#video game emporium

[nexus-nebulae]

what if i wrote a video essay

[crowleysgirl56]

Wildest dreams wishes for Good Omens Season 3 which will probably not come true but I can still hope hey!

Number 30.

CRANK THAT RIDICULOUS DIAL TO ELEVEN! Yet another extreme silliness wish, this a part 2 to my wildest dream number 27. In with Crowley continues to be petulant, and Aziraphale gets to play the rescuer.

Sprawled on the footpath where the Bentley had so unceremoniously dumped him, Aziraphale looks up at Crowley, bemused as the demon continues to rant at the retreating sight of his car. He can’t help but smile fondly at the dramatic cascade of insults spewing forth, drawing the weary eyes of passers by.

“…and next time I see you I’m going to let down your tyres!!”

Aziraphale picks himself up and briskly brushes himself down. “You’d never do such a thing and you know it” he teases primly.

The sound of Aziraphale’s voice seems to startle Crowley slightly, who resolutely ignores the angel and hurriedly makes his way down the street. Aziraphale immediately gives chase.

“Crowley, please could we talk for a moment?” Crowley’s pace picks up speed as he manoeuvres around the larger than usual number of pedestrians ambling along Whickber Street.

“Only I feel like I need to explain-” Crowley snaps his fingers and suddenly Aziraphale is cut off mid sentence by some suddenly appearing council workers jackhammering in the middle of the road.

“If you could just listen for a mome-” another snap of fingers and suddenly a line of cars blaring their horns emerge from nowhere. Frustrated by the wall of sound, Aziraphale covers his ears and manages to lunge himself in front of Crowley blocking his path.

“Don’t you think you’re acting just a tad child-”.

Crowley smiles smugly as the cacophony of noise overwhelms Aziraphale, who purses his lips and attempts to yell over the car horns, jackhammers, tolling bells, and loud mobile conversations, “could we just go into the bookshop!-”

Crowley gestures to his ears and mouths something that looks along the lines of “I can’t hear you”. Aziraphale fed up with the game draws down a miracle, silencing the street. A number of pedestrians stop to wonder how everything suddenly became so quiet, the queue of cars and council workers miraculously gone.

“Please, just hear me out-”

Crowley growls and immediately jumps away, angrily shoving his fingers in his ears. “LALALA NOT LISSSSTENIIIINNGGGGG!” He steps out backwards into the street, just as a large lorry comes barrelling down the road towards him, blaring its horn.

“CROWLEY!” Aziraphale cries. Crowley turns but it’s evident he is too late to react in time. Panicked Aziraphale throws out a careless miracle, redirecting the driver, whilst lunging forward and grabs onto Crowley’s lapels pulling him back to safety.

Crowley slams into Aziraphale’s arms. They stand wrapped in each other’s embrace, breathing heavily as they recover from the sudden adrenaline. A creeping realisation dawns and they both slowly turn their heads to look out into the street at the gawping gathering crowd. Some have started taking videos with their phone. It’s evident that the lorry has somehow ended up on the roof of Mr Brown’s world of carpets emporium. They slowly turn back to look at each other once more.

Aziraphale speaks in a low and clipped tone, “Get. Inside. The bookshop. Now!” Crowley can only nod in response. They slowly peel themselves away from each and as casually as one can whilst a crowd is photographing you, make their way into the bookshop. For that long awaited chat.

NOW KISS!

[eretzyisrael]

Despite getting what was said to be a fantastic price on thousands of pagers, Hezbollah leaders agreed that this had been a valuable learning experience. "We'll be smarter about it next time," one high-ranking terrorist said. "We were all excited about getting a great deal on the pagers, but now, looking at my mangled and heavily bandaged leg, I can promise we'll be more willing to shop around. Also, probably no buying equipment from Jewish vendors anymore. That's a big one."

At publishing time, Hezbollah was said to be considering urging all its members to throw out all the Nintendo Gameboys they had gotten for a great price from Crazy Avi's Used Video Games.

[canmom]

today i had the bright idea to organise all my videos. right now they're spread across three hard drives, following a rather haphazard organisation scheme - sometimes based on director, sometimes based on studio, sometimes based on country of origin, sometimes just getting a top level folder because I couldn't think of a good grouping.

well, now they're all going on one hard drive (and i need to make some kind of raid setup so i don't lose the lot if it breaks). i have an old raspberry pi sitting around which might be able to act as a media server/seedbox if it still works. anyway, the question is, how do I organise this thing?

top level is easy enough - animation here, live action there. then I can further sort by country level categories like anime, donghua, etc. - easy enough so far.

but then it's like... sometimes it makes sense to sort by studio, like the Ghibli movies should live together for example. and sometimes director makes more sense, like Masaaki Yuasa's stuff should be together even if he made it at 4°C, as with Mind Game. and sometimes I couldn't tell you which studio or director made a thing, so it would just get a top level folder.

and then it's like... Studio 4°C has a very strong identity as a studio so their stuff should probably live together, right? unless it was directed by Masaaki Yuasa, who gets his own folder..? and should 90s Berserk, animated at Oriental Light & Magic, live with the later film trilogy by Studio 4°C? in that case they shouldn't go in the 4°C folder.

I could put it in one 'objective' scheme, by year for example, and use some kind of system of symlinks to also organise by director, studio etc. but clearly what I'm really looking for is a tagging system. it's common to have that for music libraries. however, I only want to play back in mpv, since no other player is as configurable, properly supports ICC profiles and vapoursynth, etc. etc. mpv is a great player but it's not a library system. probably the open source world has figured this out at some point? also I want to be able to access this drive from Linux and Windows.

clearly i need to just categorise them by Borges' Celestial Emporium and call it a day...

[neorefsproject]

Character: Princess Roberta

Book of Ages Page: https://bookofages.jellyneo.net/characters/949/

Dr. Sloth's Image Emporium Page: https://www.drsloth.com/search/?tagged=roberta

Design notes: - Roberta has several outfit designs from the Game Neopets the Darkest Faerie. These two outfits seem to be the ones she is drawn in the most. - Sometimes she has a beauty mark and sometimes she does not. This guide opts for how she looks in the video game.

(Updated 11/16/2024)

[mr-and-mr-diaz]

okay listen, I saw the onesie and this fic fell out of me.

IT’S NOT MINE

“I’m getting Chris, then we’ll head over to yours for Tuesday night pasta and video games, ‘kay, Buck?” Eddie yelled over his shoulder as he adjusted the grip on his duffle and headed to the car. 

“Uh, wait--” Buck came running after him, hair still wet, t-shirt only halfway over his torso. “Uh, right now isn’t a good time for my apartment, it’s a little... a bit messy.”

Eddie snorted. “Like we haven’t seen it messy before? Honestly, I think Chris is going to care more that you still don’t have a couch.” 

Buck squirmed suddenly, startling as the motion reminded him that his shirt was only half on. “Ah, yeah, it’s just--” his hand got tangled in the neck hole, wiggling pointlessly for the dangling empty sleeve. Eddie chuckled and dropped his bag, reaching out to help.

“It’s okay, Buck. We’ll help you straighten up,” he firmly pulled Buck’s hand out his collar and reached into Buck’s shirt to feed it into the errant sleeve, “And then we can all do dinner, okay?”

“...Can we do it at yours?” Buck wasn’t looking at him. That was never good.

Eddie tilted his head, grin teasing. “What, you got something hiding in your place I should know about?” Buck’s flinch told him that yes, maybe he did.

Buck’s high, choked-out, weak chuckle confirmed it. “Nah, Eddie, I don’t have any good hiding places, the loft is totally open plan, I couldn’t...” He was definitely avoiding eye contact now. “Anyway, like you said, I don’t even have a couch, your place is better.” His eyes finally turned to Eddie, wide and blue and begging. Please stop asking.

Eddie nodded. “Okay.” For now.

***

“You shouldn't have let me have that third beer, Eddie,” Buck mumbled as the car rolled up to his building. 

“I trust you to know your own limits, Buck. Besides, you looked like you needed to forget your troubles a little.” Eddie shut off the car and turned his attention to Buck. The whole night Buck had been distracted, checking his phone. At one point, Chris had caught a glance over Buck’s shoulder, saying “Wow, Buck, that’s a big Amazon order!” And Buck had flinched and quickly turned back to the TV, reaching for more beer. By the time the night had rolled to a close, and Chris put to bed, Buck wasn’t safe to drive.

“Me?” Buck jerked his head side to side. “I’ve got no troubles, I’ve got nothing, I’m--me? I’m good, Eddie.” He stopped suddenly looking nauseous from the excessive movement.

Eddie sighed fondly. “Well, then, let’s get you out of the car and up to your place then, Mr. No Troubles.” Eddie pulled himself out of the driver’s seat and came round to Buck’s side, opening the door and holding out a hand. “Come on.”

“I’m good.” Buck shook his head, gingerly this time. “You don’t need to walk me up.”

“I’ll be the judge of that, Buck. C’mon, I promise not to enter your super secret apartment, just let me get you up there.”

Buck’s eyes narrowed and he leaned toward Eddie. “You promise?”

Eddie chuckled. “I promise.” This time, Buck took his hand and allowed himself to be pulled out of the car.

*** 

Getting up the elevator to Buck’s place didn’t take much effort in the end. Buck was tipsy, sure, but hardly stumbling drunk and only had to lean on Eddie’s arm once or twice. The challenge would be getting Buck through his front door, which was barricaded on all sides with Amazon and UPS boxes.

“Damn, Chris wasn’t kidding about you buying out Amazon, Buck, what gives?” Eddie knelt down to inspect the pile, squinting to read the labels on the packages.

“Don’t look!” Buck’s hand tugged on Eddie’s collar, his tone panicked. “You said you wouldn’t look!”

“I said I wouldn’t look in your apartment, Buck, this is still outsi...” Eddie’s voice trailed off as his eyes took in the names on the labels. 

Baby Barn. For Evan Buckley

Toddler Emporium. For Evan Buckley.

Parent One-Stop-Shop... Babies R US... Rockabye-Babeez... For Evan Buckley.

“Buck,” he breathed.

“It’s not what it looks like!” Buck was pulling at Eddie’s shirt hard now, stretching out the collar. 

Eddie stood and turned to face him. “Then what is it, Buck? Tell me what I’m looking at.”

Buck just looked at him, blank, lost for words, panicked. And sad, so incredibly sad.

Eddie sighed. What could he say to this Buck? This Buck who so determinedly stayed positive whenever the subject of the sperm donation came up? ‘Hey, no I’m so happy for them!’ spoken right after ‘I’m gonna be a dad!’ 

Buck wasn’t going to be a dad. This new child would be connected to Buck genetically. And that was where the connection would end.

In Buck’s eyes, Eddie saw all of that.

“Come on, Buck. Let’s go inside.”

“It’s fine, Eddie, I’m okay, I just got a little overexcited, bought some stuff--”

“Buck? Give me your keys, or I’m fishing for them myself.”

Wordlessly, eyes defeated, Buck reached into his back pocket and handed them over.

Eddie couldn’t even get the door open all the way for packages. They were stacked against the wall, piled on the kitchen island. Some were open, their colorful contents laid lovingly into baskets or lined up on the floor.

“I was on Amazon a few days ago, and I just… got carried away.”

“Carried away,” Eddie echoed. This was not carried away, wasn’t here are a few things to pad out your supplies. Buck had purchased everything a new baby would ever need, from diapers and wipes to bottles, pacifiers, swaddles… 

Buck was shopping like an expectant father.

“What was your plan for all this?”

A pause. “They don’t need to know it’s from me?”

“Buck,” Eddie held up an LAFD baby onesie in his hands, eyes unreadable in a way that made Buck want to squirm. “They’re going to know it’s from you.” He sighed and laid the onesie back down, folding it back on top of another onesie decorated for Christmas. “I don’t think they’ll be… No, they definitely won’t--” he stopped himself again. How to say this?? And it’s not like Buck didn’t already know this, so why…? “Buck, are you--”

“Don’t say it.” Watery, shaky. Eddie turned. Buck looked at him, stripped open and raw, surrounded by the physical evidence of his not fine with it anymore laid out in this vibrant collection of love and pain on every available surface of his home. 

Eddie looked and saw in each toy the home Buck would build if only he had someone to build it for. Saw the pain in Buck, the self-doubt and deprecation. I was born for parts. The only piece of me that’s been deemed worthy to build a family is a part, not the whole, not me. 

A child will be born soon, and I am empty about it. I am filling the empty with all the things I would shower my child with if I could. My child is being born and I can’t even call it my own.

Eddie opened his arms and Buck walked into them. At first, he just leaned heavily against Eddie, face buried in the juncture between neck and shoulder. Then he started to shake, just his chest, then his arms, then his whole body. Eddie tightened his arms, and Buck let out a wail, a loud and broken thing and held on for dear life, sobbing. 

“It’s not mine, Eddie! It’s not mine! I was fine with that, I was, I was so happy to help, so happy that someone thought highly of me like that, wanted me, chose me! I’m so stupid!”

Eddie’s hand lifted to the top of Buck’s head and rested there, combing through the curls. “No, Buck. No, you’re not stupid.”

“It’s mine, Eddie. It’s mine. That kid is a piece of me, and I don’t get anything back. I’m so selfish, Eddie. God, I’m the worst.”

“Buck, stop.” Eddie carefully guided them both down so they were sitting in the middle of the floor, surrounded by the pastel carnage of Buck’s dreams. Buck leaned heavier into him, almost in his lap. “Stop judging, stop calling yourself names. Just cry it out, okay?”

Buck did. Tears flowed anew, soaking into Eddie’s shoulder and Buck curled closer and closer until those long legs were wrapped around Eddie’s waist, arms holding on for dear life as Buck finally let himself feel the pain and regret he’d been hiding behind cheerful comments, big smiles, and shopping. He cried until there was nothing left but gasps and hiccups, and through it all Eddie held him, rocked him back and forth in his arms until he had quieted.

“Sorry,” Buck whispered, nasal and horse. “Your shirt…”

“If you’re sorry for anything, let it be that you didn’t feel like you could talk to me about this sooner, Buck.”

“I wasn’t… I wasn’t even really letting myself…” A sniff. “I just want--I don’t know what to do, Eddie.  I don’t know how I’m going to live with this.”

Eddie breathed deeply, fingers still combing through Buck’s hair, thinking. “I don’t either, Buck.” He sighed. “But I do know that you need some sleep. And then we’re going to go through all of this and make some returns at the post office.”

Buck made a noise of protest.

“No, Buck, I don’t know what will be good for you, but I know sure as hell that this isn’t it.” Eddie grasped the nape of Buck’s neck and pulled until Buck’s head was off his shoulder. He glanced down, waiting until Buck met his eyes. His were watery and red, lashes all clumped together, his cheeks swollen. “You can’t torture yourself like this, okay? It’s going to take you somewhere bad, and I can’t watch you go there, okay? So tomorrow I’m going to help you wrap this all up, and you can choose one thing to keep, because you’re going to be a dad, Buck, even if it isn’t the kind of dad you dream of being.”

Buck didn’t respond, but he didn’t protest. Fresh tears flowed from his eyes as he looked at Eddie, and Eddie made himself maintain eye contact, even though seeing this fresh pain made him want to run laps around the apartment building, destroy every item in this room until it looked as bruised and damaged as Buck’s heart.

“For now though, you need sleep. And you’re coming back to mine to get it.”

Buck started to shake his head again. “I couldn’t--”

“You can, Buck.”

“But Chris--”

“Is a big boy and can handle you not being at your best around him.” Eddie huffed. “He’d probably be mad if you tried to hide it from him, deprive him of extra hugs, hm?”

Buck gave the barest inch of a smile. “Okay.”

Eddie stood up, then reached down a hand to pull Buck to his feet. “Come one.” Buck rose heavily and made for the door, reaching for his keys that had been discarded in the mess around them.

They reached the door when Eddie stopped. “Buck?”

“Mm?”

Eddie reached out and grasped Buck’s shoulder, turning him gently and looking into his eyes. “He may not be your genetic material, but Christopher thinks the world of you. Not because you’re strong, or because you take him out on trips, or for any one thing, Buck. But because you’re all of those things and more--you’re smart, funny, kind, fun,” Eddie cupped Buck’s cheek in his hand, “Beautiful, even when you’re all puffed up from crying.” Buck’s eyes darted away but Eddie wasn’t finished yet. “You’re an amazing man, Buck. That’s what your roommate saw and what made him ask you to be a piece of this child.”

“I shouldn’t have said yes.” Buck whispered.

“No. But it’s a reflection of your kindness that you did.”

“I’d never been chosen before, not like that.”

Eddie huffed. “That kind of choosing is only the tip of the iceberg, Buck.” He turned Buck around and reached for the door. “Let’s go.”

***

Later that night, after Buck had finally sunken into sleep, Eddie sat by the couch and watched. He’d insisted that Buck blow his nose and wash his face before sleeping, so he wouldn’t wake up congested and puffed up any more than he had to be. Now, he lay there, vulnerable in his sleep, curled up on his side in Eddie’s shorts and t-shirt.

Eddie couldn’t sleep. He ached, his heart raw. It always had been tender where Buck was concerned, and Eddie often found himself surprised and forced to see new angles and facets of Buck every time he thought he’d seen all there was to see. But seeing Buck standing in the loft, heart bleeding on the outside had done it all over again. The tender spot in Eddie’s heart had been blown wide open, and he suddenly found himself hating Buck’s former roommate, for seeing what he had steadfastly pushed away, be it from fear or confusion. It was all clear now, watching Buck’s chest slowly rise and fall.

Chris is right, our Buck does snore.

He reached out and ran a hand down the side of Buck’s face, where stubble was beginning to grow in. “Tomorrow, okay? We’ll show you what it means to be chosen, Buck.”

[sardonic-the-writer]

↳ notes: middle art by @no-interest-rightnow. warnings for topics relating to drug abuse

↳ playlist: puck/gorillaz playlist

basic info/pre-gorillaz.

• nicknamed puck. real name is unknown

• always seen wearing sunglasses of different sorts. doesn't matter what kind, just as long as their eyes are covered. no one's ever seen them

• no specifically stated gender, but it's implied that they are trans masculine. only ever referred to with gender nonspecific terms

• clothing style consists of a cross between layered t-shirts with ironic sayings on them (ex: world greatest grandparent) or baggy clothing with bright patterns. most are ratty & full of holes, but they never change their style

• not much is known about their background. a few documents accessible to the public lets you know puck was born in america before moving to the u.k when eighteen

• met 2D, then known as stuart pot, there through a job at uncle norman's organ emporium and a shared love of art. became good friends. didn't really care for paula cracker at the time, but mostly kept to themself anyways

• came to know murdoc almost a year later after the first infamous car incident. they didn't like him at first, in fact, they hated him, and only stuck around him to make sure he took proper care of 2D. actually broke the bassist's nose in a fight after he flung their friend out of a car, successfully blackening his second eye

• only reason they ever got roped into the gorillaz shtick was thanks to 2D, who refused to be a singer for murdoc unless puck was brought along. they couldn't sing, nor play any instruments, but they could write. and had a keen ear for music

• met russel and noodle through the band not long after, becoming much better mates with them than murdoc almost immediately

• has a drug problem. it's especially bad in their earlier years. dabbles in hardcore drugs & smokes way too much weed. they only ever try to hold out if noodle is around, attempting to be a semi-good role model for the kid. even get's on to 2D for being high when he's supposed to watch her

phase one — 'gorillaz' 24 years old, 2001

• not an official band member for the gorillaz. they don't play on tracks or anything. sort of just hangs around & gets their hands on lyrics or beats. no stage presence

• had their own space before the band. but after the debut album kicked off, they barely bothered to visit it. basically just lives wherever the band does at this point

• travels with them pretty much everywhere too. especially after the release of 'gorilla'. technically on payroll as a writer and as a roadie, but still sleeps in the same living space as the band. 2D has a little trouble getting shut eye in those first few months otherwise

• on the first album, puck is credited with writing lyrics for quite a few songs, but most noticeably 19-2000, clint eastwood, 5/4, as well as directing most of the music videos (skipped out on rock the house after hearing murdoc would be wearing a thong)

• fights with said bass player quite a lot during this time. normally over small things, but it's only ever amplified by him being drunk and puck high. russel usually steps in to physically separate the two in time

• puck doesn't care much for paparazzi. (that's an understatement. once they'd thrown a brick at a reporters camera to get them to back off), but they do participate in a few magazine/radio interviews as long as they've been planned ahead of time. because of this, puck's gone on public record stating their music inspiration comes mainly from the cure, pearl jam, de la soul, and other bands

• appears in a few self dubbed 'gorillaz-bitez' at the time; most noticeably 'game of death' in which they are seen happily betting against murdoc and winning

• not counting the few pictures still around and/or taken pre-gorillaz, this is when puck appears the most feminine or least masculine. as time progresses, subtle changes are added

phase two — 'demon days' 28 years old, 2005

• in between phase one and two after the band took a break, puck floats around the world doing odd jobs and buying way too many drugs (a downer when it comes to their addiction. doesn't care for stuff that's all high energy. prefers the mellow feeling weed & stuff like shrooms or xanax will bring)

• comes back to the band for a second album, but only after noodle reached out from an abandoned kong studios with the building blocks for a new album. puck automatically accepts her offer, and helps her refine some of the demon days songs before contacting anyone else

• most noticeably dedicates a lot of their time into el manana, o green world, white light, every planet we reach is dead, and dirty harry

• almost got fired by kong studios at one point for showing up to an anti-war protest where the public could see, but the entire band went to bat for them and ended up supporting the motivation behind dirty harry as a result

• this phase is when they form even closer with a young noodle. even manages to build an okay relationship with murdoc through demon days, to the point where puck wouldn't mind one bit if he needed to ask a favor of them—a huge step forward

• puck also got absolutely pumped when de la soul agreed to fly out and record their parts for feel good inc. just knew that noodles melody and their lyrics would make for an unforgettable song, and they were more than right

• is actually in the feel good inc. music video as an extra/cameo instead of just directing it, marking their first official onscreen debut as an unofficial member of gorillaz, even if they aren't in the band

• canonically slept with murdoc around phase two. neither of them were sober when it happened, and puck swears it was only to shut murdoc up. but everyone noticed the change in mood for the two of them the following weeks

• it does happen again, and this time the both of them are sober. puck will kill anyone if they ever attempt to bring that up

• during the mtv cribs episode done on gorillaz that murdoc helps the channel produce, puck can be seen passed out and drooling in a bedroom that clearly doesn't belong to any other band members, more or less confirming that they live full time with the band now

• their info card on screen reads, "nickname: puck. occupation: writer, director, friend of 2D's. fun fact: used to have a speech impediment," (which is how they got the name puck since fuck used to be their favorite word.) only wakes up to chase everyone out after murdoc leans to whisper something in their ear

• wasn't actually present during jimmy manson's audition and subsequential humiliation, so manson didn't really care about killing them as much in comparison to the rest of the band. however, right before the filming of the el manana music video, coincidentally right about the time manson works his way up in the music industry ranks, puck and him got into a huge fight over pulling/not pulling certain songs. they won in the end, and it angered him so much that he ended up plotting to kill them along with everyone else. but they're on the bottom of his list overall

• after el manana, puck copies the rest of the band and essentially drops off the face of the earth. with noodle presumed dead, it marks the beginning of a very dark time in their life

phase three — 'plastic beach' 33 years old, 2010

• puck draws in on themself a lot in the years between demon days and plastic beach. they end up going back to their hometown in america to lie low for a while, but it only launches them into the beginning of a long mental episode

• only makes one call during those long months in america, and it's just to let 2D know they went back to america in case he came looking for them. they hoped he wouldn't, and he didn't

• eventually the boogeyman finds and kidnapps them around the same time as 2D; both instances under murdoc's orders. the likes of which puck hadn't seem much less talked to since the bands last el manana recording

• he claims that he needs the both of them in order to make a new album

• plastic beach becomes puck's mental prison. unlike 2D, who is kept prisoner by a fear of both whales and now murdoc, they end up developing a crippling mentality that confines them only to the recording studio and their room

• puck's sunglasses reflect how they change as a person through each of the phases, and it really shows here. on the debut album, they had a simple knockoff pair. on demon days they were wore star shaped ones, but on plastic beach they have a singular pair held together with tape; the roughest they ever get. in later phases the quality of their sunglasses slowly become better until eventually puck's wearing a pair of shiny purple shades in song machine, signifying their official point of recovery

• they hate cyborg noodle. phase three will always be a little blurry to them, thanks to drugs & trauma responses, but they distinctly remember hating cyborg noodle and murdoc for creating her. it reminded puck too much of the real noodle; who at the time they assumed to be dead

• the climax of everything horrible happens two days before the anniversary of noodles 'death'. puck nearly died from an overdose. it was the lowest point in their life, and the only time 2D ever saw murdoc worried for someone other than himself during that phase

• they had really gotten into r.e.m then—so much so, that that's what was playing as they choked on their own vomit in a drug induced sleep—murdoc attempting to kick the door to their room down in the background as it happens

• gets all their drugs through snoop dog when he visits the island to record his bits for videos & songs. murdoc and cyborg noodle won't let them leave, so it's not like they can get their fix any other way

• actually wrote melancholy hill all by themself (with some post-editing from, 2D) during plastic beach. it's supposed to represent how alone they felt and how horrible their drug problems got on the island. it was the first song they ever wrote completely about themself or their experiences to get released under a lable

• also had a hand in stylo, empire ants, and super fast jellyfish, but between spending months curled up in their room pushing their body to the limit with drugs & trying to keep 2D from making the same mistakes, melancholy hill took up most of puck's time

• relies heavily on music and nothing else during this time; not even 2D, who they still feel bad about basically mentally abandoning during plastic beach

• the events of rhinestone eyes is a giant cacophony of mixed feelings for puck. seeing russel again and noodle alive while avoiding helicopters that are trying to kill them can really confused a mentally fucked guy. because that's what they were at that point. mentally fucked

• puck lost a lot during plastic beach. it will take them a long long time to ever forgive murdoc for this years spent at the pink island (specifically eight years later at the end of phase five when he finally gets out of jail), but they never forget

phase four — 'humanz' 40 years old, 2017

• this is officially the period in time where they finally attempt to get clean

• their drug habit was on and off during the seven year break in between plastic beach and humanz, but it was clear to anyone that knew them that they were trying their best to quit

• the long break between albums was the only reason puck came back for humanz. it gave them time to heal and pull themself out of the state they had been in. if they hadn't had that opportunity, puck isn't sure they would have returned to gorillaz at all

• they actually grow a little scruff around this phase as spotted by the tabloids, causing the public to start speculating about their gender again (something they've always had to deal with and hated)

• works on songs like busted and blue during this time. that actually was a scrapped song puck started on plastic beach, and only decided to bring it back and finish it for humanz. noodle helped them to refine it

• despite writing busted and blue, puck put the least amount of work and effort on the humanz album than any other. mostly because they were trying to get sober. still makes a guest appearance in the saturnz barz music video & collaborates with popcaan on his part of the song some

• starts going to rehab regularly! 2D even starts going with them in phase four as a show of support which really helps puck to pull through. 2D himself is still on painkillers, but noticeably less so than before

• the press and public attention makes recovery hard, but they manage to finally pull through by the end of humanz (sober six years as of 2024!)

• they do have an altercation with an obsessive old dealer of theirs once they get off drugs. the dealer liked being able to boast that she sold drugs to famous people, most of the time overcharging puck because she knew they could afford it, so she got really aggressive when her main means of funding dried up—to the point where she managed to track puck down and get ugly. if murdoc hadn't been there to help scare the ex-dealer off, puck was unsure what would have happened

• this was the beginning of the uptick in their relationship

phase five — 'the now now' 41 years old, 2018

• phase five is a huge change in pucks life for the better. it's the beginning of their happier years

• thinks it's because murdoc got sent to jail at first. but as time goes on and the pit in their chest continues to ache, they realize that's not it

• really puck's just happy because nothing fucking insane is going on with the band for once. no more missing eyes (than usual), no zombies or ghosts, and definitely no trash islands painted pink, stuff still gets strange of course, i.e a missing bassist and meetings with jack black and his saxophone, but that stuff is more to their liking

• has time to actually pick up old & new hobbies other than music and song writing. particularly gets really into reading and film analasis

• around this time is when the subject of murdoc becomes tricks for them, but for a different reason than usual

• puck thinks the '#freemurdoc' movement is pretty silly. doesn't really want him to stay there, but puck knows murdoc has been to jail enough to watch out for himself well enough

• none of that stops them from visiting the bass player in jail though. they find themself doing it once or twice instead of just calling, which was more than any of the other band members could say

• a long few years ago, puck used to (and sometimes still does) watch the powerpuff girls with noodle when she was younger, so the both of them were understandably psyched when ace accepted the offer to take murdoc's place in the next album. noodles a bit more excited, though, seeing as puck is still trying to come to terms with the fact that they liked and missed murdoc, so they were preoccupied by that

• ace makes a comment a few months in that he just naturally assumed that puck & his buddy were together, which naturally makes their face light up a bright red. gets to avoid eye contact thanks to their sunglasses

• that may have influenced how they wrote song lyrics with the now now; just like with 2D

• by the end of the now now, puck has gone from being behind the writing of a few background songs & main hits on albums to nearly every single song. they, along with some contributions and suggestions from the rest of the band, are the main reason lyrics are even added to the melodies at this point

• wrote tranz, which is their way of not-so-subtly writing about how it feels to be them in a bodily sense, which underlying tones of the rest of the bands influence on them as a person throughout the years

• can be seen stumbling around in the humility music video while attempting to roller skate with 2D, who had been attempting to teach them how to do so properly all week. eventually it just shows them giving up and laying down in the grass to watch the clouds go by

• after the album is released to the public, puck appears at their second ever award show, since all the way back in demon days in fact, when the album gets nominated for a category or two. even dresses up. at least by their definition, wearing a tie haphazardly over their normal clothes. it isn't even tied right—something russel laughs at

• that means they are there when the band is announced to have won the award. is very awkward on stage as noodle accepts the award, but thinks that murdoc's pre-recorded thank you message that is shown is really funny. fun fact, that exact moment at the award show where murdoc showed up on screen was when puck realized that they really did miss and like him—romantically

• even after he finally gets out of jail for real, puck spends the next five years refusing to let murdoc know about their feelings. much to everyone else's chagrin

phase six — 'song machine' 43 years old, 2020

• phase six was probably the first time in decades that puck ever truly felt happy

• working on the song machine was a way for them to finally leave plastic beach and all the memories associated with it behind. the lost chord was their was of saying good-bye, and 2D's way of finally forgiving murdoc for the same reasons

• song machine really was just puck having fun and not worrying about anything for the first time in a while. they're sober, have a good (bordering on romantic) relationship with murdoc, and are even making more public appearances with the band for the first time in a while. still hates the paparazzi, though they do apologize for the brick incident on record around this time

• is actually able to stop using nicotine gum & patches to curb their need for cigarettes here. (they quit smoking cigs along with everything else when they got clean in humanz. complete cold turkey)

• still keeps in contact with ace at this point even though he's gone and murdoc is back in the band

• is absolutely just chilling the entire time. is in all the music videos shown having the time of their life after his most recent years, only really stepping out of their little bubble of happiness to help with some minor incidents (the pink ghost dilemma, sinkhole problems, etc.)

• probably helps murdoc build his little anti-negative energy hide out, and definitely feels a little bad about leaving the man behind during the desole music video

• when they go into space with everyone else in the winnebago, their spacesuit is purple and has crude graffiti like drawings all over it—curtesy of the whole band

• not a lot happens lore wise to puck during this phase, and that's perfectly all right with them. they're finally completely sober and getting to hang out with the people they care about the most. what else could they want?

phase seven — 'cracker island' 46 years old, 2023

• isn't sure how to feel about packing up and moving to l.a with the band at first since a lot of people from their clouded past are more likely to pop up in america, but they do anyway

• phase seven marks the beginning of murdoc and puck's actual relationship. it took puck a long time to come around to the fact that they actually liked him, flaws and all, but they had begun to realize that they aren't as young as they used to be, and that it's better to be truthful to their feelings and themself instead of hiding away. they already made that mistake once

• the media really starts to become a part of their life more than ever here. it has to do with speculation about murdoc and puck dating sure, but also with the introduction of moonflower and her cult. (puck finds her quite charming and enchanting, which makes murdoc incredibly grumpy. they change their tune about her once 2D is brainwashed, though)

• credited with writing new gold, oil, tarantula, baby queen, and pretty much every other song there is on the album. helps 2D with cracker island some too, but that was mainly him

• baby queen is actually a little about watching noodle grow up into who she is today. puck's always had a good bond with noodle ever since demon days, so baby queen is a very emotional song to them

• thinks the whole thing about 'murdoc's essence' is absolutely hilarious. it gives them a good laugh anytime they think about it. also, they won't admit it, but they find murdoc a little attractive in his cult robes

• gets really pissed when they finally figure out what's been going on with moonflower's cult and 2D. that's puck's best friend and literally the only person that's stuck with them through everything, so they are gonna fight to get him back. even if it's against an immortal cult

• in the silent running music video, which including cracker island is less of a music video and more of a retelling of that night, puck's sunglasses come off for the first time. ever.

• only murdoc sees it as he happens to be standing right across from them when it happens. the sight of it nearly breaks his concentration, and puck doesn't even realize they've fallen off until 2D is back to safety. they were that upset

• it's a big deal to murdoc about the glasses considering that puck has never let anyone see his eyes uncovered. not 2D, not noodle, not russel, and not even him during literal sex. they always kept their shades on or their eyes closed

• puck gets arrested with everyone, but murdoc of course, and ends up in the cracker island music video trying to start a fight with the police while noodle attempts to de-escalate the situation and calm them down

• when murdoc finally shows up at the hospital, he shares a soft kiss with a relieved puck off screen, publicly announcing their relationship and grabbing everyone's attention momentarily. the kiss calms puck down and marks the end of another era, leaving the band to go back to the l.a house and finally bring 2D with them once again

[sera8273]

The last person to make a Cameo in Apology Tour is Wally Wackford! The reason I didn’t place him last post was bc it got way too long.

Ep 1. Seen as Loo-Loo Lands Torch Vendor before Blitzø falls on him while escaping Robo Fizz

Ep 4. While switching channels, Wally comes on promoting his new business, Wacky Wally Wackford's Wacky Idea "Factory". (Most likely to pay back Mammon for burning down Loo-Loo Land) and appears at the end of the episode trying to get workers to explo-erm, implore!

Ep 5. He’s the Host of the Harvest Moon Festival with Stolas as his Co-Host!

Ep 7. He’s now a Bartender at OZZIES and gets pushed to the floor by Verosika when handing her a drink.

S2 Ep 2. Scrolling through sinstagram. Wally is seen still sponsoring his business through showing off his fame and trying to make other desperate souls work for him. It does seem that business booming!

S2 Ep 6. When Fizz reads the newspaper, right under the “Breast Imp-lants” are “Wally Wackford's Wacky Waving Inflatable Flailing Tube Dicks”

S2 Ep 7. In the Flashback, Mammon actually picks up Young Wally and flings him off stage. Meaning that incanon, he’s younger than Fizz and Blitz! He also appears sitting in the crowd when Ozzie comes to protect his lil frog.

Shorts 1:Sallie May and Millie go to Wacky Wally Wackford's Fun Time Emporium, a video game arcade in Imp city before accidentally getting burnt down when playing the Chainsaw Mama Fighting game.

S2 Ep9. And finally! We see him at the end of Apology Tour being another Vendor of Anti-Blitzø merchandise!

[only-by-the-stars]

more little NL vs NH thoughts because I can't stop playing NL again and apparently can't shut up about it (it is so important to me okay?)

-villager dialogue is just so much better in NL. I've heard people complain about the villagers not being mean anymore in that game like in older ones, and I have little opinion on that, but whew can I ever see the downgrade between NL and NH. the regular dialogue is so bland, and there's fewer options for when they have something to ask you for. in NH, it's:

wanna come over/can I visit your house RIGHT NOW? I had a fight with [other villager], can you deliver this gift? I'm trying to sell stuff, will you buy this from me?/here's a random item (this always happens when I'm digging up clams and need empty pockets...) can you catch this bug/fish for me? (very rarely) want to play a treasure hunt game?

whereas with NL it's:

wanna come over/can I visit your house RIGHT NOW? wanna come over/can I visit your house later? can you take this gift to [other villager]? I'm trying to sell stuff, will you buy this/can I trade you for item in your pockets? can you catch this bug/fish for me? wanna play hide and seek? can you bury/dig up this time capsule for me? can you bring me a piece of fruit? I need to speak to [other villager] but can't leave my house, can you bring them here?

I'm probably forgetting something, but you can see the disparity anyway. regular dialogue was generally more interesting too. I also like that you had to bring a sick animal medicine for *three* days instead of just one, it felt like nursing a sick friend back to health instead of one and done and was more rewarding.

-speaking of more rewarding... SHOP UPGRADES, MY BELOVED <333 my file has T&T Emporium, and it is SO NICE, OMG. ;w; I loved the process of working towards the shop upgrades and seeing it become gradually bigger and with a better item selection. ALSO I MISS YOU, GRACIE. </3 the fact that NH has the nerve to try and sell me ridiculously expensive furniture without the GracieGrace brand attached, smh.

-it was the Bug Off today! if I'd realized, I would've prepared last night, but oh well. I still got to get a couple cute furniture pieces and I think I'll place first, so that was fun.

-doing item customization yourself is more convenient (because you can see what things will look like without using a guide) and faster, but... I actually still like using Cyrus? I know he's at the co-op on Harv's island if you shell out enough cash, but that's so expensive and his prices have gone up. customization kits aren't cheap either! in NL you paid less, and had to wait a half hour for an individual item to be ready, but I like that. I like going a bit slower. NL in general is slower and so much more relaxed and relaxing, I like walking at a normal pace and getting to soak in the atmosphere and music.

-as much as I appreciate getting to hear Blathers blather about the donated stuff, I also like the convenience of getting to look at the info in the museum itself without having to bring him another one. it's part of what makes going to the museum soothing, despite that there's no wow factor in the design of the exhibits.

-Main Street in general is just so nice to have, and it makes the actual town feel bigger. I do like being able to decorate outside, but... at the same time I like the simpler feel here and the PWPs that we had. and remodeling town hall and the train station was so neat!!! why can't we do that in NH???

-GOD I MISS THE LEGEND OF ZELDA ITEMS AND VILLAGERS SO MUCH.

-the music. again, the music. NL remains one of my favorite video game soundtracks ever. when it hit 7 PM last night and The Song started playing... oh man... ;w; will we ever have that level of music quality again?

-cannot stress enough how much I miss Tortimer Island. the minigames! the easy access to summer bugs and fishing! AAAAAHHHH

-I... forgot what the Aquarius Urn looked like in this game and now I'm annoyed all over again at the blandification of the Zodiac series in NH. IT WAS BLUE AND FILLED WITH WATER. I COULD'VE. IT WOULD'VE LOOKED SO GOOD AS PART OF MY ZORA-THEMED AREAS. AAARGH!!!

-odd little discrepancy, but why is it when you talk to Gulliver to try and wake him up in NH you have to put away any tool you're carrying, but not so in NL? weird.

-I like the hyacinths and windflowers, but I also miss the violets and carnations. the purple roses were also a LOT prettier in NL.

-also, for all that NH offers more freedom in some aspects, it really took a big step backwards in house customization??? you can't even GET a different exterior until you have ALL the rooms, and you have NO CONTROL over the room size??? and the exterior options are all SO BLAND. you could be way more creative and aesthetic in NL by choosing which rooms to have, how big they were, and you had way more and more interesting exterior options.

-sure were more events and generally things to do in NL. :< the only part of winter I liked was playing snowman bingo and trying to make the different snow people for various rewards! and they took THAT away too! there was more charm, too, I loved the coziness of the "small forested village" that I got in NL, and I prefer taking the train to flying everywhere, and the post office was so cool, and I liked the reliability of taking Dr. Shrunk fruit to learn new reactions. I really hope the next game is a return to form and not more of the same problems that still plague NH...

[snippychicke]

Continuing my Post-a-thon, I would like to direct you attention to a story I started way back in 2017 that I have decided to randomly pick up.

Title: The Pet Emporium

Fandom: Undertale/Underswap!AU

Pairing: Reader/US!Papyrus

Fluff and a slowburn sweet romance; just edited and chapter 7 posted.

[merthurians-prat-and-idiot]

6x18 buddie coda

Warning: 6x18 spoilers

(I had lots of feelings about couches and wrote this! Just a lil post ep oneshot! Written very sleepily so be kind skss) Now on ao3!

🚒🌠

Buck's wandering along the aisle of Mr Mullins furniture emporium, trailing his hand over (soft, soft, scratchy, stripey?) fabrics when he just - freezes.

Natalia pulls up alongside him.

"Have you found one you like?" She asks but-

Its like the words are underwater, muffled, said through a crackling radio- because he's just - frozen.

Staring down at dark blue fabric.

Two navy back cushions, two seat- tall thin armrests.

A faint stain in the middle from knocking a bowl of salsa over in the middle of an intense Mario Kart battle- the echo of laughter and admonishments for using the coffee table as a foot-rest instead a snack one. The tiny tear across the side, courtesy of a 3am beer-fueled need to "try it over by the window!" and the slice of fabric against the wall. The easy change into a bed, sinking into its soft comfort.

Buck blinks and - it slides back into place, the tear knits back together, the laughter fades away and the stain vanishes.

Oh.

"Buck?"

He blinks again, his eyes wet.

Sleepy morning greetings, pancakes and syrup, reading horoscopes and answering scoffs, freshly washed uniforms, tangled shoelaces, car playlists.

Hands on ropes, tightening harnesses, stealing coffee, knocking shoulders, pressed head to toe.

Zoo trips and maths homework, video games and homemade dinners.

A life.

Lived together.

Buck does nothing to stop the tear that rolls off his cheek.

"I- uh- I have to go- I'm- I'm really s-sorry- this isn't going to work- I'm sorry I-" he stumbles, turning away and heading for the door.

And its like now the switch has been flipped- he wants to rush, to hurry towards where he's meant to be.

He makes it to his jeep in record time, long legs flying (like a frog stood up and tried to run, according to- oh - it was truly in every corner of his life)

And somehow, maybe the goddamn universe, he pulls up- unharmed despite his shaking hands.

He goes to knock and then gets hit once more and pulls out his own set of keys and turns them in the lock.

Buck breathes for a moment.

Warmth washing over him.

Home.

And follows the sounds of laughter.

He's sat on the couch. Of course he is.

Eddie.

And how did Buck miss this? The way his heart pulses in his chest, the way his eyes trace the pull of Eddie's mouth, the softening glance as he looks up and sees Buck standing there.

"Hey" Eddie speaks, soft & familiar.

Buck breaks into a grin.

"Hi"

"You're uh, you're not busy are you?"

Eddie huffs a laugh.

"You broke into my house to ask me if I was busy?"

"I have a key!"

"Pretty sure that was meant to be for emergencies" Eddie teases.

"Yeah, well, this is an emergency"

"Ohhh you mean like how you running out of doritos two weeks ago and "borrowing" some from here was also an emergency?" He tilts his head with a faux serious expression.

God, Buck loves him.

He sniffs, overcome suddenly- like in the aisle of the furniture shop.

"Uh, no I-" he ducks his head.

Eddie waits him out.

"I- needed to talk to you I - need - to talk to you- its- kind of- kind of important"

"Okay..."

"I- I was about to buy a new couch, I was standing infront of aisles and aisles of what was supposed to be the perfect couch for me and then I- I just froze"

Buck pauses for a moment and Eddie hums.

"Why did you freeze?"

"I saw a couch- it was blue- navy, actually and it looked soft and- and- familar and I looked at it and I saw things that weren't there"

"Do we need to get you checked for a concussion?" Eddie frowns, twitching forward.

Buck waves his hand.

"No- no- I just- it reminded me of something else, somewhere else- I saw a stain- right across the seat cushions- tomato salsa-"

Eddie's eyes flicker with something.

"I heard laughter and- and Mario Kart. I saw a tear, against the side- I felt the softness, the comfort of sinking into it- the warmth"

"What are you saying Buck?" Eddie croaks out.

"I- I'm saying that I realized I was in a store trying to find the right couch, only realize I was standing infront of it all along"

"As in now- I- I'm standing infront of it now-" Buck breathes.

"I've got a date tomorrow" Eddie replies.

"Oh"

"Right- I- I - I'm sorry I shouldn't have-"

"You should. You always should Buck"

"What?"

Eddie smiles, eyes shining.

"You should spill salsa all over this couch, you should fall asleep on it after dinner, you should play Mario Kart here with our son, you should sit down and you should stay"

Buck sniffs.

"You want me to stay?"

"I want you to never have to feel you need to ask that question again"

"And I want you to know you never needed to ask me"

"Eddie"

"Yeah?"

"I love you"

Eddie's smile is like coming home.

"I love you too"

Buck falls-

And burrows down into the couch.

[littleplasticrat]

Welcome!

I live in the bin. She/her, mid-30s, English. Call me Jade

I have very normal feelings about Baldur's Gate 3 and video games in general and I also sometimes share a meme or an animal pic

This blog is NSFW in that I would not advise looking at it while in your place of employment, unless you work for the same company as me (Mr Magorian's Whoredom Emporium)

Check out my BG3 male pin-up collection here, with colouring pages here!

Click here to see my art (some NSFW) and process pictures

I've written some smutty fanfics

Print shop (NSFW not currently available)

[ferindencadash]

It's been a week since the @black-emporium-exchange wrapped up and it was SUCH a blast to participate in!! I'm so glad I signed up!

I only started writing a few months ago, so I was very nervous, but I'm actually so proud of how my contribution turned out! And my recipient was really happy with their gift, which brings me infinite joy.

If you want to check it out, you can find it here:

Featuring MHawke/Varric/Cassandra in some sweet fluffy (with some awkwardness along the way) polyam relationship.

I also received the sweetest gift of a FHawke/Cassandra fic, which you should absolutely read:

And there are SO MANY amazing fics in the collection, like this one that wasn't a gift for me, but sure felt like it:

(Also with FHawke/Cassandra)

And there is some STUNNING fanart too! Like this Josie/Lavellan piece I am RABID over:

I can't wait for next year!! ❤️

[finelyfrenzied]

i feel like it's so important that i admit something... about my first time playing a dragon age game..... noah had lent me da2 (i am not a video gaem player, gentle readers, please keep this in your minds)

and i.... was putting skill points evenly into all of my character's skill trees.

i made it all the way to the arishok? i think? but i kept fucking DYING. and noah came over to watch me play and was like... bestie.... no....

he did get the black emporium downloaded and fixed my stats. and i was able to finish the game but apparently. that is not what you're supposed to do. i know better now but damn.

[neorefsproject]

Character: Jerdana the Sorceress

Book of Ages Page: https://bookofages.jellyneo.net/characters/86/

Dr. Sloth's Image Emporium Page: https://www.drsloth.com/search/?tagged=Jerdana

Design notes: - Jerdana's eyes open in the cut-scenes of the Neopets: The Darkest Faerie video game, however it is unclear what color they are. They seem to be the same or a similar color as the insides of her ears/eye circles (hex code "6688ee" in this reference sheet) but leaning slightly more towards green than purple.

(Updated 11/16/2024)

[omegaremix]

High Score Pinball + Game On; Spring 2021 & Spring 2022.

If you were an Eighties child, the video game was the pinnacle of your childhood. On Saturdays, my dad took me to the toy store where I sprinted to the game wall, have me choose any stamped ticket and hand it over the counter to customer service where they stocked all the solid state cartridges in the back. They’d hand me the game of choice and I was golden until next week. If I was lucky, he’d take us to Nunley’s Carousel in Baldwin where it was the final time in my life I’d play old electromagnetic machines and driving games that ran on paper sheets - and even film reels and plastic parts (Atari’s F1). We’d also go to Nathan’s in Oceanside. It, too, had an arcade there. Once we came back from his dietician or from my half-sister in Bensonhurst, he ended up taking the whole family for sit-in Chinese and to the Nellie Bly Amusement Park where for one time only I played Atari’s Superman and Hercules pinball tables.

Sunday was an even bigger event. My pop would drive from (also) Bensonhurst all the way out to Long Island where my family and I lived. He’d arrive anywhere between noon to 1PM and stay for an hour before taking me to the South Shore Mall. I’d have the luxury of two hours and $5.00 worth of quarters to play as many games as I could. Roadblasters, Space Harrier, Chase HQ, Marble Madness, skee ball - you name it, they had it, I played it. Pop would break it up and take me to The Emporium (later becoming Nathan’s and after that a sushi house that closed down in 2010) where they also had an arcade itself. Same time limit, same amount of pocket change. The neighborhood delis and convenience stores also had arcade and pinball machines where I clearly remember playing Seicross, Legion, Double Dragon, Ninja Gaiden, Shinobi, and other games too many to mention. I had the best of both worlds at home and beyond. By the time my grade-school years ended, I replenished the game collection my dad once sold for $50.00 and more thanks to my Dallas aunt and uncle. 

The Brentwood era just started for me and Pop had a heart attack while watching the game. He woke up out of it but later relapsed and that was the end for him. I had to take it upon myself to ride my bike to the mall or the pizzeria in the local shopping center behind the middle school to get my Neo-Geo, Super Monaco GP, or Mortal Kombat fix. With reward came risk: Brentwood wasn’t a safe neighborhood compared to the others. Every day I worried about random newjacks and youngbucks coming up to me for handouts just for being seen. Seven or eight kids waiting their turn surrounded the Street Fighter machines at any one of three stores out of fifteen who had them; some even got jumped and assaulted over them because they were caught cheating. Chain-snatchers got the unsuspecting kids when their backs were turned, and even the resting bitch-faces came up to entice me to fight their boyfriends who tried stealing my bike.

As time went by, I moved on from the scummy parts. Visits to the arcades became less frequented no matter at the mall or the amusement park. The carousels and hot dog places went out of business. Console gaming, however, kept going with the Genesis, SNES, Dreamcast, and Playstation throughout my community college and Stony Brook era. I discovered MAME and VPinball so I could stay in touch with myself. I kept it all going until I was sick of dozing off and throwing my time away while my friends, co-workers, and associates made the best of theirs. I finally moved on from gaming, and all the best for it.

It was more than ten years since I played a game of pinball. The Sopranos to be exact. Almost no place on the island where one was to be found. But that all changed last spring when the Video Game Trading Post opened up Long Island’s very first pinball arcade in the South Shore Mall / Westfield. I was stunned and paralyzed. We never asked for it, let alone couldn’t even imagine happening, but we got it. We lost Manhattan’s Modern Pinball and Greenpoint’s Sunshine Laundromat was never the same after the pandemic, so having the arcade return (to the very place where it all started for me and not having to travel to the city for it) was the pale-skinned redheaded Godiva riding on the fucking horse.

It was amazement at first sight. I enter the mall and the sounds emanating from the dark space tells me I’m close. I finally found it. My soul pushed back because I couldn’t believe it. I walk in and the darkness swallowed me in as all the flashing lights, LEDS, and the brightly-lit back-panels fight to be noticed. For $25.00, sometimes $35.00, it was all-you-can-play. I walk around in the dark vortex and the place was huge of its concrete flooring and aromatic wood smell. All three Black Knight tables, all three Pinbots, both Firepowers, Bank Shot, Evel Knievel, Harlem Globetrotters, Tron Legacy, even Police Force when it was at Vinardo’s. I spotted Big Guns, a game I remember from my Nintendo childhood. To my amusement, it was real having to find that Slugfest returned to the exact same mall I played at during the Brentwood era. The best part? Learning that both High Speed and Nine Ball would make their stay. It would make that next return trip all the more urgent. High Speed was the very first machine I ever scored a million on, let alone three. And Nine Ball? The overall design and sound effects of it was a personal must-play for me.

All throughout last Spring and Summer I’d make the effort to be the first one there and the last one to leave. Noon to 8PM. I made one final trip to High Score- before the year was over, leaving it behind in its former incarnation forever. It’s now half of what it used to be. The other half is now home gaming and memorabilia. I knew it would never be as good after when I first found it and won’t expect it to be better. But I’ll never, ever forget it - just like I’ll never forget the ride to Williamsburg’s Rough Trade, the post-punk / d.i.y. and jazz-fusion finds, the Jewish girl from Queens with the straight shoulder-length hair and green eyes who asked me if I had a copy of KIDS, or the two pale gingers with brown eyes I spent forever with at my store. Another day, another payout.

The alignments had another card up its sleeve. The King of Diamonds would be super-ceded by the Ace. The Boy Harsher show was less than two weeks away and I had to visit the Smithhaven Mall to find me a leather jacket and black hat. I walked out with the hat but no jac-. And, as I was walking out, something caught my eye: a shiny colorful array of neon lights. I stop to look at my right and there it was: a new video arcade I never knew existed. I was shut. I step in and to my immediate right was Baby Pac-Man: a cabinet shaped like an upright with a CRT monitor and small pinball playfield below it. It was a machine I only read about but was curious to seek out. Now, here it is. But, I couldn’t go any further as entry was roped off. But I see the sign at the front desk: $20.00 free play all day. It’s 3PM, I wouldn’t get my money’s worth. But I owed it to myself to come back and visit, and visit I did.

The following Wednesday I came back at noon and paid the frail emo casualty up front my $20.00. Does he have any idea what he’s doing here or what this is all about? He wouldn’t care, really. He’s only here to collect and will elicit a fake half-enthusiastic “oh, uh…that’s cool!” when asked. I’m here to revisit my Atari / Nintendo childhood. Eight hours and no time to waste. Let’s have it.

I walk in and there’s three Pac-Man machines grouped together: the 1980 original that became the first-ever character franchise, Baby Pac-Man and Super Pac-Man. Across from it is Ms. Pac-Man. How shameful they couldn’t include her in the boys’ club. There were vector games in Tempest, Lunar Lander, Asteroids, and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back in super-sharp and blindingly bright on original CRT monitors. There was Gorf, arguably my very first arcade memory living in Brooklyn. Classics such as Centipede, Marble Madness and Spy Hunter which I haven’t played in its true form since forever. Defender, Robotron 2084, and Berzerk rounded out three of four parts of the Williams epic (Blaster was the fourth). Moon Patrol, Galaxian, Zaxxon, Gyruss, Phoenix, Dig Dug, Vanguard, and Missile Command - games I played endlessly on the home system - were there. Crystal Castles, one I always played on the Atari 2600, felt super-frantic and ultra-responsive on my first time ever playing it. Pengo and Mr. Do! - two games I remember my sis- B-Bomb telling me about - were finally crossed off the must-play list.

I found two extremely rare Nintendo Vs. red tents and with that came Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong 3, Punch Out, Popeye, and the original Super Mario Bros. which I always used to play at the neighborhood deli (thanks ma’). Even more impressive was the fact that they had Playchoice machines when the South Shore Mall had them. I walk further and there’s Bad Dudes and the first Double Dragon: agonizingly slow and sluggish as fuck like I remembered it.

There’s driving games such as Super Sprint, Crazy Taxi, Chase HQ, and The Cruisin’ series. But, none more important than Sega’s Hang-On and Outrun, one which my younger bro- and I fought over to play first when our parents took us to the ice cream parlor. Next to those were Virtua Cop and Point Blank which I had zero interest playing because it wasn’t Cheyenne.

Konami, known for some of the best multi-player titles ever, made their presence felt with Super Contra, The Simpsons, Sunset Riders, X-Men, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; the final being the gateway and the token example of nostalgia. There was the fighters’ row: Mortal Kombat II, Virtua Fighter, Tekken 4, Killer Instinct, Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, and Street Fighter II; that final one the basis of my early Brentwood years hanging out in dangerous neighborhoods and being harassed by the youngbucks in pizzerias for quarters. How about not one, not - fuck it - four Neo-Geo MVS’s with such games as Metal Slug 4, Ninja Warriors, Fatal Fury 2, and Samurai Shodown all plugged in and more. Three of those four aforementioned Neo-Geo games all happened during various points of my Brentwood era, coincidentally at the same shopping center as the pizzeria and that down-low mom-and-pop video store in Central Islip.

There were pinball tables such as Spider-Man, Stranger Things, and Star Wars: Episode 1, but couldn’t ever compare to what High Score used to have. Foosball, (a rare) Super Chexx, a Ms. Pac-Man & Galaga cocktail machine, and even Alley Cats: a shuffleboard-slash-bowling hybrid were found. Never played anything like it. Sports-themed uprights in NBA Jam, NHL Ice, and Blades Of Steel which I played all of three minutes before walking away from it and headed for Arkanoid: Revenge Of Doh. I was even taken back by seeing games I never knew existed: Warp Warp and Lady Bug. And finally…Smash TV. I wasted an hour of my valuable life on cheap deaths and repetitious gameplay. I’ll never ever recommend it.

I look above and there was a scoreboard with all the high scores and initials written in chalk. Twin Galaxies this wasn’t and thankfully there were no Billy Mitchell sightings. Another thing up above us was a mural of Blaze, Axel, and Adam of Sega’s Streets Of Rage, deemed one of the best and most successful side-scrolling beat ‘em-ups ever. Further back of the arcade I found a bar set-up and a big projector screen behind it for anyone wanting to play Mario Kart on the big-screen. I looked hard enough to find authentic original operator’s manuals of Jungle Hunt, Centipede, Xevious, Asteroids, and Missile Command framed and hung on the wall. I also laserdiscs also framed and hung on the wall near the arcades storefront. Flashdance, License To Drive, Vision Quest, and - I kid you not - Dirty Dancing. Which reminded me…where the hell were Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace? And no Eighties’ fantasy world wouldn’t be complete without at least two small CRT TV’s set up to play Super Mario Bros. 3 and E.T. It was the perfect set-up found in millions of kid’s rooms everywhere. And they still weren’t done.

The one thing Game On had that High Score Pinball didn’t, and this is the major validator here, was the Eighties soundtrack streamed on the overhead. High Score- only had the natural sound of licensed one-liners, PCBs, electromagnetics, and solid states emanating all the bells and hard solenoid knocks of free games. Only once had they brought out a portable speaker blasting Ozzy’s Nineties hits and alternative. Not Game On. Every song was an unforgettable Eighties throwback. It had to be to fit within the nostalgic theme of gaming’s wonder years of the very-late Seventies to the mid-Nineties.

The Seventies will always be something I’ll explore because it’s a decade I mostly missed out on. Exploring and discovering obscure jazz / fusion, soul, groove, and the hits are all a product of my fascination with hip-hop and rap’s sampling culture, console gaming, money shows, chyrons, station i.d.’s, production logos, opening and closing credits, and promos-. The Eighties were different because I lived through them 100% and still remember it clear as day. I can appreciate new wave, synthpop, the new romantics, Billboard hits, freestyle, radio plays, hair metal, and anything else I listened to as part of my Atari / Nintendo childhood. The arcade’s streaming playlist (could they not afford a cassette player?) was paired with the many original arcade cabinets of their time and served its nostalgic purpose, as intended, to its full unbeatable meaning. 

With almost every song played on the overhead there were more childhood memories that followed them. J. Geils Band’s “Centerfold” was my first-ever music memory when my other half-sister played it constantly on our turntable in our family’s second-floor Borough Park apartment. The night my dad threw the Christmas tree out on the porch and my ma’ taking both my younger brother and I to stay at gramma’s for a few days. Riding in the passenger’s seat of our white rusted ‘78 Cadillac Coupe Deville and the bubbled rainbow that formed at the top of its windshield. Being stuck on the side of the Southern State Parkway heading home as my younger bro- and I rode in the backseat with toy dashboards. The trips in my parents rusty beige Chevy van where its crusty steel interior and the smell of petrichor created a viciously sickening mess. The two ‘79 yellow and blue AMC VAM Pacer X’s my parents had. Hurricane Gloria and the week-long power outage. Friday night’s Miami Vice. Saturday afternoons spent in the basement playing Atari and watching WWF and NWA. Saturday night’s Golden Girls where the whole family died laughing. Sunday’s Long Island pop station WBLI’s Top Ten countdown on public access television. Our babysitter’s daughter who was the cutest thing of curly black hair, dark eyes, and tall stature who smelled like sparkle and white plush. My bro- and I taking apart our ma’s floral-print couches and making pillow forts out of them. Dad’s in-wall Akai eight-track player and the overhead speakers. Easter’s various assortment of sweet-smelling wax crayons and activity books. Nights spent watching New York Yankee games on PIX, New York Rangers on MSG, Night Flight and Dance Party USA. Family dinner night at Enzo’s in Bay Shore for minestrone, calzones, and newspaper clippings of Italy’s World Cup victories. Assholes in Chams tank-tops smoking in their garages while working on their prized ‘77 Trans Ams. Playing NES all night before getting ready to ride to Staten Island at three in the morning to pick up my dad’s side of the family.

The more I played the more I immersed myself back into familiar territory that I haven’t visited in decades. It’s an absolute rarity when all the right authentic elements that used to be come together as one and re-create a near-perfect rendition of what the Eighties felt like. It’s not just the soundtrack, the manuals and laserdiscs that supplanted the setting, but the actual aesthetic itself. See the decals on the side of the cabinets and the built-in one-of-a-kind joysticks and steering wheels. The amazing control panel artwork. Plenty of CRT monitors and their rasterized graphics, scanlines, ripples, burn-in, and scrambled graphical glitches. Buttons, plenty of buttons of all types. And no more having to bang on the steel coin doors when those quarters got jammed. Not a burn mark in sight and the smell of old wood cabinets filled the room - exactly how I remembered it all.

It was nearing 9PM. The trip back in time was about to end and the mall was finally winding down. I had to have one last game in before having to walk off memory lane and say goodbye. That idiot kid wasn’t there but was replaced by some cute skinny hipster girl punk with pink hair and ladened with piercings, eager to talk to any cliched grown-up punk dad or fading former Gen-X’er wanting to share a story or two about how they missed those simpler days. I’ll never get the spirit and being of the Eighties back, but I no longer miss them now that I have a monthly pilgrimage to Game On. I retire for the night and head out. She unhooks the velvet rope and clears the way for me to leave with a smile.

“Have a good night!” she says. You know I will.

Heart: “Magic Man”

Eddie Money & Ronnie Spector: “Take Me Home Tonight”

Run DMC: “It’s Tricky”

Cutting Crew: “I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight”

Toto: “Africa”

A-Ha: “Take On Me”

Foreigner: “Waiting For A Girl Like You”

Bananarama: “I Heard A Rumor”

Wham: “Wake Me Up Befoe You Go-Go”

Mike & The Mechanics: “Silent Running”

Michael Jackson: “Billie Jean”

Rick Springfield: “Jessie’s Girl”

Bruce Springsteen: “Dancer In The Dark”

Pat Benetar: “Love Is A Battlefield”

J. Geils Band: “Centerfold”

Simple Minds: “Don’t You Forget About Me”

Tommy Tutone: “867-5309 / Jenny”

Cyndi Lauper: “Girls Just Wanna’ Have Fun”

Pointer Sisters: “I’m So Excited”

Starship: “We Built This City”

Steve Winwood: “Higher Love”

Whitney Houston: “I Wanna’ Dance With Somebody”

Survivor: “The Search Is Over”

The Outfields: “I Don’t Wanna’ Lose Your Love Tonight”

Flashdance original motion picture soundtrack

The Romantics: “What I Like About You”

Scorpions: Rock You Like A Hurricane”

Quiet Riot: “Come On (Feel The Noise)”

Pointer Sisters: “I’m So Excited”

Fabulous Thunderbirds: “Tough Enough”

Steve Perry: “Oh Sherrie”

Madonna: “Borderline”

Tiffany: “I Think We’re Alone Now”

Belinda Carlisle: “Mad About You”

Debbie Gibson: “Out Of The Blue”

Phil Collins: “Sssudio”

Lionel Richie: “All Night Long”

RUM DMC & Aerosmith: “Walk This Way”

Rick Astley: “Never Gonna’ Give You Up”

Bananarama: “Cruel Summer”

Cyndi Lauper: “Time After Time”

Kim Carnes: “Bette Davis Eyes”

Sting: “Every Breath You Take”

Heart: “What About Love”

Foreigner: “I Wanna’ Know What Love Is”

Bruce Springsteen: “Jack & Diane”

Mr. Mister: “Take These Broken Wings”

Bangles: “Hazy Shade Of Winter”

Don Henley: “Boys Of Summer”

Dire Straits: “Money For Nothing”

The Cars: “Shake It Up”

Peter Gabriel: “Big Time”

Bon Jovi: “Livin’ On A Prayer”

Allanah Myles: “Black Velvet”

Culture Club: “Karma Chamelion”

Mike & The Mechanics: “All I Need Is A Miracle”

Starship: “Sarah”

Wham: “Wake Me Up (Before You Go Go)”

Billy Ocean: “Caribbean Queen”