#that I've never actually played because playing video games stresses me out

[brionysea]

getting a new obsession with a piece of media is the best because suddenly every song in the world is about some beautiful deranged fictional woman who has consumed you mind and soul

[goat-boy-sounds]

I really think there's something to that anecdotal phenomena that soulsborne games cure depression

[kaliforniahigh]

I need some best friend!Noah to lover action lol

You and Noah have been best friends for years. It's a very sweet and fluffy friendship but somewhere along the way Noah develops a crush on you. He never says anything because he doesn't want to ruin your friendship.

Noah is your rock and shoulder to cry on after it never works out with the guys you date. He knows he can treat you better but he still doesn't make a move. 🥺

One night when you're at his place watching anime or playing video games, he finally gets the courage to tell you how he feels and he hopes you'd give him a chance (you do obviously). And then the night ends with romantic and sweet smutty love.

Y'all love bestfriend!Noah so much and I'm so on board for this! Thank you so much for the request, hope you like it!!!

Warnings: mention of the death of an animal (it's fake), pining, smut, unprotected p in v (wrap it up, babes!), fingering (fem. receiving), a little bit of overprotective Noah. I think that's it.

WC: 3.9k

Requests are closed for now.

You're probably the best thing that has ever happened in Noah's life. He wishes he was exaggerating, but that's the way he felt about you. He has no doubt you love him as much as he loves you, he just wanted you to love him in the same way.

He doesn't remember when his feelings went from loving you as a friend to loving you as something more. But everyday he saw you, he wished he could introduce you as his girlfriend and not just his friend.

Realistically, he knew it wasn't gonna happen. You've been in a series of dates these past few months, every single one of them ended disastrously, with you crying on his shoulder and saying you were giving up on men. But then the cycle repeated itself and he was left wondering what he would do if you just gave him a chance.

He was trailing behind you at the Farmer's Market, watching you pick fresh tomatoes and putting them in your bag.

"Are you making lasagna tonight?", he asked you, looking around him aimlessly, trying to remember if he needed to pick something up for himself.

"Yes, I am", you answered, but kept picking tomatoes. He must have counted six or seven already.

"Are you feeding an army of people? Why do you need so much tomato sauce?" he finally asked you, confusion laced in his voice.

"I might have company tonight for dinner", you said, sheepishly looking at him. He felt his stomach drop. Not only did you have a date tonight, but you were making them your special lasagna recipe?

"Who is it?" he still held out hope that you would said you just invited some friends over, but he knew that wasn't the case.

"He is a friend of a friend. I've been talking to him for a few days now"

You've been talking to him for only a few days? And you were already cooking for him and inviting him inside your house? His jealousy turned into concern.

"You've met him before, right? Like, met him in real life, went out with him?" he needed to make sure you weren't inviting a complete stranger into your home.

"This is our first date, I actually haven't met him. But all my friends told me he's really nice", you told him, as if there wasn't a problem in what you're doing.

"Y/N, look at me right now", he demanded, snatching some tomatoes from your hand and putting them back in their place. "You're inviting a complete stranger that you've never met before into your house and you don't see a problem in that at al?", he waved his hand around in a exasperated manner.

"Noah, he isn't a complete stranger, my friends know him and he's been nice to me so far", you argued.

"Yeah, I bet hell is full of nice people as well", he rubbed his forehead in stress. "I know that no matter what I say, you're not cancelling this stupid date. Just make sure you have your phone close to you and if he starts acting weird, you call me", his voice was firm, and he even grabbed your shoulder for emphasis.

"I promise I'll call you", you reassured him. Your heart tugged at his concern for you.

When you became friends with Noah, you knew right away that he would be trouble for your heart. You were instantly infatuated with him, his kind eyes and funny personality. It didn't take long at all for him to capture your heart.

But only a few weeks after knowing him, he started dating someone, and you didn't even have time to shoot your shot. So you decided to will your feelings away, even if it was the hardest thing you would ever do in your life.

You watched from afar and how he interacted with his girlfriend at the time. The way he cared for her and the way he looked at her with so much adoration in his eyes. You wished that for you, and if you couldn't have that with him, you would find someone else who could provide it for you.

Ever since then, he has broken up with his girlfriend and you've been on countless failed dates. Even though he's your best friend, he kept the reason for the break up strangely vague. You always thought it was weird, but never pressed on the subject.

Him, on the other hand, kept replaying in his head the words his ex-girlfriend told him the day she broke up with him.

"In the months we've been together, you haven't been able to tell me you love me. But you don't hesitate to say it to her"

He remembers the way she reffered to you in venomous way.

"I think you're with the wrong person and it shows. Everyone can tell you're in love with her and not me"

He kept quiet, not really able to argue with that. She was right, but he wasn't going to admit that to her face. So she left and never came back. He doesn't blame her, he guesses it's cruel staying with someone who loves someone else.

He wanted to be sad about the break up, but it was evident he was more relieved than anything. You asked questions and he kept the answers vague until you dropped the subject entirely, and you never spoke of it again.

"When is he arriving at your house?", he asked you.

"I told him around 8pm. I should have plenty of time to get everything ready by then", you said as you went about picking some other ingredients you needed.

The rest of the visit to the Farmer's Market was quiet. You knew Noah was in a sour mood now compared to when you arrived, but you left him to his devices when strayed to look at some seasonings for himself. He never strayed too far from you anyway.

He dropped you off at home after you left, you told him goodbye and went up the stairs. You had a lasagna to make.

As Noah sulked on the couch, he wondered what would be the best time to head to your house. If the dude was arriving at 8pm, he should probably be there but 7:45pm at least.

Looking at the clock and seeing it was barely 3pm, he let his thoughts drift back to you once again. If it was so obvious to everyone that he was in love with you, why could you not notice it? Or did you notice it and decided to ignore it? Why were you so adamant in getting a boyfriend? Were you not happy by yourself?

He was being ridiculous, you wouldn't be alone your whole life. Eventually you would find someone, marry them and have kids, and he would be just your best friend for the rest of his life. He wondered how he could find a girlfriend, marry and have his own family if he was so hung up on you.

He decided to take a shower and have a bite to eat. Sitting around wasn't doing him any good.

You had put the lasagna in the oven and was now taking a shower to start getting ready. You weren't as excited for this date as you thought you would be. Going on dates actually got old for you a while back, so you promised yourself this would be the last one, and if it didn't work out, you wouldn't try anymore.

Even though you feeling a little down before your date even arrived, you put effort into your makeup and outfit, not going overboard since you would be staying at home after all, so you went with something casual.

You checked the food from time to time, the delicious scent filling the whole apartment as you waited.

On the way to your house, since he had a bit to spare, he picked up some hamburgers and fries. It wasn't as good as your heavenly lasagna that the prick would eat, but it had to do.

He parked a bit to the left of your apartment entrance, on the other side of the street, and settling himself in his car, he waited. As much as he wanted, he wouldn't crash your date. He just wanted to be as close as possible, just in case this dude tried anything and you actually needed to call him. If your date lasted hours, he would stay parked outside your place.

Just a little before 8pm, a sleek black sedan - a BMW, if he was being specific - parked outside your place. He buzzed the intercom and waited for you to buzz him in.

So he was also an entitled rich guy? Maybe he was a finance dude? He made a mental note to ask you later.

He could see two shadows from the window in your apartment. He looked away, not taking chances in seeing things that would only disappoint him. And he didn't even know if you kissed on the first date, but hoped not.

It was now 9pm and he had finished his burgers and fries, the wrapper thrown carelessly on the passenger seat. You must be having dinner now, right? Maybe the dude would leave by 10pm?

10pm rolled around and there were no signs of the guy leaving. He was beginning to get restless, not able to find a comfortable position on the car seat. He contemplated calling you, but two hours was a reasonable amount of time for a date, he thinks.

Thirty minutes later - yes, he was watching the clock very closely - his phone buzzed on his lap, your nickname and face flashing on his screen. He could've sworn he's never picked up a phone so fast in his life.

"Hey, is everything ok?", he said right out the gate.

"Yeah, everything's fine. It's just", you hesitated for a moment. "He doesn't wanna leave? We had dinner and we've talked plenty and I don't know how to tell him that I just want him to leave already", he could tell you didn't want to be rude. Lucky for you, he didn't have that problem.

"Where is he right now?", he asked you.

"He's in the bathroom. Can you just call me with an emergency or something? Just so I can have an excuse?", he could to that, but he was already outside your place.

"I'll just show up at your apartment. It would be more effective", he argued.

"You don't have to drive all the way here, a call is fine", you tried to convince him.

"That's not a problem at all. I'll be there soon"

"Ok then. Listen, he's leaving the bathroom. I'm waiting for you", you said hurriedly and hung up the phone.

He thought of a plan of action as his eyes settled on a bottle of water he was drinking from earlier in the day. He splashed some water on his cheeks, as well as on his eyes. Locking his car, he walked over to the entrance of your building, buzzing your apartment number.

You picked up and he got himself ready to put on his best act. Pretending to be crying, he told you through the intercom.

"Oh my god, Y/N, you're not gonna believe what just happened", he said, in a fake desperate voice.

"Noah? What is going on?", you asked, just as desperate.

"Furry, my cat, just got got ran over by a car, oh my god, I'm so devastated", he "cried" harder, trying to not to laugh at the same time.

"Oh my, that's horrible. I'll let you come up and we can talk about it", you buzzed him in and he took the stairs two at a time, arriving at your door and knocking rapidly. You opened the door and the sight before you was comical. He had "tear" stains all over his cheeks and his lips were downturned like a cartoon character. You hugged him for effect and whispered a "thank you" on his ear.

Your date stood in your living room, awkwardly watching the scene unfold before him. "Hmm, I gues I'll go? Let you deal with it?", he said as you parted from the hug and turned to look at him.

"Yeah, I think that's best. I'll text you?", you told him, trying to sound as if you were sorry your date was cut "short".

He made his way to the door, you and Noah making space for him to leave. "I'm sorry for your loss, man", he patted Noah on the shoulder, you could hear in his voice that he was truly sorry for this imaginary cat that just died. Noah only nodded in a solemn display of sadness.

"I'll buzz you out", you let him know as he was making his way to the staircase. You closed the door and you and Noah fell into a fit of giggles, both clutching your stomachs and doubling over in laughter.

"Oh my god, that was Oscar worthy", you clutched his arm, still laughing.

"What can I say? I'm truly talented", he said as he threw his imaginary hair back. You led him to sit on the couch and told him you would change into some more comfortable clothes and be right back.

You put on your sweatpants and a sweatshirt that probably belonged to Noah, but has been in your closet for such a long time that you couldn't really tell anymore. Making your back to the living room, you sat beside him, grabbing the controller for the TV and opening Netflix.

"How did you get here so fast?", you asked him as you browsed through the movies and series, trying to find something interesting to watch. When he didn't answer you, you looked at him, thinking he didn't hear you. But he was looking back at you, struggling to answer.

"I was already parked outside your building?", he was unsure of what your response would be to this information.

"You were what?", your voice wasn't angry, you were actually amused.

"When you told me you were inviting this guy to your place, I got worried. I mean, we hear stories everyday and it's scary. So I though if I was close by, and you called me saying that something happened, I would already be here"

You were at a loss for words. You couldn't believe that this man was parked outside your place, probably for hours, just because he was worried about you. You went out with guys who wouldn't pay the bill, or even pick up and drive you back to your place when you went on a date. And here Noah was, blowing your mind as per usual.

Your bar was low for a while when it came to men in general. But you reminded yourself that the person before you never let you down, he actually raised the bar so high that no other person could ever reach it.

"That's really sweet of you, thank you", you said and you were as sincere as you could be. "I'm really glad I have you looking out for me"

Noah cleared his throat, wanting to change the subject, suspecting you were just about to friendzone him.

"So how was this guy? Was the date ok?", he asked you, even though he didn't really wanna hear about it.

"He was ok. He was everything people told me about. But I guess my heart just wasn't in it?" you moved your body sideways, so you were facing him.

"Why not?"

"I guess I'm just tired of looking for the one", a big sigh left your lips at this admission.

Noah felt like this was now or never. He could fuck up your entire friendship within seconds. But he couldn't live with this anymore.

"You keep looking, but I think what you need is right before your eyes and you just never realized it", he watched as your brows furrowed.

"What do you mean?"

"I could make you the happiest girl in the world and you keep going out with these guys who won't even bother to know the first thing about you"

Silence fell upon you after he said this. The reality of his words sunk into you. You knew Noah could make you the happiest girl, and he already did, but you never imagined he would ever mean it in a romantic way. He could sense your confusion.

"Why do you think my last relationship ended?", he questioned you.

"Because you were on the road a lot and it didn't work out? That's what you told me"

"It was because she could tell I was so in love with you that I didn't have space in my heart for anyone else. So she left me"

You were shocked by his revelation.

"You're in love with me?" your voice was dazed, not actually believing the words falling from his lips.

"For someone so smart, you're such a silly girl at times", he teased you, not wanting to think about the fact that you could let him down any second now.

"Noah, you have no idea how long I've wanted to hear this", your eyes were misty with tears as he leaned closer.

"And I've been wanting to tell you this for a long time. I'm sorry I let you go out with these fools for this long"

You stayed gazing into each others eyes, his hand came up to your face and started stroking your cheek. You scootched yourself closer to him, your faces only inches apart.

"Noah", you whispered to him and he hummed, too entranced with you this close to give a verbal answer. "Kiss me, please", you didn't ask, rather demanded, and you didn't need to say it twice. His lips landed on yours firmly, and he clutched the back of your neck to press your faces together. There was an urgency in the kiss as you moved in the pace he set.

Opening your mouth, you gave him permission to slip his tongue past your lips, making the kiss even more heated. Soon, your presence beside him wasn't enough and you made a move to climb onto his lap, but hesitated halfway, unsure of how far he wanted to take this.

But his hands landing on your thighs told you everything you needed to know, as you swung a leg over his, both knees resting on the couch. Your breath was picking up and so was his, and you parted to let some air into your lungs.

"You feel so much better than I thought", Noah told you, while his hands ran up and down your thighs. You looked into his eyes and saw they were clouded over with lust and want. Reaching for his hands, you slid them a little higher until they rested on your ass.

"I need you", your voice was breathless and you settled your core over his crotch, feeling his hard erection under you. He hissed and squeezed your ass tight.

"Are you sure? We don't have to do this right now", he tried to reassure you, he was happy just kissing and making out on the couch.

"Please, I haven't been fucked in so long", you pleaded with him with a whine, rolling your hips over his to get your point across. His eyes closed and he threw his head back at the feeling.

"Let's take these clothes off, then", his hands made quick work of your - his - sweatshirt, leaving your top bare for him. His hands were everywhere, your sides, your stomach, your breasts and finally rested on your neck, a thumb reaching to swipe over your lips.

Your hands reacher for the hem of his tank top, pulling it over his head. You lowered your head and began giving him kisses all over his chest, hands running over every inch of skin you could find.

"You're so sweet for me. Can't wait to be inside you, bet you'd feel so good around me", he said in your ear, your head spinning from his dirty words. You got up from his lap and slid your sweatpants and underwear down your legs, and he did the same with his jeans and boxers, and you situated yourself on his lap again.

His hand slid between your legs, feeling how wet you are for him. His fingers felt so good over you and you couldn't help but start to move your hips in circles, gasps of pleasure leaving your mouth.

"I need your fingers, please", you told him, wanting to feel the fingers you fantasized about iniside you. He couldn't deny your plea, he slid one first and then another, finding no resistance at all. He moved his fingers back and forth, curling inside you and hitting all the right spots.

Your hips moved with him and he couldn't take his eyes off of you, or the way his long fingers disappeared inside you, your wetness starting to drip down your thighs. He pulled them out, not wanting to wait any longer to feel you wrapped around him.

Positioning your entrance over his hard cock, you started to sink down, making it halfway until you had to stop for a moment, having to adjust to his size.

"It's ok, baby, we follow your pace, go slow, get used to it", he told you, hands going to your back in a soothing motion. You felt it burn a little, but the sensation was dizzying, and you couldn't wait to feel all of him. So you resumed your movements and after a few seconds, he bottomed out and you swear you've never felt do full in your life.

"It feels so good", you whined.

"I know, baby, you also feel incredible, so thight around me it's driving me crazy", you mewled at his words, his praises.

You slowly started to move up and down, waiting until he was almost all the way out to bounce back. His grip was impossibly tight on your hips, helping you along.

Your legs started to give out under you, both from tiredness and pleasure. He noticed this, as he slid down the couch a little, hips working to fuck into you at an impossibly fast pace, your head dropping to rest on his chest, the moans coming freely out of your mouth now.

"I'm so close, please don't stop", you told him, voice strained, mixed with your sounds of pleasure.

"Me too, baby. C'mon, cum with me, cum all over my dick", his words sent you over the edge as you convulsed above him, hearing his grunts in your ears as a warm sensation filled your insides.

You both stayed there for a while, catching your breaths, bodies going limp on the couch. When you lifted your head from his chest to look at him, he had such a fucked out look on his face.

You reached for his hair that got in his face, pushing it back, his half lidded eyes looking at you.

"We should probably take a shower", you told him, voice low as to not disrupt the moment.

"We should, but I just wanna stay here a little longer", his hand stroked over your own hair, cupping your face and pulling you to lay down on his chest again, both of your bare bodies feeling every inch of each other.

You hummed in satisfaction, eyes closing and reveling in the feeling of him so close to you.

[wlntrsldler]

If the boys played “never have I ever” in an interview, what would be revealed to the public?

I SPRINTED TO MY COMPUTER

here's the transcript of poisoned mercury's buzzfeed interview where they played never have i ever as part of their press tour to promote their new album:

interviewer: thank you guys for coming!

luke *smiling while he fixes his mic*: thanks for having us :) we were just talking about how we used to do buzzfeed quizzes when we were younger.

travis: there were many days where we'd be in luke's house back in connecticut and completely forget that we were supposed to be rehearsing because we got caught up trying to figure out which inside out emotion we were.

interviewer: well, i'm glad to hear it because today we're gonna play a game of 'never have i ever.'

chris: unrelated but i fucking love that show. team paxton for life.

luke: dude no. ben is clearly the right choice.

connor: ok mr. enemies to lovers, of course you'd say that.

luke: shut up???!

travis: i think if we took the inside out quiz again right now, i'd get disgust because that's how i feel being in a band with two idiots who are so in love with their girlfriends.

connor: swear to god if i hear another "no you hang up first," from either one of you *looks at chris and luke* i'm blowing my brains out.

interviewer looks around the room, trying to ask the producers what she should do. the video editors are already stressing because they know they have to bleep out a lot of the words the boys are using.

interviewer: .... so let's start with the first question. never have i ever gone skinny dipping.

chris: fuck, how did you get all of us on the first question?

connor: yeah we've gone skinny dipping a few times, but the most recent was last summer. mama c-- shoutout mama c, we love you!

luke: yeah, we love you mama!

connor: she put all of us on timeout and we spent the entire summer at a music camp and on our last night, we all went skinny dipping at the lake with our roommates.

luke: oh shit, i forgot about that. those were good times. *looks at chris* i miss camp bro.

chris: me too.

travis *stares deadpan into the camera*: do you see what we have to deal with?

interviewer: never have i ever had a crush on a friend's sibling.

travis: guilty.

chris *turns his head so fast*: given that you're related to connor and luke is an only child, you better be talking about a non-band friend.

travis *shrugging*: your older sister is hot, rodriguez.

chris: stay away from my sister.

luke *looks at the interviewer with wide eyes*: next question or you'll have a video to submit to worldstar.

interviewer: oh! uh, okay-- never have i ever accidentally posted something to my main account instead of my private or close friends one.

connor *cracking up*: castellan, wanna take this one?

luke *blushing*: this feels like a targeted question because we know the infamous video of me with the handsome squidward filter on (the hozier incident) that was supposed to go on my close friends story! i was so embarrassed. to be clear, i was JOKING. i don't actually flirt like that.

travis: i've seen you flirt with y/n, and you in the squidward video had more game than you normally do.

luke *teasing because he knows travis does not want a relationship*: and yet who's single between the two of us?

connor: oh he got you there.

travis: y/n, if you're watching this, you deserve better. he's a loser. i have better friends i can set you up with.

luke: five star, if you're watching this, you're stuck with me. there's no going back.

interviewer: never have i ever had a song written about me.

chris: this is a great pivot to promote our sophomore album's lead single, "kiss her you fool!" we wrote this song about our front man, luke, here. our second album "optimism don't come easy (unless it's with you)" is out now.

interviewer: i love that shameless self-promo.

connor: i think we as a band can benefit from having some shame, but thank you.

chris *turns to luke*: this will also come as a shock to you, but there's another song out in the world that's kinda about you.

luke: huh? which one?

travis: quinnie, remember her? she was in cabin 7. she wrote the bulk of it, but y/n actually gave her the idea. chris and connor helped her with instrumentals and the song is sick.

connor: it was amazing. quinnie is so talented. if you guys haven't heard her music, i highly, highly recommend it. the song we're talking about is called touch tank. you guys should check it out.

chris: agreed. she's also just a fucking cool person. she's one of our closest friends in the industry.

travis *making a heart with his hands*: we love you, quinnie!

interviewer: okay, final question since we're running out of time. never have i ever gone on a world tour for my band's second album.

luke *laughs*: i see what you did there. that was good.

connor: we are soooooo excited to announce that we're going back on tour! this summer, we'll be seeing all your beautiful faces again. tickets go on sale this friday! we hope to see you there!

luke: check out our band's twitter for more information on how to get tickets and to see if we'll be coming to a city near you.

chris: we miss seeing you guys!

travis: see you guys so soon! we love you!

interviewer: that's all the time we have for today. thank you guys so much. it was a pleasure!

[max-nico]

Another installment of random Sonic Headcanons

Sonic doesn't like buttercream frosting, Tails doesn't like whipped frosting, and Knuckles always wipes 90% of the frosting off his cake

When Tails is doing something, whether it's working in his lab or just making dinner, Sonic will shadow box the air behind him. He stops when Tails turns around to look at him, but the fox very much knows that Sonic is throwing fake punches at him lol

Tails, Cream, and Charmy play animal crossing (or the Sonic equivalent lol) together

Matter of fact, I think like all the characters play video games together. I'm sure they have different types of video games they like (I can see Sonic playing animal crossing but Jet? Not so much) but it's not odd for them to enter an online lobby

Tails loves crunchy foods

Espio once asked Vector to death roll him to "see if his body could take it".... Vector obviously said no

I don't think any of the cast really feel famous, except for maybe the Babylon Rogues bc they're (probably) sports stars

No matter how often they get asked for an autograph or approached in public they're all like "???? Yeah ??? I guess I can take a picture with you ???"

I think hedgehogs are one of the most common races (species??) of Mobian

If the Robotniks were Mobian they would be robins (<- pretty sure I've said that before) and possibly various other red and black birds

Barry and Tails keep in contact, but they don't get a lot of chances to hang out

I don't have anything for Blaze and Silver rn but just know that I love them dearly and I'm always thinking of them

Cream is determined to befriend Shadow. She will stop at nothing until he admits that they are friends

Sonic hates being on talkshows, and talkshows hate having him on, so it's mutual lol

The Rookie (whose name i cannot remember rn it's on the tip of my tongue omg) keeps the most contact with Knuckles, but everyone still stops to chat when they get the chance

Shadow suffers from memory loss after... Falling out of a spaceship and... Losing his memory...

I think for a while he was too prideful to write things down or set reminders because heaven forbid the ultimate lifeform needs help. This led to Shadow forgetting where his own place was and refusing to ask how to get there

Maybe this is my new explanation for why Shadow is always in caves and is never shown in a house of his own, instead of the actual explanation lol

Sonic often talks to Gaia/Chip when he's alone, Tails caught him a few times and has also picked up the habit, though he does talk to him less than Sonic does

Charmy doesn't like bananas

I've said this before in this post about shadows development, but I think he sheds a lot. Hedgehogs aren't actually supposed to lose quills unless they're super stressed, but because Shadow's DNA is only partially Mobian Hedgehog, a few things are off

Okay, that's all for now. I feel like this one's kinda short, but it's whatevs !! Feel free to talk to me about your own hcs I LOVE hearing about them. Happy year of Shadow everyone !!!!!!

I am a Tails centric blog but feel free to hit up my DMs or askbox about any of these characters !!!

[aswaki]

wish it was u [smt x reader]

seok matthew x reader | 1.1k word count | explicit (minors dni)

“matthew's fuck buddy misses him to the point they surprise him with a special photo at work”

contains: afab bodied!reader, voyeurism(ish?-via phone), slight tit/nipple play, oral (reader receiving), fuck buddy/friends with benefits theme, mention of size kink, brief appearance of hanbin

wish it was u [media attached]

matthew immediately lowered the brightness on his phone when he saw what it was. he hid his phone underneath the table so he could make sure it was for his eyes only. he tried to make his face as neutral as possible. he looked down at his phone once again and there it was... displayed on the screen was a mirror selfie of you laying on your bed. naked. your top was off, revealing your supple tits that matthew loved so much. his mouth almost watered at the sight of them.

he had always enjoyed holding both your tits in his hands and giving them a massage before guiding it to his mouth. you loved having them sucked off and matthew would never deny you that pleasure. the unexpected nude was almost perfect. the only problem was the obstruction that laid on top of you. someone else was staking claim to your perfect breasts. they had one of your nipples captured between their lips. their hands firmly placed on your hips, keeping you steady to stop you from squirming. (matthew knew because he's done that plenty of times before. you were always so responsive.) matthew’s fist clenched.

you and matthew had a very… interesting relationship, so to speak. both of you had been close for years. you knew each other inside and out, literally and figuratively. it started with a game one night after having too much to drink (“matthew, truth or dare?” ‘dare’ “okay, i dare you to… stroke your dick for me,”) to swapping kinks (‘i’ve always had a size kink, you know.’ “really? is that why you like to carry me around? to show off your strength and how big you are compared to me?”) to confessions of being attracted to each other (‘you’re really hot. i've always wanted to know what it’s like have my cock inside your pussy.’ “don't tell anyone but i really want you to choke me with your biceps.”) and then to actually having sex each other (“matty, fuck me harder! feels s-so good!”). even after all of that, the both of you were only friends. friends who liked to use each other’s bodies for fun. it was a casual set up.

no strings attached, no harm, no foul. you agreed to not be exclusive but somehow, you always gravitated to one another. there were times where even the friendly hang outs you planned had ended up with you screaming for his name. 

since he’s been busy lately, he guiltily hasn’t made time for you. no matter how desperate he was to feel your soft skin underneath him and to have his cock ram inside your warm walls for stress relief. he squeezed his eyes shut to get the image of you naked away from his mind. he could already feel himself getting aroused at the thought of you. he opened his eyes but there you were, still naked on his phone with another person.

he’d get mad but the message attached to the photo inflated his ego. he knew no one could replace him in pleasuring you. were you so desperate to have your body be played with? were your tits so lonely you had to look for another warm mouth? were you so horny you had to find someone willing to fill up your cunt?

“wish it was you” he smirked at that. oh, so did he. he was holed up in his work. he was currently at a meeting discussing some important thing matthew couldn’t care less about at the moment. before he could figure out what to do, another notification came through his phone.

ur still better. miss u matty. [media attached]

and you’re a fiend for teasing him… this time matthew couldn’t keep his expression neutral. his mouth hung slightly open as he clicked on the attached media. it was still you angling your phone to the mirror. however, the difference was that it's a video. matthew's finger went to lower the volume. he didn't want anybody from the meeting hearing you. your voice was meant for him, and him alone. the thought of someone else hearing you suddenly made his emotions run amok. when some sweet moans escaped from you as the person you’re with removed their mouth from your tits and went down on you, matthew felt his eye twitch knowing someone else made you moan like that. your current partner's mouth went to the waistband of your panties. they grinned at you before they used their teeth to drag the lace garment down. your legs spread wider to expose your slick pussy further. it was already so wet. their hands slid away from your hips and went on to travel lower, caressing your smooth skin that matthew was so familiar with. as it reached your inner thighs, they gave it a squeeze eliciting a small whine from you.

matthew knew what was going to happen next but he couldn’t stop himself from watching. all he could do right now was grip the phone tighter and tug on his jeans. he was starting to feel hot and restricted. in the video, the person leaned down to pepper your thighs with kisses before putting their lips on your damp folds. after gently kissing your pussy, they used their tongue to stroke your folds, up and down in a rhythmic pattern, then started to eat you out.

now, matthew has never been the possessive type but seeing you lose your resolve from a person that wasn’t him stirred something inside of him. despite all that, he could feel himself getting a hard on. back on the screen, an index finger rolled on your clit. your eyes flew shut as you moaned out, “matty…” your hold on the phone wavered as they started to play with your clit with fervor, making you more sensitive than usual. the video abruptly ends, much to matthew’s equal dismay and relief.

adrenaline ran through his body, he knew he could treat you better than that, even you knew that. it’s why you were doing all this. matthew moved from his spot on the conference table. he decided to go to you, to remind you who made you feel the best. you needed a reminder to who you belonged to. he let out a hurried, “excuse me,” before getting up and walking away. if anyone at the meeting looked intently at him, they would have seen a tent forming at his pants.

“hey, matthew! we're not done yet!” he heard hanbin call out to him but he ignored it. he'd deal with that later. right now, all he wanted right now was to fuck you mercilessly and erase the traces of someone else from your skin.

wait for me, baby. omw.

a/n: did y'all like it? i haven't really written any thing for a while so this is a quick fic i made. i wanted to dip my toes into writing fics again so i created this new blog. (i'd really appreciate it if you left feedback and maybe reblog/like this)! i hope i'm not that rusty at it. i'm going to be honest— the writing was super quick to make but finding photos to add on top took me a long time to do! lmao! if you read this far, thank you.

divider credit: saradika-graphics

[mogwaipoet]

I saw a few people asking for advice about how to distract themselves during the election

Here's the problem with that idea: trying to ignore the news just on election day is like showing up at the Olympics without ever having practiced your sport. You won't have any of the skills or habits you need.

Ignore the news every day. There's a big difference between "staying informed" and "stressing yourself out until it's a struggle to just exist, let alone take action." The modern conception of journalism is so far towards the stressing yourself out end of the spectrum -- and if you need to ask, getting your news on social media is even further down that dark, dark hole -- that "ignore all the news every day" is my genuine advice for how to be a good, effective citizen.

You are not obligated to bear witness. Posting is not activism. The extent of my activism is that I have recurring monthly donations to the ACLU and Southern Poverty Law Center and I absolutely claim the moral high ground over someone whose idea of activism is that they read a lot and post a lot.

Here's my advice for how to ignore the news:

Whatever you use to read the news, delete it from your phone. If that's your web browser, so be it -- you can have it back later, when you stop automatically trying to open it whenever you're bored or anxious. If it's your social media app, you can have it back after you curate the right list of people to follow.

Find a hobby, even if it's just binging TV shows or playing video games. If you're like me, you focus best on projects when you have something else to avoid, so now's a great opportunity to finish that novel or birdhouse.

Set boundaries. On the discord I run, there's a channel called interesting-times and it's understood that all the political talk goes in there. On my podcast Topic Lords, I reject political topics. My friends and family basically never talk to me about this stuff any more. That last part may be difficult if your friends are too poor to afford therapy. But the friends who can afford therapy but choose to vent at you instead? Shut those people the fuck down.

If you fuck up one of the above steps and accidentally read something, for god's sake don't post about it and make life harder for everyone else.

I've been living my life like this for several years. What are the consequences of being completely uninformed about what's going on in the world? I have no idea. I still hear plenty about the news, because it's fucking impossible to actually avoid. This is just what it takes to not drown in the news. Keeping my head above water and loving it.

Your training regimen starts today. Good luck.

[contentloadingandstuff]

This is not a post about writing. Sorry.

I don't want to put personal things on this blog. You're here to read the stuff I write, and don't want to listen to me whine. I understand that. And yet here I am.

As predicted, though it came much faster. It's already been a week and I'm starting to have enough of this. The entire day was spent at the university because my lessons are spaced out throughout the day. I have added another two annoying, condescending and egoistic professors. I miss high school already, and I never thought I would - everything was better organised back then. Classrooms packed, stuffy, filthy chair-desks. Every teacher has their own rules and programmes. Every one of them says that it's going to be difficult. Thanks, I didn't realise that when I signed up for five years of law. They give tasks and homework that involve other people, people that I don't know and that seem to not give a flying duck about me when I try to seek them out. So much boring text to dig through, while not even knowing which parts are important. I got into the highest language group (C1) in English. My reward? Two years spent working my ass off with a nasty hag as my teacher. I have to commute ninety minutes to campus. I missed my bus today by two stops. Now it's forty minutes more commuting as punishment. And then twenty minutes on foot. I left my house at 8, I will come back at 20. Twelve hours. Every Monday since now. Half of which are actually spent on learning.

I'm tired. The bed is tough, the flat cramped and lonely. I have left everyone behind for this. Sure, I can travel back to them by train, but that costs. And my teachers allow just two missed classes, else you fail. Money management is giving me decision fatigue. I have long started digging into my savings, the stuff I got on my birthday. The rent is high. I need to get a flatmate to reduce the costs because my grandparents won't let me stay in this tiny flat for less than 3000 PLN (750$) monthly.

On top of that, my friends have gotten less talkative. I don't blame them, they have their own lives. If anybody texts or calls me, it's my family - only to learn about how I fare. Not in general, just at the university. Because there is nothing more to me. They tell me 'ah, yeah, that's going to suck :D' with a cheerful tone. Oh it already does. But I have to answer them that I'm fine, because it wouldn't do any good to tell them to piss off, or at least shut up if they have to be on my back.

I was excited at the prospect of being alone. I wouldn't have to be ashamed, worried or hide things. Independence, privacy. It quickly wore off. I stay up until 3 am, get five hours of sleep and go to uni. I play video games, but even they don't excite me as much as they used to. I feel like I've watched every single video on YouTube by now. I don't have the strength to go for new things now.

Writing is nothing but another source of stress now. When I do my dailies in Genshin I am reminded that I'm not writing. NAU stares daggers at me. I've killed it, but the first remade chapter isn't even halfway ready as of now.

I'm not going to the gym, or leaving the house that much. I'm eating trash food, for just a moment of distraction. I've bought more Lego than I bought for years recently. Just to get a moment of happiness when putting it together. I've spent money on things that I won't use. They don't seem as interesting when they are built. I can't sell them, I've opened them already. I lost two instruction books. They are useless.

I don't have a choice, I need to keep studying, but I don't want to. Now I have nobody to guide me through this mess. I need to work things out myself, but it's not what I can feasibly do.

I hate it here. I hate it now. I regret living up to this moment in my life. I wish I spared myself of all this. But I didn't have the strength to do it, even when I had the best chance.

So uh, writing is gonna be slow alright.

[untoldsoup]

Just wanted to make a quick update!

I know some people have expressed concern over my mental health because of the speed I get updates out so I figured I would make a post to clear the air.

Yes, I draw 3-4 or more hours a day. And I know it sounds alarming but I'm an introvert. I spend most of my time between work and home. Before starting this comic I would either play video games all day or scroll the Internet. If you look at my blog history, you will see I've actually had this blog since 2020. However before this comic I posted barely anything. Maybe one to two arts a year.

I had a long span of depression and life and health issues that really affected my passion for art (a year of spine problems that also prevented me from drawing until I had emergency surgery). Getting into the mario fandom really reignited my drive to draw again. When I find something I like I hyper fixate on it A LOT. I did the same with starwars for 4 years with a previous blog.

Also, this is my first time actually committing to a comic and I'm having a ton of fun with it, learning new things and fully enjoying the experience.

I do take breaks for other things (over the summer I worked less on the comic and more on other sidlink projects ect) to prevent burnout.

But drawing really is relaxing when I get home from work. I put on youtube or music and work on a page, then do some chores and a few other things before bed.

Not to mention I got a system down now and its easier to start and finish pages than it was at the beginning.

I'm working on the last update now and whats really motivating me is proving to myself I can finish such a large project. Ive never worked on something this big before and there is a sense of pride in completing it. I also plan on working on a ten page epilogue that wont be post on tumblr due to the nsfw rules, but will probably have on bluesky or discord or something.

I think after that I will however take a small break before working on the sequel (I do have the first 12 pages of the sequel ready to go, but it wont be posted till chapters one and two are both finished) just so I dont stress about it.

I'm a very anxious, isolated person and having projects to work on has helped a lot. I also started some depression meds this year that have been a boon to getting stuff done and not being sad all the time lol.

So all is well rn!! I'm on page 57 right now for the comic, and have a long xmas break coming up so I might meet my deadline who knows XD

[hyouta]

Dream Drop Distance might be my favourite KH game overall (so far at least).

(I mainly made this post separate because I had a question about the next set of games/movies - at the end of the post)

I finished my replay this evening and I'm still heart eyes over this game. Besides my personal bias of it coming out around the time I was going through a medical scare, no one can convince me that it's a bad game (or a bad Kingdom Hearts game).

This is only my second playthrough but I've still NEVER had an issue with the drop mechanic. Maybe it's because I only play on standard, but it never got in the way of any boss fights.

I think the other arguments I see is regarding the time travel plot and honestly it doesn't bother me, especially after experiencing the series properly. I don't know how much was actually planned, what was retconned etcetera but it didn't feel that out of place in the series.

Then there was something about how you can exploit the dream eaters affinity links and brother I just do not care to consider exploits when considering if a game is good or not. Honestly how many people are even going to discover exploits naturally? Other Kingdom Hearts games had exploits too but that's never brought them down.

ANYWAY, some notes I made playing (I literally stopped tweeting and just opened up my notes up for these posts):

The 3DS version of the opening is surperior

I'm a short hair Riku truther (also on that note, a cyan blue eye colour truther, even though I hate that so many characters have blue eyes - I saw people colour Terra's eyes brown and Ven's eyes green and I like that a lot)

I had to get used the the command system d-pad again, but honestly it didn't take that long, I only get stressed when I need cure.

I do miss donald and goofy... it was nice when they helped in re:coded hollow bastion (though it kinda sucks that dream eaters as party members is limited to one game)

I swear I got dual audio in the first flowmotion tutorial because I don't think it was supposed to sound like that

Do people see the χ-blade subtitle in real life because I don't know how they make the distinction

I have ZERO memory of flick rush to the point where I don't think I played it (and didn't play it this time either oops, maybe if I'm trophy hunting later)

I actually understand Sora's connection to Tron now so the Tron world makes a tiny bit more sense... the movie story however... still clueless

I remember when I originally played DDD that Rinzler was more difficult for me than Gigabyte Mantis, but this time it was reversed... if only because I forgot to lock-on and kept triggering flowmotion

"Me at every line of dialogue: how can I make this about akusai" lol I mean, I don't think I realised the parallels until more recently (or I just forgot)

I accidentally played out of order and I realised they... don't actually account for this; DDD can have one flaw, as a treat

Tries not getting my hopes up re: seeing TWEWY (or Neo TWEWY) characters in KH4

Symphony of Sorcery is top 3 worlds for me... maybe even number one, I just wish it wasn't so short...

Translating the reality shifts (and dream eater mini games) from handheld to console is a bit awkward but they made it work I guess

"Pain" ah yes, the husbands reunited lol Not sure if I missed it or if it was talked about elsewhere but I hope they had the decency to make Saïx a nobody again when he was still unconscious... I wanna know about all these blank periods!! (or do I)

Finally I understand how Goofy and Donald got there to save the crew

Honestly playing the games in order has added so much clarity, where I had only a basic understanding. Kingdom Hearts definitely rising the ranks of my favourite video game series'.

I can't even hate the plot and how complex it is because I'm a fan of Tsubasa Chronicles lmao

I'll try and finish art or post wips for my next post so this isn't so boring to go through but I appreciate those who took the time to read my nothing rambles (again, none of my twitter mutuals play KH so it was kind of lonely). Maybe if anyone who got to the end wanna suggest a KH character to doodle? No promises but I'll see!!

And finally my question:

I'm going through a suggested play order and it counts χ (Chi) separate, but I was under the impression it was the original Union Cross? I tried googling it but it's not clear enough if it has story unique for its own viewing or not... (also it means I have 10.8 hours of cutscenes to watch before I get to 0.2, woof)

[sburbian-sage]

So I brought up with my coplayers, the idea of weekly D&D games? You know, could be fun, give us something to de-stress with.

They were kinda on board, but... well they're all trolls, and they're more familiar with FLARP, and said we should play that instead...

Is it just me though, or is FLARP like, a nonsense game??? It seems super dangerous, and I can't tell if it's roleplay-heavy, or more like a video game?

I guess it's kinda like Sburb in that way... Which, uh, kinda gets away from the point of this being stress relief. You know, somehow, my idea of us all sitting cozily around a table, eating snacks and cracking jokes, seems to have been subverted into essentially playing *another* live-action game where you need to act as a specific class and leverage nonsense abilities. Don't I get enough of that already...?

But hey, I can roll with the punches, I wanna at least *try* it. So yeah, any advice or tips? Have you ever played it?

Oh man. I'm all for cultural sensitivity, but only Alternia could produce a game like FLARP. It's somehow simultaneously "your rural cousin who doesn't know what a gameboy is takes rapturous joy in throwing rocks at roadkill because that's his only hobby when he's not plowing the field or learning how to read (he is 15)" and "this FPS/superhero movie was directly paid for by the government, enjoy uncritically and join the military now to die in WWIII". And that's putting aside that on Alternia "let's play FLARP" can either be a friendly engagement between friends or a socially acceptable pretense for murdering someone and jacking all of their shit.

But then again, maybe I'm the one that needs to live a little. I've never played FLARP, or at least I don't remember having played it (I do remember the severe head trauma, but not anything leading up to it), but I do have a scan of the FLARP handbook, and enough familiarity with "actual play" to understand the social conventions and playerbase. So if you wanna commit to this, listen up.

Standard TRPG stuff. Establish lines and veils and other safety tools, be a fan of the players, respect the Clouder as a fellow player. Don't be a killer GM who tries to "win", but don't hand out victories like candy because the game isn't fun without legitimate stakes. This is my advice by the way. The closest the book comes to this is "as the Clouder, the players are all your bitches, but keep in mind that they outnumber you and the only thing sating their bloodlust is 1) you running a good game 2) you're not worth much XP".

Like D&D, FLARP can be surprisingly versatile in the games it can run. You can run FLARP cooperatively or divide into competitive teams. You can also run campaigns that focus on intrigue. However, like D&D, it's also mostly about killing things. So don't expect good results if your ideal TRPG experience is "cozy and conflict-free emotional story about queer people gardening" or whatever. It's an actual game.

I know I said "establish boundaries" earlier, but I'm enunciating right now that FLARP can be lethal. I'm not trying to insinuate that your Troll coplayers are going to go into automatic blood orgy mode as soon as the game starts. All I'm saying is, muscle memory can be a bitch, and if I'm going to play paintball with military veterans who have own landmines and stuff, it might be a good idea to double-check the guns to make sure they aren't loaded with live ammo.

Don't go in with a solid idea of what character you wanna play. All of your stats are randomly rolled, and your two highest stats determine which class you get to play as. It's honest-rolls, baby, and like honest rolls they can provide uneven results. The Boy Skylark class sucks, but their endgame potential is unreal.

There are homebrew rules for point-buy attribute determination, as well as picking whatever class you want, but if you ask to use them your coplayers are legally allowed to wedgie you. Casually bring them up and insinuate that it might be a good idea, maybe.

Clear out a large area for play. One or five square miles at least. When the campaign hatches, the monsters will need space to propagate.

Don't rob yourself of the fun. Alchemize some low-tier beginner equipment, and don't use your Classpect abilities. The game is balanced around players not being gods. There are homebrew "epic campaign" rules, but it gets really stupid really fast. If your Troll coplayers can use psionics, either ask them not to use them, or allow your human players to use certain Title powers to "balance" it out.

Related note, classes can only use certain types of weapons which may not correspond to your Kind Abstratus. Normally using a non-Kind weapon ensures you don't get damage bonuses (and it applies damage penalties if it's a "real" weapon), but FLARP uses its own damage calculations based on class, level, and stats when you're playing it. You might think it's weird that SBURB seemingly respects FLARP as its own independent game type and will suspend its own damage calculations while playing it. Don't think about it too much. Also don't think about how the Boy Skylark is just the Page in all but name.

If you don't maintain strict time records, you won't have fun, your game will suck, and I'll kill you.

Happy FLARPing. And if it doesn't work out, try pilling them on another game. D&D won't work, FLARPing basically does all the same stuff D&D does, except D&D is for babies and FLARP is EXTREME ROLEPLAYING. Maybe try VtM. Or if there's a jadeblood among your team who thinks roleplaying as vampires is culturally insensitive, try Mage. Try to emphasize that you can do things in the realm of imagination that can't be faithfully done live-action.

[amorficzna]

I feel like I've learned so much about myself and about burnout this last little while.

I was last fired from a really toxic work environment last August, so it's been almost a year without work. Before that I was laid off as part of the continued games industry layoffs. I think at that point I had a very toxic and burned relationship with work.

I am so privileged that I've had the time to recover. My partner has been so good and making sure we've haven't suffered even though our industries fucking suck right now. Because I don't think I even realized how burned out I was. Like, I know that I was burned out - it seemed apparent with how I was going - but not how it actually was. It was seriously affecting my mental health to the point where I was either laying in bed not doing anything for days, or cleaning the house or playing video games or doing whatever for literally 16 hours or more without stopping. Like I think my body was incredibly out of wack. I don't think I really understood "the body keeps the score" until then.

It took me months to find passion in something again. Crochet is great. It was something I actually wanted to do which wasn't just sitting in front of a computer screen. I had no energy to hang with friends or leave the house even though they would have no doubt made me feel better.

I think with finally, finally nothing to do - after years of academic rigor with working on top of it and finishing my masters and trying not to lose my mind with a company that was falling apart around me - my body just went to the other extreme. I can't even explain what was the burn out (versus like, not having the proper meds, or if it was both, or if one was affecting the other, etc.) or what it was really doing to me, but I knew I had it.

There were a few times throughout the last year that I thought I had finally recovered. Pushed myself to apply to jobs and try to turn my hobbies into money making machines (I would still like to do some as side hustles, but not to force it to happen if it doesn't) even though my body was too tired to even think about going to a job every day. Too stressed about being rejected all the shit I dealt with my last job that I couldn't really do it.

All this to say that burn out is so invasive, I just never really realized it. It affected every part of me, and still does! Over the past few months I've slowly, slowly seen myself recovering. Actually wanting to show my work and the best of myself. Thinking about pursuing a PhD, updating my website, learning more figma and graphic design because I've always loved it and want to improve my skills. Things I want to do!

It's so refreshing to, every little while, wake up and realize, "Oh, I was still burned out, but now I'm feeling it slowly get it claws out of me".

I hope it just continues. I'm excited to see what I can become when I don't push myself to the extreme, so much so that the only thing keeping me going is not stopping.

[cbk1000]

And part three. (Final part; sorry this is so long: it has been a fucking long four months.)

No problem, Doctor Dipshit, I guess I'll just do your job and continue treating myself.

After my period ends, my heart rate drops again. It's still not as low as it should be, but it's much better. I continue to gradually improve. It's not a linear process; some days are better than others, but I never feel as bad as I did at the beginning of all this. My main issue is really my heart rate at this point; I'm no longer dizzy, I don't have the extreme weakness I had, my nausea is gone, I'm sleeping much better, and I'm a lot less tired than I was even before all this started. But the high heart rate keeps me still mostly bedbound, and I'm gnashing my teeth, because at this point I feel well enough to be mad about it, instead of just lying in bed trying to stave off death.

I finally start turning a corner, almost three months into taking supplements. My heart rate is consistently lower; even my last period wasn't as rough. (I felt a little worse than I had been, but my heart rate didn't spike, and I mostly just felt more run down than I normally would during my period.)

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been able to sit and stand and walk around for much longer, and I was finally, after months, able to start writing again. My heart rate is still a bit higher than it should be, and I have chest pain and tightness that radiates into my throat (it almost feels like an asthma attack) if I exert myself too much, but I can sit up for a good couple, few hours at a time, then lie down for a few minutes till those symptoms improve, and then get back up again. It is more exhausting to do things because of this, but I still, honestly, feel less tired than when I was a fully functioning, 'normal' person, and I've noticed that the horrible, frequent anxiety attacks I was having multiple times a week, out of nowhere, with no trigger, haven't happened since I started supplementing. I have been stressed, of course, but not baselessly anxious. Apparently iron deficiency can cause or worsen anxiety, so the anxiety I was having for the last couple of years that I attributed to all the changes at work, and how generally stressful the world has been, was also likely related to this.

Today, three and a half months after starting iron supplements, I'm writing this sitting up at my computer. I have some chest pain, but right now it's more of an annoyance than anything, and I can push through for a while before I'll need to lie down for a bit. The last week I have been able to write 27,000 words, animatedly play a video game I'm into at the moment (I shout a lot when I play), take Seamus outside multiple times a day while Mr. Jenn is at work (albeit for very short walks around the backyard, but still), edit, and concentrate on my reading. I can now sit out and eat dinner at our countertop and visit with Mr. Jenn. I spend more time up now than I do in bed. Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment with a non-lunatic, and will hopefully be able to get medical clearance to finally return to work (Mr. Jenn and I have rigged up my desk so that I can recline and still see my monitors and work if I need more than my allotted breaks to rest) and an order for an iron infusion to get me the rest of the way more quickly. It has been the longest four months of my life. I have felt trapped in my own body. There were points during that constant back and forth of regressing a bit, improving a bit, regressing a bit, that I was afraid I would be stuck like that forever. I've had enough of consistently being on my feet day after day over the last few weeks that, while I'm not yet at 100% and know it will still probably be a while before I am, I know I will be, eventually. I actually feel confident in that now.

What I mean to say with these three very long-winded posts is, please do not ignore what your body is telling you. I wrote off the extreme fatigue, and anxiety, and burning and tingling I was feeling in my legs and feet as poor sleep, the world going to shit, muscle strain, etc. etc. That was my body trying to tell me something was really wrong. I did not know these were symptoms of iron deficiency; and not everyone gets them, and not everyone gets such severe symptoms that their entire body shuts down and confines them to bed for months: but there was something wrong with me, probably for years, and I ignored that, and wrote it off, because the symptoms were non-specific, and I'd lived with them for so long that I normalized them. If you are having any of these symptoms, especially fatigue, especially if you're menstruating, and especially especially if most of your iron sources aren't from meat, please get an iron panel done. Not your CBC; that will only tell you if your hemoglobin is ok, and I can tell you, as exhibit A, that just because your hemoglobin is normal, does not mean you don't have iron deficiency. B12 deficiency will cause some of these same symptoms as well, so if you're vegetarian, definitely get that checked as well.

The only reason I was able to put two and two together was because I had had similar cardiac issues after a blood donation, when it was easy to go, "Wait, I think you bled too much; let's put some iron back in you." I don't want to think about how long I might have been stuck like this getting booted from specialist to specialist with no one thinking to check my iron levels because my hemoglobin was normal. If you do not have enough of this one single mineral in your body, it can literally be debilitating. I work a desk job from home; I have been out of work for four months now because I haven't even been able to sit up at a desk. I actually ran out of legally-protected medical leave a month ago and am just lucky that my employer wants to keep me enough that they were willing to put me on personal leave until I was ready to come back.

Anyway, that is my extremely long update. I sincerely appreciate everyone who has checked in on me and asked how I'm doing.

[antiadvil]

WOULD YOU RATHER?

WITH PHAN!

Go to Disney Land with your family?

Or

Go with Dan and Phil?

Have your very own super-successful YouTube channel?

Or

Actually star in one of Dan and Phils vids?

Win £1,247,965,431?

Or

Be best mates with Dan and Phil?

Play Pokémon Go all day long with the boys?

Or

Play The 7 Second Challenge with them and win!

Smell like cheese for a month?

Or

Never be able to watch a Dan and Phil vid ever again?

Have Dan send you one of his epic onasies?

Or

Get to name Phil's next house plant?

Get free Starbucks for life?*

Or

Have a Starbucks date with Dan and Phil?*

Get to do a supermarket sweep style dash around your fave shop?

Or

Have the boys bring you loads of de-lish cake pops on your birthday?

Buy a Dan calendar?

Or

Buy a Phil calendar?

*It can be a different coffee shop that isn't starbucks

disney land- that's kind of hard because I don't really have any interest in disney land lmao. if I were to actually spend a full day with dan and phil i think i'd be so stressed i'd die so i'd probably just take my siblings ngl 😭

youtube- this one is easier lmao, I think I'd suck at being a famous youtuber or any kind of celebrity. I am the opposite of a people pleaser. and it's just not a career I think I'd enjoy. and I think starring in a dnp video would be fun! still nerve-wracking and I'd be a little scared of the phandom but I think it would be a good time!

money or friendship- I'm ngl here I think I'd probably take the money 😭 I love dnp but if we were actually friends then I don't think I'd really be able to participate in the phandom the same way and I love you guys and the time I spend here <3 I do have parasocial fantasies of talking to them and hanging out but I think they're better off fantasies. and that's a lot of money lmao

pokemon go or 7 second challenge- probably pokemon go bc i don't think i'd be good at the 7 second challenge and we would get to hang out for longer xD

smelling like cheese or never watching a dnp video again- CHEESE. I'll take the cheese. not all cheese even smells bad!! but even if it did, I can't give up my gaming videos.

onesies or plant- I would probably name the plant even though it would die. wtf am i going to do with a dan sized onesie he's like a foot taller than me

free starbucks or starbucks date- ohhhhhhh i'm ngl this is hard bc i LOVE to waste money on my little coffee shop coffees and it's not great for my wallet. so despite it being a poor financial decision i will take the coffee date with dnp lmao BUT THEY'RE PAYING they make way more money than me

shopping vs cake pops: aflhgjfdg i feel like this is really stereotyping teenage girls. i'm not teenage or a girl but i don't have a favorite shop. at all. i mean like. the grocery store? i go there a lot. the cake pops thing is oddly specific yet vague like. do they just drop them off and then run away? but I'll take those lol

calendar- I've never bought a calendar from either of them because we all know I am not going to use it lmao. I just look at the pretty picture scans other people post on the internet <3

[bbs-backlog-challenge]

Games Of 2024

2023 was dominated by Tears Of The Kingdom, and it wasn’t until the very end of the year that I had another game I even wanted to consider for GOTY. In 2024, I already had three main contenders by June. Funny how that works out sometimes!

Even outside of those three, it’s been a stellar year. I think as BBLC progresses, my attitude towards games has changed enough that acquisition is no longer a priority; I’m really only buying games that I want, rather than anything that seems like a good deal. As a result, there are fewer clangers (though there’s still been plenty of Bins!). Not at all a bad thing, I’m certainly spending less money, and I’ve managed to whittle the backlog down to under 40 games for the first time in about 5 years. With 59 games played in 2024, will next year see the backlog cleared? I've said so every year since I started so probably not!

Expect to see some virtual reality on next year's list! A last minute surprise from Santa saw me gain ownership of a Quest 3S headset which I'm still adjusting to. 2025 may also bring us the successor to the Switch, and regardless it will certainly be bringing Metroid Prime 4. Odds are good that my GOTY 2025 has already been decided. But that’s the future, and this article is about the past. Video games!

-

Ys 8: Lacrimosa Of Dana

Last year’s ‘GOTY That Isn’t TotK’ is this year’s ‘GOTY that I think people reading this will enjoy the most’. I started playing it at the end of last year and it lasted into February of this year, so I get to count it for both years. My early estimation that Ys8 was going to be a great time was spot on, with fast fluid combat and a ripping soundtrack, but what surprised me was how much I enjoyed the cast of characters, as they came together in Castaway Village one by one, each with a tale to tell. When the game ended I genuinely felt a little sad, because I was going to miss our little village. Of course, there was also the small matter of the end of the world to deal with, but that’s old hat for Adol by now. I have the novelisation to read through still, whose existence still baffles me.

-

Hitman 2 Hitman Harder

Between only being sold 80% of the actual game (via a bundle that didn’t mention this, the rest having since been de-listed and impossible to acquire) and a general apathy for the score-chasing content (all of which was denied me due to playing offline, because this entirely single-player game needs to always be online or it doesn’t function correctly) I was less than impressed by Hitman. It’s a shame all the corporate bullshit ruined what could have been a fine time.

-

Project Wingman

I have so much to say about Project Wingman. It's my 'Game Of The Year That Is Just For Me (I, Solely, Am Responsible For This)'. I played through it three times in succession all the way to the hardest difficulty setting and came away still wanting to play more. A constant visceral thrill that nails the hard-to-master experience, skill progression is palpable and pulling off a crazy stunt that nails a difficult kill is always a rush no matter how many times you do it. Outside of that, the radio chatter between characters is wonderful when you can take your attention away from the dogfighting to notice it, and I've developed an affection for the whole squad- an impressive feat given you never see more of them than their planes zooming by for a fraction of a second. The orchestral soundtrack is phenomenal, culminating in a truly harrowing final boss sequence to utterly gorgeous music. And then right at the end of the year they dropped a six-mission DLC pack with one stage in particular that will live with me forever as one of the most stressful and most enjoyable videogame experiences of my life. No exaggeration, I came away from it with my arms and legs going numb because I was so tense I wasn't breathing. …In, like, a good way. You'll be seeing this again in next year's list because I still just hop into a mission from time to time so I can enjoy the skies some more- and it's VR capable so you can bet I'll be sitting in the cockpit for real once I get my sea legs.

-

Ducktales

This really landed in that sweetspot where licenced games were good, didn’t it? Before the SNES era where they were deliberately made unreasonably difficult because Disney didn’t want to miss out on the rental money, and long before they became shovelware dreck because they knew it would sell even if it was bad. I can imagine a modern audience turning their nose at the idea of playing an old disney platformer for these reasons, and that’s a shame- there’s a good, if brief, time to be had here.

-

Touhoumon Another World Revised

At about 80% of the way through the story, this accessible and player-friendly game said “ok, now you’re a competitive player” and started pulling off some absurd nonsense that no casual player could hope to understand or counter. A real damn shame as I was enjoying the hell out of it until that point. There's some neat QoL stuff that is probably found in most fangames and romhacks these days, but still I'd like to see the official games adopt some of it. Let me change what ball my pokemon are in!

-

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest

This game is just neat. I think giving it the Final Fantasy title may have actually done more harm than good, but it's still a good time with some fun ideas, a mild Zelda-lite approach to dungeons, and a monstrous soundtrack. Control your expectations and you'll have fun with Mystic Quest.

-

Orwell

In my BBLC review, I wondered if I was doomed to fail no matter what I did as part of the game’s political commentary, or if I just sucked. Having played through it a few times to see all the alternate routes, turns out I just suck. Surveillance works!!!!!

-

Wandersong

Nope, I still can’t talk about it. You have to experience this one for yourself. It’s a warm blanket on a chilly day, and you'll love it. This isn't one of those "but actually it's DARK AND GRIM!!!!" kinds of 'trust me', it's just lovely and has some really fun surprises.

-

Banjo Kazooie

It's very rare that old games are as good as you remember them, but BK just got it right. Every bit as playable today as it was when it released, tight levels absolutely crammed full of things to find and very fun movement throughout. Even the humour isn't as dated as I suspected it would be. Simply a top class game that has withstood the ravages of time.

-

Hexologic

I finished it before I wrote my post, so I'll let that stand. It's great!

-

Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze

I played four DKC-likes this year, and this was my least favourite. It's almost-but-not-quite like the old games brought into the modern era, but they changed all the small things that made it DKC. Also I know he's a gorilla and is supposed to be weighty and feel heavy, but even so the momentum is just all over the place. DK feels very difficult to control once he gets going, and also very hard to get going in the first place, which was never a problem in the SNES games. Finally, the puzzle rooms are just thoroughly miserable and I'd rather they were excised completely. There's perhaps 6 unique designs that are re-used ad nauseam through the whole game. The SNES games had 1-3 unique rooms per LEVEL. It's not at all a bad game, but definitely disappointing. Despite all of this, it gets 10/10 because Dixie Kong is cute.

-

Yooka Laylee impossible Lair

It's a better Donkey Kong than Tropical Freeze was. Not without frustrations- when you take damage Laylee will fly around the screen randomly and chasing her down will often just lead you into more trouble, for example- but they are worth enduring for the excellent level design and fun secrets. HOWEVER! The Impossible Lair itself, which is the game's final level, is complete and total ass. I understand that's the point of it, and in that regard it’s a job well done, but something that is 'bad on purpose' is still bad. If not for that, this would be an easy and hearty recommendation to anyone who likes 2D platformers, but the final hurdle is too much for anyone who doesn't have a steep tolerance for frustration.

-

Sunset Overdrive

I am astonished by how little impact this game left on me. I Recycle Binned it in my review but I actually played it through to the end (not 100%) and the whole experience just washed right off me. It is an incredibly, extremely, astonishingly ok game, just about as Fine as a game experience can be, and it's hard to talk about. I am however left to wonder; after film had been a medium for twenty years or so, do you think there was a sudden wave of 'haha, because it's a film'-style jokes? It seems to be rife during this era of video game to grind everything to a halt in order to waggle their eyebrows at the player and make self-references. It's very very difficult to pull that kind of humour off well and Sunset Overdrive doesn't manage it. (MGS2 and Undertale are the only examples that come to mind of it being done well.)

-

Earthbound

For as frustrating as Earthbound frequently is, holy smokes the entire Giygas sequence is worth it.

-

Great Ace Attorney

I’m still plodding my way through this one so I won’t give a definitive verdict. It’s definitely a more disposable entry into the series- not necessarily a bad thing. I do not like the jury system at all, it doesn’t add anything to the cases, the jurors are all annoying and they don’t have any actual character (none of them are named) so it’s not like they are actually going to matter to the story at all. I’m on case 4 and poor Naruhodo just can’t catch a break!

-

The Corridor

It's a short experience that I talked about as much as I wanted to during my BBLC post!

-

Melody’s Escape

I don't have anything more to say about Melody either. Good game!

-

Soundodger

I got maybe 2/3s the way through the advanced levels before calling it quits. Very fun game but I had played all the songs I enjoyed and the remaining ones were a slog to get through with some annoying patterns (the reverses are very cool in theory but I have no way of knowing when one will happen or where the bullets will go, stop this). The Chipzel level is absolutely fantastic and that's all that matters.

-

Mass Effect

I had fun being the universe's most petulant jackass, starting fights for no reason and condemning people to death because I could, but the gameplay itself was a little underwhelming. Combat lacks any sense of impact and I found myself simply watching healthbars to see if I was actually doing any damage with my shots, as there is no other sense of feedback. It was also a lot shorter than I expected, though that might be in part because I didn't do any of the sidequests- still, KOTOR and Dragon Age's main quests felt a lot longer. Overall not a bad game, perhaps past its prime- I didn't play the Legendary version which may be improved in exactly these ways.

-

Dragons Dogma

A surprise hit in the late summer, I went into it expecting a mostly-okay RPG in the Elder Scrolls vein, but found a much snappier and more responsive experience. I modded the shit out of it for some QoL stuff that had me scratching my head but once that was done, Dragon's Dogma became one of my favourites of the year. It wasn't only because you can throw people off cliffs without consequence. Not only because of that. The legend of my tiny homunculus called Balls will live on for eternity.

-

Final Fantasy 6

In the ever-swirling vortex that is 'ranking final fantasy games', this one was mid-tier for me. People praise its story and characters which I agree are ALMOST very emotive, but also three minutes after his entire family and country are killed in a horrific poison attack Cyan is having goofy lol magic robot clown hour and the mood is a little off kilter as a result. Going to invoke the wrath of the entire universe by saying, of all the FFs, this one could use a modernisation the most. FF7 didn't need it, FF4 REALLY didn't need it, but FF6 would very much benefit from it. Giving its characters room to breathe in animated/voiced cutscenes would nail the tone, I think. Now, listen, this goes against EVERYTHING I usually stand for, alright? Leave Chrono Trigger well alone. I only want this for FF6.

-

Master Of Orion 2

Surprisingly I didn't play much Orion this year. I think I burned out playing an especially large amount last year and didn't quite get the buzz back. I think I got a little too good at it, I guess. Maybe I should switch back to Civ 5 in 2025 which is the-same-but-different enough to scratch the itch but give a different experience.

-

Neopets

Neopets is in a weird spot right now, even for Neopets. I came back last year to join the faerie festival which gave away an endgame piece of battle equipment for little more than logging in 5 days consecutively, and stuck around to take part in the plot that was due to begin six months later, which released literally the only weapon in the game that is more powerful for little more than logging in for 20 days consecutively. Since then there's been a vast swathe of incredibly rare and expensive items just kinda given away for nothing, which is an effective if questionable way for them to tackle the thorny issue of black market off-site sales for real money, but I suspect there is something else at play here. When mobile gacha games shut down they usually have a month-long event where you get to roll at vastly increased odds just for the fun of doing it, and I wonder if the same is happening here. 'The Void Within' plot signals the December of neopets as it is known today, and rather than try to fix the myriad issues it'll be retired and reformed into a mobile-friendly app game, or just licenced out for endless mediocre match-3 games (oh, too late). That's sad to think about, but I do at least intend to ride out the plot in full.

-

Half Life, Hazard Course, Deathmatch

I painstakingly sought out and tinkered with the demo version of Half Life, which was actually its own standalone title called Uplink, in a fit of nostalgia. HL1 is showing its age a lot, in part because it was so ahead of its time. It is so atmospheric you expect it to play a far more modern game of stealth and cover, but in actuality it plays a much more oldskool run-and-gun type of game. Anyway, about two weeks after I managaed to get it working, Valve updated the steam version of HL1 to work seamlessly on modern computers and it also now comes bundled with Uplink in the package. Womp womp. The Hazard Course is also fun to run through- it's the tutorial for what was a pretty complex game at the time, and I remember me and my brother used to race through it and I frustrated him with my strategy of ducking under doors to clear them half a second faster than you can when standing. I miss those days.

-

Starcraft 1 demo

I first played this in… goodness, 1998? 1999? We only had the demo version but I played it a lot, and had strong memories especially of the little animated profile pictures each unit had. The soldier guy saying “go go go!” but only opening his mouth one time was a source of endless hilarity when I were a wee boy, and it was a sudden remembrance of that fact which made me seek out the demo once again. The game hasn’t held up too well, especially in terms of unit pathfinding, but it sure scratched the nostalgia itch. If you linger on the first mission briefing too long the AI lady gets concerned and asks if you’re alright, which I thought was really cool as a kid.

-

RTX Portal

My ultra-fancy new graphics card came with this as a demonstration of its power. It’s the standard Portal in all ways except it’s very shiny and nice. I was particularly impressed with the way light refracted through the big red floor buttons. But I’ve never really been one who cares much for graphics, and it wasn’t long before I just stopped noticing how nice it looked. Still, Portal is a great game and it had been long enough since I last fired it up that it was worthwhile going through it again.

-

Xenoblade Chronicles

Incredible game. It's my third Game Of The Year, and any other year it would have absolutely swept up. I own both 2 and 3 but I wanted to play the first game before starting those, so I rented it and it absolutely blew us away. midgi got ABSORBED and she wasn't even playing, she just happened to be around while cutscenes were happening and suddenly she's sitting with me to watch the rest. The characters, the voice acting, the staging, the music, everything was superb. …Except the gameplay; the battles are a bit pants. But who cares about that when Melia is here? Metal Face was such a great villain, Shulk is a lovely protagonist, I wish Dunban was my dad. Xenoblade's got it all and I can't believe it took me so long to get to it. I can't wait for 2 and 3, the latter of which I understand is even better, BUT I don't want to burn out on RPGs so I am being very well behaved until the backlog dice roll them.

-

Final Fantasy 5 Four Job Fiesta

Didn't finish on stream this year, but we played long enough for me to roll berserker for the first time! Thf/Whm/Ber/Nin was my final team, rerolling a Chm in the fourth slot for something a little more fun. Some real nice interplay with that team, thief gives zerk some much needed speed, while eqp axes on white mage makes for a very entertaining quakebot (and whm powers up the rune axe on the berserker of course). Finally, white magic on ninja makes scrolls super deadly, leading to another triple crown. I wanna play with a blue mage next year!

-

Donkey Kong Country 2

The best of the DK games, despite starring Diddy Kong. That soundtrack is just legendary and the level design still fully holds up, but most importantly it gave us Dixie Kong. I only wish the DK Coins had some purpose like they do in DKC3- it is still fun to collect them (though I have long since memorised where they all are) but if I ever miss one it feels like a slog to go back and get it just for a high score at the end of the game.

-

Donkey Kong Country 3

Pretty much every level except the very early ones have some sort of gimmick in this game, which makes them all memorable, but with ~50 levels and so ~50 gimmicks you can be sure not all of them are winners. The waterfall levels are a particular nadir with a lot of fiddly jumps that send you falling back to the start of the level for daring to explore in a game that normally encourages it. I kinda miss the straightforward platforming stages in 3, but it's still a good game.

-

Space Crusade (Atari ST, DOS, Amstrad)

The first computer in my life that actually belonged to me was an Atari ST, and Space Crusade was my favourite game for it. I didn't really understand how to play it (a moderately technical board game adaptation was a bit beyond me at the age of six) but it was a fave, and later in life I came to own the superior-in-every-way Amiga version and played that to death. Curious, I wanted to go back to the ST version to see if the differences really were that significant (yes) and in the process learned of an MS DOS and an Amstrad version, so I had to give those a go too. Suffice to say, Amiga remains king. This is a pretty cool game that unfortunately has a significant reliance on RNG and it will ALWAYS screw you over, which makes it more frustrating than it needs to be.

-

APB Amiga

And while we're playing old Amiga games, holy crap my brother had this for like 3 days and I always had a very vague memory of it but I couldn’t remember the title or anything else about it until just by happenstance I was on an amiga website and saw a screenshot of it, and lo and behold a decades-long mystery was solved. It's kinda bad!

-

Bar Games

This uhhhhh wow haha I shouldn't have been playing this as a kid

-

Deadlock

Valve's new game that was a big secret for a long time, by the time this post is going up I'll be allowed to talk about it in full. I hardpicked Vindicta on my first round and haven't looked away. I don't really care for MOBAs; every round is pretty much exactly the same game and I get bored quickly, and I DEFINITELY don't have the patience to learn the ins-and-outs to become anything close to proficient, but it's fun with friends.

-

Unreal Tournament

This was another nostalgia trip. The bot AI doesn't really hold up any more but the shooting is so frenetic it's still fun anyway. I dread to imagine what the online is like.

-

Lord Of Rigel demo

This might be The One. I only played a little bit of the demo and it felt a lot like Orion 2 without aping it fully. It also felt very different from Orion 1, which a lot of Orion-Likes tend to lean towards. Feels promising- I want to play the full version before getting too attached though.

-

Final Fantasy 1 Pixel Remaster

First time playing this version! Obviously I have played FF1 to death in other flavours but there's some fun changes here, most obviously a return to vancian magic (spell slots instead of MP) but more significantly a change to how enemy AI works. Chaos can now use Curaga at any time and even spam it if you're unlucky. Strategy remains to buff up as much as you can until he first casts it and then delete him as quickly as possible. I did a normal run through with characters called Fighter, Thief, Red Mage, and White Mage (you'll never guess what classes they were), and then a sort of casual speedrun taking advantage of the PR's ‘boost’ function to essentially cheat my way through as quickly as possible, using what I have figured to be the most optimal party- Fighter, Fighter, Fighter, and Red Mage. Got a time of 2:14 which I think could pretty easily be pushed under 2 hours. I love this game and I know it very well so it's nice to get a slightly different take on it. Music is fantastic, obviously.

-

Team Fortress 2

I don't know why I do this every year. I play the Halloween event, get frustrated by all the BS, stop playing and decide not to play any more… then load it back up an hour later and see if the next map sucks less. It doesn't. I just really want to finally get that one single cosmetic that never ever dropped over 10+ years of running the same event, and I don't even know why I want it any more since I don't even play the game. It's a shame that something I used to look forward to has become such a thorn in my foot. It would be improved significantly if you could do the contracts in any order, so you could skip the truly awful maps. Oh well, back to grinding out souls to roll the slot machine one more time.

-

Tacoma

Not much gameplay to this, but I enjoyed the story. It has a moderate twist to the ending that makes the player's actions a little more positive (rather than mercenary) and leaves things open in a fun way. It's hard to talk about it without spoiling it.

-

Ghost Trick

Please play Ghost Trick, by whatever means necessary.

-

Entropy Zero

This is a Half Life 2 mod so I didn't want to make a BBLC entry tearing it to ribbons because, heck, teams of folks coming together to make mods is awesome even if they aren't to my taste. This one has some very impressive mapping, and custom weapons which are rare to see, but the tone is all over the place and bucked me off like a bronco. It wants to tell a dark broody bad-guy story about revenge and does so via a main character who makes wisecracks after every kill and communicates entirely in pop culture references. I dipped when the keraaaaazy aperture turret sidekick was introduced and the dialogue became "[wacky oddball nonsense]!" "Shut the hell up" ad infintum.

-

Portal Reloaded

I fell off. I am 85% sure I have solved the puzzle I am stuck on correctly, but slightly incorrect angles on the laser beams all need adjusting and it’s a total pain to make those changes given any alteration in the present fully resets the future. Alternatively, I’ve just solved it incorrectly, but I can’t know that for sure until I’ve iterated my current solution enough times and it’s hard to raise the motivation to do that.

-

198X

I think I said everything I needed to in my post. If you think it might resonate with you, it probably will.

-

Bloody Hell

I finished it not long after my BBLC post. The final boss was fun for me, but I can definitely see someone with less STG experience getting frustrated with what was a pretty significant difficulty spike.

-

One Button Boss Fights

Only played a little little piece of this. In a 2D single-screen game there is simply no reason for the camera to wobble and shift around with the player's movements. Nauseating.

-

Shining Resonance Refrain

The music that plays while it is raining in town is utterly lovely, but all the effort in this OST otherwise went to the various pop songs that the characters sing, which isn't my personal cup of tea. It's surprising to me that in a game themed around music, I've kept only a few tracks for my personal playlist. This is a pretty fun RPG as such things go, a little cheap and a little janky but I enjoyed the characters and story a lot. Main character Yuma never endeared me but the villains are all great, ranging from 'I can fix her' to 'absolute bastard man' and all points between. Very fun roster of bad guys.

-

Child of Light

It's been on my backlog since 2016, but attempting to play it in November 2024 proves that time has been unkind here. Wrestling with the required ubisoft account launcher only to find the game crashes upon launch. Hopefully one day it'll get patched to remove all the ubijunk.

-

Pony Island

There's a chromatic aberration filter over the whole game, coupled with a slight-but-pervasive screen wobble that never stops, which combined to make this game impossible for me to play without feeling very unwell. A shame as it seems right up my alley, but I'm not going to make myself sick for the sake of a neat game.

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Pokemon TCG Pocket

Honestly baffling that this game launched with trading unavailable. Battle events need some serious rework, and battling as a whole quickly becomes boring. They need a random battle feature where you come up against a random deck (from a list of premade decks, not an entirely random set of cards) so you're not stuck fighting the same deck over and over. Maybe, like, you can do 10 random battles per day and you get an hourglass for each victory, or something. I think the pokemon card game itself, in real world form or gameboy form as well as here, is just kind of bad in execution from the ground up, but being bad doesn't mean it isn't fun.

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LTTP Randomiser

LTTP is my favourite game of all time and I was worried playing it in such a way would spoil it somehow, but it was actually the opposite- I got to use my fairly extensive game knowledge to solve unexpected problems and find my way through, and even learned a few things (never once had I stepped into what the community calls Hype Cave, I'm almost certain). Some highlights include spending 500 rupees at the Zora to receive 5 rupees instead of the flippers, pulling a shield from the Master Sword plinth, and getting 300 rupees from my dying uncle, who didn't think to bring a sword instead. I played five runs in total, three on Absolute Baby Mode and then a Triforce Hunt and an Inverse game. Inverse is fun, but as soon as you get Light World access it pretty much becomes a standard game again, so I'd probably only do that once.

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Fartbutt

I fell off after they changed the locker and effectively removed the ability to save a loadout and shuffle between them. They fixed that this year so I went back in, but it was too little too late and I'd been gone too long to get back into it. Also that one battle pass with only marvel skins was absolutely bloody awful because they've already done all the characters anyone cares about. Fortnite Man wearing Captain America's outfit? Gwen Stacey But She's Deadpool? C'mon.

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Research And Development

This is a very cool little Half Life 2 mod that uses the physics engine to create something more akin to a puzzle game. There's no direct combat here- you need to use the environment (and for one section, a giant evil lawnmower) to escape the facility. If you have Half Life 2 (of course you do) it's free and well worth a couple of hours of your time.

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Khimera Puzzle Island

A surprise late entry for this Binned game- the developer rolled out an update to address the only issue I had with the game (and called me out personally when doing so!), and I have since played an unearthly amount of picross. The puzzles are great, soundtrack is top tier, and even the cutscenes (skippable if you don't care) are enjoyable. I have only good things to say about the Khimera series.

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Bins:

Brutal Legend Nirvana Pilot Spore Creatures Blaster Master Dont Give Up Bioshock Knights of Round (capcom beatemup) King of Dragons Klang TWO

That's all for this year. See you at the end of 2025!

[lover-of-mine]

seriously, the buddie nhl au written outside pov deranged fangirl liveblogging style is something that would be interesting?

i have like, 1k words in girl with a special interest language, I don't know if that's actually something interesting. Og post here, random snippet below the cut. The plan would be to start with an exposition dump when Buck gets drafted and build from that.

Random context: I have no idea what team they are on yet, Buck is a goalie, Eddie is a star centre, Buck plays with jersey number 50, Eddie is number 13. I also need to figure out formatting lol

anonymous asked: *Bestie I thought you were being dramatic, but Buckley's draft was the happiest I've ever seen Eddie with a camera pointed at him, now I have fallen down a rabbit hole and I need the lore. GIMME THE LORE*

buckleydiaz13: Me? Dramatic? About those two? Nah, never (lying) 

AND I KNOW!!! Who knew the only thing you needed to get Eddie smiling through an interview was to give him back his 6’2 blue eyed bestie?? It's not like I spent the past 2 seasons saying that the only thing Eddie is missing is Buck or anything.

But welcome to the madness, let's get you all caught up on the buddie lore so you know what you're getting into lol

So, they were on the usa development team together and they were inseparable. Like, everything we saw about one, the other was close by. And Eddie was already being looked at closely, talked about as if he was going to be a great name on the nhl at 16 and he would bring up Buck for absolutely no reason, talk about them practicing late, hanging out, when he got drafted he talked about how Buck was one of the things that helped him get through the stress, it was crazy. And Buck is a goalie, so the expectation was not for them to be running drills together, yk? But they were. And when you look at it, you won't think it makes sense, especially if you know Eddie as Mr broody, because Buck is a golden retriever trapped in a human body, a complete wall on the ice, yeah, but out of it? That dude is a teddy bear. I know he has to take things seriously, he wouldn't have made it to the league if he didn't, but he's the embodiment of carefree and Eddie is just…not lmao. It was ridiculous, they had a very elaborate pre game ritual, that included a secret handshake, Eddie was seen wearing Buck's hoodie multiple times (oh Eddie in the #50 hoodie not realizing it and blushing all the way to his ears when he noticed I will never forget you), there's this one video of them showing around the arena for their last game before Buck went to college that they just keep bumping shoulders with how close they are walking, like, just hold hands already, it will be easier.