#Super Mini Booster

[xoxo-susu]

The ultimate guide to being coquette as a hijabi girlie

Being a coquette hijabi is so hard because so many of the key motifs (mini skirts/more revealing clothing, the literal meaning of the word, for example) go against what we believe in. But it's not impossible. So here are my personal favorite ways to be a coquette girlie without compromising my faith! (p.s thank you to @augusttheicedcoffeeaddict for reminding me to post this hehe ily)

Also!!! No hate to the coquette girlies who do wear mini skirts etc.

The white maxi skirt  🦢˚✧𓂃🩰 ໒꒱ ⋆ ˚ ⊹

Mini skirts are a staple in so many coquette outfits and so many people will try to make you think maxi skirts aren't cute but they're just haters. A cute sweater + a pleated or tiered white maxi skirt + some crafty layering has been such a lifesaving formula for me. Blouses work great for this too. And the things you can put on top of a white maxi skirt are endless. Pretty blouses, mini dresses, sweaters, sweatshirts, even cute tshirts with long sleeved shirts underneath. Same goes for denim skirts. I'm looking for one right now and I can't find any I like, but once I do I'll be unstoppable.

Bowssss 🦢˚✧𓂃🩰 ໒꒱ ⋆ ˚ ⊹

Bows. Bows are THE coquette accessory. And, thank god, you don't have to wear a mini skirt to wear bows!

Put them on literally everything. If you want to put them on your hijab, you can use a safety pin to put it on the back of your head, or you could do what I usually do, which is put them in my hijab pins. Depending on the size you can make it as subtle as you want. I have a pinterest tutorial here. (The pic on the left is me!)

Heart shaped sunglasses 🦢˚✧𓂃🩰 ໒꒱ ⋆ ˚ ⊹

Another coquette/vintage americana staple you can wear!

Berets 🦢˚✧𓂃🩰 ໒꒱ ⋆ ˚ ⊹

Same thing!

Fuzzy white earmuffs 🦢˚✧𓂃🩰 ໒꒱ ⋆ ˚ ⊹

These are SOSOSO perfect for winter. (pic on the left is me again heh)

At home 🦢˚✧𓂃🩰 ໒꒱ ⋆ ˚ ⊹

So far, this has all been stuff just in the context of going out in public. At home, I highly recommend doing you hair in a coquette way and wearing things you can only have on in front of family. It's such a confidence booster. It's a bit of effort but it's so so worth it!

Her bedroom is the window into the girl's soul 🦢˚✧𓂃🩰 ໒꒱ ⋆ ˚ ⊹

The coquette aesthetic is way more than just the clothes and hair. So if you really want to feel coquette, try and make your room as coquette as possible. Put up some coquette posters on your wall. A lot of coquette posters are haramcore and some people don't like putting up faces on their wall, so here are some really cute pics for inspo :3

What's in your bag? 🦢˚✧𓂃🩰 ໒꒱ ⋆ ˚ ⊹

Purses can make or break a good outfit. My biggest tip is to match them to your hijab. It pulls it all together. The last thing you want is for your hijab to feel like it's clashing with the rest of the outfit.

What's inside is important too! Inner beauty isn't just for living things. Keep whatever essentials you already have, plus lipgloss, a compact mirror bc no one's out here trying to have a bad hijab day, and a little bit of ribbon. Trust me about the ribbon.

Shoes!!! 🦢˚✧𓂃🩰 ໒꒱ ⋆ ˚ ⊹

Please don't wear a super cute coquette outfit and then wear tennis shoes. Just don't. Mary janes, Doc M's, and ballet flats are all really good choices.

Ik I probably sound like I'm obsessing over tiny things, but you kinda have to bc when you're breaking the mold every little thing matters.

Lastly <3 🦢˚✧𓂃🩰 ໒꒱ ⋆ ˚ ⊹

Last but not least, do not ever ever let people make fun of you. If you're a hijabi coquette girlie, you probably have some form of a muslim community, and they probably won't dress in your style. That was my case, and when I first started wearing mary janes and lace gloves I got SO made fun of. Not from the adults, but from my friends. One girl called my mary janes dorky and said they annoyed her every time she saw them. I think she expected me to laugh, but you just have to keep a straight face and say to their face that you thought that was rude. She never called me dorky again 🤷‍♀️

Take this post as a reminder that you can stay true to your faith while looking fabulous. If you have any questions pls pls feel free to ask anything. Ily all honeys, bye ♡

[somestrangeangels]

Just got a brain blast--and I HAVE to write it down or I'll explode or something idk. Anyway--hear me out on this one:

A Metroid Dynasty Warriors game wait come back

Still with me? Great. Okay. So. We already have Warriors games for Zelda and FE. Two of each, even, with a fuckload of dlc for both. Clearly they're pretty successful, even for a more niche series like FE, and Nintendie is willing to make em. I think that a Metroid Warriors could actually be pretty sick, and has a lot of potential.

Each Warriors game has its own gimmicks and alterations to the core formula in order to more closely resemble the series it's a spin-off of, and I think they could go nuts with Metroid. Here's what I'm thinkin: instead of the typical structure for these games (a bunch of short missions with various objectives,) it could utilize fewer, lengthier, exploration-based levels. In these levels, the main goal would be collecting upgrades in typical Metroid fashion, in order to get prepared to beat a boss or something (maybe also smaller mini-bosses to unlock the main one Super Metroid style).

One of the main gimmicks could be the typical upgrades (speed booster, ice beam, shinespark, etc.) functioning differently depending on your character. Ridley would use the speed booster way differently than Samus, for example.

The main story could consist of hand-made maps designed to introduce you to each upgrade and character, while also just offering an engaging campaign, if shorter than most Warriors games.

The REAL meat of the experience, for those who want more, would be (here's where the brainblast comes in) like a Metroid-roguelite-Vampire Survivors homonculus. This would consist of randomly generated maps, where you'd have limited upgrade slots, and must explore and upgrade effectively to clear the stage. Kinda like the main campaign, but much more roguelitey (the humor in calling something "roguelitey" is not lost on me) and less polished, but super replayable. This would make up for the smaller amount of less replayable missions, and offer a pretty unique nd fun experience, methinks.

The main concern for a Metroid Warriors game, the titular Warriors, would be pretty much solved by structuring the game like this. Metroid doesn't have a lot of guys that'd be good player characters, but by focusing on each character's interaction with the upgrade system, more depth could be achieved with each.

This would probably sell none copies but it was fun 2 think about and write down regardless.

[entityverse-utmv]

here's another work i've done on behalf of @ut-against-genocide, this time for @mystery-fic-anon, who asked for underfell sans doing something wholesome. i agonized for days over this commission but just couldn't get my art hands to cooperate, so with permission from the organizer i decided to write fic instead. hopefully that's alright with you, mystery! and i hope everyone who reads enjoys.

this one-shot was also cross-posted to my ao3!

the fic is below the cut. thank you again mystery for your support!! (also i'm a fan of your work! :))

Today Papyrus turned two.

Sans puttered around the kitchen, grabbing plates and glasses to put on the table. The oven beeped behind him, and he hissed as he ran to take out the cake, thankfully remembering to put on the oven mitts this time. The cake was far from perfect, lumpy and under or overcooked in some places—but for a first ever attempt it was edible, and the ingredients had been far too expensive for him to just throw it out and try again.

The rabbits at the inn worked him hard, almost abusively so—especially considering he himself was still in stripes. But he would do anything for his baby brother, including celebrate a birthday he wasn't likely to remember in ten years.

Grabbing a mixing bowl full of frosting out of the mini-fridge in their dingy old kitchen, Sans tried to make this the part he put the most effort into looking good. He whipped the frosting onto the cake, cursing under his breath as the first layer almost immediately melted on the hot surface, and just ended up panic-slathering more on top until it more-or-less covered the thing. It was an absolute disaster, but as he piped "PAPYRUS" onto the cake in red frosting to contrast the off-white base (black was way too expensive a dye, as much as he thought it would've looked much cooler), he couldn't help but smile anyways. Weeks of hard work had led up to this moment.

Carefully moving the cake over to the old, worn-out table he had found a couple months back in Waterfall, Sans hastily sticks a large '2' candle into the center. He grimaced as he heard the hot metal the cake was balanced on sizzle against the table, probably burning the surface underneath. He couldn't afford a hot plate, and the table was a piece of shit anyways, but he still at least tried to take care of the damn thing. But...it wasn't what was important right now. Shaking his head, Sans turned to run upstairs and fetch his brother. The baby-bones was in the middle of Sans' bedroom floor, playing with his stuffed rabbit plush that Sans had hand-sown from one of his old shirts. His crib was parallel to Sans' own bed, each pushed against opposing walls. There was another room in the house that Sans hoped could belong to his brother one day, but the room was still dilapidated and in a state of total disrepair, much like the rest of this house had been before Sans moved in and fixed it up.

Scooping up his brother, Sans carried him down the steps, bare-boned feet clicking against each of the wooden steps as he hastily descended. "i've got a surprise for you, little bro," the elder skeleton murmured to the younger, getting an excited giggle in response. He gently placed Papyrus into a booster chair at the end of the table, and turned off the dining room light—now, the room was only dimly lit by the flickering light in the nearby kitchen.

Snapping his fingers, the tip of Sans' index finger lit on fire. He reaches over and lights the single candle on the top, grinning as Papyrus claps in excitement. The little babybones has only just started to express his magic himself, but was still super young to do so. He was so cool...Sans was sure he was going to be a super strong monster someday.

"happy birthday to you," Sans murmured, and Papyrus stilled as his older sibling's smooth baritone filled the room, the light of the flickering candle casting a warm orange glow over both their faces. "happy birthday to you...happy birthday sweet papyrus..."

"happy birthday to you."

--

Today Papyrus turned sixteen.

He was officially old enough to join the royal guard. The skeleton had mailed his application the moment it became midnight—but not after lots of fretting.

"BUT SANS! WHAT IF APPLYING TOO EARLY MAKES ME SEEM TOO EAGER? I DON'T WANT TO COME OFF AS WEAK!"

"i'm sure it'll be fine, bro. eagerness means passion, right? and i'm sure passion is a valued trait in the royal guard. if you're so worried, why not wait a bit?"

Truth be told, Sans was super nervous about his baby brother joining the Guard. It was a super dangerous line of work. But the younger skeleton had insisted—the status and respect it could bring would help keep them safe, and the paycheck would be enough to finally lift them out of poverty.

"HMM...YOU ARE RIGHT. BUT...IF I WAIT TOO LONG, WHAT IF I SEEM LAZY?! LAZINESS ISN'T A GOOD WORK ETHIC AT ALL!!"

"anyone with eyes knows you ain't lazy, bro. besides. everyone knows i'm the laziest sack of bones in snowdin."

"TRUE AGAIN. BUT! TO ERR ON THE SAFE SIDE, I THINK I WOULD RATHER BE PERCEIVED AS EAGER OVER LAZY! MYAH HAH HAH!"

While Papyrus was occupied with that, Sans was once again in the kitchen. His cake-baking had improved significantly over the years; it was practically an art form for him now. Papyrus wasn't a huge fan of sugar though, so nowadays he tended to decorate the cakes with fresh fruit and dark chocolate- some of the most expensive commodities in the Underground. Sans had to skip a few meals in order to afford it, but it was worth it for his brother.

"c'mon bro, cake's done!" sans called as he set the finished confection onto the table. It developed even more wear and tear over the years, the legs collapsing a few times and having to be hastily glued back together. But it was almost sentimental now, because every cake Sans had baked over the years were put in the exact same spot—the round burnt stain from oven-hot trays marking it perfectly as he set it down.

"SANS! I'M TOO OLD FOR THIS NOW! I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU THAT!" Papyrus complained, but he still ran down the stairs all the same, beaming at the sight of his older brother's latest masterpiece.

"too old for the song, paps. not for a sweet treat. a skeleton as cool and strong as you deserves some pampering once in awhile," Sans smoothed over.

"...THANK YOU, SANS." Papyrus sat at the table, watching as Sans flicked his burning thumb over the candles, one by one.

"'course, bro. make a wish."

Papyrus stared in contemplation at his cake for a moment, before blowing it out.

"I LOVE YOU, SANS."

"love ya too, paps."

--

Today Papyrus turned twenty-five.

He'd risen through the ranks of the royal guard at breakneck speed, smoothing over disputes throughout Snowdin and over half of Waterfall. He'd even been acknowledged by the king; and been ordered to fight Undyne for her title as Royal Guard captain. That battle was hard fought, though ultimately won; Papyrus walking away from it with some gnarly new cracks across his right eyesocket.

Sans hadn't made a cake for Papyrus in a couple of years now. Since joining the guard, something in Papyrus had...changed. He was rougher. Tougher. A bit meaner. A lot meaner to others, but only a bit meaner to Sans. He started insisting Sans call him "boss", especially in public. Sans complied, but only after Papyrus agreed to let him apply for a sentry position in the Guard. Sans mainly did it to keep an eye on his brother—make sure he stayed safe. The rabbits weren't too thrilled to let him go, but it wasn't like he could be forced to stay. It wasn't like he needed their bakery ingredients anymore, anyways.

Papyrus started bringing home ludicrous amounts of Gold. Little by little, rickety fixtures in the house were replaced with high-end equivalents. The stained, peeling wallpaper was painted over in deep shades of red, purple, and mustard yellow; the mini-fridge was replaced with a full-sized one, always full of more food than Sans knew what to do with. The lumpy beanbags on the living room floor were replaced with a leather couch.

The only thing that stayed the same was that shitty dining room table. Papyrus had thrown a black tablecloth over it, masking how out-of-place it was and covering that old burn mark, but it seemed to be the one thing he couldn't bring himself to replace.

Sans didn't bake a cake this year, but he spent all day making lasagna, following a cookbook that Papyrus brought home one day. Most of the pages were waterlogged, but everything that was legible usually turned out pretty good in his book. Heh. Inwardly chuckling at the pun, Sans continued rolling out the noodle dough over the flour-covered countertop.

Papyrus rarely smiled anymore, but when he took his first bite of the cake-like pasta later that evening, the small twitch at the corners of his mouth filled Sans' SOUL with love, not LOVE.

A week later, a human fell.

--

Today Sans turned forty, though he feels a lot older than that.

He supposes that RESETs will have that effect on you. He's long since lost count of how many there were, but he knew there were a lot. How couldn't there be, with monsterkind as ruthless and bloodthirsty as it was? The human died many times, but was unshakeable in their determination. One by one they pacified the monsters of the Underground, until they reached the barrier and...broke it.

It's been a few months since then, and monsterkind has since come to the surface. It was hard at first, as much of humanity didn't seem as keen on welcoming a bunch of edgy strangers onto their turf as the lost child had been. Tensions ran high, but by some miracle, the kid was able to smooth things over. Probably something to do with the vast amounts of wealth the monsters had—gold was apparently a ridiculously powerful resource. Sans would scoff at the blatant greed of the humans, but he couldn't be too upset since it got them a pretty nice house topside, and they got to wake up to the sun every single day.

Yeah. Life was pretty good.

Papyrus had been out of the house all day, and refused to tell Sans where he was going. It was a bit strange, but Sans accepted that Papyrus would want to do his own things now. They no longer had to tell each other exactly where they were going and when they would be back, because it was no longer so anxiety-inducing for one of them to be late. Monsters no longer fought or killed each other, at least not publicly. It was no longer Sans and Papyrus against the world. Papyrus could be his own person now.

Without Sans.

Cracking the top off of a bottle of beer, Sans threw himself onto the couch and flipped on the TV. So what if it was his birthday? He'd never celebrated it before now, for him it was just another day. Nobody had ever been around to make a big deal out of it for him the way that he had for Papyrus. He mindlessly flipped the channels for a few minutes before settling for some sort of nature documentary. It was baffling how much biodiversity there was on the surface—and their uncanny resemblance to some species of monster was a new hot subject of debate among human scientists.

Sans doesn't remember falling asleep, but he wakes up suddenly to the sound of the door being dramatically kicked open. Sounds like Papyrus was home.

"sup boss?" Sans greeted as he rubbed at his eye sockets—opening them to see the skeleton's forearms were completely covered in the straps of fabric grocery bags, each full to the brim with stuff Sans couldn't make out.

"YOU ARE BEING EVICTED FOR THE DAY, BROTHER." Papyrus proclaimed, setting all of the bags onto the kitchen counter before reemerging to point a gloved index at the front door. "YOU HAVE THE PRIVILEGE OF SEEING THE SUN, AND YET WOULD RATHER SPEND YOUR TIME WATCHING IT ON TV! ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE!" When Sans didn't move, Papyrus huffed, heeled boots clicking on the hardwood as he stormed over, picking his shorter but older sibling up from under the armpits before bodily throwing him onto the front lawn.

"DON'T COME BACK INSIDE UNTIL SUNDOWN! THAT IS AN ORDER!" Papyrus shouted, before slamming and locking the door behind him. Sans snorted, rolling his eyelights. He could just shortcut back inside and hide out in his room, but he knew this was Papyrus' way of showing he cared. So he did as he was bade, standing and brushing off his shorts before deciding to take a walk to the nearby park.

As he walked, he wondered if Papyrus remembered his birthday. It didn't matter either way really, but no matter what changed between them over the years, Papyrus had always said 'happy birthday, Sans' at least once. As a babybones Papyrus did more, drawing pictures of them on the surface together holding hands in crude approximations of themselves, complete with the little yellow sun in the top left corner. For his thirtyth birthday he even made a jacket for Sans, complete with a fluffy hood, starting Papyrus' newfound proclivity for making clothes. To this day their wardrobe was mostly made up of the taller's creations, from t-shirts to sweaters to pants and even some socks. But since joining the royal guard, Papyrus rarely had time for such thoughtful gifts—usually just leaving it at a simple verbal acknowledgement of the date.

The park came into view, and Sans spotted a bench beneath a tree. He wandered over to sit underneath it. There was a playground nearby, and children both monster and human often flocked here to play, but it was deserted today. Probably because it rained all day yesterday, and the ground was still pretty muddy. Looking up at the sky, today it was slightly overcast; the sun was still somewhat visible through the fluffy white clouds, but it still struck Sans as a bit of an odd day for Papyrus to choose to throw him out.

Eventually he got bored of just sitting there, so Sans pulled out his phone, watching some videos online. He'd recently discovered a pretty neat cooking channel—Binging with Babish. There were so many more types of food and recipes on the surface, and Sans made it his goal to attempt cooking one of Babish's recipes at least once a week. There was one video where they made a ramen bowl inspired from an anime called Naruto, and Sans begrudgingly forwarded it to Alphys, knowing the skeevy little reptile would appreciate it.

Before he knew it, the sun was beginning to set on the horizon. Papyrus had told him to stay out at least until then, so the skeleton stood up, stretching his arms and back before shortcutting back home.

He opened the front door, and the first thing Sans noticed was how dark it was inside. Every light in the house was off; it was nearly pitch-black, save for a dim orange glow coming from the dining room.

Confused and slightly on-edge, Sans shut the door behind himself before approaching the glow. "boss?" He called, to no response.

He realized his brother was sitting stoically at the table, just out of reach of the faint light, which Sans belatedly realized were candles. He sucked in a breath between his teeth—the candles belonged to a two-tiered chocolate cake. It was...absolutely beautiful. It looked professionally made.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SANS."

Sans' gaze snapped back to his brother, who was now openly smiling at him. Unbidden tears sprang to the corners of the elder skeleton's sockets. There was a tiny smudge of chocolate frosting on the younger's cheekbone, which told Sans that Papyrus had made this. Just for him.

"I HAVEN'T BEEN ALLOWED THE TIME TO CELEBRATE YOU IN THE WAY YOU DESERVE THESE PAST YEARS, BROTHER...AND FOR THAT I HAVE FAILED YOU." Sans sputtered to refute that claim, but clicked his jaw shut when Papyrus held up a palm for silence. "MAKE NO MISTAKE, SANS. YOU ARE DEARLY LOVED. AND I HOPE THAT THIS CAKE CAN EXPRESS EVEN A FRACTION OF THAT."

Sans roughly scrubbed his sockets with his jacket sleeve just as they welled up enough to fall, sniffling. "bro..."

"WELL? ARE YOU GOING TO TASTE MY MASTERPIECE, OR ARE YOU GOING TO ALLOW THE WAX FROM THE CANDLES TO RUIN IT BEFORE YOU HAVE THE CHANCE? MAKE A WISH, SANS!"

Laughing wetly, Sans nodded, sitting across from his brother. He noted that the tablecloth had been stripped from the table. The cake was placed over the burn marks.

'i wish for our life to always stay this perfect', Sans thought, before blowing out the candles.

[coldhndss]

──★ ˙ ̟Blue Lock mini matchups! No.6, 7, and 8

ﾟ𐦍༘ No.6: @somewhere-stuck-in-the-stars

Do you know what I mean when I say your request gave me autumn/fall vibes? Like all I could imagine was a fireplace, hot cocoa, maple trees and a nice cozy cottage home.

So, I ended up matching you to Yukimiya Kenyu!

Initially, I actually thought of matching you to Alexis Ness, but… I couldn’t do that to you 😬

So, we know that Yukimiya is canonically a model, dresses nicely and has a calm/soft kind of aesthetic. I feel like he’d dress more of a light academia with coats and scarves, contrasting nicely with your deep jewel and earth tone attire/aesthetic. I know MBTI tests aren’t usually completely true to someone’s personality, but with you being an INTJ, I’d imagine you bring a vibe of comfort and care that not everybody does. With Yukimiya having constant worries about his wellbeing alongside playing soccer, you’d be able to be able to bring him a breath of fresh air and take his mind away from worrying too much all the time. 

For a day where the two of you go someplace together, I’d imagine he’d take you to see the cherry blossoms in full bloom, seeing as its one of the things that he’s interested in. He’d take sweet, candid photos of you, knowing the best angles to shoot from. Of course, he wouldn’t leave without getting some photos of himself. I get the feeling that he’d probably post an aesthetic reel of the trip on Instagram as well. It might spark some controversy amongst his female fans once they notice you being a little too close to him for their liking! Not that it’ll change anything between you two, of course. I have a feeling it'll just make him want to post you even more.

I think somebody like you is very in tune with other people’s emotions. Not like a psychologist or an ‘empath’ (whatever that is), and you’d be able to tell when he needs a little bit of a mood booster. You’d be a caring person who is able to watch over him and treat him with kindness that isn’t contingent on his popularity or skill.

ﾟ𐦍༘ No.7: @darthvada

I've said this before, but I don't always match people up with someone who is the exact opposite. So in this case, I decided to match you to Bachira Meguru!

Writing this matchup literally made me realise how lonely Bachira was for a majority of his time before Blue Lock (Bachira fic incoming very soon). So although he puts on an energetic and happy front most of the time, I feel like he definitely has some unspoken problems that flood his thoughts daily. For the most part, he's extroverted and positive most of the time, so I think he'd be able to easily get along with another person who shares the same/similar personality as him, seeing as he (alongside lots of people, but especially him) yearns to be understood by someone else, and I think you'd have no trouble bringing him that sort of comfort.

Bachira would probably love the fact that you do theatre. Seeing as he likes exciting things, I'm sure he'd definitely enjoy seeing the different characters you play and roles you partake in (I don't know much about theatre and choir so I'm sorry if you don't actually do any acting!). I'm sure he'd enjoy watching you practice. Here's a scenario that I imagined:

You've got an important play coming up, in which you take part as a person who gets rescued by a prince, king, or hero of sorts. Seeing as you don't have the male actor at your beck and call, you decide to give Bachira a call and ask him to help you. Elated, he immediately agrees and comes over to where you are. To your surprise, he's very enthusiastic, and plays the role with a lot of confidence! 'I wonder why he didn't pursue acting...' you ponder.

Seeing as the both of you are super enthusiastic about the things you're interested in, Bachira would definitely yap a lot about different soccer players, teams, which team he finds interesting, or which players he would love to go up against. He'd also be the type to spam you with reels of either incoherent memes with the most random audios, couple videos strung along with an 'us' or 'you', or edits that people make of him, with him sending '😳😳' emojis to you in response. He acts embarrassed but he secretly likes all the edits and saves them to a collection on his private lists.

Bachira would definitely love being around you at all times. He may get a bit attached sometimes, but you pay it no mind. He'd appreciate that you lend him an ear and always listen to his worries without shutting him up or making him feel worthless, seeing as others have ostracised him simply because they think he's 'weird', and that's why you'll always mean so much to him.

ﾟ𐦍༘ No.8: Anon

Honestly, I think this was arguably my hardest matchup. Probably because the character I ended up matching you to is always at the back of my head (I don't hate him, I just don't really think about him at all).

So after spending ages deciding, I chose to match you to Ikki Niko! Hear me out on this one, okay?

Niko doesn't show it, but he's actually relatively passionate about the things he likes, and although he doesn't look it, he's interested in things other than soccer. Seeing as he enjoys watching Anime and is sort of a nerd in that regard, he'd definitely watch plays with you in the theatre or at home. He wouldn't really say anything to you about it at the start, but after a while, you'll find that he's randomly gotten more into it than before. I think Niko would definitely look into something that someone important to him really enjoys. That way, he can get closer to them without having to embarrass himself by asking them questions upon questions.

He also comes off to me as more of a listener than a speaker. Seeing as you enjoy talking lots and lots about the things you like, Niko would definitely sit and listen. I have a feeling that the two of you would sit on calls for hours, majority of the time would be spent with you talking about things you enjoy (aka, mainly history related things). He'd also take notes on the little things about yourself that you're interested in that you don't notice yourself talking about. Niko wouldn't want to show that he's overly into what you're saying, acting like he's doing work on his laptop over your call. It turns out that he's keeping track of what you're saying on a locked note called 'Her 🤍'.

Although Niko might make fun of you here and there, he's not the type to really care all that much about clothing styles. Also seeing as you say you're lazy in things which include sports, watching Niko play is just about the only thing you'd probably do in that regard. He doesn't say, but it secretly makes him super happy to know you're only watching it to see him on the field. For a little side scenario, I imagine that despite you not being overly extroverted, you might run up to him on the field after he scores the winning goal in a game, and hug him. He definitely wouldn't pry you off, but he'd get a little flustered. Though secretly he'd want everyone watching to know that he actually does have a special someone rooting for him and him only.

[sm-selenographer]

Happens all the time, I’m tempted to pick up a new-to-me zine based only on the cover photo, a scant description, or its thrumming electricity zapping my hand, only later to find an unexpected personal connection. Such is the case for Moonshot #2, SM’s paean to her ancestral home, specifically her ancestral house, in a working-class Pittsburgh neighborhood. “Growing Up in Carrick,” SM lets forth in a stream of vivid prose poetry worthy of Dylan Thomas, evoking the pageant of sounds, feelings, and images of her upbringing: heat lightning in the close Pittsburgh summer; the aging linoleum and unfinished drywall of a Craftsman-style house; the sentience of wallpaper faces and framed puzzles. Childhood recalled as if projected in Super 8. Coming-of-age moments, significant in retrospect. SM’s family moves to another neighborhood; in her early 20s, she moves back in, with roommates; the house sits vacant for years. The city, the neighborhood, and the author change inexorably through the years, yet something essential remains, drawing her back to the house that witnessed many of her former iterations; that anchors ur-feelings of longing and belonging, A close friend of mine grew up in Carrick, and so I spent time there during college, on the 51C bus winding down Brownsville Road; picnicking at my friend’s parents’ house on Hazeldell Street; painfully underage, getting kicked out of an old-man dive called Doug’s Den. I don’t have the same depth of familial ties to the neighborhood that SM does, but reading Moonshot #2 still reminds me that we’re constantly leaving a wake of echoes, shedding shadows of past lives everywhere we go, and these imprints are often bound up in the buildings we love and that love us. This minizine has a hand-stitched binding, two color photos, and comes with a link to a field-recorded mini soundtrack that fits the mood and location of the piece. Available in Pittsburgh from Tangent Distro or directly from the author at selenographer.info

Oh man, I nearly cried in the breakroom when I read this review, what a mood-booster! :D Hopefully I will have time to stop by Tangent Distro when I'm in Pittsburgh next month! :D

[sallycreamcheese]

@thewriterowl aaaaand bind number 17 and 18 are finished! I decided to bind “the untimely business of an office engagement” and “Like flurries on gold” since those are both so cute and I’ve re read them so many times as a mood booster. These are quartos, basically pocketbooks, since the fics are on the shorter side for a full sized print. I tried to add as many personal elements from the story into the typesetting as well, so for the Untimely Business I had a mug of hot chocolate for the chapter headings and a pair of chopsticks for the section breaks. For Like flurries on gold I had alternating drawings of a cupcake and some ice skates, and unfortunately I could show the section breaks but they’re basically mini versions of the chapter titles haha

I also tried out French double core end bands for the first time, which I think turned out pretty nicely! I tied to play into the themes with the covers as well, so I think the fresh, lemony one worked well with Luke’s bright personality and love for baking, but I couldn’t really get the hallmark, romcom vibe for the untimely business, since I didn’t have a matching book cloth at hand, so I tried to lean into the cool, winter feeling instead.

Anyway, these were super fun to work on and I wish I could show more but alas, tumblr has a photo limit.

[havendance]

New Comics Time!

Action Comics #1076 - The Kon and Kenan subplot continues to be a delight. I love the big ass fur cape that Kon gets. Meanwhile in the A-plot, Clark leaves Krypton and returns to the phantom zone proper. I'm sure I shall be less invested next issues. The Supergirl backup is really hitting it's stride. I am very curious to see where it goes next week.

Batman and Robin: Year One #2 - This continues to be a solid and enjoyable comic. I do like Samne's art and I loved the detail about the batcave stretching all the way out under Gotham. Just perfect to me. I do feel like, hmmm, maybe it's because I'm reading this a month behind so I sort of skim all the scenes people share ahead of time, but this does feel like it's made up of the scenes that everyone shares and the rest of the comic that's just kind of connecting tissue.

Batman - Santa Claus: Silent Knight Returns #4 - I thought that this was the last issue of this mini but appearently not? Must be a five issue mini instead of a four issue one. I was wondering how they were going to resolve everything by the end of the issue, so that does explain a few things. Anyway it continues to be vaguely fun with some nice action, but I'm not that invested. Probably would not be reading this if I weren't still invested in DC Santa lore as a result of Santaquest last year.

Batman/Superman: World's Finest #33 - I don't have much to say on this. There was lots of action. Lots of amped of super hero stuff. Yeah.

Titans #17 - I will be honest, the clock king stuff felt pretty underwhelming. Donna had some fun moments this issue, but the art is still ugly imo.

Catwoman #70 - I am just really enjoying Catwoman. The setting for this issue was fun and I liked Suzie and look Selina, you just keep running away because that's what you do. It's all coming together nicely.

The Question: All Along the Watchtower #2 - Reading this like Helena should've been here The title for this mini-series feels very apt because the setting is very much the co-star of the show. And it's fun seeing all the different corners of the watchtower! I think it's a neat detail that there's a bar on the watchtower, it's the sort of thing that really helps define the place as this new community center for the superhero community. Now Nightshade being the bartender? I do like her and I admittedly haven't read anything with her since original Suicide Squad so maybe it does fit more with the more recent stuff that's been done with her character, but as it is, it does give off a little 'why is Booster driving the bus?' energy.

In terms of plot, this feels like a perfectly functional mystery so far. I do like that we see more of Renee taking the lead this issue, but it's not blowing me away. The Kate and Renee drama is feeling pretty standard so far (and I, being biased, maintain that it would be more interesting with Helena instead of Kate) but I willing to see where it goes. With the ending page, I'm wondering if this is going to tie in any with the Phantom's story going on in Action, though I am like 4 issues behind on that as opposed to this so I don't know what the endgame for it looks like yet.

[nikrei]

April Comics Round-up

April time! Turns out you can't draw while you read comics, so I got a whole lot of comics read and not a whole lot of drawing done (petition to patch this bug in the next update)

This time around I was reading stuff in event rotation, so I'd read one comic up to the start of an event, then move to the next, so on so forth, then read the event, then do it all over again.

Justice League of America (258-261) (1987)

Finished this in Legends, and it has a super tragic ending, with two members dead (rip vibe and steel) and Cynthia stashed back with her family (that she ran away from in the first place because they're abusive) also not a fan of how they tried to walk back Steel's grandpa's bullshit, implying that his procedures were somehow necessary when the whole backstory is that they were totally superfluous.

Fury of Firestorm/Firestorm the Nuclear Man (43-79) (1986-1988)

Omg i cried so much at issue 66 (Marrrtiin!) But the whole storyline is so good, and I love the firestorm that is his own guy he's precious.

Saga of the Swamp Thing/Swamp Thing (51-70 (1987-1988)

Continues to be A+ excellent. The Swamp Thing's sojourn thru space is a great look at actual very alien worlds.

Blue Devil (20-31) (1986)

Super fun and I'm sad that it ended, should have been longer!

Blue Beetle (1-24) (1986-1988)

Very fun, and a great intro to Ted, but it did feel like it left loose ends when it finished. Maybe they'll pick them up later in JLI.

Legends Event (1-6 + all tie-ins) (1986-1987)

Legends my beloved, I've read this one twice before, once just the main event, once with all the tie ins, but this time I was reading with just about full context and that was awesome. I love this event a lot, actually.

Booster Gold (1-25) (1986-1988)

Love this guy, hate what happened with his sister, that was bullshit. The ending also felt v rushed, but it is deffo worth the read.

Justice League/Justice League International (1-21) (1987-1988)

Was not expecting this to be so funny coming off the previous justice league title, but it is v v funny, highly recommended.

Captain Atom (1-23) (1986-1988)

Picked this guy up cause he was crossing over with other titles a lot, and I was surprised by how much I liked it! Unhappy propaganda hero Adam I love you. The source of General Eiling (asshole).

Suicide Squad (1-22) (1987-1988)

Oh man 1987 Amanda Waller is so good, she's such a complicated bitch I love her. The series as a whole is also v good, but it can be disjointed because of the rotating cast.

Wonder Woman (1-24) (1987-1988)

So I am mad about what the crisis did to the wonderfam but also this incarnation of Diana is So Good, I love her 500%

Flash (1-20) (1987-1988)

Wally u are so different from Barry but I am excited to see how you will learn and grow. I'm very into the set-up he's got going. It was super funny to me that they were like... hmm give him money problems, no wait, we don't want to deal with that, give him cash, no wait, we Do want to deal with that, take all his cash.

The Question (1-25) (1986-1989)

Vic Sage is a nerd but also hello Lady Shiva! Very much darker, mature label, but not often excessively so? Doesn't tend to be gritty for grittiness' sake alone. Tells stories well.

The Spectre (1-20) (1987-1988)

Ended up with this run because it has a lot of mystic backstory going on and had two issues in millennium. Not really my favorite title, but does have a lot of important stuff happening.

Zatanna Special (1987)

Important in between of Zatanna's last appearance in JLA, Swamp Thing, and Spectre, but I do not think it would make sense as a stand alone.

Dead Man (1-4) (1986)

If I had realized that this mini follows up on the tail end of the last dead man mini I would have read it last month, but I didn't realize that, rip.

Phantom Stranger (1-4) (1987)

This mini is in direct conversation with Spectre and the Dr. Fate mini, and is pretty important for knowing whats going on in the mystic side of DC.

Dr. Fate (1-4) (1987)

This mini is pretty much a sequel to the Phantom Stranger mini, and follows up with the big mystic happenings.

Millennium Event (1-8 + all tie-ins) (1987-1988)

Millennium my beloathed. The event itself is well written and has an engaging storytelling, but I hate hate hate what it does to the tie-in issues, just having random trusted characters be traitors for no good reasons. Totally wrecked Infinity Inc and The Outsiders, and other titles didn't get away unscathed either.

The New Guardians (1-5) (1988)

This series is the pay off of millennium, with this team of heros being gathered and taught all through that event. It's not a mini, issue 6 is when it hits invasion. Got a lot more serious a lot quicker than I thought it would, but honestly I'm a little disappointed because the millennium event ends with them basically being enlightened beings and you don't really see any of that in their own series.

Power Girl (1-4) (1988)

This is a fun mini to help set up Power Girl's new origin story (deffo read the secret origins issue before the mini). A good stand alone that manages to not make me too angry about coie retcons.

Deadshot (1-4) (1988)

This mini is basically an off-shoot of Suicide Squad, not a standalone. V v dark and edgy but a good glimpse into deadshot's psyche i guess

Checkmate (1-10) (1988)

Involved with suicide squad and JLI so I picked it up. Not really my fave, but love that Harvey fuckin Bullock is a high-up in this secret government spy organization i had no clue.

Doom Patrol (1-16) (1987-1988)

Told some friends I would read this one. I was a little bit lost because it is deffo a sequel to the previous doom patrols and I only ever saw them in crossover issues. Good so far.

Animal Man (1-5) (1988)

Not a mini, issue 6 is when it hits invasion. What i got to was honestly a lot more serious than I expected it to be (look animal man is a goofy name), but it really works for the environmentalist stories that they're telling.

Green Arrow (1-13) (1988)

We are continuing with dark and gritty Ollie i guess. I like him better than he was in long bow hunters, but he has lightened up a bit from that. Enjoying the series so far.

Forever People (1-6) (1988)

This mini was disappointing at first cause the starting vibe is Extremely Different from the 70s Forever People, but it ended up with a similar vibe. I don't think its as good as the og, but Kirby can't be beat, so they did a good job trying.

Starman (1-4) (1988)

Not a mini, issue 5 is when it hits invasion. I like it a lot so far, this guy is a good original sort of hero and the run itself is fairly humorous.

Batgirl Special (1988)

Follows up with Bab's doubts about being a superhero that were introduced in coie, her final case that leads to her retirement as Batgirl.

Batman: The Killing Joke (1988)

I guess as Joker stories go this is a good one? But its deffo v v heavy on the gritty shock value alone, and obvs does babs v dirty.

Detective Comics (582-593) (1988)

We've moved away from tec and batman being completely intertwined. Interesting to note that Robin did not show up once, even in the background.

Batman (415-425) (1988)

Ahhh its the beginning of the end for Jason TT-TT. I stopped before death in the family cause I'm pretty sure that technically happens post invasion.

Batman: The Cult (1-4) (1988)

This mini is sorta pointlessly dark and gritty. Its supposedly self contained but a lot of shit happens that should have lasting effects on Gotham but are never mentioned again. Some good Jason moments but not worth the rest of it. Written by Jim Starlin (heavy sigh)

And we are almost almost to the invasion event!

Bonus: the first 4 weeks of the Comic Kon reading club, where we're currently reading the origin of Superboy! It's a fun server and its only a few issues each week so its very manageable, folks should join! (it'd be pretty easy to catch up right now!)

[championkoma]

I am once again back on my pokemon bullshit.

Over the past 10 years or so, my love for pokemon has been fading with each new release. Starting with Sun and Moon, I began to feel like pokemon had become too kid friendly for me, as I just graduated high school and was truly beginning my adult life. I enjoyed the story of Sun and Moon but did not enjoy the games mechanics in the totems rather than gyms and what not and did not enjoy the region itself so much. After that, ultra Sun and moon released and I bought it but never even beat it until this year because I just couldn’t get into it. I enjoyed the Lets Go games but wish there was more battling involved so I could see my boy mega blastoise more in Kanto. I was quite excited for Pokemon Sword and Shield but once I began playing I quickly grew bored of it, can’t really place any reason why but it just didn’t stick. I had fun with Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl but they’re nothing to write home about. Then legends arceus released and I was super hyped for it, and now I still have not finished it. I think it’s the best idea the pokemon company has had in years but I can only play for about 30 minutes before getting bored. Now with Scarlet and Violet, I was not hyped in the slightest but bought scarlet anyways and actually ended up loving the story but thought it was an ugly game, the first dlc was fun and I looked forward to the second but once it came out, I quickly gave up once encountering the trials.

Overall, I figured I’ve just outgrown Pokemon but once IOS allowed emulators, I decided to get all the older games again and quickly felt the nostalgia and love for the series in full again.

The Delta Emulator for GB/GBA/DS.

I downloaded delta first, as it was the emulator I was most familiar with. I got all the GB and GBA games first but quickly wanted to try SoulSilver for DS again. At this point I’m not too far but still open it up and grind whenever I have time.

ArcEmu for Apple Watch

I then learned of ArcEmu that allows you to play Gb/GBA games on an Apple Watch. I love this idea and downloaded FireRed for it but don’t really use it for anything, but enjoy knowing that I have it with me if I ever leave my phone.

Folium

An emulator for 3DS games has been fun to tinker with but doesn’t run the best on my iPhone 13 mini. Weirdly, Pokemon Omega Ruby seems to run better than Pokemon X.

Overall, I just like to tinker with the emulators on iOS and prefer the DS and 3ds games on emulators, for some reason GB and GBA feels wrong on phones.

Pokémon Go

I have been a day 1 pokemon Go rural player, over the years I have mostly just used it for transferring shiny pokemon to my main switch games. At this point I’m pretty much done with the game as they continue to make the game a pain for rural players who don’t want to spend money. I have transferred all of my shinies to home and most of the pokemon but will still check the game whenever I’m in new areas and whatnot.

Pokemon TCG Pocket

I started playing the new Pokemon TCG Pocket game and im liking it so far. I’ve never been much of a Pokemon TCG player, just a collector and this game scratches the itch for a casual collector like me who just likes to buy a booster pack occasionally here and there. I pulled a full art Mewtwo card which was cool.

Pokémon Sapphire/GameBoy Micro

About 2 years ago, I bought a GameBoy Advanced and a couple of Pokemon Repro carts. Eventually I pulled the trigger on a legitimate copy of Pokemon Sapphire. I work full time and do full time college so I don’t have much time to actually play. Eventually I decided to get a GameBoy micro, and decided to go for a cheaper and more beat up so that I can take it with me everywhere and not feel bad if it gets beat up.

I have loved having a GameBoy micro with me. I still don’t get to play as much as I’d like but it makes lunch breaks more fun at work and something about playing on actual hardware feels so much better.

Pokemon and the impact it has had on me

I have been a lifelong Pokemon fan, many of my earliest memories include Pokemon. I watched Pokemon the first movie probably over 100 times. I collected and traded Pokemon cards on the playground with many of my classmates. I received Pokemon firered as my first Pokemon game when I was 10, around the time Pokemon platinum was released and put hundreds of hours into it. Once, Pokemon X and Y released I made it my goal to complete the pokedex and was successful. I probably put 300-500 hours per game back in the day and now usually don’t even spend 100 hours on the modern games. Maybe I’m just a grumpy old fan but to me it feels like modern Pokemon is missing the heart that old Pokemon had.

Anyways, just figured I’d make a post for the hell of it and just chat about Pokémon.

[ravensvirginity]

Hi! :) I loved Raven in NTT but I'm looking to branch out and read more series with her as a major character. What do you consider to be the best comic runs for Raven?

Well usually NTT would be my #1 rec 😂 nothing else is as good as NTT for Raven but I do have some recs!

Teen Titans Earth One - Elseworld where everyone is very different to main canon, but still very cute and fun! Very KoryRae too imo. And Raven's design is adorable! It's just two graphic novels, so it's a very quick read.

Titans United: Bloodpact - it's new, but it's good! It's probably my favorite Raven focused mini out there, though I wish the main villain had been Trigon rather than Brother blood. There's a little BBRae but it's not unbearable.

The Booster Gold Trigon arc - I can't remember the exact issue numbers but they shouldn't be too hard to find. Super fun!! My only complaint is I wish Raven and Trigon had actually gotten to interact, there was a lot of unexplored drama potential there.

NTT drug awareness specials - read them at least once, it's worth it.

Okay, onto the things that are bad, but I would still recommend!

Marv Wolfman's Raven minis - I wouldn't really call any of them good, and I'd say the most recent one (Raven: Daughter of Darkness) is pretty terrible, but imo they're still worth reading if you like Raven. Unfortunately Wolfman no longer seems to want to write Raven the way he did in NTT, but he at least writes her in a way that's more original and shows he didn't forget everything that made NTT Raven so great.

Teen Titans 2011 - this run sucks, but it has a bunch of really interesting Raven concepts (most of which aren't really followed through on, but still). If you're reading for Raven specifically I'd say start with the Trigon arc. And definitely read the Trigon origin comic, it's insane. Oh, and #1 of new 52's Phantom Stranger!! That one has Raven and is good with no disclaimers.

Marv Wolfman also wrote a one shot Raven story for a DC 9/11 memorial comic. Very weird and not very good but honestly it's worth reading for Raven.

[nerdy-nintendo-noodle]

Listen, aight...

Surely if they put the Bowser minigame in TTYD for switch that previously led to Super paper mario happening, then they ARE going to make Super paper mario at some point... right?

It would make sense just to forego the mini game that led to SPM and leave it out if they wanted. There's NO WAY they would spend that many hours recreating that mini game if they didn't need to...

I'm already going ape over this. This is the biggest tease ever. They have paper mario 64 on Switch online already. But what they don't have is wii.

They have gamecube tracks from MKDD on the mario kart booster packs or whatever you call them. So that could mean that gamecube is never coming to NSO. Then, that means there's nintendo wii tracks from MKW on the mario kart booster packs.

It would have been easier to drag the wii onto the switch via nintendo switch online. It WOULD have been easier. But nintendo have put the effort in to remake things from the wii already (coconut mall, of course).

Please, please... nintendo please be making a super paper mario remake at somepoint. I'm going crazy over here already with the belief you've given me after TTYD. They've gone further and made a remake of the 3DS Luigi's mansion dark moon (which I also love). So please be remaking SPM. The dedicated fans and I need this my lord... 🥺

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 11/12/2023

Initial Deluxe (I've Just Raced on this Course Before)

Season 7 Featured on: Now That's What I Call Quality! 3

Ripped by Madinstance

Tentative rip name: Initial Deluxe - I've just raced on this Course before

This is another recent one - as recent as just the beginning of this month, to be precise. And if you're keeping up with the channel, I don't really blame you for missing it: it was uploaded right after the conclusion of a day-long mini event in Fisher-Price Day on the 29th, and just a few hours before the way-too-big Goomba Got Back Day event - squeezed in the middle alongside just a half dozen other rips. Frankly I was almost about to skip this one to focus more on catching up with the prior events, yet...people in the SiIvaGunner Discord server were absolutely enamored with this rip in particular. And after giving it a shot, its immensely easy to see why - Initial Deluxe (I've Just Raced on this Course Before) was an absolute delight of a surprise that I can't believe wasn't given more fanfare.

Honestly, before the rip's creator was revealed, I was partially convinced this was another collaboration project in disguise, similar to Patched Plains Fusion Collab - yet if it were to be any one ripper to take on this wide variety of different musical styles to rearrange, I suppose it WOULD indeed be Madinstance. The guy's not a new face around here at all, and his skills in arranging are damn near unrivalled: Fell From a High Place (Reprise), M​-​O​-​O​-​G City, Every Mob Wants to Rule My World, and so many more...you'll notice, though, that all three examples I used here are all made in reverence of the same game: Minecraft. Having talked with Madinstance myself before, he strikes me as someone who's most willing to go all-in if it means being able to pay respects to something he truly adores and cherishes - like Minecraft, like Plok and other Follin-composed games. What Initial Deluxe (I've Just Raced on this Course Before) signals to me, is that this feeling of respect also extends to the Mario Kart series.

Released earlier in November, the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass has brought Mario Kart back into discussion for a lot of Nintendo fans - both in the valid criticism against its graphical quality, but also in reverence and celebration of just how well done several of the track remasters were done. Since Mario Kart DS, part of Mario Kart's identity has become to celebrate the race tracks that built the series' legacy to what it is today - which the Booster Course Pass amplifies a hundredfold. Initial Deluxe (I've Just Raced on this Course Before) thus feels like a celebration of a celebration - a lovely, heartfelt medley of musical styles from all the different Mario Kart games represented within Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. All the sections are primarily based on one notable track featured in each game - Neo Bowser City from Mario Kart 7, Cheese Land from Mario Kart Super Circuit, and so on, and all the picks feel like they were chosen with utmost care to truly represent the vibe each game's soundscape holds. As a Mario Kart Wii-kid myself I certainly feel very represented with the choice made!

All of that isn't even touching on the joke being adapted onto these various Mario Kart soundscapes - the iconic Eurobeat song Deja Vu from the anime series Initial D. A song long associated with the love of driving and racing at high speeds, it now takes on a new meaning when associated with all of these games, that together raised generations of kids into becoming fans of high-octane driving - its a meeting that felt destined to happen, and each style renders the song in such refreshingly high quality. The styles feel like so much more than just setdressing, as tons of flavor is injected from each one: from the lighthearted whistles of Mario Kart Double Dash!!, to the rawness of Mario Kart Super Circuit's compressed instrumentation, to the elements the Mario Kart Wii segment takes from tracks like its Options menu music... Initial Deluxe (I've Just Raced on this Course Before) is such a whollistic, dense and wonderful celebration of all that Mario Kart is and has become, all to the tune of one of the internet's most beloved pieces of racing music.

[mathieu774]

Mario Kart

Mario Kart, a very old spin off of the one of the main flagship titles starting all the way back in 1992 in late August titled “Super Mario Kart”. This was a unique entrée back in the day letting you drive as the brother Mario and Luigi, Princess Peach, Toad, Bowser, A random Koopa Troopa and Donkey Kong Jr for some reason. Housing Four different Cups/Tournaments labelled Star, Mushroom, Flower and Special respectively. It was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System or the SNES, it was a fun game with difficult controls and even crazier coding.

Let me give you an example, the term “Rubber Banding” is used when talking about the artificial intelligence of the enemies or the other drivers, it means that when you are far ahead, they will fly forward much faster than they are supposed to. This is for the player to constantly have a challenge during the race. But it was overdone, they are too fast and have many, MANY, more options than you to win, it’s like playing against a cheater and is very frustrating. As the first entrée that ill talk about, it's a solid game working with weaker hardware, 6/10. Now, I’ve not played all the Mario Karts, so I’m going to skip most hand held like for the DS, Game Boy, and for the 3Ds. The next on the list is Mario Kart 64, taking us into the third dimension visually and graphically.

With a few new characters like Wario (Replacing Koopa) and D.K replacing his dad from the first game. It’s pretty fun and I'm not going to go into the details to much, aside from touching the time trails and battle modes that are a constant throughout all the titles. Its cool and gives us a new feature, drifting, all tho we don’t get a boost it lets you take corners much faster and at better angles. 7/10 Now, i didn’t get the opportunity to play “Double Dash” but from most things I've seen it gives you the ability to switch your character to another one of your choosing, and they all have unique items that each have their own benefits. I can’t give my opinion, but I emplor you to play it and see for yourself. The one that I played the most growing up was definitely Mario Kart Wii (2008)

, with many more cups that previous games we have many more characters as with the insanely popular “Funky Kong” who is one of the new racers, I gotta say that this game rocks, from the music to the visuals and controls, it’s no questions the most popular game of the franchise. New cups and mods are being put into this game to this day, because it’s just so fun to play and the skill ceiling (How good you can get) is super high, a solid 9/10 cause there are a couple of small flaws, but let's move on to the last entrée I will talk about. Mario kart 8 Deluxe (2017)

is, at the moment, the last game of the series, with a kart customization, 96 cups with four tracks each, and over 40 racers that each behave differently on the tracks, new modes of transportation with the upside down gravity mode and the third level of boost called the Mega mini Turbo. The reason that I’m skipping the regular version is because it’s nothing better or different than this one, this one is just better. With more karts, characters, tracks, battle modes, tougher time trials ghosts and new Mii costumes it’s simple to see why. With all this said and done, it’s great, the tracks are stunning to look at, with neo Bowser City being one of the best examples to show this. Now with the booster pass coming out any day now it stands at an 8/10.

[notajinn]

Top Games Played in 2023 - Number 1: Super Mario RPG Switch

1. Super Mario RPG Remake (Switch)

This one isn't fair. The SNES Super Mario RPG is one of my favourite games ever, so a faithful remake is almost guaranteed to be better than any other game already.

What I Like

Most of this is just what I like about the original Super Mario RPG because a lot of the game is unchanged.

I love the battle system incorporating timed hits. You still get to take your time on your turn deciding what to do, but the additional input being able to majorly affect the battle keeps you engaged. This is especially important in the late game and new post-game given you're pretty likely to die without good timed hits.

The writing in the game is the quality you'd expect of something that released in the same generation as Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger. It's lighthearted, fun, and includes a good sprinkle of cool moments. The game mostly revolves around new characters like Mallow and Geno, and they manage to be some of the best written characters in the Mario series despite being in only one game. Even some of the enemies like Croco and Belome return later in the game and get their own tiny character arcs.

They did a good job keeping the weirdness of the original SNES art style while updating the graphics to the current gen.

SMRPG has one of my all-time favourite video game soundtracks.

I mean, what else can I say? The gameplay is good, the writing is good, the music is good, the graphics are. Those are the four most important parts of any game.

As far as new stuff is concerned, I'm happy they added a post-game at all! The new content has writing that matches the rest of the game well, and there are some cool bosses. It's also legitimately hard content which is nice for an otherwise pretty easy game. I love that one of the post-game bosses is Booster since you otherwise skip his boss fight in the main game unless you fail a mini-game.

There's one major change made to the combat system in that you can switch party members during battle. This actually makes the game feel very fresh since otherwise I always kept Peach in my party for emergency heals, but now I just swap her in when I need healing. This let me play much more aggressively.

They also added a party-wide super meter. These are fun animations and useful moves, but mostly unneeded given how easy the game is.

Plus it's way easier to move around with a control stick now compared to having to use the D-Pad for 3D in the SNES game.

What I Don't Like

Across the board, the new remastered soundtrack is worse than the original soundtrack. This could just be nostalgia. Fortunately the game lets you toggle between Remastered and Original soundtrack at any time.

The game maintains the strange difficulty spike at the Sunken Ship. It's not hard, but it goes from easy to "I need to try now" very quickly.

A few of the post-game bosses are bullshit and require extremely precise timed blocks to not take crazy amounts of damage. It's also a little annoying to always have to travel to Frogfucious after each boss to find out who the next boss to fight is.

The Casino remains an annoying area to unlock, and one that doesn't really reward you with anything good. Not even a Flower Tab.

Final Thoughts

It's one of my favourite games touched up and with some new content. What's not to love?

[xosieun]

trends in kbeauty (june)

hello everyone!

i wanted to start a mini series where i post about some of the trends i've been seeing in kbeauty. especially because kbeauty trends change so quickly, i wanted to make this into a series for people to learn more about what's currently/has been trending and share some opinions and products!

and feel free to share your opinions on the products mentioned in these posts! i'd love to see them :)

--------

1. PDRN

PDRN, or polydeoxyribonucleotide, is a super trendy skincare ingredient that has absolutely changed the skincare trends lately. PDRN is an active ingredient that is extracted from salmon sperm (?!) and are made up of DNA fragments (according to this review article by Khan et al., 2022). there are also other brands that use vegan PDRN by extracting the ingredient from rose, green tea, wild ginseng, etc.

PDRN is also the main ingredient for rejuran healer skin booster injections (according to this reddit post)

most korean beauty brands say that this ingredient helps with:

slow aging

elasticity and firmness

increasing collagen production

creating a natural glow

reduced fine lines

there are also some concerns regarding this ingredient as it is an ingredient that is still being researched on. additionally, as it is an active ingredient, it is important to use this ingredient in a moderate manner.

here are some products that contain PDRN:

anua PDRN hyaluronic capsule 100 serum

PDRN derived from salmon

links: olive young - code: XOSIEUN1 | yesstyle - code: XO2IEUN | ulta | amazon - commissioned link

innisfree retinol green tea PDRN skin booster ampoule

PDRN derived from green tea

links: olive young - code: XOSIEUN1 | yesstyle - code: XO2IEUN | sephora | amazon - commissioned link

VT PDRN essence 100

PDRN derived from wild ginseng

links: olive young - code: XOSIEUN1 | yesstyle - code: XO2IEUN | ulta | amazon - commissioned link

genabelle PDRN vita toning ampoule

PDRN derived from salmon

links: olive young - code: XOSIEUN1 | yesstyle - code: XO2IEUN | amazon - commissioned link)

medicube PDRN pink peptide serum

PDRN derived from salmon

links: olive young - code: XOSIEUN1 | yesstyle - code: XO2IEUN | amazon - commissioned link

--------

2. cushion foundations: thin formula

now that summer has come, it is time for the return of summer cushion foundations! especially with the hotter weather, more consumers tend to look for thin formulas that are somewhat buildable or higher coverage. i've noticed that this was starting to appear last summer, but i think this summer will be the time where this trend will really starts to catch on.

my small prediction is that we might start seeing more mesh-type cushions, since they are able to filter out larger particles, allowing only the finer product to apply a more even, dispersed layer of foundation on the face. i also noticed that mesh-type cushions are better at filling pores without making them more noticeable.

here are some products that match this trend:

hera black cushion foundation (renewed version)

satin finish with buildable coverage but is lightweight

regular cushion foundation

links: olive young - code: XOSIEUN1 | yesstyle - code: XO2IEUN

clio kill cover mesh blur cushion

has a cooling sensation as it contains centella peptide

mesh-type cushion foundation

links: olive young - code: XOSIEUN1 | yesstyle - code: XO2IEUN

about_tone skin layer fit cushion

higher coverage but relatively lightweight formula

regular cushion foundation

links: wconcept

etude cloud filter cushion

super cute packaging + light, high quality cushion foundation

regular cushion foundation

links: olive young - code: XOSIEUN1 | yesstyle - code: XO2IEUN

hince second skin mesh matte cushion

super thin formula and buildable coverage

mesh-type cushion foundation

links: olive young - code: XOSIEUN1 | yesstyle - code: XO2IEUN | amazon - commissioned link)

tonymoly skin tone fixing cover cushion

matte finish that has a thin formula

mesh-type cushion foundation

links: olive young - code: XOSIEUN1 | yesstyle - code: XO2IEUN

--------

3. glowly blushes

i've also noticed that glowy blushes have been the rave, whether it be a liquid blush or a cream blush. i think it's because more people are starting to like the look of having a more three dimensional face ? (if that makes sense...) i've also seen a lot of korean celebrities going for more dewy cheeks as it adds a healthy glow.

here are some products that are include liquid and cream blushes:

muzigae mansion objet blush

almost like a liquid blush + highlighter because it has shimmers

links: olive young - code: XOSIEUN1

rom&nd juicy roll cheek

a cream blush that is in a shape of a ball

links: olive young - code: XOSIEUN1 | yesstyle - code: XO2IEUN

aou soft cream blush

a cream blush that is used on kpop idols all the time

links: hemeko

peripera syrupy tok cheek

a liquid blush in a dropper-style packaging

links: olive young - code: XOSIEUN1 | yesstyle - code: XO2IEUN

dear dahlia petal drop liquid blush

liquid blush that brings a nice glow but doesn't remove base makeup

links: olive young - code: XOSIEUN1 | amazon - commissioned link

--------

that's about it for today's post!

i realized that this was a bit longer than i expected (oops), but i hope it was insightful! feel free to let me know if you have any comments or recommendations and i'll see you a next time!!

[luminousthoughtgauntlet]

My Secret to a Fresh Dorm Desk: Fuxdre Faux Plants for Back-to-School Season!

Back-to-School Season is in full swing! As we head back to campus, our tiny dorm rooms instantly get buried under textbooks and notes. How do you bring your cramped desk to life without sacrificing precious space? My secret weapon: Faux Plant Arrangements! No watering or sunlight needed – just instant vibrancy to brighten your study space and add a lasting touch of calming green to your busy academic life.

Why Faux Plants Rule Back-to-School Season?

Zero Maintenance, Maximum Convenience: Crushing deadlines and living at the library? Real plants wouldn't survive your schedule! Faux plants stay perfectly vibrant, adding zero stress to your chaotic student life.

Instant Mini Oasis Creator: Whether it's your dorm desk, a tiny windowsill, or a boring bookshelf, one stylish faux plant instantly adds a breath of fresh air. They transform cramped corners with effortless style.

Proven Mood Booster: Research shows green reduces stress and enhances focus. Surrounded by faux greenery, your study sessions just feel more productive. A green view = a calmer, more focused you.

Safe & Dorm-Friendly: No pests, no allergens, and absolutely zero risk of spilling water on your laptop! It's peace of mind for you (and your electronics).

My Desk Oasis Must-Haves:

Mini Moss Terrarium Jar: A tiny forest in the palm of your hand! Super calming next to your stationery, and the clear glass showcases beautiful layers. Adorable and serene.

Ultra-Realistic Succulent Trio in Cement Pot: Muted, trendy tones deliver serious style points. Group them at varying heights, and your desk instantly looks chic. Effortlessly cool.

Hanging Ivy in Woven Basket: Maximize your vertical space! Hang it off the side of a shelf or your bed frame and let the greenery cascade down. Softens hard edges beautifully.

Modern Abstract Foliage in Geometric Pot: Unique leaf shapes paired with a simple geometric pot deliver major art vibes. It's the perfect statement piece to say goodbye to boring – ideal for the design-savvy student.

Pro Styling Tips for Your Faux Oasis:

Play with Height: Use books or boxes under shorter pots to create visual layers and a more dynamic arrangement.

Harmony is Key: Let your plant pot colors echo other desk items like your lamp, notebook cover, or storage box. This creates a cohesive, pulled-together look.

The Golden Triangle: Position key items (your lamp + a standout plant + your water bottle) in a triangular layout. It's a classic design trick for a balanced yet interesting setup.

A refreshed desk corner is my perfect Back-to-School ritual! No major redecorating needed – just a few well-chosen faux plants transform your ordinary dorm desk into a productive and calming study oasis. This semester, let this everlasting greenery kickstart your journey with positive vibes!