#also i set up camps like 5 times a day because of how the game tells me that my pokémon are like hungry or wanting to play and all

[reestallized]

Drew this Scorbunny to celebrate my Raboot evolving into Cinderace

[feral--darling]

In response to this post (https://www.tumblr.com/messiahzzz/742694448371236864/im-not-here-to-claim-that-wyll-doesnt-deserve?source=share) I saw the other day claiming that it's hostile for Wyll fans to "demand" more content for him, and that objecting to his lack of content is "misinformation"... I have so many thoughts.

I have a bit of an issue with calling a difference in opinion "misinformation" as though Wyll fans are lying about the fact that Wyll, as a character, is underdeveloped. I see a lot of people online who use data to back up their own opinion by manipulating statistics in a way that supports their argument without looking at the information holistically.

Sure, we can look at the length of time that Wyll spends on screen, and look at the number of words he was allowed to say throughout the game so say "haha! See, he gets plenty of screen time so you can all shut up about how his character has been done a disservice!" However, there is a huge problem when all of his "screen time" is purely used as 1) a method of moving along the main storyline because he is the *Son*of the Duke of Baldur's Gate which is the titular city in which the majority of the game is set or 2) as a backdrop to focus on other characters' stories (I'm looking at Mizora and Karlach here).

If we were to separate out scenes in which Wyll is present and scenes which revolve entirely around Wyll as a person and not in reaction to someone else, the number of "scenes" he has, according to the list given by the OP, goes down significantly.

1. The "Meeting Karlach" scene is almost entirely about Karlach and the outcome can be decided by the player character without input from Wyll. I would only very loosely call that a "Wyll scene" because it shares very heavily with Karlach.

2. Similarly, the "Mizora scene" has things happening to Wyll but much of the conversation happens between the player character and Mizora - they talk over Wyll as though he is a naughty pet who peed on the floor and the grownups have to decide how they're going to clean up his mess. This is, again, a case where Wyll is in the scene and things are happening to him, but we don't get any one-on-one scenes with him exploring how he feels about it, or what even happens to him. We get a line from the Narrator which tells us that it - his torture- feels like an eternity for him but lasts only seconds for us. What happened to him during that time? How long was he being tortured? Was he actually dragged through all Nine levels of Hell during that time? Did he meet all the devils at each level and get tortured by them? We don't know any of this, because the scene was not focused on what was happening to Wyll. It was focused on Mizora and how she was able to punish him as his Patron.

3. The tiefling party dialogue, where he spends most of the time complaining about looking like a tiefling regardless of whether he is speaking to a tiefling, in a party filled with tieflings, is... well. It's certainly a choice that was made by his devs and story writers. Do I think Wyll would spend the whole tiefling party complaining about how people who look like *tieflings* don't deserve to party because they have horns and claws? No. Do I think the brief kiss you can get from him (only if you choose one very specific dialogue choice and none others) is enough to balance out the rest of this inconsistency for his content in Act one? Also no. But I hope this doesn't come off as too "hostile" and "antagonistic" in the face of the fact that he was allowed to talk for such a long time! We should be grateful that we're even able to hear his voice for all that time even if the quality of what he's saying is subpar, right?

4. The dance scene is cute. It's one of the only scenes that is all about Wyll as a person and a character. He doesn't really talk about himself much, but at least Mizora isn't there so that's... something, right?

5. More scenes where Mizora is the focus. She comes to camp to demand that the player character frees Zariel's asset (and they can talk over Wyll the entire time with basically no input from him. Nothing about his background, past, present feelings, hopes for the future.) Do people understand the difference between being present in a scene and being the *focus* of a scene? A good example would be the difference between a scene where Mizora is talking to the player, vs when Elminster comes to tell Gale to kill himself. During the Elminster conversation, the player character is there, but it is clearly a conversation between Gale and Elminster. There is the option for Tav to leave the conversation to Gale (an option which is also there for Lae'Zel scenes with the Githyanki) and the interaction can go forward without much input from the player. We are watching two people converse. When Mizora visits camp, she talks to the player character and talks about Wyll like he's a dog. She is very much the focus of the scene and Wyll is a prop or background character.

6. The fact that Mizora joins the camp and there is no option for Wyll or Tav to tell her to leave is NOT A GOOD THING?? This just further goes to prove how much of Wyll's "storyline" is actually just a Mizora storyline. If we separated the parts of Wyll's content that revolve SOLELY AROUND the white-coded devil woman who enslaved him as a child (17 yo is a child to me, argue with someone else about that) ... he has the dance scene, the proposal scene (where the intimate scene happens off screen because the devs really just didn't want to animate a sex scene with a black character because who wants to see *that*?) and maybe a kiss at the tiefling party if you choose the one very particular dialogue tree that leads to it. (Honestly, why do you start that by saying "surely you know why I came out here to find you" ?? It doesn't intuitively lead to a kiss in my mind. AND THEN you have to roll a persuasion check to convince him to kiss you?? WHAT?? WHY?)

I, as a Wyll fan, have an issue with the fact that he has so few scenes AND that most of them are of such low quality that they can barely be counted as his scenes at all. So stretching the numbers to include any scene in which Wyll is even present in the scene... It's just not good enough to combat the obvious lack of care that has gone into the writing of his character. Sorry if that seems ungrateful, or "hostile" 🙃

On to the issue of his autonomy: I don't know if OP just hasn't played with Gale, Karlach or Astarion in their party to the end. Karlach's autonomy is that if you kill Gortash without her in your party, she will get angry and leave. Gale can decide to keep the crown and become a god whether or not you want him to, even if you tell him you don't want him to. Although Astarion needs the player character's help to complete the ascension ritual, if you don't help him and can't convince him that foregoing ascension is the right thing to do, **he will leave your party with all the equipment and gear that he has on him**. I don't know what he says if you complete the Cazador quest without him in your party but I can assume there will be some furious words and he will possibly leave. Why? Because his writers have given him enough personality and agency that I pretty much can guess how he would react to any situation. They are all clearly able to show their own wants or needs regarding their own personal storyline.

Wyll, on the other hand, apparently has no wants or needs. If you go to the Iron Throne and let his dad die, he is fine (i.e. he wont leave the party and there will be no actual consequences). If you choose to reject Mizoras' contract and condemn his father to death, he is fine. If you choose to damn him to an eternity of serving Mizora in return for his father's life, he is fine. The only circumstance in which he will leave the party is if you go the evil route and kill all the tieflings in Act one. Regarding his own personal storyline though? Tav makes all his decisions without discussing it with him and he apparently has no problem with that. There is no option to say "hey man, I've only known you for a couple weeks. Maybe you should decide how your life and future will play out?"

Again. It's an issue of both quality AND quantity.

Finally, the issue with the "Ansur quest" being moved from Wylls main storyline to a side quest is symbolic of the rest of the issues we have with Wyll content. Many of Wyll's quests could be moved to the "main quest" or "side quest" subheadings without affecting the game at all. THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT. The companion quests should be PERSONAL to the COMPANIONS. The fact that THE ANSUR QUEST ABOUT THE EMPEROR was the CULMINATION of Wyll's PERSONAL QUEST was a travesty. The developers would not have been able to easily move any other companion's ENDING TO THEIR PERSONAL QUEST to a side mission without having any impact on the game because there was care an thought put into the other companions' personal quests that wasn't put into Wyll's personal quest. I'm hoping that they're gearing up to give Wyll an actual ending to his personal quest and that's why they've changed that quest to a side mission. HOWEVER, it has been months since the "full release" of the game. There have been 6 patches and 19 hotfixes and there have been no material improvements to Wyll's content and characterisation. The hope is getting spread thin.

Honestly, I feel that people who are only willing to point out the "hostility" of fans who noticed a discrepancy between the quality and quantity of content devoted to a black character and feel "scared" to interact with the fans of said black character should stay in their own fandom spaces where they feel safe. No one is asking for a saviour from the fandom who feels uncomfortable owning up to their own racism and anti-blackness (hint: we live in a world that was colonised by white supremacists hundreds of years ago. We ALL have racism and anti-blackness to unpack). No one is asking fans to interact with Wyll when they don't want to. No one is asking the fans to stop being racist. We're asking the *developers and writers* to stop being racist. To listen to black voices if they feel the need to throw a black character into their game which is mostly marketed to straight white men. And give Wyll the content he deserves.

[no-see-um-incorrect]

How I think the Yuurivoice boys and their listeners would be grocery shopping 

A little backstory I grew up, broke as fuck (still am) and my mom taught me how to get the most groceries to feed the most people with what you have. So let’s see how the Yuurivoice boys are when it comes to grocery shopping 

Auron/Rook

Man is literally rich 

he doesn’t budget. He just goes to the grocery store (let’s face it it’s probably Whole Foods) gets what he wants and leaves. If Rook lives with him it’s not that different they just get more stuff.  but he’s very particular on things that he buys. 

Not the price on anything like that no  he will sit there, staring at two packages of essentially the same butter  for like 15 minutes. And when rook asks what he’s doing.  he gives the excuse of.

“well, if it’s going to take up room in my fridge need to make sure it’s worth the space” 

My man, it is the same butter in a different packaging. 2/10

Lucien/angel 

Lucien is like a child in the grocery store. He wants to touch everything he wants to look at everything he wants to get everything.

And unless it’s with like serious stuff Lucien doesn’t really know how to take no for an answer so somethings he actually succeeds in convincing Angel to get him when he wants.

angel has the problem of going to the grocery store when hungry. Causing them to buy a lot of extra snack things (that Lucien will just end up eating in one sitting anyway)

Lucien obviously gets a lot of looks when he goes grocery shopping by himself because 

I mean, he’s a big red demon with horns and a tail  it’s kind of hard not to stare. But the people at the local grocery store that they frequent kind of just accepted that that’s how he looks and he’s actually quite friendly with them. 5/10

Charlie/Casper 

(I am totally not biased because I kin Charlie  and because he’s my favorite I don’t know why you’d think that)

Charlie by himself is absolute Ass at shopping 

But when he goes with Casper, they’re the best duo for shopping. It’s like a game. One day out of the last week of the month when they both have the day off is when they go grocery shopping. 

Step one: wake up early in the morning, clear out all of the cabinets and the refrigerator of expired or uneaten food

Step two: use the rest of the afternoon to carve out a budget and a shopping list as well as a “reward budget”

(the reward budget is used to reward them if they go under budget and get all the groceries under the time limit that they set themselves)

Step three: night time.  one hour and 20 minutes before the store closes. Charlie sits in the cart with the grocery shopping list as well as a chart with the number of isles, and what is in each aisle. They have one hour to complete their grocery shopping.  if they complete it under the hour, they can use the rest of the remaining time and the reward fund.  check out the last 20 minutes. 

Absolute best at grocery shopping 10/10

Seth/scout 

These two both are a little dumb when it comes to grocery shopping. But they get the job done 

They eat a lot of the same things so they’ll get all of the ingredients they need or mixes they need in bulk  like

Bulk pancake mix, a pack of three jugs of milk(thank you Costco), a pack of salad mixes.

Unless Seth has a big meal planned or they’re going camping or they’re having guests over they mostly just get prepackaged things that are easy to whip up. overall pretty good at staying on budget and sticking to the list  7/10

Alphonse/boo 

Alphonse usually does the grocery shopping but when they go together  they do OK  decent is the word I would use to describe it. You see alphonse also has the problem of going to the grocery store hungry and boo Has to be the voice of reason. 

Sometimes Alphonse likes to forget that he has a candy shop so boo will look away for one minute and then he’s just gone. Boo will eventually find him in the candy aisle, comparing prices of taffy only to be reminded that he owns a candy shop.

Boo is not that much better…… they go in the baking aisle, and they will marvel over the new sprinkles or new piping tips  until Alphonse inevitably makes a dirty baking joke, and then they get their minds back on track.

Not the best for time, but not the worst when it comes to staying on budget and getting what they need 8/10

Faust/star 

I am convinced these two don’t know what a grocery store is. Once again, he’s rich. he just orders food.  I don’t think he knows how to cook either.  so they just order food.  all the time. and it’s a very particular order to.  not to mention someone who looks like Faust is kind of hard to forget so most of the delivery drivers know him by name. 

One time they wanted pizza and Faust remembered seeing a guy talking to Auron in a Sweet Pete’s Pizza shirt,  so he ordered from there and he gets Charlie as a delivery boy 

Charlie: delivery from Sweet Pete’s pizzeria! I got a large cheese, and a-…….. oh my God…

Faust: well, if it isn’t my brothers little bitch boy

Charlie remembers this interaction very vividly and tends to avoid this address at all costs  

Overall 0/10 I think this man would vomit upon seeing a Walmart 

Finn /sunflower 

The only time that he really goes to the grocery store for big trips is during the winter and fall 

(he gets very overstimulated and anxious in grocery stores)

He grows a lot of the vegetables that he uses in his every day cooking  and buys a lot of other things like for baking or specific recipes in bulk specifically so he doesn’t have to go to the grocery store too often but when he does, it’s usually either in the winter time or an ingredients run/stock up 

 Him and sunflower will get ingredients to make certain baked goods and different tea blends  but he always seems to get distracted in the garden section. Sunflower hast to forcibly drag him out of the garden section…..it’s becoming a problem 

Sunflowers usually very productive with their shopping  but they often times get lost in the clothes section looking at stuff that Finn would look good in (provided that he doesn’t get it covered in dirt)

Overall, they’re pretty good at sticking to budget pretty good at sticking to their list  not that great on time (i’m not gonna hold it against them) 8/10

Hope you enjoyed  it’s really late when I’m posting this, but I wanted to give y’all a little something that wasn’t a shitpost. Have a good night stay hydrated eat a snack bye. 





[itsseohannbin]

〉Get On My Level, Bitch〈

Jisung Drabble

A lil something for my gamer girlies

© itshannjisung, 2024

♡ itsseohannbins masterlist ♡

Genre: Fluff. Crack.

Established Relationship.

Summary: After losing one too many rounds of Hyungs vs Maknaes in Call Of Duty, Jisung enlists help from his gamer girlfriend, who teaches him how to win and impresses his friends as she does so.

Pairing: Idol! Han Jisung x Female Reader

Warnings: Fluff. Crack. Swearing. Soft boi Han Jisung. Gamer Skz. Nerdy Skz. Lots of gaming terms are used. Gun and knife use (in-game). mentions of the boys being shot (obvi in game). Reader is older than Jisung, Hyunjin, and Changbin. suggestive towards the end.

** Members' clan tags/gamer tags are also used.

Word Count: 4k lol fuck

Inspired by a dream I had of exactly this, so this was completely self-indulgent LOL

Enjoy!

Waking up to an empty bed on a shared day off was extremely unusual for you. Typically, when you and your boyfriend had the same days off, you'd both lounge in bed together well into the afternoon, just relaxing and enjoying each other's company. You'd usually be starfished out across the mattress reading Webtoons on your phone, while Jisung would be cuddled up between your legs, his back against your mid-section while he watched an anime on his laptop.

So, when you woke up to nothing but emptiness beside you one random Thursday morning, you were more than a little concerned. That was until you heard the faint sound of Jisung cursing aggressively coming from two rooms over.

A smile spread across your face almost immediately as you pulled yourself out of bed and wrapped one of Jisung's oversized hoodies around you. It had been a long time since he had stepped foot inside the game room.

With one comeback finishing and another one right around the corner, you haven't seen any of the guys online at all lately. They must've finally all gotten a couple days off together because Jisung never went online unless all of them did.

You were anxious to see what game they were playing, and admittedly, excited for the possibility of a gaming day with your boyfriend. Sure, lounging in bed all day with take-out and anime was the perfect way to spend time together, but you'd be lying if you said you didn't miss the days' pre-5-star comeback where the two of you would be in front of your computers for hours on end.

You grabbed your phone and slipped on a pair of comfy slippers before tiptoeing out of the room, giggling quietly to yourself as you listened to Jisung's annoyed words sounding all the way from down the hall.

"Yah! Quit camping and come face me like a man, Hyung!" Something akin to a laugh and a groan of frustration left Jisung's mouth shortly before a loud "Fuck!" echoed off the walls.

"Lino-hyung, you're so fucking dead!"

Once you reached the door to the game room where you and Jisung had computers set up side by side, you leaned against the door frame and watched him silently in admiration. Jisung sat in his big black leather chair, the RGB lights in the computer tower the only source of light in the room as they flashed different shades of red against the stark white walls.

His back was to you, his big chunky headphones covering both of his ears and his microphone stand that he got from Felix that previous holiday season was sitting way too close to his mouth. You had to suppress a laugh when his lips grazed the metal mesh of the mic so hard you could hear Changbin yelling through the headset for Jisung to stop eating it.

He was a rapper through and through on and off stage. You made a mental note to pick him up a foam microphone cover to help keep his teeth from grazing the material, and more importantly, help prevent Changbin from killing Jisung altogether.

"Top right, top right, top right," he then spoke quickly, his shoulders tensing up for a moment before relaxing again. "Nice one Seung. Good coms." he then praised.

You watched him for a couple more minutes before stepping into the room and coming up behind him. You were careful not to startle him while he was so clearly focused on his game, your hands lightly resting on his shoulders so he knew you were there.

"They're rushing B, they're rushing B, they're rushing B! Oh, hi Baby!" Jisung turned his head for a moment to beam up at you adorably with those large, brown eyes and full cheeks. He grinned and kissed the back of your hand quickly before he went back to focusing on the screen in front of him.

"Fuck, I died. Sorry. Innie behind you!"

Your eyes immediately became glued to the computer screen as he called for Jeongin again, another smile making its way to your face. They were playing Call of Duty, your current favorite game to play, and you had a sudden urge to sit down next to him at your own computer and join.

During the weeks leading up to the release of 5-Star, you spent a lot of your free time online playing the game with your own friends while Jisung and the boys prepared for their comeback. Jisung knew you loved to game, he loved that you did, but he didn't know just how good you had gotten at it in the hours you spent home alone while he was away.

You genuinely did love the game, as the franchise itself was one you played throughout your years growing up, but you mostly wanted to show off to Jisung and the rest of the guys. They would always tease you for playing 'girly' games, like Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing, and even occasionally, The Sims 4, so you were determined to improve your FPS skills and impress them.

"Fuck, how did you even see me there Binnie-hyung?" Jisung whined as you watched his screen go grey. He pressed a button on his RGB keyboard and quickly brought up the scoreboard to see how he was doing, and you saw that they were playing a 4v4 match. Hyungs vs Maknaes.

This wasn't going to end well.

When it was the older four versus the younger four, it never did.

"Aha, get on my level, bitch." Changbin taunted in response.

You felt Jisung's shoulders tense under your touch when the game ended a second later, his death being the final kill. He hit the top of the desk with his fist lightly in annoyance at his comical and unfortunate death before a laugh left his throat.

"Don't look at that guys!" he begged as the 'Final Kill' camera replayed across the screen. His hands went up to cover his face in embarrassment. "Please! I'm so embarrassed!"

You couldn't tell if the sound that left his throat a second later was a cry or a laugh, but you assumed the latter as you watched the Kill Cam show his character flying back into the match on a parachute. Changbin had seen him clear as day and sniped him right out of the sky, leaving Jisung's character to fall dramatically to the ground.

You could hear the hoots of laughter coming through the headset from the rest of the guys, his teammates included, and it made a laugh of your own escape your mouth before you could stop it. Jisung turned to look at you with squinted eyes, a playful grin on his face as he gaped at you in mock betrayal.

"Baby!" he cried as he watched your shoulders shake with the force of your laughter. "You're supposed to be on my side!" he feigned offense.

"I'm sorry Sungie," you giggled as you squeezed his shoulders reassuringly and planted a soft kiss onto his messy bedhead. Jisung sent you a playful pout before he turned back around. "You're just too cute for words."

Jisung scoffed and returned your affection, planting another kiss on your hand as the final scoreboard flashed onto the screen. Interested to see how everyone played, you leaned in to take a look at everyone's scores.

Hyungs (4/4) Score: 100

[3Racha] DaddyDwaekki99; Kills:37 Deaths:9

[3Racha] xCB97x; Kills:30 Deaths:15

[SKZOO] Butt-Hunter0325; Kills:25 Deaths:18

[SKZOO] Jin&Tonic00; Kills:8 Deaths:24

Maknaes (4/4) Score: 66

[SKZOO] BrownieBoiT_T; Kills:29 Deaths:12

[SKZOO] Nimgnues148; Kills:20 Deaths:27

[SKZOO] XxMAKNA3.0N.T0PxX; Kills:13 Deaths:27

[3Racha] QuokkaPrince; Kills:4 Deaths:34

"Are you serious? How the hell did I do worse than Hyune?" Jisung grumbled as he looked at the scores, his face falling to one of disappointment. You could hear Bangchan cackling light-heartedly through the headset.

You let your hands then slide down Jisung's broad chest and hugged him tightly against you in an attempt to cheer him up. You kissed the top of his head again before resting your chin on it.

"Hey, I think you did good." you voiced. Jisung's hand came up to rub your arm in appreciation, though he was still frowning to himself.

"You're supposed to say that," he mumbled. "You're my girlfriend."

You just smiled down at him and leaned over to plant a kiss on his cheek. Jisung then lightly tapped his microphone to mute it before he reached up to cup your face, bringing your lips back to his for a gentle kiss. You smiled against his mouth before pulling away.

He tasted like coffee.

"Good morning, Jagi. Did you sleep well?" he asked now that he finally had a moment to talk with the game being over. You nodded and pressed a firm kiss to his exposed forehead, causing him to smile up at you.

"I slept perfectly," you answered with an adoring smile as you brushed some hair out of his face. Jisung craned his head back and puckered his lips once more, silently asking for another kiss, which you happily obliged.

His lips were slightly chapped and dry, probably from all the talking he'd been doing and lack of hydration, but they still felt warm against yours. You felt a shiver run down your spine when his tongue found yours a moment later, your body tingling with pleasure the way it always did when kissing him, even after all these years together.

"Did you eat?" you asked after his lips pulled away from you. The guys were busy upgrading their guns and changing their specs, so you had a little bit of alone time with Jisung before he was called back for another round.

"Mhmm., Jisung hummed as he swiveled his chair around and pulled you into his lap. He planted a kiss on your cheek and wrapped his arms lovingly around your waist before nuzzling his face into your neck. He loved physical touch with you, and he'd eat it up every chance he got. "I sure did. Just had some eggs and toast. There's coffee left if you want any."

"Thanks, Baby." you grinned down at him as you wrapped one arm around his neck and pulled him impossibly closer to you. His lips found purchase on the skin of your throat where he began peppering small pecks of love all over. "I'm really happy to see you back in here finally. You guys have all been working really hard lately and you all deserve time off to relax and have fun."

"There's a double XP event happening this week so we're trying to all get upgraded before we have to go back to work," he explained. You hummed in response, content with the affection he was currently giving you in between words. Jisung then pulled away, giving you an anxious look.

"Is it okay if I spend a couple of hours gaming with them? We can go watch some shows if you want to instead, I don-" You cut him off abruptly with a shake of your head and a hand over his mouth. Jisung peered up at you with wide eyes, waiting nervously for your response.

"Sungie, baby, if you want to spend the day gaming with the guys, I'm all for it. I promise," you assured him with a quick kiss to his nose. "I was actually thinking of joining you, honestly. It's been a long time since we had a gaming day."

You moved your hands to tangle in the wisps of hair that sat at the nape of his neck, toying aimlessly with the freshly-dyed strands of dark brown.

"Yeah?" he asked with a smirk. "You gonna' play some Stardew or something?"

You grinned down at him shyly.

"Actually, I was going to ask if I could try a round of Call of Duty with you guys. Would you teach me?"

Jisung's eyebrows disappeared behind his hair as he looked at you in shock. His mouth fell open slightly as if he couldn't believe his ears before it broke out into the most adorable smile you've ever seen.

"You want me to teach you how to play?" he asked, excitement already causing him to vibrate in his seat. He'd been waiting for the day for you to ask him to teach you how to play all his favorite games, even though there weren't a lot of them. He was absolutely ecstatic at your inquiry, he could barely mask it as he jumped happily.

"Of course, I will teach you, Baby!" he squealed when you nodded. "I'm not very good myself, but we can do a one-on-one match so you can get used to the controls without being overwhelmed."

The excitement and happiness on his soft features almost made you blow your cover. He was so cute when he got excited over little things like this. It made you fall impossibly more in love with him.

You shook your head quickly before he could even finish his sentence, causing confusion to glaze over in his stare.

"I want to play with the guys. Right now. I want the next round," you claimed as you shifted on his lap, turning around to take the mouse in your hand. Your other hand landed on the keyboard and your fingers twitched with anticipation. They fell perfectly into place and you hoped to god Jisung didn't notice.

Jisung was taken by surprise at your eagerness, but he just laughed and wrapped his arm around you and went to unmute the mic before you grabbed ahold of his wrist and stopped him.

"Don't tell the guys I'm playing. I want to surprise them," you insisted. Jisung raised an eyebrow at you.

"Surprise them how?" he asked slowly, his eyes suspicious yet amused. You beamed back and kissed him on the nose once more.

"I'm going to win this round for you. That'll stop them from teasing you so much." You could hear the guys shit-talking each other through the headset Jisung had looped around his neck when you initially sat down. It was all in good fun, obviously, but they were making a lot of digs at Jisung, which only made you more determined to bring home a win for Ji and the Maknaes.

Jisung gave you a skeptical look, biting his lower lip in uncertainty when he realized how serious you were.

"Have you played this game before?" he questioned. You shrugged your shoulders nonchalantly.

"Once or twice while you were at work." you fibbed, hoping he didn't catch onto your lie the way he always did with you.

"Alright, but if you fuck up my K-D ratio, I'm gon' be really upset." he teased. He sat himself up straighter so he could lean his chin on your shoulder and watch. You rolled your eyes at him and let out a snarky remark, to which he laughed.

"Can't fuck it up more than it already is."

"Har har, very funny."

Jisung hooked his headset back onto one ear, allowing you to listen in on the conversation as well. You took the time to make yourself your own custom gun class, one that you were used to and had been using for months prior, but you tried to act clueless as you put it together.

So far, so good.

Jisung, and the rest of the guys for that matter, had no clue what was coming for them.

"Alright, so move your character using the WASD keys." Jisung lightly pushed the hand on the keyboard out of his way and demonstrated for you. "Space is jump and 'R' is reload. Use the middle button on the mouse-" he quickly moved his other hand to hover over yours, demonstrating again. "to use your lethal equipment, and the '1' key to switch to your tactical equipment."

You nodded along, playing dumb as you repeated his actions.

"The left mouse button is how you fire your weapon, while the right mouse button is used to aim down sight. 'E' is used to interact with shit around the world, and 'M' will bring up your map." he continued on without hesitation, waiting for you to nod in understanding before moving on to the next. "You can crouch and slide by pressing the 'C' key, or you can lay down by holding it. Cool?"

You nodded again, biting your lower lip to stop a laugh from escaping your throat as his vague instructions. Jisung misunderstood your action and began rubbing his hands up and down your arms reassuringly.

"It's okay, Baby. Don't be nervous. You got this. I'll be your eyes and ears, okay?"

After going over the rest of the controls, all of which you already knew and more, Jisung unmuted his mic and hopped back into the conversation the guys were having about the upcoming album due to come out in the next couple of months.

His hands were now resting on your hips reassuringly while he talked with the guys, acting as if he was playing, and you felt yourself getting jittery from the anticipation that tore through you when the countdown finally began.

When the clock hit zero and all players were free to move, you quickly worked your way around the familiar map and went directly to your favorite vantage point, perfect for sniping off of. Jisung snorted to himself when he saw your character pull out the sniper rifle you customized.

"Good luck, Sweetheart. Binnie-hyung is a sniper king," he mumbled quietly enough for only you to hear. You shook your head.

"Not for long," you whispered back.

Felix's voice came barreling through the headset suddenly, causing you to jump as adrenaline pumped through your veins. You loved the rush that came with these FPS games.

"Roof of the red building!" he yelled excitedly. Jisung's finger came up to point out where Binnie's character was sneakily army-crawling across a rooftop in the distance, just like Felix had said. You pulled out your sniper, aimed down your sight, and lined up the shot. In a second, POW! Binnie had died in one swift shot to the head.

"What the fuck?" Changbin laughed in disbelief into his mic, confusion clear in his tone. "Are you using a sniper rifle, Ji?"

You held back a cackle at his words, allowing Jisung to answer with a small laugh of his own, the disbelief in his own voice barely unnoticed. "Yeah, I figured I'd change it up a bit." he offered to his older member. He sounded so casual, but his eyebrows were once again raised in surprise as your lucky shot.

Looking through the scope of your gun, you watched as Changbin's character climbed back onto the same roof moments later and aimed his own rifle in your direction, a flash of light in the distance. You were quick to get up from your crouched position and move away from his field of view, your fingers dancing across the keyboard as you changed position and sniped him again from a different angle.

POW!

Dead again.

Binnie let out a string of curse words as his body rolled dramatically off the roof to the ground below.

"Yah! What the fuck?" he laughed again.

You knew your cover was now blown, so you jumped from the rooftop you were lying across and parachuted down to the ground, running for cover when you heard gunshots going off all around you.

"Ji, behind you!" Jeongin shouted. You twirled your character around and pulled out your secondary weapon, a simple pistol, seeing Lino's character running towards you at full speed with nothing but a knife in his hand.

Typical Lino.

You smirked at his antics and shot him point blank before he could reach you, causing Lino to squeal dramatically like a girl into the mic, which in turn, made you and Jisung both wince at the unusually high pitch of it.

"Nooooo! Dammit!" he laughed.

Jisung gave you a soft high-five at your kill and watched in awe as the game continued.

For fifteen minutes, you sat rock solid in Jisung's lap, your eyes hyper-focused on the screen as you ran across the map, killing off the Hyungs and racking up your team's points. The boys were all shocked at Jisungs 'sudden skill', suspicious of him cheating or hacking the system, but he had lost the ability to defend himself as he was too shocked to even say anything in response.

He muted his mic and was cheering you on, congratulating you on every kill and assist you got. He had chalked it all up to beginner luck, but when you got the game-winning kill, sniping Chan from across the map where he hid almost too perfectly between two barrels, barely in your sights, he knew.

He knew this wasn't your first, second, or even third time playing. Based on the snicker on your face when the scoreboard popped up, deeming you first place on the winning team, he knew you'd been practicing while he was away at work. And while he was envious of your skill and abilities, he was more proud than anything else.

"Okay, Ji, seriously? What the fuck?" How did you get from the bottom of the scoreboard to the top in the span of five rounds?" Felix was in awe. You smiled over at Jisung upon hearing the younger males' question., and before Jisung could answer with some cocky response you knew he'd have, you tapped the mic to unmute it and spoke into it playfully.

"Hi guys," you giggled.

As much as you wanted Jisung to take credit, you couldn't. You worked so hard to impress these guys and you didn't want to pass up the opportunity to prove them wrong with their teasing.

"Holy shit, Y/n?" Hyunjin chuckled in disbelief. "Was that you playing the entire round?"

"The one and only," you confirmed with a smirk.

"Fuck, I want you on my team next time. You snipe better than I do." Changbin spoke next. You shook your head and tsked at him.

"Sorry Binnie, no can do."

"Why not?" Hyunjin then added. "You're technically mine and Changbin-hyungs Noona, so you're playing on the wrong team!" You could practically hear his frown through the speaker of Jisung's headphones.

"Sorry guys. I play for Jisung and Jisung only."

Seungmin scoffed playfully at your words.

"You're a fucking simp." he joked. You laughed alongside everyone else before hitting them with the final blow.

"Looks like you guys are just going to have to, what is it that Binnie said last round? Get on my level, bitch." you mocked.

The guys all burst out into laughter at your impression, Binnie included.

While the guys went on to boast about your incredible win, Jisung muted the microphone once more and nuzzled his face back into your neck lovingly.

"You're a little shit," he teased, his nose tracing the shape of your ear. A shiver ran up your spine as his hot breath fanned across your throat.

"What did I do?" you asked innocently as you tilted your head to the side, allowing him to trace his nose along your neck before plating a teasing kiss below your jaw. He squeezed your hips and nibbled your skin gently as he laughed at your innocent tone.

"You've been playing this a lot, haven't you?" he questioned before biting your neck again and sucking the skin into his mouth. You sensed he was punishing you for playing him so well, but you didn't mind. You loved the feeling of his mouth on your skin.

"Every day while you're at work." you breathed out. "Gotta' learn how to put the boys in their place for teasing you so much. Gotta protect my baby." you then cooed.

Jisung's hands trailed up your sides again, sliding underneath the fabric of his sweater. His touch on your skin felt electric as his mouth teased your earlobe, his hands traveling further up your torso.

The bulge in his pants that he was rutting against you was growing harder with each passing second. Leave it to Jisung to get turned on by something as simple as you knowing how to game.

"Fuck," he whispered in an adoring tone. "I really hit the fucking jackpot with you, Jagi."

Hannjis Pookie Wookie Bears 🐻: @moonlightndaydreams @noellllslut @bethanysnow @channieandhisgoonsquad @queenmea604 @newhope8

[iheartred]

the blackphone x reader

m.list

SUMMER CAMP WITH THEM !!!

rq : I JUST THOUGHT OF ANOTHER ONE, what about tbp x reader at summer camp?@greenieglader1

cw : subtle crushing for most of these / fluff+crack / Reader has no gender once more ☆☆

a/n : love ur ideas sm (even if it was only just two) I will get to the individual sleepover ones, but right now I really wanna do this 🙏

Also just an extra : I've never been to camp so this'll be really interesting

Finney Blake :

His dad finally allowed him to go on the school summer camping trip with Robin

Gwen wanted to but was invited to go to Cali with her friends so she went with them

When they had gotten to their assigned cabin they weren't expecting two other people thinking that dince there weren't that many people that they'd just do it in pairs

Robin : oh is this cabin taken?

You : yea? But there's two other beds and we were thinking that they were there to collect dust or something so just set your stuff up dude

Robin : oh okay cool, thanks

You : no problem

Meanwhile Finney is just standing there because you(being his crush) was going to be sharing a cabin with him (and Robin too ofcourse)

The entire first week he'd just stare at you and Robin would be like "Just talk to them??"

Finney : but like- they're talking to their friend and seem busy so-

Robin : oh for f-cks sake

Then Finney would be pushed across the field against his own will and talk to you without practicing anything

Other than that first week, I feel like it'd be a blast with him! He'd definitely tell you facts about your surroundings, or cool bugs he'd point out

I feel like his sister would pack his bag for him and end up packing his solar system bed sheets

It'd be so embarrassing but I can imagine it being so cute watching him be so flustered and mad that his sister did this while he puts on his bed sheets in shame while you assist him

Robin Arellano :

His uncle would save up a lot for him since Robin would always talk about hiw his classmates would get to go, ofcourse he didn't care where he was just as long as his friends were free all summer

But this time his uncle was able to save up enough for him to go and it just so happened that Finney was also able to go

When he'd seen a familiar bag on one of the cabin porches he tried looking for the person who owned it, You.

He found you after like 5 minutes of looking past people and would definitely drag Finney with him so that he wouldn't be alone

Robin : Hey, You're here too!

You : You're here this year? That's pretty cool

And then he'd just follow you around helping you if you needed it

I feel like the whole first week he'd occupy himself with tasks and helping you (ofcourse)

Like he isn't used to be away from home for more than 2 days because he never really had the luxury of traveling

Ofcourse this wasn't really "traveling" but it was new from the comforts of his home so it was all odd to him

I do feel like he'd be great at camp activities though, like tug of war, canoeing, and like the occasional prank wars. He'd love all of it and would even challenge you specifically just for the fun of it

Robin : come on try harder than that y/n

Hed tease you if you couldn't even beat him at one game, ofcourse after a while he'd just feel bad and end up helping you which would end up with him getting shot with water from your water gun

You : GET PRANKED LOSER

Then you'd run away

Bruce Yamada :

I feel like he'd always see you there at camp and would always wait for you at the front of camp just to greet you

Bruce : Y/N!!!!!

You : BRUCEE!!!

And then you guys would run and hug eachother from how long it'd been since he'd last seen you

Which was last summer

he would definitely sneak out with you in the middle of the night just to go to this secret place in the back of the camp where you two would hang out and just summarize what you had gone through the entire year you had been apart

Bruce : Schools still been easy, OH-OH AND AND I've been perfecting my swing and gotten better at baseball!!

You : WHAT?? REALLY

Then you two would just silently scream in happiness

He would definitely point out cool things he'd see and ask you what it was, and if you didn't know what it was either than you guys would just sit there for a good minute looking for what it was and other things about it

Bruce (pointing at a toad) : ITS A FROG

You : that's a toad Bruce

Bruce : no?? That's a frog??

You : it's a toad though???

Then you guys would go back and forth till either you looked it in your book or someone told you guys to catch up with the group

Bruce : it was a frog y/n I'm not blind

You : I'm not either, and I still stand by my point that was a toad

Then you guys would just go at eachother when the prankwars would start

Vance hopper :

His mom sent him there because his teachers had recommended that he'd get out the house more, get out there and make some friends or something

He didn't care about the specifics just knew he'd end up out of town away from his pinball game

he was so salty about it the whole drive to the camp site

I feel like the whole first week he'd just be so upset and distant, lashing out at everyone and everything any chance he got

But when he saw that you were and ushering him over to your table he instantly felt a little better

Vance : you're here??

You : didn't think you'd be here either

Then you'd laugh and telk him that you saw every little tantrum he had since he get there that week

Like Robin I feel like he'd excel at camp activities and just absolutely destroy the other team

But it scared everyone even if he was on the same team as them

He would definitely go all out just because you were there or watching

You : WOOO!!! GO VANCE!!

Then he'd be even more hyped up than before and literally beat everyone at all the games they had planned

I feel like he'd hate walking or going hiking, he wouldn't care if it was a little walk around the woods behind the camp but if the walk was a full two hours explain little bits of the past it had he'd flip out

Hed literally have to be take back to the camp and sit there with a camp counselor or with another camper(that camper being you)

He hates the outdoors and nature so much but if your there it's a little tolerable (not tolerable enough)

Billy Showalter :

Would definitely be out of his comfort zone, when he had heard his parents were sending him to summer camp because he was such a workaholic and wouldn't stop doing things anxiously around the house whenever summer came up

Hed be so anxious and very quiet, but if he'd seen you, the only familiar person there he knew then he'd walk up to you with a ton of confidence

Billy : hey y/n :)

You : YOURE HERE??

Then it'd be a whole thing because he never really gets out a lot so seeing him there at camp would be very shocking and exciting

Hed be so flustered and happy that you were excited that he was just there, even if he didn't know what was going on he'd just stand there so approvingly of anything you did

Like if you tied the knot in the middle for tug of war he'd be so amazed that you tied it so effortlessly, especially since the rope it like ten times your weight

Hed absolutely love campfire stories, especially when he was up

He lives telling stories whether they're history related to the camp or even just fictional horror stories

Would definitely laugh if you walked out your cabin in the morning looking like big foot

Billy : morning y-

You : hm? What's wrong Billy?

Billy (holding in his laughter) : pfft uh- uhm nothing sorry

Then you'd walk off questioning what that was till you looked in the mirror getting slightly jumpsacred from how horrendous you looked(don't worry me too)

Loves going up for walks and hikes, would probably tell you all about the things you see but if you picked up any frogs/toads/bugs he'd walk slightly faster than before and just ignore you till you dropped it

You : but it's so cute!! Look at it !!

Billy : Put. It. Down.

You : no

Billy : for my sake please

You : hmm

Billy : hmm?

You : no

Cue him running away because you started chasing his with said creature

☆ ☆ ☆

[vee-beeee]

(Part one) Robo Road Trip

HIIII

This is PART ONE BABY (edit I FINISHED COOKING right here)

Okay the last dbh post was KINDAA giving depression so heres a FLUFFY fluffy one thats been bouncing around my brain for a couple days, part one as im going to make a continuation that shows what camping is like with the boys.

Premise: Road Trip to the West coast with Conner, Nines and Sixty

Imagine those roads with trees surrounding them, thats the vibe

Also first time writing for SIXTY whoooo hope im not trash, he acts like a smug dramatic guy so idk

Conner, Nines and Sixty x reader

I believeee this is around 3k lol i went ham

Warnings: maybe a bad word because sixty, fluff with a capitol F, part one

I also recommended listening to ANY Lord Huron song while reading this, that is basically the road trip music

(Hey sidenote, I know some of the ecosystem is TRASHED in dbh but lets pretend thats not happening LOL)

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You were so happy to get out of the city.

And into the car for a 35 hour drive.

You really wanted to show your boys the mountain you would always camp at when you were on the West Coast. They all hadn't been outside of Detroit, being made to do one job IN Detroit, but now they were all deviant.

And you wanted to show them a taste of the outside world.

It took a while for you all to get packed, the droids really wanted to try experimenting with their wardrobes on this trip. They sought to explore their inner human as much as possible.

You all needed the appropriate gear, so you guys went on a little shopping spree to find a tent and basic camping stuff. Hank had actually tagged along to coach you guys on what to get, having gone camping a couple times himself. (he mostly talked with you and Conner while sending glares to Sixty and Nines)

You ended up getting a pretty fancy tent that was big enough for all of you, and some essential equipment for cooking and cleaning. You also snuck in some board and card games, even though you knew they would beat you. But you could probably win ONE time...

Right??

After buying the gear, you guys got planning. You could only stay camping for 5 days, as the station didn't necessarily enjoy losing 4 cops. Especially 3 of the 4 being advanced detective androids. But it had worked out, (the boys having saved an astronomical amount of sick days) and you planned on going sometime in the fall. You decided on a week and you remember hurriedly running to your calendar and circling the date and also drawing a bunch of small doodles around it. The boys had all watched you fondly, getting excited themselves.

It all lead up to this moment, where Conner sitting next to you in the driver seat and was setting the location in his new GPS, Nines and Sixty where packing the car, and you were making a road trip playlist. (Hey that's very important!)

"Hey Conner?" He hummed in response and didn't look at you, too busy trying to figure out a new gadget he got for his car.

"Do you like Lord Huron?" You were trying to decide what the perfect music to play was and realized that Lord Huron existed. You weren't really sure how androids experienced music so you thought of asking. He huffed out a sigh directed at the troublesome device and turned to look at your phone, where you also had your eyes glued.

"I don't really listen to music as such, but Hank has introduced me to heavy metal. Is it like that?" You giggled remembering Hanks music taste

"No its more gentle, relaxing. It reminds me of walking in the woods." Out of the corner of your eye Conner looked away, LED blinking amber and blue. He looked back at you with a soft smile and this time you met his gaze.

"That sounds delightful, my dear. Perfect for this occasion" You flushed at the nickname, and he chuckled seeing your reaction. He leaned in and kissed your cheek before exiting the car, hearing Sixty's call that they were almost done. You sat in the vehicle, skin heating, and raising a hand to graze the place he kissed you. You loved when he did that. A steady knock at the window startled you and you whipped around to see a familiar face (sixty) smirking at you, seeing that you were flushed. You stuck your tongue out at him and he reciprocated, sticking his tongue back at you.

"If you two would stop behaving like children, we would be done much sooner." A booming voice cut through your contest with sixty, and you watched him roll his eyes and face an annoyed Nines. You got out of the car to go help the RK900 with what he was carrying. He was still grumpy so you smiled softly at him and mouthed an apology. He relaxed slightly, but still shot a glare at sixty, who chuckled and went back into the apartment and get more bags. You then took the time to appreciate Conner's awesome Bat Mobile car. It had a huge trunk that managed to fit all of your stuff, tent included. It was truly a miracle machine.

You walked over to the car and gave the suitcase to Conner who situated it nicely in a perfect space. You were also lucky to have android boyfriends who were amazing at managing tight spaces and fitting things into them.

After a couple of minutes, Sixty emerged with the last of the bags. He informed you all that he locked the house up and engaged the security systems. The final step. You were really going.

You all piled into the car, both Nines and Sixty insisting you take the front seat. You accepted, but promised to swap with them when you got to the next stop. Most rest stops would be for you, needing to get food or use a restroom. The droids didn't need anything but told you they needed to get up and stretch their legs once in a while ( but you think that was just their excuse so they could follow you around and make sure you were safe at suspicious gas stations.)

After a while of driving through the city, Conner was getting on the highway when you announced that you would be playing a Lord Huron song and see how everyone liked it. You turned on "Meet Me in the Woods" and leaned back to look out the window.

"I took a little journey to the unknown,

And I've come back changed I can feel it in my bones

I messed with the forces our eyes cant see

Now the darkness got a hold on me

Oh, the darkness got a hold on me"

You had closed your eyes and started to quietly sing along, and realized you should see what the others thought about it. You turned your head slightly to Conner staring out at the road ahead, his LED blinking yellow and blue. He had a soft, lingering smile on his face and his posture was relaxed.

Sixty had his eyes closed, leaning his head all the way back on the seat and seemed to be absorbing the music.

Nines was also leaning back, arms crossed. He was staring out the window with his LED a soft, stable amber. He turned slightly to just catch the end of your gaze and his lips twitched in a cute, endearing way. It was a Nines smile. You smiled back at him and turned around to look out the front windshield. It was raining slightly, and you were just leaving the city and into the unknown. It was perfect.

After the song had finished, you tore your eyes away from the road

"Did you all like it?" you hopefully gazed at each individual and noticed they all looked at peace. Conner spoke first

"Do you have more music of that energy? I think I enjoyed it."

"I agree. More please"

"Indeed"

You looked around to see everyone nodding their heads and you beamed. And so, your playlist made it past the android enjoyment test. You settled in as it started the next song, feeling content. You could totally do 35 hours.

(4 hours in)

Update: why would you do this to yourself. 35 hours? Were you crazy? You loved road trips as much as the next guy, but you were dying. You guys were currently stuck in traffic, and the boys had gotten involved in a pretty intense "dad stuck in traffic" fight.

"Nines, going on I90 would have taken us to the heart of Chicago, do you want more traffic?"

"No it wouldn't if we took the round about. Whose the more advanced android here Conner."

"Woah, low blow"

"Be quiet Sixty"

This started as Nines getting mad at Conner for taking them down a road that had high traffic at that hour, and Conner defending himself. Sixty had no argument, he just liked being included.

"I took 294 because I knew it would keep us out of the worst of the traffic. No matter what, traffic is inevitable."

"It could have been avoidable had you followed my instructions"

You were sitting in the passenger seat, eyes squeezed shut listening to them argue. It was infuriating.

So you did something.

"Guys I'm going to jump out of the car and sprint down the street like a crazy person if you don't stop arguing. I'm dead serious" You snapped and stared them down. Or a least you tried, because your face betrayed you and you broke out into a smile giggle.

Conner looked guilty at first, but saw your grin and started chuckling, envisioning you running down the street like a madman. Nines bristled, still annoyed. Even if your giggle made his lips quirk. You made eye contact with Sixty and he was smirking at you, taking out his coin to mess around with.

You eventually sighed, a couple minutes having passed. You turned around to address Nines.

"Traffic was inevitable" then you turned to Conner "No arguing". You took Conner's hand in yours and held it. Another smile broke out onto his face and he turned to look out on the road. You felt a hand graze your neck and you twisted around to see Nines reaching out. He moved forward to peck your temple and then quietly apologized to Conner.

Mission Successful.

But that was mission one. Mission two was figuring out how to go to use the bathroom. Because you were currently stuck in traffic. That wasn't great. After a couple minutes of fidgeting your legs, Conner took his hand away from holding yours and looked toward you. His gaze was steady, as his LED blinked and you knew in the back of your head that he was scanning you.

"Do you have to use the lavatory?" You gasped and shoved his shoulder, watching him bite back a laugh, and then started sinking in to your seat.

"Conner! That's so embarrassing."

"Did maybe someone tell you to go before we left? Oh wait, that sounds like something I would say" Sixty spoke up from the back of the car. You turned around to gape at him, and he just sat there looking smug. You could hear Conner and Nines subdued chuckling behind the music that was playing.

You ended up holding out, absolutely refusing to go in the woods by the road, insisting that someone would see you. Conner pulled over at a gas station and you all but flew out of the car and bolted through the store until skidding to a stop right outside the bathroom.

When you got out, Sixty was buying your favorite snack and you saw Conner and Nines fueling up the car out the window. They were seriously so thoughtful.

After Sixty was done paying, you came up behind him and hugged his middle. He laughed and held your hands still on his middle, and spun you. You squeaked and he laughed harder. He stopped and unwrapped you to kiss your head and hand you your prized snack. You pecked his lips and left, both of you saying good day to the amused employee working there.

(17 hours in)

It started getting really late so you guys stayed at a motel for the night. You guys all relaxed on a fluffy bed, all party's included were happy to stretch their legs. You and Nines had been switching front seat and back seat, and Sixty had repeatedly old you he was fine where he was. Nines had revealed to you later that Sixty just wanted to sit next to you.

You got up from the bed first, eager to get ready and sleep. When you came out 30 minutes later, Conner was laying still under the blankets, staring at the celling. Nines was also under, and had rolled over to face the window. And Sixty had apparently, at some point while you were in the bathroom, been knocked off the bed. He was currently face down on the floor. You giggled and nudged his side. He rolled over, clutching his heart.

"They, (fake coughing) their so mean. They shoved me off the bed" you shook your head and leaned down on your knees to kiss his cheek. He accepted and rolled back over on his face. Conner then spoke up from the bed

"I wouldn't kiss his face, this floor is filthy." You stood up and laughed, making your way to the bed and crawling over him to slip between him and Nines. Nines stiffened until he got comfortable, and Conner wrapped his arms around you to spoon you.

"Just say your jealous she kissed me Conny" came a voice from the floor. Conner scoffed and replied with another rhetorical comment hidden in a nice tone. Nines joined in just when you started slipping into sleep, and the last thing you heard before you left to dream world was Conner whispering goodnight into your ear.

In the morning you woke up covered in androids. Very snugly droids. You all then got packed up and set off. During the drive, You found out Sixty had crawled into bed after you and shoved Nines off when he was in rest mode. Nines woke up very alarmed, and decided to continue his rest in one the the chairs in the room the motel provided. You had felt so bad afterwards, but he insisted it was fine.

You guys were driving through North Dakota today, and you were currently knitting. The boys were discussing a case that was giving them a hard time. You would have joined in but you believed in not talking about work on your precious vacation time. You were sitting in the back seat now, Sixty at your side, and it was very domestic. You felt a hand wrap itself around your knee and you smiled, continuing your stitch.

(30 hours in)

You were totally knocked out. The boys wanted to continue driving to beat traffic, and were currently talking through their android Verizon service (using their minds) as to not wake you up.

But you still accidently woke up with a start when Sixty had rolled his shoulder, unintentionally dropping your head off him. You had apparently drifted off resting your face on his soft puffy jacket.

To which he did NOT mind.

You squeaked awake, being surprisingly shoved off your pillow. Sixty immediately said a quiet apology, but it was too late. 2 angry droids turned there seats around to glare down the accused RK800.

"We told you to stay still" they said that almost in synch

"I was reaching for a blanket! I didn't know a small movement would wake her!"

You sleepily giggled at their little argument and passed out against him once again.

When you woke up for real, you were informed that you guys were almost three hours away. You breathed a sigh of relief, but still begged to pull over so you could get some air. You were in a beautiful parts of the woods and you desperately needed a stretch after sleeping on Sixty. No offence, but snuggling with androids is like snuggling with a very sturdy pillow. Your happy for it, but its not very squishy.

Nines had chuckled at how desperate you looked and obliged. You popped out and basically ran halfway down the road and back. You were huffing when you came back to the car. Conner rolled his window down, eyebrow raised. You wheezed

"Sorry, needed to run" He nodded in understanding, and actually got out himself to stretch his android joints and put on his cute little beanie. Sixty got out and straightened his tie, and Nines choose to stay in the car and work on coordinates. Sixty walked around the car to join you and Conner, and looped his arms around your waist. You yelped as he picked you up slightly to sling you back in forth.

"How are you enjoying the road trip?" He punctuated each word with a swing of your body. You were laughing when you responded "Good, but I'm excited to get there" Conner had been watching you fondly when he stated

"Nines says its 3 more hours, but we might get delayed depending on traffic." you nodded and Sixty set you down. You then went up to go hug Conner, making sure he wasn't missing any affection.

After more standing and stretching, you got in the front seat with Nines next to you, setting the car to auto drive. Conner and Sixty were sitting in the back, playing one of the card games you brought and starting to get very competitive with each other. You beamed and turned back to look at Nines. His eyes weren't on the road, however. He was staring at you with an expression of absolute love. You both sat and stared at each other until he leaned over and grabbed the back of your head, threaded his fingers into your hair, and kissed your temple. You shivered as his fingers rubbed your scalp and he grinned against your temple.

(5 minutes away from campsite)

You were bouncing off the walls excited. It had been years since you visited this spot, having been to far away after moving to Detroit. The boys had been enjoying the scenery outside the city, but now the were enthralled. The woods were huge, and the air was fresh. Moss hung from the arms of the trees and you could see your mountain peeking over the top of the forest. You guys were waiting in line at the entrance of the campsite to check in, and you were gushing about how pretty your spot was. It was nestled in the corner of the campsite, leading into a trail into your own personal forest. Complete with a little stream.

The androids were amused watching you talk about the park, but they were almost as excited as you. When you were sleeping, all they talked about was this new experience, and how happy they were to share it with you. It was interesting seeing all the new environments and experiencing what its like outside of the city. Detroit was so advanced, and they had never really been deep in the woods.

After patiently waiting, you finally got all checked in and remembered to buy some firewood.

Then, you were off.

Starting your very first camping trip with your wonderful android boyfriends

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PART ONE YALL

Hope its okay, had to really crack at this one to fit all my ideas in. Its also hard to write the dynamic between 4 people LOL

Hope I managed to capture their personalities okay

Part 2 is all about them camping so stay tuned

It might take a bit so hang on and let me cook 🔥

Sorry for plot holes or if this has been done beforee

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL

April 2023 Wk 2

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs. Organized by which ones (in each category) I’m enjoying most.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Bed Friend (Sat YT, GaGa & iQIYI uncut) ep 9 of 10 - My biggest concern is that Uea left his sister in that house with a known abuser. Meanwhile, the office teasing was cute. I’m thinking that the final two episodes were mostly added to deal with the backstory resolution of the family drama, and to add a sappy proposal thing. I’m not necessarily mad about it, but I do think there’s probably would’ve been a better tighter story at 8 episodes. 

Future (Thai Sun YouTube & Gaga) ep 4 of 5 - There is nothing to this show but softness. Also we visited my old exclamation to the BL gods: please don’t make them act crying. It’s so difficult to watch. That said I still love this  stupid show.

Pastsenger (Thai Weds Gaga) 6 of 12 eps - Wow. Sides kissing. Brave high school kid! Also mains. Wait. What is happening? 

A Boss and a Babe (Fri YouTube) ep 7 of 12 - Having a rich boyfriend sure is clutch. Boss is smart to ingratiate himself with his boyfriend’s gaming team. Also there is no doubt that they are complete and total boyfriends, the most boyfriendly boyfriends ever. 

Tin Tam Jai (Tues Gaga & iQIYI) ep 8 of 12 - I’m pretty much fast forwarding anything to do with the main couple I just find them so boring. Although my beloved side dishes have disappeared. So I guess I am watching it for the faen fatal? 

Chains of Heart (Sat iQIYI) ep 9 of 10 - Whatever. Good sex scene tho. Bummer about the, ya know, story. 

The Promise (Thai Weds YT) ep 6 of 10 - ON HIATUS UNTIL APRIL 19.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Our Dining Table AKA Bokura no Shokutaku (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 2 of 10 - It’s just the best. It’s so sweet. Yutaka’s little smile because the kid likes him and wants to cook with him is probably the warmest most endearing thing ever to happen in JBL. 

Unintentional Love Story (Korea Thurs iQIYI) 9-10 fin - sorry I won’t have a chance to watch this until early next week but I promise to post about it! 

The Eighth Sense (Korea Weds Viki) eps 5-6 of 10 - Hyung mistakes made by constantly acting EXACTLY like bf in front of their friends is very cute. I don’t have much to say a this time. Narrative and characterization is unfolding as expected, staying tense as we get little nuggets of backstory. Lines will be crossed, one way or another. The trot part was VERY funny. Also we got us a on screen rep of a fairygodBLer. These two kiss well but all I can see when they do is how much pain is incoming. I don’t know what was up with the ending but we do have 4 more to go, so I don’t think we are actually in an H3:MODC situation. 

My Story (Pinoy Sat YouTube) - It’s a bit frenetic, camp, crazy, and outrageous, but I’m not mad about any of that because it’s classic Pinoy BL. So I think I’ll keep watching. This is the same characters as My Day. Which means they did break up the main couple from that series. So if that’s going to traumatize you, be aware. There are a lot of storylines going on. And I’m just not sure BL from the Philippines can handle this much at once, they may have bitten of more BL than they can chew. 

Naked Dinner AKA Zenra Meshi (Japan Fri Gaga) - Japan is so weird. I mean that in a good way (but also sometimes in a bad way). Also sometimes just weird. Also embarrassing and cringe. I’m going to watch it but I don’t like it very much. 

It’s Airing But ...

Love Syndrome (Thai Sat WeTV) stopped at ep 2 of 12 - I’m just not into any aspect of it (except Lee Long Shi and I can watch him in Tin Tem Jai) - saving to binge if the end is solid.

Venus in the Sky (Sat YouTube) pilot/tester?) 0 of 10 - not entirely sure what’s up with this one distribution-wise, but the pilot was cute, classic university-set pulp. I hope it happens because the leads are cute with good chemsitry and I thought it was fun. However, it totally holds together as it’s own little short story too.

Make a Wish (Thai Weds ?) from WaGa Creative staring Fluke Natouch (OhmFluke UWMA etc...) & Judo (The Miracle Of Teddy Bear) in a medical-fantasy. About a doctor who sees ghosts and a deity who resides in a Bodhi tree that earns merits whenever he fulfills a wish based on a y-novel by Sammon (Manner of Death, Triage). Same as above.

In Case You Missed it

Cafe In Love 10 eps finished its run.

Destiny Seeker 10 eps also finished its run.

A First Love Story is on Gaga now. It’s my favorite BL short ever made, check it out. It’s wonderful.

Next Week Looks Like This:

Starting:

04.18 Step By Step (Thai WeTV & Gaga) - 10 eps office age gap, I am all in! 

04.19 The Promise is back!

Finishing: Bed Friend, Chains, Future

I might start watching Destiny Seeker or Cafe in Love, or both.

2023 forthcoming BL master post (see comments, some are inaccurate, NOT KEPT UPDATED)

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

En of Love franchise leaning into its brand (Future the series)

I love their friendship and their bromances and this was an adorable moment ... but now I want these two to lead out a BL together. 

I love an “accidental” outing (both Boss & Babe). 

Calling out tropes and characterization, as ya do.

Passing along the familial obligation of care. 

 (all Bed Friend) 

(last week)

Current Kpop earworm? Block B’s Very Good, I TOLD you I’ve been dipping into the well a lot recently. I really miss Kpop’s 2nd gen insanity phase. 

[lilyginnyblackv2]

It takes a village... - Buddy Daddies - Episode 5 - Cultural Elements

There is the famous saying “It takes a village to raise a child.” And I think that was a key focus of this episode, and one of the lessons that Kazuki and Rei had to learn. There are three social and cultural aspects of Japan that I want to look at in regards to this episode:

1. Flus at School

2. Babysitting in Japan

3. Work-Life Balance

They all connect to each other in some way.

1. Flus at School

Likely when everyone saw the notice that Kazuki and Rei got about the daycare being temporarily closed due to a virus, the initial thought was Covid. And it was likely meant to be a nod to that. But, even before Covid, the flu (influenza) has always been taken very seriously in Japan and at Japanese schools.

In Japan, I worked at elementary and junior high schools, so a bit of a different setting from the daycare (my daycare experience with Japanese kids was back in the States at a juku and learning center). But, I doubt there is too much difference. Basically, once we entered flu season, parts of the whiteboards up in the Staff Room would be dedicated to keeping track of which students had the flu and how many students had it per class. Once it reached a certain amount, everyone in that class (whether they were sick or not) would not be allowed to come to school for a number of days.

(From a study that will be linked to below, and which was published online in 2015).

In the above excerpt I included, it talks about the effective measure of school closure to prevent pandemic influenza (specifically talking about the one in 2009). When I worked in Japan (2013 - 2019) as an ALT, I never experienced a full school closure because of the flu, but I knew of other ALT who had.

2. Babysitting in Japan

In this episode we have Kazuki telling Kyutaro, “Lately, we’ve been taking on some babysitting jobs...”

Kazuki really didn’t have a plethora of options to choose from here to make any sort of plausible excuse. This likely was the best thing he could say and pick, but it also isn’t that surprising that Kyutaro didn’t buy it for a second. Not only because male babysitters are rarer in general, but also because babysitting still isn’t a normal thing in Japanese culture. From a 2014 SavvyTokyo article entitled: Babysitting Services in Japan, there is this excerpt:

However, hiring a babysitter in Japan remains a privilege reserved for high-income earners, and is nowhere near as popular as it is in Western countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, some families are forced to use babysitters due to a shortage of after-school nurseries. Some believe that a babysitter could help inject a dose of fresh air into a typical Japanese home, which can sometimes be known for its seclusion. This is particularly true today, in an ever-increasing international environment, where English education is at the forefront of most Japanese parents’ minds.

This lines up with my experiences with being a Weekend Camp Counselor for about 3 or so years when I lived close to the Tokyo area of Japan (from 2016 - 2019). My job was to play American summer camp style games and activities (Duck, Duck, Goose, Red Light, Green Light, Thunderdome, Tooty Ta Song, etc.) with native Japanese children at parks (like Yoyogi Park or Toyosu Park). The goal was to have the children get a full English immersion experience, while enjoying physical activities outdoors. But, like my boss told me, our service was also meant to allow the parents to have some free time in the day, since babysitting isn’t a big thing.

In American media, seeing a (usually) teen girl babysitting a neighbors kid is incredibly common. In Japan, there is still an expectation that the parents (mostly the mother) should be caring for their child or children, but that is getting harder and harder with the need for both parents to work, in order to get by (due to the state of inflation Japan has been in for years). One Japan Times contributor, Yuko Tamura, wrote about their experience with hiring a babysitter in a blog post entitled: Hiring a Babysitter for the First Time in Japan Taught Me a Lot. 

In this article she talked about the social and cultural aspects. First she notes, “Without grandparents in my neighborhood, I had almost no one to ask for help except my husband.” No mentions are made of siblings, cousins, aunts, or friends. In America, it wouldn’t be that uncommon to hear of any of the above (as well as, of course, grandparents) to do a little temporary babysitting for family or friends. But in Japan this just isn’t common, smaller family sizes are also likely a reason for this as well.

She also mentions lack of communication among neighbors, something that is definitely common, especially in cities in Japan, and “ I have been a highly private person; I suspect the majority of Japanese people are the same. Welcoming strangers at home could be a severe headache for people like me because it just doesn’t feel right.”

Houses in Japan are seen as very private places. Having big get togethers or parties at someone’s house in Japan is really uncommon (I have been to one or two, but it’s still not the norm). Going elsewhere to meet up, like at a karaoke place or café is far more common. So the idea of a babysitter goes against that idea, as well as the societal expectation of the mother being in caretaker mode 24/7, so it has made it harder for babysitting to become common place in Japan. 

That being said, the internet, the pandemic, the economy, women working more, and many other things are starting to shake things up a bit more in Japan. I also suggest that you give the blog post a full read (I’ll link to it below, along with every site and article I reference here), since it also touches on another concept a bit: Work-Life Balance, my last discussion point.

3. Work-Life Balance 

I won’t say too much about this, since I think the concept of Work-Life Balance is a fairly universal one and one that people are always trying to struggle with. It may be better and easier to navigate in some countries, and harder and more difficult to navigate in others. 

For Japan, it is harder, but there has been more of a push for more life and less work focus in recent years, and the pandemic has caused work-from-home, remote work, and so forth to become a bit more common in Japan. It’s still not as prevalent of a shift in work culture like we’ve been seeing happen elsewhere, but it is a start! I’ll add an article or two in the comments about this topic, just in case anyone wants to read up on it.

In this episode, we see Kazuki and Rei struggling with Work-Life Balance in a way neither has likely ever experienced before, since adding a child into the mix really does make for a very different beast. What I really like that we saw in this episode was showing Kyutaro telling Kazuki and Rei that he would look after Miri:

It’s unconventional, as noted above, but it is a good message to tell. And one that should be told more in anime and Japanese media. A sense of community is important, especially when raising a child, since as the saying goes, “It takes a village.”

[kimbapisnotsushi]

sou !! hello !! this is also random and specific but i saw the datekou headcanon post and i was wondering. might you have any inarizaki road trip hcs?

i didn't until you asked me so LET'S GO

oh god you thought dateko was bad??? they were only stuck in the car for thirty minutes at MOST

(or something idk i haven't quite mapped out their geography yet but miyagi is a coastal prefecture and sendai isn't like SUPER far inland, so i'm just making assumptions out here)

but anyways. kurosu is driving obviously as much as he moans and groans about it

shoutout to the coaches btw they are CARRYING these headcanons

realistically i guess they'd road trip to another school for a training camp or like idk. maybe hot springs for some r&r bc inarizaki def has the budget for it but in my heart they road trip to suna's hometown during one of the breaks so suna can see his family <333

i guess it also kind of depends on WHERE in hyogo and aichi they are but we could get a solid 4-5 hours of driving if it was from, say, asago to tahara

kita makes a list of all the snacks everyone wants and rounds up aran, oomimi, and akagi to help him raid the market/convenience store like the old hunter-gatherer days

they end up with two massive tote bags of drinks, chips, cookies, and other miscellaneous snacks and one cooler for things like puddings and cakes and whatnot

oomimi sits shotgun because kurosu needed someone to help with directions and everyone else was on "make sure the miyas don't kill each other before we get there" duty

they all thought that kita was brilliant for making atsumu sit in the back and osamu up front because even tho they're separated the twins will NOT stop bickering and trying to throw random pieces of trash at each other. poor riseki gets caught in the crossfire the most often

they all converged to make one giant road trip playlist so you've got the weirdest mix of pop rock/bubblegum/k-pop/city pop, lofi, indie soft rock, show tunes and soundtracks, and more

(i named those genres with certain charas in mind so like. have fun figuring that out!)

nobody's willing to take a nap in fear of what the twins might do to each other when they're not looking

they play really stupid games like the alphabet-chain game and i spy and even try for a few rounds of truth or dare because, hey, there's nothing like being stuck in a car with your fellow teenagers for four hours to set the mood for emotionally vulnerable bonding time, right?

anyways. everyone learns that gin is afraid of heights and all sorts of horror movies, akagi would like to get his ears pierced some day, kosaku got rejected in middle school in front of his entire class and has refused to fall in love since, and suna takes pictures to capture the memory of a place he does not want to forget

(sorry i'm being emo about suna missing home again i'll stop)

kurosu is sweating BUCKETS in the front seat btw. "oh my god what do i do with this information am i supposed to talk to them i'm their TEACHER i'm supposed to guide them i do NOT get paid enough for this - "

a shame, really, considering inarizaki could definitely afford to give that man a raise

it's okay they get some really funny dares like daring gin to text his crush a totally random and weird question

(and thank god atsumu has his phone tucked away in his bag)

there's not a whole lot of dares they can do in the car tbh so they get really creative like daring osamu to eat this absolutely evil concoction of mixing tiramisu pudding into a bag of spicy chips and eating the whole thing

he does. nobody knows how he survived it

and then riseki dared both osamu AND atsumu to shut up and sit down and not even so much as GLANCE each other for the rest of the trip

this was at, like, the 1.5 hour mark btw

and okay he didn't say it EXACTLY like that because riseki is a sweet respectful underclassman but that WAS the closest to snapping he's ever gotten

they do stop occasionally here and there to get out and stretch their legs, but this makes their trip even longer bc it takes like thirty minutes each time to wrangle everyone and get them back in the van

also akagi is trying out his most terrible pickup lines. or antipickup lines. either one works

akagi: "are you lactose? because i can't tolerate you ;)" aran: "PLEASE, MAKE HIM STOP"

the only reason aran feels like he isn't completely suffering is because gin is sitting next to him and gin is kind of soothing like a cute pet would be. not that aran is thinking of gin as a pet nooooo ahahaha that would be weird

meanwhile gin is wondering why aran keeps trying to feed him crackers

they finally get to suna's hometown after being on the road for SIX AND A HALF HOURS

and while everyone is happy to be outside soaking up the sun and fresh air, they're all going to miss the bonding of being stuck in a van perhaps just a little bit

it's all right, they've got the return trip to look forward to

(made 100x worse when akagi busts out a drinking game and proclaims they should play with juice boxes, but that's a story for another time)

[hotcheetohatredwastaken]

20 questions for fic writers

I was tagged on this by @unexpectedstormy ! I wasn't sure whether I was supposed to respond like it was a chain or make my own post, so I just went for it

1. How many works do you have on A03?

Two. There will be more coming, because Blood Drops on Roses is just arc one of this story, and there's a lot of snippets for Prologue floating around.

Blood Drops on Roses: Linked Universe

BDOR Prologue: The Yiga and The Sheikah

2. What's your total A03 word count?

51,493 words since mid-August, when I finally got an account XD I've been a lurker for YEARS ya'll.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Linked Universe only, so far.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

See above XD I hope to get enough fics out there that I can sort my work like that, but for now it's just those two.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes, I respond as soon as I can, they are like crack to me. Maybe because I'm new to sharing my work or something, but I would die for each and every one of you that leaves even as much as a <3

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

NONE OF MY FICS ARE FINISHED YET AAAAAAAAAA. Arc 1's ending is going to be pretty angsty though.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Hm, I see that this questionnaire is not meant for me. There is a Prologue section "The Trap" that I'll be putting out soon through, its ending is pretty sweet I would say.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not yet. I am afraid that it's gonna happen, but so far everyone has been so nice, so I hope not D:

9. Do you write smut?

Nah. Don't really read it either. Just not my thing.

10. Do you write crossovers?

I mean unless you count LU as a crossover between all the Link's respective fandoms, no

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Gosh I hope not. How does one steal a fic?

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope. If I ever get good enough at Spanish, I would like to take a crack at translating my own fic once its all published, but it would probably be laughably terrible. Eh, practice is practice.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not yet. Hey @needfantasticstories, I think Clippy Wind and Pug Sky need to go on some adventures together, don't you?

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Tbh I don't really ship. I do think Malon/Time and Legend/Ravio are cute though. I'm just not really interested in exploring the romantic side of stories, even in published literature.

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Geez I hope that I finish all of Arc 2 at this point. But I may be too early into the game to answer this.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Heck if I know. I had someone say in my comment section that they liked how I characterize people, so we'll go with that.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I write too much and probably in too much detail. Sometimes it would be better to say "They crossed the bridge and set up camp" but nooooooooooo lets add 7,000 words to this already bloated fic.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Italics. I was about to whip out my decade of Latin for part of this fic, but I decided against it because I'm pretentious but not that pretentious. Also because I still don't understand word order at ALL.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Now that I'm thinking about it, I think I have some fanfic from the dog series of Warrior Cats lurking somewhere that I wrote when I was like 12. Survivors, or something? I should probably go delete it, I'm sure it's trash. I'm scared to even look, it probably hasn't seen the light of day since I wrote it.

20. Favorite fic you've ever written?

Well I've only got one big fic out right now so let's go with BDOR

@needfantasticstories and @somer-writes I'm kicking this your way.

[scorchieart]

Silly Headcanons About the Princes as Children

Because I had a long weekend but didn't feel like going to the beach. Daydreaming about mini prince shenanigans is just as fun.

Jin Grandet

Was extremely frugal when he first arrived at the palace, opting out on extravagant apparel and accessories in favor of more drab and practical outfits.  And he only ate the bare minimum during meals to satisfy his hunger.

Everything changed when his first sugar rush attacked. There was a ball at the palace, and Jin laid his eyes on a marvelous 5-tiered buttercream beauty of a cake. It was love at first sight.

It took three servants, two attempts, and one tall glass of warm milk to knock him out and carry him off to bed. By that point, the top four tiers were demolished and nearby mini desserts gobbled up, and everyone went home that night splattered with bits of frosting and cake crumbles. No one likes to remember that evening.

Chevalier Michel

Started his nickname game when he was first learning to speak and couldn’t properly pronounce all the convoluted extended names of the nobility yet. Who has the lung capacity to say “Duke of Over-the-hill, Earl of Just-By-Yonder, Knight of the Square Table, Personal Aide-de-Camp to the Late-Late King, Stuffy McFeatherPants the Third” anyways? 

“Baldy Big Nose” is much more elegant and to the point.

To this day, the nobles make crucially sure to keep track of their nicknames and how they change over the years. It’s a good indication of whether they have fallen out of the prince’s favor.

For example: “Padded Shoulders” probably means you’re safe for now. “Pesky Pupils” means you should consider sending him an expensive gift. “Slithering Maggot” means you need to pack your family and move to Benitoite yesterday.

Clavis Lelouch

Has a soft spot for small animals, so when one unwittingly ends up in one of his traps he does his best to calm it down before releasing it.

If the animal ends up injured, he nurses it back to health before setting it free (or on someone else as another prank). This usually results with him naming the animal and growing attached to it. They become his partners in crime and he relays his grand plans out loud to them like a master and apprentice. These included maps, diagrams, test runs, code names… the whole shebang. 

He also liked to sew tiny matching bandanas to tie around his wrist and his animal companion to signal the mission was go!

Usually kept the animal for much longer after it healed. Sariel makes it a point to do routine sweeps of his room and extract any freeloaders.

Leon Dompteur

Found it much easier to stay awake when someone read to him (I think this is actually canon).

Bonus points if they do voices for the characters. That’s a guaranteed spot on the future domestic faction leader’s friend-list.

Used his princely charms to convince people around him to read history books and old memos and other study material to him. Sariel put an end to this when he saw Leon using his puppy dog eyes to pull ministers out of meetings to read to him.

Would seek out Chevalier to read him stories before bed. Had a 50% success rate getting through the door and a 1% chance of voicing the characters.

Yves Kloss

Used to be the pickiest eater, only preferring foods his wet nurse prepared, until he saw Licht and Nokto struggling with their own meals.

Vowed to create a dish that incorporates carrots that the twins would enjoy.  Tried sneaking it into soups, purees, sauces, gravies, juices, and even desserts. Has not yet found success. 

Through his quest, the doors to Rhodolite’s exquisite culinary history opened to him and he’s been hooked ever since. Is now the first of the brothers to volunteer to try new dishes.

Needless to say, he spent a lot of time in the palace kitchens. Ended up making friends with the stray cats that frequented the back door and the windowsills, and would feed them exorbitantly. Everyday. And on schedule. Well, you try saying no to those cute hungry faces!

Licht Klein

Liked to pretend he was Nokto to get out of dance practice.

Learned to walk before Nokto, and boy did that make him feel on top of the world. He ran (wobbled) circles around his stationary twin, showed off that he could hop, and even managed to stand on one foot for a solid 4 seconds! This lasted a whole 2 days before Nokto caught up.

Once tried to repay Yves for putting so much effort into cooking foods he’d like. He asked Chevalier for an easy-to-follow cookbook, woke up before the cooks and servants, and holed himself up in the kitchen. By the time preparations for breakfast needed to begin, the cooks walked into a war zone. Broken eggshells and yolks littered the floor, flour and cornmeal and different-colored spices coated all the counters and cabinets, and Licht sat in the middle of the kitchen rocking in place, anxiously flipping through the cookbook. Oh yeah, and the oven was on fire. 

Nokto Klein

Liked to pretend he was Licht to get out of sword training.

Hated being called the baby of the family except by Licht.

Always make a beeline for Jin at the parties that Licht couldn’t attend. Jin would pass him the sweets from the high tables Nokto couldn’t reach, then they’d divvy up their bounty and split off before any pesky ministers could poke their noses in their business. Nokto would take his share to Licht and they’d eat them together.

Even more charming than young Leon (he refuses to accept it’s because he’s the baby!) All the servants instantly fall for his bewitching cuteness and boundless charisma and would shower him with little gifts like extra sweets or flowers or piggy-back rides. Nokto never complained, and to be frank this kind of boasted his ego later on in life.

Luke Randolph

Got his hand stuck in the honey jar on multiple occasions.

Got his head stuck in the honey jar on even more occasions.

The fastest tree-climber in all of Rhodolite, even before he reached his full height. He only needed to observe the tree for a few minutes before determining an optimal path based on his weight and limb range while offering minimal damage to the tree.

Of course, this is all a result of years of honey hive heists. Thank goodness he isn’t allergic to bee stings.

Had the sweetest dimples as a child, and whenever an adult passed by him they’d stop in their tracks to give his cheeks a good pinch. Luke couldn’t wait until he outgrew them.

Read the new princes - Part 2 here!

(Check out my Ikemen Prince Writing Master list here! And if you want to send me a request, please check the details here!)

[sunskate]

this was good- the tent story is at 33:20 the campground they chose was 50 km west of the rink and traffic could be brutal. a budget decision for July and September. they like camping. 3 weeks was a bit long. camped in Lake Placid the week after the summer competition, hiked - they're outdoorsy. it wasn't a curveball for them. a good area to save a bit of money for when they need it the most. she feels more refreshed sleeping on a harder surface, he didn't have any problems

in New York, they train alone, no other teams around, so going to Montreal, with 20 other teams is a good balance - they learn a lot from watching the other teams, and it lights a fire to be around them, to have other teams watching them

at Junior Worlds, Oona got food poisoning. he heard her throwing up at 1 am but didn't know how bad it was until they went to the rink, and he said let's jog like they usually do, and she said ...i can't...😥and curled into a ball. she pushed through, had no energy to be nervous, and they won

for the OnIcePerspectives video of their Metallica program that went viral during the lockdown - they trained for that the same way they'd train for a competition

their RD: Oona listened to a lot, they had I'm Still Standing as a top choice, so they decided to do all Elton - a coincidence that it comes from an album called Ice on Fire. they took it to Montreal, Romain would suggest let's put this here, let's put this there, and Gage would cut the music every day. their other coaches had input about other songs, they have a group text with the IAM coaches and went back and forth to shape the program

FD: wanted to skate to All by Myself for a long time, especially Oona, but felt like they weren't ready for it last season. threw a lot of pieces as suggestions to IAM, and this was the one they also responded most strongly to. the first month working on that program, he would stay up really late cutting the music as they shaped it. Hugo Chouinard helped for the final product. they started the process of looking for program music 2 weeks after Nationals, were making the programs by March

costumes: reused previous costumes for the RD because the new ones weren't ready- they needed to be altered, and they didn't have time before Finlandia, then they went almost straight into their GPs. she says they're getting sick of these, they'll have the new ones for Nationals

training for back to back GPs after Finlandia: started off lighter in between, had faith in their endurance and training. didn't go down in intensity between the GPs. was worried about how at competitions you skate much less, and how that would affect their fatigue levels

next up is Nationals. goals- more focused on total scores and points. may shift to thinking more about placement. want top 5-6 at Nationals. there are so many - 4-5 teams- right there with them. anybody's game. a goal to show up and have solid skates and see what happens. details, more speed, more flow - going to Montreal after Thanksgiving for 3 weeks. a bunch of Xmas shows in the city that help performing in front of an audience

what sets them apart from everyone else- Oona: we're small 😂 Gage- have gotten the compliment before that they're fiery. sometimes it's not a compliment, like they're always go go go go, too much, need to take a deep breath. so, having the fire but also want to show they can take a deep breath too. but other teams are good at that as well. this season can be a time to set ourselves apart and find out what does

another skater's style they take inspiration from? not really - not trying to be like them. be unique, be themselves. take inspiration from Tessa and Scott, but our skating styles aren't similar. a lot of skaters at Monreal that we'll watch. not modeling our skating but our mentality. they motivate you in a way because they're there and skating so well, it makes you push harder

styles they like to skate: tango. he prefers that to Latin because they can look stern and look at each other stern😅 they like doing hip hop and blues and 80s. they like older music, 70s 80s.

how are they similar or different from each other-- he's more outspoken and social. their humor is similar at times (she says not all the time) their dedication and passion towards what they're doing are similar. both musical - they play in a bagpipe band. are doing the interview from South Carolina at a bagpipe competition. their older brother is a drummer in an Irish marching band. Gage wanted to play a loud instrument. found a competitive Irish pipe and drum band

like being busy- they sightsee at competitions, get requests to bring back magnets, shirts, mugs for their 5 siblings and parents

favorite program of the past 4 seasons from any discipline: VM Moulin Rouge. Gage: it made me feel some kind of way. Nathan's Nemesis. HD's last free dance. Kaitlin and Jean-Luc's programs. their last year's made him teary eyed- they move me. i want our programs to be that way- make tears happen. but Moulin Rouge is #1

[badlydrawnmanic]

young sonic headcanons go brrr

sonic was given directly to uncle chuck as practically a newborn by aleena when he and his siblings had to be separated instead of going to that weird intermediate family first

chuck lived in a cabin in the woods (can’t have noise complaints made against you while you’re inventing if there’s no one around to hear it)

sonic was fast from the moment he could walk and keep his balance. he also learned to walk much earlier than most other infants do, much to chuck’s surprise

chuck would take sonic on “camping trips” (setting up a tent just out of view of the house) where he’d teach him practical survival things because you know how kind fatherly men are with curious children who are willing to listen

uncle chuck was taken away by swatbots when sonic was around 5, and so begins the saga of him being a wild child and having to take care of himself

he talked a lot before, but when he ended up alone on south island (i have no idea how he got there), he didn’t have anyone to talk to, so he kinda just stopped

he did learn how to understand the small animals near-flawlessly, though. they’re one of the main reasons he managed to live on his own those first couple years. he understands the flickies and squirrels the best

all the flickies on south island are blue

being completely isolated from society, he sort of regressed to having more animal-like mannerisms. he’d dig little burrows and sleep in them to stay safe from bad weather or feel safe

his “house” was a crashed plane near the beach on the west side of the island (which would eventually be repaired by tails and become the tornado)

when eggman first came to south island (when sonic was about 10), almost all of the animals disappeared, getting replaced by badniks. sonic learned they were powered by the small animals completely on accident, but when he discovered that, something clicked in him and activated that stubborn, justice-fueled drive we all know him for

the entirety of green hill zone in sonic 1 was just him trying to find out where the badniks were coming from. he didn’t start chasing eggman until after he attacked him that first time (the doctor was trying to drive any small animals out of hiding when sonic ran into him completely on accident. his attack wasn’t premeditated and he had no idea sonic was there)

sonic cd happens somewhere between sonic 1 and 2. i don’t have a lot of details on it, but sonic still didn’t know how to talk good. amy was intensely curious about this and couldn’t help but be obsessed with this cute, mysterious, very intense boy who would smile at her when he saw her and drop everything to help her out. he’s just fascinating to her (which she would later realize that she confused that inquisitive “wanting to know more” feeling for love)

after the final boss of sonic cd, sonic didn’t get to chill for very long after his 11th birthday (not like he knew what day it was) before some flickies that escaped from west side island (yellow ones) came to find him so he could help defeat eggman again. sonic genuinely thought that eggman would have left for good, so he was really mad about it

don’t ask me how he got to west side island either, he just did through sheer determination and force of will and a desire to kick that old man’s ass for being a bully again

sonic met tails between emerald hill zone act 1 and 2, realizing he was in trouble and helping scare off the older boys that were bugging him. he didn’t expect much of it, so he just smiled and sped off

tails, being 4 at the time, thought sonic was so cool, he just had to follow him! where are his parents. who’s supposed to be watching this kid

sonic didn’t realize he was being shadowed until after beating the first boss. he was really confused about tails’ presence and didn’t know how to socialize with him, but he didn’t send tails away, so the fox just kept following him

sonic 2 (game gear) actually takes place after sonic 2 (genesis)! sonic is 12 now. after following sonic back to south island, tails gets kidnapped by eggman after the doctor sees just how closely sonic had bonded with this kid, thinking tails would make good bait for a trap (unfortunately for him, sonic kicks his ass for a third time)

sonic 2 (game gear) is followed by dr robotnik’s mean bean machine and aosth (the two boys making their way to the mainland after tails fixes up the tornado)

this is where sonic gets a much more comfortable socializing with people, gets better at talking, and learns various social cues. before this, he was really awkward and confused a lot of the time. he adopted most of his mannerisms from tv shows he caught glimpses of on his travels with tails and hearing other people interact with him and each other

sonic regurgitates life lessons and advice at tails constantly because he saw that in the countless “very special episode”s of the 80s and 90s. he thought that was how normal responsible people act and/or talk to children, and tails was like… 5

aosth is followed by satam, the really early archie comics, and sonic spinball, where sonic and tails end up running into the freedom fighters and joining them in the fight against eggman!

satam is followed by underground. on his 13th birthday, sonic has a dream where the oracle tells him he has to leave and face his destiny or whatever, then sonic wakes up with his medallion around his neck. though he’s conflicted, sonic does go, leaving tails in the care of the freedom fighters for that length of time

sonic 3 (& knuckles (& siblings)) takes place during underground. the three of them end up stranded on angel island while looking for their mother and find themselves in the middle of one of eggman’s plans by sheer coincidence. i haven’t thought about this one in depth yet

sonic only learns when his birthday is because sonia told him hers (the only accurate one, given her adoptive mother actually knew when aleena had her kids), and because they’re triplets, they’d all be born on the same day. poor dummy didn’t know his own birthday until he was 14!

we’re past the classic era! sonic adventure takes place around when sonic is 15, getting mixed up with chaos by random chance again

this was one of sonic’s first times dealing with a large population of humans, the only one he’s interacted with before being eggman, so he doesn’t necessarily feel comfortable in station square while being surrounded by them. it’s why every conversation with a person in that game is incredibly brief and has a weird vibe. sonic is in an unfamiliar environment talking to these weird things he didn’t really know existed outside of eggman until now. it’s a little overwhelming and he just wants to get through it as fast as he possibly can

at the end of sonic adventure, sonic is a bit startled by the whole city cheering for him. he liked attention from smaller friend groups or crowds, but saving the vast majority of a densely populated area from a giant water snake dragon god? it’s a lot! he was pretty sheepish about it and needed a lot of time to rest afterwards. this was when he first learned to appreciate the quiet

[dlamp-dictator]

Okay, finished up the main story of Wuthering Waves and slowly getting a feel for how the day-to-day grind is going to be in this game. And... I gotta' be honest here.

I'm enjoying it. A lot.

The game is fun. Very fun. It's got flaws, glaring flaws, but frankly I haven't had this much fun in a game like this since maybe DmC 5 if I had to compare it to something I'm familiar with. Ultimately, despite my love of the game I like it in spite of its massive flaws rather than because of its minor strong points, but it's a game I honestly think I'll stick with for awhile.

However, I'm not here to talk about the gameplay this time around. I wanted to talk about the story first because that's honestly the roughest part of the game. And I'll be frank, this is more a mad rambling in the sense of the younger Allen X than the current one, but I just can't get my thoughts on this game steady yet, so try not to mind the vomit I'm about to throw at you.

But first, as always, that synopsis.

Wuthering Waves is set in a futuristic post-apocalyptic world after a catastrophe called the Lament wiped out most of humanity and caused unknown beings and monsters, called Tacet Discords to appear. However, humanity soon adapted to the threat and over time rebuilt civilization. The story follows the amnesiac Rover, who has awoken from a deep slumber and sets out to explore this new world.

Let it be known that I stole this from the wiki because that's how little I care to summarize this story myself. There's... a lot to discuss. I'll be here all day if I nitpick and talk about every immediate problem I have with the game's story, so I'll try to summarize my issues with three main points. Emphasis on try, again the game's still very new and my thoughts are overall still very scattered. With that said, here are the main points:

There's no real ground for us to care about the world or its people.

The game overloads us with unfamiliar terms and makes following the story hard.

The military sycophancy is... annoying.

Alright, let's break this down as best we can.

Yeah, Let's Just Knock Out the Military Sycophancy

So, while I'd like to start with the most pressing matter first of the game's hook-less intro and lack of intrinsic motivation for Rover or the player aside from gacha rewards, this is the most controversial thing to discuss and I'd rather have it out in the open and talked about first so we aren't too distracted with my other messy points.

So, Wuthering Waves' first 3-ish Acts (especially Act 2) and honestly the whole Huanglong chapter of the main story has rather... pointed moments of focus toward military branches of Huanglong and Jinzhou. There's a lot of heavy praise for the military, how they're keeping out enemies and invaders, how they need to be supported at all cost, etc.. And on its own it's fine.

Like, really, no bullshit, I'm honestly fine with this on the surface.

A quick reminder folks, Wuthering Waves, for all it's technology and advancements, is still in a post-apocalyptic world where literal Sound Demons™ come out of the void to slaughter people with reckless abandon. This is shown the very first time you leave and enter the city of Jinzhou, as NPC soldiers are actively fighting Tacet Discord, some of which will die if you don't intervene and help them clear out mobs on your way out of the city. The training barracks is right outside the gate, there are military bases and camps in even the more remote places where you can also see more NPC soldiers fighting mobs. The lore states that only recently they've forced non-Resonators out of the army because they will legit die instantly to these things.

In this world having a strong military and being proud of it, especially when your city is the first line of defense, is something that's obviously going to come up. In the world of Wuthering Waves, a military force isn't there to potentially conquer another country and take their stuff, work as some glorified bodyguard for the nobility, or protect luxury resources of elite national interest. In Wuthering Waves, the army is thrown into the frontlines to be the wall against the Tacet Discord and likely die or be horribly injured in droves during the process. Make no mistake, despite Jinzhou elegant and peaceful appearance it is on the northern border where almost all the major Tacet Discord are formed. It is very much Chinese-Kislev with Sound Demons™ instead of Chaos Daemons. Not to mention you're traveling around with Yangyang, a member of the scouting military branch, who would obviously have strong opinions about the organization she serves, and Jianxin, who's an errant monk trying to still learn about the world and only has the words of her masters to go off of, and her masters are very pro-military.

It. Makes. Sense.

But the game sure as shit doesn't really show a lot of that in the text and dialogue. It really does come across as brown-nosing, and since the only voices against are main group are the Fractsidus it's hard to take their words at face value. It's not like the game plays up the fact that Yangyang is a military officers aside from Act 2, or that Jianxin is in actually kind of a childish musclehead that's only really good at martial arts and little else as her later Intimacy voice lines imply. The Military Sycophancy is more a product of rushed and lacking characterization than outright brown-nosing. Some minor dialogue in later acts actually question how righteous and moral some of those military leaders are in the heat of the moment, but you have to look for those voices to be heard.

But speaking of lacking characterization that brings me to my second point.

There's Not Really a Grounded Hook, is There?

To give a brief summary of the Huanglong story, the main character, Rover (yes, that seems to be the canonical name) wakes up after a vision/mysterious event of sorts while having no memories of their past or their goals. They are awoken by a friendly soldier and town guard and travels with their new companions to the city of Jinzhou after some shenanigans. The city's local leader, realizing an prophesy involving Rover is about to set off big things, attempts lure them to their side through both friendly and mysterious means. As Rover follows the trail they come to learn several parties and factions not only know about them, but have plans for them that don't require them to even know of main purpose of them being brought to the world, and those factions tease Rover with information hinting about their purpose before fleeing the scene. Through these meetings and the connections Rover makes throughout the story, they decide side with those that housed, protected, and cared for them and help save their country, unbeknown to them and several others going all according to the city leader's plan at the end of the day, even if said leader gambled a little at the end.

And while I'm skipping a lot of details here and there, namely involving the Fractsidus, Black Shores, and other parties, that sure as hell is a better summary of the plot than you'd find in the game. I kept out a lot of the terminology, but that's the basic idea. You're an unknown element, you have several people interested in you because of it, and... that's really it.

There's... nothing to truly hook you.

Look, I know using the G-word is bad form, but I'm gonna. In Genshin the story is simple: You're Aether/Lumine, some asshole god stole your sibling (or sent them back in time or something), you want to get her back and you have to solve every country's problem along the way while Dainslief just stands their menacingly. In Arknights...

...

...

Okay, honestly Wuthering Waves' story intro is about as bad as Arknights' with all the unfamiliar terminology and introducing people you don't care about until 3 more main story chapters, but you get my point.

Wuthering Waves doesn't have much to get you truly invested in the story. There's no real incentive for you to do things aside from mild curiosity and the gacha rewards. The fact that the little scavenger hunt Jinshi sends you on is super-lore heavy doesn't help either. There's a few good moments like most Jiyan confronting the phantom of his former superior, most of the stuff with Aalto and the Black Shore, Scar's occasional moments, and all of the final act, but those are few and far between with all the lore, exposition, and Yangyang's voice actor not having the greatest voice direction. You're dragged around a lot, but you don't really get to stay long enough to really care about the group. I think the only time they did was when they had you with Yangyang in Qichi Village learning about the place's backstory. That was good storytelling and world-building, as you are immediately curious about why the village was so fucked up and the implications were so... twisted. And best of all Scar was able to bring the lore explanation to a human, understandable level with his analogy of the wolf, shepherd, and sheep.

Which brings me to my last point.

So Many Goddamn Terms

The fact that they reference this in later Acts does not help, but the game has a lot of terminology in it. To summarize some of this, the world of Solaris-3 is a post-apocalyptic world based off frequencies, wavelengths, and a biiiiit of Chinese/Eastern fantasy thrown in for flavor. A lot of things revolve around that, but goddamn are there a lot of terms here. Even the official site just barely covers the basics. The Black Shores, the Fractsidus, the various nations and locations of importance. There's... a lot. A lot that isn't cover in as much depth as it should, or should just be simplified to its most important points. Part of me thinks this is because it's a Chinese game first and translating all the terms into something a Westerner can understand is just a mess in and of itself. However... this game also had quite a few years to cook as well and... it needed another year in the oven for reason aside from the glitches and lag.

Smaller Issues

Just gonna' put these in list form because I'm very tired now.

The Voice Direction: I think it's clear the voice acting isn't great, and I want to say its the director's fault. We've got a lot of decent talent here and a few people with good line reads. It just feels something is holding a lot of them back or the director isn't giving them enough context. Maybe now that the secrets out and we know who's voicing what they can actually direct things better now. Either way I'm hoping it gets better.

The Glitches and Stuttering: I'll save gameplay discussions for another posts, but for now I'll say I'm filling it minimally. It's not as bad as others, and I took some precautions to not deal with it as much, but it's still bad.

Rover's Character: So Rover actually has a lot more speaking lines than the average gacha self-insert character, almost to the point of them being their own character. However, the words coming out of their mouth are often just exposition, which only characterizes Rover as someone either intelligent or observant, which clashes with in-universe other characterizations of them being an almost mindless TD-destroying slaughter that cuts through mobs like its an addiction.

Uuuuugh... I know I said I'd say some positive things about the game, but... this has already left me a little drained. I'll talk more in detail about the positives at a later date, but for now I'm gonna' chill for a bit and maybe do a weekly boss.

I'll see you folks later.

[dnallohleoj]

I still see bizarre critiques of Scarlet/Violet that betray a lack of understanding about the nature of gamedev so I wanna set a few things straight.

Now because this is the internet, I'm gonna get this out of the way. This is not a defense of GameFreak. They scaled too big considering they had a locked-in deadline beyond their control and a development pipeline that spreads decision-making way too thin between 3-4 separate entities. And this is certainly not a defense of The Pokemon Company International as a whole. They'd happily stop publishing games entirely if they thought they could sell plushies and figurines of brand-new Pokemon without them, and I frankly won't be shocked if they eventually try that.

Now first and foremost, as I'm sure many of you know, the Switch's hardware lags SO far behind its competitors. There are several reasons for this and I honestly can't fault Nintendo for some of them but that's the simple truth - from a modern standpoint, the hardware sucks. They basically just packed Wii-U hardware into a mobile device, and the Wii-U was just an Xbox 360 with a significantly worse video card.

But why is it that some games like Tears of the Kingdom run perfectly with no issues ever under any circumstances, and even other Pokemon games released the same year manage significantly better performance?

Well, long story short, those three games all decided to do the exact same thing, ran into the exact same problem, and came up with three different solutions.

Starting with Tears of the Kingdom, a massive open-world action RPG/Puzzle game, they saw the limits of the hardware, knew there was only so many assets (items, environment art, NPCs, enemies, etc) they could keep onscreen without compromising the beauty and immersion of the world, and decided they were only going to have a handful of enemies on screen at a time. Usually groups of 10 or less. There are a handful of challenges with significantly more enemies, and the game performs noticeably worse in those areas. They also had fixed spawn locations. Enemies would always appear in the exact same spot, every time you go to that area. If you've killed the enemies in that area already, they won't come back until the Blood Moon resets all encounters on the map. The reset happens periodically to prevent a memory overload from crashing the game.

In this way, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom were very expertly designed around some luxuries that a Pokemon game doesn't have. Pokemon games need to be able to populate an area with Pokemon. Pokemon need to respawn in that area more than once every 3 hours. Once again, though, an elegant decision was reached. First, they split the map up into 5 Areas, each about as big as the main Wild Area in Pokemon Sword/Shield. Then, they tied Pokemon spawns to a random seed. You know how Minecraft uses "seeds" to generate a new world, and putting in a custom seed affects how the world is generated? Yeah, it's the same concept but with Pokemon spawns. Then, they created a 24-minute Day/Night cycle. Every 6 minutes, the time of day would change. At the end of a full cycle, the seed would be regenerated, giving you a new set of pokemon in the area. You could prevent the generation of a new seed by "Sleeping" at camp, which would return you to an earlier point in the day, potentially allowing one seed to last significantly longer, and thereby reduce the amount of data stored in short-term memory when the seed is regenerated. Returning to Jubilife Village would dump leftover data from the previous seed(s), and generate new seeds for all 5 areas. Because of the seed, the game only needed to generate new pokemon while the scene was loading, which, if you spend less than an hour in a specific area at a time, took significantly less effort. And by creating some, quite frankly, bland environments with LOTS of big clearings where most of the Pokemon appear, they were able to have loads of Pokemon on screen at a time. Also, because the Pokemon are fixed to the seed, the exact same pokemon will spawn in if you walk far enough away from them to make them despawn. Nothing is decided in the moment, so no room for hiccups!

For Scarlet and Violet, GameFreak flew too close to the sun and got burned. Rather than use the smart system they came up with for Legends: Arceus, they wanted one big open world that'd be heavily populated with Pokemon, those pokemon would have minor interactions programmed in, and the player was given access to the whole map as soon as they finished the tutorial! And... oof, you can't put that on a seed anymore, it's too many moving parts over too big of an area! With virtually no areas to load into, you can't load the Pokemon from the next area all at once. You also don't have anywhere to hide a memory dump. The only two areas that aren't part of the same big open world are the city of Mesagoza, and Area Zero. So, pokemon spawn and despawn based purely on proximity to the player and the area the player is standing in. If the player leaves the pokemon's proximity, it's gone forever, and a brand-new pokemon is generated on the spot in its place. Even though it keeps the amount of assets on screen low, it's still a lot more ongoing work that the system has to do. And to trade off for that, they cut down on the amount of environment assets even further. EVERYWHERE in Paldea is a big open field. This game doesn't even have a proper forest, and no, Tagtree Thicket doesn't count. The trees are so sparse that you can't even properly call it a Thicket. It's an embarrassment to Thickets everywhere. And even with that compromise, there were STILL massive areas of the game that simply couldn't handle the amount of work that was needed to keep up with making these big, empty fields look populated.

Look, the point is, Scarlet and Violet don't suck because of corporate greed preventing them from getting a proper development cycle. Another year in the oven might have helped, but frankly it wouldn't have fixed this mess. The core issue at the heart of Scarlet and Violet is that GameFreak had a specific experience they wanted to deliver, they made massive compromises to deliver it, and in the end, those compromises weren't enough to provide a smooth experience. They should have split the map up the same way they did Legends: Arceus, with the school and Mesagoza as the hub area you'd return to after an expedition. It's perfectly set up for it, they just chose not to for some reason. If they had, they could have copied the setup they used to make Legends: Arceus work, and the game would have likely had significantly fewer performance issues.

But even so, I find it hard to fault them for trying. They did it because it's been clear this is the experience they've been building to ever since the series went 3D. Scarlet and Violet are the games they've wanted to make for a long time, and it's evident everywhere you look that a LOT of love went into building it. This game had possibly the best supporting cast of any Pokemon game ever, a story that focused on those characters rather than the world's lore, and an absolutely killer finale. Despite its technical flaws, it's a delight to play, and even after it's been out for months, I still can't put it down, and if the people making it didn't love what they were doing, I don't think that would be the case.

[n1ghtcrwler]

The story so far:

Carol and I were excited to play Baldur's Gate 3, and decided to play it together, so we bought two copies. We livestreamed the first bit of the game as part of our Couple's Game Night show, in a multiplayer game hosted on her computer. The next day, due to scheduling, we each started a single-player campaign as well on our respective computers. Everything is fine.

I had started getting into mods due to The Sims 4, and expanded into using mods on Fallout 4, so I happened to be on Nexus shortly after installing Baldur's Gate 3 and noticed there were already over a thousand mods for the game, which blew me away. I didn't know about the early release, so I thought the community had somehow busted out 1.6k mods for the game in the span of just a few days and was deeply curious about what kind of mods they could possibly be, so I started looking through the list. End result: one dozen mods and a mod manager downloaded and running. Nothing major, just stuff that gets me new dice or access to camp clothes at a shop, one thing that makes feats available more often, that sort of thing. Most of them just make the game more closely aligned with the 5e books. One set of mods stands out; a mod that makes WASD move the character instead of the camera, because the "move the camera and then click somewhere" mode of moving around drives me nuts, as well as a camera fix required for that and the special mod loader needed to run both. These are installed directly in the game's bin folder instead of through the mod manager. There is an Improved UI override in the mod manager that does not turn off when I turn off other mods. Everything is working fine.

Carol and I load a second multiplayer game hosted on my computer, which involves turning my mods off because she doesn't mod, except the WASD set and the Improved UI because I can't directly turn them off and they don't affect anything that matters for multiplayer anyway. Besides, after talking about it, Carol decides to install the WASD set on her computer as well. The idea was to avoid playing the streamed campaign off stream, but we didn't want to not be able to play together when we weren't streaming. So a second multiplayer campaign was the best solution. The next day, I also join another multiplayer campaign being hosted by a couple guys in my Discord server. Everything is working fine.

My Dwarf druid/cleric reaches level 5. I go to level her up and the game crashes out. No message, no hesitation; click the level up icon, and I'm back on the desktop with the Larian crash reporter opening. I start experimenting with the mods, removing them one at a time and trying again, to see which one is causing it. Nothing fixes the problem. That same day, Carol and I decide to jump into our non-streamed multiplayer game, so I turn off all my mods in the mod manager just like before. But we can't connect. When she tries to join my lobby, she gets a message that "GustavDev" is different between our computers and therefore preventing her from joining. We try switching to the streamed one hosted on her computer; it won't let me connect, but doesn't give an error message. Carol tells Steam to validate her installed files and walks me through how to do the same thing. Finish that process, but still can't connect. We don't know which computer is the problem.

Carol reaches level 5 on her game and is able to level up her character just fine, so we now have ample reason to believe the problem is my install. She explains that "GustavDev" is a core game file, and has me uninstall and reinstall the game. This does not fix my leveling problem, so I start testing mods again. This does not work. I switch to my Shadar-kai (yes, a modded race) bard playthrough, which is at a lower level, so I can at least enjoy the game a little bit until we sort this out. But this is a temporary solution, as I know I'm going to be constantly frustrated with the game and unable to finish it if I never figure out how to get past level 4.

Last night, we tried to join a party with a different pair of guys from our Discord server. Carol gets in just fine, my attempts fail. I have my mods off, so I start poking around some more, and fully uninstall the Improved UI override. Now the game still won't let me join the lobby, but does at least give me the "GustavDev" error message. I validate files again and Steam reinstalls one. Still can't join. I go into the game's bin folder and manually delete every file added or altered by the WASD mod set. The game crashes without opening; presumably, one of the files I deleted was necessary. So I validate files again, hoping that will notice the missing file and reinstall it. It doesn't find any errors. I try to load the game again, and it crashes without opening. So I uninstalled and started a new install and went to bed.

This morning, with a new install, I verify my mods are off and my Improved UI and WASD set are uninstalled, start up the game, and load the multiplayer campaign I'm hosting. Carol is still in bed while our daughter is getting ready for school, so I hop on her computer and see if she can connect to my now-open lobby. She can't, it gives the same "GustavDev" error message. This tells me things are still not going to work on my computer. So I exited the game and uninstalled it again. Then I went through and deleted the mod manager itself, the game folder, and the Larian games folder that contains all the save files and all the mod files. I purge every scrap of Baldur's Gate 3 and the mod manager I can find off my computer, then restart my computer, THEN tell Steam to install the game anew.

The install is at 40%. Carol tells me that if that doesn't work, the next step would be a refresh of my entire Windows system. I'm debating whether or not this game is worth that level of effort. Stay tuned for updates.