#you can see OG video undercut

[hansama]

Rafah is under attack!!

Rafah is the last 'Safe Area Zone' in Palestine and it's being bombed currently

twitter thread to explain what's going on

Do your daily click for Palestine!

Donate to CareForGaza if you can!

[luminiamore]

IN THE A.

biker geto suguru x black hoochie mama reader

warnings: fingerfucking, soft dom sugu, he’s a tease, sugu has a big dick, but we knew this!

a/n: this man is so fine i need him neow.

second part here.

masterlist

Life has always treated you so well, beyond well, in fact. You resided in one of Atlanta’s finest lofts, debt-free at 23 despite recently graduating from college. Even though you have your own income, your generous parents still send you a fat check every week or so. You had men constantly begging on their knees to fund your entire existence, and on the occasion, women, too. Everything you wanted simply came to you with no trouble. 

You wanted that cute brown skin man with the waves that you saw at the grocery store? He already has your number. You want that pretty ’90s hairstyle you saw in a vintage magazine? You were already on your way to go get it done. You want to change your dramatic nails, even though you just got them done two days ago, because you found another style you want more? Who can deny you? It’s your world. 

Was it manifestation? Who knows. The one thing you do know is that the world hands you everything on a pure gold platter.

Popularity followed you whenever you went, but who could blame you? You were the epitome of everything sexy. From the way your rose-colored wedges beautifully complement your flawless white toes against your dark skin to how your denim mini skirts hug your curves and accentuate your figure, and your tops, or mainly bikini tops, enhance your boobs so well that they could make a grown man cry. 

Had you been an adult woman in the 90s instead of being a high-maintenance child, you might have been a star, perhaps even one of the most iconic video vixens. However, that title belongs to your momma. The OG.

She was the sought-after beauty every top rapper wanted for their music videos. From Snoop Dogg to 50 Cent, Lil Wayne to Jay Z, Biggie - she lit up screens. She even brought fire to the feud between Tupac and Biggie when she appeared in the latter’s video. You’re almost sure that lady even told you about how Pac was nearly your father before she met your dad. And you, like the little minx you were, lived up to her status.

Now, you weren’t in those modern-day rap videos of the pretty big booty woman shaking their ass on camera. Your momma raised you to have more class than that. She taught you that your ass isn’t the biggest asset you have to offer, figuratively. Your face is, the way you make people feel is, the way you seduce people is. 

That resulted in you appearing in a few music videos where the artist expressed love for someone, as those typically featured the camera focused on one girl. And that girl was you. Those got you the recognition your momma had. Those got men practically lining up to pay all your bills, those got plentiful women dying to either be you or be with you.

Your reputation preceded you; you were exceptional, operating on a different level altogether. Your complexion was flawless, your lips rich and full, and your eyes possessed a captivating allure that could weaken anyone with just one glance. You were taught to always go after the best because you are the best. 

So, what the hell was your ass doing walking around in Oakland City? Wearing your ripped undercut booty shorts, which showed more booty than shorts, along with a vintage Dior top you borrowed stole from your momma, complete with a matching purse.

Your flower sandals from Dolce & Gabbana made such a powerful tapping sound, combined with the multiple pieces of gold adorning your wrists, ears, and neck, that everyone you passed couldn’t help but look to see just who it was, and they were definitely not disappointed.

You’re not stupid. You wouldn’t dream of entering one of the most dangerous areas of your hometown without protection. Your bedazzled gold pepper spray and your fully loaded Beretta Nano 9mm pistol in your purse, itching to be used if someone tries you.

They wouldn’t dare, though. Your momma wasn’t the only legendary figure in your family. Your dad ran one of the leading crime families in all of Atlanta, dealing with heavy drugs, counterfeiting, and smuggling illegal things across borders. He was feared just as equally as he was respected. 

Messing with you? Your pops would send their family a well-decorated package with their son on a shirt. The last man that cheated on you was a prime example. You couldn’t feel bad for him, though, you did warn him.

To answer your earlier inquiry, which has been nagging at you since you parked your Toyota GR Supra Coupe at a motel five blocks away from the neighborhood, you were there to buy drugs. Weed, more specifically. You could have asked your father, but you really weren’t up for hearing his opinion on how he believes you smoke too much. So you go to the next best thing, Satoru Gojo. 

Since your dad was focused on dealing with harder drugs, he didn’t bother with substances like shrooms or anything related to weed. He considered himself too old for that and delegated the task to his second in command and your friend since birth, Satoru. You quicken your pace, heels tapping rapidly as you approach one of his many houses. You’re almost there. 

He has some of the best shit in the A, but whenever you ask him how he does it,

“I just sell it, Sis. My best friend does all the hard stuff,” 

You would always roll your pretty eyes at this because this supposed best friend he always bragged about was never around. At first, you believed he fibbed about having a best friend out of embarrassment, suspecting that you were the only one who could tolerate his antics.

But you saw glimpses, small ones. A fine leather jacket hanging off his dining room chair that you know Satoru wouldn’t wear. A motorcycle helmet standing tall on the side of his kitchen counter. Your suspicions proved unfounded as your gaze shifted to a sleek, blacked-out MTT 420 Turbine Superbike as you approached Toru’s driveway. 

You know damn well that can’t belong to Satoru. Your movements stop once you knock harshly on the door. You catch the faint sound of a random trap song playing through it. You can’t help but smile, amused by how predictably cliché this white-haired man-child can be. Trap music at a trap house.

Your smile fades as you’re met with a cold glare from a short, thick, light-skinned girl wearing a blonde wig. Studying her features further, you can’t help but acknowledge her prettiness. But the minute she opened her mouth, you were annoyed.

“And, who the fuck you is?” She snaps loudly, the gum she’s chewing matching her obnoxiousness. She’s too pretty for this.

“Girl, bye.” You push past her, causing her to stumble slightly, as you march into the house. Maybe she was about to say something, but you didn’t stick around to find out. With your back turned to her, you catch Satoru muttering softly and glancing past you, “Don’t even try it.” 

She sucks her teeth in annoyance, slamming the door behind her as she heads back to the couch where Satoru, another man, and three other girls are seated. Wait- another man? 

You glance back at the couch again, only to steady your hands on the wall you were leaning on. Woah. This man was so fine that he almost made your legs give out on you. The fuck?

His face was so pretty. Sharp black eyes and the longest hair you’ve ever seen on a man. The wife beater he wore clung tightly to his perfect skin, so much so that you could make out that he had nipple piercings. Woah. The tattoos trailing up both of his muscular arms had you ready to remind yourself to just fucking breathe. He sported washed black Chrome Heart jeans, and the pretty cross peeking from his waistband gave it away. 

This man was looking at you, more like undressing you with his eyes. And you couldn’t look away.

“You can’t be knocking on my door like that Sis, I almost thought you were the feds.” Satoru hums, though he really wasn’t worried. He knew the feds couldn’t hold him for long; he had too much money for that. You quickly glance at him and roll your eyes. When you shift your gaze away from Toru, you turn back to the man who has yet to introduce himself to you.

As if he could read your mind, he rises from his seat, his towering height catching you off guard, and he saunters almost sensually towards where you’re standing in the kitchen. The minute he stands in front of you,

“Suguru Geto. You’re beautiful if you don’t mind me saying,” He brings a hand out to shake yours, his eyes never shifting from your brown ones. You glance down for a moment, and you swear you can feel your heartbeat in your pussy when you catch sight of his immaculately clean, clear polished nails, his fingers adorned with silver rings. Lord, help you.

You give him a smile when you register his compliment, “Y/n. You’re the infamous best friend I hear so much about but never see?” You raise a brow.

Suguru swears he’s died and went to heaven when he hears your honey voice. He thinks he’s met the prettiest girl he’s laid eyes on. The gold grill you have of what he remembers is the Scorpio sign confirms it. I mean, just look at you, your outfit, your jewelry, and your face. 

Suguru believes he knows himself. He knows he doesn’t like girls that do “too much,” but you make it look so good. He knows he doesn’t even have a fetish for feet. But if you told him to right now, he would drop down immediately and worship yours. He believed a goddess was walking among him when you walked through the door. 

“That’s me, the idiot doesn’t have anyone else,” He mutters. You let out the cutest laugh at his comment that makes his dick harden in his jeans. Lord, help him.

Satoru lets out a dramatic gasp behind the two of you, “Hey! I have Y/n!” You immediately retort at him, raising a finger at him. 

“Aht! No, you don’t,” You chuckle, snickering and rolling your eyes as you catch him placing a hand on his heart as if you’ve just shot him.

“Stop hogging my best friend and come get what you came for, Sis,” He waves a bag in the air, holding at least 20 grams of weed, ignoring the two girls tugging on both of his arms.

You squeal and sprint as fast as your heels allow towards where he’s seated. Suguru follows after you slowly, feeling ashamed at the way the other two girls cling to him the moment he sits down. He wants nothing to do with them, he feels almost disgusted by their presence now that you’re here. He didn’t even realize they were here when he arrived, he was only here for Satoru.

You snatch the bag from him, slip it into your purse, and then lunge toward him for a hug, knowing he’d never let you pay, of course.

“Thank you, Toru!” Naturally, he wastes no time pushing the two girls aside to embrace you. You’ve always been his top priority. Suguru finds it challenging to look away because as you hug his best friend, your curvaceous behind is directly in his line of sight. He wishes you would hug him like that.

When you straighten, “I gotta go. You guys seem busy anyway,” You quickly utter and glance at Suguru. He seemed like he was about to say something, but you interject before he can. 

“It was nice meeting you, Suguru.” You softly tell him. He might’ve just came in his pants with the way you said his name in that tone. He pauses for a moment, but before he can utter a word, you’ve already dashed out the front door.

He stills, and he turns to his lifelong best friend,

“Give me her number.”

It’s been about two hours since you arrived at your loft. You prepared yourself a nice dinner, a well-made Alfredo, before making your way to your room. You sink into the comfort of your silk sheets, retrieving your ashtray and preparing to roll up. Soft Erykah Badu playing from your Alexa Speaker. You’re interrupted by an unknown number dinging on your phone. 

Who’s this?

You smile immediately, feeling a rush of nerves as you realize he asked Satoru for your number. You're accustomed to getting what you want, and right now, you want him. You eagerly await his text, noticing that he's typing.

You observe his directness. Suguru is texting you as if he knows exactly what he wants, and if there's one thing you admire in a man, it's when he's decisive and goes after what he wants. You've already decided to smoke with him, swiftly swapping your shorts for a black Juicy Tracksuit as it got windy. You opt to play a little hard to get.

Your jaw drops at the amount he sent you for an Uber. Is he crazy? While you’ve had people send you rides to go somewhere, you can’t shake the feeling that he just wanted an excuse to send you money. You’re still reeling from the shock when he immediately sends you the address to his place afterward. You grab two rolled-up blunts and slide on a pair of kitten heels. Snatching your keys, you head out when your Uber driver arrives outside.

The drive to his place is surprisingly short, almost too short. Considering how spread out the area is, you’ve only been in the car for 15 minutes, yet you’re still in the same neighborhood. You brush it off and approach his door. As you knock, you notice Suguru’s driveway filled with three vehicles: the motorcycle you saw earlier, a Mercedes E-Class, and a sleek BMW M3. You can’t help but appreciate yet another reason you’re drawn to him.

He opens the door, and you swear you wish you could pounce on him. He’s still wearing the wife beater, and when you glance up at his face, you notice his eyes are low and red. With his hair tied up in a man bun, a few strands cascading over his face, the only thought running through your mind is... He’s so pretty.

“You started getting lit without me?” You feign surprise as he welcomes you inside. He kindly takes your keys and hangs them on the holder by his door. You could feel him staring at your ass as you move to stand beside him.

He chuckles, shaking his head at you. He reaches a hand out. “You know how Satoru is. My room?” You nod, and he shivers as your long, pretty nails brush against his hand. Was everything about you so alluring?

You follow behind him, noting how he never lets go of your hand. His room, much like his style, is entirely black. Black sheets adorn a king-sized bed, with a few rock band posters hanging above where his dressers are placed. He even has a private bathroom, the door wide open. Damn, this man even has lavender incense burning on the small desk next to his bed.

“Make yourself comfortable, sweetheart,”

Don’t mind if I do. You drop your body on his bed with a plop. You start to take off your right heel, intending to reach for the left one, only to find Suguru already kneeling down, doing it for you. When he’s done, he rubs your feet for about three long seconds before pulling away. You gasp softly, looking away from his intense gaze. Is he usually this forward?

“Uh- I rolled two. I get lip gloss on the blunt,” You sputter out, retrieving them from your purse as he stands up from his position on the floor and settles onto his pillow.

He makes a tsk sound, “Don’t play with me,” He grabs only one from your raised hand and pulls a skull lighter from his jeans pocket. As you place the other one in your purse, you watch him take the first hit. You realize he enjoys eye contact because, throughout all of his movements, his eyes never leave yours.

You’re nervous. For the first time in your life, a man has made you feel nervous. His energy makes you nervous, how he observes you with such intensity makes you nervous, and even how he feeds you the blunt after taking a few hits makes you nervous.

You’re mesmerized. The effects of the blunts hit you swiftly, altering your mind and intensifying your urge to fuck this man till he sees stars.

Suguru himself has never felt this way before. He’s had a few flings here and there and has even been in a relationship or two. But he’s never felt the need to be entirely consumed by someone. The minute he saw you, it felt like time had stopped for him; he could hear how fast his heart was beating. He wanted to impress you. He wanted to give you the universe because the world is far too small for someone like you.

“You have a boyfriend?” His husky voice asks this out of respect for you. Honestly, he couldn’t give a fuck less if you had a man. You’d be his either way.

“Why? You want me?” You giggle, though you knew he did, you just wanted to tease him. As you gaze up at him through the haze, your breath catches when you observe that his eyes have darkened noticeably. You recognize that expression all too well—it mirrors the one you give the camera when it’s focused on you.

He doesn’t respond or even break a smile at your inquiry. No, his eyes are fixated on your plump, glossed lips as you take another hit. You shift your thighs a little, you don’t know how long you can wait before he makes his move.

Suguru notices, and this time, his lips twitch up a bit, “And if I did?” His whisper keeps you quiet. What the hell were you supposed to say to that? Suguru doesn’t mind your silence. He needs you to savor your angelic tune anyway since you’ll scream his name in a few minutes. Rising from his position, he tilts your chin towards him, his eyes catching note of the smoke in your mouth. Drawing his lips dangerously close to yours, he exhales softly,

“Let it go.” You don’t hesitate to listen to his command. It’s as if your mind is his now, the way he doesn’t even do anything to get your attention. As soon as the smoke escapes your lips, he inhales it, pressing his soft lips firmly against yours.

You whimper out at the force and immediately kiss him back. Suguru swears he’s already in love when he feels your lips reciprocate his action, the stickiness of your strawberry gloss making him release a sound that had you squeezing your thighs. He’s relentless, nipping and forcing his tongue to merge with yours.

His fervor with just a kiss leaves you reeling. The combination of the weed and his lips makes you feel intoxicated, causing you to grasp onto the fabric of his jeans to steady yourself. When he pulls away from you, it only makes you crave more.

You’re both breathing heavily, and the sound of Brent Faiyez playing on his speaker is long tuned out. He stares at your eyes briefly before gently pulling you down to lay on your back. You lean up to pull him into another passionate kiss,

“More, please.” You whine out, a little too desperate for your taste. You couldn’t understand why you wanted him so bad, maybe it was the weed, or maybe it was the fact that your pussy was dripping the minute you saw him at Satoru’s place. You can tell he wants to take things slow, but you can’t find it in you to share the same feeling. You need him to do something to you, now.

He only whispers, “Patience, sweetheart.” And moves his lips down to your neck. Soft kisses fill your throat before he stops teasing and reaches for your zipper. He's not shocked to learn that you don't wear a bra; he could almost see your hard nipples through the velvet fabric of your hoodie.

Your sigh of satisfaction comes from the moment he wraps his lips around your dark areola and gently caresses the fat of your unattended boob. He starts slowly, listening to the sounds you make and observing how he can persuade you to moan louder. Your breath gets shaky when he gets more aggressive with his movement, pulling at your sensitive nipples. He decides that he wants more from you.

Suguru rasps out, “I know you want me to fuck you,” Your body feels on fire as his touch slithers down your stomach, grazing your belly ring. He lowers your tracksuit pants for you and throws them across his room, forbidding you to do anything that doesn’t include you receiving pleasure. Your body is anticipating as he continues, “But I need to prep you, or you won’t be able to take me,”

He toys with the slender strap of your thong, his gaze fixed unwaveringly on your face as he talks, “Be good and let me play with you for a bit, okay?”

Your fiery personality is well-known for not letting men dictate your actions. You’re quick to dismiss any nigga, and based on instinct, you’re almost prepared to snap: Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to? 

By now, you should realize that Suguru observes every single move you make, every slight gesture you make, when your breath catches, and even now, he detects that you intend to snap at him. He does nothing but give you a look, a dangerous look, which only implies I dare you. Suguru orchestrates a dominance so calm but prominent that you can’t help but whimper out a quiet “Yes,”

What is he doing to you?

He presses a kiss to the side of your mouth as a reward. He’s in a trance. Suguru can’t pull his gaze away from your panties. You’re so wet that it’s clinging onto the fabric as he slowly pulls it away from your lower lips. He finds himself plunging two fingers into your wet cunt before your thong even touches your knees. Fuck, you’re tight.

“Ah- shit! Sugu!” You mewl, walls immediately clenching on his thick fingers. He quickly begins to rub circles on your twitching clit, observing as you gasp and scramble under him. You’re so beautiful like this, he thinks. He doesn’t hesitate to tell you this, too.

“I know, sweetheart. You’re so beautiful, y’know that?” Your slick is dripping all over his palm as he finger fucks you. You try to keep your moans in, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of seeing you lose your mind. But you can’t. You can’t do anything but scream out at the way his long fingers are effortlessly punishing your G-spot.

Suguru moves his fingers faster when you don’t answer him, “I asked you a question, baby.” 

Your loud whimpers can be heard over his music. How could you possibly answer? You’re already starting to blank, you’re not sure you even listened to what he said. “I- Oh fuck, Yes!” 

The sounds coming from your fat pussy is downright phonographic. The squishing, the squelching. Shit, it’s even dripping onto his bed, creating a wet stain. Fuck. Suguru doesn’t think he can take another minute without being inside you. He needs it, but he needs to make you cum first. 

He knows you’re about to, with the way your breathing is stuttering and the way there’s a white cream starting to stain his fingers as he pushes them in and out of you. You’re clenching so hard he’s not sure his dick will fit inside of you. He’ll make it fit, he’ll break your little pussy in if he has to.

Suguru leans against you, his desperate panting revealing his longing for you as he whispers in your ear, “I need you to cum for me, sweetheart. Can you do that for me?” He fucks his fingers inside of you harder, rubbing your pretty clit even faster.

You nod eagerly, mind already reeling as you wail, “Y-Yes. I’m gonna cum, Sugu! I- Shitt,” He gently kisses your lips, sliding his tongue into your mouth as if he’s encouraging you to accept it, to just cum all over him. And you do.

Your grip on the bottom of Suguru’s wifebeater hurts your fingers, and you arch your back off the bed while your tight walls clench once more around him. You see white spots in your blacked-out vision, and your squealing is so loud that you worry the neighbors will hear it. He doesn’t stop moving when you cum, wanting to prolong what he knows is the strongest orgasm you’ve ever had. 

When you finally stop twitching in aftershock, your breathing begins to slow down, and his movements follow suit. Your panties are long gone. He swiftly pulls out of you while you’re still in a daze, making you unaware that he’s sucking up your essence from his fingers and pulling his jeans down along with his Calvin Klein briefs.

You are, however, aware when he pushes your thick brown thighs flush against your chest. And you’re even more aware when he lines his fat pink tip to your sticky lower lips. Suguru doesn’t let you see just how big he is, he directs your focus to his lips on yours. But Lord, do you fucking feel it. You feel it when he rubs up and down on your wet slit. You feel it when he pushes only his tip inside of you before he pulls back out again.

Suguru doesn’t think he can keep on teasing you like this. He tries to keep it up for your sake, but the way you feel on his tip has his body shaking; it’s almost embarrassing. But he can’t find himself to feel ashamed when you look up at him at him like that, your eyes pleading for him to fuck you into the mattress.

“I’m gonna put it in now, baby. I’m gonna fuck you real good, okay?” You’re learning, you know he wants an answer from you, and you don’t bat an eye when your trembling, honeyed voice whispers, “Whatever y-you want, Sugu.”

Whatever he wants? You probably should’ve never said that, and he’ll show you why. He pushes inside of your cunt slowly, hissing at the same time you shriek when your walls try to push him out. “Breathe,” He rasps out. And you’re trying, you’re really trying to. But he’s just so fucking big, it’s like he’s breaking your pussy in half. 

“Y-You’re too big! I can’t-” He doesn’t let you finish, he proves that you can when he pushes in halfway through your slobbering pussy. 

“Of course you can, Y/n. You’re almost there, sweetheart. One more breath for me, yeah?” 

You listen wordlessly, sucking in another deep breath. It’s inevitable to cry when he plunges the rest of his 8 and a half inches in one go. Suguru lets out a groan in your ear, and the sound makes your insides churn. How is it that he immediately finds your spongy spot? You’re so used to being briefly grazed in that spot that this feeling is foreign to you.

Suguru gives you a few seconds before your pussy starts suffocating him, and he’s forced to start feeding you with slow, deep strokes. “Jesus, fuck!” You keen, mewling, and pressing on his firm abs; the pressure was just too much for you. Are you crazy?

“None of that Y/n.” He uses his left hand to hold both of your hands and place them above your head, gently grasping your throat with his right. All the while, his eyes never leave yours, and his big cock never stops stirring up your guts at that slow pace. He gets impatient. 

“You feel so good, so fucking tight. Pretty pussy is mine now, yeah? Tell me it is,” Gradual snapping of his hips against yours in a feverous tempo causes you to scramble under him, with your mind getting lost since you can’t find anything to keep you grounded. He has you altogether under his control, and you can’t find it in yourself to be upset.

You don’t respond, your brain too gone to form any thought that’s not Sugu. You’ve forgotten your manners, he’ll make sure to remind you. He snaps his hips harder, he swears the cries you make almost make him cum on the spot.

“Words, Y/n. Tell me this perfect pussy is mine,” The sound of your soaked pussy filling the air as he whispers against your lips, which are permanently shaped in a perfect O.

You weep out, “Fuck! Oh, Sugu- it’s yours, all yours! I- Ah!” His face adorns with a sly smile at your confession. His body is on fire, your pussy perfectly snug around the shape of his cock. He knows he’s about to cum, with the way his insides are twisting, and his heavy balls are twitching rapidly as they slap on the fat on your ass. Your pussy is so good that he swears you’re not even from this planet. But he needs to get you there first. That’s all he needs to dump his seed inside of you.

He slithers the hand gripping your throat down to your drooling clit, rubbing so fast you think you’re having whiplash. Your cries become louder, and before you even know what’s happening, you’re covering Suguru’s entire stomach and his soft sheets with your squirt.

Suguru follows swiftly after you, letting out a sinful moan, his body trembling as he fills your pussy with his cum. It’s so much, so fucking much, that you can feel it overflowing past your stretched-out pussy. The sluggishness of his thrusts inside you causes him to let out loud breaths and drop his face in the crook of your neck.

Your eyes are still stuck on the ceiling above you, shallow breaths emerging from your sore throat. Woah.

The long-haired man above you is still panting and giving you another command, making it difficult for you to process what just happened to you.

“On your stomach, sweetheart.”

This time, you remember your manners.

[theclaravita]

Lightfall Thoughts - Spoiler Heavy

So I've given the expansion a bunch of thought, played a bunch of the new stuff, done a bunch of testing, talked to a bunch of people, watched a bunch of videos... I have a list. It's a very depressing list. Filled with spoilers. And salt. Read at your own risk.

PROS

Strand is an absolute joy to play. I've only played on Warlock, but the general consensus that I'm seeing is that Strand is powerful, satisfying, and fun. The three things all subclasses should be.

Strand upgrade unlocks happen at a quick, satisfying pace. You can plan your build at the Pouka Pond, and Meditations drop really frequently, especially once you get to 1720+ and can actually start doing Terminal Overload for 100 per key. No bullshit questing requiring dead gamemodes. No strings, ironically enough.

Neomuna is gorgeous and full of lore references. As a lore junkie and devout watcher of My Name Is Byf, Neomuna is so fascinating and I see the history flowing out before me very clearly. You can see how the city is cradled by the rocky floating island it's on, how the cliffs around it are craggy and treacherous, and how the buildings are all very clearly Braytech/Ishtar Collective themed. The design is clearly inspired and thought-out: this city didn't pop into existence overnight and it feels like it.

The cutscenes are phenominally directed and cool. Almost all of the plot happens via gorgeously rendered cutscenes that had me leaning in and staring at my screen in awe. The events happening on-screen were baffling, terrifying, and made me acutely aware of the stakes. The deaths of the OG fireteam was... Chilling. And the Witness unnerved me in just the right way anytime they were present; even more so when Calus got his scolding for his failures.

The Loadout and Mod Systems are a godssend. I don't use the Loadout system nearly as much as I should... Which makes sense, seeing as I'm just above the soft cap for now. But the new Mods system is INSANE and lets me do disgusting things like INCREASE THE PASSIVE DAMAGE OF MY GJALLARHORN TO OVER 100K PER ROCKET. I've heard of people making builds that cause Winterbite to do over ONE MILLION DAMAGE. My current favorite casual build is orb spam with Osteo Striga + Necrotic Grip, then Kinetic Surge x2. Single projectiles are doing 3k-5k and it's ticking for 8k at times. It's FOUL in Terminal Overload and it carried me through the Classic Campaign.

The new Tower is great. Nothing else to say here; I like the tree and Cayde's memorial. The destroyed corner of the Tower was honestly jarring and pissing me off. I'm just that petty.

Vendor rankups are lightning fast. I'm already rank 30+ with Nimbus, rank 8 with the Vanguard, and I finally reset with Xur. I think I'm also around rank 10 with the War Table already, though I have no idea how; I think it grants EXP from Neomuna stuff too?

Nimbus.

CONS

So. Many. Bugs. I know it's said every update, but this feels like an open beta. The game's clearly done, but it needs polish. The amount of times I had graphical bugs during the amazing cutscenes really threw me out of the moment and undercut the gravity of those scenes. ("Osiris, I don't mean to interrupt my own training montage, but your robe seems to want to go back to Earth.") I've had a few game breaking bugs that I'll list here. - Player models turning invisible... Including my own, along with my weapons' sights and scopes as well. Every time it happens, it suddenly makes the game almost impossible to play. I can't see where I'm aiming when I ADS, there's no audio feedback from reloading or moving/jumping/gliding, and I never realized how much I relied on those audio cues while playing until they were gone. - The seasonal artifact keeps breaking. I've narrowed it down to the second column of perks for me, but not everyone is having this issue. If I unlock any of the mod authorizations, all of my perks stop activating -- including anti-Champion measures. - Commendations overview screen crashes my game. I've had it happen only once, but the fact that it happened at all is troubling. I've also heard of other people having this happen every time they open it, and Bungie has acknowledged it. It's still inexcusable that this wasn't caught. - Mods don't apply all the time. The new Mod system is great... When it works. Several times now, I've applied mods to test a buid and they just... Don't work. I thought I was misunderstanding their effects or something. Nope; sometimes you have to unequip and reequip mods to have their effects actually work. This specifically happens every time with the Empowered Finish mod, (I make sure I have no Armor Charge before trying, since it only grants a charge when you have none), and the Stacks On Stacks mod, (it regularly only grants a single Armor Charge unless I have two instances of the mod equipped).

Enemies are harder now, and we can't spam abilities as much... And the enemy placement did NOT change to accommodate this. If you're going to make an enemy one-shot with a clearly charged and obvious attack, MAYBE don't have FIVE OF THEM PERFECTLY POSITIONED TO BARRAGE ME NO MATTER WHERE I TAKE COVER. That shit worked when I had a Rift or Barricade every 45 seconds. I could weather it. I could huck a grenade over there and clear some space. But enemies are all sponges, they do an asston of damage, and I have NO FUCKING COVER. There's a BOSS-LEVEL HVT that's 1800+ that roams around IN THE SKY with two adds that follow it, similarly beefed up, THAT FLOAT DOWN INTO THE COVERED SPACES??? WHAT DO I DO AGAINST THAT??? I'M JUST TRYING TO DO A PATROL, MAN.

Lots and lots of kills credited to the Architects. I understand that you need a failsafe for when the player and enemy interact in an unexpected way... But RAGDOLLING MY GUARDIAN OUT OF THE MAP because an enemy GENTLY WALKED INTO ME is not valid. The most prevalent strategy I've seen deployed by minor enemies on Neomuna is crowding the player and pushing them into walls to death. Psions do it, War Beasts do it, Goblins do it. They just dash/run/teleport into you and push you around. Oh, got a Rift there? SEVEN WARBEASTS ALL ATTACKING YOU AT ONCE, DOING NO DAMAGE BECAUSE THEY'RE PUSHING EACH OTHER OUT OF THE WAY AND OOPS YOU'RE IN A WALL AND ARE CATAPULTED OUT OF THE MAP. WOE BE UPON YE, LIGHTBEARER.

Walls are not obstacles to enemies... And empty space is not a passage for players. The amount of times I've been killed by a Thresher from across the map, with multiple walls between me and it... Or better yet, getting headshot by a Hobgoblin that is glitched out of the map, on top of a building, behind an invisible barrier it can SHOOT THROUGH, when I'm literally UNDERGROUND. Or when the Tormenter just fuses with a wall, is nowhere near me, and somehow grapples me? DARK HARVEST, LIGHTBEARER. EAT SHIT. IT DEFIES SPACE AND TIME. Additionally, I've shot Gjallarhorn rockets into OPEN AIR, NOWHERE NEAR AN OBSTACLE, and it blew up in my face. I tested it afterward: if you stand in the very middle of the Zephyr Concourse (with the spinny gyroscope structure) and shoot out of the circle, there's a CHANCE that it will hit a wall that isn't there. It's one of the spinny things. At some point, they desync from the graphic and it blocks your path in midair. I tested it further: I was able to reliably get physics-killed by "nothing" by jumping when I knew it would be there based on previous cycles. I'd been in the area for four hours farming Terminal Overload (before I got a key, sadly), so maybe it just desyncs over time? Still stupid.

The open world is boring and unfun to traverse. It looks pretty. I appreciate the little lore references. But FUCK ME RUNNING it's a chore to traverse. There aren't enough grapple points for Strand, and the ones that are there serve no purpose. There's still annoying as fuck deathplanes and invisible barriers, sometimes RIGHT NEXT TO a grapple point, CLEARLY SET UP FOR ME TO JUMP UP ON TOP OF THAT BUILDING, but if I do I die or bounce out. There's too much ground clutter, too few sweeping avenues, too many bottomless pits, too few ledges to jump down from. THEY LITERALLY SHOWED A HUNTER DIVING OFF A BUILDING IN THE TRAILER. WHY CAN'T I FUCKING DO THAT. YOU LITERALLY SOLD THE FUCKING EXPANSION WITH THAT SHIT.

The rewards from Neomuna activities are boring. The new weapons are neat, and that's about it. I miss gathering materials and trading them in. Using materials for upgrades, and the implication that we were trading them into the vendors who would then CRAFT THEM INTO GEAR for us! That was dope! And using materials to unlock upgrades on my badass weapons as I used them... YEAH! Now it's all cores, prisms, shards, and glimmer. That's it. SNORE. And dropping a ton of Strand Meditations all at once has made what I THOUGHT was going to be a length grind into... Nothing. I'm already 3/4 of the way done. And I've only done 10 Terminal Overload runs. I have 900 meditations. I only need 1600 more to get all the fragments. Why even do it this way? I haven't even played Strand outside of the required times for quests. And I almost have the grind done. Just unlock everything out the gate or don't do this way at all. Another example of the game being stuck with "this is how we did it BEFORE..."

Everything being centered on cores now has put a MASSIVE strain on my stock of upgrade materials, and it's forcing me to CHOOSE: keep my gear up to the bleeding edge of my power level, or reshape my weapon I've leveled up and grinded with enhanced perks? Upgrade my armor, or shape a new weapon from the plentiful patterns I'm unlocking? Giving me assured progress on crafting patterns, letting me unlock new patterns quickly, and letting me do that with NEW WEAPONS that are SHINY and FUN? That's great! Love it! Locking me behind a grind of fucking enhancement cores to take advantage of these increased rates of unlock? Kinda makes me want to uninstall the game. Weapon shaping was such a cool system when it launched: you had to seek out the weapons that had the right perks so you can get the materials you need to craft weapons with those perks. Great! Then it got simplified: no more perk-specific mats. And now it's been stripped down fully: no mats at all. Now it's not worth it. I don't give a single royal FUCK about crafting these weapons, and I'm SO GLAD I reshaped my core loadout BEFORE Lightfall... Because I'm not doing it anymore. Congrats, Bungo; weapon shaping is no longer the most effective tactic... It's the least effective tactic. And with the ability to enhance perks on random roll weapons coming, WHAT THE FUCK WAS THE FUCKING GODSDAMNED FUCKING POINT OF ADDING THE WEAPON CRAFTING SYSTEM OTHER THAN TO SELL WITCH QUEEN??? SERIOUSLY??? JUST FUCKING REMOVE IT ALREADY, THEN.

And now for the worst part. I was going to write up a huge wall of text outlining my problems with the lore. I was going to go into detail, with references and pictures and shit. But my mental health would not stay in the "I'm okay" zone for long if I did that. This shit absolutely makes my blood boil. Instead of breaking down every single gripe I have, I'm going to make another list. I'm not going to spend 10,000+ characters describing why this shit sucks. I'm going to keep each gribe short and sweet. Well, more sour. Anyway.

THE LORE

The Veil is not a fully-realized concept. I think they had a cool idea for how it would look and then didn't know how to progress from there. It's clearly an eyeball, right? I'm not nuts for thinking that? It's never referred to that way. "Roots" they called them. THEY'RE FUCKING VEINS. THAT'S AN OPTIC NERVE. GHOST. YOU'RE A FLOATING EYEBALL. HOW DID YOU NOT SEE THE SIMILARITY.

People talk about the Veil as if they know what it is. They don't. Why was the dialogue written as if it was understood? It verly clearly isn't, based on the post-game quests. And now there's not threat right? Why don't we go study it? The way is open.

The Veil was unveiled (wink) during the final chapter of the third act. We had no time to really come to terms with it as an object. And now it's hidden away in "you already did this quest" land forever. They talk about it a bit in the post-game quests, but it's almost immediately just shoved aside for "ROHAN'S LEGACY".

Calus was a terrible character and showed no development at all. I expected him to be either a chillingly calculated new kind of evil or fully batshit insane. He's still the snarky, irreverent snob that he's always been. He's just gold-plated now. Also his combat style is just "Colossus meets Caretaker" followed by "he's just a fucking Gladiator". I died more from him pushing me off the edge of the platform than his attacks. Pathetic.

The Witness was chilling and terrifyingly powerful: perfect for a new main antagonist. They killed an entire swathe of Guardians with a flick of their finger. I want to fight them. We do not even interact with them. They then fucked off into the Kaleidoscope Dimension of Triangles. "We can't follow it." Fuck you, I'm gonna try.

I didn't even blink when Rohan died. Not only did I expect it, I called exactly how he would die sacrificing himself because other people fucked up. He was a boring character with a boring end. His legacy is one of mediocrity.

We literally just call it capital-S "Strand" with no ceremony or explanation. It just comes out of Ghost's mouth. I did all the side dialogue stuff, talked to every NPC between each quest. It is never referred to as Strand except when Ghost randomly calls it that. This is minor, but it is a plot hole that triggers my writer's instinct. It needs to be explained. "This power... It's like strings... Ribbons... Strands... Strand!" That's all I wanted.

Stasis spent way too much time introducing the concept and feeding it to us a little at a time. Strand had no introduction, we literally find it randomly in the second mission, instantly play with it, and then randomly master it half-way through the story... But DON'T unlock it as a power? The training montage was cool and funny. Watching my Warlock unmaker herself with cosmic strings got a chuckle out of me. Just really wish Osiris's feathers hadn't been reaching for infinity during that cutscene.

Why and how was Callus able to just shout a hole through all of the Veil's defenses, all the way down to the actual fucking VAULT IT'S CONTAINED IN, but then uses a gun and swords to fight us? He should be able to just... Shout our Ghost apart, right? He can just will a goblet into being with his mind from raw ore, but he can't have a Tormentor grab us so he can crush our Ghost? I can apparently crush a Ghost with my bare hand, (Lucent Hive taught me that), but Callus can't? How was he powerful enough to vocally drill to the core of the planet, but impotent enough that I killed him with a sword?

"The Traveler is gone..." What? No it isn't. It just has aetherpunk-puke hole disorder. We still have the Light, right? So the Traveler isn't GONE... Why is everyone saying it's gone? We can see it from the HELM! The Witness and all the Pyramid ships are gone, though. That's nice. The Traveler is still clearly there. WHY DOES EVERYONE THINK IT'S GONE???

Nezerec? Really? He had no interactions with the Vex that we know of. And he's in the Vex Network? Really? Kind of a blind left hook there, Bungie. And if he betrayed the Witness, why is he still so evil? Is the implication that "Disciple of the Witness" isn't the ultimate way to be evil? That Nezerec is MORE evil? I don't understand. And knowing this game, I never will.

No interactions with Poukas to help us unlock Strand? Except the implied help we get at the Pouka Pond? Not even a cutscene showing that that's how we're doing it? Just walk up and "here's your shit, now go farm currency".

So many glaring issues I saw in the space battle cutscenes... Why was the Traveler's light beam completely ineffective against the Witness? And why did the Witness get a vision when it touched the Traveler? And why was it of Neptune specifically? And how was the HELM hit by the huge Pyramid ship shockwaves when it was clearly on the opposite side of the battle? Did our entire fleet get annihilated by that attack? What about Callus's ships? Why weren't they destroyed? That entire scene was so jarring and cluttered and had so many continuity issues and inconsistencies. It was cool in the trailers, but we literally saw the entire scene from beginning to end before the launch. It was clearly cut to be trailer fodder and that's really it.

Where the fuck is Xivu Arath and the Hive during all of this? No tombships, no Bladed Terrace... Isn't this battle enough of a clarion call to her that Xivu Arath can use it to call forth her forces from the Ascendant Plane? What about the war on Neptune? WHY IS THE HIVE GOD OF WAR NOT PRESENT FOR THE WAR TO END ALL WARS???

The seasonal story... Why are the Cabal taking prisoners at all? Isn't the entire purpose to destroy us? And why are they kept 5 at a time in a giant Pyramid complex with a single cage in the middle of a huge temple-like room? Are they to be sacrificed? And who are these people anyway? They look like civilians, but Amanda was with them... Were they pilots? Are they Guardians? If not, why were they in the space battle? How did they survive an attack that clearly decimated our entire fleet? Why did they crash on the EDZ?

I have more, but my computer is lagging from how long this post has become. I also need to eat breakfast. I've not slept in 24 hours and now I have a long day ahead of me to reset my sleep schedule.

I regret buying this expansion. I'm not going to whine and bitch about refunding. I made the choice to trust Bungo with my money and I got what I paid for. The fact that what I paid for was apparently a pile of shit is irrelevant. I really hope the seasons to come save this game. But I stand with what My Name Is Byf said: this game is now firmly in the category of "I cannot recommend it". Save your money; don't get Lightfall if you haven't already. Unless you really want to spend $60 for a new subclass. The best parts of this expansion for the most part are available for free.

My heart is breaking for this game... Here's hoping it redeems itself.

[aquaburst3]

Fic asks: 2, 5, 8, 11, 13 and 14.

Undercut, because long and spoilers...

2. What character(s) do you find the most difficult to write for? Why?

So far, I guess Grim (Twisted Wonderland). While he’s a fun character and I love how he’s one of the few mascot characters in anime who gets character development, he’s a bit of a handful. That’s an understatement. I have to try constantly think about how he would act in certain points in the story, and how my OC would react to him.  

 I also find it’s hard to incorporate Grim into scenes. Sometimes I want my OC to be alone talking with someone or be by herself. Since the MC dragged around Grim in the game so much, I have to think of a way to include him in or think of a reason for him to stay out of it. 

Jamil and Kalim (Twisted Wonderland) are also hard to write for that similar reason. I want to make the Pomefiore arc happen earlier in the fic, so I have to constantly think of how to write them pre-character development in an arc that takes place after they grew as characters in the canon. But unlike with Grim, it’s in a fun challenge sort of way. Because it has a bit of a butterfly effect on the story. 

(If you don’t play the game, the Pomefiore arc is the 5th one. But I decided for a few different reasons, which I don’t want to get into, that I want to make it the 3rd, make Octavinelle 4th that happens during December finals season and Sacrabia the 5th, which happens over Spring Break. So because it’s bumped up in the timeline, my OC knows those two a lot better compared to the canon, and spent a lot of time with them in the Pomefiore dorm over the month and half leading up to the competition. Their arc is gonna hurt a fuckton more.)  

5. Do you listen to music when writing?

I enjoy listening to lyricless movie soundtracks or nothing at all. I find it’s easier to concentrate that way. Music with lyrics are way to distracting to me, since my mind latches onto them and I’m much slower at writing. 

11. How would you describe your style? (Character/emotion/action-driven, etc)

Honestly, it depends on the story. Some of my fics can be fluffy while others have dark aspects to them and others are character driven. 

How I would describe my writing in a general sense, both fics and original stories? I guess I would describe it as character driven with plot driven elements. I tend to focus on character first and foremost, because I think it’s important for readers to have a compelling character to get attached to push the story forward.  (I had several people say that my biggest strength as a writer is character). But I have a lot of fun and engaging plots, mostly action/adventure, to have these character engage with. I also enjoy doing world building a lot as well. 

The voice for my OCs (both in my TWST fic and in my OG works) is down to earth and witty. A lot of my characters tend to have a sense of snark to them as they try to process the insanity around them, but they still can still feel a wide range of emotions like fear, anger, etc. Though, there are some characters that go against that (like the MC in my reverse isekai original story). 

13. When did you start writing fanfic?

Right in the middle of high school. I got into it, because one of my friends at the time had a FF.net account, and I thought it would be fun to write stories on there. Here I am almost a decade later. 

It’s also how my love of creative writing started, too. My elementary, middle and high schools never taught creative writing in class, and I never took any for my diploma. So, yeah. I’m a self taught writer. 

14. How do you feel about your older work?

Depends on how far back we’re talking as well. If it’s my stuff made during high school, I don’t like most of it outside of a couple expectations. But if we’re talking about my stuff from college and after, it depends on the story. There are some stories I’m pretty proud of years later, expect for how I phrased sentences (before I began learning how to start some sentences with things other than “I” or “Insert Character Name Here”) and odd word choices. Others I think are just weird or outright suck. I think regretting some choices in your past work is normal for any writer. I’m always trying to improve as a writer to create better stories in the future. 

Bonus...since I really want to answer this one...

1. What’s your favorite character(s) to write for?

I love writing for Bill Cipher (Gravity Falls), Pacifica Northwest (Gravity Falls), Vil (Twisted Wonderland), Jamil (Twisted Wonderland) and Ace (Twisted Wonderland). 

Bill Cipher is a chaotic ball of shit. Writing his wit and sass is a lot fun for me. Back in the day, I loved writing him interact with different fictional characters. Though, I only did it for Atem (Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters) and Judai (Yu-Gi-Oh GX) back when I was still into that franchise. (Because I’m certainly not as an adult in my mid 20s.) Might do it for other characters in other franchises if the idea strikes me. 

Pacifica is a complex and interesting character. She started off as the stereotypical mean girl. But with the NWMM episode, we got to see a whole different side of her, which added a lot of layers to her character. I love writing characters who add more complexity to the popular mean girl trope, because I always found them a lot more interesting than the dull MC in bad rom coms. 

Vil never showed up in any of my fics yet, but I’m writing parts with him in it thanks to writing some parts ahead of time. Vil is in a similar vein as Pacifica. In any other story, he would’ve been the one dimensional, vain pretty boy. But instead, he’s a hardworking guy, who wants everyone around him to shine their brightest. He hates lazy people. In that sense, he breaks a lot of tropes. Though, he has his fair share of faults as well, like his control freak tendencies, too harsh with his words and the way he treats Epel isn’t right. As a bi woman, I also love how he’s a guy who wears heels and makeup, but is never once mocked in the game for it. I do the same in my writing. Go, dude. Fuck those gender norms! 

Jamil is a blast to write, because he seems like a layered character to me. He’s a calm guy and collected guy, who he loves wearing hoodies way too much. But he’s also an intelligent, sly, cunning and manipulative guy. He seems loyal at first, but in actuality, he has a trick up his sleeve and wants to take Kalim down. His reasoning for as to why he’s doing this, while doesn’t excuse his actions, are understandable due to his family being in servants to his and him taking out his anger for his situation at the one thing he possibly could. He also has a lot of elements that humanize him as well, like the fact that he enjoys dancing, basketball and watching parrot videos. Tackling a character like him is a lot of fun for me as a writer, just due to how complex and interesting he is. 

Ace is probably the easiest character for me to write. He’s funny, mischievous and cheerful, but yet abrasive, bold, blunt, temperamental, willing to call out other’s bs and a bit of an ass. It’s pretty easy for me to get a handle on him, and understand how he would react in different situations. (As a side note, Ace reminds me of how I used to write Atem and Malik back in my YGO fics that I wrote in high school in that regard. Unlike those stories, he’s actually in character here, instead of extremely OOC like the YGO ones.)  

[shuicheese]

hey how do i get into godzilla??? like .. kaijus sound fun but i have never watched a single kaiju movie ever so im like .uwaaa

!!!

   firstly, i'm so honored that you asked me aaA- okay so, i'm gonna try to hopefully help on where to start because there's a lot of godzilla/kaiju movies out there ! you don't have to watch all of them to get into em, or watch it in order, actually, there's a buncha movies where the lore is jumbled up and such-

admittedly i haven't watched all of the movies aha-- just a handful of em ! i’m gonna put everything undercut because i ended up talking a lot aaA-

   the best way to get into it is to watch a handful of em, and starting with the first movie might be a good start, it's a classic and you'll get the idea of it

depending on your taste, you might enjoy some movies and not enjoy the rest. some of em are p goofy and silly, like godzilla vs king kong.

   my personal recommendation for godzilla movies aside from the first one is shin godzilla and the most recent movie, godzilla: king of the monsters !

shin godzilla (or godzilla resurgence as it’s called in the US,,,??) is basically a movie on its own, a reboot, you don't have to have any previous knowledge on any other godzilla movies to know what's happening with this one. there's more human interactions in this movie but whenever godzilla appears, it's really unique and such- people say it's the scariest one because of the design and such, personally, i love it and highly recommend it! [ you can watch the trailer here & here if you're interested-! ]

   godzilla: king of the monsters is a sequel to the 2014 movie, which simply named godzilla, [ mind you there's a lot of godzilla movies that's just called that so it can get confusing kjahdfasjd ] i think this movie is much superior to the first one, mainly because there's a lot of monster fighting and such. you do need a bit of knowledge for the 2014 movie, tbh i'd recommend that as well. [ just like the previous recommendation, trailer for king of the monster, and the 2014 movie~ ] 

something i feel like it’s worth mentioning; there’s a king kong movie that is canon to this adaptation of godzilla. kong: skull island is canon, admittedly i haven’t watch the entire thing, but the next movie that will be released next year will be godzilla vs kong- personally i think if you just wanna watch the godzilla movie just for fun, then the 2014 and king of monsters will be fine. 

   aside from the movies, there's an anime series or two that i haven't watched yet, so i don't know much about that? i know it's on netflix though! there’s also a tv series of the 1998 godzilla movie, the first american adaptation. i sorta enjoyed the 1998 movie, but i can see why many didn’t like it. [ the og godzilla creator left the theatres before the movie even ended-- ] but the series from what i remember was....okay? i haven’t seen it in a decade or so take this with a grain of salt-! 

i do recommend these two videos if you'd like more info! if you ever just wanna look at profiles of the other kaijus, i highly recommend watching wikizilla’s monster profiles!

   i do hope i helped you a bit and hope you'll enjoy watching some kaiju movies!!

[infotainmentplus-blog]

At this point, what can HTC do to save itself? The bad news has been coming in waves for beleaguered smartphone manufacturer HTC. Only last week the company admitted that it would be eliminating 1,500 jobs – about 22 percent of its global workforce. Today, it posted its dismal earnings for June 2018 which represent a whopping 68 percent drop year-over-year. Although we don’t want to get too doom-and-gloom, it is becoming more-and-more of a realistic thought that HTC might not survive the decade. How did HTC get to this point? And, perhaps more importantly, what can it do to save itself? History Let’s give a quick recap here of just how far HTC has fallen from its once-great heights. In 2008, HTC released the HTC Dream (aka the T-Mobile G1 or the Era G1, shown above) which was the very first commercially-released smartphone to feature the Android operating system. That’s right, HTC is the OG, one of the companies that started it all. The HTC Dream was a hit in the up-and-coming smartphone industry. By March of 2009, the Android operating system reached six percent market share in the United States, largely due to the Dream. This was no small feat, considering the competition in Windows Mobile, RIM OS, Palm OS, and of course the new iOS. Editor's Pick 5 “nostalgia phones” we want to see return The return of Nokia and BlackBerry over the past year has led a lot of us here at Android Authority to dream of other companies and phones we'd like to see come back. Under the HMD banner, … In 2010, HTC made history once again with the HTC Evo 4G, the first commercially-available 4G smartphone in the United States. Although there was some confusion about its opening day sales record at Sprint (the exclusive carrier of the Evo 4G), it handily beat sales for a brand new device released the same day called the Samsung Galaxy S. Also in 2010, HTC partnered with Google to release the Google Nexus One, which obviously is the launching pad for the entire Google smartphone ecosystem, all the way up to this year’s upcoming Google Pixel 3. HTC's importance in the history of smartphones is secure. But what about the future? Then, in 2013, HTC outdid everything it had ever done up to that point with the release of the HTC One M7, one of the best (and most beautiful) smartphones of all time. From its symmetrical stereo speakers enclosed in its unibody aluminum frame; to its gorgeous 1080p display (a big deal at the time); to its IR blaster to help you get rid of your TV remotes, the One M7 was a monster. It sold 5 million units in only two months and was on or at the top of nearly every “Best Of” list of the year (including ours). However great the M7 was, HTC was already losing ground. In 2012 HTC was one of the top-five smartphone manufacturers in the world, but by the end of 2013, it was demoted to the top-ten. By 2014, it wasn’t even in the top-ten anymore. Now we are here in 2018, and HTC is by all conceivable measures a sinking ship. Just like that. What went wrong? HTC’s decline isn’t due to any one clear reason, nor is it even all entirely the fault of the company. But if you had to choose the biggest mistake the company made, it’s that it rested on its laurels. In the middle of Apple and Samsung spending billions on advertising to cement their respective products as the “must-have” devices for iOS and Android, HTC tried to take the “our product quality will speak for itself” route. Bad move, HTC. Even today, when people see my daily driver (a OnePlus 5), they ask me if it’s an “iPhone or a Galaxy?” That is no accident; Samsung spent a fortune to make people associate its brand as the “other” device compared to Apple’s definitive mobile product. HTC did not. Editor's Pick HTC U12 Plus review: Squeezing can only get you so far (Updated with video!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-rMCtLsOcg The HTC U11 surprised us last year with its superb camera and snappy software, and the HTC U12 Plus continues that trend. The company's new 2018 flagship offers a near-complete package likely to impress HTC enthusiasts … As beautiful and amazing as some of HTC’s phones have been (even including the HTC U12 Plus released this year), it can’t compete with Samsung’s marketing department. As much as we hate to admit it, most smartphone buyers are not looking at spec sheets and design innovation when making their purchase; they are going to a wireless carrier storefront and buying the same device that their friends own. HTC needs an intervention, where its friends tell it the glory days really are over. To make matters worse, HTC refused to see the writing on the wall and continued to price its flagships at equal or sometimes even higher numbers as Samsung. While Samsung has the brand-recognition to succeed charging $840 for the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus, it’s a fool’s errand for HTC to think it can charge $800 for the HTC U12 Plus in 2018. In the end, all the super-cool features and design innovation that HTC can put into a smartphone doesn’t mean anything if no one buys it. Honestly: what “normal” smartphone buyer is going to buy an HTC U12 Plus when for only $40 more they can instead get the best-selling Android phone of the year that they see commercials for every day and see their friends carrying around? That idea – undercutting the competition by price and value – brings us to the really big question… What can HTC do to save itself? In the short term, the only thing HTC can do to get its numbers back up is offer a smartphone with terrific consumer value. It has to have that HTC flair but at a OnePlus price. In order to do that, HTC will have to admit that its days of competing with Samsung and Apple are over. In fact, those days have been over for years now. Just think about it: imagine a phone that looks like the HTC U12 Plus but with some corners cut to make it a sub-$600 mid-ranger. That phone would sell. People who are looking for mid-range devices would gobble it up, and the average smartphone-buyer perusing the carrier shop would perk up at the idea of getting a futuristic-looking phone at a fraction of the cost of a Samsung Galaxy S9. If HTC took this route, it would at the very least likely plug the hole of its sinking ship. Editor's Pick Android Go: What is it and which phones run it? Android Go, also known as Android Oreo (Go edition), is a stripped-down version of Android designed to run on entry-level smartphones. It's comprised of three optimized areas — the operating system, Google Play Store, and Google apps — … In the long term, HTC should be looking at the developing market and specifically Android Go. There are billions of people (billions!) who have yet to own a smartphone, and HTC could reinvent itself as the top-dog of the developing world. Imagine an HTC device with the look of the One M7, but fitted with Android Go and costing a mere $150? Obviously, the hardware would be low-end, and the unibody aluminum frame would probably have to be revamped for cost-savings, but that phone could be the “flagship” of the Android Go world. Sure, margins for those devices will be low, and HTC would have to invest considerably at the beginning in the hopes that it will pay off later. If only there were money in the bank to do that…oh yeah, there is: over a billion dollars from Google buying a considerable portion of HTC’s engineering staff. There is still hope for HTC. It just has to buckle down and do the work. So far, what is HTC planning to do with that money? A blockchain phone? Seriously? HTC, you need to reinvent your company for a new kind of market, not try to salvage your premium status with novelty devices that no one will understand or care about. I know there are a lot of HTC fans out there. In fact, I bet there are still people out there rocking an HTC One M7 as their daily driver, or at the very least still have one in their drawer because they can’t bring themselves to get rid of the beautiful thing. There are people who love the HTC U12 Plus and respect HTC’s risk-taking when it comes to exciting design. We all want HTC to succeed, and we all want viable competitors to the other smartphone brands. But HTC’s glory days are over, and it’s time to work on making the company a wholly new enterprise. NEXT: HTC says it will right the ship through new investments, like it said in 2012 and 2017 , via Android Authority http://bit.ly/2IZZIUn