#bc i can enjoy and have enjoyed a wide variety of garbage

[crehador]

brother crab's summer 2024 parting thoughts: a bunch of stuff

i've been falling behind on jotting down my thoughts this season and if i don't do it fast i am 100% going to forget what i watched lol so here's a bunch at once

tasuuketsu:

YEAH. GOOD. PLEASE. LET IT BE OVER

unfortunately this isn't actually over but you know what it is? bad. it's bad. worst death game series in A While. there are some... maybe? faintly compelling ideas here? but the execution is just a mess. the cast lured me in but i should have been more discerning umu

what's worrying to me is it feels like it could have ended in ep9 but then propelled itself straight into an incredibly unnecessary second arc (i mean in fall fairness the first nine episodes were also unnecessary) and there's still no episode count on anilist. i pretty much never drop anything but if this somehow ends up being two cour i might bounce

it's so so so rare for me to not have something good to say about a series but... yeah. not good

boku no tsuma wa kanjou ga nai:

if i turn my brain off this is a pretty cute, funny, and fun show! i had my reservations at first but after a few episodes wound up enjoying it quite a bit

if i think about it even a little it becomes completely frustrating to me that this show doesn't get deeper into the psychological and moral aspects that could have been explored here, which isn't fair to the show because that's not really what it set out to be

to its credit, it does kind of get into that sort of thing. not too deep, but in ways that were reasonably satisfying to me. i guess my mehness comes from the fact that this premise would have been more interesting to me if it had been played as a psychological/existential horror instead of a romcom, but again that is not the fault of the show itself, it can be whatever it wants to be

and seriously, decent romcom! mamoru is especially adorable. just leave your brain at the door

shikanoko nokonoko koshitantan:

i will admit that no episode of this was as gut-bustingly hilarious as the first episode to me, like it came out the gate strong and maybe floundered a bit along the way

but overall i still enjoyed it immensely! i'm a fan of surreal, absurdist humor, and while i wouldn't say this is one of the best in the genre (there are definitely better) it was a fun ride

the girls were great and i'm also a huge fan of a) narrators who get to be funny little assholes too and b) toriumi kousuke so the narrator here was a double win for me

[machinedramon]

putting monhun wilds thoughts here, I'm a grumpy old vet

tl;dr: I like the game but WHY IS MY FOOD BUFF FALLING OFF IN THE MIDDLE OF COMBAT I CHALLENGE WHOEVER'S IDEA THAT WAS TO A FIGHT

first and foremost, I am enjoying the game. I'm nearly done with the high rank story, and have been enjoying myself.

however

I hate the way low rank was handled. I hate the cutscene hell. I hate the guided tours. I hate how I don't really get an opportunity to fight a wide variety of monsters between the cut scenes.

it was incredibly frustrating going from one cut scene to one fight to one cut scene to one fight to two cut scenes to one fight the entire goddamn rank. it was hard to tell how far I was actually away from hitting high rank or how far along the story I was.

plus, it was SO frustratingly handholdy. I get that this is gonna be a lot of ppl's first or second monster hunters, but there are ways to make things accessible without sticking everyone in tutorial hell.

I also have MAJOR beef with the way food buffs work. while it is neat I can have a buff for multiple hunts bc the timer only ticks down in a quest, the fact that the food buff can fall off IN THE MIDDLE OF COMBAT is the worst joke of all time. like, who thought this was a good idea? I foresee myself getting my shit rocked unexpectedly bc the food buff fell off a split second before I get laser beamed or some shit.

the food buff should only fall off out of combat. if the game is smart enough to know when to play combat music, it's smart enough to know when combat begins and ends. or, it won't fall off when you're in a quest. it'll just sit at 0:00 until the quest finishes or you cart. it's not that hard. it is HOT fucking garbage.

almost all of the NPCs are hella unlikable. the only one I remotely like is Olivia, and only bc she's a respectful badass who can both hold her own and know when to step back. Fabius is also great. Everyone else can get dumped in a river, though.

to that end, I know ppl like Alma and Gemma but their designs bug the hell out of me bc they just feel too damn modern for monster hunter. like I begrudgingly accept Alma isn't so bad just bc of exposure and that she's not a damn nuisance like the handler in world, but her style is so MODERN that it kind of kills it for me.

the game's menu system is incredibly frustrating and unintuitive as well. having to go into "member list" in order to get to where u can put your friends' IDs into the search to find them to add them is so bonkers to me, and it just winds up being annoying. the placement of things is bizarre and the naming scheme is esoteric.

sure, you can add things to your favorites, but that's only if you even realize that you can edit the tabs at all. it also doesn't make any sense to me why you'd even use the "recently updated" or "recently viewed" tabs at all. They're just extra clutter and in the way.

all that said though, it's really nice that they have Gemma come to all of the base camps so you always have access to the smithy no matter what zone you're in. I also like the trading mechanic, which gives value to gathering non-crafting goods aside from guild points.

the supply ship having built weapons for sale is really nice, especially as something to spend guild points on, since those tend to rack up and be hard to spend.

jin dahaad is probably my favorite new monster, dude is fucking massive and really fucking cool (lmao). also my sweet baby boy gore magala got such an upgrade in his fight since 4U, it's nice to see him put up an actual fight. makes me very excited for the eventual shagaru magala fight.

horn is very satisfying to play in this gen, although I can feel myself lagging behind in terms of speed. I may wind up revisiting glaive again just bc im starting to struggle to keep up with the higher octane fights. it's always been my weakness once things start getting difficult. I like mobility too much, and horn is not mobile.

[gurugirl]

I can see what that anon is trying to say HOWEVER THEY DO NOT SPEAK FOR ALL TUMBLR PEOPLE!

I am unfortunately unable to afford your subscription to patreon so for me anything that you post on here for free is something I highly cherish! I genuinely love when plot and world building get introduced into stories! And while I’m aware on your patreon you probably have stories like that, I really gravitate towards stories with more depth and this is one of them!

Personally I will take anything I can get from you guru and I hope that it doesn’t discourage you from writing another series with this kind of depth for tumblr :(

And ngl i interpreted that ask as coming off a little condescending to people who read on here. There’s so much variety on here in general so I don’t know what that comment was made even if it came from a good place. Idk maybe I’m in my feels lol

Either way guru thank for posting on here, I go back and read your stories a lot!

I know you're absolutely right! I think the feedback I've gotten so far speaks for itself. The reblogs, the comments, the asks... It's all very positive and helpful (tho there were a couple of outliers with asks I that were not so nice and unhelpful to me in how I could make the story better so I deleted them). So I'm not deterred. Mostly I think (overall) this isn't everyone's cup of tea, not because it's too involved a story or anything like that.

And you're absolutely right about about there being such a wide variety of fic here on Tumblr and I hope they weren't being condescending in what they were saying (I didn't take it that way myself but I don't pick up cues all the time either)! I do think, though, that stories with deeper world building don't perform that well on Tumblr in general. I've read some absolute gems from amazing writers who simply don't get the attention they deserve. While there are plenty who enjoy thick plotted fics, most like something light and quick! Which is fine bc this is a place to just escape and have fun so there's not any part of me that thinks there's anything wrong with that (I include myself in that boat as well).

Take a look at the stories in my masterlist (or anyone's masterlist here on Tumblr) and you'll see a pattern of what gets the most notes. At least for the Harry fandom. THIS IS NOT AN INSULT TO ANYONE WHO PREFERS THE QUICK/LIGHT READS AT ALL (again, I include myself in this boat). It's just an observation of what happens here. I think a lot of people prefer to read "real" books when it comes to deeper storyline and that's fine! (real is in quotes bc I feel like a lot of fic writers here write way better than a lot of the published garbage I've read over the years)

I appreciate you babe! Thank you!

xoxo

[ziracona]

sometimes i forget i originally followed you because of dbd and then when i see posts from other fandoms i like i go "woah awesome! who's reblo-ZIRACONA?!" also, it makes me really want to get into fandoms im not a part of. specifically the fates games. idk who they are but some character designs are looking pretty damn good.

Hadskdnd sorry, yeah, I have always been a chronically terminally multifandom blog who is too tired to make sideblogs for specific interests. I didn’t even make one for doodles until last year and I still forget I have it. But I try to tag everything meticulously so anyone who follows me only for a specific fandom can easily blacklist my other content if they want. Glad you’ve been enjoying it! Fate is an extremely varied fandom to get into, because they swap out the whole creative team like pet work (or per arc in Fate Go woof) so sometimes you get great stuff and sometimes medium or varied and sometimes terrible. It’s more like...being into Star Wars, or DC or Marvel, than a usual blanket fandom name like being into Scream or Zelda. Wide variety for a huge amount of only kind of sequential or related content, and it’s impossible to think of everything as canon bc it conflicts with itself, so you pick what you like and ignore what you don’t. They aren’t even all the same like, major genre or vibe remotely. I /really/ like some of it though! If you’re interested, I’d recommend basically anyone stick their foot in the water by watching the Japanese dub of Unlimited Blade Works (the 2014 tv show, not the earlier one. That one is...garbage) w subs, because the English dub is terrible, and I have no idea how the other language dubs are, but the OG/Japanese dub is excellent. It’s two seasons and not super long and /very/ good. I can link you to my earlier breakdown of what fate you might like if you want, because it’s a spiel 🤣. But yeah, I rec the sub for UBW tv show (on Netflix right now) to anyone curious about Fate as a starting point. They release the bonus episode as the first for some reason? Prologue was bonus content, and should not be watched first because it assumes the viewer has previous Fate knowledge, and the pacing is super weird. Start with episode 2/ Winter Day, Fateful Night, which is meant to be the first episode, and then just watch Prologue whenever after you want. It is the same day as Winter Day, Fateful Night, but from Rin’s pov instead of the protags, so it’s really neat character stuff for her and Archer, but it’s confusing if you start there since it was not meant to be the first narrative beat.

A lot of the stuff I reblog is Fate Grand Order which is a phone game as varied in its singular self in quality as the whole fate franchise is bc they rotate writers every god damn second lol, but I really enjoy the quality arcs and skim what I don’t like and enjoy it. It’s way more hit and miss if people will like Grand Order, because it’s /super/ varied, but it has some amazing characters. Anyway I’m on a Fate kick so if you ever want to know about it and characters I am /happy/ to monologue. Thanks for the ask. : ) 💙

[lithy-the-invader]

Yes hello please tell me everything about your original idea 👀

I am very glad you gave me an excuse to just make an way to long post at 2am in the morning when I should have been asleep an hour ago <3

So the general premise is :

A far away alien race catches a transmission of a very corney and sappy scifi show from earth, think it is real and go off on an epic journey through space to find the utopic united planet system depiced in the show to join their rows while picking up other aliens along the way.

And now off to the meat of this post lol:

The story and setting bits:

So it starts off with three relatively young aliens from a planet that is shared by two diffrent races but also heavily plagued by racism and based on slave culture. The dominant race is very agile and over ground ground dweling bipedal spicies which is in general hermathroditic, they have the ability to see a wide variety of the light spectrum and therefore more colors and phenomena we can't see without instruments of sorts. Also they lay eggs and even tho they are omnivore they mainly live as vegitarian. They can see more colors and stuff BUT they are terrible at seeing in low light situations. The subjugated species is a mainly underground living species with for arms and four eyes. They are pretty strong, generally smaller than the other species, are more like us with their genders and are super good at seeing in very low light situations. But they mainly see the world in reds and greens AND are pure carnivores.

Anyways the three states I will call them catch the transaction while playing with some high tec equipment as children. The family of the two topsurface guy is rich bc of some space mining business and actualy bought a playmate and her parents so their kids could have company and also they can afford high tier education. So the three kids play with the stuff and accidentally catch tidbits of an age old transmission called "Captain Jack's search through the stars" and even tho they can't understand a single thing they get infatuated by seeing a crew of odly similar looking but still diffrent aliens working together on eye level. So they learn the language and try to understand more about the depicted utopian plane of existance only to decide that they want to leave their society to join the conglomeration of planets and come back as positive example to change the ways of their people. They do their best to study and learn things that could be usfull on a space travel, they even invent a lill upgrade for the already existing engines of the space ships of their people till they one day... Well steal a ship and start their journey.

Ofcourse their parents (both species) aren't exactly amused and are going to try to bring their children back (and accidentally do a lill something about the state of their society while doing so ) but yeah for the most part the three are now blasted off into space trying their best to find their way to earth while actualy pretending to be already part of the conglomeration they saw in the show.

They are going to be joined by two of the last members of diffrent races that basically killed themself by beeing stupid (the races not the last two survivors). Basically they gonna encounter a solar system with two plates that due to their elliptic trek around the star (screw physics who needs that anyways)change positions in regular intervals which made it possible to exchange chemicals between the two atmospheres which in turn was produced by the habitat species of the plant and needed by the other. They started a war bc of ethical differences and wups wouldn't you know it killing the other species slowly killed both and so the last one surviving is a midelaged scientist who more or less adopted a kid from the other species and does his best to keep them both alive. He will join the crew as doctor (there is a plot about why but damn I am already typing for an hour) and his lill buddy will stay a telepathic ( yes the lill dude is telepathic) secret for a while bc grumpy skelli raptor dad (insider name for him he is acrualy called G'nor) freas his new friends would understand what is going on. They get a really heart-warming story later on and the lill guy (they sre called Ift) is going to help the crew develop a universal translator so they don't have to rely on their telepathic skills as much.

Two other people that will join the crew are a headhunter named Corena and her adoptive father Terp a bar owner and tender. They formerly were tasked to bring the crew down bc they intruded the wrong sector of the galaxy but after getting into trouble as well for not killing some runnaway Idiots with basically no weapons on board or on their belt they both join them as Security officer and on board canteen/bar expert. They also accidentally bring a plague of feral potochillas on board which are quite adorable little creatures but also very miscifious.

Also on their journey to earth they gonna find a genetic reconstructed human who was 'build' by dna samples on some space garbage that somehow got to a planet with very intelligenent life forms that basically decided against space travel bc they saw other planets weren't ready yet and therefore got stuck on their home planet bored and curious taking every opportunity they can to get to know other life forms without leaving. She because she is a mix of multiple incomplete dna samples doesn't have eyes or a fully functioning nervous system (again I know that's not how genetics work but damn it this is fiction) so those are substituted with 'cyborg'-parts so she can live. She won't really join the crew, even tho she as a tec savvy person will sometimes help out with engineering but rather wants to be a passanger to get to earth and finally get to know her own race for the first time in her life.

I got a tone more but ehhh need some sleep now hahaha hope everything makes sens and I hope you enjoyed my brain salad.

[metinthehallway]

Gaia

Idek what this is, it’s just an idea that came to me upon looking at that one pic of harry sitting on the grass with a red bandanna around his neck and sunglasses on his head. Nothin too serious but I thought I’d post bc it’s 7 am and why not? 4.5k words of nonsense

In the flat green fields of Woodstock, New York, a young man sits with his knees pulled lazily to his chest. He’s found the perfect place to disappear, a tucked away corner in the shade of a large elm tree, a refuge from the constant commotion of the festival happening around him. It’s only the first day and he’s seen about 30 people carted away on makeshift stretchers either due to heat stroke, dehydration or too much LSD, about two thirds of them most likely suffering from all three. Scoping out the bodies swaying barefoot to the tune up of an electric guitar, he lets his mind wander. To this morning, finally dragging himself out of the body-sized indent in his bed. To last night, lying beneath the stars on the hood of his 1957 Cadillac, soft palms resting right on the hot metal as if it could burn the fingerprints right off his body. As if it could burn the existence right out of him.

To last month and the letter in the mail that changed the coursing river of his fate. The swiftness of the water sludged down to a motionless one, not a ripple to be seen for miles. He thought back to the letter, written in blue ink, written five states away in a room he’s never seen before. She sat in that unfamiliar room, on an unfamiliar chair and whipped out the most formal stationary she owned and proceeded to cross her T’s and dot her I’s and break his heart. She used to spray her letters with his favorite perfume of hers so that when they arrived they would carry a sweet reminder; that she remembered the small details about him, that she remembered enough of him to call it love.

When the mailman unceremoniously dropped the pile of bills and subscriptions and a single handwritten letter onto his entryway floor he didn’t know he would spend the rest of the day in his room, on his bed, staring at the blazing summer sun making its way across his wall. The letter, adorned with drying tear stains that marred the pretty blue cursive, was absent of any faint trace of lemon. It was more bitter than the words that played on repeat in his mind, a record player skipping on the ugliest part of the song and distorting itself into a continuous screech. Words saying over and over again, “it’s not you, it’s the distance”. As if she wasn’t the one who created the distance in the first place.

The unmistakable sound of a cheering crowd brought him back to the present. Harry felt the grass poking at the tender skin of his hands as he ran them back and forth lazily to the music emitting from the speakers. A band he didn’t know the name of just walked on stage and everyone went wild, tipping their beers and sloshing the beverage all over the ground below them. He frowned, looking across the littered lawn at the variety of trash blanketing the green earth. Piles of cups, cans and bottles discarded, cigarette butts and clipped joints burned amongst wrappers of fast food and flyers showcasing the lineups for the day. He thought it was such an unnecessary thing to do as the large dumpsters lining the perimeters stood empty and void of their purpose. It was unfair. And he suddenly felt a great need to do something about it. Anything to get his mind off her.

Harry stood to his feet and brushed off the back of his pants so they would be free of dirt, ignoring the inevitable grass stains on his dark grey corduroys, and fixed the red bandanna tied loosely around his collar. He took off in the direction of the largest trash pile. He hadn’t even wanted to be here. He loved music, sure, but he bought these tickets months ago with his friends with the money he saved from his shoveling side job during the winter when things were drastically different. He’s been mentally preparing himself for the amazing experience he would soon have at dear old Woodstock. He planned everything down to the minute but what he hadn’t planned on was his girlfriend of 2 years to up and cut all forms of ties she had with him, which nowadays were only came in a weekly letter due to her having moved miles away. He couldn’t even enjoy himself here, couldn’t allow the music to wash over him in that special healing way it did when he heard a spectacular guitar riff or felt the beat of the drums sync up with his pulse.

So he grabbed a leaf bag that lined one of the smaller garbages towards the center of the festival and walked around, picking up single pieces of wayward trash before moving to the more compact piles. He didn’t realize how far he’d walked until his bag was filled to the brim with a plethora of waste and his arms started to ache in protest. Half carrying and half dragging the bag, he headed over to the industrial dumpsters and wrangled the ballooned bag over the top of the container. A hot and soupy liquid leaked onto his chest in the process and he recoiled, dropping half of the bags contents back on the ground. He groaned and with a dejected sigh and began to pick it all up again. When he straightened at the waist, he felt a pair of eyes boring holes into his back. He shrugged off the feeling as there were obviously a lot of eyes in the vicinity today and successfully got rid of the garbage once and for all.

Turning around, Harry made eye contact with a girl about 100 feet away. She looked to be around his age, maybe younger, holding a trash picker in one hand and a nearly full black garbage bag in the other. In a quick once over he notices long black hair trailing onto the ruffled shoulders of a white floral blouse that ended at the waistband of dark brown bell bottoms, giving way to thickly strapped sandals peeking underneath the fabric. She gives him a wide smile and throws up a peace sign, her chubby fingers clad with an assortment of rings on each one. He thought it must be difficult to use the picker with the clunky bands of metal hitting the switch every other second to open up the claws at the end when they didn’t need to be opened up. He tilts his head slightly to the side and furrowing his brows he lets a small, tight smile take over his face. She must’ve thought he was a fellow advocate for Mother Earth like her. He wasn’t really. He just needed something to do.

Averting her gaze, he finds his way through the disjointed crowds in search of his friends, Eric and Johnny. He was hoping he could see Eric’s circular afro bopping above the sea of bouncing heads or Johnny’s tremendously long arms flailing out of rhythm to the heavy music sounding out through the trees. He was ready to go and they had all taken Harry’s car to Woodstock. Fumbling with his keys, he saw a familiar body going hard in the middle of a mosh pit, semi greasy pieces of hair flying about Johnny’s face as his bony elbows found a different target to impale every two seconds. Taking a deep breath and squaring his shoulders, Harry braved the pit. His feet were being crushed every time he took a step and he stopped just outside of the core of the mosh, hanging low in the outer edge. He called out his friends name.

“Johnny! Johnny Menzel!” Harry repeated his name until the letters no longer made sense and his name no longer sounded like a word. Johnny was too caught up in the music. Harry wishes he could throw away his brain, wishes he could actually enjoy himself this weekend but alas. Here he was, wanting to go home to sulk in his bed after only three hours at the festival. They were supposed to go all night, him and his friends, even after the acts had finished their gigs. He told them he would stay for them because they knew he was going through the ringer at the moment and he wanted to be that reliable Harry he was, not this flakey, emotional Harry. But here he was, going back on his word. Harry traveled further into the dense crowd of flying limbs and swirling hair and tugged on Johnny’s shoulder, turning him around to face him.

“Harry! Fancy seeing you here dude,” Johnny exclaimed, brushing a sweaty strand of dirt colored hair out of his eyes in order to see his friend. Red rimmed the translucent blue irises, eyelids drooping heavily over them as a cheesy grin found its way onto his face. Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Johnny was having fun, everyone around him was having fun. So why couldn’t he? Johnny had four months of rent to worry about that was due in two days but here he was, head banging to some obscure band amidst total strangers with their own problems. Maybe that was the way to let forget about it; smoke a whole lot of weed and let your body do all the thinking. Harry felt he couldn’t even do that, though. He just wanted to go home.

One look at Harry’s face and Johnny could tell what he was thinking. Shaking his head quickly, he backed away from Harry with his palms up and started to walk over to the canteen where they were selling bottled water for outrageous prices. Harry followed him and watched as he whistled and started picking at the bush next to the table, seemingly interested in its foliage. Harry knew what he was doing, having seen this same scene play out hundreds of times. The person in the chair counting money didn’t notice when Johnny swiped a cold bottle from the row and strutted away, Harry scoffing and trailing behind.

“Listen,” Harry says, catching up to Johnny. “I’ll stay the whole day tomorrow, I promise. I just can’t today. It’s too hot and...loud,” Harry finished, grasping for any excuse and coming up short. Of course it’s loud and sweaty. They’re at a music festival. In the middle of August.

Johnny could hear the absolute bullshit in his words and whirled around, placing a cold and condensated hand on Harry’s shoulder, chugging half of the water in one gulp before opening his mouth. “Yeah, because that’s totally the reason you want to leave before Janis Joplin comes on stage. You know, the quote unquote love of your short lived life? The woman you’ve obsessed over since you knew what a boner was?” Harry smacked Johnny’s hand off his shoulder, suppressing an intense blush before groaning. He should know by now to never tell his friends anything about himself.

“Man, I told you that in confidence,” Harry whines.

“You were drunk off your ass and announced that Janis Joplin gave you musical hard ons to a garage full of people. Don’t act all scandalized. You do it to yourself,” Johnny quips. “Anyway,” he continues animatedly. “Eric and I told you we were going to drag you out of that house if it was the last thing we did. And we did it. You can’t stay in that musty room anymore. I get that you’re hurt, man, I really do,” Harry crosses his arms at this statement but that doesn’t deter Johnny. “But we’ve been talking about this forever! I should’ve spent most of this money on rent but here I am, getting paid in experience. This is too groovy man, and you’re making it seem like a chore,” Johnny ends his miniature rant with a pouty bottom lip and what seems like a stab at a comforting voice but all it sounds like to Harry is pitying.

“I’m going home,” Harry announces, choosing to ignore the well meaning monologue. He jingles his keys in front of Johnny’s face, the 8 ball accesory almost making contact with his aquiline nose.”With or without you guys.” Johnny rears his head back.

“Looks like it’s without then. I’m going to go find Eric. And together we will find a ride. If not, we’ll just sleep on a bench or something. Maybe even on the wet grass,” he says, letting out an exaggerated gasp. “It’s all about the experience,” Johnny says, before turning on his heel in search of the third staple friend in their group. Harry knows he shouldn’t feel betrayed by them. It would be unfair with all the moping they’ve put up with and all the times they smoked a bowl on Eric’s roof and Harry talked for hours and hours about her. Her pointy ears, her dainty wrists, her brown eyes he wanted to sow seeds in, watch flowers grow out of. Yeah, he was high. He was also sad. And they knew it. They sat there and let him talk for as long as he wanted to, even until the sun came up. They were good friends, he reminded himself on the way to his car. They just wanted to have fun.

Shoving his key into the ignition, he felt the Cadillac roar to life. He spent a full year working on this car, restoring it to its former glory. He loved his baby, even gave her a name: Candace. It wasn’t too creative but it was something to call his own. Putting his car into reverse and letting his foot off the break, he slowly rolled backwards out of his hazardous parking space, in his own little world. He regretted being to lazy to check his blindspot when he heard a dull thud and a grunt, the sound of numerous object falling to the ground. Harry’s eyes widened as he put the car in park, scrambling for the door handle. He missed the lock three times before successfully disarming it and opening the door. He hesitantly made his way to the back of Candace, heart racing. He just hit someone.

In the two seconds it took to get to the bumper, Harry’s thought process went something like this; Oh my god. I just hit someone with my car. I’m in so much shit. Deep shit. Center of the Earth shit. They’ll sue me. Wait, what if they’re can’t sue me because they’re dead? I wasn’t going that fast, was I? What if they hit their head on Candace on the way down to their demise? What if there’s blood? I can’t handle blood! Oh my god, I’m going the throw up ohmygodohmygodohmygod.

Rounding the back of the car (and discretely flicking his gaze to the headlight for any sign of damage), he sees a familiar pair of thick and strappy sandals and his heart drops even more. It was Hippie Girl he just mowed over with his car. He stands there, frozen as she begins to stir, loud groans escaping her lips. She tries to sit up and Harry finally moves, rushing over and dropping to his knees, making sure to cradle her head so she doesn’t hurt anything else.

Upon opening her eyes, his breath catches. They’re the deepest shade of brown he’s ever seen and it chills him to the bone. It’s an unsettling stare. Various emotions pass over her face like clouds in the sky ranging from shock, confusion, pain and then finally, anger. She winces and takes a stuttered breath, opening up her deeply bowed mouth.

“What the hell just happened,” she questions angrily. Her thick brows furrow and dimple her forehead in the process. She turns her dark eyes left and right as if to gather her bearings before connecting with his, a recognizance sparking to life behind them like a flame. He gulps, praying silently for the Earth to swallow him up.

“Well,” Harry drawls out, unsure of how to say it. “I kind of backed into you with Candace. But not on purpose! I was...changing the radio station,” he lies, not wanting to seem like a wack job that doesn’t deserve his license. “I am so, so, so, so, so incredibly, terribly sorry. Here let me help you.”

With one hand on her back and the other wrapped around her wrist, he gently helps her up. As soon as she rises to her feet, she swats his hands away. Grimacing, she rotates her neck side to side and finds that it’s only a bit sore and still capable of full motion. Testing out the rest of her body, she stretches out her limbs, flinching slightly when she takes a step forward. Lifting her shirt to expose her hip where Harry assumes he hit with his car, he sees the start of a nasty bruise spreading into the waist of her dark brown jeans the same time she does. Lifting her head, he sees her face turn red with anger. A sharp inhale leaves both of their mouths. Uh oh, Harry thinks to himself. I’m definitely getting sued.

The Hippie Girl starts mumbling under her breath.

“Uh, what are you doing?” Harry asks uneasily. He really didn’t feel like getting cursed by your run of the mill Woodstock Witch, no matter how much he deserved it. She ignores him and  turns her focus to the trash bag lying half empty in the dirt, its contents splayed all around them, many having rolled under nearby cars. She closes her eyes in defeat. Harry, feeling awful, hurriedly bends down to pick up all the garbage he can fit into his arms, not caring this time around if any mysterious liquid drips onto him.

Stuffing the armful of random waste into the bag at her feet, he hears what she’s saying. He stays crouched, cocking his head. She’s not saying any words, just counting. The numbers drop down from one hundred in threes, it seems. He pauses to listens. 97, 94, 91, 88, 85, 82…The numbers stop suddenly at 79 and he looks up to see her looking at him, almost black eyes narrowed. He straightens up quickly, clearing his throat. “Listen,” he says frantically. “You have to understand how sorry I am. I’m not usually the type of guy who goes around running over girls with his car.”

“I would hope not,” she shoots back. “You’re lucky I have somewhere to be or else I would really be laying into you, dude. Changing radio stations? Really? Are you that shitty of a driver?” She puts her hands on her fleshy hips, forgetting about the bruise and cursing quietly. “Whatever,” she says softly, almost to herself, diverting her gaze to the sad looking trash bag. “I have somewhere to be.”

Reaching down to get a firm grip on the bag, Harry stops her. He feels like the worst person in the world. He can’t let her leave like this.

He could’ve hurt her way worse than a bruise. And he already felt horrible about the bruise, sucking in his own breath like he was the one who got hit when he saw it. Taking the bag from her, his hands dwarfing her own ring covered ones, he jogs over to the nearest dumpster before she can protest and throws it in. Returning to her, he holds up his hands in some type of truce.

“Where are you going? Maybe you could let me take you there. It’s the least I can do. And if you’re in such a hurry, driving would get you to wherever you need to go way faster than your tiny feet could. Not that there’s anything wrong with tiny feet,” he hurries out. “Just can’t cover as much ground as my Candace,” he finishes with a proud smile and a knuckle rapping twice on the trunk.

“As if I’m sitting in the same car that ran me over. A car that you named Candace. No chance buddy,” she says, already twisting her body to physically leave the conversation. Harry inwardly groans. She seemed more than capable of doing things on her own and she definitely didn’t want Harry’s company but he felt like he owed her. Scratch that. He didn’t just feel like he owed her: he absolutely knew that he did. He hit her with his car!

He watches her retreating figure for a full minute before deciding to catch up to her. If she didn’t accept his ride, he would at least see her arrive to her destination safely.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she asks, side eyeing his profile. She’s made it all the way to the entrance of the festival full of congested cars. He shrugs his shoulder, remaining silent as they walk, not quite together, but not quite like strangers.

She weaves her way in between the vehicles, a bit more wary now that she knows what it’s like to be rammed into by one of them. He walks behind her, observing her straight posture and confident walk silhouetted by the setting sun. The dying star turned the frizzy halo around the crown of her head an orange tint and made her swinging hands glint brightly, courtesy of the multiple rings that called her fingers home. Her blouse was falling off one shoulder, sporting a couple dirt stains on the white fabric from her fall. Another thing he was sorry about. His eyes wander down to the swell of her backside against the tightness of her bell bottoms. He almost doesn’t notice she’s stopped walking and thankfully he does in time, or else he would’ve ran into her. That would’ve been bad. That would have brought on an onslaught of, “You can’t drive AND you can’t walk? How did you even get this far in life being a total safety hazard?”

Harry can just hear it now.

She’s stopped in her tracks because a small fender bender blocks her path. She huffs and turns around not knowing how close Harry is, running right into his chest and bouncing back. “Woah there,” he says, putting both hands on her upper arms to steady her.

She shrugs him off and lets her feet carry her to the left, through a break in bumper to bumper traffic. Harry follows, of course. He thinks just a bit more than normal before opening his mouth. “You think they’d see the traffic and the sun setting and turn around to go home, wouldn’t you? Like, day one’s almost over, the acts are wrapping up their sets,” he says matter-of-factly. She doesn’t say anything, just nods her head infinitesimally in grudging agreement. Harry takes this as a good sign. She’s no longer biting at his head.

“So,” he starts off. “What’s your name? I’m Harry. Harry Styles. And, again, I’m so sorry I hit you with my car.” He finds himself by her side, walking faster to keep up. Maybe her tiny feet aren’t so ineffectual, he thinks with a huff. She doesn’t seem to be too eager to answer him so he presses further.

“What are you doing here anyway? At Woodstock I mean. You don’t look like you were enjoying the music so I’m just curious as to why someone spends their Friday afternoon picking up other people’s messes. Seems kinda pointless if you ask me,” he says, rubbing a large hand around the nape of his neck. This garners a reaction from her and she looks up at him, an incredulous look on her otherwise serene face.

“My name is Cynthia,” she begins, voice gaining more traction as she goes on. “And it’s a good thing no one asked you then. I’m here because a bunch of environmentally challenged idiots get together and fry their brains to the sound of metal screeching on metal and create more litter than what’s found in a town dump. I’m here because no one but me seems to care about the environment. Do you know how much waste this godforsaken festival generates? And do you know how often they let it be stampeded into the Earth? They don’t clean this shit up, man,” she swears and breathes in, continuing her spiel. “I mean I thought you cared. Do you? Or is your favorite pastime just taking out random pedestrians with your obnoxiously red car like it’s a bowling ball and we’re the pins?” She finishes her last sentence with a snark.

Harry raises his eyebrows in surprise, halting mid step. Whatever he says is the wrong thing, so he just purses his lips and stares straight ahead. If I just stayed with Johnny and Eric, I wouldn’t be stuck with this self righteous hippie, he thinks. He knows she has every right to be angry but he’s been in too bad of a mood to even begin sympathizing. Everything feels like a direct attack to him at the moment.

Mentally sighing, he falls back in step with Cynthia, feeling bound to her at least until she knows she’s safe. She may be mean and sarcastic and all the synonyms of angry in one person, but after she’s arrived where she needs to go, Harry will never have to see her again. This thought gives him a bit of relief. She really is draining on his energy and he feels the need to pack a bowl just being around her.

They’ve been walking in uncomfortable silence for a mile now and she stopped protesting his presence about half a mile ago. The sky eventually turned dark and the stars have come out from behind their cloudy curtains when they finally approach a small neighborhood full of neatly stacked white houses and manicured lawns, most of which are full of blooming yellow black eyed susans and crisp white hydrangeas. She walks a bit quicker, a skip in her step as she nears a white blocked house with pale yellow window shutters and the number 19 in gold lettering on the front door. As she hops up the steps, her bell bottoms swish against the ground.

She turns around. Narrowing her dark eyes yet again, she bites out a curt, “thank you”. Harry’s about to smile but before he does she follows up with a, “thank you, really. For hitting me with Candace. That’s a hardcore stripper name, you know,” she blows a piece of thick onyx hair out of her face. “I didn’t need you to walk me home. Really. So I’m not going to give you a heartfelt thank you. You hit me with your car,” she says pointedly. She can’t believe she ended up here at the end of another seemingly routine day, standing on her front porch and looking into eyes so green it feels like she’s staring at a motionless forest, waiting for the trees to move.

“Have a wonderful night, Henry.”

And with that, Cynthia closes her front door with a flourish and in the quiet night, Harry can hear the lock click shut. “It’s Harry,” he says out loud to no one but himself.

“Fucking Cynthia,” he grumbles before twisting on his heel so fast it almost creates smoke, briskly walking down the single road in the complex back to Woodstock. He hears a flutter in the bush to his right and the brisk pace turns into a jog.

“Fucking Cynthia,” he repeats, shaking his head.

[sternbilder]

the games i played to completion in 2017, ranked in order of how much i liked them

mostly for my own reference and i’m gonna try to keep this out of the tags but read on if you want to read about me getting super excited about video games i guess

p/ersona 5 - look i know this wasn’t a perfect game like there are Several Large Complaints i would like to file regarding plot and pacing and premise even but this was. still my favorite game of 2017 and just such an enjoyable 120 hours to have spent holy fuck?? like everyone’s always talking about how stylish p5 is and goddamn are they right like it’s such a gorgeous game!! the loving detail they put into every aspect of the UI, the beautiful character sprites, that effortlessly cool contemporary tokyo vibe that oozes into every aspect of the game!! and the gameplay (which i played on normal difficulty, being a series beginner) was both challenging and rewarding and both the dungeons and the school life segments (considering the sheer variety of Shit You Could Do not to mention all the charming-ass characters with compelling sideplots) were just. an absolute treat?? plus the soundtrack to this game was just killer so there’s also that

n/ier: automata - SPEAKING OF GAMES WITH GR8 SOUNDTRACKS. i think this game’s soundtrack probably ranks up there with my favorite video game OSTs of ALL TIME FOREVER like seriously. it is so so good. anyway friends it took me four (4) days to beat this game and another full 24 hours just to process this game like. y’all know i’m always a slut for sad robots and BOY HOWDY did this game have that thing. not only is the game itself gorgeous but i’m pretty much in love with the Entire cast (but especially 9S, who is my special son) and i’m crying,, eternally,, about the c/d/e routes and even though it probably wasn’t the Most impressive and best written game Ever it had a lot of good twists and revelations and a real sense of weight and suspense esp. in the later playthroughs which i am ALL ABOUT. not being much of an action RPG person i never really fell in love w/ the combat but it was fun enough even though it got kind of repetitive and too hack-and-slashy for my taste after a while?? actually fuck the bullet hell hacking minigame tho if i’m gonna be real

f/ire emblem fates (birthright, conquest, and revelation) - listen i know this game was like objectively garbage but i’m still trying to justify having spent a literal 1/3 of my year playing it so bear with me for just 2 hot seconds. first of all hi yes there’s a running theme here bc i dig the shit out of fe14′s OST?? also even though the plot was kind of a mess the characters and supports still grew on me a lot after a while and actually the gameplay was really fun?? maybe it’s bc i played it on hard/classic (as opposed to fea which i played on normal/casual) but i really enjoyed the combat a lot more in these games than fea--actually i do think there’s actually a lot of actual improvements here, especially with all the new classes, the improved dual guard/dual strike rules, and no fucking weapon durability, etc. as well as a lot of the more unusual victory conditions (in conquest and revelation, not so much in birthright) like i feel like there were a lot of highlights and i genuinely enjoyed the battles in fe14 a lot and sure the whole waifu nintendogs concept is creepy as hell and babyrealm is a fucking joke but i still thought this was a Pretty good or at least enjoyable game so you can fight me on that front

d/anganronpa v3 - ok let me me the first to admit that i honestly?? don’t really like dr as a franchise very much and the only real reason i got into it in the first place is to fill the ace attorney-shaped hole in my heart in between releases thereof (as well as superficial similarities to other games i like, like ze) and while i still enjoy the gameplay and investigating and mystery-solving parts of it and those aspects i still find very enjoyable and well-written a lot of the rest of the games really kind of fall flat for me?? like tbh i’m not a huge fan of the art style, the sense of humor and localization don’t really do it for me, the characters are cute but kind of over-the-top and not super relatable to me personally, and honestly the whole ~evil mastermind did it for the lulz~ trope being played super straight disappointed me a lot about the first game especially?? that being said i know this is a bit of a base breaker but i actually really liked the direction that sdr2 took with its ending and it made me hopeful for the sequel, which brings me to drv3 which surprised me in a lot of pleasant ways?? like personally i think it’s the best dr yet and while i can see why people would be disappointed with the ending and feel like it may be a cop-out i think it was still clever enough that i appreciate it for trying?? or maybe it’s just bc i didn’t like the original so much and the departure from that felt like kind of a breath of relief but that’s just me idk

f/inal fantasy x - guess who was late to the party and played her first final fantasy in this year of the lord 2017!!! it’s me!!! honestly i was expecting more from this game overall in terms of plot just because it’s such a Classic and all but fwiw i still liked it?? i didn’t super love any of the main characters and the story was a little predictable and even though i played the remaster it’s still an obviously dated game but NEVERTHELESS it was still just a solid RPG and i genuinely enjoyed playing it!! i should play the sequel sometime but. i’ll get to it after i clear out this massive backlog i have currently as we speak sobs

the witness - i don’t talk about this game enough bc honestly it isn’t the kind of game that can have a real fanbase (no real characters or plot, etc.) but i still enjoyed the fuck out of this, holy hell. i mean it’s i guess kind of an open-world exploration-slash-puzzle concept which sounds kind of boring but the world is gorgeous and the way the game presents these puzzles for you to solve and teaches you the rules in a way that’s entirely self-explanatory and intuitive but still super difficult and ultimately rewarding is just so gratifying and i was just so so impressed at how creative they got with these puzzle designs and the way the world seems to unfold itself the more you unlock its secrets?? anyway i know this is near the bottom bc i do love me a video game story and this particular game doesn’t have that but PLAY THIS GAME IF YOU LIKE PUZZLES IT IS JUST SO COOL AND FUN AND GOOD

the n/onary games (999 only) - this is a replay but still worth mentioning i think?? obviously 999 is one of my favorite games of all time and i was super pumped about the remake and while i didn’t quite enjoy it as much as the very first time i played 999 on my DS it was still a good game!! tbh i mostly just played this game for the voice acting which i was pretty impressed with, and also i got to pick up a lot of the bilingual bonuses i obviously missed while playing my localized copy of the original game which was cool!! i wasn’t as impressed with the updated sprites unfortunately, i felt like their quality was inconsistent and some of them looked like kind of a rush job to me but ymmv i guess?? i think overall i still prefer the DS version even with improvements like the flow chart in the newer version, mostly because 1. i actually appreciated having to literally replay parts of the game in the former bc i feel like it’s more in the spirit of the game if you know what i mean, and 2. some details near the ending that they changed, which you definitely know what i mean if you played the game. still, i appreciate that it’s made the game more widely accessible and if you haven’t played the game pls go play this game i’m literally begging u,,

u/mineko (question arcs only) - ok the only reason i have this 8th on this list is just bc i haven’t technically finished it yet and BOY am i the kind of person who lives entirely for that sweet sweet payoff but there really isn’t THAT much i can say?? like thanks to the ps3 patch the art is pretty decent i guess?? i’m liking all the characters so far?? there’s a whole lot of Bullshit that doesn’t make any sense at this point but i’ve been promised metagame and mindfuck in due time so i guess i’ll just have to see?? yeah this is more of a tbd review than anything i don’t really know what to say besides i’m just so eager to play the other half of this game and get the answers to all these gotdamn MYSTERIES already

braid - i mostly just played this bc i knew it was made by the same person?? studio?? as the witness and while i liked braid and i really enjoyed the puzzles it was just too short for it to have really made an impression on me?? like i know that there is a story and a Twist but it didn’t really do much for me with how abstract it was and just in terms of sheer volume of content it doesn’t quite compare to the other games on this list like don’t get me wrong it was still good!! and if you need a way to kill an afternoon i still highly recommend it but it just wasn’t as memorable to me as p5 or nier was unfort