#why isn’t it just a box?! all the other video game boxes were great!

[foldingfittedsheets]

I have the stupidest injury imaginable. I was assaulted. By my fucking PS5. Because this horrible behemoth has no straight sides and is too massive to stand in my entertainment stand it must rest on its side.

But I can’t easily put discs in and out, so I need to partially pull it out of its cubby to access the disc drive. During that process today it slid from its precarious perch on its rounded pretentious side and smashed 9.3lbs of straight edge force down onto my knee.

I am not a bruised but it swelled instantly and I was limping from a PS5 injury. I’ve got purple marks forming already.

[petday]

whats little magic?

It is a puzzle game for the Super Famicom and Game Boy Color video game systems. I like the Game Boy Color game much more for its art direction, and it's also just more fun for me to play with the 'bubble magic' mechanic in that version. I wrote more about my enjoyment below, in case anyone is curious.

The game’s box art is very beautiful, right? It caught my eye right away. The in-game 'cutscene' artwork appears to be carefully-made pixel art versions of the same artist's illustrations and they are similarly beautiful. (Sorry in advance if my photograph quality is not great.)

But the actual levels themselves look very haphazard. Clashing colors and tiles. It's easy enough to guess that a blue tile next to a white tile represents water and snow, respectively, but what does the yellow cluster-of-boxes tile represent? Yellow bricks of a tower…? How about the spike-y objects in the snow-water levels? I guessed they were underwater mines, but then there's the same tile in a later level too, just palette-swapped to be red… The two monochrome tiles in the third picture above teleports your character, but it has a two-frame animation that made me think of an ‘industrial grinder’ and ‘static noise’, so I assumed it was dangerous at first. Was it intended to be nondescript ‘sparkly magic’? Where are all of these levels taking place, anyway? No other humans are in these areas, just various animals and vague environmental indicators. There are cute snakes in some ‘yellow brick’ levels that end your life upon touching them. Seems irresponsible for a teacher to allow her student into perilous areas, no matter how eager she is to pass her final exam at magic school and become a magician.

Oh, I should explain the story. (None of the above photos are in sequence, just wanted to show more of the game.) The story is about a girl who attends magic school, and aims to pass a series of tests to become a full-fledged magician. Her teacher encourages her. The lack of explanation in the story is another fun point for me. Her magic teacher doesn't explain why 'learning magic' consists of pushing a heart into a heart-shaped hole that triggers a staircase to appear, which is what you need to do to complete each level. (It’s a beating heart – is it alive?) No explanation as to why snakes end your life instantly upon touching them. The context of 'because you want to pass your exams, a teacher is putting you through trials to help you become a master of magic’ isn’t an adequate explanation, because the teacher also tells you that she has not passed the final exam - why is a teacher putting a student through something that is too difficult even for herself? Who is in control of all of the strange areas you need to ‘complete’ in order to become a real magician, then? (After you complete the game with the student, you can play a different set of levels as the teacher, but even the usual sparse context-giving ‘cutscenes’ are not there… Mysterious…)

So, all of that is why my drawing about ‘Little Magic’ is about ‘confusion’, ‘going along with something that makes sense at first, but quickly unravels to not make sense any longer’, ‘growing distrust of authoritative figures’, and ‘frustration from stagnation.’ https://petday.tumblr.com/post/730315736066768896

Maybe the instruction booklet explains everything; I did not have access to that while playing, and I like that feeling. ‘Renting a game from a video game rental store that did not come with an instruction booklet, and being perplexed by it, forced to create your own context because you have nothing else’ feeling. Randomly selecting games to play that do not have much documentation online is enjoyable to me, because of that feeling.

A fan translation group translated the Game Boy Color game from Japanese to English in 2018. There wasn't a lot of dialogue in the first place, though. I like games where there is little to no dialogue because one can imagine a story/context besides what is shown. Up until 2022, I could not find a solution for the teacher’s final puzzle, so I interpreted the ending of the game’s story as, ‘The magic teacher thought she could harness a type of magic far stronger than what she could handle, accidentally designed an impossible puzzle for herself and is trapped for eternity.’ Of course, the puzzle has a solution, but I wanted to honour my strange interpretation regardless. When I play games and have weird interpretations of them, I am definitely not saying, 'I bet this is what the people who worked on this game were thinking!' I dislike that attitude. It's just imaginative interpretation, and working with the odd way I interact with things in order to maximize fun for myself…

A part about old games that I also love, is that they can never be updated; they had one chance to release a finished game, and maybe another chance to fix glitches in a re-release if they sold very many copies the first time. I greatly enjoyed the ‘imperfect’ tilesets and abrupt feeling of this game, which might have been ‘improved’ in a patch if it had been released in recent years instead of 1999.

(I wasn’t sure where to include this point, but I must also say, my favourite YouTube comments are about someone’s unusual interpretations of a game, when they did not have access to a guide at the time. I read one recently – the comment author and their brother rented ‘Final Fantasy IV’ from a rental store, and they did not know about the ‘Poison’ status effect that depletes the characters health. There is a strange pixelation effect and a ringing sound when you walk around the overworld while poisoned. Because the save file they were playing from was during a point of the game where you visit the moon, and because of the unfamiliar visual and sound effect, they interpreted the ‘Poison’ status effect as, “The moon must be running out of air.” Things like that are beautiful to me.)

(I also wasn’t sure where to put this point, but the main character, May, from ‘Little Magic’, is stylized differently in some ‘cutscenes’. She resembles a dragon to me. It’s cute.)

[bunorous]

Amnesia: Rebirth and Misogyny

Hi! I’m rereading old Reddit threads and getting worked up over men males Annoying Amnesia Fans™️ deliberately misunderstanding the roles men and women play in video games. Here’s the fruits of my labor:

First and foremost: let’s debunk the obvious, frankly asinine counter-arguments.

“I don’t particularly, consciously hate female protagonists, so that’s not why I disliked rebirth/tasi” — if misogyny was only what you believed at the forefront of your mind, then we would not have misogyny. If misogyny was not a subtle plague that is hammered into you the moment you’re born, we would not have patriarchy. Just because you don’t know you hate female protagonists, doesn’t mean you don’t hate female protagonists.

Additionally: pregnancy is, if not inherently, a largely feminine thing. You cannot separate pregnancy from a uterus, and uteruses threaten men. The mere concept of pregnancy easily offsets a man and makes them denounce a game entirely, whereas women have dealt with all sorts of uncomfortable male topics (sexual abuse and violence against women, misogyny, fetishization etc) and dealt with it.

(Do you see where I’m going with this? The obvious double standard? That’s important later.)

Next: Tasi did not ramble any more than Daniel did, any more than Mandus did, either in general or about their children. The only time she really did was when she was narrating something that happened (common occurrence in horror games including amnesia) or the mechanic which is LITERALLY centered around dialogue, and changes based on your environment. That said, it’s also largely optional, and more often than not DOES serve a larger narrative purpose.

(Also— and this is my personal opinion- I think Daniel is poorly acted. God be damned if I don’t love him and his VA, but he is poorly acted. Hur dur are there dead people in the morgue Alexander).

On the same topic: Amnesia is not a fucking RPG. If you feel like you’re in the role of the character, great. That’s easy when they’re fucking silent as the grave the entire time except for letters and flashbacks. Amnesia has always been driven by two things; Characters and their motivations, and the fear of the unknown. (Rebirth checks one of those boxes).

Furthermore, when we look at the general consensus on rebirth, most of the reviews will be from men, because amnesia arguably has a predominately male audience. The reviews I’ve seen from women, though, all say they felt plenty immersed with Tasi as a character, that the game reflected their own fears.

Men (I am not going to specify not all men for the millionth time, fuck, if it isn’t about you then it isn’t about you) refuse to empathize with women the way women are forced to empathize with men because in gaming, and in the world, men are represented in all sorts of ways, where— at least for a very very long time— women had very slim pickings and, in recent years, there’s only been a handful of gems.

(No, don’t say Bayonetta or Peach. Do not fucking say Bayonetta or Peach. If those two roles were all women could ever be in video games, forever…)

You could argue you tired of Tasi talking about her child the way you grew tired of Mandus doing it, but Mandus very, very seldom verbally laments about his children the way Tasi does. You cannot reasonably draw that conclusion.

(I don’t see Oswald being condemned for, fuck, for what? For having children? The way Tasi is, either. Surely there is a systemic reason for that.)

Also: Tasi is held to a FAR higher standard than any male protagonist. When we see a male character we automatically take their actions and don’t view them at face value, we consider the shades of gray which is the very same theme the original game hoped to convey. Did Tasi truly do anything worse than Daniel? Then why do you shun her so deliberately while excusing him?

(Truth is they’re fictional and you shouldn’t act like either of them should be put before a court or something or other. But come on. Are they truly comparable?)

Female characters are slightly annoying once and are raked over the coals. Male characters can genocide an entire fucking country and people will still forgive that.

All in all: Misogyny is literally baked into our society. A game with a female protagonist will 100% of the time be subject to more criticism no matter what and Tasi is no exception especially because she experiences something directly correlated with women.

We could relate to Henri, I doubt many amnesia fans served in world war 1. We could relate to Daniel, I doubt many amnesia fans were manipulated into murder. You cannot relate to one fucking pregnant woman and her baby?

(I will say ONE thing to credit these people: the birth scene was uncomfortable not because it was childbirth but because Jesus fucking Christ doctor can you stop staring into the depths of my soul.)

[twistedtummies2]

Fifteen Days of Disney Magic - Number 6

Welcome to Fifteen Days of Disney Magic! In honor of the company’s 100th Anniversary, I am counting down my Top 15 Favorite Movies from Walt Disney Animation Studios! To introduce today’s entry, I have only this to say: “Most Everyone’s Mad Here.” Number 6 is…Alice in Wonderland.

This is the other film, alongside “The Great Mouse Detective,” where I feel – if you know me well – it’s high placement will not remotely be surprising. Whereas, if you don’t know me well, it will likely be VERY surprising. Honestly, I can settle why ��Alice” is so high on my list with a single sentence: Lewis Carroll’s “Alice” stories are my favorite books, and I personally think the Disney version is the best movie treatment of the books, as well as one of my personal favorites. That’s really all I NEED to say. But you came here to hear me ramble, I think. Possibly. Maybe. So I guess I have to. :P The history of Walt Disney and “Alice” is actually pretty fascinating on its own, leaving the movie alone: this, alongside “Peter Pan,” was one of the first movies Walt wanted to make, and was actually considered for his first feature film, and then his second, way back in the 1930s. Ultimately, Walt went with “Snow White” for his first film, but he never gave up on “Alice.” It’s pretty clear that Walt loved the story, because even before the Disney film ever got put into development, he’d used Wonderland as the basis for several of his earlier works. There were the famous “Alice Comedies” he produced during the silent era, which were not so much directly based on the books so much as just inspired by them, but are still worth noting. Later there was one of the best Mickey Mouse cartoons ever made, in most people’s minds, “Thru the Mirror,” where Mickey goes through the Looking-Glass, dances with the Queen of Hearts, duels the King, and has to deal with a multitude of animated objects. Initial treatments of the “Alice” story were much darker and more surreal than the final product; most notable was a treatment of the film by artist David Hall, which has sort of become legendary amongst Carrollians and fans of Disney trivia and lost media alike. However, it wasn’t until artist Mary Blair came onto the project – and after World War II drew to a close – that Disney finally felt confident in making the movie. Interestingly, when the film finally came out in 1951, it was something of a disappointment: critical reactions were lukewarm, at best, and it underperformed at the box office. However, over the years – with subsequent re-releases and exposure through various forms of merchandising and rides at the parks – the film gained a bigger and grander following. Nowadays, “Alice” isn’t exactly considered a great Disney classic, but it’s definitely not considered a failure.

In fact, in some ways, one could argue it’s one of the single most influential Disney movies of all time. It was certainly influential on later renditions of the story: coming from somebody whose obsession with the Carroll classics is well known, I can say with certain fact that the Disney film is actually far more responsible for the public perception and love of Alice today than perhaps ANY other version of the stories, including the books. (The only other possible contender is the video game “American McGee’s Alice” and its sequel, “Alice: Madness Returns.” Incidentally, RIP “Alice: Asylum.” May flights of EA idiots sing thee to thy rest.) A lot of things in this film that weren’t in the books now seem to just be accepted as common knowledge: for example, the Cheshire Cat in the books was an ordinary orange or gray tabby cat. The popular purple-and-pink design you’ll find riffed on in some fashion throughout so many interpretations was ENTIRELY the invention of Disney; it never existed before them, to my knowledge. Similarly, characters and story elements that are in the books but WEREN’T in the Disney film tend to be forgotten, even if they’ve been used and reused in tons and tons of other adaptations: there are plenty of versions of the Duchess and the Gryphon out there, but since neither of them are in the 1951 movie (nor the 2010 feature made by Tim Burton, for that matter), most people forget they even exist.

Even beyond other versions of Alice, however, the film has had a huge impact on pop culture, and even Disney itself, than most other films in the canon. Heck, at Disneyland, right now, there are no less than four rides that all reference “Alice in Wonderland.” Four! And that’s not even counting any other shows or attractions, or even any of the other rides at other parks. Nor is it counting video games, nor the numerous other Alice reimaginings that have come out and in some way been influenced by the 1951 picture JUST from Disney’s vaults alone, nor the ABUNDANCE of merchandise – both official and fanmade – based on this one movie. It isn’t a film that has the depth of plot, character, and thematics as something like “Beauty and the Beast” or “The Lion King,” nor is it as historically important as movies like “Snow White,” but I think “Alice” makes up for it by just being fun. It’s a fun, weird, psychedelic ride through the wilds of the imagination, and really, that’s always been what “Alice” SHOULD be, at the end of the day. Really, given my love of the story, in general, the REAL question should be not why “Alice in Wonderland” ranks so highly for me…but why isn’t it even higher? All I can say is, perhaps the films that do rank above it will offer some explanation… The Top 5 are upon us! The countdown continues tomorrow with my 5th Favorite Disney Movie! HINT: It’s the Only Modern Movie on The Countdown.

[wevelocityteampresents-blog]

I wonder how this place would look in Scarlet...

The technology in this world is incredible.

If only this game had similar mechanics to Pokémon Legends.

That’s not what you say, and you know it.

You’re telling me I can’t catch the Pokémon in a battle like this?

I mean, it happened earlier last year.

If only there was someone out there who could give me the Scarlet book...

I didn’t. (Nemona’s dad could use a few suggestions for his business.)

So Miraidon IS a special edition Cyclizar!

It seems that these labs are in a set order. I thought I could visit the labs in any order I wanted. Considering this game is open and everything.

Something’s off about Turo...

Too late!

The power of teamwork cliche.

I thought this place would’ve been more bigger...

Obviously.

Of COURSE he keeps his Miraidon in a Master Ball. (Then again, it DOES suit Miraidon very well.)

In that case, I’m glad I buddied up with this one.

If AI were to be put into the story of a Pokémon game, I would’ve expected there to be an AI Pokémon. (Or would that just be Porygon?)

Never would I hear that the country’s leading researcher died in a Pokémon game.

Yeah! I thought I’d have to use Thief on a bunch of Pokémon to get one of these!

That’s what you think.

Crush the dreams of an innocent man to save the world? Sounds fine by me.

I was expecting something more spacious.

Another missed opportunity in this game is not designing the pedestal to look like a Switch Lite. (So the books could act as the cartridges.)

Of COURSE these types of things can never go easy...

So, did he capture himself? (I thought he would’ve given me Miraidon so that I could fight against the Pokémon from the other version.)

Don’t make an Undertale joke.  Don’t make an Undertale joke.  Don’t make an Undertale joke. (I love how they fancied the text up when it comes to the AI.) 

That has to be the most epic Poké Ball throw I’ve ever seen.

He would’ve learned the truth sooner or later.

You mean, it’s not over yet?!

And THAT’S why you should always carry a Pokémon outside of their Poké Ball.

HURRY, GET AWAY!

So NOW I can send him in?

It’s about time.

This must’ve been a very tearjerking scene for some people.

Guess we’re going that way then.

You should be glad that the image above this text isn’t a video. Because that would mean I’d have to face legal action. However, I will say that I knew this song would play during the credits. And as promised, I muted the volume while it played out.

Yeah, as if a group of people actually tested these games and thought they were okay for release.

Hopefully, those patches were the last few things the model quality assurance team had to work on.

For those of you who think Satoshi Tajiri didn’t want stuff like this to happen, just remember that he’s been serving as executive producer for the past 2 decades. And unlike a lot of pompous people on Twitter, he’s a reserved man who keeps his personal thoughts to himself. (And so should I.)

But how do I put him into a box?

At least I have a Pokémon friend I can travel with permanently.

You’re a little too late for that, Clavell.

So it’s like that award from Kalos? Cool!

I guess that’s how I’ll be able to get that Champion Ribbon on other Pokémon.

At least I’ll be happy knowing I can school the teachers.

AND I get to fight the Gym Leaders again? Hopefully, it won’t be just a one-time fight.

I don’t think it’s all that great. I might have to face... ...HER...

Technically, I didn’t go to the actual destination point.

I was hoping I could prepare Miraidon for battles.

It was a good thing I caught this guy on Pi Day!

I always thought shiny Cyclizar would be more... ...blue.

You mean, THAT was the Hall of Fame? No, that doesn’t count! You can’t just have the Pokémon go uncredited for their work. What is up with this country? Everything about the League here is all topsy-turvy!

I made a wise decision to do a wonder trade.

That should do it for now. I want to keep playing. But I don’t have a Pokémon with PokéRus. And without any PokéRus, I can’t make them as strong as they’re supposed to be. So until I can get this game to work with Pokémon HOME, it’s back to Sinnoh to train more Pokémon!

[vampire-the-askerade]

What are the vampires main reactions to watching the vtmb video game and how potentially the fledgling could become a powerful player? (More importantly seeing that Caine was among them)

Strauss- He knew that he needed to be keeping an eye on the fledgling! Whether that be bad use they could help him or hinder him. Doesn’t quite know who made this game or how they made it. For that matter, he doesn’t really know if it is prophetic in any way, but he’s not foolish enough to entirely ignore it…or the fledging. Won’t tell LaCroix about the true nature of the sarcophagus or it’s occupant as he does not want him diablerizing the elder. Also, he wants him to explode.

Bertram- Well, what do you know, he’s in a game! And, so is his haven… looks like he’s going to have to rent a room in the warrens for awhile while he relocates. That’s really all he care about, at least for now. If the new kid is going places good for them, but he’s not to happy that someone knows enough about everything to show it in this much detail.

Nines- Listen, he knew this kid had something about them, that’s why he jumped in when they were going to die. Honestly, isn’t too mad about any of the ways they might go, if this thing is true. If they work with him, great. If they work with the Camarilla, then they’ll get blown to bits or take care of LaCroix. If they leave on their own, that’s the sort of grit the Anarchs need, and he hopes they come back stronger than ever! Also, now he’s really self conscious that his bangs actually look like that. Might not realize who the kindred in taxi is, but he likes that his suspicions that Jack was up to something confirmed. (Fun little mind game to play in this situation: what if the reason the Anarchs won’t talk to the neonate about the Grout mansion is because they’ve seen the game and they don’t know if you’re actually working with them or not since they’ve seen the other options.)

Beckett- Look at that! They made him into one of those polygonal people for the computer. Doesn’t think much it either way. Just figured a Malkavian or some other such seer made it from things they’ve predicted. He’s glad to know that he’s going to have at least a little help from the fledgling during their endeavors. Thinks things are presented in a way that it won’t really break masquerade, so that doesn’t worry him. In fact, it may help it. People might think it’s all a story and play it off as their imagination if they see something related. That taxi driver looks like someone he’s seen before though…oh, right, that one fellow he was planning on traveling with after all this. What was his name? Something with a K?

Cabby/Caine- BAD! BAD! WRONG AND BAD! He didn’t hide himself all of these centuries just to have one of these convoluted picture boxes flash his identity to everyone! On the plus side, he is looking forward to interacting with the neonate, and seeing what other uses they might have in the future…if they make the correct choices and survive that is.

[electrivolt]

poke.mon Favourites!

FIRST GAME: yellow, it was my first console as well getting the gameboy color! fun fact i had a pikachu limited edition one that for the life of me i haven’t been able to find anywhere, it had pikachu and pichu on the sides and one of pikachu’s cheeks was overlapping with the on/off light of the gameboy, and it was semi transparent. it was cool as fuck i miss that gameboy :(

FAVOURITE SPINOFF GAME: mystery dungeons and rangers, to be even more exact explorers of sky and shadows of almia/guardian signs. mystery dungeons was my silly childhood dream of getting to play exclusively as a ‘mon and when i first played rangers it blew my mind how different it was and yet how cool it all was, both gameplay, story and the setting itself because getting to be a ranger was one of the coolest things i could think of. i still think a lot about those games they were just so good. 

FAVOURITE EVIL TEAM: team galactic, always team galactic, they still seem like one of the best teams to me to this day. they feel like one of the most actually dangerous teams of the games i’ve played that actually shows it, the lake bombing still sticks in my mind with how memorable that was not to mention spear pillar!! great team 10/10 nothing will top it for me

FAVOURITE TEAM LEADER: painfully obvious but cyrus, i could go on a 1 hour yt video essay on why he’s in my humble opinion the best team leader out there. i just think he’s neat and his ideals are smth wild and yummy to explore

FAVOURITE STARTER: rowlet because i love decidueye and ghosts are some of my favorites all around, but like. i could pick one for most gens. i love totodile i love turtwig i love snivy. help.

FAVOURITE BOX LEGENDARY: giratina. that’s my favorite legendary all around it’s never gonna be topped really

FAVOURITE POKEMON: can’t pick just one and go but i can narrow it down to very few ones actually excluding legendaries- luxray for sure, the whole line really but like. i love lux isn’t that obvious. big electric cat my beloved. mimikyu is another BIG one, i love mimikyu to death it’s just a lil guy that wants to be loved just a cute lil ghost that did nothing wrong AND THEN there’s gengar i love that mf it was actually my fave ghost type before mimikyu came along. espeon particularly is also a big fave though i don’t? really know why somehow?? but it’s my favorite eevolution all around. AND hisuian form zoroark i love that bastard ( to volkner’s dismey :) ) it’s such a cool regional variant concept ok-

if i had to mention legendaries ( other than gira ) there’s the obvious zappy bird and i’ll admit the galarian version is also p cool, the dogs are also pretty cool and lugia is one of my big favorites as well. there’s probably a few more but between technicalities of legendary vs mythical and all i can’t just sit here naming everyone

FAVOURITE PROFESSOR: admittedly i don’t really pay too much attention to the professors usually, but i think it’s rowan, i’d like him to be my grandpa

FAVOURITE RIVAL: barry my dear adhd crackhead child. i do remember using to like hugh a whole lot too as a kid when i first played bw2 but i cannot for the life of me remember why. i have to replay those games

FAVOURITE CHAMPION: cynthia! she’s always been great and so memorable, i just can’t help but be attached to her especially as my first “real” elite 4 challenge. steven is pretty close too for being weird

FAVOURITE CHARACTER (if not already covered): for obvious reasons it’s volk here but roark is neat too :) ( also for obvious reasons ). grusha and allister too though i got attached to these weird lil guys and i rlly want to go back to writing them if the mental illness allows me

FAVOURITE STORY: MMMMH WELL. i love the original dppt a whole lot, bw is also something i’m attached to a lot for many reasons, so i’d say those two are tied. i do have to add legends though because that fucked so hard

FAVOURITE MUSIC: i don’t. really pay attention a lot to the music but i guess the gym leader theme in galar is neat. some other stuff like the poke.mas remix kinda count too honestly and i really like some of the stuff in the og gen4

FAVOURITE REGION OVERALL: sinnoh all around. by extention hisui as well, like sinnoh already held a special place for me because it felt so alive and special with that care put into what is its own culture and the dedication to legendaries, and i love to have gotten hisui and to get to see the origins of so much of current sinnoh. unova is also a big favorite nearly as close to sinnoh with how much character it has and i have a lot of good memories of those games

[sunnidaydreamer]

Hyrule Warriors

The game came out in 2014 for the Wii U, but we all know that.

I’ve written before about Hyrule Warriors, a thing I brought over from my old account, but I have more.

We know the gameplay is repetitive, not for everyone, and after a while makes my thumbs hurt.

But mowing down so many enemies, taking out GIANT bosses, especially since they’re bosses we know from the series…

So much dopamine(for me at least).

But I get where people are coming from, the combat could have more nuance to it.

I never had a chance to play the games before Breath of the Wild, I’d love to some day, and while I know it isn’t canon, Hyrule Warriors is canon to me!

There are so many things the game does right, I think.

It’s a love letter to the series, and it shows.

They only have five characters that were made for the game(Lana, Cia, Volga, Wizzro, and Linkle), and the rest are characters from the various games.

The original characters feel like characters you might find in the games, depending on the style of the game.

But that’s where we start to run into some problems.

I’ve seen it all over: the story is not that good.

I’ve also seen people say ‘Well, it’s a spin-off’, ‘Well, it’s a Warriors game’ ‘What do you expect?’

And I say, no. Spin-offs, Warriors games, they can have good stories.

A little more effort could have gone a long way.

Cia could have had more depth to her than she had. They could have dug deeper into the war element. Gave us little interactions in between levels. Maybe even interactions between characters not in the storyline(I’m not sure how this would work but I’d kill for some meta between Volga and Young Link since Volga is based on Volvagia. Maybe some manga references? Eh? Maybe?).

Flesh out the story more.

Maybe even do more things like Cia and Linkle’s Tale. Do Volga, do Sheik, do anyone. Give us more story. Flesh it out.

I want to know MORE.

What was Volga’s life like? What happened to make Wizzro? What the HELL was Zelda thinking, abandoning her soldiers who looked up to her and leave them and Impa to worry and think that was a good idea? Girl what were you thinking?

(You were gonna add Sheik to the roster anyway, how could you not, no need to shoehorn Sheik into the story mode just to have them there)

Adventure Mode is HUGE there are SO MANY levels. I saw a video where it took someone over A THOUSAND HOURS to 100%. Holy shit. Did adventure mode need to be so big? There are so many maps.

Also why does Link get so many alternate weapons and everyone else gets bupkis? Zelda and Lana each get three, Impa and Ganondorf get two, everyone else gets nothing.

Some characters I guess I get it; Wizzro I can’t see using anything else, or Zant.

But come on there are surely other things you can give other characters.

Give Volga a war axe! Give Ghirahim double swords! Something!

Also some of these alt weapons are, in my humble opinion, shit.

The dominion rod for Zelda makes no sense to me. The spear and summoning gate for Lana suck, and the spinner and great fairy for Link are just bad. Great fairy’s hit box is just too big, the spinner is hard to get good damage on.

Lana’s summoning gate makes no sense to me, I can’t figure it out even with guides.

I just… some of these weapons.

And why does Link need so many?? Who was asking for Link to be bottled by the great fairy? Or for Epona to become a weapon?

Also, other Warriors games have mounts, why not this one? The owl statues are a little too far apart to really work, and with so much ground to cover mounts would be so helpful. Maybe even have different styles depending on characters(Link, Zelda etc get horses, Ganondorf get his horse and not an Epona recolor, Ruto has someone carry her).

Let’s look at other stuff.

The fairy system. It’s cute enough. Is it ever explained in depth anywhere and I just missed it? I know for Young Link the fairy power thing is broken, but is it really useful anywhere else? You can get through story mode without it, was it just put in for adventure mode?

And skulltulas! Oh my god I hate skulltulas! I get they’re a reference to the series(Ocarina of Time having them and I think another game) but why are the conditions to get them so difficult? Why are their locations sometimes so obscure?

Let’s talk Bosses.

The Imprisoned. Oh LORD the Imprisoned.

I hate it, I hate it so much. I hate how when you knock it down it chases you. I hate the red lightning thing it does when it walks. I hate its big squishy toes. Whenever there’s a timed mission that it’s in it feels like it takes so long to kill it, like it knows you’re on a crunch.

Phantom Ganon

Can anyone tell me how to do the deadmans volley? I can’t pin down the prompt or when to hit it back. I hate when it splits into four, and for me, it seems like that’s its favorite move it’s all it does!

Ganon

He’s alright I guess. Final boss, lots of health, makes sense. What is the move where he barrels across the field and starts to glow, does anyone know what I’m supposed to use for that move?

Manhandla

The most irritating, aggravating thing I have ever seen.

The way it runs around while laughing, the FUCKING BULLET SEED NO MATTER HOW FAR AWAY YOU ARE.

I hate it.

Gohma

Eh, it’s fine. Not too hard, easy tells.

King Dodongo

Once again, it’s fine. Sometimes takes forever to open it’s dang mouth, and that’s annoying for timed missions but whatever it’s fine.

Argorok

Annoying, but not terrible. Can be trouble if it catches you in the flamethrower stream though.

Helmaroc King

Another that can be annoying but like Dodongo has easy tells and isn’t too hard.

I don’t really like the upgrades system, all the item grinding. It makes sense, but some of the items associated with character power ups kinda confuse me.

Volga needs Zelda’s Crown for one of his, why? Cause dragons like shiny things? There are a couple others but that one stands out to me.

RUPEES.

Is there a way to grind them good? Because you need SO MANY for character leveling. And it always seems like there are characters that need grinding.

Yes I know, that one corner in Master Quest Map, but there have to be other ways.

Characters. Let’s talk about the original characters, shall we?

Cia. Oh boy.

While I’m sure it was not meant with malicious intent, making her dark-skinned when evil is very poor taste. Same with over-sexualizing her. We see in her Guardian of Time that she’s pale, Lana’s skin tone in fact. Yeah, her top has cutouts showing the tops of her breasts and clavicle(and a very dumb looking hat but so is her other hat).

Her evil outfit shows so much skin, and I don’t think Nintendo would let this slide in a canon game(Great Fairy is about the most we get, but I’m not an expert on Zelda character models).

And what was her goal? Was it Link(as in the in game incarnation of Link), or was it the Hero’s Spirit in general? Add the triforce(for some reason. I think I need to replay Story Mode…).

She and Lana are two parts of a whole, yes? Lana is Good Part, Cia is Bad Part. Lana explains this, saying ‘I am the good that was pushed out of Cia’s heart’, give or take. So how, unless I’ve missed something, how is Cia good again at the end of the Wind Waker storyline?

And I know that Ganondorf was influencing her, but isn’t she a little too easily forgiven? She started a whole war! Countless people died(as is the nature of war)! She brainwashed two people(does Wizzro count as people?), maybe more! I know Ghirahim did, and he was working for her at the time.

How does she even SURVIVE? Didn’t she dissolve/disappear/evaporate at the end of the main story?

Lana

She’s Cia’s Good Part. She’s sweet, and supportive, and kind of a third wheel to the obvious Zelda x Link action. Because it’s obviously implied over the course of the story that they have some sort of growing feelings, and Lana sees it. I think they were going for love triangle, but it might have been cut down, either for time or for other reasons.

I would have liked to know more about her, aside from the Cia connection. Make her more of her own person, since a lot of it seems to rely on the connection between them. I would have loved to see her first days separated from Cia, finding out about her new sense of direction, what drew her to Faron.

There are so many directions they could have gone with her, and I wish we’d gotten more.

Her outfit also stands out, seemingly more appropriate for a magical girl anime than a Zelda game. With a little more work it could have fit better, but I think they really wanted her to stand out from Cia. The problem is, she stands apart TOO much. I’ve seen multiple people say they didn’t understand the big reveal, when Cia’s mask is knocked off. That they apparently have the same face, but that was too little.

Why’d they change Cia to be taller, why’d they give Lana bright blue hair? There are ways they could have made them similar but different. Maybe give Lana a closer hair color, make them the same skin tone, same eyes! There are ways to make them different, but still make the reveal more of a reveal instead of a what happened moment.

Volga

We know very little about Volga, and he’s supposed to be Cia’s General, her right hand man. Couldn’t we have gone a little more into him, both before and after brainwashing? For as strong as he’s supposed to be, for all the fear shown by the normal soldiers when he appears, shouldn’t we see more of him? More of him devastating the army or being otherwise well known as a fearsome enemy?

I’d have loved a Volga’s Tale, where we see his point of view leading up to Cia, maybe more of his breaking through the brainwashing as we see near the end of Cia’s Tale. More of his relationship to the Dinolfos and Lizalfos he leads.

There was so much they could have done to give us more, but like with Lana I think they had to cut stuff for time.

His design is peak, though I would love a helmetless skin. Or maybe an armor-less skin. Also some of the recolors are shit, like for real. I get they are referencing past characters but some are so ugly.

Wizzro

Wizzro, if I recall, is a cursed ring. Like the ring is the Real Wizzro, the form he takes is just the culmination of souls he absorbed. And it was Cia’s magic that gave him form. But he was hidden in Volga’s caves by the Gorons, who somehow got hold of the ring. And they kept their eye on it hard, like they KNEW when Cia was there and automatically assumed she was there for the ring.

But, maybe because he’s made of so many different souls, he’s a backstabber even when brainwashed(as much as a spirit can be brainwashed). Like he even tries to ditch her for Ganondorf in one mission(and I think Ganondorf tells him to fuck off).

And couldn’t they do more with his shapeshifting? Like I know he pretends to be Zelda and Lana at one point, but there’s so much potential there.

He’s also supposed to be many spirits in one right? Wouldn’t it be cool to see them, I don’t know, have different personalities? Like maybe speaking through the main body somehow? Or separating and being used for an attack, like Cia has the Dark Links?

Linkle

Linkle was designed as a female Link. I can see why they steered away from that idea, maybe too much too soon. But they could have connected them, like making them siblings or something. That could have been a whole story! Maybe have Linkle’s Tale intertwine with the main story somehow. Like, have Linkle’s Tale, then have her join the main party at some point.

But I guess that would have meant more stages, and maybe they didn’t have time for that. But they could have connected them somehow. Give a Link a family! The only one that had one is Link from Wind Waker, that I know of. I guess Twilight Princess Link had Rusl and his family as a sort of adoptive family, but it’s not a confirmed thing.

Wouldn’t it have been cool, having siblings Link and Linkle, fighting side-by-side?

Also, maybe a different name? Linkle sounds like a throwaway name, like they weren’t even trying.

Her weapons are fun, the crossbows at least.

Her sense of direction issues, and insistence that she’s the Hero are kind of annoying, to me at least. I’m sure others find it endearing though.

That’s about all I can think of for now, but if anyone has anything to add feel free! And please no discourse or arguing. This is just my feelings.

[loves-em]

Patchwork Blanket

HELLO! I've written this essay during the project I took part in that's mentioned in the post "bold and young". We did a workshop on creative writing, which is where this came into existance. The original is in German and sounds just so much nicer, but this is the English translation I made (mainly for my boyfriend). I thought I'd post it here as well.

For context: We were staying near Lübeck during this school trip. On one day, we spent the day there. This text is an inner monologue of mine, polished and tidied up a bit of course. It takes place just after I got home from Lübeck again. I entered the room I shared with two roommates, but I was 'home' before them.

Here goes!

I deserve to throw myself into the bed in my room! It’s been a long day and I did so much walking. Lübeck, as the city famous for its Marzipan, is a great place, so I do not regret the leg-work a single bit.

In the Marzipanspeicher (where they sell the Marzipan), I went shopping. For the whole family! Oh, who am I even kidding? I will have eaten most of it on my own before I even get home anyway. It simply tastes too good.

Two boxes of heart-shaped Marzipan-chocolates, a spread of Marzipan and apple, and a big box of simple Marzipan fragments is what I have bought. I am really craving a fragment right now! Let me just…

Hmmm… It is not as sweet as usual, so that is nice. I don’t like my Marzipan too sweet. But it still tastes the same. It tastes like childhood at my grandparent’s place in the deep winter. Like almonds and being inside where it’s warm. Hasn’t this taste always been by my side?

I haven't had such good Marzipan in forever. How can there even be people who don’t love Marzipan? None of my peers like it, at least I can't think of anyone right now. Even the young adults in my family always say that they don't like its taste. But OLD people, they know to appreciate Marzipan.

Why do I like it, then? I’m still pretty young. Oh right, I know, my grandparents. One who spends as much time at their grandparents place as me inevitably gets introduced to the “pleasures of Marzipan” early on. Especially grandpa, who always gave me his beloved Marzipan-chocolates. Had my grandparents not shown me Marzipan, then I wouldn’t love it as much as I do. Instead of the two boxes of chocolates, the spread, and the fragments, I would have only left the store with one box of chocolates for my grandparents. That’s it. Without any Marzipan for myself.

Surely there's more of those things, things I only enjoy because of my grandparents. Licorice! I probably only like that because of them, too. No one I know likes Licorice. Well okay, a few people do. But I only like it because of my grandparents.

Why limit it to my grandparents and food? There is so much more to it! How many video games and movies and TV series do I only enjoy because my friends have introduced me to them? How many places have I gone to and what things have I done, just because my friends have introduced me to them? How many idioms and phrases have I acquired because I took them with me from people whom I admire for their eloquence? So is nothing there is to me truly mine? I AM NOT ORIGINAL AND I AM NOT ALONE, I AM RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF LIFE AND I HAVE TAKEN EVERYTHING THAT I HAVE CALLED MINE SO FAR FROM OTHERS. Therefore I don’t love things on my own. I don’t do things on my own. I speak words that aren’t mine.

Am I made up fully of the other people around me and how they act? Am I only me because of these influences? And during all of it I feel like a puzzle on layers of reality I don't yet understand. As if I were a story that is being written by life right now. And isn’t it alright that way?

I am allowed to be like a dragon, sitting upon its gold pile of experiences and memories. A pile of events that made me become myself. Maybe, we humans are but a whirlwind of symbolisms and impressions, a composition born from the life around us itself. No one would be the way they are if not for all the things in life which have shaped them.

Shaped?

At birth, we are a piece of clay, aren't we? A piece of clay, which is processed with tools by all the things surrounding us. We get notched here, something gets taken off the side over there. On yet another side, a bit of clay is added.

We are all like this, I truly believe that. Yes, this must be human.

So people leave their marks on us. Good marks like my love for Marzipan, but also bad marks like trauma and anxiety. No one is left untouched by the things they experience.

THIS must be what makes us the people we are: EVERYTHING.

Isn’t this a beautiful thought? I am a multidimensional puzzle, a story, a dragon, a whirlwind, a composition and a simple piece of clay, shaped to who I am. I am allowed to be all these things and these metaphors are not even truly mine, but things which I have taken from others. I took them with me, into life, as souvenirs to my past.

My soul is a patchwork blanket.

(I hope it got you thinking! If it did and you'd like to share, feel free to do so. Critique is also welcome, I want to improve.)

[beacon-lamp]

with hermitcraft season 7 slowly coming to an end, i figured it was time to consolidate all of the Informative Posts about hermitcraft that i and some of the other members of hermitblr have made over the last several months.

if you enjoy:

minecraft youtube content, but want to see more traditional vanilla minecraft gameplay like building and redstone

fun, lighthearted interactions between genuine friends including Elaborate pranks, collaborating on massive projects, light roleplay, proximity voice chat mod

weekly 20 - 40 minute long youtube videos and consistent upload schedules

chill grind stream weekends where CCs interact with chat and each other

an entire youtube channel dedicated to weekly 20-minute recap videos on what all the hermits have been up to so you don’t have to piece it together from the posts on your dash/timeline

insanely talented people who have been doing mcyt for nearly, if not more than, a decade and essentially built minecraft youtube from the ground up

give hermitcraft a try!  

you will find all of the information you will Ever Need below the cut.  it’s Very Long so view it on desktop.

and if you ever have any more questions, just shoot me an ask :)

what is hermitcraft?

the Basics: what, who, where, how

more details on the Basics

bonus: the historical impact many hermitcraft members have had on mcyt

where do i even start watching?

start with grian.

good mix of Incredible builds and fun server shenanigans.  instigator of many server-wide events.  interacts with many other hermits.  generally entertaining to watch.  but zero redstone knowledge.

check out hermitcraft recap.

great way to be introduced to other hermits and learn what everyone’s up to.  if you find what a hermit’s been working on interesting, go watch their video and maybe give them a like and subscribe.

official hermitcraft website with links to every member’s channel

more information on every hermit’s attributes and general vibes

do hermits every stream?

short answer: yes, most do!  but these streams are mostly chill grinding or buildling streams.  and you don’t have to watch the streams to be caught up on content.  check the official hermitcraft website for each member’s twitch links.

long answer that covers most of the hermits

what do they do on hermitcraft?

let’s start with some examples of their incredible builds.

hermit cribs: some of the megabases in s7

goodtimeswithscar’s s7 magical village with shaders

stressmonster’s bakery and ren’s star wars world

Capitalism

they have a shopping district where hermits can set up shops and sell items and resources that other hermits can buy with diamonds.  here’s season 7 shopping district set on a mooshroom island:

some of the most advanced redstone you’ve ever seen

if you’re more into the technical side of minecraft, you can be rest assured that hermitcraft has some of the Biggest Brains in redstone.

tangotek: a fucking madlad.  Singled-handedly created the minigame Decked Out.  im Begging you to watch his tutorial video on how to play.  currently finishing up his Among Us but in minecraft minigame. all of this was built Entirely in survival vanilla minecraft.  get this man to 1M subscribers.

mumbo jumbo: the man himself.  built a 128 x 128 block industrial district in both season 6 and 7 packed to the Brim with mechanical farms.  half the brain behind the masterpiece of engineering that was Sahara in season 6.  currently working on Pacific, the sequel to Sahara, in season 7.

iskall85: the other half of the brain behind Sahara and working on Pacific with mumbo in season 7.  also has an industrial district like mumbo’s in season 7.

xisuma: built an automatic potion brewer in the second half of season 7.  this thing churns out potions by the Shulker Box.  can also turn a shulker box full of potions into splash potions and extend duration all with a press of a button.

impulseSV: incredible example of form + function.  farms are scattered throughout his base.  he has a farm for nearly every farmable resource in vanilla minecraft.

etho: the pioneer of some of the most widely used redstone mechanisms to date.  content isn’t super redstone-focused.  mostly does compact modules that serve a specific function.

zedaph: makes strange contraptions.  he’s basically if grian knew how to redstone.  impeccable vibes and fairly underrated.

bdoubleo100: he occassionally does this segment called “redstone with bdubs” and it’s the only redstone i understand so that’s why he’s here.

what about roleplay?  and lore?  

yeah they have Plenty of that too.  

it generally comes in the form of self-contained storylines that involve most members on the server and take place over the course of several weeks in multiple videos.  it’s fairly light roleplay, if that’s not your thing.  but the plotlines also have a Massive Potential to be angsty and whatnot if you really look into it, which a lot of people also do.

here’s a more in-depth look into the Major Plotlines over the last 2 seasons (season 6 and 7).  huge spoiler warning though.

um also there’s this post that highlights how truly cursed hermitcraft can be if you dig deep enough hahaha.

so do the hermits only make hermitcraft content?

nope!!  many of them are involved in other mcyt content as well and are friends with other prominent members of the mcyt community!!  

MCC

mcc9 blue bats video essay: the time the hermit team won the whole damn competition.  a wonderfully made video worth Every second of your time.  especially if you don’t typically watch the hermit teams.

falsesymmetry: mcc10 ace and mcc’s First Back-to-Back Winner

lord grian dreamslayer: that time grian Popped Off, killing dream, tubbo, and fundy in mcc9 survival games

Vault Hunters

a modded minecraft server coded entirely by iskall85′s team.  all the content is streamed live on twitch.  

current members are: Iskall85, AntonioAsh, Stressmonster101, HBomb94, CaptainSparklez, Fundy, CaptainPuffy, 5UP and Tubbo

more info on the series 

3rd Life SMP

hardcore minecraft server with a twist that started on 4/20/21.  all content is posted to each member’s respective youtube channels.

every member has 3 lives, as indicated by the color of their name: green for 3 lives left, yellow for 2, red for 1.  if they lose all three lives, they can only spectate the world (like in hardcore mode).  the series ends when all members have lost all three lives.

the twist: once a member is on their 3rd and final life, as indicated by a red name, they are Hostile and their goal is to take the lives of the remaining players.

the members (hermits are italicized): BdoubleO100, bigbst4tz2, Etho, GoodTimesWithScar, Grian, impulseSV, InTheLittleWood, Renthedog, Skizzleman, Smajor1995, Smallishbeans, SolidarityGaming, Tango, ZombieCleo

the tumblr tag for 3rd Life is “#3rdLife”, “#3rdLifeSMP” and “#3LSMP” if you wanna see more content, as it’s Not supposed to be cross-tagged with “#hermitcraft”.

do you have any free serotonin to spare?

here’s a bunch of posts that’ll make you smile

scar’s friendship with a bunch of the hermits

grian, false, cleo, bdubs, iskall: why they deserve so much respect

same post as above but with an addition about ren

small hermit things that give you serotonin

why you should watch tfc

if you’ve made it this far you are Contractually Obligated* to watch one (1) hermitcraft episode and reblog this post.

*for legal reason, this is a joke.  you’re not contractually obligated but consider this: Please. i spent way too much time on this.

shoutout to everyone who’s posts i’ve linked and anyone who has helped answer a question about hermitcraft.  this all started because i was frustrated that people were writing the hermits off as cannon fodder in mcc and im genuinely so glad that many of you have given hermitcraft a shot.

[tranzfalgar]

okay it’s time for some stardew valley headcanons for the bachelor/ette(s) so let’s GOOOO

Alex:

- he always awakes before his grandparents, and on warmer days he’ll go down to the beach to watch the sunrise.

- friends with elliot! the two of them sit on the side of the dock sometimes and just chat about life.

- knows how to make cookies, as evelyn taught him when he was a bit younger

- wary of the saloon, as he doesn’t really like the smell of alcohol and only goes into it if he’s forced to!

- if you marry him, he can and will pick you up randomly to surprise you while you’re working!

- if married, he will “bench press” your kids once they become toddlers, and it always makes them giggle

- hates the winter and gets cold really easily. on the first day of fall he’s already bundled up wanting it to be summer again.

Elliot:

- willy is like a father to him. the two of them sit on the docks and watch the fish swim by together

- sometimes he’ll braid his hair, and leah will bring flowers from the forest and weave them into his hair.

- has a rlly pretty singing voice, and likes to record piano covers in his spare time

- if you marry him and the two of u have kids, he’ll always braid their hair in the morning and tuck flowers behind their ears.

- he brings home fresh fish he caught and makes himself dinner every night. that’s why he’s an excellent cook.

- has actually caught a legendary fish before!

- his eyes change color, they can go from blue to green to brown in the same day. people call them the “prismatic shard of eyes”

Harvey:

- he’s so clumsy that sometimes he’ll even trip over air. due to this, he has little bruises all over his knees and elbows.

- his favorite animals are birds. sometimes he’ll go outside and just give them some bird seed. he loves watching them fly around.

- not only is he fascinated with planes, but he’s also fascinated with the weather. as a kid he used to watch the weather channel, and he dreamed of becoming a weatherman.

- when he needs to focus really hard, he’ll pull his hair back with a headband

- him and his mother were and still are very close, and he writes letters to her at least once a week

- he cannot cook to save his life, but he’s an incredible baker! will make you little treats if you’re friends or married

- he always wears a wristwatch, but the time is always 6 minutes behind. he likes it because it has a plane engraved into the side against his wrist.

Sam:

- he had adhd, and his stims include flapping his hands, tapping his foot and strumming his guitar

- he has a beautiful singing voice, think like wilbur soot but a bit more high pitched?

- the reason he likes cactus fruit so much is because he just plants them and lets them grow. he loves succulents because they don’t give him an allergic reaction!

- cannot play video games for shit. sebastian and abigail have banned him from multi-player games because he just sucks so bad.

- love language is acts of service, simply because he likes singing for people he cares about and doing little things for them!

- if you marry him, he will bring his guitar into the coop and/or barn and sing to the animals. they have learned to run over a greet him, since they love his singing.

- his hair is actually curly, but you’re unable to tell due to how much he gels and straightens his hair.

- has mastered the art of the puppy dog eyes

Sebastian:

- loves the hell out of halloween, but is scared of literally everything. he nearly cried watching a horror movie with sam and abigail.

- really good with a slingshot! so if he were to go into the mines, he would wreck some monsters shit with his slingshot skills

- he had glow in the dark stars on his ceiling, but removed them. he used to love the stars and space, but came to resent them because it was his sisters thing.

- he like…irl blushes. like an anime character. when he’s embarrassed, upset, flustered, his face will go all pink. everyone picks on him for it.

- has/had a crush on most of the towns singles. he is a bisexual disaster and secretly a romantic so….take from that what you will.

- a natural born ginger, but dyes his hair. he also has freckles on his nose! and he has an eyebrow slit because of a scar!!

- for some stupid reason, he takes really good care of his hands? like he always makes sure they don’t get calloused, and his nails are always painted black, despite using his hands all the time for work.

Shane:

- he cannot cook. he burned pasta noodles because he didn’t know you had to put water in the pan.

- he still has a chicken plushie from when he was a baby, and it still sits on his bed. and if he cuddles with it at night? no one needs to know.

- has a huge birthmark on his side shaped like a heart

- really good at mixology, so i think that when joja gets shut down, shane works at the saloon and makes the drinks while gus cooks. he adds a whole new section on the menu!

- friends with sebastian. they paint each other’s nails from time to time, or sit in the rain together and just talk.

- kinda strong as hell? he lifts boxes in joja for work, as well as carrying around jas, so i’m assuming he could just….pick the farmer and his friends up?

- he has the most contagious laugh, it used to be a rare sound, but now that it’s a pretty common occurrence, shane makes people laugh all the time with his own laugh.

Abigail:

- buff. she is buff as hell. her and alex work out together sometimes, since she expressed a desire for adventure. she has picked up sam and sebastian with no warning and thrown them into the ocean

- can talk to animals due to her being the daughter of the wizard! so sometimes she’ll go to marnies farm and just chat with the cows or something

- if she sees a tree, she WILL climb it. she loves it so much, it’s just so adrenaline inducing for her.

- her and sebastian tried to go into the mines before but sam stopped them because it wouldn’t have been very safe. they were all 14.

- trying to learn to play the ukulele with a little help from sam. it’s frustrating, but she really likes the sound of it, and she’s determined as hell.

- absolutely cracked at any and all video games he plays. mario kart? she will kick your ass. animal crossing? her island has 5 stars. pokémon? she always wins. you can’t stop her, she’s too powerful.

- she has glasses, but prefers contacts, since glasses would get in the way of her adventuring.

Emily:

- not only can she sew, but she also makes her own soaps and candles! any form of creation she adores.

- loves flowers, and has a lot of little potted ones in her room. she raises them, gives them little names and personalities, and then brings them to sandy and tells her all about each flower

- she can roller skate, and it’s her preferred method of transportation. she can do a bunch of fun tricks as well!

- has an eyebrow slit

- making cute little baskets of homemade gifts is her favorite thing to do for her friends. sometimes she’ll just leave them on their doorsteps for no reason other than she wants to!

- can SPRINT in heels. like even 6 inch heels she can just RUN and it scares everyone who sees it.

- she loves the sounds of birds chirping in the morning, and she’s able to identify the name of the bird by its chirping and calls

Haley:

- is able to perfectly crack and drink from coconuts. that’s why she loves them so much.

- has the worst sense of direction. she’s lucky she lives in a small town, or she’d get lost all the time

- the spring is her favorite time of year, simply because she loves to capture life coming back in those spring months. baby animals, blooming flowers, her friends on the beach or just chilling in the sun, all of it

- her most prized possession is the very first picture her and emily took as kids on their parents polaroid. it’s taped to her mirror

- has a little beauty mark under her lip, but it normally isn’t visible due to being covered with makeup!

- she’s able to do her own nails! this is because she is ambidextrous, yet she doesn’t know, because it’s never been brought up

- she fucking LOVES learning about and identifying plants, trees and flowers. she knows so many it’s crazy. she has a great memory.

Leah:

- resident true crime enthusiast and ghost hunter. she drags elliot with her around town to go hunting for ghosts. they also watch documentaries together!

- has a bunch of little scars on her hands from her artwork

- to get inspiration for works, she’ll go on walks at different times of the day, different seasons, different routes, and she’ll turn each walk into a work of art. depending on all the environment and those who she runs into, each piece is vastly different.

- animals love her, and will sometimes just follow her around for no reason. she doesn’t mind at all, she kinda loves it.

- friends with emily. they are currently teaching each other their own forms of art, since they love learning from each other!

- really good at dancing, she’ll dance while she’s working on projects and she’ll hum a song to herself

- her favorite statue was created after she went on a walk, ran into abigail, and the two of them went swimming in the ocean and stayed there as the sun set and the stars came out. she has a little crush on abigail.

Maru:

- her hair is ALWAYS tied up, it’s impossible for her to work if her hair is in her eyes

- when she was a kid she wanted to be an astronaut, because she loves the stars, but she found she prefers the science and math behind it all

- she pierced her own ears, she has little star earrings!

- watches cartoons and geeks out about them with penny when they meet up in town!

- for some odd reason, she is terrified of butterflies. no one who knows her, or even maru herself have ANY idea why, but she will run away if she sees one.

- her favorite memory was the one night her and sebastian stayed up really late as kids and snuck outside to look at the stars (back when sebastian still loved them) and they ended up seeing a meteor shower

- she presses flowers as a hobby, and just keeps them in a little notebook alongside her ideas for projects and gadgets.

Penny:

- while she’s cleaning her and pam’s home, she finds herself singing to herself. she has yet to be caught by anyone

- each day, her hair is done ever-so-slightly different. each morning, she likes to change it up, and sometimes jas or vincent will give her something to put in her hair

- also interested in ghosts, will occasionally join elliot and leah on their adventures

- she is naturally really warm, so she doesn’t have to bundle up as much during the winter. the kids cling to her because she’s like a human space heater

- has a bit of a geeky side, and she loves to watch cartoons a lot. when she can find the time, she always watches them. they being her lots of comfort.

- has a small scar on her side from when she tripped over as a child onto something sharp. she likes it because with two freckles, it makes a little smiley face

- loves the water and the feeling of sea wind in her hair. she secretly wants to learn to drive a boat, so she can feel that wind in her hair whenever she wants.

[sukirichi]

crush

pov. you have a crush on your brother’s best friend

request. Hi! Congrats on 2.4k!!🤩 For the event, may I request an au where reader is Yuuta’s sister? Can be gn/fem reader anything is fine. And they fall in love with Toge? Fluff fluff fluff please

notes. awww i love this request, i have a fat crush on toge so i enjoyed writing this! i made this a modern high school au, by the way!

You stare disappointedly at the black wrappings of your bento, sighing because your brother took the wrong one again. Waving goodbye to your friend, you made your way to your brother’s classroom, knocking on the door to get his attention. However, it isn’t your brother who’d stopped laughing mid-conversation. Instead, it’s a familiar-looking platinum haired guy, his purple eyes glimmering with mischief as he slapped your brother’s arm.

“Yo, Yuta, I think someone’s looking for you,” you heard him say.

Meanwhile, you just stood there blankly, your throat growing dry because he was cute – like actually handsome boy-next-door cute.

You’ve met lots of cute guys before, but they were all very immature that you found no interest in others. He, on the other hand, was nothing less of polite, shooting up from his seat because your stupid brother was too invested in his video games. The guy flashed you a bright smile, the beauty of his face up close enhanced that you felt your heart squealing.

Not that you’d ever show that, of course, so you just reciprocated with a polite smile to hide your frantic nerves.

“Hi! You here for Yuta-kun?”

“Y-yes.”

Before he could speak, an arm had shoved him aside. Yuta stood before you, his frown apparent while his friend stayed at the side, a smile still playing on his lips. It took all your energy to not stare at him too much in fear he’d easily read through you.

“Hey, what are you doing here?”

“You swapped lunches with me,” you shoved the black bento box to his chest, stepping closer to your brother to whisper in his ear. “Is that a friend of yours?”

“Yeah, he’s Toge. He used to play with us a lot before he moved away, but his family’s back in town. Don’t you remember him?”

“No…”

“Toge, come here!” he called out to his retreating friend, the guy freezing in his tracks before he jogged up to where you were quickly. Oh crap, you kept gushing, he really was cute. He placed an arm around your brother’s shoulder, nodding at you as a greeting. “Remember my sister? You used to play with her a lot when we were kids. You kept stealing her Barbies, remember?”

“I did?” Toge looked shocked, his back bending into a fake bow. “I’m very sorry for that, but don’t worry, I don’t do that anymore.”

“I don’t play with Barbies at this age!” you defended, heat spreading all over your skin when he winked at you. Both of them laughed at your flushed face, and you crossed your arms on your chest, glaring at your brother. Really though, you were just trying to hide the fact you were very attracted to his friend, even more so now that he was actually familiar. “Stupid Yuta-nii.”

“You’re cute,” Toge randomly piped in.

If you were feeling shy before, you couldn’t speak now.

“Dude, don’t talk about my sister like that,” Yuta gagged, slapping his friend on the chest who effortlessly ducked away, his laughter like music in your ears. You stared at him for who knew how long, his happiness absorbed in your body as you found yourself giggling back. Yuta, on the other hand, wasn’t as impressed, rolling his eyes at his friend before turning to you. “You should go back to class. The bell will ring soon.”

“Okay,” you nodded quietly, hesitating for a moment. Surely it wouldn’t be too weird, right? Deciding to heck with it though, you balled your hands into fists, mustering the courage to look him in the eye as you said, “See you, Toge-senpai.”

He simply shrugged his brows up as a farewell, and just like that, you dashed down the hall so fast you put Quicksilver to shame.

Great. Out of all the days it had to storm, it had to be on the rare moment you forgot your umbrella. Unsurprisingly enough, it was Yuta’s fault for making you forget it. Both of you had slept in too much, but instead of being the responsible older brother, he left you to prepare the meals all by yourself while he spent half an hour fixing his hair. In your haste to arrive on school on time, you’d forgotten to pick up your umbrella, and now the misfortune of it slapped you right on the face.

“Tch, how can I go home?” you glared at no one in particular.

Yuta had to stay behind for baseball practice in the covered court, leaving you all alone to take the bus by yourself. Well, not that it mattered, going home alone was way better than listening to your brother rant about video games and girls he wanted to talk to in class.

Shifting your weight from one foot to another, brows pinched as you mulled on the different ways you could come back home, you came up with two options.

One, run like hell and risk getting sick from this weather, or two, wait for the rain to subside.

But ugh, you wanted to go home already. Before you knew it, you’d unknowingly pouted, arms hugged to yourself while you cursed your stupid brother a hundred times over in your head. Too lost in your own thoughts, you failed to hear humming from behind you, a scream nearly ripping from your lips when someone planted himself beside you.

“Hey, you’re here!”

You gazed up at him wide-eyed, subconsciously stepping away to keep your beating heart at bay. “H-hello, Toge-senpai.”

“Please, just call me Toge,” he offered, opening his umbrella before his eyes landed on you. Probably realizing you were quite helpless, Toge smiled, nudging you to come closer to him. “Hey, I’ll walk you home. You guys still live in the same block?”

“Yeah.”

And so there you were, debating that maybe Yuta’s carelessness wasn’t such a bad thing. After all, if it would lead to your crush taking you home, then you weren’t complaining. Funny how the weather seemed so gloomy, a huge contrast to the sunshine you radiated at the sheer happiness of living out your most romantic fantasies. It was silly, actually, to crush on your brother’s best friend of all people, but Toge was so nice and handsome – it was kind of impossible not to like him.

In the span of two weeks that you’d known him, he’d been nothing but friendly. And no, you weren’t going to admit you started visiting their classroom more often than before, simply because you wanted to get a glimpse of him.

Toge pulled you out of your lovesick trance, his arm landing on your waist before he shifted you beside him. You noticed he was now closer to the road while you were on the safer side of the sidewalk, and god, did he just step closer? He was close enough that your arms brushed with each step, sending a wave of heat that you bit back by tugging your lips with your teeth.

“For warmth,” he explained as if reading your mind, arm raised lazily in a shrug. “Wouldn’t want you to get cold.”

“Thank you,” you muttered, hiding your face under your scarf.

You and Toge were silent the whole time, but it was a silence you adored. Very rarely that you found comfort in silence with others, but with Toge, it felt so easy – so natural. You hadn’t even realized you were already at home, Toge chuckling at your spaced out self. He bid his farewell then, his back facing yours as he walked away when you blurted, “Oh, my parents aren’t home. I think you should stay first to let the rain calm down a bit. You live a little far from school, right?”

Toge looked a little surprised, his eyes shooting up to the sky with a sigh. Inwardly, you were screaming because you just invited him inside, but Toge was already waddling back to you before you could regret it.

“Yeah, thanks for the invitation. I don’t think I should go home in this weather too,” he said, following you across the threshold. He looked around in awe, his shoes left in the front door before he crossed the living room with you, his eyes shining with nostalgia and happiness. “Wow, your place hasn’t changed one bit. I missed being here.”

You flashed him a smile. Turns out it wasn’t that bad – Toge being comfortable made you comfortable. Aside from the nervousness partnered with shyness from having a crush, you applauded yourself for being able to look him in the eye as you asked, “Do you want tea, coffee…?”

“Water is fine. Thanks,” he shrugged off his jacket and placed it behind a chair, chuckling when you nodded too fast. Toge, much to your dismay (or delight?!) trailed behind you in the kitchen, having no business looking that handsome as he leaned against the counter. Him being unaware of his effect on you was even worse, and you bit the inside of your cheeks, trembling as you poured him a glass of water. 

From behind you, Toge snickered, “Why are you so jittery? Do I make you nervous?”

“A-a little.”

“Why? Am I intimidating?” he appeared beside you out of nowhere, so close that you could count his lashes. You leaned back with a muffled squeal, eyes wide at the proximity. Toge, as always, seemed completely unaware of it, taking his time to assess your features with a hand on his chin as if all the answers he was looking for was written all over your face. “Yuta told me I was very easy to approach though.”

“No, it’s not that, I just…” you stuttered, giving in with weak knees and turning your head to the side. Your heart, your poor heart! “Crap, I hate myself.”

“You were saying something?”

“I, uhm, it’s just,” you panicked, mind failing to function now of all times. “I think…I have a crush on you?”

The room fell silent.

Realization dawning on you, you flattened your palms together in a begging motion. Toge merely blinked back at you, and you were so close to just kneeling to the gods to rid yourself of this moment forever. “Please forget everything I said, I’m so sorry! Gosh, Yuta’s going to kill me, forget I said anything, I didn’t mean to be weird.”

“Hey, chill, it’s fine!” he laughed, helping you get up just before you fell in exasperation. Then, he smirked at you, wiggling his brows in the process. “I kind of knew that anyway, to be honest.”

“You do?”

“Yeah, I mean, you asked me to marry you when we were kids,” he informed you, but the memory never played back in your mind. It wasn’t a lie though, you really did ask him that when you were kids. Embarrassment taking hold of you, you groaned behind your palms, feeling like your heart was going to explode every now and then.

“Oh my gosh…”

“It’s okay,” Toge peeled your arms away from your face, his grin nothing less of teasing the moment he’s greeted by your shyness. “I did say yes – let’s just wait after high school, yeah?”

[espressokiri]

Hi there. Another Muslimah here.

Hope you don't mind me sending you an ask. I read your fic about the BNHA boys with a muslim s/o. It was really good. I loved it so much. (There aren't many fics like this, which is a shame cause we like fanfics too. So this was very refreshing. Thank you.💚😉)

Could you do one for the Haikyuu boys, specifically Tsukishima, Kuroo, Sugawara, and Bokuto. But only if you want to, of course.

Hope you have a great and productive day.

Tsukishima Kei, Kuroo Tetsurou, Sugawara Koushi, and Bokuto Koutarou x Hijabi!reader

In which reader is a hijabi Muslim.

Warnings: None

Genre: Fluff

Notes: You're welcome to send asks anytime <3 I may be slow at getting through them but I will make sure to get them out! Thank you for being so sweet anon <3 I hope you enjoy this one! ^^ I’m sorry if it seems bland as I was slowly losing ideas.

Tsukishima Kei

His eyes would constantly drift to you during class hours, lips twitching into a smile as he would watch you struggle with the assignment sheet given during history class.

Would take that as a leeway to make conversation and help you out.

"Tsk, can't even do a simple history assignment?"

Just sits down next to you and points out what you did wrong while helping you out.

Flinches his hand away and mutters a sorry if your hands accidentally graze each others.

He knows how strict the dating rules were and he admired it, thinking it was a safe way to keep them away from harm and heartbreak.

Becomes your unofficial tutor just to spend more time with you.

Has the urge to flick your forehead most times when you purposely tease him.

Is worried when he sees you zoning out in the middle of class during Ramadan, you have to convince him you're fine and that you're getting your studying done despite the odd sleep schedule you've created.

He'll give you a small box of his favourite treat, strawberry short cake, randomly throughout Ramadan because he knows you crave more sweets during the days you fast than regular days.

He calls you a masochist when he finds you watching cooking/baking videos while fasting.

Will stop by your house to drop off pastries during Eid for you and your family because he wants to peak at you all dressed up as he's only seen you in your school uniform or in casual but modest fashion.

He feels a sense of security, enjoying the aspect of getting to know someone with no sense of rush.

Kuroo Tetsurou

He's such an awkward nerd please.

Wants to approach you but fears he might accidentally offend you due to his provocative nature, hence resorts to staring at you from across the room.

Would research more about your religion and would use that as a way to start small talk;

“Hey, uh, I was wondering how do you manage to pray Zuhr when you’re in school? Isn’t it bad that you have to miss it?”

“Oh uh, I usually run home as soon as I can or pray in my club room if there are meetings, my club members are very understanding.”

“Oh... I see.”

“That’s pretty cool of you to be concerned, Kuroo-san.”

Cue him asking you random but wholesome questions with genuine curiosity.

“Did you know men who oppress women are considered to not follow Islam? I find that really nice that women are equal to men in your religion!”

You smile at him and his interest in your religion.

Study sessions in the library because you both wanted to spend time with each other but he knows it is wrong for a male to be alone in the same room as the opposite gender so you both opted for the library where there are lots of people.

Gasps and immediately looks away when you unravel the scarf around your head to fix;

“Y/n! You can’t do that!!”

“I’m wearing an underscarf calm down.”

You rolled your eyes at the dramatic male but smiled at his respectful nature.

Ramadan? Catch him ruining his sleep schedule just to have movie nights with you through the phone and Netflix Party.

Kenma teases him about it because Kuroo used to yell at him about his own staying up late gaming obsession.

Likes it when you wear a cap on top of your hijab, he thinks it looks cool on you.

He’ll convince you to skip school during Eid if it falls on a school day, telling you that it’s important that you spend at least the first day of it with your family. 

Overall, he’s the type to keep up with the Islamic calendar and learn new facts daily as he asks you to explain each and everything about your religion and lifestyle.

Sugawara Koushi

See’s you for the first time with Kiyoko when he went to excuse her from class for managerial duties.

Smitten from first sight.

Begs Kiyoko to let you be her assistant manager.

He keeps a distance from you during your first introduction and conversation because he didn’t know what you were comfortable with.

He was in awe to find out there were sports hijab when he saw you sporting one to play a short game with an over-enthusiastic Hinata.

“Here, stay hydrated.”

Hands you a bottle of water along with a towel, a newfound respect for playing in hot weather conditions fully covered. 

Due to the chaotic nature of the first and second years, Sugawara would run to cover your eyes with his jacket or hover his hands in front of your face whenever Tanaka would rip off his shirt to swing around whenever he spiked.

Sugawara had to stop himself multiple times from clapping his hand onto your shoulder, resulting in him just smacking either Asahi or Daichi when they mention him almost touching you.

Outings between you two is always monitored by the third years, Asahi smiling proudly at his friend Suga while Daichi and Kiyoko would sneakily take candid pictures of you both.

“What’s one verse you hold dear to your heart?”

You look at him from the warm mug of drink you are holding, tilting your head as you look at him in confusion. Sugawara felt the tips of his ears go red at the cute expression you held, and explains his question.

“Ah,” you thought long and hard before giving him an answer, “ ‘Allah does not burden a soul beyond that it can bear...’ I find that part of the verse very reassuring in times when I feel like I’m overwhelmed.”

Sugawara held onto every word, finding the beauty behind those words, he felt at peace. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He smiles.

It felt like he was more excited than you for Ramadan.

He would read out loud the Japanese translation of the Quran after you read out the Arabic words in a beautiful and soothing voice. He wanted to understand and learn.

He was hooked onto the peaceful energy the month brought despite life going on normally.

This man would wear a formal Kimono when your family invites his over for Eid, he wanted to make the best impression despite already meeting them in passing.

Suga had a sense of security and comfort around him and you felt lucky to have met someone such as him.

Bokuto Koutarou 

Oh God.

Akaashi had a field day trying to stop him from initiating any and every kind of physical affection when he first introduced you to him.

Bokuto is a man who expresses himself with affection, so he was lucky for Akaashi to explain to him why he shouldn’t initiate any physical affection without asking for what you considered crossing a boundary.

He knows he can’t drag you to the gym to watch him play volleyball by hand, so he asks you to hold onto the end of a pen, which you took, confused as to what the male exactly wants before realizing he was holding the other end and using that to drag you to where the gym was.

It was oddly endearing.

“Did you see my spike, Y/n?! Didya see?!”

“Yes, Bokuto. It was really cool!”

Cue a chest puffed up Bokuto who grinned with pride.

Invites you to eat lunch with him and Akaashi on the roof.

Having to refuse his food because you weren’t sure if there was pork in it or not.

This made Bokuto stop bringing in food that contained pork, not knowing even aside from that, he had to have the halal form of chicken or beef.

Akaashi had to explain everything to him when he asked him once.

Tried to go vegetarian one day, failed the minute he took a bite out of his food.

Feels bad when he eats on days you are fasting, so he tries finishing the meal before you come up to their usual meeting spot, resulting in him giving himself a stomach ache.

Brings you tuna filled onigiri to take home so you can eat it as a snack during the night after breaking your fast.

Sends you spam messages minutes before having to break your fast;

‘Are you excited to eat?!?!?!’

‘What are you having today?!?’

‘If you want to get any snacks later let me know! :D’

‘ONE MINUTE LEFT!!’

He’s so wholesome please.

Wants to skip school with you for Eid, but pouts when you tell him you’ll be spending it with family.

Asks you to send an OOTD pic so he could be your hype-man.

Bokuto is always willing to understand more about you and your religion, making sure to note things in his head for future references.

[the-sugar-crash]

I have an idea- and it won't go away

So.

Huxley x Xaiver X Hudson X Listener/reader

Idk how I came up with this..

Hello! Thanks for the request! I'm sorry it took a little bit, but here ya go :)

I decided to use the Freelancer as the listener character, mostly because it makes the most sense. Also I’m playing with time a little bit. Inversion never happens! Everyone is fine and happy and alive. Why? Because I'm the god of the page, and I don't like being sad.

CW: none

Honestly? I love this

So Huxley and Xavier obviously met through the team and at practice during Huxley’s first year.

I’m pretty sure Xavier is a year above him, so he could have helped show Huxley the ropes/give him any pointers and stuff like that

They get together after their first season playing together

They’re cute together

They don’t have very many planned dates, but Huxley will of course take Xavier on hikes when they have the weekend off

But they don’t really need to plan many dates, because so much of their schedule lines up between classes and team practice

They do have little gym dates tho

They work out together and then get smoothies

I love them

Also!! Captain and vice Captain? As boyfriends???

I’m obsessed.

Huxley and the FL meet the same way they normally do

The two of them are quick to become friends, and as they get closer, the FL starts to develop a little crush

But when Hux mentions he has a boyfriend, they just do their best to accept it and be happy for him

But he ends up inviting the FL to the team’s summer barbecue that Xavier hosts

The FL is a little nervous, especially because Huxley keeps talking about how excited he is to introduce them to Xavier

“It will be so cool to have two of my favorite people in one spot, you know?’

They mingle for little bit before someone in the crowd catches Huxley’s eye and he calls them over

The FL can’t help but feel a little jealous as they watch him light up and wave one arm above his head

But they become a little distracted when they see who Hux is waving at

He’s hot (ironic)

They both are

Once they man was close enough, Hux moved to greet him

All Huxley said was ‘Kiss?’, and when the other man nodded, Huxley kissed his cheek before turned back to the FL to introduce him

They have a similar conversation to the one they have in Xavier’s first video, and they tell each other how highly Huxley talks about them

They all hit it off, and a couple months later, they talk it through and decide to try dating

It’s going really well, and about half a year later, the E&E games tryout start

Huxley and Xavier know they wanna try out, but the FL is slightly hesitant

But they (as well as Lasko, Damien, and Gavin) help encourage them to at least try

So they all sign up to tryout

That’s where they all meet Hudson

He has to spend most of his time up in the booth, so he doesn’t get to interact with the competitors very often

But he does have a great view of the arena between the view from his box and the tester feed on the cameras.

He gets to see all of the tryouts, which is where he catches sight of Huxley, Xavier, and the Freelancer

There’s no denying they’re all extremely attractive, and not to mention powerful

He had to refrain himself several times from mentioning how hot they all look while he’s practicing their introductions during the tryouts

But when they have a break in between groups to reset the field, he decides to walk down to the competitors area

No reason of course, he just wanted to stretch his legs

He walks around for a little bit, but when he doesn’t see any of them he thinks he missed his window

But just before he heads back to his booth, he spots them

All of them actually

The three of them are standing together laughing at something

Hudson isn’t sure if it’s good luck or bad luck that all of them are standing together, but he decides to go for it and introduce himself anyway

They’re all very friendly (and even cuter up close)

They were just about to leave to get lunch, and they invite Hudson to come with them

And the rest is history.

Set up is over, now into same random relationship head canons

I fully believe that both Hudson and Xavier like to sing in the shower, so expect to hear them from down the hall

Especially Hudson if he isn’t paying attention, he can get a little loud on accident (get your head out of the gutter)

But that also means he cheers the loudest at his boyfriend’s games

Huxley and Xavier don’t mind, but the people sitting around Hudson and the FL certainly do

Eventually the school offers to let him announce after they receive so many complaints

He’s usually a very fair announcer, but he will occasionally talk about Huxley or Xavier for slightly too long

He’ll sneak the FL into the booth with him when he can so they don’t have to sit by themself in the stands

Plus they bring him snacks from the concession stand

After each game the four of them go out for dinner together, usually at a small diner that’s on the way back to the apartment

Idk I just really like the mental image of all of them sitting in an old fashioned diner booth drinking milkshakes

Just like how Hudson and the FL show up to Huxley and Xavier’s games, everyone will also go visit Hudson while he’s DJ-ing

He is technically working, so they can’t socialize with him as much, but they will come up to say hi and bring him water and snacks from the bar

He appreciates it, and he makes sure to put a couple of his partners’ favorite songs into the mix

And if the FL has anything, you bet the boys are showing up to cheer them on however they can

Xavier is the best cook of the couple

Huxley is pretty good when it comes to grilling food, but he’s never been the best at actual cooking, and Hudson probably used to eat a lot of microwave food and ramen

So Xavier cooks, Huxley grills, the FL bakes, and Hudson is in charge of taste testing

It’s a solid system

I’m not sure what I imagine Hudson to look like, but Huxley and Xavier both have a fair bit of muscle on them, which means two things

Good hugs. And good cuddles

None of the boys are morning people, so lazy mornings are an often occurrence

Except of course when there’s an early morning practice, but other than that they don’t want to leave the bed before 10am

Huxley has tried to drag the whole group on a hike, but finding a tent that was big enough for all of them was a little troubling

They all promise to take turns caring the tent, but Hux or Xavier always somehow end up with it

But it’s a great way for them all to take a break when their schedules line up

Huxley gets them all matching camel backs to take with them on these hikes, and the FL labels all of them, putting each person’s name with a little heart next to it

Also just imagine the drive up

Hudson likes to make playlists, so he’ll make one every time he knows they’ll be in the car for a while

(the four of them have a family plan on Spotify, so Hudson can keep an eye on what everyone is listening to lately, so he makes sure his playlists are always up to date)

He takes his job very seriously

Hux and Xavier usually sit in the front, mostly because it’s a lot more comfortable than trying to squeeze in the backseat

But Hudson will usually be leaning up over the center console so he can play with the radio or the bluetooth

Idk why, but I don’t imagine him as the best driver, so he usually stays in the backseat

The FL isn’t a bad driver, but they really only drive if the other two are tired

Okay but picture this; they’re driving back home after a weekend trip, and the FL and Hudson fall asleep in the back seat, each of them leaning against the other, so Huxley and Xavier carry the other to up to bed, and they all fall asleep in each other’s arms

[miekasa]

homecoming (levi ackerman)

↯ pairing: levi ackerman x (fem) reader

↯ genres and warnings: college au, how many ways can i fit levi’s captain status into the modern world, fluff

↯ notes: i love levi :// and i’m out of gifs to put at the top of these, so when i learn how to make headers i’ll let you guys know. also this isn’t proofread rip in peace 

↯ summary: there’s a pretty well known homecoming tradition, and levi’s hoping you’re willing to partake in it. 

“So,” you hum, wiping away any crumbs from your mouth, “Are you going to tell me exactly why you wanted to have a picnic at 2:30 in the afternoon on a random Thursday, or am I supposed to wait for a grand reveal?”

Levi rolls his eyes, and sips on his wine, ignoring your incoming giggles. “Can’t I want to take you on a date?” he clicks his tongue, setting his, now empty, plastic wine cup onto the picnic blanket, “Ungrateful brat.”

You smack him on the arm, mouth open in offense; but Levi’s chuckling, shoulder’s shaking at your reaction. “I am a very grateful brat,” you correct him, “But I am also very suspicious one.”

Levi hums, not bothering to reply. Instead, he separates the two halves of his sandwich, wraps one half around a napkin, and hands it to you. You accept it, albeit a little hesitantly, and watch as Levi pays you no mind, biting into his half neatly.

If it were any normal situation, you’d probably try to snap a picture of him—you have somewhat of an ongoing collection of sneaky pictures of Levi on your dates, particularly when he looks cute munching on his food, much to his disdain—but this was not a normal situation.

Levi is acting strange. It’s not just the nature of this date itself—it may be out of character for Levi to want to go on a picnic of all things, but could be quite the romantic at heart, and often planned very quaint dates for the both of you. It was everything that happened since you set up your picnic that was truly out of the ordinary.

Like the way he seemed distracted, getting lost in thought in a way you hadn’t seen before; and how he kept sweeping his hair out of his eyes, and readjusting his small silver earring. If you didn’t know any better, you would think he’s nervous about something.

“Seriously,” you say lightly, carefully setting your half-eaten portion of the sandwich back onto the blanket, “What’s this all about?”

Levi looks at you for a beat, once again using his free hand to brush his dark hair behind his ear, then with suspecting eyes, “You don’t like it?”

Your eyebrows draw together at his questioning, confused by the lack of sarcasm, or even hurt in his tone; like he was genuinely surprised.

“What? No, Levi, that’s not what I meant,” you assure him, “I just mean that this isn’t really us. You hate eating outside—you always make us wait for indoor seating—and, if I’m being honest, I’ve never seen a couple go on a picnic in real life.”

Levi reaches to pour more cheap wine into your faux glasses, “I guess romance really is dead.”

You squint your eyes, carefully tracking his movements as he hands you a plastic cup before refilling his own. Levi isn’t one to dodge questions, or any kind of confrontation. Now you know for sure that something’s up.

“Levi,” you call gently, feeling like you finally have his full focus when his eyes meet yours, “What’s going on?”

His gaze softens at your question this time, and you finally see a hint of the Levi you know behind his expression. He sighs, carefully closing the boxed wine, and taking his cup into his hand. With a slight head nod, he motions for you to come closer, and you obiiently shuffle closer to him, until you’re sitting side by side.

You take the liberty of resting your head on his shoulder, cheek soft against his coat. You can hear him take a deep breath, feel his exhale deflate his shoulders, before he speaks.

“Homecoming is next weekend,” he starts, “You’re going, yeah?”

You hum in affirmation, watching as he takes a careful sip from his cup before continuing.

“There’s this tradition. It’s stupid as shit, if you ask me, so you don’t have to say yes,” he mumbles, lips barely off of the plastic, before he takes another sip. “But, if you’re dating someone, they’re supposed to show up to the game in your jersey.”

You snap your head up from his shoulder, blinking at Levi and the implications of his words, as you begin to piece together the mystery of his actions from this afternoon. Levi—your Levi—took you on a picnic, complete with homemade sandwiches and cheap wine, to ask you to be his date to his homecoming game.

Your stunned silence is filled with light breeze that brushes past your hair, and makes Levi return to brushing his away again. He drinks in your expression, grey eyes growing cloudy as he assumes the worst of your silence.

“Like I said, you don’t have to if you don’t want to,” he explains cooly, bringing his cup to his mouth again for a bitter sip, “I didn’t know if you were going to stick around for the whole day anyways, you’ve probably got other shit to—”

You kiss him quiet. Levi is surprised at first, jolts a little bit when your actions cause him to spill some of his drink, but he kisses you back, a small wave of relief washing over him. At least he didn’t make a complete fool of himself just now.

“Of course I’ll wear your jersey, Levi.”

Most parents and alumni stuck around for the traditional football game, but the boys’ soccer team was always popular amongst students, and for good reason.

Not only did the university’s team have an exceptional record, but they had no shortage of eye-candy playing for them, either. Even the team’s managers were pretty cute. You were certain players like Armin Arlert and Eren Jaeger were not plastered all over the university website solely for their soccer skills.

Though, good looks aside, they were undeniably good, and made a damn impressive pair on the field. However, most of the crowd would agree that Jaeger, Arlert, and the entire team, could thank their captain for their win today.

You step onto the field with a wide grin as you watch Levi’s team wrangle him into the middle of their circle and toss him up in the air unceremoniously. You almost want to capture the moment for yourself, but to your left, Hange is already recording a video you’re certain Levi would threaten to have deleted.

Most of the mob had fizzled away after the exciting win, leaving behind the team themselves, and a couple of students—likely friends or family of the athletes. After their final huddle, the boys begin to dissipate, greet the remaining crowd. Hange leaves you to badger Erwin, who had been sitting out due to an injury.

You spot Levi carefully picking up his duffel bag, and take the opportunity to run up to him, encase in a sudden and warm hug. You wrap your arms around his neck, and Levi has but a moment’s notice to secure his hands around your back and steady your bodies, lest you both fall to the ground from your uncoordinated momentum.

“You played so well!” you exclaim, pulling back from your hug, but keeping your palms on his shoulders, bouncing excitedly, “I knew you were good, but I didn’t know you were that good! You’ve never played like that before!”

Levi admits to tuning out your praise in favor of drinking in your appearance. The green of his away jersey looks good against your skin, the fabric somewhat loose on your frame. His eyes trail down to the sleeve, a minuscule smirk growing on his lips as he reads his last name in all capital letters underneath his number.

“Come on, Hange and I are taking you guys out for lunch!” your words snap him back to reality, “Anything you want, it’s on me, Captain.”

Levi rolls his tongue against his inner cheek. That’s a promise he’d have to take you up on later. For now, he plays along with your childlike enthusiasm, agreeing to your plans.

He motions for the two of you to get going, but his stride is blocked when you refuse to move from in front of him. Instead, you let your hands crawl from his shoulder to his neck, fingers tickling the hairs at his nape, before you pull him forward into a gentle kiss.

“You really were great, Levi,” you tell him again, pressing another kiss to his lips sweetly.

Levi hums, indulging you one more time, before he hears gasps and not-so-subtle exclamations of “Captain has a girlfriend?!” coming from his annoying teammates. He scoffs when he pulls back to see Jaeger looking at him with his mouth open so wide he could catch flies.

“You’re kind of ruining my reputation,” Levi tells you, but there’s no real bark to his tone.

It’s your turn to scoff, slowly trailing your hands down his arms, and eventually back to your side. You turn and the both of you begin to walk, not before you note, “You ruined your own reputation when you invited me and Hange here.”

“I’ll drink to that.”

“Hey!” you whine, frown deepening as Levi chuckles at you, “You’re not supposed to agree, asshole.” 

Levi doesn’t stop laughing, but gently wraps his arms around your shoulder as the both of you follow behind Hange and Erwin, and back to your car. 

“Don’t think your unusual displays of affection are going to make me forgive you,” you pout, but reach your hand to wrap your fingers around his anyways; Levi doesn’t even bother to hide his smirk, “I don’t care if you scored the winning goal or not, just for that, I’m only buying you one appetizer.”

Levi hums noncommittally. That’s fine, he could think of at least three other things he would rather you do for him instead when you both got home. With and without that jersey on.

[sleepy-belphie]

I have a request if you’re up for it. An MC who just arrived in the Devildom who’s lover just dumped them the day prior. The bros know MC isn’t emotionally or romantically available at the time but the bros still fall in love regardless. How will the bros handle the situation? Thank you! 🙏💗

Hi! I sort of took this idea and ran with it and wrote basically a headcanon short story for each bro lmao. Sorry I got a bit carried away but I hope you like this and it satisfies you! :) 

Also thank you so much @midnight-dome for the help with Asmo, you’re a lifesaver

Tags: @kawaiiblack

~~~~~

Lucifer:

The success of the program depends on your wellbeing

So he checks in on you every other day like clockwork 

“Is there anything you need to make your stay more comfortable?”

You always say no

At first, he’s glad you’re staying in 

Because it means less trouble for him

But when you skip all of your classes one day, he comes to your room ready to give you a firm reminder of your tasks here

He’s about to knock when he hears you sob 

Now, Lucifer has heard a lot of crying in his life

But he’s never heard someone sound so completely broken

He shocks himself when he turns on his heels and walks away

He shocks himself even more when he texts the group chat and demands everyone leaves you alone for the day

That evening he comes into your room with a small plate of food

By then you were are least on top of your sheets

You knew he was gonna ask the same question as always

But this time, his words were different

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Help?” 

He simply nods

And though he didn’t outright say what he meant by help, you knew

“I...don’t know?”

“Hm, okay. I’m going to listen to some music in my study. The door will be unlocked should you wish to join me.”

Then he’s gone

The few precious moments Lucifer isn’t working, he prefers to not be disturbed

So why on earth did he invite you to join him in his study?

He doesn’t have time to ponder it because the door opens and you come in with a blanket wrapped around you

The first night you both listen in comfortable silence

A few nights in, you start asking Lucifer about the records he puts on and he has no qualms educating you on it

On night 10 you tell him about the breakup

Once you’re done he, again, asks the same question

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

‘You’ve done more than enough to help me Lucifer, thank you.”

He finds himself blushing from the sincerity in your eyes and the warmth in your smile

That night you fall asleep before the record finishes

Surely you’d wake up aching if he left you in a chair

So he picks you up, carries you to your room, and tucks you into bed carefully

He tells himself he’s doing it for Diavolo

It’s for the program, this is his job

He’s gonna need time to accept his own feelings before he can tell you anything

For now, he’ll keep doing his “job” and spending evenings with you

Mammon:

He didn’t want to be your babysitter

He was a busy guy! He had stuff to do, money to make, things to steal

Some days he gets Beelzebub to keep an eye on you so he can do what he wants

One night in particular he heads to your room to make sure you won’t interfere with his plans

“Yo! The Great Mammon has things to do so don’t-”

He pauses when he sees you sitting on your bed with your headphones plugged into your laptop

He would have assumed you were just watching a sad movie by the tears streaks on your face

But the pain in your eyes…

He’s seen that look before

His brothers held that same look the day they fell from Heaven and lost Lilith

Mammon sits on the bed and you jump, finally noticing him

You expected him to make fun of you but instead, he grabs the tissue box on your bedside table and hands it to you

He glances at your laptop to see what you were watching and sees a paused video of you and someone else

You tell him about the breakup and Mammon listens closely

“What a jerk! Ya deserve better than that! I’d teach ‘em a lesson if they ever showed their face around here!”

You smile for the first time since he came in the room and he feels like he’s done something right

“How about we get some late-night food? I know a 24-hour restaurant with the best baked newt ever. Your treat.”

He’s shocked when you agree

He makes a point to hang out with you more often

He can’t recall exactly when you went from “a human” to “his human” 

Maybe it was when you held his hand while you erased all your photos and videos of your ex from your computer

Or when you texted him at 3am because you couldn’t sleep and before he could even think about it he was up and on his way to your room

Or when he spotted you in one of his jackets while walking home from RAD

But his greed was kicking in and he wanted you to be his and only his

However, much like he puts himself first, he knows you need to do the same

So though his nature and mind wants to kiss you silly and have you for himself

Part of him knows he’ll ruin things if he lets his greed take over

So he’ll fight his nature and try his best to be patient

Leviathan:

He had been playing one of his games online

He’s on a big winning streak and feeling a bit cocky

He sees he’s been matched with someone else so he gets into gamer mode 

Then he loses the first round

He’s a bit shocked and pissed that his streak was now broken but he has to prove his superiority to whoever this opponent was

So he rematches them

And loses again

And again

He loses 7 rounds in a row

By this point he is fuming

So like any salty gamer he sends a very lengthy, angry message to their inbox

Accusing them of using cheats and hacks because there was no way anyone was more skilled than him at this game

He gets a reply a few minutes later

“Um.....is this Leviathan? Avatar of Envy? It’s MC…”

You knew it was Levi because his username is the same across all his social media platforms

Cue Levi barreling into your room a minute later

“How are you so good!? You’re cheating, aren’t you!? You cheater!’

You weren’t cheating, you just had been playing games day in and day out to distract yourself so you got really good at it

Levi all but demands you to come to his room and show him what you know

You were already playing all night anyway so why not play with someone? 

Initially, Levi would have you come over just to show him your tactics 

(Also to get some team wins on his stats because he never has anyone to play with)

But you were actually pretty chill for a normie

Maybe if he exposed you to his otaku ways you would take to them and he wouldn’t be the only one in the house anymore!

You don’t become an otaku but you do get invested in almost every anime he shows you

He starts inviting you over for midnight premieres of new episodes

He starts buying extra merch because what if you wanted one?

He was used to disproving looks from his brothers when he mass buys stuff from Akuzon

But you only smile and listen when he tells you about his new special edition item

You never once judged him and his unconventional ways

This epiphany makes him extra nervous for your weekly hangouts

It was only a matter of time before you came across a break up in an anime

When the episode ended you told him about your break up and how the protagonist reminded you of yourself because they also were taking a break from love

Levi has seen this anime before actually

He remembers how the protagonist reacted to a side character confessing to them and it went bad

So while he knows he likes you, he holds off on saying anything because the last thing he wants is to be a bad story arc in your life

Lucky for him he’s always a flustered blushing mess so you shouldn’t suspect a thing

Satan:

He is the Avatar of Wrath so whenever there is rage, he is aware

He feels anger radiating through the house one day and thinks his brothers are just fighting again

Imagine his surprise when he realizes the source of the anger is coming from your room

He walks in and sees you throwing things around and screaming, your room was destroyed

He sees you’re about to step on some glass and instantly swoops in and picks you up so you don’t hurt yourself

But then you curl up against him and burst into tears

He stands there, not quite sure what to do 

He ends up sitting on the bed and letting you cry for a while

You word vomit about your break up and he listens carefully and notes the anger welling up inside you as you speak

He knows all too well what anger can do to someone and a fragile human shouldn’t have to go through that

“Would you like some tea?”

He can spare 30 minutes for some small talk with the human if it meant that you wouldn’t be left in your thoughts

You look at him like he has three heads but agree because your room is a mess and you don’t wanna deal with it right now

Tea time becomes a daily occurrence and soon enough it escalates to full-on hangouts

Going to the bookstore, going to cat cafes, going wherever you wanted to really

One time you both took a day trip to the human world

Lucifer wasn’t happy to find out his brother and you were gone for an entire day but he lets it go when he sees that you’re smiling genuinely for the first time in weeks

What Satan didn’t expect was how these outings made him feel

He finds himself distracted from his books because he can’t stop thinking about how cute you looked holding that black cat at the cafe

Or how happy you looked when you took him to that ice cream shop in your hometown that you really love

He wakes up and you’re the first thing to pop into his mind

He’s not dumb, he knows he’s fallen in love

But he also knows this isn’t the right time, you aren’t ready

So he’ll keep being there for you as a friend

And if you ever want him to be there as something more, he’ll happily oblige

Asmodeus:

There was a movie night at the House of Lamentation

Today’s movie was an action movie, courtesy of Mammon

Amidst all the face punching and explosions, there was a budding romance between the main characters

After the third obnoxious makeout scene, you leave the room claiming you need to go to the restroom

But you leave just a *little* too fast and Asmo can feel something is up

And he thrives on gossip so he intends to find out what is it

He leaves the room a few minutes later and catches you in the hallway, determined to get you to spill the tea

You tell him about the breakup

He wasn’t prepared for the tea to be so bitter

“Oh. Well, you know what’s good for that? Face masks!” 

He had to save face somehow and beauty was his default

He’s a bit shocked when you agree but you both ditch movie night to do face masks and talk a bit

He decides to share a couple of bad date experiences he’s had to make you feel better

“Trust me, you haven’t felt embarrassment until you have someone vomit Enfield brains on your new pants and shoes while at one of the hottest clubs in the Devildom.”

You spent the entire night giggling and listening to his stories

Devildom products are surprisingly effective on your skin so you keep asking Asmo to show you new products

Plus his company is nice

Self-care days become a common occurrence

Then those self-care days become self-care sleepovers

He starts intentionally waiting to try anything new because he wants you to be there when he does

He buys more of those scented candles you told him smelled nice

A few weeks later you’re having a self-care sleepover again and you have this really cute focused look on your face while painting your nails

He knows he likes you, but this was different than his usual attraction

He didn’t want to fuck you

Well he did but not just fuck you

He wouldn’t mind if there was something more

But you routinely ended your self-care nights by yelling ‘Fuck love!’ at the top of your lungs and laughing

So he knows now isn’t the time and he’s actually okay with that

You were a sight to behold regardless of his relationship status with you

But he hopes you’ll indulge in him one day

Beelzebub:

Mammon keeps pushing his human watching duties on Beel

But he doesn’t really care because he’s being paid in cheesecake

After his third day of keeping an eye on you, he notices you aren’t eating much

Being the Avatar of Gluttony, this is basically a crime

He starts bringing extra snacks with him when he hangs out with you

“I think the chocolate flavor is better than the vanilla. What do you think?”

He actually doesn’t have a preference 

He just wants to know which snacks you like more so he can bring more of them

He makes a game out of it so you don’t think about how much you’re eating

“It motivates me to work out longer when I get a snack, could you help me?”

You sit on his back and after every pushup, you both eat a bit of whatever snack he has

He keeps going until he thinks you’ve eaten a decent amount

Or you say you’re getting full

Belphie notices that Beel is refilling his snack stash more often but he doesn’t say anything

Beel feels an immense sense of accomplishment when you finish your plate at dinner a few days later

Soon after you tell him about the breakup

“It hit me hard but you made it easier to cope, Beel. These hangouts are the highlight of my day so thank you.”

There’s a certain pang Beel gets in his stomach when he’s really hungry

Somehow your words made that pang happen in his chest

But this didn’t hurt him, quite the opposite actually

He felt good, he felt happy

It was strange for his stomach to be the quiet one while his heart went wild

But this wasn’t a change he minded too much

He wasn’t sure what to make of it but he knows he wants to figure it out with you

And he’ll take his time doing so because he liked how things were now

Belphegor:

He’s intrigued by you after the first week of your stay

He’s never seen a human who slept as much as he did

Frankly, he was impressed

Until Lucifer informed everyone about your recent breakup and made it clear to not upset you

That’s when Belphie realized these were not the leisurely naps he takes, but depression naps

One day he sees you sleeping in the living room and you looked so distressed

Sleeping was meant to be a peaceful state but you looked so unhappy

So he wakes you up

“You’re in my sleeping spot.”

You weren’t in his sleeping spot.

“Oh sorry, I’ll move-”

“You’re already here. We can both fit.” 

Before you can protest he’s all comfy next to you and falling back asleep

Having another person next to you was kind of comforting so you let it go and go back to sleep

What you didn’t know was Belphie could partially influence your dreams

He can make them more pleasant but he can’t control what you dream about

He knows it works when he wakes up and you have a relaxed expression on your sleeping face

You wake up soon after looking confused

“Good dream?”

“I think? I had a dream I rode a unicorn to the moon then carved my initials into it?”

Napping together in the living room becomes a routine

And every time you woke up you told him about the dream you had with a small smile

A few weeks later he notices he no longer has to influence your dreams for them to be good

So he leaves you be and instead curls up in the attic for his afternoon nap

He wakes up a bit when he feels someone lay down next to him

It’s probably Beel

“Why didn’t you tell me you moved napping spots?”

His eyes open and he looks over to see you pouting at him

“I just sorta ended up here.”

“Well, I can’t nap without my cuddle buddy now can I?”

You’re teasing him and he should be annoyed

But he’s blushing

He spoons you to hide that fact, resting his forehead on your shoulder

But while your dreams were getting better, it didn’t mean you were ready to move on

So he just enjoys his intimate cuddling sessions with you and tries not to think too hard about the fact that he really likes how your body fits against his