i played and beat on my own and back then that was a big deal. there are still things i do in video games that are a big deal lol, mostly cuz i couldn't do them when i was younger. after that first time, i remember restarting the game several times and using different teams. i think i only beat the game with a couple more teams after the first one though, either it again got too hard for me or i got bored. i remember there was even a point during that first playthru i full on quit cuz i was so frustrated. i THINK i was stuck at sinister woods....i just remember something about team meanies, could've been a later point. i did eventually go back and continue playing and finally got past that point and kept going. i'm so happy i got into mystery dungeon and that blue rescue team was my first game. while looking back at it the gameplay and some mechanics aren't that great, it still helped me get into this series and buy every game after it when they came out.

Explorers of Darkness: i remember getting this one next instead of time cuz i was one of those kids that liked goth/dark stuff. yeah, it's lame i know lol. there's not a whole lot i remember about playing this one, but i do know/remember that i only played it thru once and never reset it. it's still Blaze the hero cyndaquil and Lagoon the partner piplup of team reliance...i have 133 hours in the game apparently lol. i did evolve them fully as well i remember doing a lot of crying, and i remember loving grovyle SO much. it definitely became one of my favorite games at the time, and despite restarting rescue team a few times, i just couldn't let go of this original team

Explorers of Sky: now uh, with this one it's interesting. i remember preordering it at my local gamestop and when i went to pick it up, i also got the animated special dvd, which they didn't tell me i would get when i preordered? so that was a nice surprise also i ended up being a little overconfident when playing this the first few times. once i knew it was the same story as time/darkness, i thought i'd be able to breeze right thru it...i was very wrong lol. i got stuck so many times and restarted SO many times and i tried with so many different teams, and my main problem was that i was trying to rush thru it as fast as possible...which i obviously couldn't do. i ran out of items super fast, i wasn't grinding for levels, and i suffered for it. i remember i got as far as palkia's spacial rift in one playthru as a vulpix and shinx team, but i had no more reviver seeds...you can imagine what happened. i had to quit for a while after that. finally FINALLY i used a team of a totodile and charmander, and i played VERY carefully and gathered up so many items and everything, and i FINALLY beat the game and did all the special episodes. it took wayyy longer than it should've for me to do that. and that was the last team i reset over in order to make team key

Gates to Infinity: i remember this game being hard for me for a while simply cuz of the change from 2D to 3D graphics, it was a little jarring at the time. my first team in there was a snivy and oshawott, and i loved them both dearly. interestingly enough, one of my brother's friends was trying out the demo of the game for a bit and even got the game and got as far as umbreon's appearance and going to find espeon. i don't think he continued after that, mostly cuz he got busy with other things, like being an adult. he was though, the first person i actually knew that also played the game, and while he never finished it, the fact that he played it at all made me very happy. i also remember seeing the the munna twist coming, or at least having one of those "that was too easy, something's wrong" feelings (i had a similar one back in darkness when grovyle was caught) there was a lot i liked about the game and i only restarted once in order to make team cali

Super: so i've technically played this game 3 times, only twice did i beat it. the first time i played it, i was rushing a little, and i wasn't really playing it well/carefully enough. i got as far as the fight with entei, and i BARELY beat him. so i decided after that the best option was to restart and play more carefully the second time around i did much better and manage to beat the game. my original team was a chespin and fennekin i remember when i beat the game and fennekin disappeared, i curled up on my bed and cried for a while. i was SO heartbroken about the switch around twist, it got to me hard and that one moment post game...even doing it as team fate i cried. when you go try to get mew back and hero has a moment where they flashback to watching partner disappear, that moment REALLY gets to me fun fact though, during that entei fight when the scarves first activate and you see the tree of life for a couple moments, i told my friend about that part cuz it was so amazing to me about the evolving thing lol, and when i mentioned the tree, she IMMEDIATELY said "oh, i bet that's xerneas" and i was kinda "uh, ok, sure" and moved on so imagine my face later about that lol

[awfulcomingdown]

i found the patience for jazz

from october 21, 2020

. . .

I talk myself out of myself

When I’m overwhelmed

-Touché Amoré, “Reminders”

Six fucking months. 

Six fucking months I’ve been a fucking worthless, jobless fucking nothing.

Fuck. I honestly sat down to write this to feel like absolute fucking garbage, but “Come Heroine,” is helping me to feel a little better. Fuck. fuck me. Like fucking PUP in the past.

Fuck. I haven’t had a job in six months. I fucked my tooth up last night because I accidentally bit my fucking fork. What a stupid way to fuck your teeth. Three times last night I woke up from the pain of grinding my injured tooth. 

So I’ve been feeling a little insane since that happened. It can be really hard for me to calm down. Sometimes there’s just that little thing hanging inside of you screaming at you to just fucking rip it out. I just want to be alone.

I’m still sort of in between being okay and not. 

I have that feeling, like I should just rip it out. It’s not a healthy one. I don’t know. I sat alone on the bathroom floor for a while.

I feel fucking stuck. Like I can’t just fully lean into a feeling and totally feel it. Like, I can’t feel totally fucking angry or sad and I can’t feel fucking good either. I just keep going back and forth between it all. It really bothers me. There’s this terrible frustration at not being able to fully commit to being fucking angry.

Maybe it’s fine. Let’s try thinking about video games.

I’ve been playing Outer Wilds recently. It’s pretty cool. I don’t think it’s going to change my life or anything, but it’s cool. You explore space, you die over and over, you slowly learn things, you slowly start to feel like you do actually know what the fuck you’re doing. Really the greatest parts haven’t been learning or any dumb shit like that, they’ve been the weird, chill, interesting surprises. Like the first time I went to Giant’s Deep and plunged into the green haze surrounding the planet and everything went dark until I emerged on the other side and found myself surrounded by green hurricanes over a green ocean. That was really cool. That makes me feel like the game is worth playing. I don’t really care about learning the secrets or figuring out what happened to the Nomai or whatever, I just kinda wanna chill and hang out and wander around space and look at stuff. It’s okay to not have everything resolved every moment. It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay. You’re trying your best. It’s okay to deal with the world however you can. I wonder if this game is going to wind up being something that fully sticks with me. Like, I imagine I will continue to enjoy the chill vibes of floating around and looking at shit, but I wonder if any of the mystery parts will start to feel interesting or cool. Maybe it will, dude. Who knows. 

Other than that, dude, I’ve been thinking a lot about Dragon Quest XI. Man, I wanna play that god dang game. It’s so big and ridiculous and chill and pretty. I wanna just fucking hang out with that thing for 80 hours, dude. I want it. I’ve been thinking about buying this thing for my Switch for the last couple days or so now. Man, I’m down for it. I’m down to just go into this thing and have a ridiculous, chill time. 

Fuck, writing is still a real good time, dude. 

So yeah, Dragon Quest XI, man. I want to soon be just hanging out with that thing and playing it for half and hour every night before bed. That’s beautiful!!! That sounds really chill, man. Sounds like a heck of a time, dude. 

Keep trying your best, it’s all a real weird, long, chill journey.

Let’s embrace the Twilight

While burning out the Limelight

-Touché Amoré, “Limelight”

[nuzblog]

DECEMBER 7th, 2017

I knew this was going to happen. Here I am, on December NINETEENTH, a whole 12 days after the previous play session, only just now sitting down to catalogue my journey so that, just maybe, I'll be able to play some more of this game later. I knew this would happen because it's Gen 2, and... well. I have some feelings on Gen 2, and on Johto. I intend to at least finish the game before I go too in depth here, but suffice to say, I think that Johto is lacking hard in biodiversity, its level curve is preposterously unbalanced, it doesn't have enough interesting unique landmarks to actually ever grab my attention, and I overall consider it a low point in the series.

To add to that, this run, despite how far I've come, has kind of sucked. I'm sort of stuck using Exeggcute but it is really honestly turning out to not nearly be worth the amount of trouble it's causing. For example, over the course of this post, I will hatch THREE MORE EXEGGCUTE because the damn things keep dying on me. Oh, and Furries, my sole hope for Dark type coverage for the upcoming Ghost-type gym (and, later down the road, for Will of the Elite 4 and Sabrina of Kanto), died pretty early into my play on the Morning of December 7th. If I had started with, say, Totodile, I wouldn't have this problem, and also I wouldn't have to deal with this absolutely godawful shit rat. I mean. Quilava, a Pokemon that a lot of people understandably like quite a bit. (But really it's just. So bad.)

Anyway, I backtracked back to New Bark to grab berries and then forwardtracked to where I was, and on the way, Furries died and also my egg hatched. I named the exeggcute Light Show, and while I was trying to grind it to a useful level, naturally, it died. GROAN.

I hatched another, and named it Bustin, eventually. This hatching process takes forEVER.

On Route 39, I look for a Pokemon I can catch, and... this is what I'm talking about with the biodiversity. There's 251 Pokemon in this game, and what do I find on this route? Literally only Raticates and Meowths. I CAN find Magnemite here, supposedly, but I sure as hell didn't actually get one. No, what I found in here was... oh, god damn it, and also Bustin died!! Fuck!!! And then I found a Miltank and critted it to death!!! God damn it!!!!

Anyway, whatever. I head South towards Olivine, and then my rival pops up out of nowhere and I nearly have a heart attack because, oh jesus if he fights me I'm literally dead. Fortunately, he doesn't, just shows up to blab at me. Whoopdedoo.

Anyway then I stopped playing for like a week or something.

DECEMBER 12th, 2017

But I'm gonna keep it in the same post. One long post is easier than two not long posts. And I wanted to take a break from Mario for Pokemon. Oh, yeah, did I mention Mario? I've got Mario Odyssey and it rules and is basically better than this game in every conceivable way!

I fought through Morty's gym trainers. I want to have an actually usable Exeggcute with Confusion for Morty himself, since despite Gen 2 adding literally exactly one Ghost type, this gym is still entirely Gastly's evolutionary line, which means they're all weak to Psychic.

I run back for more berries, I run back and forth, I heal in New Bark... hey, that's another thing I can complain about. I think this Pokemon Center rule kinda sucks? Like... you know how in some video games, mistakes are punished not by like, a game over or just a notch closer to death, but with a slow obnoxious trek out of your way to get back to progress? Like... in a lot of the 2D Sonic games, there are levels where you're up high doing a platforming but if you fall, you don't drop into a pit or anything, but you do fall into some water and you have to climb up in the slow and unpleasant water to get out?

Well, at this point in the game, backtracking to New Bark anytime I want to heal but don't want to like, spend all my money or use all my chances elsewhere, is basically like that, but executed poorly. It doesn't actually punish me for mistakes, because if I make an actual mistake then a Pokemon will die. Instead, I get to choose between this awful slog back to New Bark, spending a limited resource, and putting my Pokemon in danger. None of these are pleasant or make the game more fun, but they also don't turn out to make the game more challenging.

And once I beat Chuck I'll be able to Fly, making this essentially entirely obsolete as a gameplay concept, since the slog will no longer be a slog. This makes it an even worse rule, and quite frankly, I'm just about done with it. I'll still hold myself to it for the remainder of this playthrough, whether it goes all the way to the Elite Four or not, but once I have retired the character of Sheen, I will also be retiring the limited Pokemon Center heals rule. I'm not sure what I will replace it with, but mark my words, the rules WILL change. Cause right now, they're just not fun.

ANYWAY. Back to gameplay. I hatch my next eggs and I name them Busta, and hope that I don't need to name another, cause I'm already running pretty low on egg names.

I grind... I fall asleep...

DECEMBER 13th, 2017

I grind... Busta learns Confusion! Friggin' finally! Of course, that also means it's basically at its endgame moveset until Kanto, when I get access to Psychic and Giga Drain. Hey speakng of the "Drain" moves, what is WITH them having such garbage PP? Like, they're not nearly strong enough to warrant the PP cost. Giga Drain should have 10, Mega should have 20 and Absorb should have 30. At least. That's honestly what makes me backtrack to New Bark the most, is needing PP for Mega Drain.

While grinding, I did battle my way through the Lighthouse, talking to Jasmine to activate the Cianwood quest. I could just go there now, I guess, but first I'm gonna heal in Ecruteak and head in to battle Morty. My full team can join me here, so IndieCindy, TIME, Wiggles and Busta are all here.

Busta OHKOs his Gastly, and is cursed by Haunter while beating him, and doesn't even get hit by it before switching out to IndieCindy, who I needed to fight Gengar anyway because it has Shadow Ball. Smokescreen doesn't deter it from trying so very hard to combo Hypnosis into Dream Eater. Cindy falls asleep and I switch back to Busta, and again - Morty has SHADOW BALL here, but no, it keeps trying to Hypnotize me through the smokescreen. Busta beats Gengar and then 2-hit KO's Haunter, and I'm golden! Hooray! That's 4 Gym Leaders down, and only 12 more to go! "Hooray."

So, let's talk about Surf, because this is another thing that would be fine if, say, Rainwater hadn't been tragically lost to me, or if I had started with Totodile. Right now, the only Water type in my box is Amnesia, and I... just plain don't want to use a Slowpoke here. I could just use it as a Surf slave I suppose, but I WANT something that can actually be of use to me. There's a few things available, and some I want more than others, so let's look around with the Good Rod, huh?

In Cherrygrove, I catch a Krabby. I name it Copper.

Now, what I want to have happen here, optimally, is that I will catch either a Chinchou or a Shellder in Olivine. In order to optimize my chances of that, I need to catch a Magikarp and a Tentacool. First, I teach Copper Surf and surf on Route 40, and am set upon, naturally, by a Tentacool... which I mess up and murderize! WHOOPS!

I head down to Route 41, not realizing that I actually do have the same fishing chances here as I do in Olivine, and a Tentacruel shows up, and I catch it. Because, of course, there is literally no life in the oceans other than Jellyfish, apparently. I name the Tentacruel Deep Ocean, and head back to Ecruteak to catch a Magikarp. It's low level, so I try to use something it will resist and at low power... and yet, a single Ember still murders it. Shit!

I head to Olivine, fingers crossed, and... god damn it. Magikarp. My plan was an absolute failure in every way and I don't get shit for good water types. I name this thing Boat and, out of stubbornness, and since it's already level 20, I grind one level onto it without even healing it from its damage and sleep, and then ride it as a Gyarados all the way to Cianwood without waking it up. It really is just a boat. Ugh.

I get a free Shuckle. Hooray. I like Shuckle a lot, but I'm not sure I want ANOTHER Rock type. Also it doesn't fit the name scheme.

I grab the medicine I need, and... ugh. I need to fight Chuck, huh? And then Jasmine? Siiigh. I'll do that next time.

My apologies for how acerbic this all is. I just... am not a fan of Gen 2. 

[skyrocketdog]

My 2017 GOTY List

As the year finally comes to an end once again, I figured I would write this list because I actually played some games this year and had some pretty strong opinions about what games that I feel should be my personal GOTY.

Honorable Mentions:

Destiny 2 - With how the post game support has gone, and despite me actually enjoying it quite a bunch as I progressed through the story; afterwards when questioning “What to do now” I was simply just answered with “Well, there’s like one or two things left” or really grind heavy things that I personally wasn’t particularly a fan of. So, while that original story run was actually fun, I felt like it could have used more, and maybe next year it will be improved upon and I can put this as a game I enjoyed more. But, as it is in it’s current state, I didn’t feel this made my top 5 for the year.

Marvel VS Capcom: Infinite - I love this game. Anyone who knows me knows that I still enjoyed this game a ton, despite any negative feelings I have towards it or even how it was viewed by the general public, I still love this game. But, it’s flaws become more and more visible to me the longer I play it, but even those are not enough to take it off the honorable mentions to me.

Tekken 7 - I actually like this game less than MVC:I, but I cannot deny that I still had fun (When it did work online, due to my slow internet) with this game. I didn’t get to everything in the game, but just based on my experience with friends & online I can safely say this is a fantastic fighting game and that I will probably play more in 2018 than I did this year, but due to my limited time frame with it I don’t feel confident enough putting it on my top 5 list yet.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - Despite being a older game re-released with some added content, it still managed to be just as fun and make my own list once again. Plus with the amount of enjoyment I got playing with friends, just like the original, it still felt worth a mention to me.

#5 Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG)

This game has been nothing but fun to me. And that’s all I want in a video game sometimes, nonstop fun with friends. Being able to play in squads or duos with my close friends for hours as we keep trying to take down every other player is just good fun, and explaining the thrill of actually winning in this game is really difficult unless you’ve played it, but that definitely helps the experience overall. Plus I have put about roughly 300 hours into it now, it just keeps bringing me back at least twice a week, and I consider that one of the best things about a game, constant replayablility and a desire to keep playing. 

Sure, it does have some flaws (Most of which I think I had were fixed in the 1.0 release), but really when looking at a game, I don’t expect it to be 100% perfect in every single way. It’s going to have some flaws and I have to take them with the positives(And to me, there’s a lot of positives), and that’s why this game is in my Top 5. If it continues to get support, I think it will still be on the list of my favorite games.

#4 Zelda Breath of the Wild

A bit lower than I originally thought it was going to be on my list, but I still loved this game a lot. This is also not counting any of the DLC content, which I have yet to play and I’m very excited for, but this is just the base game as it is. The locations, being able to explore pretty much anything I saw, all the fun shrines and moments I had just made this game the second Zelda game to me. I still consider Wind Waker to be my personal favorite in the series due to the story and art style, but this is definitely my #2 pick in the series.

One of the things I actually really enjoyed the most was the fact that it was so different from the other games in game play styles. Some have viewed this as a flaw, but honestly, to me it only made it better and more of a game I could personally enjoy. Plus it does still have that Zelda feel, it’s just missing it in some small key areas that could be improved upon in the next game in the franchise in this style easily.

Also, the music, while being limited in some areas, is completely fantastic and every song used in the game got stuck in my head, and just made me wish there was even more all throughout the world. Here’s to hoping that the next game in this style improves on the music and any minor flaws I’ve had with this game.

#3 Super Mario Odyssey

This is now my favorite mainline Mario game, and Nintendo have once again outdone themselves. Every world in this game was just non-stop joy for me, and Cappy as a sidekick, I enjoyed way more than I was expecting to when I first saw him in trailers. 

Everything in this game was just perfect Nintendo quality too, the small story with Peach & Bowser, every single boss fight was perfectly fun and exciting at the same time, and also every song being memorable (Jump Up, Super Star. Enough said really.) and having that Nintendo charm at the same time. 

Another reason this is so high on my list too, is due to the Koopa Freerunning, I can’t really deny that. That has been one of my favorite things in this game, because it introduced me to the thrill of speed running, which is something I’ve never attempted really, but after the 500th restart in the same Koopa race, I just wanted more and more to just take down a few seconds. (I actually ended up being in the top 100 in the post game kingdom of the game too! Very proud of that.)

On an ending note, every Mario game needs this camera feature from now on. It has been one of the best things about this game, and it seems i’m not the only one to agree based on seeing all these fantastic pictures all over the internet.

#2 Persona 5

Me Slime...

Persona 5 is probably the best in the series when it comes to game play and design and art style. (I’m just going to say Persona 5 has the best UI/Hud in any game and end my discussion here about the art style otherwise I won’t shut up about it.) But, it has one flaw, and I felt like it’s very, very important in a game that was about 100 hours long. The story.

The story is honestly my only flaw with this game, and without getting too far into spoiler discussion, I felt like it needed more story in areas. Which isn’t the worst thing, but it does make me question “Why didn’t they do this instead?” in certain areas. Despite that however, the story was enjoyable and well, without getting too far into any discussion about it, the first boss/palace/dungeon was probably one of the best ones in the series to me, due to how well written I felt it was. The other ones...not as much to say the least, besides a couple that stand out to me.

Some areas in the story also felt like it needed to happen, just because it was a game and it was getting close to being too long without a dungeon, and not because it fit into the story it was trying to tell at all. Which is fine and I can accept that really, but it overall makes the story feel more forced instead of naturally happening in areas, to me at least.

The music is another really important part of this game to me, as I feel like it’s better than the other games in the series. With it’s heavy Shin Megami Tensei influence showing this time around(Some songs sound like they can be in SMT:Nocturne honestly, and to me that’s fantastic) it really made the soundtrack as a whole stick out to me. Plus, Rivers in the Desert. Really all I have to say when it comes to the soundtrack.

The last 10 or so hours of this game was quite possibly one of the best moments I've had in gaming recently, and I really do believe that the whole game was fun overall but, what is Persona 5 doing as my #2 you may ask, despite me already saying it’s GOTY for months(If you’ve known me), well...

#1 Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony

Uh oh, a last second addition.

I got this game as a gift the day after Christmas, and attempted to beat it before the year was over, just so I could see where it fit on this list. What ended up happening was probably this ended up being one of my favorite games of all time, and overall better than Persona 5 was to me. 

It’s a tiny bit difficult for me to talk about why I liked this so much due to spoilers(I might have to make a side post talking about everything I loved at some point), but here’s a small attempt:

Masafumi Takada OST. Seriously, this soundtrack has ended up being one of my all time favorites in video games due to just how completely fantastic it is all around. There’s so many songs I just cannot get out of my head, and even when playing they were already stuck in my mind. (The Split Opinion song has been my favorite so far, just as an example.)

The Cast of Characters. I was going into this game after the demo of V3, expecting to like about...50% of the cast at the absolute best. Near chapter 2 of the game, I didn’t want any of them to be taken away, and I ended up liking every single character. With the other two games in the series, it has been about me liking only a select few in the cast, but those few being well done characters to me. I was kinda taken back by how much I loved each one of these characters, and that I felt each one was written perfectly into the story.

Game play Improvements. The new mini games introduced in the trials, such as Split Opinion, and Psyche Taxi were just really fun to say the least. The other mini games that were featured in older games were also improved heavily in this game, and I feel like they were at their absolute best for once, instead of feeling like a drag to weigh the experience down. (Hangman’s Gambit from DGR1, Eugh)

Story. I can’t really say much here, but overall the chapters in this game were at their absolute best, and probably some of my favorites in the whole entire series and genre this game is in. Every chapter was just an absolute blast, and there was no low point in the story for me.

That’s about it really. This has been such a fantastic game, and I really do think this may be the top of the series, and the next Danganronpa game would be in a hard situation to top this one. I really enjoyed this game a lot and despite the despair, I consider it to be my personal GOTY.

[everythinginasockdrawer-blog]

WoW We're Nerds (Part 2)

On AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/11280858

Part 1: http://archiveofourown.org/works/11244396

 Alex laughed as Maggie pulled up in the driveway of the hotel she was staying at, happily listening to her girlfriend go on about some idiot she’d been stuck behind on the interstate on her way to the west coast. She threw the truck into park and grinned happily at Alex, grabbing her hand and tugging her out of the massive truck, stopping once she’d climbed out to help Alex get down before dragging her off towards one of the bottom floor rooms as she was talking.

“Anyways so this is where I’m staying, I put my stuff away before I went to pick you up. It’s a nice room actually, I kinda thought the place was going to be a dump considering what I’m paying for it.” Alex chuckled as Maggie fought to get her keycard out of her pocket one handed.

“I got you a discount, that’s why it’s so cheap. The owner owns me big time… I had to babysit his grandson for a month and it was a disaster, the kid was a monster.” Maggie laughed as she managed to open the door and tugged Alex inside. “I also fixed his wifi so the thing actually works properly which…” Alex was cut off when Maggie turned around and gently pushed her up against the door as it shut, waiting for Alex to give her a little nod before pressing their lips together in a soft kiss. Maggie cradled her face in the palms of her hands and gently sucked her bottom lip between her own, gently biting it causing Alex to let out a soft moan. Maggie pressed another solid kiss against her lips before pulling away, a soft smile on her face as she gazed a little breathless up at Alex.

“Sorry, I just… I’ve been waiting to do that for months…” Alex smiled, tangling her fingers in Maggie’s hair to pull her forward to press another kiss against her lips.

“I know the feeling.” She pulled Maggie into her arms and simply held her. Relishing the warmth of the other woman’s body against her’s. “I’m… Really glad you’re here…” Maggie nodded in agreement, gently kissing Alex’s neck as they stood there rooted to the spot, swaying lightly.

Alex holds her secure against her chest, because she knows (even if Maggie won’t talk about it much) that it’s really hard living in the midwest as a queer woman of color and she wants to, even for a moment, try to take away that feeling of hopelessness Maggie’s described to her before. And she really wishes Maggie didn’t have to go back there to finish high school. Only three more months then she’s moving out here…

Maggie started walking backwards, gently pulling Alex with her until they collapsed in a heap on the bed. Alex moving so that Maggie could curl into her side like they’d always said they’d do if they were able to cuddle. Maggie fisted her handed in Alex’s shirt, holding her tightly as she seemed to take a moment to ground herself.

“So, you want to play or would you rather cuddle for awhile?” Alex asked her gently and Maggie responded by throwing her leg up around Alex’s hips.

“Cuddle now, games later.” Alex chuckled and pulled Maggie closed to her, leaning down to place a kiss against her forehead. They last about thirty minutes like that, gentle touches, fingers running through hair and soft kisses press against each other's lips. That approach was quickly lost however as Alex pulled Maggie on top of her and started a very thorough exploration of her mouth, following a mixture of instinct and YouTube tutorial videos she had watched for this very purpose.

Maggie groaned appreciatively, her arms moving to frame Alex face as they made out. Alex wrapping her arms around Maggie’s waist and bringing their clothed chests flush against each other. After that things started to blur, their shirts ended up on the floor and somehow Alex found herself on top while Maggie was busy sucking dark hickies across her chest. And then there was grinding and panting, and Maggie had grabbed her ass and pulled her down hard against her thigh in time with her own thrusts. And then they both came, Alex first followed very closely by Maggie. And Alex collapsed against the smaller woman, panting and shivering as the aftershocks coursed through her, feeling Maggie in a similar state beneath her. They stayed like that for several minutes until Maggie finally rolled them over so she could cuddle into Alex’s side.

“So… That better that the local girls?” Maggie commented teasingly and Alex froze, realizing that they had just had… Well… Elementary sex.

“Ummm… I… Ugh…” Alex sputtered and Maggie lifted her head off her shoulder and raised an eyebrow at her.

“Are you saying I need improvement? Cause I’ve got three days to work on it.:Maggie winked at her and Alex flushed.

“What? No. I mean… I wouldn’t know. I haven’t exactly… Done anything like that before…” Maggie’s eyes widened and she gasped at Alex.

“What… You mean that was… Alex!” Alex blushed at Maggie’s freaked out expression.

“What? Like you said earlier… I’ve been waiting for months…” Maggie groaned.

“If I’d known I’d have like… Taken you out on a date first…” Alex rolled her eyes and tugged Maggie back into her arms.

“We’ve gone on plenty of dates.” Maggie groaned even louder.

“Alex, pretending to get drunk together in a pub in World of Warcraft doesn’t count as a date.” Alex pouted.

“Sure it does. We even called them dates.” Alex protested. “Remember that one time when the town we were in was attacked by a Horde raiding party and you got pissed cause they ruined our date cause we had to go help fight them off with all the other level 110’s in the area?” Maggie chuckled.

“I didn’t want to deal with them… I was having a night with my girl…” Maggie sighed. “Fine, am I at least better at kissing than they are?”

“Well… About that…” Maggie’s eyes went wide and she looked at Alex in shock.

“Please tell me your first kiss wasn’t me shoving you up against a door in a hotel room… It’s already bad enough that was your first time...” Alex bit her lip.

“Okay, I won’t tell you.”

“Alex!”

“What? It was perfect… You’re perfect.” Maggie shook her head and drug them both out of bed, “What are you doing?”

“I’m taking you on a date.” Alex’s eyes widened comically.

“Right now?”

“Yes, where can you go on a date around here?” Alex sighed as Maggie picked up her pocketbook and pulled her out of the room towards the truck.

“Umm… There’s a burger place down on the boardwalk…” Maggie shook her head.

“Oh no. We’re going to a nice restaurant where I can buy you good food and then we’re going to do something really fucking romantic… Like… Stargazing or… Or dancing or some shit like that…” Alex shook her head and kissed Maggie’s cheek as the other woman shifted the truck into drive.

“I don’t need that stuff, I just want you, Mags.” Maggie looked her in the eye and took her hand in her own.

“Just cause you don’t need it doesn’t mean you don’t deserve it.” Alex’s eyes widened as Maggie gently pecked her lips. “Now tell me where to drive.”

[snsmissionaries]

4/9/19 -- Sister Nicole Ritman, Spain, Madrid Mission

The Longest "Short" Week of my Mission 😞

Subject Line: Since we had last Pday on Wednesday, I figured it would feel nice to have a short week until the next Pday only a few days later on Monday. Wrong. Somehow H Brumble and I had a week that felt even LONGER than normal even though it was technically shorter than normal.

 ¡Hola a Todos!

 It's only been a few days since I wrote you all last and H Brumble and I have worked super hard and have nothing to show for it. You're probably reading this imagine I'm saying that in a bitter voice, but I'm not even angry. I'm not even annoyed. One thing the mission teaches you is that you can be disappointed without getting frustrated. It gives you a broader perspective that we may not see the obvious results of our labor, but there are still blessings that come that we might not see the relation to. For example, we all know that if missionaries talk to more people, they find more people. But sometimes none of those people talk back. But that doesn't mean we weren't blessed for that effort. Maybe we were sent blessings like seeing new gorgeous parts of our area, getting sick before you had to travel but then feeling well enough to go at the last minute, getting to comfort a crying woman on the phone even though you couldn't go and see her, or actually having an eating cita not cancel like all the others and being able to get to know the family. (None of the above examples are hypothetical and all have happened recently). We may not be able to see those blessings as a direct result of the work we put in before, and the truth is there are probably way more variables that go into it, but the truth is the Lord can bless us in different ways than are obvious to find the cause and effect. This probably made no sense, but these are just some of the things I've been learning lately.

 Also I am learning that first you have to tell the Lord you are WILL-ing to do anything for Him before He reveals you what his actual WILL is. Why would he tell you His will if He knows you'll only do what He wants if it's what you wanted to do in the first place? In a word: Sacrifice

 As for the actual week, I can't think of any events of grand importance, but we did happen upon a gorgeous park and tried to snap a few photos to add quotes to something and maybe put on our shared area Facebook account. I'll attach some of the photos because I haven't really sent many photos of the pretty part of Villalba yet. Villalba is part of Spain's "Sierra" (yes it is a word but it is also the name of the area) and we have gorgeous mountains and pine trees but the mountains are never as gorgeous in. my pictures than in person. You will just have to Google it or take my word for it 😉

 Today we hit Madrid hard and zipped around and saw everything in the super classical art museum Prado and almost everything in the wacky modern art museum Reina Sofía. It was cool seeing my inspirations like Remembrant, Goya, Salvador Dahli, Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder, Juan Miró, Diego Rivera etc. My pick of the Prado this time (I went before in the CCM) would have to be a really realistic marble satue of Mars and Venus in the Prado that was just very sweet even thought they're usually portrayed pretty dramatically. The artist really got the gaze even thought they didn't even have pupils, which was interesting. It was in one of the main parts with a bunch of other famous works, but it totally stole the show. (Unfortunately it was just a re-creation and the original is in Buckingham Palace). My pick of the Reina Sofía would have to be the Alexander Calder's (one of my personal favorite artists ever since I read "The Calder Game" and saw his work in the Phoenix Museum) ever-turning mobile of simple yet uniquely Calder shapes and colors. It was near Picasso's "Guernica", which was also a marvel to behold. Somehow Picasso knows how to show light with using only a few grey and white shades. The Reina Sofía also had a lot of videos and picture series of performance art from the 40s-60s which was pretty cool because it was like giving their art a second life. I also really connected with this one random artist I don't remember the name of because all his abstract paintings look like the shapes I doodle on the edge of my paper when I'm either bored or stressed sometimes. I just felt like the same patterns were in our souls. Art is literally a spiritual experience for me because I get it tune with the creative vibe and feel like I can just connect to the Human Experience so much better. I just feel like I have lived more than just my own life when I go to an art collection and see so many different places and people and experiences from different periods of time.

 Anyways sorry I didn't have actual experiences to write this week-I just kinda gave the thoughts that churn around in my head to an audience.

 Os quiero, 

Hermana Ritman 

 Villalba Week 3: https://photos.app.goo.gl/SVjdkFrcjM2yV7bN7

 Contact Information

email: nicole.ritman@missionary.org

 Sister Nicole Ritman

Madrid Spain Mission

Avenida de Tenerife, 11

28703 San Sebastian de los Reyes

Madrid, Espana

#WeWorkin'Grindin' #💯% #Neva Stop #💪💥🛴 #Romans3:16 #Gettin'gains #GiveitAllto God🙏

Subject Line: A while before I left my mission I remember laughing at all those memes that made fun of how student athletes tweet. This week's subject line is inspired by those memes because we really did hit the grind. 

 ¡Hola a Todos!

 I will start out this weeks email with a random anecdote. 

 So we were coming back from the church one night to go home and we were on a busy (well busy for a small town like Villalba) Street and right outside of a super market when this very old Spanish man stops us. He stopped us and started talking about how he's been to America and how he knows about the church and everything. We're just listening politely and then he grabs by tag and reads "Hermana Britman". I tell him with an R but he keeps insisting he sees a B and keeps pulling it closer to read it. I'm just standing awkwardly as my comp watches. The he huddles by me where my comp can't really see and says "Ritman I have something for you". I watch him reach in his pocket and take out something long a pointy and glinty. It was a knife! A surge of panic shocked my body. Every Safety Zone video we'd watched flashed through my mind. I wondered if I'd broken some sort of rule to end up in this situation. Then he started going for my hair! He wouldn't kill me, but still-my precious hair! But then I realized it was one of those excessively large hair clips and he stuck it in my hair with his shaky hand. It was actually really cute because like five times he showed H Brumble "Mira! Que bonita!" The situation went from potentialky fatal to absolutely adorable.

 So this Saturday our zone decided to do a finding marathon. We didn't set any citas and we decided to find in a bunch of different ways. We started out the day Facebook contacting like madwomen and then we went to have mediodía. Usually we eat lunch but we ended up doing our special zone fast later than planned so we were just going to take a break. But then we had a last-minute cita. It was one of those lessons where they talk too much and you have a headache at the end but it's OK because we were on a roll. We immediately went out knocking doors (in Spanglish toquing puertas). It's not the most effective but we did it for variety's sake. Then we did something I never have in my entire mission before: pan carta. Basically it's a big poster and you just stand in one spot and try to contact EVERYONE THAT WALKS BY. Any speck of fear I had about contacting was gone. I mean I didn't think I was afraid of it, but I was fearless on a different level. Usually you do pan carta with other missionaries but it was just H Brumble and I and we went into a finding frenzy. We were determined to hand out every Spanish Libro de Mormón we had (an entire package orders worth). And one in Arabic. I talked to do many people my speech started coming out as stutters. I am not exaggerating. We did this for hours. We gave out so many tarjetas with our info our fingers turned blue from the ink and we tallied the amounts of Libros we gave out and phone numbers we got of our wrists and at the end of the day we took a picture. After we handed out all our books, we packed up and did some traditional en camino Street contacting. Some days in the work are about quality, but some days are about quantity just to stretch yourself and Saturday was definitely one of those days. Since we worked through lunch and started early because we didn't want to exercise while fasting, it was officially the longest hardest workday of my mission. I highly doubt I'll ever do that again. Needless to say, our zone absolutely destroyed all our goals because of it which made the mission destroy our goals too.

 At the end of the day we were too tired to cook and didn't have anything good in the fridge plus we were STARVING so we ordered Papa John's and then sushi and downed an entire family size Aquarius (kinda like Gatorade) ourselves.

 Last night we stayed the night in Madrid because we had to get H Brumble's residency card this morning. We thought it'd take three hours but it took 30 minutes lol. We got permission to go to the center of Madrid to pass the time. Like a good greenie breaker, I filled in the holes of H Brumble's cultural experience that didn't quite happen in training. I look her to the classic Chocolatier San Gines for chocolate with churros and porras and then one of the main Plazas who's name I am forgetting rn but it's right next to Puerta del Sol. Then we went and tried fancy cheese, salchichón and dried fruit from this open air market and wandered our way back to Sol where we rode the metro to the end of the line.

 There, the office Elders picked us and other Hermanas up the van and we all went to the mission home for zone Pday. I hadn't been back since my first day in the mission and it was kinda surreal being here halfway through. We played around the world ping pong, darts, volleyball, badminton, Frisbee etc. And then we ate Papa John's, salad and had two types of cake for Presidente and Hermana Kennett (senior couple) birthdays. Now we're all chilling in the home writing and calling our families.

 It's been a good week and we had a few mini adventures I didn't write about but I will send photos of.

 Os quiero, 

Hermana Ritman 

 Villalba Week 4: https://photos.app.goo.gl/XF4wbWxEKDgxtcss9

 Contact Information

email: nicole.ritman@missionary.org

 Sister Nicole Ritman

Madrid Spain Mission

Avenida de Tenerife, 11

28703 San Sebastian de los Reyes

Madrid, Espana

[gamingofkenna]

KH3 Day 6

Almost a week in!! That’s eighteen bucks to Redbox baby!

I’m doing some grinding before jumping into San Fransokyo - apparently the treasure sphere I started with was literally the hardest of the first 6 you see? Literally all of them were easier. So I finally have the materials I need to upgrade my spaceship and lookie here, I can navigate space safely again waddaknow

Also finished letting the Hidden Mickeys in Twilight Town. I love how ‘make Sora take some selfies’ is literally not even technically a part of this sidequest, and yet any mickey he can’t selfie with (because of the angle or whatever) is a huuuuge disappointment.

Sora getting to San Fransokyo and immediately going to text his brother about how cool it is is so good, so pure.

Hiro meets these strange kids and immediately reveals his true identity like that’s not how you superhero kid???

So far my favorite things about San Fransokyo: this takes place after the movie, so there’s no chance of this world making me rewatch a poorer-done version of a movie I love; everyone’s leveling up and getting new powers.

I really wanna just... run around San Fransokyo without monsters showing up. This city feels so big and there’s so much to look at. I’m taking pictures of random everythings. I’ve only found two lucky emblems so far there’s probably soooo many hidden everywhere.

And the mysterious disguised black coat is.... Riku? Or really just some other person using one of Riku’s bodies or... something. Identity is weird in this game. 

It’s the main bad guy....’s heart piece, the one that used to be in Riku, in a spare body (like the one Sora wants to find for Roxas). Also they talk about time travel a lot in this conversation, so it’s like.... he split his heart up and sent the pieces into different times? To gather the right vessels. Sounds like this guy really just wants to live forever.

NEGA-BAYMAX.

Nega-Riku literally just pulled the spare Baymax out of the alt dimension, confirming the crack dark world theory (I’m going to say) and reconceptualizing Hiro’s trauma all over again, damn.

THERES TWO BAYMAXES IN CANON THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER also lol at Hiro literally noping out of X-man’s ‘this evil data chip is literally all that exists of this robots heart if you kill him you kill the robot mwahaha’ gosh I love Big Hero 6.

RIP me, I always forget to look around for the chest with the map in it, and this city is so confusing, I was literally running around for twenty minutes just trying to find the map before I eventually thought to look up a video.

I found all the hidden mickeys in San Fransokyo before even trying to leave. It was weird, the cutscene didn’t immediately pop me out of the world like it usually does. Not that I’m complaining.

Riku and Mickey are stuck in the dark world - big surprise. Maybe you shouldn’t have let them run off and do their very important quest while you dicked around trying to figure out what hearts are??

Sora summons another gate to... another island somewhere? And finds some mysterious keyblade... which opens ANOTHER gate. Cool cool cool.

‘You can’t make a whole pint without us’ I know this is an ongoing joke but y’ALL this is a KIDS GAME, NO DRINKING ALLOWED IN THE AMERICAN LOCALIZATION

OK I’m very curious as to why Sora has to wander around with this heavily-accented duck and talking bipedal dog, and Riku gets to chill with the King of Disneyland.

Aqua is back, I adore her to pieces, she’s all angry and grimdark now from being left here for over a decade (part of me is like, Riku was here just a few hours ago? But now I’m wondering if she ended up here back in like KH2 and this is another meta joke), we’re just gonna hug it out tho.

OH WAIT NO WE GET TO PLAY RIKU AGAIN. Did this dude just visualize accepting his own faults and weaknesses and move on and grow like a mofo? I bet he got ALL the angsty character stuff in the prequel games you white-haired anime boy. BRB gotta go save my gf now.

Special move: activate Sora cutscene. They get a DOUBLE keyblade now!! All night-and-day themed that’s gotta be one hassle to try to use!!

For a hot minute there I thought they were really gonna leave her behind again WE FINALLY SAVED AQUA YAY!!!! Before she realizes she’s back she thinks she sees Terra and someone named Ven - one of whom is the kid who looks like Roxas (who in turn looks like Sora). And the islands are called the Destiny Islands, and I’m suspecting all the Keyblade Kids got stranded on various islands for timeperiods unstuck from the timestream?

AND NOW WE GET TO PLAY AS AQUA KICKING SOME BORING DUDES BUTT this is the greatest day of my life. Sora’s literally like ‘but youre still recovering Aqua let me fight!1!’ and she’s literally just ‘no I’m not your girl Friday I’mma stomp this fool’ I a d o r e her.

Aqua loses because of a script which is stupid, but then Sora figures out how to wake up not-Roxas, who I guess has never met Sora before, based on the way he reacts? And he has a flash to nega-Sora, which I assume is something about when X-man was trying to use Sora as an evil heart piece vessel. Anyway blah blah, everything worked out good!! Everyone who isn’t literally stuck in someone’s body is safe!!!

I adore the way Aqua talks, she speaks a little slowly and solemnly but with such calm emotion GOSH I love her so much, why did it take you all so long to find her.

Axel is all ‘ahem cool cool but why am I also in this room with everyone and also why does Ven look just like Roxas? Everyone already knows everyone and this is a lot to memorize!!’ This just in Axel is back on my good list

Jimminy: ‘it’s ok I gave you cheat sheets on your cellphones!’ Look dude I’m not reading your ‘the story so far’ summary. I’m following everything well enough (*cue audience laughter*)

OK so Nega-Riku is actually like legit hanging out with Riku, not a memory or anything, and he’s not a bad dude? Unless there’s two nega-Rikus but I dont think this series would go THAT far (*cue audience laughter*). Anyway and then Sora and Kairi have a cute moment and everyone’s kinda just chillin’ before.... whatever they’re supposed to be doing next, and I’m officially 31 hours into this game and I’m gonna call it a night. 

[survivormarmoreal]

Episode #4: "I made James quit accidentally because I rigged a random.org" - Brian

So.... BC quit. Don't know why (and I am not gonna enquire, I just know he is hella busy). But ya I don't know what this means going forward but im gonna roll with it. If i'm not flexible, then that is not a good winner. so ya looking forward toi see whatever happens, and if Madigan go to tribal again, all i know is that i will still be safe cause james and I will just get Keaton involved

I’m SHOCKED BC quit because I thought I was going home lmao so now I have no idea what the hell is gonna happen I’m praying we swap tbh so I can meet up with Brian or Bryce who I know sbsbsbs.

Okay I'm super sad BC quit. They seemed like such a sweetheart. And I always hate to see anybody quit. I'm usually kind of annoyed about quitters but I hope BC is all good and it was just because they were busy... :(

This game has been really good to our tribe. We havent gone to tribal. I have a majority alliance of 4. Everyone is active and does 100% on the challenges. Its been good. Havent had much luck in idol hunt tho so probably someone already found it. Still nervous for the challenge. I want to keep winning but the bad thing in the eyes for the other tribe.

The game is always changing... and someone quitting just shows how quickly everything can change in the game. Plans set forward destroyed... alliances ruined just due to what the game might throw at you at any given time. It’s always scary but you know what... sometimes you gotta look at something bad and say hey let’s test my gameplay a little bit... that is what I’m good at and that is what I plan to do!

So we have swapped. and im not with james. This is hateful huh. first bc quitting today and now this. fuck this. and im with marie and keaton as well. ffs. oh well. time to get socialising and do this shit!

I KNEW A SWAP WAS COMING!!! I felt it deep in my bones. Do sharks have bones? I actually don't think they do. Oh well. I KNEW IT WAS HAPPENING. Obviously I'm super nervous now because I was in a great spot before. But luckily I still have my #1 Brian. And Charlie who is a part of my Four of a Kind alliance and he has an idol. Plus Anna and I hopefully can work together like we have in other games. I just hope she trusts me. Ugh and I freaking hope we win this challenge. Because OG Dinah members definitely have a target as the last intact tribe. SO much is going on in my little gay brain.

Okay my brain is going a mile a minute with this swap. I'm reconnecting with Anna. She seems excited to see me and she told me she isn't super close with Jayden or Nick so that's amazing. I told Brian about Charlie's idol. So this is good. We're surviving.

omg so we swapped and im so sad nathan isnt here but thats about it. happy to be away from jayden since he IGNORES me. when i read these after the game im gonna seem so obsessed huh KJDFSHFAKSJD. but anyway. dennis is here and hes one of my fave ppl ever! hes just so nice. we shared idol guesses and i really wanna go to the end with him. matt is pretty cool and we both stan the good place and naomi smalls so i feel like we'll be good allies. marie is a queen and super nice but maybe not super active but we both love ari so yay. naptime maynor isnt really liking my humor JKASDHF but thats ok. and kirby guy is alright too!! nicole seems nice enough if not a little standoffish but hoping for the best :s love this tribe overrall tho and really hoping to avoid tribal

I got ZType for the duels! Blessed. I can do well in this game and I can't be the reason our tribe loses in the RARE chance we do. So i'm feeling okay.

Too annoyed to write too much right now. But yet another org, and yet another swap fuck! Honestly, this is ridiculous. We have three members on either 7 person tribe, and even if we do manage to succeed in surviving another non-dinah is going to replace the voted out member... you can't make this shit up.

I knew the swap was coming. But im with Dennis which is good. He has some connections with Bryce and Nicole so hopefully they work with us. Keaton is also here like oh Boi. 👀 going to see if he wants to work with me this time. Having him around could help me in this game.

James quits by leaving the server and ignoring everyone.

https://gph.is/1neigCU my mood at my initial alliance members both qutiing time to die?

Ok so Klick quit which is kinda upsetting cuz I was grinding tf outta that challenge and I lowkey played a game with him about a year and a half ago and kinda wanted to reconnect. BUT Nathan is now on the tribe which is like the nest possible scenario. Also we have Anna so hopefully we have an easy majority. Also I assume Dennis has began running the game over on the other tribe because he is great and will probably end up voting me out at f9 or something. But YAY F14 IM NOT OUT YET ANSNSKDKLZLXKC

MY IMPACT?  I made James quit accidentally because I rigged a random.org to save Charlie from doing Multitask and then James had a fit because he got it and was sleeping so he couldn't pick... I... can't believe how I'm WINNING this game?  Anna, I hope you get my winner's crown READY because I'm doing the damn thing!  I am sorry I made him quit because I didn't think he would kjHDAJK... but wow...

Although I am in the minority right now based on tribal lines, Nathan is someone I've wanted to work with for like eons, and I feel so much more comfortable with him on my tribe than James and letting Annabelle hold my fate in her hands.  I think I have an upward battle, but I know Charlie has the idol and will warn Sharky in the case I need Charlie to use it on himself.  The two from my OG tribe I got stuck with is by far the only two from Dinah that I would go out of my way to protect in this game and knowing Charlie has the idol... ugh... I don't even have to DO anything and tea gets served to me.  Love Sharky.. love Charlie.. love Nathan... can't wait to thrive in this game now!

So the swap, i thought would have been really bad for us original dinah people but so far it looks like we might pull through. Nicole told by Dennis to me that she is willing to work with us but im a little sketch because she hasnt really responds to me exept like one message and then it stops. Im trying to get info from keaton and see if he wants to work with me. I have to keep an eye on him cuz he’s messy af. 👀 I think we could be a strong tribe so hopefully we win the next immunity. I rather have my no going to tribal streak going. I need to start talking to our new tribe members as well.

well james left so we got nathan i'm not upset about it i love nathan he's my person this game i think and we swapped with sharky on the tribe and i just played with sharky and we're in majority so things are really looking up here for me tbvh i feel like sharky might want to get rid of one of my OG tribe people but we'll see how it goes.

This game is weird man. I was so ready to play 2048, but Kirby Boi #2 was a quitter, so now I'm not playing 2048, both people I trusted QUIT, and Dennis is on my tribe. I am going to lose really soon. But hopefully I can find an in on my tribe and survive.

i just want an advantage. but oh so now 4/5 of my tribe is together and im just here.. love that! not sarcastic!! miss nathan tho! so far clicking with dennis still and naptime. hes a true carly rae jepsen fan i asked his fave and he said sour candy which is like (bad) but not well known so he must actually like her!! nicole left me on read.. love that! sarcastic!! and yaa wooh loving the new tribe that guy who quit bc of multitask kind of a flop but go off now im closer to merge!

This morning finding out that James was removed was suprising. It sucks cuz i was enjoying doing the ztype. I got to 7,100 which i think its good but idk if it actually was. But im ready for this challenge and hopefully we could win in it. Definately dont want to go to tribal.

Okay Nathan is AMAZING. I love him. And I'm totally going to work with him for sure. i'm so glad he didn't flop. And Honestly I'm glad James quit so that I could work with Nathan. This lip sync challenge is going to be silly. I offered to do the editing which honestly is a big undertaking but I like to be in control and It's definitely going to paint a target on my back but if we win it'll be so great.

OMG SO FUN CHALLENGE THAT I HATE WOOH. i love this but i hate it. idk. i REALLY dont want to do a queen song so i pretended to not know who they are NNN but all that caused was my tribemates shading me... and its like... matt says beyonce is just "ok" and i need to listen to real music.??? just say u hate women and go. JK. maybe. but ANYWAYS. love dennis still and naptime is so funny love his pins! nicole left me on read some more so i sent her demi lovatos GET BACK music video and she finally responded with two 5 word msgs and ghosted again so um really loving that! kirby guy also doesnt reply a lot but thats ok totally loving only talking to 4 ppl!

edit: quitters are shitters

Our song is Dont stop me now by queen which is awesome. I just need to find the time to work on it later today or tomorrow morning but have an idea what imma do so thats good. Still talking to keaton but no game talk it. Hopefully soon because im still feeling sketch on this tribe. I dont wanna get voted out pre-merge. *knocks on wood* ✊🌳

Making the video was really fun. Had more fun and felt more comfortable after making the ones before were i wasnt as comfortable. This is one of my fav comps now. Cant wait to see how it turns out.

UM?? I'm CACKLING?? So Sharky showed me the clips he got from Nick and Jayden, and I'm just so confused how straight men get any sort of action when they're as stiff as them?  I mean I guess they're not ugly so that probably helps, but neither of them are good at using a camera... So I'm just SO ...

I have nothing else to talk about other than how fucking STIFF the straight men are in their lip sync videos, so whew... love visibility…

worst comp for me ever like i was fine doing 2048 i could have probably helped with that but like a music video? YIKES that's not my thing at all i didn't know what to do or what to help especially since i'm so not gonna get on camera >.< i hate being useless if we lose like ugh lmfao

Okay so this challenge was...a disaster. I asked everyone to just do the song and then I'd make it look good with editing. That didn't work out. And I had more trouble editing than i thought. I feel like I dropped the ball and I'm not sued to being someone holding my tribe back. I tried to hide our bad lipsyncers. Charlie got sick. And something happened in the rush of uploading it that gave me a weird crop and a couple of cuts that I screwed up but I ran out of time. I'm feeling really disappointed in myself.

Okay we lost. This sucks. two of the judges called out the edit/effort specifically so that doesn't feel great. But I'm going to look at this as a positive. Maynor and Dennis stay safe on the other tribe. And Now I can use this to make some real connections and alliances on this tribe. Like Chad Michaels I will rise from the ashes and be the gayest winningest phoenix you have ever seen.

Ok so me Nathan and Nick should really stick with Annabelle. Easy majority makes easy game which makes happy Jayden

So we lost the challenge, but I don't feel too... bad about that.  I mean if I go home, clearly I fucked the fuck up and felt too confident... but I think that I feel... good?

Firstly, thank you to the judges for recognizing my SNAP in the lip sync.  I wasn't sure they were going to do my rap in the challenge, so I'm glad it was in there hehe... Now... going to tribal is a part of the game and the strategy has been lacking up till now, so I'm excited to jump in and finally explore that part of the game.  It'll be a nice start to my resume, following accidentally make James quit LMFAO.

Right now, I think I'm in a solid spot.  Nick said he wouldn't vote for me and I mean.. we haven't talked much, but I expect him to not lie for no reason... and I'm going to make sure to increase our conversation and expand on what HE wants to happen to just have that tea under my belt.  I think Jayden is who I would like gone, and I think I'd be able to gather the votes to get that to happen.  It's not like I have anything against him personally, but I just feel it's hardest to talk to him because him and I are not alike from what I've gathered.  I'm the uber gay and for the uber gay and the Travis Scott fanboy to get along?  Would be shocking.

I like Annabelle and Nathan a lot and I don't think they'd throw votes for me.  I have my little final 2 deal going on with Nathan, but highkey I don't think I'd keep him as my #1 over Marie, if I get to the point where I meet with her, so I have no problem cutting him or Annabelle in the future.  I do think it'd be better to work WITH them, especially for now, and I think they feel similar sentiments, but I don't know for sure!

But now we come to the real people I would like to protect going into this vote, Charlie and Sharky.  I love my OG Dinah babies so much, and I will make sure their names aren't the targets of this vote.  I think Sharky has set himself up well, and since he told me Charlie has the idol, I think we should especially be OK.  I also think Annabelle and Nathan seemingly want to work with us, so .... whew...

ALSO, this is a mid-confessional update, but 2 alliances were formed.  We have the "Tea Party" alliance with Sharky, me, and Nathan (the gays) and then the "Dinah Dudes" alliance with Charlie, Sharky, and me (OG Dinah's) and then I think another sub-alliance with the "Tea Party" and Annabelle is coming to fruition, so kjHDKAS... ya... I think I'm SET.  I can't wait to wreck shit!

So we swapped tribes and here I am with 3 from my original tribe, 3 from the other tribe and Bryce from the third tribe. Bryce and I know each other, and by that I mean I just blindsided him another org... oops! Hopefully he doesn’t come after me but who knows because I literally did not participate in this challenge at all! We still won though so hopefully I’ll get to redeem myself in the next one

My arms are SORE from pulling all my best Freddie Mercury moves out for this lip sync, I am SO tired. But I honestly am so glad i gave my 100% effort because I truly needed to pull through for this tribe and show them I’m not just a sitting duck. (Is that the term? Idk.)

Either way I’m glad we all got to bond through this and here’s to being safe ANOTHER round (I’ve never gone to tribal so wooooo!)

i want an IDOL or sth. but um dennis is so fun love that man. always asks daily to work with me. like idk how many times i have to tell him that he is literally the only person on this tribe to pm me first without me having to (NOT EXAGGERATION). marie and matt? no reply from marie in like 30 hours and matt hasnt been talking to me since i said idk queen. kirby guy? replies with 1 word answers and taste in music offends me NNN. nicole? who. all she does is ignore me and like somtimes she replies and ill reply in the SAME LIKE 10 SECONDS, and she'll just leave me on read JKADSFHAKSJ. comes back like 9 hours later with no reasoning on why she stopped talking and with just a "hi", and thats if im lucky! idk i hope we swap soon or merge. like the whole preswap i was praying for a swap to find some good allies bc all i had was nathan really, and now i just have dennis. maybe by merge ill have a whole 3 allies??? oh wait theres um maynor hes cool i always have to pm him first but hes at least responsive and can hold a conversation! black bear diner goes off and i WILL be eating there the next time in houston

We lost, which was hardly surprising when I saw the other tribe's video lol. So now it's not looking good for us dinahs... but luckily I have the idol up my sleeve hehe. Gonna tell Brian and Sharky so that we can use it to save us…

I was so happy that we won immunity. Stil feeling a little sketch on this tribe. Injust hope that the vote isnt charlie, brian, or sharky. And especially sharky cuz he’s my duo. Now dennis, nicole, and i are the only 3 to not go to tribal yet. Its pretty awesome amd kinda scary.

https://youtu.be/BfzG9xjtCRw

Down with the straights!  I still think Jayden is going, but if Charlie ends up going I'm JUMPING because that means I've been lied to by people that want to claim to be my final 2... I do trust in Jayden going but we shall SEE!

So the tribe lost and I’m a bit nervous because I’ve only heard one name... I would have loved to saved my idol until I needed it but I think it’s very likely my name could be the second one going around... we shall see what happens though.

Ugh okay so I was hoping for a simple easy vote. But as usual there is just a little bit of drama. Nick told Anna/Nathan that he has a legacy advantage to be used at F13/F6 which is trash because that means if we lose next time he'll use that and be safe. But if we vote him out he'll gift it to Jayden and we have the same problem. Plus Charlie is wigging out because he has a bad feeling about the vote, which is totally fair because he isn't talking very much. And Nick told Anna her name got thrown out which is just untrue. This is just kind of messy and not in a cute way.

Jayden is voted out 5-2.

[senorarcturus]

Can you imagine a world where we’re all represented by a font? Huh, I wonder which one I would be? sees Arial Too straight. No! Not in that way! Just, straight, as in unexciting. sees Badaboom Too.. uh… Deadpool…. BROADWAY! Now that’s the one! Now THAT’S the one! Hello Internet, welcome to GAME THEORY, where instead of putting a joke here I want to ask you a question. If your personality were represented by a font, what font would you be? Take a moment and put your font in the comments. I’m really curious to see what everyone has to say. Maybe find a couple new cool fonts to use. I’m getting bored with ol’ Calibri 11. And with that out of the way, it’s time to talk UNDERTALE. Now I don’t think I’ve ever gotten this many requests to cover a game. Well, except for FNAF. And I suppose FNAF 2. OH and there was FNAF 3. Wait a minute, should I be worried about something here? Anyway, across the board on YouTube, Reddit, and Twitter, you all have wanted Undertale. And honestly, I’m glad you brought it to my attention. True loyal theorists will know that Earthbound is my favorite game of all time. So a self aware RPG in a similar style, WHOA MAN, it’s like a gift from the indie gaming heavens. Undertale is a game where every character, from goat mom to grind fodder has a sympathetic design and a unique personality, motivations, goals, fears. Whether you’re saving or slaughtering them, the game makes you feel something every time you enter an encounter. But to me, one character stood out amongst all the rest. SANS. A skeleton named after the font, Comic Sans, hence all the font references at the beginning of the episode. If you haven’t played Undertale I’m sure that was a really weird opening. ANYWAYS, Sans is, well, there’s a lot of mystery around this guy. And before we get into it, let me put up a very special spoiler warning: UNDERTALE is a game best experienced blind. So if you haven’t played it, pause the video and come back after you’ve finished. I PROMISE YOU, I PROMISE you won’t regret it. Alright, so everyone out of the pool and ready for the adult swim? Good. Because I’m feeling pretty determined to get to the bottom of Sans’ mystery. So just to recap for those of you who haven’t played the game and ignored the SPOILER WARNING, or just need a refresher, Sans is one of the two skeletal brothers who appears in the game. His partner is Papyrus, a loud, goofy trap lover also named after a font. But in the world of Undertale their origins are a big question mark. All you really know is what’s given to us by a shopkeeper in Snowdin, who explains that Sans and Papyrus, quote, “just showed up one day and asserted themselves.” Weird, right? What’s more is that, well, Papyrus is just kinda the goofy sidekick. Sans is much more complex. He likes fart jokes, but he’s also incredibly powerful and deadly serious. Not only is his boss battle the hardest in the game, he’s one of the only characters who has knowledge and power over space and time. He can take shortcuts around the world through ridiculous routes. Even is walking through walls. He also acknowledges that he’s only one of infinite versions of himself, making self-aware commentary of the various timelines that you’ve played through in the game. He can even count the number of times he’s killed you. He acts like an arbiter of this world, passing out judgements on the player’s actions in the game, even explaining the secrets of EXP and LOVE, or EXECUTION POINTS and LEVELS OF VIOLENCE, just to clarify. In short, he just doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of the world of monsters. But then, what, or who, is he? Well, the idea that he doesn’t belong in underworld seems to be correct. The evidence seems to point the fact that he WAS, in fact, formerly a surface dweller. In the true pacifist ending of the game, as the group looks out onto the horizon, Papyrus asks Sans about the giant ball in the sky. Sans says, quote, “we call that the sun.” This is important because A, the usage of the word WE, and knowledge of the sun shows that Sans has a kinship or knowledge with other humans, and B, that despite he and Papyrus both being skeletons, or, supposedly, brothers, and apparently appeared in underworld at the same time, they clearly– uuuGGHH take two CLEARLY have two very different histories. Why would Papyrus not know the name of the sun but Sans would? We get further clues to Sans’ origins as we hear him say multiple times he wants to “go home” or “go back.” He says as much during his dinner date scene at the Mettaton hotel. He notices that the player wants to go home and says, quote, “i know the feeling.” He then continues, “maybe sometimes it’s better to take what’s given to you.” As though he ended up in the underworld by accident. AND in a genocide run during his boss fight he says, quote, “look, i gave up trying to go back a long time ago.” End quote. And before you say he means going back to the surface world, that’s clearly not the full story. His very next line of dialogue is, “and getting to the surface doesn’t really appeal anymore either.” Key word here, is EITHER. Yes, he seems to hail from the surface and wants to go back, but based on his dialogue he no longer considers it his home. It’s as though the surface world he once knew is gone, as though he’s from a different time. It’s pretty intriguing. So we’re left with a being that appeared out of nowhere, presumably from being from the human surface, but from a different time period, who seemingly has the power to teleport. That’s a lot of questions and not a lot of answers. But here’s where things get REALLY interesting. Sans has a hidden workshop that takes a fair amount of searching to find. You could say it takes a lot of DETERMINATION to unlock. Anyways, obligatory determination references aside, as you start to look for this easter egg Sans gives you a key to his room and says “it’s time you learn the truth.” After some searching you find the workshop which contains items that leave even more questions. A photo album featuring Sans and a bunch of smiling people you don’t recognize, a badge, blueprints with illegible handwriting, and a broken machine hidden behind a curtain. In the latest update, one more detail was added. A handdrawn picture of 3 smiling faces with the words “don’t forget.” so what does it all mean? Well a lot of Undertale theorists have been linking these details to a feature to a character named W.D Gaster. A ghostly character who never truly appears in the game. Honestly, covering him is a theory all unto itself, and probably one best saved for another day. Even still, none of the Gaster theories I’ve seen have been able to explain all the details. In particular, the photo album, and the badge. And that’s what kept nagging me as I researched Undertale. A badge? That one in particular really stuck out to me. Why would such an oddly specific item to be hidden in the huge easter egg of a room? Something that supposedly reveals the truth about Sans? Badges just aren’t important in Undertale. Then it hit me. What if this badge isn’t from Undertale? What if this badge is from a completely different game? And was, in fact, the most important badge in the history of gaming? The Franklin badge. Now, for those of you wondering what I’m talking about, the Franklin badge is a pivotal item from the Mother series. You know, the one with Earthbound. Or, maybe you don’t know that one either. Uh, you know, the one with Ness from Super Smash Bros? Yeah well, Ness is from Earthbound, and Earthbound is the second part in this larger Mother trilogy. Alright? Good. Anyway, the Franklin badge is a really important part of that series. It gets its start in the very first game and carries through the whole trilogy, saving your life multiple times in the process. It’s SO important that nintendo has made it a staple item in the Smash Brothers series. So I asked myself; what if the badge in Sans’ drawer was THAT EXACT badge? Well first off, it made Undertale connected to my favorite game, thereby making it even COOLER, but that’s still a pretty big logical leap. I needed more. Let me tell you, as I started looking, more and more pieces started to fit into place. At the end of Earthbound you’re given a photo album, covering your adventures throughout the game. To me it’s one of the best, most satisfying endings in gaming to look back on your journey in picture form. And what does Sans happen to have in his other drawer? A photo album with pictures of Sans with people you don’t recognize. Of course you don’t know them, they’re not characters present in Undertale. And note the word that’s used here, PEOPLE you don’t recognize. Not underworld monsters. So that’s 2 items oddly linked to the Mother series. But then, how do the blueprints and broken machine fit in? Well, in the final stretch of Earthbound, Ness and his 3 friends must travel to the past in order to have their final battle against the evil alien Giygas. To do that, Dr. Andonuts (remember him, by the way, he’s going to be important later) with the help of the science geniuses Apple Kid and Mr. Saturn, create what’s known as the Phase Distorter, a machine that allows people to travel through time and space. Except, it comes with a cost. It can’t transport organic material. As a result, the young heroes must put their souls into robotic bodies to use the machine, and thus, save the world. I played this game back in 1997 and I’m not ashamed to admit that when I first saw this scene, I cried. It’s DEVASTATING. Doctor Andonuts says goodbye to his son, these characters you’ve grown to love and care about are suddenly promising to sacrifice their lives. For all they know, there is no possibility of them being able to come back home. It’s this incredibly dark departure in the final moments of what was otherwise a fun, quirky, and colorful RPG. So what does all of this have to do with Undertale? A LOT, actually. But the first thing you need to know is that Mr. Saturns are known for their, let’s say, unique linguistic style. That would explain the illegible handwriting on the blueprints. And the machine? I think a broken Phase Distorter is behind that curtain. Now that may seem like a stretch, but it actually explains a lot. If Sans wound up in Undertale via Phase Distorter, it could provide a reason for why he’s a skeleton. He used the machine as organic matter and suffered the consequences. Not killing him, but turning at least a part of him into a pile of bones. That could also explain why Sans has given up hope for going home. Remember the Phase Distorter is a time machine. By being in underworld, he’s not only in a different place, but based on how he talks, he’s also in a different time, with no hope of travelling back to the time he came from. But the crossovers between Earthbound and Undertale continue. When you speak to Apple Kid at the end of Earthbound, he’s blown away by the astronomical odds of Ness overcoming Giygas, saying that he’s going to continue studying the trait called courage, in order to harness its power. Seems awfully similar to the same experiments happening in Undertale around the trait of determination, no? Especially since so much has shown that Sans was a key player in those experiments. But I’m sure you also want physical evidence right? Well don’t worry, because I have plenty. During one of the endings of Undertale, we see Undyne and Alphys hanging out on the beach on the surface world. A beach that bears a lot of similarities to the tropical resort location named Summers that you play through in Earthbound. In fact, the geographic layout of the surface bears some striking similarities to the world of Mother. When Undertale’s crew of monsters are finally able to reach the surface and look out over the earth, they’re met with a beautiful sunset falling across the landscape of a tall mountain, a large city, and a sandy area adjacent to water. Notice the sun’s reflection to indicate water, and a lack of trees in this middle section here, hence the sand. Well, in Earthbound you have the big city of Fourside, complete with skyscrapers, which you reach via a desert that just so happens to be adjacent to some water, and to the east, the mountain in Onett where a meteorite lands on Earth. I always called it Aw-nett. But if that’s not clear enough for you, Mother 1, Earthbound Zero, Earthbound Beginnings, whatever you want to call it, it’s had a lot of names, had a map laying out the same geographic landscape. A tall mountain to the east of a large city, separated by a desert, with all of it up against a coast. I don’t know about you, but to me it seems like there’s a definite connection between the world of Eagleland (Eagleland? Again, unclear how its pronounced.) between the world of Eagleland and the surface world of Undertale. But the strongest physical connection, one that definitely unites these two franchises, comes from none other than Papyrus himself. He wears a custom-made costume known as his “battle body”. But if you look really closely at the design on the armor, you’ll notice some markings on the chest. Is it just a throwaway detail? Ohoh NO, that right there is an exact match to the ones that appear on the chests of Starmen, the most iconic enemy of Earthbound. And look at the way he stands! I always thought it was awkward until i saw the two characters side by side. Papyrus’ curved arm and hand is a DIRECT match to the curved arms of the Starmen in the Mother series! In short, we have some incredibly strong proof that the Earthbound universe is somehow connected to the Undertale world, which brings us back to our initial question, WHO IS SANS? Well, what if we took it one final step and said that Sans happened to be Ness from Earthbound? Sent through the Phase Distorter during a test of courage, carrying the Franklin badge and his photo album and his trusty backpack. Not only do all the items in the workshop suddenly fit, but so does Sans’ behavior. Remember, Sans can seemingly teleport. And Ness just happens to have the PSI ability to teleport. Now look the way Sans always stands, hands in his pockets, directly facing the camera. It’s a very similar stance to how Ness is depicted standing in most marketing for the game. It even explains why Sans bleeds when you finally hit him. He is, or at least, WAS, a human. Oh and finally, Sans is only one letter removed from being an anagram of Ness. That’s just a fun one. I thought it was worth mentioning. But if there was any doubt, we have to look no further than the creator’s previous work. Toby Fox, the man behind Undertale, had previously worked on a Halloween hack for Earthbound. But this just wasn’t a simple reskin. The Halloween hack tells the tale of Dr. Andonuts after the events of Earthbound. Remember, I pointed him out? He’s the one who made the Phase Distorter. In Toby Fox’s version of the story, we see that after Giygas’ defeat, the souls of the kids never return home. Instead, by going to the past to defeat Giygas, they create a new timeline that they’re stuck in. As a result, Jeff never reunites with his father Dr. Andonuts. And Dr. Andonuts goes crazy with guilt, because HE’S the one responsible for creating the time machine, and extracting the souls of his son and his son’s friends to send them back to what he assumes was their death. In his mind, he’s killed 4 kids. And in Toby Fox’s game, he’s lost his mind trying to deal with that guilt. I’m telling you, this hack is DARK. that said, you see a lot of Undertale in this game. The appearance of Amalgamates, the first use of the awesome song Megalovania, the prototypes for Flowey? And the theme of having the choice to be nonviolent in an RPG, SPARING your enemies. But then why’s all this matter to the theory? Well, remember, in Toby Fox’s version of the story, the kids don’t come back. They’re stuck in the past, with no hopes of getting home. Just like Sans. And, in the hack, one character is oddly missing, with no explanation as to why. NESS. Presumably in this timeline his soul is in a different place than his 3 friends. Which brings us back to Undertale. 3 faces, with “don’t forget” written on it? It’s Ness, trying to remember his 3 friends. In short, Undertale is a continuation of Toby’s version of Earthbound, with Ness never being able to get home, adopting the name Sans, and accompanied by Papyrus, a former Starman, an alien force able to speak English and still equipped with his armor, and signature posture, but without any knowledge of earthly things… like the Sun. The pieces all just seem to fit. Now all we need is an appearance from Pokey/Porky and we’ve got ourselves a true sequel. But hey, that’s just a theory. A GAME THEORY! THANKS FOR WATCHING!