#appears sparsely but always effective

[the-kr8tor]

Lace

Pairing: Hobie Brown x fem! Reader/ Spider-Punk x fem! Reader

Word count: 4.7k

Tags: Use of Y/N sparsely, no specific physical description of the reader (except for her clothing), Cursing, CW spiders, TW Arachnophobia, TW violence, CW injury, angst, fluff.

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CHAPTER 6 >>> CHAPTER 7

Your pulse thumps loudly against your skin, swallowing a lump in your throat, you bravely make your way towards your friend. That word hangs loosely in the balance, you have no right to get mad at Hobie, he has no obligation towards your feelings whatsoever. Especially that you've never voiced how much you like him, no how much you came to love him.

You've never exactly pinpointed the time or event that made you love your best friend, but you know deep inside that you have. Whether it was platonic before or romantic after a few years of knowing him. You know that you've loved the same man for years. That's why it hurts so much that he's been ogling the unknown woman in his presence. Hands tucked inside the pockets of his leather jacket, he watches her through half lidded eyes, a smile curling around his lips.

The woman's giggle cuts you like a rusty knife, leaving you bleeding and doubting everything. Doubting all the soft touches and lingering gazes from Hobie all those years of hanging out with him. Maybe you are delusional, your lovesick brain making you think and imagine that a man like him could ever love you back.

You hate yourself for being jealous, the big green monster rearing its ugly head. Whispering and gnawing at your shattering heart. Trying to tamp down the ugly thing, cageing it inside your chest like a feral animal, you exhale a shaky breath. Eyes growing glassy at the sticky kiss she leaves on Hobie's cheek. The large Oscorp museum looms behind the stage, casting a large shadow on the couple, as if the building's hiding them from you, mockingly adding to your pain.

Weaving through the crowd, you catch the last bit of their conversation.

"I'll see you at the after party, right, Hobs?" Her voice is sweet yet it sounds like nails on a chalkboard when she calls him 'Hobs'.

"Sure, Lacey," his voice monotone, "go, we're almost on." Hobie nods at her.

'Lacey' winks at him, giving him a flirty smile, waving goodbye. Her long curls bouncing as she walks away.

Hobie notices someone staring, he cranes his neck, squinting, instantly grinning when he spots you. "Oi! There you are! You're late. Nice boots, are they new?"

You clear your throat, blinking away the tears threatening to spill over. "Yeah" walking closer to him, you give him enough space. Far enough for him to not be able to hold you.

Hobie notices your downturned gaze, "you okay–"

"You made it!" Yuri appears from behind, bounding towards you for a hug. "Look at our lucky charm! Lookin' pretty as always" she holds you at arms length. Giving her the best smile you could muster.

Ned and James join her side, "nice shoes!" Ned exclaims, bass strapped on his back.

"'ave you been cryin'?" James asks, concerned. He (unfortunately for you) noticed your glassy eyes.

"What?" You chuckle softly "No, I had to run here, the wind whipped at my face" trying to save face.

"You sure it's not allergies? Pollen count is at an all time high today" James adds, nodding.

"You learned that at your da's radio show?" Ned teases. James shoves him.

"I'm fine, it's nothing" you shrug, it's not nothing, your heart feels like it's been run over by a train.

"You sure you're okay?" Hobie finally chides in, closing in the distance you've put out. Intertwining your pinkies together.

To Hobie's dismay, you pull away a second later, "yeah, good luck. I'll be in the crowd" you give the band a double thumbs up, "you guys better win!" Trying to sound cheerful.

"Hell yeah, we will!" James pumps his fist in the air for added effect.

You walk away, trying to get in front of the stage for a better view of the show, pushing past the crowd, some seem to be too out of it to notice you. Spotting the familiar curls, you stop in the middle of the crowd that's packed together like sardines. Lacey laughs with her friends, hyping them up, drinks in hand, singing a familiar song.

The lights turn to a different color, red enveloping the stage. You feel like you're underwater, the loud noises muffled in your ears. You can barely hear the announcer introducing the band, eyes fixated towards Lacey, she throws a flying kiss towards the stage. You don't have to look at who the recipient was.

Guitar riffs ring out, Hobie's band starts playing their song, the crowd suddenly rushes in, trying to get to the front of the stage, trapping you. Bouncing around dancing bodies, you can't get out of the wild crowd, some noticing you trying to get out, they move and part for you. But some are way too into it to notice you.

"Excuse me, please! Fuck!" You yell out. A stray elbow hitting you right on your eye. The smacking sound rings in your ears, hand nursing the injury. A hand flings to your cheek, backhanding you. "Fuck!"

"Oi oi, stop! y/n!" Hobie's voice echoes around the venue, you deduce that he grabbed the mic from Ned. The band stops playing.

Half of the crowd doesn't stop, still jumping and bouncing around, guessing they've probably snuck in liquor. You ping pong around sweaty bodies, The only thing you could do was try to protect your head with your arms. Closing your eyes.

"Hoy! Fuckers! He said stop!" Lacey's voice screams out, trying to push past the mass. You can barely hear her through the blood rushing in your ears.

A strong yet familiar arm wraps around your shoulder, looking up you see Hobie arguing with a stranger.

"What the fuck! I said stop! Were you dropped on your head?!" He shoves the man away. Pointing at another trying to argue back. "Fuck off!" He lets go of you, shoving the other with force.

"Hey mate, if she can't handle it, maybe–" The man slurs his words, he couldn't finish his sentence, his face connecting with your knuckles. He should be glad that it wasn't Hobie's or else he would have his rings embedded in his jaw. The man keels over, sobering him up in an instant, groaning in pain.

Hobie looks at you in shock, you look at the men like you want to rip them apart.

Everything crushes you, the weight and pressure of your project, expectations from your family, your love for him. Every insecurity seeps out of your bones, drowning you in its disgusting waters.

You throw your anger at the first thing you see.

"You fucking wanker!" You seethe, your eyes darken, the strangers bear the brunt of your anger. "Stop means stop motherfucker!"

Hobie holds you back, if he doesn't you'll get kicked out of the event, "holy shit" your fist held up, ready to strike again.

You push him off, eye stinging in pain. Huffing, You give the men one last angry glare before stomping away from the crowd, too angry to care that you have an audience. Hobie follows closely behind, calling your name urgently.

"What?!" You turn sharply, the skin around your injured eye slowly turning into a darker color.

"Are you okay?" He asks, hands ghosting over your closed fists.

"Stop asking me if I'm okay, Hobart! Do I look like I'm fucking okay?!" You yell, frustrated, wincing at the pain in your socket. "Fuck!"

Your heart aches when you fight with him, moreso when you yell at Hobie. You're angry but not at Hobie, you're mad at yourself, mad that you've read his love for you as romantic, angry that you never told him how you feel. Furious at your jealousy.

One word stays in your mind, your own voice screaming it out like bloody murder: Coward.

"Love" he says softly, hands wrapping around your tightly closed fists, your nails digging into your palms leaving half moons on the soft skin. Hobie slowly unclenches your fists for you, fingers opening up yours. "You need ice over that, I'll bring you to the first aid station and–"

"You don't have to, just go. Get back on stage" you pull your hands away from him, clenching your hands into fists again.

"y/n, you might be concussed–" Hobie stares at you, concerned.

"Go" you sniff. "I'll go there myself" turning your back on him, Hobie watches you walk away.

—

The first aid station sits further away from the stage, the loud sounds can still be heard from where you're sitting inside the large tent. Cheers echoes out, prompting you to close your eyes at the booming sound.

The frozen ice pack melts in your hand, condensation dripping down on your arm. Your eye socket stings even with the pain meds the nurse gave you. Your head feels like it's trying to escape your skull. Sitting on the plastic chair, elbows propped on your thighs, biting the inside of your cheek when you hear your friends asking for you.

Scooching away from their line of sight, hiding behind a water cooler, you try to make yourself small. You groan when you hear the nurse tell them your location. Your anger has finally subsided, embarrassment replacing it.

Maybe you should've left when you had the chance.

Feet shuffle their way towards you, staying put, staring at the grey concrete, shoes fill your vision. Yuri breaks the silence.

"You've got a mean right hook, remind me to never piss you off"

You don't answer glaring at their shoelaces. The water from the ice pack drops on the concrete, painting it darker.

"Bloody hell, give her some room" Hobie arrives at your side, gesturing for them to give you space.

Hobie crouches down, leveling with your down turned stare. Grabbing the not so frozen ice pack from your hand carefully, avoiding touching your hand, in case you don't want to be touched. He stares at your black eye with concern.

"I made you all lose didn't I?" You stare up at your friends, avoiding Hobie's brown eyes.

"We got third place, I don't count that as a loss. It's better than we hoped for anyway" Ned looks at you apologetically.

"Right, not your fault." James adds. "Competition's hard, love"

"You're just saying that, if Hobie didn't interrupt by saving me, you would've won"

"If Hobie didn't jump in I would've jumped after you instead" Yuri chides in, pocketing her drumsticks.

"Me too" Ned says.

"Me three" James raises his hand, "Hobie just beat us to it" he shrugs.

"Still, I'm sorry," saying it softly. You don't miss the way they avoided asking you if you're okay.

"You're the one with the black eye" Hobie stands up, "can I talk to you?" He asks.

"We'll see you later, yeah?" Ned places a comforting hand on Hobie's shoulder. "As for you," Ned looks at you, "you've got my number, call me whenever or better yet visit me sometime"

You manage to crack a small smile, "I will" you stand up, giving him a hug, squeezing your friend. "Richmond's only an hour away" letting him go, you give him a sad smile.

"That's right, I'm only an hour away" Ned pats your shoulder.

Yuri steps in, holding both your hands, "and I'm just in Cambridge" she hugs you tightly, "don't be a stranger, yeah?"

"I'll come visit you whenever I can then" you squeeze her hands.

"You better" Yuri gives you her rare ten megawatt smile.

"Yuri and I will be classmates so you can visit me too if you want" James pats your back awkwardly.

"Fuck off, no we're not" Yuri scrunches her nose at James.

"We'll see you at the after party, Hobie?" Ned asks the unusually quiet man next to you.

The after party, where she will be waiting for Hobie. You try not to think about it, mentally chastising yourself.

"Nah, I have to get ready for her show."

"That's rescheduled actually, it's happening next week instead of tomorrow" you correct him. Hissing when your skin tugs at your eye.

"We'll be there then if you ever decide to pop in" Yuri informs Hobie.

"Alright, see you" Hobie waves them off. Sitting back down you watch them walk away with sad eyes.

"Can I have my ice pack back?" You groan when the pain pinches your eyelids.

"It's basically water, I'll get you a new one" He moves towards the nurse. You sit there, contemplating the past events.

The green monster peeks back out, shaking its cage, shackles straining against its leg. You try to move away from the image of her hands wrapped around Hobie's necklace that you've given him three birthdays ago, cherry red lipstick sticking to his cheek. The way he looked at her, the fucking pain in your eye. You start seething again, wanting to punch something.

You sigh, palms over your tired face, avoiding your injured eye.

"You al–" he stops himself, walking on eggshells. You don't want him doing that around you. "Here's your ice pack, the nurse said you don't have a concussion so I can take you home. Only if you want to" Hobie hands you the ice pack.

"This seems familiar, huh?" You wince at the cold hitting your skin, trying to cut the tension.

"What?"

"Can you fucking sit down for a second" you gesture towards a chair.

Hobie sighs, sitting down backwards on the chair, resting his chin over the plastic back of it, arms wrapping around it.

"When we first met? Remember that? It was almost exactly like this"

He lets out a breathy laugh, "Right, you threw that sketchbook at Terry. Yuri's right, you've got a dangerous arm"

"Should've gone into baseball, or volleyball at least" you avoid his stare. "We were sharing an ice pack, while we bad mouth Terrence" chuckling sadly at the memory. You don't regret meeting him that day, if you could do it all over again even after knowing what will happen, you would, without question.

"Will you fucking look at me" Hobie asks softly, you jump slightly at his angry tone. "Can you tell me what's eating you, is it the project?"

You wait a few seconds to bravely look at him, your face unreadable. "It's not the project"

"Is it really rescheduled, or you're just trying to get rid of me?" Hobie narrows his eyes at you. You can't read him, his expression flat, except for the slight scowl.

You shake your head, "Why the fuck am I trying to get rid of you? Mrs. Williams had a change of heart and gave us an extension, that's it!" The conversation escalates, frustrated at Hobie for implying that you're getting rid of him. You would never.

"Then why are you angry?" He doesn't raise his voice, he never does, and he won't ever start to.

"Because! I'm–" you hear a loud cough, the nurse glares at you two. Hobie notices, standing up.

"C'mon let's go inside" He stands up.

"Yeah, because arguing inside a museum is much better"

"You think those fucks care about a museum?" He points towards the concert with his thumb, "I looked inside, no one's in there. They're all going to the after party anyway"

Sighing, you want to go home, but knowing Hobie, he won't relent. You wouldn't dare to go to his place instead, not wanting to taint your future home with a fight. Your dorm is out of the question, it's almost midnight, your RA wouldn't let Hobie in. You don't want to run from this, even if it means lying to his face.

"Give me the bloody card" He asks for the favour card tucked inside your pocket.

"You're gonna use one on this?" You hand it to him.

"Yes" he pops one off, Hobie doesn't want to ruin his relationship with you, especially with him not knowing the cause of your anger. So he's willing to do anything to prevent that. The wind carries the logo somewhere.

You wish you're that piece of paper right now. Only seven to go.

—

Walking around the futuristic room, the walls white and pristine, covered in blue neon lights. It looks like you're in one of Ned's favourite sci-fi movie, you can't quite make out the title though. The entire place is silent, with only a handful of people walking around, the only sounds are from displays, machines whirring in the background, and noises made by the displays' speakers. They opened up the museum really late for the concert as a promotion even though most people only stayed for the show.

You stop in front of a display, a projection of some enhanced spider lifting something that's apparently fifty times heavier than its weight. Sitting down on a bench in front of the display, eyes glued to the presentation.

Hobie sits next to you, giving you space. He watches the projection's glow on the side of your face, making it look like there's a giant spider crawling on your skin.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you" you finally break the silence. "I shouldn't have done that, you were only trying to help," eyes still watching the educational video. Taking a deep breath, "Why do you think I'm trying to get rid of you?"

"It's nothing" he watches as the enhanced spider bites another spider, fighting with it.

"It's clearly nothing" you scoff, "that's the first thing you thought of when I told you that the show's rescheduled"

Hobie wishes he brought Terry with him, his leg bouncing, a nervous habit of his. "I'm holding you back." He confesses, wincing, regretting it almost immediately.

Your neck snaps to look at him, "You're not, why would you think that?" You sound angry, but your concern for him wins over. "Why?" Tentatively scooching over, you close the distance, cupping his hand in yours. "If anything I'm holding you back, you could've gone anywhere after you left school. Yet you stayed"

Hobie raises his brow at you, scoffing. At first you thought he'll pull away his hand, instead he drops his forehead on your shoulder, fitting right in. He feels the roughness of your denim jacket, squeezing your hand.

The projector's light envelopes you two in emerald green as it switches to a different scene.

"Why do you think I'm still here?" He finally answers after a few seconds. It felt like hours for you.

"Because I'm your best friend" you say softly.

"Best mates don't look at each other like we do" he gathers all his courage, tired of all the pushing and pulling, tired of being selfish, locking his feelings from you. Hobie cranes his neck up to look into your familiar eyes. The same eyes he's longed for. He's so close to you he could see himself in your glassy eyes.

Your heart beats a thousand times per second, Hobie cups your jaw, gaze falling on your slightly parted lips. You hold his wrist, thumb right on his hastening pulse, you cup his jaw with your free hand, hand soft against his slight stubble.

"Best mates don't touch each other like this," he continues.

Your eyes wander around his face, looking for any lies of what he's told you, flabbergasted at his confession. Your breath is seemingly stuck in your throat, heart stuttering when he slowly closes the gap between you.

You don't pull away.

You can feel him tugging at the loose thread, it feels like it's tightening around you instead of breaking you two apart at the seams. The dam has a sizable crack in its foundation, threatening to burst open.

Hobie leans towards your lips, now or never, he sees you flutter your eyes close, taking it as a sign to seal your lips with his. He feels a crawling sensation on his back, ignoring it, thinking it's his nerves acting up. His heart pounds like a drum, he can't back down now.

"Agh! Fuck!" Hobie suddenly screeches, hands flying towards his nape.

"What? What is it?!" You panic, turning him around, yelping when you see a bright spider latched on his neck. "Fuck!"

"What is it?!"

"Spider!" You try to fling it away using your sleeves, avoiding touching the arachnid.

"It fucking bit me!" Hobie slaps his neck in one swift movement, the spider lays dead, still latched on his skin. "Did I get it?"

"Yeah, let me just–" you take a handkerchief from your pocket, taking the spider away from his skin, "there, got it" showing the spider laying on your pink handkerchief. "Oh god it's red"

"You think it's venomous?"

You laugh wholeheartedly for the first time that night.

"I'm serious, I could die from this" Hobie pokes the spider.

Like it's comedic timing, the narrator from the educational video says, "it's not venomous but it is advised to seek professional help when bitten by the wolf spider, some people could be allergic to their bites–"

Staring at each other, "wow" you manage to say at the same time, you giggle nervously, having no idea how to proceed with how things are now.

"It doesn't look like the wolf spider, they're a different color" Hobie pokes the spider to look at its underbelly, "yeah, different one" he acts as if he's suddenly interested in arachnology.

You look at him with so much endearment, your eyes are practically shaped like hearts.

"What?" Hobie catches your staring, a smile playing on his lips.

"Nothin'" you taunt him with a cheeky smile. He rolls his eyes at you but his smile betrays him.

The intercom rings out, "The museum is now closed, sorry for the early closing" a nasally voice says. "There has been an incident in one of our displays, please leave the museum in an orderly fashion"

Hobie clears his throat, hand scratching at his nape, also not knowing what happens now. "I'll take you home," He stands up, offering you his hand.

"Okay" you feel giddy as you take his outstretched hand. It feels familiar yet oh so different now. You've finally got confirmation about his feelings towards you, no matter how vague it was. You two have all the time in the world to discuss it. You've waited this long, you can endure a few more days of tiptoeing around each other. Baby steps, you think.

Swinging your intertwined hands, you look up at him. "Do you think the incident that they're talking about is this spider?" You pat your jeans pocket where the covered spider is kept. "Like it came out of its enclosure or something?"

"They don't have live specimens here, probably not" he entertains your question, squeezing your hand.

You both leave the museum, hand in hand. Ignoring an alarm blaring from somewhere.

—

You hug Hobie's leather jacket tighter around you, the cold air biting at your cheeks, helping numb the pain in your eye. Hobie takes your helmet off for you, the simple action he's done a million times before makes your heart skip a beat. You watch him with curious eyes, waiting for something to happen between you. The large brick building that houses your dorm looms overhead.

You notice him sweating despite the cold, "How do you feel?" You ask, concerned.

"I feel fine" he takes your helmet back towards the compartment of his motorbike. "Why?"

You step over to him, your palm feeling his forehead for a sign of a fever. "You're sweating, it's like fifteen degrees, why are you sweating?" He leans into your touch, sighing a bit.

"It's because I'm bloody fit" Hobie smirks, winking at you playfully.

You roll your eyes, "what if you're actually allergic to that spider bite? We might need to get you to a hospital" pulling back your hand to your side.

"I'm fine, seriously. I have no idea why I'm sweating though" He wipes his moist forehead.

"Okay. I can come with, just to make sure you don't have a weird reaction to it"

"You'll come to the after party?"

"You're still going to that?" Why? She'll be there, you bite your tongue, jealousy gripping you again. He's not going because of that, right?

"Yeah, It'll probably be the last one with the band, I want to make the most of it"

"Okay, just be careful" you wrap your pinky around his, "ask the others for help if you suddenly feel sick, please?"

"I will. Go to bed, you're knackered. Get some ice on that once you wake up, yeah?"

You bravely stand on your tiptoes to reach his cheek, kissing his skin softly. It feels just right, like your lips were perfectly molded for his cheek. Hobie seems like he ran out of air, frozen into place. He has no idea where to put his hands, your waist seems to be a little suggestive, arms seems to be more on the friendly side, if he grabs the back of your neck, Hobie's afraid he might pull you in for a kiss, which you might not want right now. So he settles for your shoulder, it feels awkward still.

You pull away, seeing a very rare sight of a flustered Hobie. Almost giggling, you clamp down, not wanting to tease him more or he might start hiding this kind of face he's currently making. His pupils are blown out, mouth agape. He returns to his nonchalant expression when he notices you biting your lips to stifle your giggling.

Grabbing his hands in yours, you bat your lashes, "Drive carefully, please?"

Hobie pulls you in by your belt loop, hugging you, his chin rests on the crown of your head, long arms enveloping you. He pokes your scalp with his chin. Your laugh pierces through the dark.

"Yeah, yeah" Pulling away, he carefully grazes his forefinger over to your black eye. "Sorry, 'bout this"

"Not your fault. Thank you for jumping in to save me, even if I yelled at you after" you look at him apologetically. "I'm sorry, again"

He shakes his head, not knowing the exact words to reply to you. Rubbing your leather clad arms, he stops when he reaches your hands. "Keep this for tonight, you can bring it back to me tomorrow, yeah?" Hobie subtly asks you out.

You grin at him asking for you to come visit him the next day. "Mm-hmm, I was gonna visit you anyway. You're due for a fitting"

"Yeah? Finished our baby then?" An excited smile appears on his lips.

"Almost, I think you'll like it" You say smugly.

"You made it, it's a guarantee I'll like it"

—

You adjust the weight of your heavy bag on your shoulder, walking along the water towards Hobie's houseboat. Grinning at the familiar boat, you speed walk to the doors. Bouncing on the balls of your feet, excited to see Hobie again after last night, After his 'confession'.

Hugging his leather jacket around your torso, moving the bag slightly away, just to show him that you didn't forget to bring it with you.

Knocking, you call out to Hobie. "Hey, it's me!"

The boat rocks a bit to the side, tilting your head, curious at what might've caused its movement since the river is calm. Finn is right, you can't hear anything happening inside. The boat tilts again, you hold onto the wall for support.

You knock again, "Hobie! Are you okay in there?"

Hobie finally answers the door, it swings wildly, sweat dripping on his bare chest, still in his boxers, his wicks uncharacteristically standing in messy angles. Gripping the doorknob in an iron hold, his chest heaves up and down like he's run a marathon, or like he just–

Hobie seems like he can't properly construct a proper sentence, he blinks at you through watery eyes, licking his dry lips.

You were about to ask him if he's okay, you freeze in place, face falling when a female voice rings somewhere inside– "Hobs?"

You feel a hole caving in your heart, leaving a Hobie shaped chasm, eyes glistening in the morning sun, you don't even wait for his explanation. You just run, run as fast as your legs could take you. You have no idea where to go. Your heart is shattering with every step, you have no time to pick up the pieces, leaving it scattered in the wind.

You can hear Hobie yelling your name, ignoring his urgent calls, you sprint away.

A/N: Everything will make sense in the next chapter 😉 thank you for reading! Please consider reblogging if you enjoyed it, it encourages me to write more ❤️

*pictures above are from pinterest*

[whirligig-girl]

At time of writing, Kerbal Space Program 1 is on sale for $10 on Steam.

If you have wanted to buy KSP and have never gotten around to it, now would be a good time.

Despite the failure and cancellation of KSP2, KSP1 is still a really great game. I bought it for 18 dollars in 2012, and it remains one of my favorite games of all time and perhaps the most cost effective game purchase I've ever made.

KSP1's development is completely finished, but the modding scene is still going strong.

The DLCs are also available for half price. Here's my thoughts on them:

Making History: adds historical-themed rocket parts in new size categories, and a mission editor that allows you to design mission plans and share them for other players to fly. I do not recommend this one, because the rocket parts have been done better by free mods, and because no one ever ended up using the mission editor since those missions are walled off in their own scenarios and can't be integrated into a normal game.

Breaking Ground: adds sparse rocks and other ground scatters to the surface of planets to be explored by rovers. Much more interestingly, adds robotic parts which can totally change the kinds of vehicles and crafts you can build. I do recommend this, because the addition of robotic parts adds so much to the game.

But the real goodies are in unofficial mods. Here's my absolute must-haves:

Restock: The rocket parts in the stock game are a mix of different styles by different amateur artists who have worked on the game over the years, lacking an overall cohesive style. Restock reskins (but otherwise does not modify) all of the stock parts using new models and textures that bring a cohesive visual identity to KSP that it has sorely missed. The models are higher fidelity in most cases, but they have been made efficiently so that the game will actually run and load faster and smoother with Restock than without it. (Github)

Restock Plus adds a few other parts in the same style to round out some missing parts, and if you do not have Making History, it will add its own versions of those parts for free (and with better game balance, in my opinion). (Github)

Scatterer: Replaces the archaic stock atmosphere rendering from 2011 with an accurate simulation of rayleigh scattering, vastly improving the look of planets both in space and on the surface. (Github)

KSP Community Fixes: Bug fixes and quality of life tweaks, especially useful in light of KSP's development being discontinued. (Github)

Some tips (below the cut)

KSP allows you to build rockets almost lego style out of modular parts. The game does include a few tutorials which I do recommend you try (imperfect though they are), but here's a few other helpful tips:

there are two ways to attach parts: node attach (connecting parts via those green and black spheres that appear when you're holding a part) and surface attach (connecting parts where your mouse is). If a part can be surface attached, it will always prioritize that over node attach. So if you're trying to put together a rocket tank and the tank keeps trying to attach to the other tank wrong, you have to change your camera angle so that the nodes can come together without your mouse going over the part. The alternative is to hold the ALT key, which will force the part to attach only to a node.

The C key and the X key control angle snap and symmetry mode. There's also buttons for these on the lower left of the u.i. Symmetry is a must for building rockets.

There's three main types of engines: Liquid Fuel rocket engines, which require separate fuel tank parts burning Liquid Fuel and Oxidizer, Solid Rocket Boosters, which contain their own fuel and can not use fuel tanks or be throttled, and Jet Engines, which burn liquid fuel and atmospheric oxygen from air intakes, at a high efficiency.

There's also the ion engine, which uses electricity for power and xenon gas as a propellant for extremely high efficiency and extremely low thrust, the nuclear thermal rocket, which uses an onboard nuclear reactor to heat up liquid fuel propellant for high efficiency and low thrust, and monopropellant RCS, which are steering thrusters that use monopropellant tanks shared between all stages. There's also a single 'normal' engine that burns monopropellant, the Puff.

At a first approximation the game uses real orbital mechanics. To get to space, you just have to go straight up above 70 kilometers. To stay in space, you must enter orbit, which means your sideways velocity has to be somewhere around 2500 meters per second so as you fall you curve around the planet. The M key brings up the map mode, showing you your trajectory. It'll also show you if your orbit intersects the planet, and you can mouse over Ap (your apoapsis, the farthest distance in your orbit) or Pe (your periapsis, the closest approach in your orbit) to see if they are above 70 kilometers.

At first approximation the game uses real rocket science. The more fuel you add, the more fuel you're wasting to carry that fuel. Staging (detaching tanks and engines when they're no longer needed) using decouplers is a must. Parachutes are also a must if you want to preserve the lives of your Kerbals, but remember. This game is realistic. Parachutes will not work on airless bodies like the Mun, and they may not be enough on their own on martian planets like Duna which have only thin atmospheres.

Career mode is kinda... not very well made? I would start with Science Mode. The tech tree will kind of ease you into building with limited parts. But you can always jump right into sandbox mode.

Rocket parts come in a few diameters sizes: 0.625m, 1.25m, 1.875m, 2.5m, 3.75m, and 5m. In addition, there are 1.25m (mk1), diamond-shaped 1.25x2.5 (mk2), and roughly 3.75m (mk3) spaceplane parts. The aerodynamics and structure works out best when same diameter parts are connected together. There are adapter parts to facilitate this, as well as fairings (procedurally shaped aerodynamic casings) and engine plates if you need to get around this.

Turn on Advanced Tweakables in the settings. This will allow you to right click on parts and select "rigid attachment", and to use "autostrut", both of which are necessary for making rockets behave. (you could try and use strut parts, but that can bloat your part count and often times it isnt clear how to even attach a strut in the direction you need) This is one of my least favorite parts of KSP, as this is pretty tedious for a large rocket, but it's necessary to keep it from flopping around. For some reason KSP's developers thought that floppy rockets (even when they should be perfectly rigid), would be more fun. The idea comes from the early days of the game, when the conventional wisdom was "if it moves and it shouldn't, add struts; if it doesn't move and it should, add more boosters." The game has gotten a lot more complicated now, and that design philosophy should have been left in 2012. There's also a mod, Kerbal Joint Reinforcement, that will provide this functionality without needing autostrut and rigid attachment per part.

On efficient launches, you're going to end up looking like you're burning up. This is a limitation of the 1/10th scale planets in KSP, and how that plays with the 7/8ths scale atmospheres. During a real launch as well as an efficient KSP launch, you'll end up travelling at 1500-2000 m/s in the upper atmosphere, but in the real world that's only a fraction of orbital velocity. In KSP, that is near orbital velocity, and so the game is balanced to assume you're in reentry conditions. If you have fairings to protect sensitive parts of your ship, you should be fine.

KSP's small scale makes Apollo's Lunar Orbit Rendezvous approach inefficient for the Mun and Minmus. It's actually cheaper to just directly land on the surface. This can be fixed by installing a rescale mod such as Sigma Dimensions, and setting it to 2.5 rescale and resize, and 1.6 rotation period scale. This makes delta-v 1.6 times larger than stock KSP, resulting in more realistic proportioned rockets. The game honestly isn't any harder in this state, it just needs somewhat bigger rockets. All that aside, the "Apollo style" orbital rendezvous approach works great for all other planets, since interplanetary transfer requires more fuel as do most planetary landings. This approach has two spacecrafts launch either together or separately that travel to the destination planet docked together. The lander then separates, lands, and eventually launches again, but only back into orbit, where the orbiter picks up the crew and they launch back home.

The KSP solar system is not a 1:1 copy of our system. Moho is a lot like Mercury, Eve is like Venus but purple and much more massive, Kerbin is like Earth, Mun is like the Moon but about three times closer, Minmus is a small moon orbiting far from Kerbin, Duna is like Mars, but instead of small asteroid moons, it has an almost planet sized moon which is almost a binary companion. Jool is a gas giant that orbits where Jupiter should, but it's undersized, and orbited by three huge planet sized moons, including the ocean world Laythe, the ice planet Vall, and the airless Kerbin-mass rocky planet Tylo. In addition, two small minor moons. There's also a big Ceres analogue called Dres and Eeloo, a cracked, icy world in a 2:3 resonance with Jool, just how Pluto is in a 2:3 resonance with Neptune. There are mods that add more planets to the stock system, as well as mods that replace the stock system entirely. There's even Real Solar System (which is designed to be played with Realism Overhaul, a modpack that's almost a different game entirely)

[applysome]

I’ve now been lucky enough to see Miles Kane with my own eyes (and ears) twice in two days and have been able to form more coherent thoughts (though this will still be a massive ramble!). Long post warning split up by sections so you can skim to whatever interests you!

For ease:

N1 = Night One Thursday

N2= Night Two Friday

Note: all of the below are my observations, perceptions, and speculations, I could very well be wrong about some or all things.

Crowd

Both nights I arrived fifteen minutes before Miles was due on. N1 the crowd was sparse, apart from the venue floor there were large tiered steps and a balcony, and everyone seemed to be spread out. N2 was much busier, the floor, tiered steps and balcony were all packed out. I suspect this may be to do with the Thursday / Friday and 8pm / 9pm effect. Both nights I got myself three rows back from the barrier, stage left (N2 took a little more manouvering!).

The crowd on both nights was a good mix of teenagers/early twenties, people my age (thirties) and men in their fifties. Most of the older men were back on the tiered steps and from previous experience at shows, aren’t as vocal as the younger fans (I’ve observed this over the years watching Maximo Park, I’d recommend checking their music out if you haven’t already!).

N1 Miles takes to the stage greeted by a few cheers and applause and starts to play. Not much singing along or dancing on my side apart from a few of us. Muted cheers at the end of the song. A few songs in and I’m disappointed by the crowd’s reaction; although Miles is giving his all, I feel like I can see a little disappointment on his face too. This is his homecoming show, everyone here should be really up for it. A few people on the barrier in front of me talk to each other frequently right in his eye line. It takes about two thirds of the set list for the crowd to properly warm up and bringing out Dave McCabe from The Zutons gets the loudest reaction and sing along of the night. I tried to be as responsive and loud as I could but I’m only one person.

N2 Miles takes to the stage greeted with thunderous applause, cheers, screaming, the full works. Thirty seconds in he already looks much happier than he did on N1. At several points between songs when Miles stops to catch his breath the crowd is so loud all he can do is stand there and take it in. He was visibly emotional at several points throughout at the crowd’s reaction and a few spontaneous chants of “Miles Fucking Kane” really put a smile on his face. Much more singing, especially in the call and response parts of his songs. Definitely the homecoming show he deserved.

Also noteworthy, I didn’t see anyone from N1 on N2. Although a small sample size of where I was stood in the crowd, I expected a few people would go to both shows. Perhaps there were some people more central or on the steps/balcony.

Appearance and Performance

We all love Miles primarily for his talent but let’s be honest, the man is also stunning. But I wasn’t prepared for how attractive he would be in real life up close. It was a little distracting at times on N1 😅. By N2 I was more prepared! Miles looked great as always and certainly knows how to work those boots. As someone who can’t wear heels at all I must admit I’m a little envious!

N1 his moves were still there and he was giving his all as always, but N2 he really went for it, obviously spurred on by the crowd’s reaction. Cardio is sometimes overlooked I think but is so important for singers, especially ones who dance or are very active on stage. Again from experience watching Muse a lot over the years, I could tell when Matt Bellamy had let his cardio slip, struggling to hold notes for as long, singing more in chest voice than belting and so on. Miles had none of these issues which is impressive given his asthma and being a heavy smoker. Obviously the boxing is working!

Performance wise, I have high expectations and can be quite critical because a lot of my favourites (again - Muse, Maximo Park) are spot on live. Across both nights there weren’t any vocal issues, missed notes, absolutely nothing. Just pure passion, excitement, dedication, determination, even when the crowd wasn’t as vocal on N1. Flawless, faultless performances.

Setlist

The set list was the exact same across both nights which I was a bit surprised at, even down to Dave McCabe with Miles on bass and the support act Ellis Murphy playing harmonica in Come Closer which was a nice addition. I wondered if the choice to keep the set list the same will be something going forward for the rest of the tour or if it was just so everyone in Liverpool had the same experience. Regardless it was a good mix of songs with Come Closer, Coup de Grace, Cry on My Guitar and Inhaler getting the biggest reactions of the night.

It was great to hear Shavambacu live though I don’t think everyone gave it the appreciation it deserved! As others have shared, the set list choice of Shavambacu - See Ya When I See Ya - Colour of the Trap was… a choice. Also nice to hear Counting Down the Days which is such a platonic song… Might have been nice to hear My Fantasy or Kingcrawler one night instead but overall no complaints! Forever holding out hope he will play Ransom or Wrong Side of Life!

Other Notable Moments

During Never Taking Me Alive on N2, Miles seemed particularly amped up proclaiming “From day one Liverpool, been doing things my own fucking way”. Maybe he’s here amongst us following yesterday’s discussion (see my previous post) 🤣 but in all seriousness it was amazing to see Miles happy, rocking the stage and getting the reception he deserves, being unashamedly himself with his heels, leopard print amps and turtle plushie.

During Come Closer on N2, someone threw a turtle plushie onto the stage and Miles proceeded to balance it on his head for the last call and response of the song, quite impressive whilst singing animatedly!

Miles on bass during You Will You Won’t on both nights was really quite something (petition for more of this please) and I could tell he was genuinely excited to be playing with Dave McCabe.

One of the teenage girls in front of me excitedly proclaimed to her friends a few times that Miles had looked at her. Well we all know really he was actually looking over her head at me 🤣 a tiny part of my delusional brain feels like he saw me both nights and “recognised” me on N2, as I was wearing the same jacket in the same spot. But really I think this is just the Miles Kane effect; his ability to connect with the audience on a personal level, making you feel like he’s playing just for you even in a room of hundreds of people.

At the end of N2, Miles lingered on stage for longer and jumped down into the crowd for handshakes and hugs (sadly not on my side!) and generally soaked up the overwhelming response from the crowd which was truly deserved.

Overall Thoughts

If you’ve made it this far you’re a trooper! Be rewarded by my very poor quality photographs (I am short and there were a lot of heads in the way!)

Miles is a born performer who gave everything he had both nights, even when the crowd wasn’t as receptive on N1. I’ve been to a lot of shows in the last twenty years and these are genuinely some of the best I’ve seen. You can just tell how much he loves music, performing and being on stage, I had a huge smile on my face throughout both shows. I know this isn’t always the case as some artists become tired or jaded and see it as “just a job”.

Best of all, I didn’t hear anyone so much as mention TLSP or anyone affiliated with them anywhere around me. Everything on both nights, but particularly N2 was about Miles Fucking Kane, as it should be.

I’m so grateful I got to see him live at all, let alone twice for his homecoming shows and I’m so happy Miles got the overwhelmingly positive reaction he deserves on N2. As a new fan (April 2024) I just hope he continues to gain momentum and grow in popularity from here.

Hopefully for Miles, The Best is Yet to Come.

[larsisfrommars]

The Night of The Murderous Spring Is So JUICY!

I think I need to talk about how insanely gay this episode of Wild Wild West is or I might EXPLODE. I know a lot of us who already watch the show knew this episode was ridiculous in the gay subtext department but I feel compelled to go in-depth about putting it into words.

Let’s not even dig into the fact that before drugging Jim Dr. Loveless proudly proclaims that he will make James West “kill the thing he loves” and was referring to Artemus when he said that! That’s already wild enough as it is.

For me like, through a shipping/gay subtext lense, I could already tell Artie was into Jim. There is a mountain of evidence to interpret their relationship that way at least on Gordon’s end. For West it was a little more sparse until and especially THIS episode. Which confirmed for me as relatively new to this show and fandom “ohhhh!! He really DOES reciprocate whatever ambiguously gay mess is happening here!”

The version of Artemus that Jim subconsciously conjures up for himself is so interesting. And of course, it appears to him when he’s in desperate need of comfort, of a rock to cling to, but can find none. So his hallucinating brain projects what he NEEDS most, not some lovely young lady (familiar or otherwise) to tell him everything is alright, but Artemus to take care of him. He WANTS to be taken care of and comforted by Artemus and no one else. I’m not crying YOU are crying!

His version of Artemus is pretty close to the real deal but there’s something… softer about this projected version. He’s not completely different, I wouldn’t even say out-of-character. But he is gentler, more patient and forgiving, and very much there to play guardian angel for Jim. All of his positive traits are exaggerated in Jim’s eyes, like hes always seeing the guy through rose colored glasses.

I say this because part of why I got a bit suspicious of this version of Artie was him being way too calm and forgiving when Jim starts being aggressive towards him due to the drug. Yeah Artie loves Jim but like, he’s got his own sense of self-preservation, intelligence, and a bit of a temper. I was expecting a joke or some sternness or something, hell maybe taking Jim’s gun from him. But of course he doesn’t and he can’t, because he’s not real and he’s there to comfort. Jim can’t be thrown off the course that’ll lead him to killing Artie by his hallucination’s own intervention. He’s himself but oh so slightly off.

Another thing was something that “Artie” said that didn’t actually make a lot of sense compared to the rest of established canon when Jim first starts getting temperamental. “Hey it’s me remember? Artemus Gordon? Mrs. Gordon’s son.” Now I know there’s probably some throwaway Doylist explanation for this, but the Watsonian in me prevails.

Artie never brings up either of his parents before this or ever again to my knowledge. Jim only mentions family once in a previous Dr. Loveless episode. It’s the kind of thing you’d say to someone where you’d known each other your whole lives, implying Jim would somehow know his mother. Now unless I’m mistaken they met each other in the military as adults. Which means Jim’s subconscious emotions have made him feel as though Artie’s known him his whole life. Which is some soulmate sounding mess if I ever heard it.

Then there is the crescendo of this madness where Jim shoots the illusionary Artemus in cold blood. Which is easily some of the most heartbreaking acting in the series. I have watched it a normal amount of times (lying)!! Dying “Artie” looks confused and betrayed but he STILL reaches out to Jim like he like wants Jim to know that it’s okay?! OUCH. Then of course there’s the little “why?” before he dies that pushes Jim over the edge.

Jim completely flies off the handle after Artemus’s apparent death. Careening through the street, threatening the hotel staff, trying to get himself arrested for murdering Artie. I don’t know whether it was a side effect of how much hallucinogen he ingested or what. He straight up faints like some tragic Victorian protagonist after returning to his room, overwhelmed by the evil that he has seemingly done.

When he comes back around he is not at all acting like the Jim we know and love. It’s almost like he wants Loveless to kill him with the way he goads the guy. He’s despondent and jaded and being reckless with his own life. He only snaps back to normal when he discovers Artie is in fact alive and well. Which is such a beautifully loaded reunion. He responds to Jim’s unusual tenderness with a sassy joke (which is of course how we know this one is real). It feels very akin to the Kirk and Spock reunion at the end of Amok Time.

I also think it’s worth noting that I think the first time I ever heard James West utter the words “Artie! Help me!” when he’s trying to prevent the ducks carrying the murder-LSD from being released (this episode is NUTS). Which you know in light of the events of this episode is a big step in Jim being a bit more vulnerable as a character. So there is THAT too.

Hey, and maybe it’s just me, but whether it was deliberate or not, something changed about the whole tone of the show after this particular episode. It felt like the showrunners were slowly having it dawn on them the show is at its strongest when it plays off of the bond shared by these two characters. This episode along a few other gems from season one seem to have clinched it. I noticed in season two so far they’re using Artie and Jim’s relationship as a support beam where it was more of a flexible suggestion before. Which has ✨implications✨ whether you interpret the relationship as gay or not. The events of this episode cracked Jim West’s very hard shell, and made these two characters closer than before.

[toomanyf4ndoms7]

NEW 52 Batgirl review. Part one: Back in the Cowl.

Hello, everybody, welcome to part one of my Batgirl new 52 review, where today, I’m looking back at Gail Simone’s Batgirl run (issues #1-34) and talking about what I think worked, what didn’t, along with my general thoughts on how we got here.

I hope you’ll enjoy, and buckle up. This might be a long one.

@a-bad-case-of-the-stephs

@urlocalbadomen

Part one: How did we get here?

One of the overarching points of the New 52 reboot was to bring all the characters into their recognisable original state. So we don’t need to go from Dick Grayson Robin and spend all that time until we finally get Damian ten years later. This time, everyone’s who they are, and we get flashbacks and broad strokes to what’s been happening.

If I recall, Editorial wasn’t letting Cass or Steph get used. So, if they want to use a Batgirl, there was really only one option. Barbara Gordon, the original and most “mainstream” of the bunch.

But, The Killing Joke where she was shot and paralysed was still in continuity. You can’t get rid of such an iconic story, can’t you?

So, they changed Barbara’s injury. The paralysis wasn’t permanent and thanks to an experimental surgery, Barbara was able to walk on her own two feet again.

Personally, if it were me and even if I wasn’t allowed to use Cass or Steph as Batgirls, I’d try to make an Oracle book instead of making Babs into Batgirl again, but we’re not looking at what I want.

Point is: Barbara is Batgirl again, and under the pen of Gail Simone, one of the writers for Birds Of Prey and someone who I feel really gets her complexity.

In any case, enough prologue, let’s begin.

Part two: Back To Bat:

Barbara Gordon is Batgirl again. We know this, but this Batgirl is different from how others might remember her: as this upbeat protector with a grin and a killer right hook.

Thankfully, This Barbara Gordon isn’t written to dismiss what’s happened to her. While some details are changed (Joker didn’t take pictures of her undressed body, which while certainly an Evil Thing To Do, always felt… Gross to read. Yes, it’s Joker, he does Joker crimes, but… anyway.), Batgirl isn’t ‘cured’ she’s not all hunky dory about everything.

The trauma persists through most of the book, from the first few issues where she freezes at the sight of a gun, to a nightmare where she’s lectured by her own reflection, to when she even fights one of Joker’s former henchmen.

The story is dark, mainly a series of new villains with rough reasons and dark costumes. I will talk about them in the villains section.

Chapter three: Fractured Foes.

In this run, there’s no Killer Moth or Condiment King, the story relies on new villains, for better or worse.

Some villains, like Mirror or Gretel, have good backstories and a thematic sense. Mirror survived a near death experience but felt like that was his time, so he’s on a quest to kill those who escaped their fate, and Mirror is a woman who was victimised by a serial killer and went into a dark place from it.

But others, like Ventriloquist, with her sparse appearance, felt more like a distraction. I like the horror vibes, but... where did you go?

Knightfall is the main villain of the run when she appears, being the "purge all the criminals" kind of villain. She's serviceable.

(Personally, I’d bring in KM, because of the reference to her first appearance.)

Chapter four: Stumbling Steps:

This comic has flaws, and in my opinion, especially early on, pretty noticeable ones once you start to pick up on the pattern.

One of the first is unfortunately, Barbara’s competence. Now, Barbara is only recently out from a surgery with mental trauma still in her head, it’s natural that she isn’t at the top of her game.

But there’s times when the story feels like it’s trying to make Barbara seem weaker to make her more palatable. During most early fights, there’s dialogue to the effect of “I got lucky” “I’m rusty, this guy hits hard but my hits barely dent him.”

The run’s darkness can also feel like a bit of a grudge at times. Yes, there’s moments of Levity and kindness, this isn’t The Boys, but it feels like an issue can end with Barbara getting a win, she looks up at a bright sky, and boom, tragedy and pain be upon you.

Chapter five: A light in the darkness:

But, it’s not all bad. While I’ve probably been more positive on this run than could be called necessary, I do think there’s some good in here.

For starters, the artwork is for the most part, really well done. Barbara’s Batsuit looks sleek and designed for her night-job. (Even if sometimes, it can look a bit vacuum sealed around her chest, because… comics.)

I appreciate that the comic didn't lean... as heavily on Joker as you could've thought, he's still there, the trauma is still there, but it could've been a lot more heavy. Barbara gets some rogues of her own, and while I can't say most of them have a chance to be live-action, I'm glad they tried.

There's family drama with the Gordon household, Barbara's mom comes back into her life, there's a bunch of stuff with James Junior, Jim has a grudge on Batgirl for supposedly killing James, it's lots of hard stuff with one of my favourite pages coming from issue #26.

Alysia, Barbara's roommate, is also an enjoyable character. She's charming and it's nice for Barbara to have someone in her corner.

Chapter Six: Overall. (My final thoughts.):

As I said at the start, if I was in control, I would not have made Barbara Batgirl again, her being Oracle is inspirational and removing that for he sake of recognisable nostalgia is... just not good.

But, this is the world we're in, and as far as I read, this is... manageable. Gail Simone is someone who knows Barbara and let her be complex.

This run ends with Barbara telling Alysia that she's going off for a fresh start. And the next instalment is definitely a fresh start.

For... better or worse.

RANKING, because I guess I'm doing that:

7.5/10.

[louiesselfshipramblings]

Once in a Lifetime: ENA selfship!!

My relationship with ENA as a series is a bit interesting. I knew of her through tumblr for a while, I'd say, but never looked into it. My friend showed me the trilogy of shorts that had her (it was "Auction Day", "Extinction Party", and "Temptation Stairway" at the time), and I thought the style was cool! I didn't think much of ENA as is, but to be fair, I was still a blossoming bud when it came to figure out what I liked. After all I was only, like...eighteen. Lol.

Ena is def one of my more recent selfships, and I was kinda unsure of her when she re-entered my mind. I was unsure if it was really smth special, or just kind of a spur of the moment situation. I was still kinda feeling that as I got this quite frankly amazing commission, but seeing the WIPs and ESPECIALLY the final product made me go "Oh yeh...that's my gf!!!"

The Lore!!

My sona here is known as Lüc, which is a somewhat corruption of my own name? I wanted something that matched the sorta off-kilter, fake-video-game vibes of ENA as is. Tho, given the sparse nature of world building as of now, I'm kinda just making the setting...Earth-like with special features, lol. Maybe DreamBBQ will change things, idk yet.

But!! Lüc!! He's a starry eyed (quite literally) mid-twenty-something who owns a local theater, but it's a lil crummy. Has an old, 80s style appearance due to lack of budget, which also effects the showings. Since I can't afford big releases, I mainly show older public domain films and cartoons, with "new" content being indie films. It attracts...people, at least. I also sell cashews instead of popcorn cause I don't like how kernels get stuck in my teeth (and in lore an unpopped kernel cracked a tooth of his as a kid)

Ena sorta just stumbled in, as she does, and hung out in the lobby. Didn't even see a film, but she did buy some cashews. We did chat for a while. It was a brief encounter, but...I kinda fell for her at first sight XD

The feeling of liking was mutual, course, but she didn't really think it romantic at first. Which is why she visited so often! To see her friend! Yippie...but eventually I had the guts to tell her how I feel (we were close enough friends by then), and she was a little surprised at first! I was worried I upset her at first, but turns out she was just thinking it over. The look of realization on her face and the way she blurted out "THAT'S WHAT THE CARNATIONS MEANT!!!" still stick in my head, heh!

We didn't start right there, exactly. Ena said she needed time to think it over, so of course I let her. I was bracing myself for waiting a whole week of not seeing her, but she ended up popping back in three days later, roughly. She seemed a lil lost for words, which shocked me seeing as she usually had such colorful vocabulary. I tried to give her some support in realizing her feelings and such, before she blurted out, again, "I LIKE YOU A LOT TOO?? CAN WE DATE MAYBE???"

And we just kinda started dating! I took her out to a very nice restaurant, and that's also where we had our first kiss!!! And we've just been kinda going regular since! She still lives at her place, but she visits a lot to mine (second floor of the theater, saves space and money!!).

We're still very much enjoying being each other's bf and gf, so marriage is hardly on the table. No kids either, probably. Neither of us think we'd be able to handle it, lol. Moony visits sometimes too! We...get along best we can. I realize she's Ena's best friend, she realizes I mean a lot to Ena. We tolerate one another for her sake.

But yeah! That's my self ship with Ena! The series timeline is kinda...nebulous? Especially with DreamBBQ and the whole "second" Ena. I mainly just ship with the OG blue-yellow pre-TempStair version of her; gonna have to wait and see with this new gal!

The amazing art of me and Ena coming together was done by the always spectacular @cupiidzbow! I said before but you did just AMAZING here!! Like my sona is great but also your Ena is so cute???? I def gotta get more with her from ya! And you, the reader, should support Freddie and his monkey business!

[soul-mates-podcast]

Whoa a new Soul Mates episode! The perfect time to talk about an older episode!

Despite being a noted Hinata Takanashi appreciator, on the win screen and otherwise, I find all her additional outfits strangely disconcerting. Firework Date and Cozy Playtime have their own issues but just going from her bond up to Sweet Refreshment feels really jarring. The visual effect is completely different!! Her first two skins are all pastel green and yellow and floral colors in organic curves, then suddenly BAM modern angular dark-tones coffee shop. Her uniform also reads very differently despite the clothing itself being similar to her previous outfits. I think the issue is the change in angle — now that we're looking up at her for a vague upskirt, her skirt has gone from widening her shape to a backdrop framing her legs; the pale blue and white of the section actually in front of her blend into that backdrop while the black mostly emphasizes the narrowness of her body with a side of teehee skirt flying up. (Don't look too closely at how her legs connect to her torso.) Similarly her shoulders appear much narrower now that her shawl's been replaced with this even-more-than-sleeveless top, with the bonus black armband drawing attention just in case we hadn't noticed the exposed skin. She was always skinny but this outfit is the first to draw attention to it. The change that really gets me though, which I don't think got mentioned in the episode, is how everything is suddenly shiny and 3D. Girl where did this depth come from?? She's paying her way through college by working at the local maid cafe and being forced to participate in the Real Adult World of capitalism is represented by existing in a space with perspective, a quality famously antithetical to nature. My big objection though is that she's been shinyfied to match. Her previous images are very sparse with skin contour, the closest they really get is her stockings. Now that she's in her work uniform, not only are her stockings twice as shiny, their aura of contouring has enveloped all of her limbs. I strongly dislike the detailed armpit musculature here despite it being well done because this girl was not meant to look this three-dimensional. Get her back in natural outdoor lighting stat!!

Anyways Soul-Colored Fantasy is phenomenally executed, skins that manage to be this compelling with such an impractically revealing outfit are few and far between. That said this Hinata is from an AU. This is not an outfit she would wear to the Mahjong Soul Shrine, it's an outfit she would wear to play mahjong in Final Fantasy XIV

mmm, true. i mean, my ick still comes mostly from the similarity to scary deer legs hana ninomiya, but the change in color palette is also a good catch. i don't want to look at her legs thank you

new glamour: hinata takanashi reaper exclusively for use at the gold saucer

[blackbloodteeth]

13th Sentence Game

@bcbdrums linked me this post (about sharing the 13th sentence from any WIP), and then ended up spurring me into sharing them from all my WIPs. I hope this chaos is what you wanted.

While this is mostly everything, I've skipped some WIPs for reasons such as maybe ending up as potential Resbangs™, but otherwise enjoy this absurdly long list I've put together over the course of like three hours.

You can play along and try to guess what each one's about, if you want hahaha

1, "2021 July 15"* You're sitting up, sweating like crazy, all you can focus on is taking in air.

*Technically my first fic, but it was scrapped. Never really posted it because it's too confusing and now outdated.

2. "2021 Sep 24"* As the previously stated unpredictable behaviour has led to only a small number of assessments on combat, the full extent of his abilities remain undocumented.

*Was originally for an event, but I've considering expanding upon it.

3. "(WIP) TBN" It was like the world here at DWMA was some kind of grand show, and he was just some background character.

4. Inner Strings They all called him the Soul Eater.

5. "be crime do gay" Just. Not like that.

6. Scythes don't make for practical weapons He had no idea if he was going to be able to make friends at all, let alone find a meister, someone willing to accept him for himself and actually be able to use him effectively.

7. "(simple au)" He had an odd combo of red eyes with white hair and tan skin, sharp teeth pulled into a defiant scowl, and a black jacket hunched over a frame that didn't look to understand posture for shit.

8. When Death City snows over "Come on, I doubt it'll actually snow; that shit never happens here."

9. I ain't Feline fine She gets him to stand in the center of the spell zone while instructing Maka to keep behind her, eagerly fixing her hat with her paws before starting.

10. Teeth So he'd take to his now familiar hideaway, a piano tucked away in a sparsely used room.

11. Happy Birthday, Soul Not even Maka.

12. "cursed hall" Given they've gotten to know each other to some degree before now, he was already pretty adjusted to seeing the two other members of this makeshift team: Soul and, well, Soul.

13. It's been a long night for my entire life There was always work to be done and he couldn't wait to get started.

14. One Word* Seeing all those intertwined neighbors, how easily they all sent signals together, that part of him craving to connect and belong made him feel hollow, made him wish he could have that just like everybody else.

*Let it be known that this is the notorious development hell WIP.

15. It was a dark and stormy night Of course with her literary weapon and the sudden jolt of her appearance, the figure seems to have been startled enough to give an auditory following to their jumping back, dull gleaming red blinking wildly back at her tense confusion while- Wait, Soul??

16. Ride by night only [6:19 PM] Kinda with him actually, why are you in a hurry then lol

17. The Very Hungry Soul “Well if the very hungry caterpillar would like to make sure we’re not late, he should hurry up and get dressed before I eat his breakfast for him before it gets cold.”

18. See you on the other side "Soul?"

19. The Dragon and The Moth He’s stopped entirely in his tracks when she abruptly goes in for a hug, snout nuzzling against his chest with a much softened sweetness.

20. Draconic Upon further noting its smooth surface he soon realized it wasn’t a star but in fact some sort of rock, blandly opaque like that of salt despite its odd moonlit shimmers, which even stranger still became steadily see-through in the absorbed heat of his fingertips.

21. "(wings made of arms)" Could it... really be......?

22. The Unknown Caller Caller unknown. But for him that was a lie.

23. The Exchange [8th] "Drink?"

24. Don't Escape Making his way around the back, his eyes glide along the sides until he reaches the pile of small logs, the ax resting up against them exactly as he’d left it.

25. The 42nd Story (Ch. 2)* The muffled talking of a woman, determined to be coming from a nearby room.

*As stated in The Ramble Room, this entire story was scrapped. While I didn't share the second and only other chapter despite it being finished, the first chapter was still shared.

26. "2023july11" He proceeds with actually cleaning himself up, a faint smile keeping him still awake and upright.

27. "(Aug31)" Her smile fades a little as she looks him over, a different sense of intrigue making her face bunch up funnily.

28. "hand pun" Her horrid fascination grew to the point of needing a new name for it (morbid curiosity, that's a classic) as the guy turns the hand around while it signs to him, eyes impossibly wide when she notices the similar skin tone under his hood and the missing space in his left jacket sleeve and the red of his eyes when he suddenly looks directly at her.

29. "WereWeek prompt 3" There's this girl – new student who moved in this year – who is so bossy.

30. "trees"* So much on his mind that he can't hold at bay and he can't even walk about it.

*Technically a small one-shot collection, but it's all going to be in the same fic.

31. "here and now"* His fingers stretch out from his palms in front of the glass, hurriedly ruffling through his hair, his tongue sticking out and then grinning ear-to-ear at her again with all the sunlight in the world.

*My current WIP! It's been slow-going, but I can't wait to see it through to the end haha

The rest are unsorted WIPs in my "drabble zone (2024)" doc:

32. 'Cause you are more than just a dream There's an odd look he pauses on her with after hopping off that she can really only describe as him expecting her to feel like he just sealed her in with a wild animal.

33. "blacksmith au" While his body shown well the signs of having dedicated much of his life to his craft, there was a strange affliction splitting much of it in twain, diagonally from hip to shoulder as if sliced by the very heavens itself in warning.

34. Devils don't go to Heaven (working title) “...Where is this?”

Anything else is so disorganized or only a small handful of sentences that I'm just gonna go ahead and stop it here haha

Thanks for tuning in, hope this was at least entertaining, or possibly even enlightening to the sheer amount of WIPs I've manged to collect over the past few years. I do want to go back to them eventually, but one step at a time, eh?

[poke-me-with-a-stick]

Chapter 22 of 'Artificial Wingman'!

For the full story on AO3, click here!

Enjoy!

---

Jazz giggled quietly to herself, quite amused at the look of disbelief etched into Jason's features. They had already made it to the apartment building he lived in, the man wanting to change into some 'civilian clothes' before they headed for the docks, and Jason still seemed to be reeling over the fact that her brother traveled to another dimension so often that he was beginning to learn how to make his own doorways in and out.

"Is my brother making his own way out of the 'Realms really that much of a shock?" She asked him, stifling another round of giggles as he shoved his hand through his messy curls. "I mean, you're a vigilante, in a world with other heros. Is that sort of thing unusual here?"

It was his turn to be amused. He snorted, letting his hand fall back to his side. "Nah. I mean, we deal with a lot of people, and some have abilities, but none can tear the fabric of reality like it's paper. Well," he paused his hand coming up to rub at the skin just below his domino mask, "except for the speedster. But they usually travel through time, not to different realities." When she raised her eyebrow at him, he corrected himself. "I mean, they can travel to different dimensions, but it's usually pretty difficult for them, and they usually try not to do it often." He explained. "And it's not like we haven't been to other dimension either, we just haven't really been to one that didn't have at least some version of us in it. We've seen and experienced a lot of stuff, but a dimension without the people that make up the Justice League? That's one that hasn't really come up."

"Wow. And I thought our lives were weird." Jazz giggled again, stopping to let Jason open the door for her. His apartment was the same as the last time she had been there, unsurprising considering that she had been there not even a full day ago. The only differences were the still-drying dishes in the dish rack and the faint smell of breakfast hanging in the air.

"Feel free to look around," Jason waved a dismissive hand at his sparsely decorated apartment as he walked past her and down the hall, "just don't touch anything that looks dangerous. I'll only be a minute." With that, he closed what Jazz assumed was his bedroom door, leaving her alone in his home for a second time.

She glanced around the open space, taking in the details that she hadn't noticed the first time she had been here. Now that she wasn't worried sick for her brother, she could admit that she was a bit curious. Jason didn't have a lot of stuff lying around, a few well-cared for books stacked on the end table was the most 'clutter' she could find. The coffee table had coasters, and a small succulent, but was otherwise pretty empty. Part of her wondered if the lack of personal items was a personal preference, or a side effect of being a vigilante. Then again, Danny's room was always a mess, so maybe it was a personal thing.

One thing in the room did catch her eye, however. It wasn't a book, but a picture frame, resting on the window seal. Walking over to it, she crouched down, brushing the intricately carved wood gently with her finger tips. It was smooth and glossy under her touch, worn but strangely pristine. Almost like it hadn't been touched much, besides having been moved around.

Behind the glass in the frame sat an old picture, creases from being folded up paired with ridges and yellowing that came with age. In the photo, there was a very small, scruffy-looking boy that clung to the leg of a woman. The woman herself didn't look to be in the best condition, her clothes baggy on her thin frame and her face slightly gaunt, but there was a loving look in her eyes as she gazed down at the small boy beside her. Despite her ragged appearance, Jazz couldn't help but think that the woman was strangely beautiful, in a weird way.

There was a somewhat bittersweet air that clung to the frame, so strong that even she could feel it, which was odd because sensing emotional imprints was more of Danny's thing than hers.

'Maybe I shouldn't mess with it,' Jazz thought, standing up reluctantly. It felt oddly personal, to be messing with something that was obviously sentimental in some way. So she backed away, leaving it in favor of looking around some more. She peeked at the books he had left out instead, raising her eyebrow at some of them. She really never would have pegged him as a Pride and Prejudice fan, but the more she thought about it, the more it seemed to fit him.

It was only a few minutes later that Jason walked back into the living room, his vigilante gear replaced by a black leather jacket, plain t-shirt, and loose fitting jeans. Slinging a bag over his shoulder, he paused and raised and cocked his head to the side. "Are you a fan of Pride and Prejudice too?" He asked her, walking over and crouching next to the couch where she had sat down.

Jazz nodded. "I read a lot of different things when I was younger. Pride and Prejudice was one of my favorites for a while." She admitted to him, setting the book back on its pile before she stood. "So, are you ready to go?" She asked, offering him her hand.

Jason looked her over for a second before taking her hand. She didn't have to pull him up though, the man standing up on his own. Gripping her hand firmly, he gestured towards the door with his free hand. "Yep. Lead the way," he said, a roguish smirk on his face.

Jazz rolled her eyes at him, but didn't bother protesting as she walked out, pausing to let him lock the door back before pulling him along, down the stairs and out onto the sidewalk. She wasn't quite sure where she was going, but she was pretty sure that this had been the way she came from when she had first gotten here.

Jason let her lead him through Gotham's grimey alleyways, not once protesting. Even though she was pretty sure she took a few wrong turns, and had led them in a circle at least twice. Thankfully, luck was somewhat on her side today, because the pair managed to make it to the warehouse she had left the Speeder in before the sun had a chance to set.

Dropping his hand, Jazz grabbed the edge of a metal cover that replaced one of the warehouse's broken windows. With one heave, the tin was bent upwards enough for her to slide through. The redhead held it open for Jason, waiting for him to slip through before she dropped it, only flinching slightly at the loud rattly bang it made as it slammed back into place.

"It should be in here," she told the man, walking forwards as she tried to remember where exactly she had parked it. The only downside to having a vehicle with an invisibility setting, it made it hard to find if you don't remember exactly where it was left.

"Are you sure about that? Because I'm not seeing anythi-" Jason's voice cut off mid-sentence, a metallic thump ringing out. "Gah!" the man shouted. "Son of a-" Jazz turned around quickly, hurrying over to where he was half-crouched, holding his shin. As she got closer, she could hear him muttering words that, under normal circumstances, she would have felt inclined to scold him for. Seeing as how he was in pain though, she decided to let it slide, just this once.

"Are you okay?" She asked as she knelt down beside him, her hands hovering between the two, uncertain if she should interfere.

"Yeah, m'fine." Jason gritted out, massaging the tender skin of his leg. "Just hit it on something, I'll be fine." As if to prove his words, the man stood up, only stumbling slightly as he reoriented himself. "What did I even kick though? I don't see anything here."

"Well," Jazz sat back on her heels before pushing herself up as well, "that'd probably be what we're looking for." Turning to where the man had stood only a few seconds ago, the redhead carefully reached out her hands, waving them about slowly as she searched for the invisible vehicle. It only took a few seconds for her fingers to brush the cold, thick metal of one of the Speeder's rear thrusters. "Aha!" She exclaimed, letting her hands follow the thruster back to the body and over the framework until she felt the handle of the door. "Great work, Jason! You found it!"

"Found wha-" Jason's half-confused, half-exasperated question trailed into silence as she unlocked the door and pulled it open, causing the vehicle's invisibility to fall and reveal the sorta-futuristic looking hovercraft. "...somehow I wasn't expecting this." He finally spoke after a few minutes of silence. A silence that went relatively unnoticed by Jazz, who was busy digging through the clutter in the back seat. When Jason received no response, he walked up to the door himself, ducking his head in to check out the surprisingly spacious inside of the impossible vehicle. "What did you say the Speeder was again?" He asked, climbing inside to peer at Jazz around the driver's seat.

She didn't stop rummaging as she answered him. "Uhh, technically I didn't tell you what it was? I just said that I arrived in it." Shoving a bag out of her way, she paused to blow a strand of loose hair from her face before diving back in. "But technically it's a spacecraft, only its made to withstand the Ghost Zone, not outer space." Huffing, she sat back from the mess in front of her. "This isn't working. We'll just have to take the Speeder back with us and let Danny hunt down what he needs." Shuffling back towards the front, Jason watched as she slid awkwardly over the front bench seats, twisting until she sat upright once again. "But where would we hide it? As much as I appreciate Harley and Ivy's generous hospitality, we probably shouldn't stay there. I wouldn't want to intrude anymore than we have already…" her hand came up to rub her chin as she tried to think.

"Don't worry about that." Jason spoke up, pulling her from her spiraling thoughts. "I know a place you and Danny can crash. And don't worry," he reassured her when she began to protest, "it's a private, out of the way spot with an underground garage."

Jazz still hesitated, but eventually nodded. "Alright." She agreed, only a bit reluctant to accept his offer. "But only if we aren't bothering you."

Jason laughed. "It's not a problem, Princess."

"Princess?" She repeated the nickname, tilting her head and squinting at him, ignoring the way her cheeks warmed with a light blush.

"I-uh," he stuttered, his face flushing a deep red. "I didn't, mean to say that."

Jazz giggled at the man's embarrassment, waving off his stuttered apologies. "It's fine, Jason." She reassured him, trying her best to stifle her snickering. "Not the first time someone's called me that." Though, she wasn't about to reveal that the other person that called her princess was her Dad. Still, she had to admit that it was kinda cute to see him all flustered.

"I think I'll just shut up now." Jason muttered lowly, sliding out of the way so that Jazz could settle into the driver's seat. He forced his embarrassment away, instead focusing on trying to understand all the different buttons and switches she pressed and flipped to start the Speeder up.

"Oh," Jazz suddenly starts, just as they began pulling out of the warehouse. "You didn't stare at my butt when I was climbing over the seat, did you?"

Safe to say, Jason felt one hundred percent justified in his half-strangled noise of denial. Her laughter didn't help as his face turned crimson again. Forget about her being a goddess, she was the fuckin' devil.

'That probably shouldn't make her more appealing…'

---

(I know there are probably some spelling/grammar mistakes but it's okay because I tried my best!)

To the amazing person who made the prompt for this story, as well as the amazing people who follow along!

@halfblackwolfdemon @manapeer @xxwintrynightzxx @im-totally-not-an-alien-2 @blu-lilac @academicpurposes @secretdestinywerewolf @passivedecept @naluforever3 @postit-nope @spiteismymiddlename @2t-productions @plague-daisy @feet-achy @bubblecookies16 @thesapphiredragon13 @justwannabecat @magicalcollecter @adeniumdream @amuseofminds @lupagrim @readerkayden @dr-syko-pharm-4 @ladythugs @angelheartgamer @markthespot68 @kyrianclawraith @michikoy-yuki @servasvictoria02 @your-emo-nightmare @vala-dreams @scarlett-green-rose @t1dwarrior-of-earth @charlie-the-frogie @akikoyuii @mysticalcomputerdetective @roseuniverse999 @im-totally-not-an-alien @thefearfullone @weird-droplet-309 @jaytriesstuff @raventao @jacquelynwinchester @dragongoblet @tlise21 @longlivethefallen @the-archer-goddess @temple-of-jalebi @adepresseddwightsblogofjunk @plainly-colorful @the-legalHe-shipper @49saltpeppershakers @igotafewbadideas @tumbling-darkling @sparklygardenbouquet @sarcastic-yami @blueneko9314 @starscreamlover @liedboutmurder @do3y @roze-realm @some-mildly-happy-human @yinari-uchiha @azuera @chaoticmistake @altairsarts @kawaiikenna @heartsong18 @thetoyboxs @tricksovertreats @mnemovoid @lim4b3ans @horribly-lost-and-gay @keimiwolf @dryeraseslime @joey394

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[communistkenobi]

hiiii I want to ask as someone who saw iwtv s1 but not yet s2, what are some things you liked about the new season and what didn't you like? ty for answering if you do

probably my favourite thing in s2 is the Louis and Claudia dynamic, like truly fundamentally two people who do not want to be together stuck eternally together anyway. I know the show is about a lot of things but the emotional beats that hit the hardest for me have to do with family and how much it feels like being stuck in a hole for your entire life & how every choice feels no choice at all

the sparse appearance of Lestat in this season was also very effective imo, like he is such an overwhelming presence in s1 that he suffocates everything and everyone else and now that is like always present in your mind whenever he’s not on screen, even when Louis isn’t actively thinking about him

was not a fan of the final episode or all the stupid government agent shit with Daniel

[kabutoraiger]

fun find at the used bookstore the other day since their horror section is usually pretty sparse. had to stop myself from saying Holy Fuck out loud upon picking it up and seeing that guy. retro horror book covers you will always be famous to me

as for the actual stories inside,

son of celluloid - really cool concept of a monster in a movie theater that can like send your ass to the Movie Dimension and shapeshift itself into old film stars to lure you in with a beloved face and gets stronger the more it is "perceived"

however i really did not understand part of the lore of this creature which was that it partially grew out of cancer cells...?? what does that have to do with the rest of this... and unfortunately this story gets bogged down with the central POV character who is a fat woman, which is obviously fine, but like half of her narration is just thinking about how she hates being soo fat and how men aren't into her which is just. :/

also it made me question if clive has ever actually seen dumbo. dumbo's ears were his notable feature, my guy. that's kind of the whole thrust of the film.

rawhead rex - this is the only one i'd heard of in advance and it's certainly... memorable.

again the idea here is kino with this beast from ancient times being unleashed on this blase little british town and kind of plunging them back into a more primal state of being. the descriptions of rawhead and especially of him eating the children is like. viscerally freaky and horrible.

but the decision to write some scenes from the POV of rawhead himself is... i dunno. like i do think the story would feel a bit unfinished without his perspective so it's more How they're written, i guess, in this very normal voice that just makes him come across as a simple animal crossed with a petulant cruel teenager or something, and thus kind of ruining his scariness. maybe that was part of the intention and i just didn't fully get it? to me it would've been better for his POV to read as very stylized & different from the humans somehow.

and god i wish there didn't have to be so much piss involved. the demonic watersports scene got me staring off into the distance with a tired resignation

confessions of a pornographer's shroud - relatively simple ghostly revenge story. due to being told in big part from the POV of the ghost i can't call this one particularly scary, but the base idea of taking the silly halloweencore ghost wearing sheet and turning that into an actual serious haunting is fun.

scapegoats - a ship gets beached on a creepy little island they hadn't even noticed on the map which turns out to be a burial ground for tons of unidentified bodies who washed up there during the world wars.

the ending bit of this one was pretty effective but i can't get over my disappointment that this island wasn't more like lovecraftian in origin, which felt plausible based on initial descriptions of it. half alive corpses are scary sure but i wanted At The Shitty English Island of Madness instead.

also there's one part that felt straight out of one of junji ito's weirder oneshots which made me laugh out loud and im not sure the humor was intended.

human remains - sex worker goes home with a guy and finds some kind of sentient human sized statue in his bathtub which then proceeds to start following him around and taking on his identity & exact appearance.

probably my favorite in this book which feels odd to say since it's the least horror out of them. the MC's reaction to this creature eventually becomes almost friendly or loving, and the creature is polite and well spoken and though it kills people it generally only does so to live. very interesting. a story that it's difficult to imagine a straight author writing. could probably read some layers of metaphor into it if you were inclined

[acquired-stardust]

Game Spotlight #2: Mother/Earthbound Beginnings (1989)

Inspired by the Japanese release of Mother 34 years ago this week, Ash gives one of her favorite games a (very long) feature on Acquired Stardust! Much has been made of its difficulty, though modern advancements in emulation including ROM hacks (in particular we recommend the excellent 25th Anniversary Edition) and a wonderful release as part of Nintendo Switch Online’s selection of classic game offerings have reduced this particular pain point (that may or may not exist in the first place!) and provide excellent entry points into one of 1989′s, and all of gaming’s, most enduring icons.

An eerie low synth is quickly met by a gentle sequence of piano keys as the phrases ‘produced by Nintendo’ and ‘presented by Shigesato Itoi’ appear across the screen. It is at once lonely and beautiful sound that matches with the logo containing a shot of Earth from space, and it sets the tone perfectly for what is to follow after being prompted to name several characters. A text scroll begins describing an unsettling story taking place in the early 1900s, 80 years before the events of the game, set in rural America, and it is here at this incredibly early point where it starts to become abundantly clear that this game is decidedly different than many other games of its time and platform. Indeed, a clue in the very first few seconds of the game practically call it out - we have a name prominently associated with this game.

It’s hard to imagine now, but video games were not always this way. Industry wide, credit was a rare thing for developers to receive and they often resorted to pseudonyms, the identities of which they allude to often being lost to time, and often were explicitly disallowed from being credited. In fact, two of the largest video game publishers today (namely Activision and Electronic Arts) were founded in part due to frustrations with companies such as Atari that, in an effort to reduce individual footprints on games and therefore make their talent less likely to be poached by rivals, did exactly that. Nintendo luminary Shigeru Miyamoto isn’t explicitly advertised in 1985′s Super Mario Bros. as being its creator either on the title screen or in a credits sequence at the end of the game, and even contemporary Nintendo Entertainment System role playing games of the time such as 1986′s Dragon Quest only features specific individual credits at the end of the game, and 1987′s Final Fantasy only credits the game to the company that produced it rather than any individuals in the creative process.

Mother, alternatively known as Earthbound Zero or Earthbound Beginnings in the west after its more famous namesake, 1995 Super Nintendo RPG Earthbound leads with something very much breaking in tradition of early eras of gaming in that it is explicitly, unavoidably from someone. An individual with a name. It is this that is especially striking to me before we even get to the surprisingly creepy opening text scrawl that sets up the backstory of Mother.

Born in November 1948, Shigesato Itoi is something of a renaissance man who became a bit of a celebrity in the incredibly unlikely position of copywriting, which is essentially another word for ‘advertising’, and one of the earlier examples of celebrity game developers in Japan that come to mind off the top of my head. Having created a number of famous ad slogans and campaigns including a 1982 anti-war ad featuring two armed soldiers standing opposite each other, beckoning their Prime Minister forward onto the front lines before them, Itoi’s ads often feature bold imagery contrasted with short phrases that manage to provoke vivid emotion in the viewer, and this maximizing of such little material makes two things abundantly clear: Itoi is not only an extremely effective communicator of ideas, but his specific skillset of utilizing images and sparse but provocative text is perfectly suited not only to video games but especially the world of NES role playing games which feature incredibly strict limitations, especially by today’s standards, though even by 1989 Japan had started to see more powerful systems such as Sega’s Mega Drive console having released a year prior. Befitting of its celebrity-via-advertising creator, Mother has one of the absolute coolest commercials I’ve ever seen with the slogan “no crying until the ending”.

Mother is a famously difficult game, for which I think it gets somewhat of an unfair reputation. While it does require copious amounts of grinding to increase one’s level and stats (as was standard for role playing games of the era and even for many years after) and see plenty of steep and extremely sudden curves in battle balance, there are no game overs in Mother. Upon defeat in battle the player will simply be returned to the last physical location at which they saved with all of their experience points acquired up to the point of defeat intact. There is no loss of items either, only a loss of money you currently have on you, which isn’t an especially big deal in part due to money not accruing in the player’s inventory by default (it is instead obtained from ATMs via a credit card at department stores) as well as the abilities protagonist Ninten unlocks through leveling up often being more useful and far less limited in use than purchasable items are. In this way there are shockingly few consequences for dying in Mother, with even many games decades later returning you to the title screen to load the data you last saved, with players who aren’t mindful of saving often being able to potentially lose hours of progress at a time. Just as well, grinding becomes significantly easier with the inclusion of additional party members and guest characters that enter the party occasionally. The only particular pain point of Mother is another common feature of role playing games of this era, where actions taken applying to an enemy who has died before said actions have occurred will miss as opposed to applying to the next enemy in the encounter.

Instead of traditional difficulty, Mother is a perfect example of games of its era in that it’s a perfect Nintendo Power game. Players are given very few directions and objectives, the world is extremely vast and dialogue with townspeople is often inane and not particularly helpful. It is very easy to become lost literally and figuratively, wondering where exactly you are in the game world (despite a rather useful map being built into the game from the start) or even what you’re meant to be doing, only to resort to a walkthrough and find out you were supposed to purchase a canary egg, hatch said canary who is described as having “sad eyes”, and return it to its mother somewhere. Suffice it to say Mother is a very cryptic game that takes the tone of a light parody of genre tropes and features a shockingly wide array of ways in which the player can interact with the world and events that can occur completely irrelevant to the actual story of the game to the point that I feel like you could make up a bizarre lie about something in the game as a playground rumor and someone would conceivably believe you no matter how outlandish it was. This is the sort of game that strongly encourages and rewards spending time with it. Getting lost in it. Having your own experience with it, and forming your own genuine connection with it.

It is exactly this sort of nature that makes the game stand out so much coming from an individual as opposed to a game designed by committee. Sometimes things just happen, such as a talking penguin questioning why he came to a gathering of monkeys in an underground maze, or catching a cold from a townsperson that must be cured at a hospital. Just as well the game contains a frankly shocking level of interesting and even emotionally gripping story content (much of which does come towards the end of the game). Mother is a game unavoidably art from an individual artist and everything in the game is included because it was specifically intended by its creator, and it’s this fact permeating the entire experience that makes it so attractive to people. Aside from the scenario and general happenings of the game, composers Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka provide what has my vote for the strongest soundtrack top to bottom on the entire platform, even being featured in a vocal album containing English lyrics that may be saccharine and cheesy but are also very genuine and vulnerable. Several of the songs have been used throughout the series and are easily recognizable to gamers who haven’t even ever touched the series.

A point of particular interest for me is all the similarities between Mother and Pokemon, with many people picking up on visual similarities between the final boss of Mother, Giegue, and Pokemon’s final optional battle in Mewtwo. Much of the structure of the game is also similar, with a young protagonist leaving his ostensibly single mother on a coming of age journey obviously inspired by 1986 film Stand By Me (itself based on an earlier story by Stephen King), which is also referenced pretty directly on a television set in the Pokemon protagonist’s house. Speaking of traveling, as mentioned before the world of Mother is indeed incredibly vast and much like Pokemon is both a contemporary setting (as opposed to a fantasy setting or a historical setting) and also traveled through almost completely seamlessly, whether it be on foot or by train. It is through this railway, the Paradise Line, that one can start to appreciate just how big the game world actually is. There’s even a sidequest in which Ninten must find an old man’s missing dentures, also featured in the first generation of Pokemon games. It’s an odd series of things that line up very well, and we’re not done there. Composer Hirokazu Tanaka actually ended up heading Creatures, Inc. which has worked in tandem with Gamefreak and The Pokemon Company on various aspects the Pokemon franchise since at least 1998, potentially even earlier. Just as well, Pokemon creator Satoshi Tajiri famously referring to Mother as “not very kind” in its design in an October, 1989 review, nearly 7 years before the Japanese release of the first wave of Pokemon games.

There is so much I could say about this game, and indeed so much I have already said, but the purpose of Acquired Stardust is less to give you the minute to minute plot points (particularly in story-based games, we would rather you experience these for yourself than spoil the experience for you ahead of time) and more so about giving you a recommendation. To that end I can only tell you that Mother has Acquired Stardust’s endorsement as well as my own personal endorsement. Despite its age it manages to feel shockingly modern in many ways, not the least of which due to its deep influence on the indie game scene in which ‘quirky RPG Earthbound-inspired RPG about depression’ has become a scene unto itself, and games like Yume Nikki which have made their own marks on the medium which in turn has spawned a scene unto itself.

Mother is one of the games that made gamers the world over think of game developers as artists first and foremost, a notion that largely is patently accepted in today’s scene. It features an incredible plot punching far above its weight especially in the latter half, likely the best top to bottom soundtrack on the NES, rewarding exploration, and much of the supposed difficulty is mere intimidation or remedied by emulation features such as savestates, ROM hacks, fast forwarding and rewinding. 

There are plenty of misconceptions and talking points ready to assure you that Mother isn’t a very good game and that Earthbound supersedes its predecessor entirely, but that’s a very western-centric viewpoint often born of a particular fusion of recency bias and nostalgia, given that predecessor Mother was never released outside of Japan and sequel Earthbound is the title most people who know the trilogy started with, and that sentiment I promise you simply isn’t true. Both games are different enough and well worth your time, as is 2006′s Mother 3. If you have even a passing interest in video games as an art form, Mother is a vitally important divergence point between ‘games as distraction’ and ‘games as art’, and an incredible milestone for the medium. It is something that changed the way we think about games and the way we interact with them, both directly and through the countless games it’s directly influenced. Just remember: no crying until the ending!

A gem hidden among the stones, Mother is unquestionably stardust.

--Ash

[sasuhinasno1fan]

Braided love - SasuHina Month Day 8

I almost did elves but went with fey in the end though it doesn’t dive into their lore much. It was also inspired by a tattoo artist sing dad au with Sasuke and Sarada.

Day 8 | Día 8

“Playing with hair” | “Jugando con el     cabello”

“Talk to me.” | “Háblame”

 Sarada ran through the halls of the castle, looking for Hinata. The human was usually exploring the large castle when she wasn’t in the library. She had done well in her spell classes and she wanted to show her favourite person what she learned. But she wasn’t in any of the usual spots she’d usually find her. She spotted orange hair and darted towards it.

“Jugo!” Orange eyes turned to her, softening slightly at the sight of her. He easily scooped her up, handing the papers in his hand to the councilman and guards he’d been speaking with.

“What can I do for you Princess?”

“Where’s Hinata?”

“Shouldn’t you be in lessons?” he asked instead.

Pouting, Sarada whined. “Where is she? Are they hiding her from me again?”

She didn’t get why some people didn’t trust Hinata. The human woman saved her, became exiled from her village to do so. Sarada had left with her father to go exploring the woods of their kingdom but while he was distracted, she’d gotten off the path and ended up in a human village. Once they noticed her long hair, pointed ears and unusual beauty, they had figured out she was faey. And since she was a child, the men of the village got the idea to capture her. 

Her magic wasn’t skilled but she was known to have an effect when she was stressed. Snakes were her favourite after the animals of her father. While the snakes attacked, she ran and crashed into Hinata. The woman squashed her, taking her apron off and using it to hide her as she picked her up and ran. She was at the edge of the forest when members of the village found her, ready to kill her when her father showed up. Most of the mob didn’t survive and they threw Hinata out in retaliation, to which their home was opened to her.

Which Sarada liked just fine. Hinata was nice, but when she arrived at her father’s invitation, all the servants and staff tried to keep them apart, like they forgot she gave up her life to save her. Thankfully her father stopped that when she complained.

“Sarada,” Jugo started, but she didn’t want to hear it.

“Where is she?” she snapped.

“Sarada.” a stern voice spoke, her father appearing just suddenly as he always did, pulling off his purple cloak and handing it to a servant. Jugo placed her on her feet and she stared up at her father. “Jugo doesn’t deserve to be yelled at like that. What’s wrong?”

“I can’t find Hinata and Jugo won’t tell me where she is.”

Her father sighed. “She wasn’t feeling well this morning, she’s resting in her room. If you apologize to Jugo, I’ll take you to see her.”

Immediately turning to her father’s warrior. “I’m sorry Jugo. I shouldn't have been rude.”

“It’s fine Princess. I didn’t want to worry you. Tell Lady Hinata I say hello.”

Done with her words, she grabbed her father’s hand and let him lead her to Hinata’s rooms, in the same wing as her and her father’s room. The door was covered in sunflower stalks, the yellow heads moving with the sun that fell through the skylights. Sarada pulled from her father and pushed the door open, rushing in. the room was sparsely decorated much like her father’s, the bed in the middle of the room. The front half of the curtains were untied, blocking most of the light from Hinata, who was curled up under the light covers. Her face was slightly red and her hair was stuck to her face.

“Is she ok?”

“She has a fever. She was caught in the downpour last night.”

Sarada had vague memories of her father coming to wish her goodnight, the braids in his hair untangling from the water he was weighed down in.

“Can I wake her?”

“Sarada.” he scolded but was interrupted by a soft voice.

“It’s ok.”

Hinata pushed herself up, smiling down at her. It was all the words she needed, darting over and climbing onto the bed, letting Hinata tug her away from the edge, but her father sat behind her.

“Are you ok?”

“I’m just a little sick. You’ve never been sick, have you?”

“Well, I once ate a whole bowl of sugar berries.” she admitted. “My stomach hurt for a while.”

“Maybe because you shouldn’t be eating that much like I said.” her father scolded.

She pouted when Hinata gestured for her to get closer. “I once got sick eating a whole pan of cinnamon rolls. My father was furious but my mother thought it was pretty impressive.”

“Don’t encourage her.” her father said, turning his scolding to Hinata, who only giggled.

“Hinata, I learned how to make flowers! Look!” with attention back on her, she focused her magic like her teacher told her to. From the palm of her hand, a daisy grew, smaller ones following until she had a small bouquet. “See?”

“That’s amazing! They’re very pretty.”

“Here you go!” she handed them to Hinata, who gently took them before patting her on the head.

“You’re so sweet. Thank Sarada. They make me feel better already.”

Giddy, she tugged on one of the braids in her hair. “You should put them in your hair to keep them close, like you do with me.”

“Can you braid my hair then?”

Sarada pouted. She could do small ones, like the ones she’d put in her father’s hair but she wasn’t good enough to do big ones and Hinata had a lot more hair than her and her dad.

“Can you do it?” turning to her father, pouting. She watched him sigh, moving her to sit in front of Hinata so he could sit behind her without any worry of her falling off the bed. Watching her father tug the piece of leather out of Hinata’s hair, she chattered to the human about her lessons, what she couldn’t wait to do, what the two could do once Hinata was feeling better. She noticed her dad would brush Hinata’s cheek as he gathered strands to twist, first into two smaller separate braids then all together into a bigger one. He took the daisies from her and placed them near the top of the braid, dragging the finished product over her shoulder so she could see.

“It looks beautiful. thank you, your majesty.”

She watched her father smile at Hinata before she tugged on Hinata’s hand for attention again. They stayed there until Hinata started to bob her head. Sarada was so busy telling a story, she didn’t notice until she saw Hinata resting her head on her father’s shoulder. He was twirling the free hair under the leather strap with his finger. When he noticed she was looking at them, he put a finger to his lips to keep her quite as he slid Hinata off his shoulder and onto the pillow.

Amongst fey, braiding hair was sacred and important. To let another touch your hair meant you were vulnerable to them. Braids braided by another meant love. To continue touching hair after a braid meant something deeper. She’d seen couples during balls tugging at their lover’s braids. She’d braid her own father’s hair, him doing the same for her but she’d only ever seen him play with hair like that on Hinata.

She wondered when he’d tell her just how much Hinata meant to him. If it meant she’d stay forever, she didn’t care. She wanted them happy.

[greywoodrpg]

𝕠𝕙 𝕣𝕚 𝕠𝕟

they appear as though they were born twenty-two years ago but are actually twenty-two, who is a faerie and lives in acacia heights as a barista at pouty bat face vamp cafe, and is in no fantasy. they look an awful lot like lee felix.

"in the height of summer i finally learned that within me there lay an invincible winter"

tw: abduction, child neglect, child abuse

They have few memories of their mother. They’d only been together for five years before they were taken away from her and placed into foster care. They’d never fully understood why until they became much older and would hear the whispers from caretakers explaining their situation to prospective families. A difficult past, they always said, but look how well they’re thriving now. They didn’t remember life with their mother as being difficult, barely remembered it at all, only a few sparse details stuck out like the color of her hair and a song she used to sing and the way she used to dance and the way she always craved sweet fruit. They didn’t remember the bad parts or the sad parts, didn’t remember her moods. 

In truth, it wasn’t entirely her fault that she wasn’t all good. Perhaps if circumstances had been kinder their future would look different. Perhaps if their mother hadn’t been lost to the fae realm one day in her youth, stolen away by some zealous fae who enjoyed tricks on unsuspecting humans a little too much, old grudges harbored for centuries and occasionally enacted out by luring humans into the fae realm where they became trapped and time flows differently. She’d thought it was only five minutes, could have sworn only a few minutes had gone by but when she was cast out from the fae realm it had been twenty years and she was no longer the young and pretty woman she had once been and no memory of what had transpired for the last twenty years and now a child, a newborn baby, only a few weeks old, crying in her arms and the most intense feeling of a loss. She desperately wanted to go back, she knew she must have been happy there, a place she could no longer recall but it must have had laughter and singing and dancing and sweet fruit but she couldn’t remember anymore, all her memories were slipping away. It made her cruel to those who were innocent, like her child, who only ever wanted to make her smile. 

They cried when they were taken away from her. She did not cry when she was taken from them. 

They were placed with a nice foster family but soon discovered that they were constantly falling ill and no amount of hospital visits ever explained the reason for it, every test and scan came up normal, so they determined the cause of their frequent illness to be psychological, a side effect of their difficult upbringing with their birth mother that they could hardly remember, so this became their truth despite it being far from it. Despite their medical issues which occasionally affected their stamina, they excelled as a competitive figure skater, having won a few local competitions before earning a sponsorship. They are a two-time Grand Prix Final champion, the 2017 World Junior champion and a three-time Australian national champion and medaled in three other World Championships.

It wasn’t until they turned twenty-one that the fae glamour placed on them to conceal what they were began to fade. It began so small that they hardly noticed it but every time they looked in the mirror they became less and less recognizable to themself. First, new freckles appeared on their face and body, in varying shades of deep reds and browns, even greens, and some even seemed to glimmer in the light. Then, two large bumps appeared on their back, they thought they were only very large pimples but no treatment or ointment made them go down. One day the skin split and out sprouted four large wings, reminiscent of a dragonfly. They did not know what was happening to them or how to hide the wings once they sprouted so they tied them down against their back and abdomen and wore large sweaters to conceal their bulk. It was at this time that they had to retire from figure skating, unable to perform in public due to the wings they were now attempting to conceal. They had been on track to compete in the future Winter Olympics, it broke their heart to give up this dream. 

In search for answers to the changes happening to their body and a chance to return to their figure skating career, they discovered the truth of witches and faeries, most notably that they were not at all a human like they had always believed. They were fae and through the use of multiple spells and rituals performed by a local coven of witches in Sydney, they discovered that they had blood relatives in a town located in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado who might be able to explain who they truly are.

“what power did they attain when settling in greywood?”

They are able to separate their shadow from themself, allowing their shadow self to travel around in a form of mental projection akin to astral projection. Their shadow self may be able to affect the physical plane, moving or swallowing objects into its shadow which they can summon from at will as a form of invisible storage. They may even be able to ‘steal’ the shadow of another, doing so could cause the being to be easily influenced by them and more inclined to follow their requests or commands. The one whose shadow was stolen still maintains their own free will and can refuse the request though it is difficult to do so, it feels like something precious to the individual was taken so would want to follow their requests in order to earn it back. They can only steal the shadow of one living being at a time, attempting to steal another shadow would release the first one. 

penned by... kim

[aestheticsbynoor]

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