#wait thats not true i went on vacation for a week. came home for four days. started this. went on vacation for another week and a half.

[harvsbian]

avialae duo goes grocery shopping (@arceoptryx)

[darkrccm]

▲

five times meme ✖ selectively accepting

▲  five time my muse thought about kissing yours, and the one time they did.

one.

It had been an… interesting day. Victoria was upset with her, for whatever reason. Rachel didn’t really care to find out most of the time when miss priss would get her panties in a bunch about something Rachel did or said – or simply just was. They were ‘friends’, she guessed, if you could call them that. Frenemies sounded more like it nowadays. They made snide remarks to each other all day, ignoring each others presence in class and even talking shit about each other when the other was in close proximity. Though, it was times like these that Rachel found herself not attracted to it.

Victoria was always so hot when she was bitchy.

two.

It was Rachel’s first official Vortex Club party since being deemed an honorary member. The bass of the music was loud and she could barely hear herself think, a pre-game of a mixture of rum and vodka are flowing through her system as she sits on the couch, eyes lidded as Hayden starts telling her a story that she thinks was supposed to be funny but can’t find the humor in it. Hazel eyes catch glimpse of Victoria, refilling her cup of wine before catching her gaze. Their eyes lock for a second before Victoria comes around and plops down on the couch next to Rachel. 

Hayden finishes his story but when he doesn’t get the reaction he wants he turns away from the two girls, taking another rip from the bong sitting by their feet. Rachel can’t help but stare at Victoria, a grin on her face as she examines the others face.

“What are you staring at?” Victoria laughs and Rachel laughs too.

“Nothing,” She says as she takes another sip from her cup.

three.

Rachel is laying on Victoria’s bed, flipping through some photography magazine while she waits for the blonde to finish getting ready. At a concert she had snuck out see a few days ago she met some guys who invited her to some college party – “It’s going to be fucking rad” was what they said. Lots of liquor and drugs, what more could Rachel ask for?

Pop music is playing softly from Victoria’s phone as she switches in between outfits, scowling as she tries to figure out which one would be the perfect one to help blend in with an ‘older crowd’.

Rachel can’t help but smirk to herself as she listens to the blonde mumble to herself, furrowing her brow at her wardrobe as she finally comes to the decision to stick with her original outfit – from an hour ago. Rachel can’t help the laughter that bubbles up from her core, shaking her head at how ridiculously long it was taking for Victoria to get ready. As she shakes her head she sits up finally, swinging her legs over the side of her bed. She eyes the blonde for a moment, hazel orbs focusing a bit too much on Victoria’s lips.

“You’re hot no matter what you wear, now hurry up and let’s get going before they drink all the good shit.”

four.

No one should be home alone for Christmas – at least thats what cliche holiday movies and Victoria Chase say. Her parents were working the holidays, again, and instead of sitting at home with her cat chilling in her lap while contemplating which crime to commit while her parents were away Victoria had convinced her to spend the holiday vacation at her house. It was fine, she enjoyed spending time with the other and found great comfort in her company even when they weren’t speaking about much at all.

That changed though the night they had dinner with her parents. It was the first time Rachel had seen them all week (Victoria said they were on some business trip and wouldn’t be home until Christmas Eve) and as they all sat around the large expensive dinner table eating foods that cost approximately her tuition and fees for Blackwell, it was there that Rachel caught first hand what the Chase family was really like. 

The blonde kept her eyes on Victoria, listening as the other talked about her successes at Blackwell – running and operating The Vortex Club activities on top of a nearly flawless GPA and still constantly putting her work out into the world for galleries to review.  Her friend spoke with pride and passion, clearly prideful in all of her accomplishments as a student.

“But who’s the top of the class?”

Rachel cringed immediately at the words and could feel a sharp glance by Victoria her way. No words were spoken at dinner after that. Victoria went off on her own once it was over, leaving Rachel to say her ‘thank you’ for the Chase family to allow her to stay there, even if it was making her stomach turn. When Rachel found Victoria, she knew that she was treading on delicate territory. The other didn’t even look up as she entered the room, instead sitting on her bed with her gaze averted down to her feet. 

Rachel stood there in silence for what felt like hours, eyes moving from Victoria to various points in her room. When she finally moved to sit beside the other, she felt stiff. She was conscious to how Victoria sat, her head filled with different scenarios that could play out. Rachel decided to try and break the ice finally in a way that she only knew how.

“Well, they seemed nice.”

Victoria let’s out a cruel laugh, shaking her head in disbelief at her words. Rachel had a half-assed smile on her face, hazel eyes trying to make contact with brown ones. When they finally caught each others gaze, Rachel’s heart picked up but simply Victoria scoffed.

“You’re an idiot.”

“But I made you laugh, didn’t I?”

five.

Things had been different when they got to Blackwell. Victoria hung out with Rachel more, texting her more often and overall just had gotten closer. Rachel had envied that about Victoria. She knew that she exposed anything… unsavory about herself to anyone else the urge to cut them from her life would be too strong. They were opposites in that respect. For an assignment for Mark Jefferson, Rachel clearly agreed to be Victoria’s model when she was prompted. By now the snow had started to disappear from sight but evidence of it’s arrival was still very clear in how the dead trees stuck out against the start white focus of the sky. 

The two had been joking around once the assignment was completed, Victoria taking goofy photos of Rach while she made faces into the camera. It both scared and fascinated the girl how they had become so close when all the odds said that they should hate each other and quite frequently Rachel found herself wanting to cross the ‘friend’ boundary for some time. Up at the lighthouse, they were starting to come down from their high and perched themselves up on one of the rocks. She had lit a cigarette, handing it off to the other before lighting herself one as they watched the sun start to set above the sleepy small town just below.

“You should definitely submit that one photo of me holding my nose up with my thumb and sticking my tongue out to Jefferson. I think that’s the winner,” Rachel teased as she took a drag from her cigarette. “That image will be framed everywhere and when people gaze on my natural beauty they’ll have to wonder – who was that incredible photographer behind the camera? How could they be so lucky to witness a true beauty?”

Victoria smirked at Rachel’s words, a laugh emitting from her throat. “Oh, I’m sure that’s exactly what they’re going to say – or rather, ‘How did the photographer not want to puke when gazing upon this strange creature?’”

Rachel immediately scowled as Victoria barked out in loud laughter. The blonde stuck her tongue out at the other as she crossed an arm under her chest, still holding the cigarette between two fingers. “What, am I not beautiful to you? Do my charms not work on you like they do everyone else?”

“Now, I didn’t say that,” Victoria mumbles through her giggles, brown eyes gazing up at the lighthouse as Rachel watched her. The beginnings of a smile tugged at the corner of Rachel’s lips as she took another drag from her cigarette.

one. ♥

Victoria was getting too close and Rachel needed to put a stop to it before it was too late. She had been avoiding Victoria for a week now, dodging her when walking to class and ignoring her phone as it begun to blow up with text messages. It was going good, besides, the obvious ache she felt from the absence of Victoria in her daily routine. The blonde continued to tell herself that to get any closer to Victoria would be devastating for the both of them and truthfully she couldn’t lead Victoria down the path of empty promises and deceit like she did to everyone else she got personally involved with.

On her way back from class she became aware of the daggers that were being thrown her way and knew that icy stare all too well. Rachel picked up her pace, walking briskly back to her dorm without looking back where she was sure to catch the evil eyes of Victoria Chase. Her heart was racing as she bee lined it for her door, going to close it quickly behind her but the appearance of the other was too swift for her to be able to do that.

“What the fuck is your problem?! You’ve been ignoring me for a whole goddamn week and you won’t even tell me why?” The words are cold and biting as she pushes her way into Rachel’s room. It’s too late now as the door swings closed behind them and they’re alone. The blonde feels her heart begin to sink.

“Can you just please get off my ass? I don’t need another goddamn groupie Victoria,” Rachel spoke harshly but each word only seemed to close its grip on her heart tighter. She didn’t mean it.

Victoria goes red in the face at Rachel’s words and the regret continues to fill every inch of her. Victoria’s getting embarrassed and Rachel knew that this would be hard to come back from. But isn’t that what Rachel wanted? For their friendship relationship to not come back? 

“Just leave me the fuck alone!” Her words came out more choked than she had intended them to and Victoria picked up on her hesitancy. The other took a step closer, the space between them closing. 

“Not until you tell me why,” Victoria is hard faced, her gaze seemingly going through Rachel.

The blonde feels herself wavering. She’s not going to be able to make it through to the end. Her fingers twitch as Victoria takes another bold step forward. The space in between them nothing but a mere few centimeters. 

“Well?” Victoria’s arms are crossed over her chest as she scowls at Rachel, waiting for an answer that was too hard to say. Rachel begins to shake, thrashing her head from side to side before trying to push past Victoria.

“This is such fucking BULLSHIT!” Victoria exclaims as she grabs hold of Rachel’s arm, pulling her back from trying to exit the room and the conversation. As Rachel turns back around it happens in a matter of seconds. Their lips connect in a hot desperate kiss Rachel initiates that leaves Victoria dazed for a moment.

[oldnintendonerd]

Introducing my NES Collection

This was the first video game console I owned. It was bought for me by my parents, as most NES systems were for us thirty somethings. The box and all of that is unfortunately long gone. Currently, this dude is not working. It gets the flashing red light of death on every cart I put in, even after cleaning the cart with alcohol/windex and a cotton swab.

 I did clean all of the pins inside the unit just as a quick try at fixing it, but I think it needs a thorough cleaning and some pin bending. This one is not in the greatest of shape, it does have some yellowing, and I’m not entirely thrilled with its condition. But it is sentimental, as it is the one I have had since day one, when the infatuation began.

A friend had one first, of course, since that is how most of us got into almost anything, “a friend was doing it”. I was hooked the second I ran Mario to the right and stomped my first Goomba.

The NES was released on October 18th, 1985. I don’t think my friend had one immediately, it was probably not until 1986 that I was introduced to it. I did not get one until probably a year or so later as a Christmas present. Possibly even over a year, I do remember there was quite a bit of asking that had to be done. So it could have been Christmas of 1986 or even as late as Christmas of 1987 before I actually got my own NES. From then on I got a game for Christmas or my birthday, or both, almost every year.

Over time I accumulated quite a few games, even having not bought an NES game since the 90′s I still have over 40 games in my collection. Almost all accumulated when I was a kid or teenager. After I hit my 20′s I don’t think I bought another NES game at all. Here they are as it stands right now:

As you can see, it’s nothing to sneeze at, I have a lot of really good games including Battletoads, Blaster Master, both Zelda games, the Mario trilogy, Super C, Metroid, a couple Mega Mans, and of course, the classic Tetris. But, there are obvious holes in this collection, where is the rest of the Mega Man series? Either of the Double Dragons? Any of the Ninja Gaidens? How can I be missing any of these? Well, I was just a kid when I was actively collecting games for this system, and at the end of the 90′s, Nintendo had released the SNES and the N64 in that time, so there were other platforms on the table. Both of which I was also buying for during this time, and they were more expensive. Id go buy one new N64 game with my budget instead of picking up 3 or 4 used NES games.

Thats what makes this blog so much fun though. Even as a kid I would still hit yard sales, I remember very vividly haggling a guy down from $10 to $8 on Jackal, and paying for it with my own money. Probably in the neighborhood of 1988 or 1989. Great buy that game. Hours of fun.

I also managed to get an Intellivision and an Atari 2600, with about 10 games for each at a yard sale only a few houses down from where we lived. I was probably 12 or 13 years old and picked up the entire lot for $5. Both systems worked, and my brother and I played for hours with Triple Action, Astrosmash and Breakout. While the NES was in the living room like “Uh... hello!? Hellooooo!?”. This was probably 1992 or 1993, and the Atari 2600 was released in 1977. So those games, at the time I purchased them, were not even as old as the games and systems I am looking for now. 15 years? The GameCube is about 16 years old at this point. Mind blowing.

I look forward to doing a lot more of that here.

Another great buy was NES Open Tournament Golf. This was released a month after the SNES. We bought a copy brand new, I think it was a christmas present that very year. I did not have a SNES yet. Little did I know how much time I would spend with my dad playing that game. To this day it holds a place in both of our hearts. In fact just a couple weeks ago we sat down and played on the Wii virtual console about a half dozen rounds together. It’s something we try to do almost every time we get together, even if its only for a half an hour. Great memories.

Wait, why is there a sticker on it if you bought it new you ask? I’ll tell you. Somewhere in the mid 90′s my dad and I had a bit of a marathon when we discovered that it saves your money. We wanted to get to $1,000,000. A few times we got interrupted in playing and just left the console on to come back to, rather than saving play and turning it off. Well, we ended up leaving it on for over a week straight, something had gotten placed in front of the power LED so it was not noticed. I think we went on vacation or something. It was on a purple screen when we came back to it. It would then not boot, but other games worked. We figured we cooked the cartridge. So, we purchased another copy used, and as you can see it was rather expensive. Even used and a good few years after it was released. I am guessing this may be somewhere around 1994 or 1995. The 689 sticker was probably an inventory sticker or something from the place we got it, there’s no decimal point. There is a price on the back.

Even today with the high prices some of these games are fetching, $21.00 is expensive for NES Open. eBay seems to have it going around $10 shipped. Which makes it around a $7 or $8 game, tops. Bummer.

We discovered later that the original copy did still work, so when I moved out, dad kept one, and so did I. Clearly, I’ve got the used one. Come to think of it he still has quite a few of my old games. Hmmmmmm... might have to ask him about that stuff. See what he still has.

I still wish I had spent a little bit more money on the NES games as they were “going out of style” in the mid to late 90′s. You could find anything at Electronics Boutique, just bins and bins of used NES games, most under $5! Some for even a dollar or two. But you pass them up because the label doesn’t catch your eye and there is no internet to tell you what is good like today.

So now I am filling in the gaps of the collection more than two decades out of date. It just so happens that it is right when everyone else had the same idea. Story of my life. Here I am thinking I’m being original, dusting off 10 to 30+ year old video games, and I’m at least 2 years too late to the party. YouTube channels that are four plus years old about game hunting, the older videos getting absolute steals on stuff you would probably hardly have a chance to find today, let alone get for $1. Stacks of GameCube games for $1 each, GameCube systems with games and multiple controllers for $10. GameCube controllers alone are $15+ these days. SNES lots with a system, controllers and like 15 games for $20. Incredible deals.

Now the pickings are slimmer, one of the YouTube channels I follow posted a recent video where a woman would NOT part out a Genesis system and some games that went with it. It had to be sold as the package and she had it priced at $65 or something. She said something along the lines of “I looked it up online, that’s what they go for”.

Little rant here. This is the problem with game hunting now, and may be an issue as I try to rebuild my collection. Lots of people know what eBay is, check their stuff and for whatever reason, want that price. It may be a lack of understanding on how eBay works, most likely they’ve never sold on eBay before. They don’t realize that the Genesis on eBay is very clean and is listed “Tested and working”, with a 30 day return policy, and all of this plays on the price. You are not on eBay, you are selling this out of a box on the floor of your garage at a yard sale, you are not paying eBay fees to list, you are not paying PayPal fees to get payment, you are not shipping anything, and if this doesn’t work when I get home I can’t bring it back to you. $65 on eBay does not mean $65 at a yard sale. See where it says Free Shipping in the listing? Of course not, you just see the price number. The seller on eBay MIGHT walk away from the $65 sale with $40 - $45 or so after all fees and shipping are finished. A $40 bill for the same lot MIGHT get some attention at the same yard sale. I mean, people can charge whatever they want, I can’t tell people what to ask for their stuff, it is their stuff. But if you were really trying to sell it, it would be priced accordingly. $65 for a Genesis and a few games will still be sitting in that box when the yard sale is over. $25 or $30 for the same Genesis and games, now you have my attention.

Ok, rant over. It wasn’t so little. Sorry.

Despite all of the above rant, I am convinced there are still some good deals to be had out there. I like to think there are still some people willing to sell stuff at true yard sale prices, just to be rid of it, like the purpose of a yard sale. This is a tall order, but it can be done, and I’m going to try. It will all be laid out here for you to read about.

Next post - The SNES Collection, and maybe less ranting. Maybe.

No pickups yet, total stays at $83.09

2017.04.18