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blushing-starker · 4 years

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Anon asked for alpha Peter and omega Tony for a baby announcement. Thank you to the wonderful @vaguekiwi for motivating me and sharing her thoughts on the story. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, anon.

"Tony, Tony? Are you up? It's 7:30am already, you have a meeting with Miss Potts in forty minutes. Tony?"

Soft hands curl into already silver hair, scratching at the strands in an attempt to wake him up gently. Butterfly kisses on a cold nape, a ridiculously hot nose nuzzling everywhere. Peter knows scenting the billionaire is basically the only way one can ensure a calm morning.

Not today. And not for the next few months either.

He loves his husband, appreciates the nearly romantic demeanor, he does. But "unless you have a cup of coffee for me, there is no way in hell i am gonna leave this bed. your child has kept me up with nausea the entire night. I wanna hurl my guts out more than that time Rhodes found Dad's liquor cabinet. please, tell me you have coffee."

"..." Tony is severely displeased by the fact he can read Peter like a book even with half his mind shut off because fine, he's right and dammit all.

"I want that weird drink you make. The one with milk, cinnamon and chunks of brownie. And French toast with waffles. No jam, not too much butter, as much sugar as possible. Now, go before I scream at you for having the only dick that could get a hormone fucked forty something omega pregnant. "

The kid scrambles from bed, practically face plants with all the covers tangling long legs and yup, this is the person that the universe designated as his soulmate. Because Tony Stark can never have a partner with a reasonable, normal amount of enthusiasm, stamina and a sense of balance.

That sounds like he's ungrateful, he's not. But it turns out being three months pregnant gives him plenty of perspective to peer at life in a whole new way that does not include caffeine, alcohol or sex.

Would he kill and die for this amazing human being that makes Tony's heart race no matter the day, that inspires him to be a better version of himself? Yes, no questions asked. No hesitation and no regret.

Would he clobber Peter for doing the impossible and technically causing Tony incredible discomfort on a daily basis thanks to what his doctors can only assume is a superhuman baby he already loves and adores more than life itself? Also yes.

Things aren't mutually exclusive in this household.

Pep, bless her, has yet to find out about their future mini Parker so there's been no respite on the whole 'running a multi billion dollar industry ' thing. And yeah, while it's not exactly easy, he can focus on other things and not fall into a panicky state of mind — because him? A father? Of a super baby? Tony Stark, infamous playboy with a hedonistic streak, a dad?

Just thinking along those lines makes shame and self doubt slither over a metallic plate. Working, dealing with innovative scientists, crafting the new world of tomorrow, guaranteeing the safety of their planet, shapeshifting into a role model, a mentor (for the interns and school kids he visits, not Peter, of course, thank God they left that dynamic ages ago), loyal friend, reluctant errand boy (fuck the assholes in charge of the Accords), great husband, good man, it all distracts a fearful child from thinking, what if I turn into Howard?

"I couldn't find brownies, so cookies it is! Aunt May had a few boxes sent in when I told her work was keeping you on your feet all the time. Said it'd be a good idea to snack along the day in case you—" Peter freezes, tenses with a not-so-narrow back held ramrod straight. Oh, his husband brought him breakfast in bed.

How could he ever think to clobber such a nice, wonderful—

"Your scent is odd."

"Yeah, well fuck you too then."

Five seconds of silence.

"I'm bringing you one cup of coffee and the hormone pills."

" Yup, that's a great idea. "

---------------------------

Tony’s mumbo jumbo with self loathing is firmly put on the back burner after inhaling a delicious breakfast and chugging that one glorious cup of coffee. Until they go to the bathroom and he sees himself in the mirror.

"We gotta tell them."

"You said you wanted to wait a while before saying anything."

Peter strips, ducks into the warm shower, lets out a pleased little sigh and Tony wants to rip his fingernails off. Is it bad, having sex while pregnant? No! The doctors, every single one of them, said it's a perfectly normal thing to do. It'd be bad if they didn't have sex because Tony, thanks to his crazy hormone production, needs the extra attention for his body to understand this is a happy process that shouldn't include sad pheromones or stressed out moments. Will Peter put him out of his misery and allow a quickie in the mornings? No.

"Take more than five minutes in that shower and I'm joining you."

Listen, he grew up in the 80's and 90's, Tony wasn't immune to peer pressure. Did he cave and eventually do so many squat competitions with Rhodey his butt turned into a duck's butt? There's no evidence, he's made sure, but yes. And Starks have always turned out to be beautiful, doesn't matter your gender or age. Finding a companion for the night has never been a problem for anyone in his family tree.

That, and his work as Iron Man has kept him — well, not ripped like Cap, certainly not as lean and (God help him) athletic as Peter, but fit. Sturdy. Firm. Solid. (Peter once muttered the words 'daddy-like' in regards to his body and he nearly choked on water.)

The passage of time has made him a bit slower, dusted once black hair with, as his husband says, stardust and the corners of his eyes now show how much time Tony spends laughing or frowning. All in all, he looks fucking spectacular for his age and experience as a villain-punching-bag. Thing is, he has a belly. A bump. A curve where it was once, well. Less curvy. Is it a problem for Peter? Nope, as acknowledged every time his alpha tackles him if he so much as looks oddly in the mirror. Is it a problem for him? He'll get back to you on that.

The point is, there's a belly when just a few months ago there wasn't such a pronounced belly. It's great, of course. Proof their child is growing steadily and Tony's body is adjusting to it accordingly. A small part of him, the omega part he actually lets live, is fascinated and proud. He's doing that, Tony's the one growing a human being, creating life out of nothing in his own body. That child, although not the only physical embodiment of their relationship, is a result of his love for Peter. Of how much his husband loves him. They love each other so much they're gonna start another family together. That chokes him up a bit, reminds him how grateful he is for Peter and for the other Avengers. If they hadn't been so accepting of his status, would he have ever considered going through with this?

Anyway, he's not gonna start sobbing this early in the morning when there's no alcohol involved. It's fantastic seeing his child develop, good, warm and fuzzy feelings, yada yada yada, it's also not very easy to hide. And Tony...Tony wanted to hide it from his family because.

Because Peter hasn't been the only partner in all his life that has wondered about a future with a white picket fence. Because when he was Peter's age, in his goddamn prime, a doctor, ten doctors, all the doctors told him the same thing, smashed his dream into a million pieces. Tony was nearly infertile. There was a one in a million chances of him getting pregnant. If he did, they couldn't be sure his body would be able to maintain two hearts. And then the cave happened.

So yeah. It happened to his cousins, his aunt, a few uncles, his grandmother. Tony would do a baby announcement, but only the second that baby was outside of him and safely in his arms. Now there are still several months left and nothing certain. But time is a bitch and beginning to show the world, maybe those extra pounds aren't from eating the Parker's amazing breakfasts.

"Tony, you know I don't wanna risk-" Losing control of my strength. They've been together long enough that Tony can see quite clearly between the lines.

"Hurting us, yeah, I know, I understand. I'm getting too wide, we're gonna have to tell them or Natasha will take one look at me and whoops, impromptu announcement from someone else. It's a miracle she was out on those missions when we found out." Thank God for renegade troops.

He's still looking at himself in the mirror when Peter comes out, barely dries up and slides behind him. His husband is slightly taller now, can easily hook a curved jaw on Tony's shoulder to peer at the image they make. Contrasts, he supposes, have always enthralled Tony. The study of light and shadow. Variations of the same basic components. Where his body is aging, showing signs of wear and tear, Peter's is evolving into something beautiful, majestic. Silver hair, chestnut brown. Scarred canvas, silky smooth and sunkissed skin. Soft, fragile curves, chiseled lines that deserve to be revered more than Michelangelo’s David. But their eyes, their eyes are equally tired.

“We can tell them if you want, have dinner together and just, just say it. Like that -”

“No. It's our kid, we're not gonna act like it's ripping off a band aid. This is special, unique. Dinner is good. Fantastic, actually. Wait for dessert, and announce it. “ Peter comes ever closer, wraps arms that could carry the world around him and how did he get so lucky?

They've lied to each other in the past. Mostly in the beginning, when they were too worried about hurting their new relationship to show their desires and wants. Tony didn't explain the Training Wheels Protocol. Peter tried to fight high level crime on his own. Things got hard to understand, like being in the right place at the wrong time. Puzzle pieces that didn't quite fit together, an extra inch of space prohibiting them from seeing all the possibilities that the truth could bring. They were walking the same path, just in parallel lines that never crossed.

But then he'd been rejected, thrown away and able to realize how fucking stupid it was to let Peter go when being near the kid, it felt like finally breathing after residing in the deep end of a pool for a thousand years. So Tony ran after him one day, crashed into his AP English class, half assed an excuse for the baffled teacher, yanked Peter out of the room and proceeded to have the best make out session of his life with his back against the kid's locker. And now they don't lie, ever.

Which is why it's so hard to accept Peter's, “You're beautiful, Tony. The handsomest man I've ever seen in my life. I loved you before, I love you now, I'll love you forever, Anthony Stark. You carrying our kid doesn't change that, how could it, Tony? It's going to be ok. The three of us will be ok and I won't stop thanking whoever decided I'd get to marry my wet dream.”

Scorching kisses trace his pulse point slowly, sharp nails start dragging against a too thin shirt, but it's the fact that Peter hasn't looked away from him, is confidently holding his gaze through the glass, that makes Tony shudder and stop breathing.

The bathroom is flooded with pheromones, cinnamon and honey assaulting an unprepared billionaire, and he'll die if they stay like this, can't function properly, brain switching gears, trying valiantly to remember baseball stats, past wounds, May's cooking because Peter's gonna wreck his sanity if those hands keep winding down, if those lips don't stop unraveling him like a Christmas present.

“If I'd known you'd get this handsy and romantic, I would have complained about how I look earlier." It's a gasp, half murmur, half plea as Peter grins at him shamelessly. “I know it's rude and wrong and sexist, but I like comforting my omega, acting like a stereotypical alpha. Makes me feel like I'm doing my job of making you happy. “

He quirks an eyebrow, is glad Peter can be comfortable enough to take the reins every once in a while. “You're telling me that assuring me I'm still drop dead gorgeous, “ his husband snorts, nips at Tony's shoulder for that quip, “ makes you horny because you feel like an alpha comforting, and I quote, ‘your omega’? “

Peter reverts back to the shy teenager who could barely ask a girl out to the homecoming dance, ducks his head into Tony’s neck with a blush quickly spreading over damp skin. “Well, I've got news for you, sweetheart. Your wet dream also thoroughly enjoys it so you better break tradition and have sex with me to remind me I'm the hottest man you've ever seen. "

He's actually serious about this, his self esteem hasn't exactly been, you know, the best and Tony's mood always improves significantly after playing around in bed with Peter. Besides, it's a sign of trust. Peter won't hurt him or their child, will be able to hold back his strength. He always does.

Listen, it's not exactly moral, but he has more than enough problems to go ahead and analyze his attraction and dependency on Peter while pregnant.

“So, I can distract you from your bad thoughts by acting sort of possessive and taking you to bed? " Oh, he adores when his husband is afraid of showing a new side of himself and asks for permission ever so sweetly.

“Babe, if you don't, I'll kick you out of the apartment. Give me possessive Peter Parker any day you want, like I'm gonna complain about a gorgeous, brilliant twenty something year old all over me. Now what's it gonna be, alpha dear, bathroom or bedroom? I wouldn't mind the tile but, oh God, I forgot you could pick me up." Tony clings to broad shoulders, can't help but laugh because aren't they a pair?

-------------------------

After having what he's sure was the best sex of his life, Tony stumbles out of the bedroom with torn clothes, a dazed look in his eyes and several bruises blossoming around his neck. Peter's halfway out the doorway when Tony whistles, makes sure all their family is paying attention, blurts out, “Peter and I are having a kid. I'm pregnant, woohoo, it's great, it's amazing, save your congratulations for later. We'll do a proper thing soon, if anyone interrupts and they're not dying, I'll kill you myself. See you in a few hours, " and yanks him back in while Friday activates Sock on the Doorknob Protocol.

Rhodey and Nat clink glasses while waiting on the others to pay up on their bets regarding Tony and Peter's odd behavior.

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Later, much later, like, two days later, they have a proper dinner with their family in the tower. There are balloons and streamers, cake and ice cream, warm hugs and gentle cheek kisses, subtle tears and full on weeping (Happy had to borrow a box of Kleenex), pictures and videos and a pile of gifts taller than Tony.

The most important thing, though, is that the A.I recorded the reaction after Clint asked about baby names. He's grateful they went to the doctor before tonight. The visit revealed a treasure Tony thought he'd never have. Now it's time to reveal it to their pack.

His husband snuggles up to him, is so ecstatic the whole dining room smells like cinnamon and honey, like joyous love he'll never get enough of. Tony grins at him, curls their hands together and repeats the same thing over and over again in his head.

It'll be ok. They'll be ok. If the universe keeps giving Tony the greatest gifts he could ever want, maybe it's time he stopped looking at the horse's mouth. That's how it goes, right? Right.

He turns to look at Peter, loves him so much it aches, feels tiny feet pressing against his stomach. Guesses he's not the only one smitten with this incredible human being.

“We were thinking Marie,” Peter smiles at him, eyes lit up and lovely.

Tony is never going to forget this moment, this warmth in his chest.

“And Benjamin Parker-Stark.”

Their family loses their shit and both Friday and Karen have ample proof.

(@puppypeter look, omega tones! @tonystarkisaslut thank you so much for allowing me to use the prompt board! I am still accepting prompts! Although I can't guarantee getting them ready within a few days, I'll try to finish them on the one week mark depending on how long the fic is!)

#tony stark #peter parker #starker #peter parker x tony stark #ironspider #peter x tony #soft!starker #lovely anon #prompt fill #my writing #baby announcement #alpha!peter #omega!tony #omegaverse starker #did i love writing this?#yes i did #mpreg #a/b/o

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ghost-band-aids · 5 years

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Interview with GHOST and TRIBULATION

The Undisguised Truth

TOBIAS FORGE and JONATHAN HULTÉN have a lot in common. While one of them currently slips into the role of the exalted charmer Cardinal Copia as the singer of GHOST, the introverted TRIBULATION guitarist on stage transforms into a fascinating, expressive being who exists beyond genre and gender boundaries. What is real, what is an artificial figure? METAL HAMMER met both of them during their tour together for a conversation that allows far more than just a look behind the scenes of two of the most popular metal bands at the moment, but also unexpectedly intimate insights.

Tobias, originally you didn't want to be the singer of Ghost. Did the mask help you to come to terms with this exposed role?

Tobias Forge: Yes, well, at least from today's point of view. But I never wanted to be unknown.

What function does your stage make-up have, Jonathan?

Jonathan Hultén: It helps me to put myself in a certain mood. The idea behind it is to isolate and reinforce a fraction of myself, an aspect of my personality. To immerse myself in this is an experience beyond the everyday state of mind.

Strengthen also Cardinal Copia or Papa Emeritus facets of your personality, Tobias?

Tobias Forge: I'm not shy, but I'm not as sociable as Cardinal Copia - and also not a "physical clown" like him. What I do is a kind of mixed bag. I imitate people I find funny or interesting.

Basically, the way actors do it. If you asked Robert DeNiro how he came up with the young Don Corieone, he would probably say: Well, there was this guy in my old neighborhood... The costume gives you the opportunity to completely surrender yourself in that moment and just be that new person. That's interesting, because you only reveal it to a few people for a limited time. You don't have to see how that person lives the other 22 hours of the day. Like with actors: James Bond is cool because you only see certain sides of him. Never in the bathroom or shower. Well, not in the toilet, in the shower. But always in the company of a snake or something he kills.

How long does the transformation take?

Tobias Forge: But you finished much sooner than I did.

Jonathan Hultén: For pragmatic reasons. I like to get it done as soon as possible so as not to get in a bind later. How about you?

Tobias Forge: We have a very tight schedule. Pretty much exactly one hour before the show starts I walk in the door as Tobias and come out as someone else.

What does this transformation do to you?

Jonathan Hultén: You have to enter a stage with emphasis. So it's good to be prepared.

Tobias Forge: And that's what happens within this hour. You slowly start to move differently... I love being a different person for two hours and then changing back. But I need some time for that, usually I stay alone for an hour after the show.

Jonathan Hultén: That's good. As far as I can, I try to do the same. Mostly by doing something that I can be introspective about... ...carry things back and forth or something.

Tobias Forge: I think that's very important. There is potential suffering in art, especially in mental health. The smaller the discrepancy between yourself and the person you are portraying on stage, the harder it is to deal with. If you are merely associated with your stage character, people expect you to behave like that in real life.

And that can be problematic...

Tobias Forge: Exactly, because they created this super human being who can do anything, who has a carte blanche. Everyone applauds, everyone laughs, and everything you do is funny or cool. And if you take it to the bar afterwards... There are bad examples of people who can't get down in normal life, become alcoholics or, well, die.

Jonathan Hultén: Sure, all that can be destructive. But in my case it was very helpful to discover my more explosive, extroverted sides. And to dare to give them more space, because privately I am quite shy. That's also part of the process of building up, which takes a long time.

I gradually gain self-confidence from this, so that I can now express myself better in everyday situations.

Tobias Forge: I think they are one and the same. It's like mental martial arts, where the person who doesn't like the fight, but still has to face it - within the limits of the dojo, of course, so as not to hurt anyone. And, yes, art is basically good for anyone who has the desire to become someone else. It's a generalization, but I think there's a lot of truth in it: many artists choose this path because they weren't very popular at school. Or they can't come out of themselves, but their art offers them an opportunity to do so. It's fun to go on stage, to transform and feed off the energy or admiration.

How you interact with the audience has changed over the years.

Tobias Forge: Sure. The masked person has an advantage of about 70 concerts, so 1,000 hours on stage. If I had given myself the same amount of time to develop without the make-up, without the role, just with acoustic guitar, I might have created a completely different stage personality. But this is completely uninteresting for me, because I prefer this super character! (laughs)

Jonathan Hultén: transformation would then no longer be so dramatic, but much more subtle.

Tobias Forge: And you'd have to be comfortable in your own skin.

Jonathan Hultén: I'm working on it. (laughs)

Jonathan, your solo debut, CHANTS FROM ANOTHER PLACE, will be released soon and you will also be touring with Chelsea Wolfe. Will you be different on stage there than you are here with Tribulation?

Jonathan Hultén: It has become harder to separate the two. They are like different shades of the same color. And I've found that they both borrow a lot from each other. The tribulation performer exists much longer, so he has much more experience. He/she is like an archaeologist who explores an inner wildness and passion. Over the years a lot of weird stuff has been dug up and included.

On the other hand, the solo performer, who has only been around for about three yen and is still is at the beginning of the excavations. However, I expect that also here many interesting things will appear

What can we expect from you live?

Jonathan Hultén: Just like with Tribulation, the atmosphere will be very important. But apart from some dramatic excursions, the show will be mostly silent and contemplative. The silence gives more room for more complex emotions to unfold in a way that I miss in the energetic performances of Tribulation.

These in turn defy the unwritten rules of a traditional metal show, not least thanks to you. Tribulation are considered a death metal band...

Tobias Forge: I wouldn’t call you guys like that.

Do you see yourselves as pioneers? Do you enjoy being different?

Jonathan Hultén: I stopped thinking about whether people see me as stupid, weird or whatever. It's the only way I can do it. Headbanging just wasn't enough. I felt there had to be something bigger, some kind of ectase. This may be weird, but it feels good.

How important are grace and style to you?

Jonathan Hultén: Both are important, but it's equally important not to be obsessively attached to them. Someone once said that grace is a combination of spontaneity and control. It's a good rule of thumb - on and off stage. It's always about balance. Every situation is unique and requires a unique approach.

Tobias Forge: You should be really proud of it, apart from the fact that your music is great. Your performance is dramatically different from any other. Besides the music, your physical attributes and the way you present yourself make you a very unique and interesting person. Strange, cash, different. You should definitely pursue that. Yes, I think you should see yourself as a pioneer.

Jonathan Hultén: Mm, thank you. (chuckles)

What does that do to your audience?

Tobias Forge: If you are a live musician, have an antenna for it and you don't completely care, you always enter a symbiosis with the fans. Give and take, almost like in a physical relationship. You will try to perfect ways to give pleasure to each other. I know it sounds weird, but every decent relationship changes with age. You grow together, you have new needs or ideas. That's why some couples bring in other people, or whips or plugs. It's the same with you and the audience. During our second show I noticed that our audience is very positive, but I couldn't make a rhyme out of it.

Why that?

Tobias Forge: The room was filled with Hard Rock people, the kind of people I've been playing to since I was a teenager. But they weren't headbanging as usual. Instead they did something else.

Jonathan Hultén: Wiggle.

Tobias Forge: Yeah, they were wiggling around. (laughs) And singing and laughing, very different from what I knew from Death or Black Metal shows.

Are there any other special features of your fans?

Tobias Forge: When we played the first headliner shows in America, I noticed for the first time the gender diversity in our audience. Our fans are a lot of girls, a lot of guys, and a lot in between. We've always been a magnet for people who are unhappy with their gender or don't feel they belong anywhere: Kids, many outsiders and outcasts in various fragile states.

Jonathan, Tobias' words seem to resonate with you.

Jonathan Hultén: Yes, they do. I don't speak for tribulation as a whole when I say this, but I personally don't feel I belong to either gender. But I've never felt the need to choose either. Androgyny is what I feel most comfortable with. This tendency probably also applies to performance, whether tribulation or solo.

Tobias Forge: The best portrayal of the devil I've ever seen is from the movie 'The Passion of Christ'. Satan is portrayed by a woman, but speaks in a man's voice and thus becomes the epitome of androgyny, completely genderless. For incorporating this aspect into your stage personality, I give credit to you and the band. Especially when you get together with Adam (Zaars, guitarist of Tribulation) on stage, it seems elfish and feminine, but also masculine. This is incredibly interesting and unusual, especially in the rigid heavy metal genre with this "men are men" and "women are women" thing: Doro Pesch, girl, Manowar, guys, great. But when I think of all the metal bands I like, there are also examples of very attractive androgyny, which is not necessarily sexual. Not to mention seventies rock bands.

You have been confronted with different kinds of music and art forms from a very young age. Does that give you an artistic advantage?

Jonathan Hultén: It helps me to keep my relationship to art fresh, to get excited. Whether in childhood or in adulthood: open-mindedness helps the creative process. If you're not afraid of opening up to all kinds of different music styles, you can find inspiration in the most surprising places. No matter where the idea comes from - the important thing is whether it works. Certainly, this is reflected in all areas of creative work. Become the medium through which the flow of inspiration flows - then collect the gold pieces that this flow carries with it and create something beautiful out of them.

Does the metal context limit your expressiveness?

Tobias Forge: I don' t feel restricted with Ghost at all. There are only a few ideas I can' t realize with the band, because Ghost is a combination of all the things I like about music, cinema and theatre. But if there is enough time in the future, I would love to be in a completely different band where I am not the center of attention. I am a guitarist and would like to sing backup. That corresponds to me much more.

Jonathan Hultén: I'm exploring something new, and it's been quite interesting - and different. There are endless possibilities to discover yourself, artistically and as an artist. Only unfortunately there is not enough time.

I'm afraid that we don't have enough time either.

Tobias Forge: Yes, but these things are existential. They are not only about art and being an artist, but also about how both are connected to the human psyche and why people, artist or not, need art to function in modern times. That, by the way, is also one of the things I appreciate about tribulation: You are artists, not just any death metal band. I don’t want to hang anybody on the fence but especially in metal many musicians claim that they make music for themselves first and foremost. That’s not true! As soon as you go on stage you want to get something back. Even GG Allin! And his gigs were really a confrontational and bad experience for every lover of the fine arts. Playing just for yourself? That's not how it works. You either do it to please or to deliver something. People laugh, cry, clap, scream, whatever... And when they leave, they feel a little bit better. That's entertainment!

Anja Delast/ Metal Hammer

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Please do not share without naming the origin. I have taken a lot of effort with it and unfortunately it is distributed without stating the origin. It's somehow sad...

#thebandghost #the band ghost #cardinalcopia #cardinal copia #tobiasforge

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askkrenko · 4 years

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Krenko’s Guide to Pokemon: Magnemite Line

Fucking magnets, how do they work? DESIGN: Magnemite is a really interesting design challenge because it’s a metal creature with bolts and magnet parts that somehow doesn’t look robotic. It’s clearly artificial, but it’s a creature made of machine bits rather than a machine itself. It’s simple and easy to comprehend, but it’s unique and interesting, and its big magnets make it very clear what it is. Magneton, on the other hand, is a much worse design. The idea of the Magnet pokemon attaching to other versions of itself is interesting, and a lot better than the Dugtrio idea, but them just being stuck together in the middle is awful. They have MAGNETS. It’s also weird to me that the top one has the other two attached, but the other two aren’t attached to each other so it doesn’t have rotational symmetry. Oh, and the blues are next to the blues, which would both be negatives, and like charges are supposed to repel. Magneton just does everything wrong. Megnezone is... interesting. It’s got a spaceship vibe going, and there’s a clear design for a final form of Magnemite here, with the three Magnetons fusing into something that’s actually unique and interesting. I still don’t like it, though, and its because of that aforementioned issue with Magnemite. Magnezone DOES look robotic. It looks like something that could be floating around in a Sci-Fi setting as a robot assistant or as a random enemy sentry. It no longer looks like a Pokemon, but like a Thing.

EVOLUTIONS: Magnemite evolves into Magneton at level 30, which is a smidge late for a second stage but not outlandish, and Magneton evolves into Magnezone when you bring it to a super secret location that the games don’t tell you about, have battles there, and evolve it when it’s exposed to a special ‘magnet field’ that- ahahaha, no I’m just kidding. That would be completely stupid and asinine and a pain in the ass for something that’s not even cool or interesting and would require every single game figuring it where their special magnetic fields are, including putting them into older games for the remakes. Could you imagine how awful that would be? How ridiculous? How infuriating? No, Magneton evolves into Magnezone with a Thunder Stone, which is sane and reasonable. What’s weird is that evolving Magneton to Magnezone has no effect on its move learn rate. Usually that would slow the rate down or add new moves or something. Either way, Level 30, and then a stone. Sounds great. TYPING: Steel is still the best type defensively, and Magnezone has a downright absurd eleven resistances plus a poison immunity. It does have a dangerous double-weakness to Ground type attacks due to its electric typing, but its only weaknesses overall are Fighting, Ground, and Fire. As a special note, the item “Air Balloon” is basically perfect for Magnezone. Air Balloon makes the holder immune to Ground attacks in a combat until it’s hit by a non-ground attack. With ground being Magnezone’s biggest fear, it’s a great option.

Offensively, it hits Fairy, Ice, Rock, Water, and Flying, and the only thing that resists both its types is Electric. This isn’t the best, but it’s certainly not bad.

STATS:

Magnezone only has 70 HP, but 115 Defense is huge and 90 special defense is fine. When combined with its absurd resistances, Magnezone is tanky as all hell. And then it has 130 special attack. 130 is a LOT of special attack. Magnezone is one of the rare pokemon that can both freely take hits and dish them right back. It’s big drawback, of course, is its low speed. 60′s not winning many contests. Still, Magnezone can pretty comfortably take a hit from anything that isn’t ground type, so that’s not so bad. ABILITIES: Magnezone can have sturdy to make it resist being taken out in one hit. This isn’t useless, but Magnezone’s pretty tanky and not much is going to risk taking it out in one hit anyway. It’s a bit of ground-type insurance, but that’s about it. Analytic is potentially very powerful on Magnezone. Analytic increases the power of all Magnezone’s attacks by 30% when Magnezone goes second, which is going to be pretty frequent. With 130 special attack, we’re talking about a serious heavy hitter as long as you’re willing to take the hit. Magnet Pull, which prevents other Steel types from switching out from facing Magnezone, is potentially strategically powerful. Though it doesn’t have any great Special attacks for Steel types, Magnezone can learn Body Press, a fighting-type attack that uses its 115 Defense for damage calculations.

MOVES: Steel doesn’t have much for Special Attacks, so Magnezone is stuck with Flash Cannon if it wants STAB against Fairy, Ice, or Rock. Or if it just wants to hit Ground types. It’s not bad, but an 80 power 100 accuracy attack is still pretty average. For electric, Thunderbolt’s 90 power, 100 accuracy is basically just the go-to. It’s good. Magnezone also learns Volt Switch, which has 70 power and switches Magnezone out after use. Though it doesn’t have the speed to use this to dodge an attack, it’s still a free switch and 70 power on a pokemon with 130 special is still a strong hit. Magnezone gets no type coverage worth noting, but if the plan is to use Magnet Pull to trap Steel Types, taking Body Press is useful, and Iron Defense effectively doubles as Swords Dance if you’re planning to use Body Press. If the plan isn’t Magnet Pull, then spending a slot on Magnet Rise to pre-preemptively dodge Ground-type attacks can be useful, and Substitute as a way to block debuffs and status effects is always an option. Magnezone is also tanky enough that a combination of Rest and Sleep Talk with Thunderbolt and Flash Cannon could work as a viable strategy. One final option is Steel Beam. Steel Beam costs half of Magnezone’s HP, but is a special attack with a base power of 140. With STAB and Analytic, this is going to do very, very bad things to most enemies, even if it costs you your own pokemon in the process. As a special note, Hidden Power currently does not appear in Gen 8, but competitive Magnet Pull builds tend to use Hidden Power Fire. The reason for this is that a) Body Press is new and didn’t exist in older generations and b) Many of the Pokemon you’d want Magnet Pull for are 4x weak to fire. Keep this in mind if Hidden Power returns or if Magnezone later learns a fire-type attack.

OVERALL: Magnezone is an all around strong Pokemon, with a lot of strengths and tools to mitigate its biggest weakness. It suffers a bit from poor type coverage (Body Press is its only off-type attack, other than Normal attacks), and there’s not much variety to what one can do with a Magnezone, but its’s pretty solid overall. The general design is just... not something I like, though. Magnemite is cute and great, but Magneton feels lazy and Magnezone feels a bit too sci-fi for my magical monster game, but not Genesect Sci-Fi where it’s “Yes I am weird and Sci-Fi and different!” It just feels like Magnezone shouldn’t be here. Also, I joked about Dugtrio’s third form just being even more Digletts, but I thing Magneton having an evolution that was just like a sphere made of a lot of Magnemites would’ve been pretty cool.

#Krenko's Pokemon Guide #Magnemite #Magneton #Magnezone

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sonicfanj · 5 years

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Sonic Ring Bond Intro

A sonic the Hedgehog AU by Sonic Fan J

Welcome everyone to my Sonic AU, Sonic Ring Bond. I would like to take the time now to introduce you to my little corner of the fandom and the ideas behind my AU. I had contemplated originally trying to present this introduction as a full-on textbook style document, but frankly I’m a lot better at talking than I am planning so I’ll be treating this more as a text seminar. Hopefully I’ll avoid rambling too much and will manage to entertain and enthrall you with my ideas. At the very least, I hope you’ll come away from this with a firm grasp at least of the world I see for my Amy Rosy redesign, Rosy, to run around in. There’s a lot to cover as well, from the ideas that led to this AU to the setting, the characters, and my take on what games have occurred within it and how the events within unfolded.

To begin, I should note that Sonic Mania did not initially enthrall me as it did so many other Sonic fans who have been with Sonic since 1991. In fact, I was already weary of the nostalgia pandering that so many others had grown tired of as well. I was also at a point in my Sonic fandom where I yearned for Naka and Oshima’s Sonic with only memories of Sonic Adventure 2 and Unleashed keeping me interested in Iizuka’s Sonic. Most importantly however I was having a complete reevaluation of my love of the franchise due to having finally watched the OVA and being overwhelmed with a sense of nostalgia for why I had fallen in love with Sonic to begin with. Then there was also me learning of a point in Sonic’s massive history where Amy had addressed him as Sonic-sama which led me on a massive reexamination of her character and what she was introduced as and the role she was meant to fulfill. I learned an awfully lot during this period both about Amy and my feelings and desires for what I wanted out of the franchise. Suffice to say I found myself disliking Amy’s signature Piko Piko Hammer and coming to odds with the franchise direction though Mania gave me a little hope. That hope was born of false expectations of my own creation due to a desire to see how Amy would have been handled before her hammer was ever given to her as her primary creator for the games, Kazuyuki Hoshino had said he was getting back into the mindset of that time as a content director for Mania. As is typically the case with such false expectations, nothing came of them, almost.

In addition to gameplay arguments going around at the time and my dislike of Amy’s hammer taking root in me, in the Sonic community I was a part of at the time, and quickly growing ostracized in due to my dislike of Amy’s hammer, there was concern about Amy’s outfit and the problems distinct to it in a three-dimensional space. This combined with my desire to see Amy with traditional Sonic gameplay led to me creating my Amy redesign Rosy. Garbed in a white leotard to avoid certain problems distinct to a dress while also intending to capture the image of someone who tumbles, I also went with her classic design to fully imply Sonic’s rolling gameplay. At the time that was enough for me and I was pleased enough to just see her serving as my avatar on various sights. I also enjoyed drawing her as it cheered me up with a lot of negativity floating around the fandom at the time. Naturally as I drew her more, more and more people started asking me about her and I had to start considering the why of her. It was no longer enough to just be happy with her as a drawing, she needed something more. An AU was the logical path to fleshing her out, and being a big Sonic fan who loves way too much of the franchise in all of it’s parts I wanted to try and mash as many disparate parts together as I could into a single world while rewriting Amy’s place in it. This resulted in my weird little Hedgehog Circus AU which has does possess several things I still like. But it is busy, over encumbered, and lacking in the simplicity necessary to serve the beginnings of an AU that I can enjoy. So, after a great deal of thinking, studying the franchise, and looking for ways that I could justify to myself Rosy having Sonic’s abilities I started again mashing together ideas I liked, but kept it as simple as I could. The result is Sonic Ring Bond.

The Setting

Aesthetics.

There is nothing that sells a setting to me more than aesthetics. I am a very visual individual who appreciates what good aesthetics brings to a story and world and nothing captures the sense of whimsey, adventure, and discovery that I yearn for in Sonic better than Hayao Miyazaki. The movies that I am most enthralled by aesthetically and thus become the primary basis for the setting for Sonic Ring Bond are Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Porco Rosso, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Howl’s Moving Castle. Using the imagery of these movies as well as the ever-changing shape and nature of Sonic’s world from the games the world of Sonic Ring Bond is a fading world where technology has fallen to appoint barely hanging on to airships and early industrialization. Human’s, humans with animal traits drawing inspiration from settings like the fighting game “BlazBlue”, the Sonic OVA, and the anime “Shuumatsu Nani Shitemasu ka? Isogashii Desu ka? Sukutte Moratte Ii Desu ka?”, as well as animal people like Sonic himself all live together or in isolation across the world. But the world is ever changing. One day an entire landmass maybe just across the bay, the next it is not. To keep the world linked together the world’s governments uses an ancient technology they do not understand to build and deploy giant Rings known as Ring Gates to link together communities no matter where they may be one day. These gates are one part of where the Ring Bond title comes from for my AU, but are not used without due consideration. Making a Ring Gate requires a great deal of Rings which are collected by adventurers who are supported by the organization Checkpoint.

Checkpoint is an organization that possesses access to special Ring Gates that bond to an individual and allow them to recall them back to a Checkpoint facility at any time. They are not the only adventurer supporting organization, but access to these unique Ring Gates and even Sonic the Hedgehog being an adventurer who relies on them in the Ring Bond AU has made them very popular. Despite being an organization though, they are more of a hub for adventurers to sell the information found on their adventures as well as receive requests from governments, corporations, communities, and even individuals to explore new and frequently ancient landmasses. The most common of requests fielded by Checkpoint are scouting out resources and determining if a location is worth deploying a Ring Gate to for long term access with resources including material, historical, agricultural, or even culturally if new communities are discovered and deemed worth maintain relations with. Most adventurers have a dedicated agent who monitor them while fielding communications and requests in addition to handling the information they bring back from their adventures. Not every adventurer accepts requests preferring just to see new lands and locales like Sonic himself, reporting in for various personal reasons. Sonic himself in my AU was not even an adventurer who reported into Checkpoint until he rescued Zooey from Sonic BOOM! during one of his adventures and her home island simply disappeared before he could her back. With little other option Sonic left her with Checkpoint due to their reputation and she became his agent. Also, due to being inspired by a pic that @drawloverlala once drew with Tails and Zooey dressed Edward Elric and Winry Rockbell from Full Metal Alchemist, in Sonic Ring Bond idecided Zooey also serves as the mechanic for the Tornado. So, where does that leave Tails? Well, Tails is in the Ring Bond AU, but his role is a little different as well as his relationship with Sonic. This has to do with me being fond of the idea that him and Amy would make great friends who support each other in their pursuit of Sonic and his lifestyle. This of course leads me to

The Characters

For my AU I did not really want to change the characters too much, but I did want to answer a few questions I’ve always had while also indulging in some of my biases and preferences. In the example of biases and preferences after seeing artwork from @rontufox on deviantart.com that I interpreted as showing Sonic and Mighty as good friends who occasionally adventure together but mostly swap adventuring stories in my AU it is Mighty who is Sonic’s best friend and not Tails due to sharing similar lifestyles that give them grounds to bond on. Tails in Sonic Ring Bond actually becomes close friends with Rosy to indulge in my belief that Tails’ and Amy’s personalities and shared love for and interest in Sonic and his adventures as a starting point. But Rosy and Tails also share one more thing in common that they actually share with Mighty which leaves him concerned about Sonic’s spontaneity combined with his aloofness; the titular Ring Bond.

The Ring Bond

A question I used to ask myself all the time but stopped having to once SEGA and Sonic Team decided to be pretty definitive with how only a few Characters possessed Sonic’s speed instead of nearly everyone in the pre-Adventure days was what is the source of everyone’s speed. I used to have all sorts of headcanons for everyone but Sonic who I just accepted it as being natural for. Outside of speed though there were other things I wondered about as well such as how Tails managed to use Sonic’s Super Spin Attack without Sonic’s spines. As I began really developing my AU, I figured I could address that as well and the solution that I eventually settled with drew inspiration both from the Paramount movie and the Sonic OVA. That solution is that Sonic’s abilities can be shared by others. This solution of course needed to have a solution of its own to the question of how Sonic share could his abilities. Me being me with the need to over explain things as well but wanting to stay reasonably within the limitations of the games it was (Knuckles) Chaotix that would afford me my answer in Ring Energy. Going by the Japanese manual for Chaotix, Ring Energy is a force that can bind two Rings together allowing for the rubber band mechanics of the game. Considering all the other properties and abilities of Rings I came up with the Ring Bond, the ability to share one’s abilities with someone else through Rings.

Within my AU Sonic with his experience with rings and the various things they do simply figured it out and shared his abilities with Mighty, Rosy, and Tails to get each of them out of a situation that he couldn’t just carry them through. In Mighty’s case that was escaping Eggman Island, Rosy it was getting through Metallic Madness on Little Planet (which addresses for me how she made it through and caught up with him by the end), and Tails as the fox needed to be able to protect himself being able to use his tails to keep up with Sonic through the Death Egg Saga. But while Sonic simply figured it out in his own way Eggman has been slowly figuring it out as he has been perfecting Metal Sonic, needing only the Ring Bond to fully add Sonic’s abilities to the robot doppelganger. Luring Mighty, Rosy, and Tails to island that (Knuckles) Chaotix takes place on as part of his attempts to further understand how rings work after realizing that they all have Sonic’s abilities. At this point though I should probably change course and detail what games have taken place in the Ring Bond AU and the order in which they do. I’ll also take this opportunity to further flesh out how the characters met each other so things might get even lengthier and meander even more as we move on into

The Games & History

So before getting too into, it should be noted that in my AU, like the Japanese manual for the original game states, Sonic and Eggman were already at it before any of the games take place. During this time period in Sonic Ring Bond is when Sonic met Zooey and joined Checkpoint. It was during his time with checkpoint before any of the games that he heard of Mighty as an adventurer who would seek out and find the most spectacular of natural locales. After checking out some of them himself Sonic would seek out Mighty to hear about his travels from the armadillo himself. The two being kindred adventurers with a love for discovery they hit it off and became fast friends exchanging stories and places for the other to check out. Their friendship would appear as an opportunity to Eggman who would attempt to capture Might to use as bait to lure Sonic to Eggman Island. By sheer luck however Egman managed to capture both Sonic and Mighty.

Unlike the original game, the Ring Bond version of SegaSonic the Hedgehog only had Sonic and Mighty go through game’s events. Now, as the Sonic Mania Adventure shorts showed that Mighty lacks Sonic’s speed and considering the traps of Eggman Island, Sonic knew there was no way to get Mighty out using his usual methods. Getting his hand on the first available Rings he could Sonic attempted to use Ring Energy to pull Mighty along behind him. With traps designed to overwhelm Sonic however littering the island in a continuous gauntlet doing so would have surely gotten the both of them killed. Wary to do so, but not accepting the alternative, Sonic created a Ring Bond between him and Mighty, granting his abilities to the armadillo. While it took Mighty a bit to get used to using them, his shell kept him safe and eventually he was able to not only follow Sonic to safety, but played his part in their escape from Eggman island.

Possessed of Sonic’s abilities, Mighty wanted to repay Sonic as he would now be able to see the world in ways he never had before. Sonic declined the offer as he believed the effects of the Ring Bond would be temporary but Mighty insisted and told Sonic how to reach Never Lake so he could see the appearance of the Miracle Planet. Figuring if he was in the area while it was around he’d check it and parted ways with Mighty until their next meeting. The Miracle Planet, Little Planet, was not just of interest to Sonic however as Eggman had ambitions of his own using it’s time traveling properties for his schemes and a certain pink hedgehog would receive an order from her cards to head to Never Lake for a fated encounter.

Now in Sonic Ring Bond, Amy’s background is a bit more detailed. The reason for this is like answering why she, Mighty and Tails have Sonic’s abilities, I felt a need to answer why I would use her original nickname over her actual name. To do so, I fell back on my Hedgehog Circus AU where before she met Sonic her fortune telling abilities allowing her to find treasure had resulted in her being sought out by Fang the Sniper. Being the treasure hunting ruffian that he is, Fang didn’t take to Amy’s personality and took to calling her Rosy as commentary on her outlook. Choosing to travel with Fang to indulge her desire for adventure and how playful she was would result in others calling her a rascal. But Rosy the Rascal would not spend all her time in the company of Fang as if the power of the cards gave her an order she followed without hesitation. Following the order to the letter was a different story as when she reached Never Lake she was enamored by the Miracle Planet and made her way up to check it out oblivious of the dangers posed by Eggman. As for how she got up there, for Sonic Ring Bond I’ve decided to play with a headcanon of mine that she owns the magic carpet that her stage in Sonic the Fighters takes place on. She probably found while adventuring with Fang and simply kept it for herself without ever letting him know she has it. I see her keeping it a secret from everyone as magical artifacts could very easily change the world in unexpected ways.

Rosy was not the only one thinking about the effects of mystical artifacts as Eggman was well on his was to tracking down the Time Stones so that he might unlock the flow of time and conquer the world. Ever the industrial genius, Eggman was expecting Sonic’s eventual appearance and to that end using the advanced technology he found in Little Planet’s future created his most advance machine, Metal Sonic. Despite how advanced Metal Sonic was and Eggman’s genius being able to easily comprehend and make deft use of technology long lost to the world, the robot was still pretty much just a mannequin built around a jet engine. Not wanting to waste his creation willy-nilly Eggman waited for an opportunity to use it where Sonic would have to take on it’s full capabilities without just trashing it. Rosy’s fangirling over meeting Sonic who as a hedgehog adventurer herself she idolizes would be the perfect opportunity and Metal Sonic would make his debut by abducting the hedgehog girl. Perhaps more bothered by not having the opportunity to talk Sonic into taking her on his adventure than being held hostage, Rosy would get her desire in a way she did not quite expect.

When Sonic finally caught up, spending more time leaving Rosy a hostage than she would have liked as he went about removing Eggman’s influence on Little Planet and making sure the Time Stones were safe, he found himself pitted in a race against his robotic doppelganger. Unfortunately for Metal Sonic, Sonic won the race and was able to rescue Rosy, to a point. The road to Eggman’s fortress was where the race had taken place and Eggman had completely annihilated it making doubly sure of Sonic’s end should he lose to Metal Sonic. With the road gone and the only way forward being through Eggman’s fortress, Sonic found himself having to figure out how to get Rosy to safety. It was unlikely that Eggman’s fortress on Little Planet would be any less dangerous than Eggman Island, and Rosy was obviously younger than him and lacking the ability to make it through such a place. Begrudgingly and hoping that the effects of the Ring Bond truly were temporary, Sonic shared his abilities with Rosy and led her into Eggman’s fortress. Unlike Mighty though, she was not as quick to pick up using Sonic’s abilities and would barely catch up to Sonic as he drove Eggman off of Little Planet.

Escaping the planet after Eggman just as it’s one-month appearance came to an end, Sonic headed off towards his next adventure leaving Rosy behind. The change in status quo for Rosy after her life changing adventure on Little Planet would come back to haunt Sonic in due time, but not before answering a call for help from the legendary South Island. Eggman had taken to the island after hearing of the major losses of the terrifying sky pirates, the Battle Kukku’s, who were searching for the legendary Chaos Emeralds. Conducting his own research into them Eggman discovered and tracked down South Island. Naturally he upended the island in his search and Sonic being so well known was reached out to by the inhabitants for help. Upon arriving at South Island, Sonic found Eggman waiting for him with a devious trap in play; to slow Sonic down he had captured all the animals on the island and shoved them into his robots.

Now, for the Ring Bond AU things are a little more complicated as Fang the Sniper and Metal Sonic also make their way to South Island. Eggman is surprised by Metal’s reappearance, both him and Sonic oblivious to Sonic using the Ring Bond having an effect on the robot allowing it to make its way back to Eggman. With Metal Sonic’s mysterious return and eavesdropping on Sonic and Fang discovering that the treasure hunter blames Sonic for his loss of his treasure tracker as Rosy suddenly had Sonic’s abilities leaves the doctor curious. Thus, while attempting to discover the Chaos Emeralds in a race against Sonic and Fang, Eggman repairs Metal Sonic and sends it out to cause interference. In the end Sonic beats them all, and through his Ring Bond ability harnesses the power of the Chaos Emeralds to undo the damage caused by Eggman. In his use of the Chaos Emeralds however Eggman was able to witness their power and desired more and more to harness them. To that end he would have to repair Metal again as the robot seemed affected by Sonic. He would need more data however as well as the chance to get his hands on the Chaos Emeralds again.

Whether by sheer coincidence or perhaps design, Sonic and Eggman both descended upon West Side Island, the Illusory Island providing the doctor the opportunity he had been waiting for. Sonic however was oblivious to his nemesis’ arrival and had simply set down on the island to take a break between adventures. While there he found himself starting to be followed by a two-tailed fox boy who could use his tails to keep up with him. Nicknaming him Tails and viewing him as little more than a minor distraction, Sonic ignored him for the most part during his time on the island and let him do as he pleased. This was enough for Tails, who despite having fended off the Battle Kukku Armada lacked the courage and confidence to approach a hero such as Sonic. He did however desire to become a hero like Sonic, especially after having defeated the Battle Kukkus. Having just a little more confidence in himself he had trained himself to use his tails to reach groundspeeds around the speed of sound in the hopes of one day impressing his hero as unlikely as it was that he would meet him. Impressing him was not quite what Tails would manage to do though.

Eggman’s plans eventually sprung into action and the destruction he caused in the process naturally drew Sonic’s attention. Racing off to save yet another legendary island from Eggman, Sonic found himself being followed by the young fox. Suddenly Tails’ ability to keep up with Sonic proved to be problematic as though Tails believed if he could keep up with Sonic everything would be fine and believed he could help, Eggman was far greater than the Battle Kukku Armada. Unable to chase Tails off and fearful that the stubborn fox would get himself hurt or worse, Sonic made the decision to grant him his abilities through the Ring Bond. Surpassing Sonic’s expectations, Tails took to his abilities like a natural and became a major asset in saving West Side Island. His ability to fly the Tornado elevated him even higher, but not nearly as much as his ability to slap a rocket on it and repair it in the time it Sonic to bring down Eggman’s airship. Impressive as Tails’ abilities were, however, he could not keep up with Sonic as Sonic chased Eggman into space and had a battle with a far clunkier robot double of himself. Clunky as it was, it was combat capable and the space fortress that Eggman built put him even further and further ahead of the technology of the world below. Unable to let Eggman keep his latest and greatest creation for the sake of the world below, Sonic again used the Ring Bond to harness the power of the Chaos Emeralds hoping to undo the space station’s creation. To Sonic’s surprise the Chaos Emeralds transformed him and granted him the power to do as he desired to protect the world.

With the Death Egg seeming destroyed, Sonic allowed himself a few days rest. Tails, amazed by Sonic’s extraordinary feats spent those days rummaging through the remains of Eggman’s bases on West Side Island to see what Eggman had dug up on the Chaos Emeralds. Tinkering around with Eggman’s tech Tails managed to put together a Chaos Emerald detector and to his surprise picked up reaction in the middle of the ocean. The direction was the same as the epicenter of a tidal wave that brought an ancient Ring to Sonic’s attention reminding him of the legends of an island that floated in the sky. Deciding his next adventure would be Angel Island, Sonic headed out allowing Tails to join him again as his Chaos Emerald detector would likely lead them to the legendary Angel Island.

Finding Angel island proved far easier for Eggman as he simply had to wait for the Death Egg to crash land to find it. Attracting the attention of the island’s guardian, Knuckles the Echidna, Eggman managed to trick him into believing Sonic was his enemy. Doubting that Knuckles would serve as much of an obstacle to Sonic, Eggman took his combat data from Mecha Sonic Mk. I to start work on a Mk. II unit in addition to digging himself in on the island. Eggman however vastly underestimated Knuckles, as the island’s guardian was more properly the Guardian of the Master Emerald, a legendary gem that controlled the Chaos Emeralds. Due to his duty and the stories engrained into the island and him he was blessed with abilities matching Sonic’s as well as knowledge of the Ring Bond. As a result, he introduced himself to Sonic by breaking his Ring Bond with the Chaos Emeralds. It was a shock to Sonic and Tails both and when they discovered that Eggman was already on Angel island things got desperate.

The battle for Angel Island was unlike any other as Sonic had to restore his Ring Bond with the Chaos Emeralds to prevent Eggman from gaining access to them, fend off the misinformed Knuckles, and stop the Death Egg from making it back into space. It was more than Tails could keep up with and as the Death Egg began to ascend Sonic’s journey would continue on alone. He would stop the first launch on his own and would soon after discover the truth about Knuckles. Deciding to help out the echidna he would use his Ring Bond to restore the bonds between the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald. He would not succeed at stopping the Death Egg from finally making it into space however or keep Eggman from getting his hands on the Master Emerald. Realizing the error of his ways, Knuckles sent Sonic on ahead to try and catch up to Eggman exposing him to Mech Sonic Mk. II. Despite the improvements of his latest doppelganger Sonic managed to still catch up with the Death Egg. After an epic encounter in space, Sonic would truly destroy the space station this time and meet back up with Tails before reuniting Knuckles with the master Emerald. Despite saving Angel Island though, Sonic had a nagging feeling and after parting ways with Tails took the Tornado once again into the sky after the legendary floating island.

For Knuckles it was a good thing that Sonic did as Eggman’s robots had long overstayed their welcome, but most importantly, Mecha Sonic Mk. II had managed to get its hands on the Master Emerald. After a grueling battle with the emerald powered machine, Knuckles was saved by Sonic from plummeting to his doom. Relieved to hear that Knuckles had dealt with Eggman’s leftovers, Sonic left Knuckles and Angel Island for a second time. But neither he nor Knuckles realized that the Master Emerald’s Guardian had not fully dealt with Eggman’s leftovers. There was enough left of Mecha Sonic Mk. II for Eggman, who had survived his last clash with Sonic, to salvage and analyze the data it held. It was more than Eggman could have ever hoped for as it revealed through the bond with the Master Emerald the Ring Bond.

Desperate to study the secret of the Rings and learn about Sonic’s Ring Bond ability, Eggman was thrilled when a whole island began to rise up out of the ocean in response to the Master Emerald’s time on the surface. Hoping that the island would lead him to unravel the mysteries of the Rings Eggman was more amazed than he anticipated he could be. He discovered the Rings could be used to directly access the Master Emerald and more secrets due to the island having once been part of the same civilization that Angel Island had been part of. Gleefully building a new base on the island to support his research, Eggman invented the Dark Ring and began enhancing Metal Sonic. He still needed more data though to complete his original Sonic doppelganger and recalled three individuals who he knew about who possessed Sonic’s abilities. Hatching his next scheme Eggman proceeded to lure Mighty, Rosy, and Tails to the nameless island. Unfortunately for Eggman, someone he did not account for got involved.

Since having rid Angel Island of the last of Eggman’s influence, Knuckles had been watching the world below for signs of the Master Emerald having affected it. The rising of an island from the ocean in a world constantly shifting about seemed little to worry himself about, but Eggman’s interest in the island kept him keeping an eye on things. When the Master Emerald began reacting to the Chaos Rings, powerful Rings born from long lost Ring Bonds with the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald, Knuckles knew he would have to investigate what was going on. He didn’t know about the Chaos Rings themselves, but was not surprised when a trio of adventures with Ring Bonds with Sonic showed up and fell under attack from Eggman. What horrible fate awaited them had Knuckles not come down from Angel Island is one Mighty was glad he would not find out.

For Mighty, his time on the nameless island was a lot like his time on Eggman Island constantly avoiding traps and Eggman’s attempts to stop him. Matters were more complicated this time though as the presence of Rosy and Tails also sharing a Ring Bond with Sonic and believing they could help Knuckles with his reason for being there meant he couldn’t just flee. Someone had to take responsibility for Sonic so recklessly making Ring Bonds and Mighty felt with what he saw of Knuckles’ personality he was unlikely to keep Tails and Rosy out of trouble. When they had to face off against Metal Sonic and a giant monstrous version of the machine, he was glad though that Knuckles was present as his combat expertise proved integral in stopping Eggman’s plans and the creation of the Dark Ring. Knuckles took it a step further however and used the power of the Master Emerald held in the Chaos Rings to destroy the island and make sure that they could never be used by Eggman again or endanger the master Emerald. Saddened by the loss of history, Mighty would have liked to spend some time speaking with the echidna about his past and everything he knew about the world but had to deal with Rosy and Tails.

During the adventure Rosy had hit it of with Tails in their shared idolization of Sonic, even if Tails couldn’t grasp Rosy’s crush. Completely hyped up by the adventure Rosy wanted nothing more than to team up with Tails to go adventuring and try to find Sonic but Mighty wasn’t having it. That Sonic had shared his abilities with the two and did not bring them to Checkpoint to make sure they could develop their skills safely left Mighty far to concerned. Though rosy put up a fight, he managed to get the two of them to Checkpoint. It was not the best start either as Rosy wanted to meet everyone and hear their stories while Tails found himself meeting Zooey who had more than few words for him for making her maintenance work the Tornado harder by attacking a rocket engine to it. Eventually things smoothed over and Zooey became Rosy and Tails’ agent in Checkpoint, though policy kept her from telling them where Sonic was at any given time no matter how much Rosy pestered her. Staying with Checkpoint at Mighty’s insistence Rosy and Tails would become exemplary Ring Hunters, a respectable if not exciting role as though Rings were finicky and no one knew how they worked or why, Ring Gates needed them to be built and function so the two slowly built a reputation for themselves. Mighty already having quite the reputation was free to go as he pleased and once he was confident that Rosy and Tails had settled in headed out in search of Sonic, something he could use to get Sonic to come to him, and to make sure that if Eggman was up to anything someone might know.

The funny thing about Sonic and Eggman though was that they were always bound to bump into each other at one point or another, even when Eggman would prefer they did not. After his defeat on the nameless island to Knuckles, Eggman went about compiling all of the data he managed to gather, and though he lamented losing almost all of his Ring data had more than enough to finally complete Metal Sonic. The only thing left he needed was what a dubbed a Chaos Factor to forge a Ring Bond between Metal Sonic and Sonic. Of course, he also had to repair Metal Sonic again, upgrade it to receive the Chaos Factor, and then test it to make sure that it was indeed Sonic’s equal, or even better. To that end, he sought out Mirage Island, a place where Little Planet was said to appear, even if it was not a tangible appearance like over Never Lake. It seemed the perfect place to work and Eggman sure enough found ancient ruins with hints to the Chaos Factor he needed. Thus he set up base and began his search while preparing to test the eventually completed Metal Sonic by putting out old Badniks that Sonic had already proved were failures, though adding a few new twists to test Metal Sonic’s adaptability.

Sonic had no clue what Eggman was up to when he arrived on Mirage Island by chance, but seeing Eggman’s old machines littering the island, and with the local fauna stuffed inside, he was quick to act. His testing grounds suddenly under attack by the wrong Sonic, Eggman had to scramble to meet his long-time foe. Unfortunately his little twists to his old designs were not enough to deter Sonic, and only by launching his incomplete low-orbital base was he able to pull Sonic away from Mad Gear Zone so that Metal Sonic might be completed in peace. Unfortunately Sonic still inflicted tremendous losses and Eggman lost his new, though much smaller, space station as well as great deal of the tests he had set up for Metal Sonic. It was not all a loss however as Sonic was unaware of why Eggman had chosen Mirage Island for his latest scheme. That meant that the Chaos Factor he was after was still untouched, though he had lost the machines to excavate it. That was fine though as the completed Metal Sonic was more than up to the task, a task that made him truly complete for as he absorbed the Chaos Factor his Ring Bond with Sonic was completed and the machine was non longer just a constructed copy of Sonic, but for all extents and purposed a robot Sonic. Eggman was overjoyed by his success and needed now only the opportunity to spoil Sonic’s fun and let him meet his perfect machine counterpart.

And that wraps up how the games that have occurred in the Ring Bond AU and the order. My apologies for the format and meandering approach, but I hope it helps paint a picture of the AU’s history. For a quick recap though before I wrap this up, the game effectively took place in the following order

SegaSonic the Hedgehog>>Sonic CD>>Tails Adventure>>Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)>>Sonic 2>>Sonic 3>>Sonic and Knuckles>>(Knuckles) Chaotix>>Sonic 4 Ep. I>>Sonic 4 Ep. Metal.

From here the Sonic Ring Bond AU will be going in its own direction. How the characters develop and grow is for the future, though I hope I’ll make something of it. If not, for now this AU is the one that my Rosy occupies. She has Sonic’s abilities and the desire to master them so that she can go on adventures with him and maybe even win his heart. Her shared idolization of Sonic has resulted in her and Tails becoming best friends, while Sonic is best friends with Mighty. Eggman has completed a version of Metal Sonic that is for all extents and purposes Sonic and is just waiting for the perfect opportunity to ruin his fun and gloat in victory. Meanwhile, the Battle Kukku Armada is still out there and desiring revenge against Tails, and Rosy leaving Fang in pursuit of Sonic and his lifestyle has left her and Sonic yet another crafter enemy who himself wants “compensation” for losing his treasure tracker. And all of this takes place in a world where Eggman’s robotics and engineering skills puts him decades ahead of the rest of constantly shifting world full of ancient ruins and legends barely hanging on to airship technology fueled by early industry. But with the help of Checkpoint, it is a world that is a home to many adventurers who live out their dreams of a lifetime of discovery.

Thank you to everyone who read to the end, and I welcome any question or suggestions you may have. For the sake of organization though, please send questions or suggestions through my ask and I’ll be glad to answer. Thank you again everyone for your time.

#sonic the hedgehog #sonic ring bond #sonic au #I've finally introduced it #I don't know if it'll go anywhere #but i hope it does #thanks for reading

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rosybunnnny · 5 years

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He tied me up and fucked my ass

Written on April 2nd, 2018.

I am a 22-year-old female. He’s a 27-year-old male.

I have been hooking up quite often with Liam, from a previous story. I was house sitting and bored one weekend so I told him to come over. I told him I had a few things to play around with.

Liam knocked on the door about twenty minutes later. I gave him a coy smile while I opened the door in my boyshort underwear and t-shirt. He could see my nipples poking through the fabric. I motioned for him to come in before the cat could make a run for it through the door.

He sat on the couch while I closed the door behind him. I walked over and straddled his lap. “Do you wanna get high?” He kissed me gently. I turned myself so I was sitting next to him on the couch before grabbing my weed and pipe from the coffee table. We smoked and played an episode of Black Mirror. I laid down with my head on his lap. Liam likes to think he‘s super smart and he kept talking over the show about how the plot had faults, etc etc. Eventually I couldn’t handle it anymore so I reached my hand up and put it over his mouth. “Don’t make me shut you up.” Then I looked up at his eyes with a special smile on my face.

“Come on.”

He followed me a few feet into the bedroom. I climbed onto the bed leaving him with a nice view of my ass while I did so. I pointed at the wall. “Shut the light.” Liam flipped the switch and walked towards me. I was now on my knees on the edge of the bed. I pulled him closer by his belt loops and grazed my hand along the denim covering his crotch. I looked up and our eyes met as he parted my lips with his thumb. I maintained the eye contact and took his thumb further into my mouth, sucking it, swirling my tongue around it, and biting it lightly when he slowly started pulling it away.

I could feel his dick, so hard under his jeans. I was still maintaining the eye contact as my hands unbuttoned and unzipped them. I ran my nails over the fabric of his briefs. His dick twitched. A shiver ran down my spine from his fingers going through my long wavy hair. When he reached the ends he grabbed my hair and tugged. I gave out a moan.

I let him continue caressing my head and hair while I pulled his briefs down a few inches and took out his cock. He was so fucking hard. There was wetness at the tip. I leaned forward and tasted it. Precum. Mmmm. I took him fully into my mouth and let my tongue roam freely. I sucked with my throat, making noises that would have been weird if we weren’t doing what we were doing. He started tugging my hair again so I decided to tease him by switching things up all of a sudden. I put both of my hands around cock, lacing my fingers together in the back and rubbing his frenulum with my thumbs. He let out a deep breath. I kept my hands in this position but moved them up and down. After a while I looked up and his eyes were closed, his face holding an expression of bliss. My turn.

I slowly stopped stroking him and left his dick with a gentle kiss. Then I laid back on the bed from where I was, him now towering over me. I put my feet on his chest and let them slide down towards his stomach, then towards his groin. He looked into my eyes. Quickly and forcefully he grabbed both of my ankles and pulled my legs apart. I gasped out of surprise. He started thrusting his pelvis into mine, my panties separating us. My pussy throbbed and I could feel how wet I was getting.

He took his hands off my ankles and glided them down my legs, ending at my panties. I was looking at him eagerly. He took a finger from each hand and slid my underwear off my ass and then my legs and feet. Then he lifted my hips up, leaned down, and pushed his face into me. I moaned and then felt him put his fingers inside my pussy. Another moan, louder this time. His tongue rolled up and down and around my clit. He kept making noises with his throat that vibrated his jaw and it drove me wild.

He pulled his face and hands away. “Turn over.” I complied, sticking my ass in the air. I felt the chill of lube fall on my asshole. Then I felt his dick rub up and down my backside. “What do you want?” he asked. “I want you to fuck me in my ass.” “What’s that?” “Please, I want your dick in my ass.”

He thrust his whole self in. “OHHH” I cried, of pleasure not pain. I had never had an entire cock in my ass. I had had a plug, finger, and dildo, which I have a story about, but not a cock.

It felt so different but so good. “Do you want more?” I heard the buzzing sound of a vibrator. “Yes!” Then I felt him push my vibrating rabbit toy into my pussy. Wow. Double penetration is another universe. He pounded my ass while holding the vibrator inside of me as well. I took one hand, reached under myself and started rubbing my clit. “I’m going to cum oh god.” Once the orgasm came, my vision went fuzzy and my face fell into the bed as both of my arms gave out and I couldn’t support myself. He kept thrusting, more slowly though, as I recovered. “Holy shit,” I said. I pulled my body away from his and flipped over so I was on my back. I looked at the ceiling, still trying to catch my breathing.

All of a sudden he turned and grabbed something from the nightstand. A rope. He moved my body towards the head of the bed. “Take your shirt off and put your hands up.” I obeyed. He tied my right wrist to the metal bed frame behind me. Then did the same with my left. He wasn’t done yet. He pushed my thigh up to my elbow and tied them together. Then the other side. Now my legs were spread apart, back as far as the could basically go, and my arms were also immobile.

I was completely exposed. Vulnerable as hell. It was so hot.

He was on the bed in front of my body. He leaned over me and kissed me. We made out, his face taking the lead since I was practically pinned down. While his tongue was in my mouth he slipped two fingers into my pussy and pushed up repeatedly on my gspot. I moaned into his mouth.

He took his hand out of me, brought it to my lips, and let me taste myself. Then he brought his hand back down and slowly guided his cock into me. The first thrust is always so fucking incredible. A rush of stars exploded through my entire being. “Fuuuck,” I mumbled. He fucked me fast and hard, fast and hard. My hands were starting to tingle from being tied up so tightly.

While still thrusting into me over and over again, he grabbed the vibrator. Then he took a break from fucking me, gently slid the vibrator into my ass, and put three fingers into my pussy, curling them upwards inside of me and pulling slightly. It was such a unique feeling to be so helpless to the pleasure. It felt as if thousands of lightning waves were running through my legs. My hands were purple at this point.

My eyes had been closed as I moaned for what felt like days. I must have even lost in my own head of bliss because the next thing I knew, his dick was inside of me again. I opened my eyes and his locked with mine. He could see the helplessness in my face but knew I loved it. He took a hand and placed it over my neck, with his fingers pushing on my carotid arteries. I was being fucked, in and out, in and out, in and out, with a vibrator in my ass, and my brain losing oxygen. I started to feel light headed. My vision was becoming shaded on the edges.

His thrusts started getting more forceful and soon I could feel his body move in a way I knew all too well. He let out a groan and I could feel him explode inside of me. He let go of my throat which sent the blood rushing through my head again. A rush went through my body and I came from the all of the different sensations I was experiencing. We took many breaths with our eyes closed, recovering for a moment before he untied the rope and let me loose. Then we lay cuddling on the bed, still in our own worlds of pleasure.

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numberonerandomblogger · 5 years

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The Gamecube review

So, it has been 18 years since the Gamecube was released and now, with my newfound free time, I can finally review what I’ve experienced from its gaming library. First, I’d like to say that this review is only my opinion, although it might be a bit controversial since I have my own issues with it. Second, I’ll divide the games in some categories for this review.

Platformers

Gamecube had an abundance of platformers, with most of them being in 3D. It’s a bit like the N64 era, but with even less 2.5 D platformers (aside from Megaman, Viewtiful Joe, or Alien Hominid). I ended up liking most 2.5 D platformers on the console and Donkey Kong:Jungle Beat remains an amazing game, despite being very easy. Due to this oversaturation, most of them tried very hard to stand out by mixing up gameplay mechanics with something “cool” (guns, cars, etc.) to appeal to kids and I ended up not liking those too much, such as Ty, Shadow The Hedgehog, Vexx, etc. Meanwhile, the other games that stayed true to themselves became classics always considered by fans, such as Billy Hatcher & The Giant Egg, Pac-Man World 2, Super Mario Sunshine even though I don’t like that game at all, etc. While I wasn’t really a fan of the direction platformers were taking during that era, which heavily affected their quality, there are still a few diamonds in the rough.

Adventure/Role-Playing Games

The Gamecube had plenty of adventure games and, despite open-world games becoming more and more of a thing, the Gamecube had very few open-world games. Only The Incredible Hulk:Total Destruction, True Crime, or even GUN were open-world on the consoles. So, more traditional adventure games were put on the console. I really loved The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker for what it was, despite a few problems it had. Starfox Adventures was also decent, but far from great. The Legend Of Zelda:Twilight Princess tried too hard to please its “hardcore gamerz” fanbase and to look cool, so I still found the experience slightly dissapointing. At least some gameplay mechanics. The Resident Evil games were also the only source of adventure-horror games on the console aside from Eternal Darkness, which I think is a really great horror game with lots of interesting ideas. Role-Playing games on the console were also fairly scarce, especially compared to the Playstation 2. They were fine, though. Paper Mario:The Thousand-Year Door was pretty good, although a bit overrated due to some characters’ halted development and some gameplay mechanics I am not a fan of. The Baten Kaitos games look like they could have been on PS2 in terms of quality, and are really good games. I thought the Pokémon games on the Gamecube (XD, Colosseum) were really nothing special both in terms of story and gameplay compared to other RPGs despite trying to appeal to an older audience. Tales Of Symphonia was great and could compete with PS2 RPGs. So yeah, I liked the Aventure games/RPGs of the Gamecube, but most weren’t that extraordinary.

Shooters

As far as shooters go, there is a big variety of them. Even including a few 2D shoot-em-ups, although only Ikaruga is really fondly remembered. The vast amount of First-Person Shooters on the console wasn’t really that surprising and rarely did any of them try to stand out. Two titles that stood out to me were Metroid Prime 1 and 2. Rather than just focusing on killing the bad guys, there was a vast amount of effort put into exploration and, while the sight of a 3D Metroid game doesn’t instantly make me happy, that’s something I can honestly get behind. I’m glad Retro Studios took their time to create a deeper universe for Metroid. They were a few other shooters, such as Metal Arms:Glitch in the System, but I don’t think that many of them stood out on the Gamecube aside from Killer 7 and P.N. 03, but that game isn’t the best due to its unusual controls. Star Fox: Assault might not have been the best game in the series, but it was still somewhat alright to play and kept the arcade-like spirit of the franchise. Oh, and there’s also Geist, a Nintendo-made First-Person Shooter. Too bad it had a great idea that was better executed elsewhere.

Fighting games

Unlike the N64, the Gamecube got quite a few good fighting games. Sure, most of them are licensed games, but most of them were really fun. Even better is that Mortal Kombat appeared on the console in 2004. Super Smash Bros. Melee might be rushed, but it still works really well. Custom Robo can also be considered a fighting game, but it has an interesting story mode that’s somewhat darker compared to the happy-go-lucky Nintendo 64 games and can feel like an RPG due to its structure. The 90’s atmosphere is what sold me to this game. As for the licensed titles, anime games based on Naruto or Zatch Bell were fine, but they also weren’t the best fighting games in existence due to a copious amount of problems. This era saw the birth of a bunch of Power Stone clones for some reason (One Piece:Grand Battle, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, etc.), which was a good thing, in my opinion. The only bad thing about it is that Capcom still won’t make Power Stone 3 despite their formula being so successful other companies ripped them off.

Other

Despite the Gamecube not having a realistic car simulator, it had a good amount of realistic-looking racing games. Too bad I honestly do not care about any of them. F-Zero GX is a fun but somewhat frustrating futuristic racing game. Just be prepared for the mind-crushing difficulty and you’ll have a good time. Mario Kart:Double Dash!! Has some great ideas that kept me hooked for a while, but I’d rather play Mario Kart 8. Kirby Air Ride is probably my favorite racing game on the system: it uses a single button and the joystick to deliver a rather unique experience. I would definitely recommend it. Animal Crossing, on the other hand, is either something you love or just don’t care. I personally think the Animal Crossing novelty wears off after a few weeks, but I still somewhat “like” it. My favorite game on the console has to be Chibi-Robo: a cleaning/simulation/platforming game where you control a small robot that has to clean the Sanderson’s house. It’s weird, charming, and has a unique story that surprisingly ends up being very dark. Luigi’s Mansion was also somewhat dark, yet ended up really being charming and interesting thanks to its nice atmosphere and neat gameplay. As for rhythm games, we only got a few of them, including Dance Dance Revolution:Mario Mix, which only has some neat remixes. Nothing else about it is really worth the price. Speaking of Mario spin-offs, I really didn’t like some of the ones on the Gamecube. Super Mario Strikers has a single unlockable team, Mario Superstar baseball’s mechanics rarely work and the AI might take advantage of that during the single-player mode, Mario Power Tennis’s gimmicks didn’t entertain me enough to prefer the game over the N64 one, Mario Party 4’s mushroom mechanics were somewhat predictable, and Mario Party 7’s mic-enhanced minigames and overall board designs just bored me. That was the time when I stopped caring about Mario spin-offs.

Overall, I liked the Gamecube’s gaming library, although I didn’t like many aspects of it and had a much better time with the PS2 or even the Dreamcast. I think the Gamecube MIGHT be a bit overrated due to a good amount mainstream gamers growing up with it using their pink nostalgia glasses in order to complain that THEIR era was better than the current era, just like a good amount of previous Nintendo fans complaining on forums about how THEIR era was better back in 2001-2006. It’s an eternal cycle.

#billy hatcher #shadow the hedgehog #gamecube #eternal darkness #chibi-robo #wind waker #kirby air ride #mario #metroid prime #star fox #nintendo

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blazehedgehog · 6 years

Note

I asked you about your favorite Left 4 Dead 1 and 2 campaigns a while ago. But I was wondering if you could rank those two game's campaigns from best to worst?

I’ll lump them all in to one big list, but I’ll start at the worst because, uh, that’s how I ended up writing them out in this text file.

Cold Stream This was the one and only fan-made campaign Valve added to Left 4 Dead 2 and I’m still not sure why. Adding fan-made campaigns to Left 4 Dead was a great idea, and there’s a lot of very creative ideas Valve could have officiated – One 4 Nine, Questionable Ethics, Yama, I Hate Mountains, Drop Dead Gorges, Suicide Blitz – but instead they picked this turd. They polished it the best they could, but it’s still very poorly paced. The places you go and the routes you take to get there are super arbitrary, and the random, instant-kill traps are frustrating. I feel like the only reason this campaign got officially added to Left 4 Dead 2 is because somebody lost a bet or was paying back a favor.

Crash Course In general I don’t like the DLC campaigns. I don’t like how they have really long middle chapters, and all of them lack their own identity. Especially Crash Course, which is just a less cool version of the same city we saw in the lead up to No Mercy, culminating in a dopey Dawn of the Dead reference. It’s not so much terrible, just very bland.

The Passing Same deal as Crash Course. I know the longer middle chapters were to help shorten up Versus games, but it makes these feel really weird. The idea of the two survivor teams interacting is interesting, but in practice it’s more of a letdown, and it kind of messes with the lore of Left 4 Dead 1 taking place in Philadelphia and Left 4 Dead 2 taking place in Georgia. I know they kind of address it with the train and the comic, but it still feels like a stretch.

The Sacrifice The best of the DLC campaigns, it has the strongest identity out of all of them. You kind of get the feeling of The Parish, but not quite so southern just yet, so it’s got more of an industrial, middle-america marina feel. I am also endlessly fascinated with the Tank encounter here, given he’s a special unique model with a military tattoo. Things like that make me really upset that these games are never designed to give definitive endings. Valve almost seems afraid to give their games endings.

Death Toll Death Toll is one of those campaigns I struggle to remember, but all you have to say is “church” and immediately I know exactly what we’re dealing with, because that’s the focal point of this entire campaign. Probably kind of an underappreciated campaign, but a lot of it does feel kind of samey and doesn’t stand out super well.

Dead Center Zombies and malls are a good combination but I feel like Dead Center gets off easy by making their mall dark, empty, and thoroughly lifeless. I mean, I guess it’s sort of realistic, but an infested mall should be a lot more fun than this is. Needs more funny store names, you should be able to enter more of them, etc. There’s unrealized potential here. Also, this map buries Rochelle’s strongest character moment – when she enters the gun store before you get to the mall proper, she’s supposed to have an epiphany where she comes out as a closet gun nut. For whatever reason, Valve cut this, but all the voice clips are still in the game of her going wild in the gun store.

Blood Harvest I love the outdoorsy feel of this campaign, but for being called “Blood Harvest” there could’ve been more farm land. The cornfield we get here is actually kind of tame, but I appreciate the effort, and the actual farmhouse itself is impeccably built. I would live in this map. Minus the zombies, obviously.

Swamp Fever I like Swamp Fever, but I’ll admit, it never saw as much play in our rotation. Not because it’s a bad campaign, but probably because it’s SO wide open. Valve does their best to give Special Infected places of cover, they force survivors in to interiors, and trudging through the deeper waters are perilous, but something just doesn’t click super well. To tell the truth, I’d forgotten this campaign even existed until I was about to hit submit and had to go back and find a place to stick it.

The Parish Left4Dead 2′s showcase campaign. And it’s pretty good! But because it’s the showcase campaign, there’s definitely a feeling that it’s not very unique. Which is crazy, because you have, like, the Mardi Gras floats, all the restaurants, the graveyard, and the big sprint to the end across the bridge. It’s a heck of a campaign!

No Mercy Alternatively, here’s L4D1′s showcase campaign. Again, kind of generic feeling, but still super good. The exploding gas station, running around in the abandoned subway, and oh, gosh, the hospital. The hospital is immaculate! You can keep your malls, the best place to set a level for a zombie outbreak is a hospital, hands down. I love how much I hate it.

Dark Carnival And on the topic of great places to set the zombie apocalypse, an amusement park is also just a total chef’s kiss. And, thankfully, Valve doesn’t cheap out on it, either. Other campaigns save the best stuff for last, but you spend over half the campaign in the amusement park here, running across rollercoaster tracks, doing shooting galleries, and going down the tunnel of love. I remember when friends told me of the concert finale, it sounded too ridiculous to believe. “ELLIS SANG AT A ROCK CONCERT AND KILLED ZOMBIES WITH THE POWER OF HEAVY METAL AND THEY CELEBRATED IT WITH FIREWORKS” But that happens!!

Dead Air Speaking of campaigns that commit to a gimmick, gosh, I love Dead Air. Yeah, it’s another city campaign, but the airport theme is wonderful, and sort of like the hospital, it makes a lot of sense that there’d be an outbreak at the airport. Also, entering the finale map and seeing that plane crash was, and still kind of is, one of the most impressive things I think I’ve ever seen in a video game. I could watch it over, and over, and over.

Hard Rain And finally, the uber-campaign. Hard Rain delivers on so much. The premise sounds kind of lame – you go somewhere, and then retrace your steps back the way you came. But the storm changes so, so, so much. It also takes field of crops from Blood Harvest and actually does them properly, where it’s nearly impossible to see more than a few feet because the plants are so tall and so thick. And that’s not even touching on this being a focal point for encountering the witches! And all the great traps Special Infected can lay in the sugar mill! Oh man! HARD RAIN IS SO GOOD

#questions #left 4 dead #l4d #valve software #zombies #gottaspeedkeed

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doomedandstoned · 6 years

Photo

FAMYNE

~Songs in the Night~

Interview & Photographs by Angelique Le Marchand

I am wrestling with all the crap in my pockets for ages as my mobile goes off on a London double-decker bus. I just missed a call, and it’s neither my bestie nor a robot calling to offer me PPI. It’s Jake Cook drummer for the band FAMYNE calling to finalise our plans to meet up for an interview in Camden, just before the band’s gig at The Black Heart. This proper phone call feels like such a good omen. It is refreshing to come across someone like Jake, who doesn’t solely rely on texts or emails nowadays.

As I had feared, my quest for a reasonably quiet room suitable for recording the interview is not fruitful, and the initial plan of booking a copacetic space ahead of time was impeded by the band’s busy schedule prior to tonight's show. As a result, all seven of us decide to make the band’s tour bus our "office" for the duration of our discussion. Parked outside the venue, it’s perfect -- quiet and well lit, with plenty of armrests to prop pints of cider on (the band’s drink of choice).

Famyne is:

Tom Vane (vox)

Jake Cook (drums)

Martin Emmons (rhythm guitar)

Chris Travers (bass)

Alex Tolson (lead guitar)

Justin Crouch (silent member and head roadie)

Famyne by Famyne

Origins

The Canterbury doomers were inspired by Opeth’s song "Famine" to name their band. The song is an extract from the pivotal album 'Heritage' (2014), which Famyne’s founding members have a predilection for, and although their taste in music stems from a variety of influences, all five share an admiration for the Swedish prog-metal legends.

At the time that Famyne were formed, Tom was studying the history of English as part of his undergraduate degree, which played a big part in personalising the band’s name. The spelling is a reference to orthographic variations in Old English, with the vowel "i" being interchanged with “y” depending on your geographical position across the country during the Early Medieval Period.

Like all bands, Famyne went through a great number of possible names before coming up with one that clicked. "It’s like naming a baby almost," says Tom. "You think of how people could take the piss out of it. In that case, no. Let’s not be called that." Their search had to be brought to a halt when the band was offered their first gig with Skull Tank and Death Truck Mutiny at their local bar. They already had a set put together, but they still hadn’t decided on a name. They needed to come up with one -- fast -- if anything, for the gig’s promotion poster. "Famyne seemed to fit," recalls Jake.

Famyne underwent several changes before progressing to their final line-up. The band was initially put together by founding members Jake on drums, Tom on vocals, and first lead guitarist, Wesley. Wesley departed the band after their first show in October of 2014, as he was unable to commit to an increasingly busy live schedule. Jake slowly met the other members of Famyne in local pubs, including bassist Chris Travers. Both admit having no clear recollection of their first encounter due to the consumption of large amounts of alcohol, although the legend goes that Chris may have been found headbanging on his own at either The Cherry Tree or The Foundry in Canterbury.

Jake also met lead guitarist Alex Tolson in a Canterbury bar. Alex was invited to one of the band’s practice after making a big impression at one of his early live performances. He was instantly enthused to becoming part of the project, interestingly bringing with him some amps specially built for Famyne by his father. Alex Williams and Alex Johns successively played rhythm guitar, with Johns serving as long-standing guitarist for two-and-a-half years, although he never officially committed as a full-on member of the band.

As touring and the release of Famyne’s debut album required a more permanent rhythm guitarist, it felt a natural progression for Martin Emmons to complete the line-up, and he made his first live appearance as official member of the band at The UCA Bar in Canterbury on the 29th of June 2018. Martin, who has known Jake since he was 14 years old, is another eminent musician on the Canterbury scene. His prog-punk band Witchdoctor shared stage with Famyne several times, and he stood-in for Johns at some of Famyne’s shows, enabling a very smooth transition. To date, Martin continues to play with Witchdoctor and they are currently working on new material.

Guilty Pleasures

Having a peep at somebody’s music collection is a quick way of breaking the ice and getting to know them better. But picking out unexpected pieces is even more interesting as it helps defining their quirkiness, so I am curious about surprising records that may be dotting the bandmates’ personal collections. Jeff Beck’s guitar play and the way he becomes one with his instrument are an inspiration for Alex. At the moment, he is also digging Funkadelic for their fusion of funk, rock and metal. Tom’s revelation that Cocteau Twins and The Cure -- with attention to Disintegration -- get a regular spin, is coherent with some of the discrete brush strokes of post- punk in Famyne’s outputs. In his own words, Martin likes a lot of "weird shit." Quite a range on the spectrum in fact, from math rock to Zappa and King Crimson, with Cardiacs being top of his list of weird.

Although the bandmates tease the head (and only) roadie Justin that he has no choice but to listen to Famyne, he manages to explain that he is also a nü-metal fan, particularly enjoying Korn and Slipknot. Chris cites "Voulez-Vous" by Abba as one of his guilty pleasures. A single that he does own and that gets blasted in his living room, together with a lot of doom. His disclosure is met with roars of laughter from the rest of the band, but a spirited approval from me as a fellow owner of Abba’s records. If you’re going to indulge in unpretentious pop, you may as well listen to the good shit. But Chris currently also listens to a lot of Uncle Acid and the deadbeats, as well as 1000mods, and some early Metallica. Time to turn to Jake and ask him about any records in his collection that may surprise our readers.

Jake: "I’ve become a very big Ghost fan."

The "office" erupts in a huge scream. I’m ashamed to say, I suddenly forget my place. I catch myself curled up in fetal position, repeatedly punching my knees. In stitches, Alex and Martin, have completely disappeared behind their seats, while Justin is crying so hard that he looks dangerously close to having a fit. Chris briefly recovers to come to my rescue with a sympathetic handshake and a piercing "Yesssss!!! Her, too!!!" Jake is a man who will stand by his convictions, and he calmly continues.

Jake: "I know there’s a lot..." (interrupted by more laughter).

Tom: "He’s always trying to play it at parties and stuff."

Jake: "Well, say what you will but they influence me, it’s a band I like. I can’t argue with the thousands of turns up at shows."

Tom: "Yeah, you can say that about Britney Spears."

Jake redeems himself by talking us through his boundless admiration for Opeth. Then comes the revelation that he also recently acquired a soft spot for The Darkness.

Chris: "Because you can hit those notes!"

Jake (grinning): "Of course, I’m a very impressive singer actually!"

Chris proceeds to entertain us with a superb impersonation of Justin Hawkins, beating Jake to it.

No Stone Left Unturned

It’s difficult to listen to Famyne’s debut album and pick just the one favourite song, and one that would remain such as set in stone. All of them sound so unique, yet they work harmoniously juxtaposed in an album. In just over four years in existence, the band have already created a signature sound that, within split seconds of a first listen, is capable of prompting inner-monologues running along the lines of: "Ah, I recognise this...it’s Famyne."

Describing their own sound and uniqueness is not an easy task for a band. Famyne are self-aware about revealing their personal thoughts on the subject as they are interested in their listeners’ interpretations without influencing them. "Famyne is Famyne," says Jake. "We all have one central point that we’re influenced by, and that is doom. That’s why we all come together." Doom may be the binding agent of their sound, but the bandmates’ varied musical influences prevented them from falling too rigidly within the frames of the genre.

Famyne EP by Famyne

"Everything gets thrown in and we knock each other’s ideas," adds Jake, "we’ll change this and we’ll add this, and it all gets messed around." "We do what we like to do," explains Chris. "What appeals to us and what we think sounds good. No stone is left unturned, for sure." If the bandmates agree on the importance of sounding different, their self-awareness guards them from placing this thought process before the quality of their songwriting. "I wouldn’t say we try specifically to sound different," Jake says. "We don’t do it at the expense of the song," adds Tom. "The song needs to feel right, it needs to flow."

Working in a super-tight collaborative way plays a big part in sounding unique, but Tom pushes the concept further by explaining how Famyne work as a true democratic band. "Let’s say someone is really passionate about how a song needs to be. It doesn’t matter how passionate they are if four of us disagree, it’s not going to happen."

"There is a good mixture of the heart and the head in the direction of the band," he adds. Tom’s vocals stand out as a distinctive piece of the jigsaw defining Famyne’s unique sound. "I know that my vocals aren’t the same as everyone else’s," he reflects. "It’s definitely influenced by a range of different artists. Every time I sing something, I kind of have a meter in my head saying: how predictable is this? I don’t want it to be so predictable, but I also want it to feel right."

With an imposing vocal range technically flawless on record, his precision on stage singes a lasting impression. As Tom reveals that he was stage trained, his ease suddenly makes perfect sense; he has been singing since the age of four, working in musicals in several different countries as well as in the West End. Having gained a lot of singing practice from such a young age certainly shows.

‘No one really knows the whole full story of how we got this album put together’

Famyne released their self- titled, first full- length in September 2018. The band recorded the album over four different studios, each chosen to craft a specific sound envisioned not only for the band’s vocal parts and own instruments, but also for guest string musicians Cat Ledgerwood (cello) and Karen Jolliffe (violin/ viola).

Every single detail gone into putting the album together was overseen by the band themselves. As there is a heartfelt abundance of detail, it’s surprising to hear that the album was entirely self-funded. Producing such an accomplished piece with no backing financial support strikes as a respectable tour de force, and a good measure of the passion that Famyne poured into their output.

While the bandmates pride themselves in their independence, discussing recording their new album also spurs on memories of considerable hardship. "We’ve gone to do what we do, we’ve just gone for it no matter what," says Chris. "No one really knows the whole full story of how we got this album put together and our struggle in places, especially financially, sometimes. But no matter what, we just spent the money to do it. If it needs to be changed, and that means another day in the studio for this little bit, it doesn’t fucking matter. We’re doing it."

Tom composed the lyrics and cites Neil Peart as influential on his writing process. He likes the way the Rush’s lyricist produces massive songs that develop into concept albums. Tom observes that he may be perceived as goobledegooking the lyrics, but he does in fact put a lot of thought into them. I suggest that the atmosphere and themes developed have a feel of the poètes maudits from the 19th Century, but the texts are in fact quite personal. "It’s a mixture of philosophy, and fear, and also just honesty. These three things are what are behind a lot of my lyrics, a lot of the time," says Tom.

The album comes beautifully presented with an ongoing monochrome theme. A refined band shot by photographer Phill Morgan adorns the inner sleeve, while Russian artist Vergvoktre was commissioned to create a dramatic tryptic, reminiscent of Romanticism and the engravings of Gustave Doré. Vergvoktre featured the city of Canterbury on the front panel as Famyne are close to their local roots and heritage, as well as being inspired by the Canterbury sound and scene.

This is a feel they wanted to represent in the album’s artwork. "We don’t know much about the guy," says Tom about Vergvoktre. "He’s somewhat mysterious. We had these ideas for four panels that were interconnected and when put together, provided a kind of 360 degrees feel, which is why they blend together if you put them next to each other." "Like a Famyne lampshade!" Jake adds, prompting laughs and my comment that they could easily sell those in Ikea. "We could brand that," he adds, "We need to go to Stockholm, boys!"

On point with their natural attention to detail, the band put a lot of planning into the artwork’s commission, carefully assembling ideas and atmospheres inspired by different sections of Vergvoktre’s existing pieces. This resulted in a thorough brief emailed over to Vergvoktre, comprised of themes and pictures. "As well as stick man drawings!" photobombs Chris, with his customary wit. "If you looked at it, you’d see the difference. It’s like a very young child’s drawing and then we just said, do your thing, dude! He did it justice, I’d say."

"The best gig for me is when you see people mouthing the words as I’m singing."

Tom should be pleased with tonight’s show at The Black Heart, and both "Slave Ship" and "Grand Majesty" were particularly notable in prompting this very reaction in the audience. Slightly unusual for any band opening up on any night, but truly remarkable given that "Grand Majesty" hasn’t even been released. Enquiries on reasons why the empyrean song hasn’t been committed to record yet are met with a shroud of mystery: Famyne may have some surprises in store for us.

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Film by Mathijs Kooij of VoidManiac

The band’s presence live has increased tenfold over the past couple of years, with Bloodstock already under their belt. Despite being a relative young band, Famyne are steadily growing a legion of converts thanks to their sterling musicianship combined with their trademark neck brace-inducing energy.

Over the past few months, on top of recording and releasing their debut album, somehow the bandmates found the time to play a sizeable number of dates in the UK, as well as across eight different countries on the Old Continent. Playing Into The Void last year in The Netherlands and Germany for the first time were highlights for them. "The thing that was good about the tour was playing in places we’d never played and being busy," says Jake. "Beautiful place, beautiful people -- really beautiful people. Everyone was really ready to get down. The set went really well," Chris adds about Karlsruhe. "We had space on stage so we got to do our thing a bit more." Witnessing Chris fiendishly jumping on stage twenty minutes later will enlighten on the latter detail being of importance to him. It comes as a relief that live, his bandmates have apparently become very good at dodging -- although Martin still has room for improvement.

Touring, Tiger Bread, and Transport Police

One of my favourite questions to ask a band is if they have any unusual items on their riders, as it usually prompts some interesting responses. "We like to have uncut tiger bread," Jake starts off. "It hasn’t turned up once," adds Chris, solemn. The band’s need for starchy food was once covered by their promoter in Austria. He once baked a Famyne cake for Martin’s birthday and decorated it with the name of the band. Two of the letters were missing, though, as the cake turned out to be quite small. It’s the thought that counts, as they say.

Film by Mathijs Kooij of VoidManiac

As the band’s reach progresses and their touring schedules grow, so do their riders. They are appreciative of folks putting them on in the first place, but they don’t expect anything outside of the essentials. "I think we don’t want to put people into too much trouble, as we don’t want to inconvenience them," Tom says. "It’s unnecessary crap for us. All we want is some food, we want some alcohol, some soft drinks, and a nice printed picture of Bill Ward," Jake adds, as a nod to Monolord’s response to this very question in a previous Doomed and Stoned interview. "I’ll wait for the day when we get some nice lemon scented towels," says Jake.

Famyne recently came across a band (which they will not name) who was asking for hot lemon-scented towels on their riders for when they came off stage. Although they initially laughed at the extravagant requirement, looking back some of them are finding the idea quite smart. "You know what? You’re a sweaty mess, you’re dying. Shove my face all over a nice, hot lemon-scented towel. That would be fucking nice, actually!" Chris muses. Famyne do love their cider, as I will discover at my expense while naively trying to keep up with them at The Dev in Camden following the interview. It's an experience that will leave me crucified by the cruelest hangover for three days solid. "I think double the amount of cider next time, never enough cider!" concludes Chris. Terrifying.

Looking at the band’s social media feeds gives the impression that the band are striking the balance right between hard work and brothers-in-arms fun, especially on tour. "We’re in this band not only because we love the music, but because we are friends. We have a good time," says Jake. "We want to play music, we want to travel," Chris chimes in, "so we get to do the best of both while touring."

The band is planning to go back on tour across Europe in May, and they are looking forward to playing in front of fans who have wanted to see them live for some time. They are also planning to revisit places they travelled through in 2018, including Slovenia, where Chris and Justin famously jumped in Lake Bled in their underwear...in the middle of winter. Due to the freezing temperatures at the time, they had to abandon their plans to swim across to the picturesque Bled Island popping out of the lake, with its cliffs mounted by an opulent church and a medieval castle. But Chris is determined to give this another go. "I’m getting to that, I’m swimming to the middle man. I’ve got targets," he says, sparking laughter and cheers.

The tour went really well for the Canterbury doomers, aside from them being chased down the motorway by the Slovenian traffic police. The bandmates were unaware that they had to purchase and display a little sticker before jumping on the carriageway. As their rider was a little slower than the vehicle chasing them, it soon caught up with them, causing quite a fright with a yellow flashing sign demanding that they pull over. A distressing experience for those amongst the passengers who were chilling out by listening to some music, while consuming considerable amounts of alcohol. Fortunately, the incident drew to a close with the payment of a hefty fine then and there, and didn’t affect shows the band were travelling to.

Famyne’s album launch is one of their personal highlights of 2018. The band invited prog-doomer friends Garganjua to open up for them, and the event took place on The Golden Jubilee, a 240-capacity cruiser on London’s river Thames. Why go for the logical choice of Camden venues, when you could have a boat to doom on? Knowing of the financial struggles associated with self-recording their debut album in the months preceding the event, it is quite telling about the bandmates that they should decide to treat their fans to an unusual, lavish party. Not only did the bandmates chip in to book the boat, but they also hired a coach travelling from their home city to London, as they wanted to give something back to all their friends and fans from Canterbury.

On the trip down to London, the coach got packed with party-goers who got in the mood with a couple of drinks (or ten), further relaxed by the thought of safely returning home after the show. Karma must have heard the rumours. As the album launch was popular with fans, the memory wasn’t tarnished by a financial hangover that could have been the albatross dangling from the bandmates’ necks for months to come.

The party sounded like a hell of a lot of fun. Instead of being crammed in a stuffed venue, folks mingled around in the fresh air, admiring iconic London landmarks as the boat sailed on. It must have been quite a sight for those tourists perched on London bridges. Attracted to look over by waves of extreme music booming out of the boat’s lower decks, they were cheerfully greeted by a crowd dressed in black, partially composed of pirate-resembling hirsute gentlemen yelling at them while brandishing the sign of the horns. "We released our album in I think the best possible way," says Jake, "and we made..." "A SPLASH!" is yelled, of course, by several people at once.

I suddenly become aware that I have spent almost an hour with Famyne in their "office." The other bands billed tonight at the Black Heart are still playing, but I have lost track of time and missed most of their sets. I have become completely relaxed in the company of Famyne, to the point that I have lost the awareness that I was entrusted by our editor with a specific task. With time, folks who gravitate around lots of bands must learn to tell the difference between a genuine human interaction and a PR exercise. This is something that I am generally aware of, yet meeting the band for the first time strangely feels like catching up with old friends that you haven’t seen in a very long time. So many great stories, so much laughter -- and banter! -- some of which was at my own expense (well, most at my own expense). Also a great candeur, particularly in relation with some of the challenges that everyday life throws at folks making space to express their creativity.

In such a short space of time, the bandmates’ gentle manners and openness have enabled me to find out so much about this band. A band that, until now, had remained rather mysterious, other than through the medium of their music, and some photographs shared on their social media feeds. Jake had used these words to describe the sound of his band at the start of the interview, and as I press the stop button on my Dictaphone they resonate with a deeper amplitude: Famyne is Famyne.

LIVE & LOUD

Famyne, Serpent Venom, and Iron Void at The Black Heart

~Review by Connah Davies | Photos by Angelique Le Marchand~

The Black Heart is the scene of day two of the three-day jaunt for this ragtag gang of doom metal miscreants as they roll down from Coventry, having just played The Phoenix on the previous night. Their run finished the following day in Bristol at The Old England pub.

This is Iron Void's first London show in quite some time and it comes off the back of the release of a new album. Having originally formed in 1998, these guys are no strangers to the scene, and their 2008 reformation saw them release a string of interesting EPs and LPs. The band's latest effort, 'Excalibur' (2018), was released in October on Shadow Kingdom Records.

Serpent Venom are the only band on their home turf tonight. After regrettably having to cancel an appearance in early-October, they seem keen to get back out there and conquer the stage again.

Canterbury doomers Famyne recently concluded a spate of European shows following the release of their self-titled LP, before taking to the stage at Camden’s The Black Heart. With the venue's long history of incredible gigs, this would be a fitting place for tonight’s line-up.

Famyne

Famyne started the evening with a barrage of riffs as subtle and powerful as the turning of the tides. Drone-like at times, with subtle and nuanced variation and instrumental interplay, while at other times the riffs leap from the stage and forcibly bang every head in the room. Songs reach a level of incredible intensity before resolving, then the next song starts working its way over you.

Famyne by Famyne

The reverb-soaked vocals from Tom Vane coax and lure the listeners in, before infecting them all with the same brand of insanity he throws himself into throughout the performance. By the end of their set, one might swear the sound of his voice originated from within their own head. These guys have mastered the art of decelerating the tempo of a song in an exceptionally musical way, appearing to never really lose any steam and certainly never losing any bite from the insistently heavy riffs. This, combined with great use of dynamics across their set ensure that they never lose the audience's attention.

Jake Cook (drums), Chris Travers (bass), and Martin Emmons (guitar) are really locked in tight and allow the music to sway and swing about the room or stampede as they see fit. Famyne’s lead guitarist Alex Tolson uses his understated, but technically fantastic, leads sparingly. The ethos of serving the song could leave some listeners wanting more, but that’s quite the point. Never overstaying their welcome, the solos always lift the song exactly when needed before the weight of the riffs come crashing down again. All in all, an equally vital and menacing performance.

Serpent Venom

From the word go Serpent Venom were an altogether different beast. The guitar tones had a more metallic edge to them which, whilst being less atmospheric than the evening's opening act, did allow for more fist pumping from the crowd. The tone of the single guitar on stage added a real weight to the riffs, which came thick and fast, designed to force feed every ear in the room hot gravel. It really sounded like there was more than the one guitar on stage.

Of Things Seen & Unseen by Serpent Venom

Garry Ricketts’ vocals were well-delivered and came in a direct fashion, fitting nicely with the instrumental factions of the band. It could be said that the reverb on the vocals (ramped up to obscene levels) slightly drew away from the poignancy and edge of the vocal performance. A little less would have been a real benefit to this band. Despite this, Ricketts still commanded the attention of everyone in the room. There were a few moments where it seemed he might push into a slightly more aggressive delivery but that never came. If only to occasionally match the snarl, grunt, and crash of the guitar, bass, and drums, it would have been nice to see.

The instrumental sections of the songs often come in a relentless gallop of fuzzed-out madness. It’s during the shifts from these up-tempo moments to the slower sections where it’s genuinely apparent just how tight these guys are. This is accentuated further by the way Ricketts allows his melodies to drift around and in between the band.

One misstep from the engineer during the show temporarily took the wind out of the sails of the performance, when a request for no more strobes was mistaken for a request for no more reverb -- and for half a song that was the case. Serpent Venom didn’t miss a beat during this and the issue was soon rendered, but it did disrupt the atmosphere of the set.

Serpent Venom closed out with a Sabbath-inspired bombardment of riffs. When all was said and done it seemed that, despite being very good, they were capable of putting on a more compelling show under different circumstances.

Iron Void

Opening with "Dragon’s Breath" from their new album, you know where you stand with Iron Void almost immediately. They’ll do little to change one’s mind over the course of the set, but if they’ve got their hooks in and there’s no escape.

Jonathan Seale (bass, vox) and Steve Wilson (guitar, vox) really opened up the sonic range of tonight's show with their vocal harmonies. This lends their sound a more grandiose quality, with the vibe of Gregorian vocal chants thrown in. They use a good dose of pace throughout, with their average tempo being the fastest so far.

Excalibur by Iron Void

Wilson's blues-scorched guitar lines move both with and against the vocals, creating lifting counter melodies and sturdy reinforcements. The well-constructed riffs fit remarkably well with the lyrical themes of the material. The overall sound had a certain ‘70s hard rock twist, which is just as present on their recorded material.

Nothing bad can be said of the lead guitar parts, as they live to serve the almighty riffs they stem from. The new material was comfortably at home amongst their older songs and really added to the slew of fuzz-soaked guitar work and soaring vocals. The only thing that could be said about the performance is that it doesn’t come with too many surprises throughout. This was by no means a boring show, but perhaps with a more carefully curated setlist Iron Void could have kept heads banging more consistently.

Conclusion

All in all, a solid night of doom. With the headline act being the most niche of the three bands that performed tonight it was always a risk that they might experience some drop off in the room, but this wasn’t the case. The room stayed pretty much full, excited, and in motion throughout the night.

The only gripe one might have is the same one you would find in this venue during any gig. The FOH level is always pushed to the very limit of what the system can handle. This causes a degree of clarity to be lost during the fuller on moments. Fortunately, the roster tonight didn’t suffer too greatly from this and there wasn’t many of the issues this can cause for other bands.

Taking a genre like doom-stoner, the parameters of which are well defined, and having such different corners of it touched during a three band lineup really says a lot about the creativity of those who played tonight and love this music. With the same artists playing in Bristol the following evening, one can only hope that things went down as well there, too.

The highlight of the night came early on with Famyne. They had the right blend of strut and intensity, but also knew when to hold back. This may be relatively early days for the band, but it’s clear they’ve got an interesting future ahead of them.

More Famyne

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gamersonthego · 6 years

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Chase Koeneke’s Top 10 Handheld Games of 2018

2018 could’ve been a bummer of a year. The game I was most excited about – Fire Emblem: Three Houses – got pushed to 2019. We were getting a new Pokemon game...but it was based on a mobile game and was fundamentally changing the formula I loved. And outside of Smash Bros., there was little left I was anticipating.

And yet, 2018 turned out to be a fantastic year in handheld gaming. I got a turn-based strategy game that’s up there with any Fire Emblem game I’ve ever played. That Pokemon game ended up being pretty great! And there were a bevy of unexpected indies that kept me entertained all year long. Here are my top 10 handheld games from 2018 (as well as a few honorable mentions).

Honorable Mentions: Mark of the Ninja Remastered, Gris, Kingdom Rush Vengeance, Donut County, West of Loathing

10. Minit (Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC)

I like to take my time in games – fully exploring worlds, talking to NPCs, reading item descriptions. In that sense, Minit, a top-down Zelda-style game that only allows you to play in one-minute sessions should be my nightmare. But it’s not. In fact, I really liked it. Minit’s limitations freed me from my thinking and made me engage with the game on its level. In a world dominated by GPS and a games’ landscape dominated by easily accessible maps, there’s something refreshingly challenging having to commit the area to memory and make plans on not only what to do next, but how to make it there in time.

9. Golf Peaks (iOS, PC)

I’m bad at real golf, but golf video games, especially the ones that don’t try to meticulously recreate the sport, are my jam. Mario Golf on the Game Boy Color is one of my favorite games ever. Golf Story was one of my favorite games last year. And Golf Peaks takes that crown in 2018. Golf Peaks expertly mixes golf, card and puzzle mechanics to make for a uniquely pleasing combination. New obstacles are layered in world by world and get increasingly bizarre, until what you’re playing is barely recognizable as golf. Golf Peaks feels meticulously crafted, and it makes for a difficult, but rewarding experience. Unfortunately, because it’s so bespoke, it’s a finite experience, and once you’ve completed it, there’s little reason to revisit it. A new world has been added since the game’s release, but after completing it in less than an hour, I’m back to waiting for more.

8. Alto’s Odyssey (iOS, Android)

Alto’s Adventure was one of my favorite games of 2015, a gorgeous and fun take on the infinite runner genre. Alto’s Odyssey further refines the formula by adding in even more things to do. The silky-smooth jumps, grinds and backflips return, along with the sublime wingsuit power-up, but they are joined by Tony Hawk-style wall rides that add a new dimension to the game. With uniquely skilled characters to unlock and upgrades to literally and figuratively grind for, Odyssey will keep you busy for a long time. It’s one of those rare phone games that’s good for play sessions both long and short, and its action never gets old.

7. Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition (iOS, Android, Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC)

I was intrigued by Final Fantasy XV on the PS4, but ultimately bounced off its combat and general milling about. Pocket Edition fixes both of those issues and lets me enjoy what I really like about the game: its story and its characters. The miniaturized version of FFXV has turned it into a linear game with simplified controls (touch controls if you’re playing the phone version). The way it retains quite a bit of the themes and depth (and voice acting) of the original game despite streamlining it never ceased to impress me. And weirdly, playing Pocket Edition has actually reawakened my desire to play the original game. I want to see this treatment given to other Final Fantasy games.

6. Florence (iOS, Android)

Florence is not a game I would traditionally play on a phone. It’s not an infinitely replayable, puzzling experience like Threes or Drop7 or even a Kingdom Rush. But it is an experience, and one I deeply appreciated. Florence made me feel more than any other game this year, and it did it in a game that takes only about a half hour. It tells a mundane, yet impactful story about relationships. It’s beautiful. It’s funny. It’s tragic. But most of all, it’s real, and it uses its touchscreen controls to great effect to make you feel like you are an active participant in the story. It’s somehow simultaneously abstract and extremely specific, and I think it’s something everyone should witness.

5. Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee (Switch)

This is the Metal Gear Solid 2 of Pokemon. Let me explain. In MGS2, you play as Raiden, and you learn that you are being put through a similar adversity to the original MGS’ Shadow Moses Island in the hopes of turning you into another legendary hero like Solid Snake.

In Pokemon Let’s Go, things start familiar enough to anyone who’s played the first generation of Pokemon games (particularly, Yellow). You get a starter, you battle your rival, you face Brock and Misty and the other gym leaders and you stumble into and interrupt a nefarious Team Rocket plot. It’s all there. Except then you run into Blue, who is the real rival from the first generation of Pokemon. Which means your rival isn’t your rival. And you aren’t you. It’s fascinating and I ended up loving it.

Mechanically, it’s a weird mix of adding from more recent games while also stripping away complexity. Mega Evolutions are in. Held items are out. HMs are out. Steel, dark and fairy types are in. And there are some brand-new mechanics like catch combos that are a fun and new way to engage with Pokemon. It’s not all rainbows (I’m still not sold on the GO-style catching system,) but I hope the next mainline Pokemon game takes a little inspiration from these games. And I hope they remake Gold and Silver in this style too.

4. Holedown (iOS/Android)

Holedown became my go-to phone game for most of 2018. While you can beat it in a manner of hours, the game is so addictively fun and replayable with its final, seemingly endless level that you’ll be happy to dive back in again and again to improve your score. Holedown is satisfying in every sense of the word. Endorphins rush when you see and hear massive streams of balls ping-ponging off walls. Hitting the perfect angle to keep the combo going higher and higher is intensely gratifying. It’s so easy to play and understand, and yet you’ll be learning new tricks after your hundredth attempt. Holedown rules. Play Holedown.

3. Super Robot Wars X (Vita, PS4)

OK, this one’s a bit of a stretch. Super Robot Wars is not available in the US last I checked (though it is available in English.) Also, I did not play its handheld Vita version. Instead I played it on the PS4. So, on one hand, this game doesn’t really belong on this list. On the other hand, I love Super Robot Wars X so much, so it’s staying.

This was my first dip into the series and immediately found it to be an incredibly dense and confusing experience. It’s a turn-based strategy game like Fire Emblem, which sounds right up my alley, but the number of things to account for is staggering. To list all its mechanics would be a daunting exercise. Slowly, but surely, I learned to engage with more and more systems until finally, I felt like I could see the code, that I had entered the Matrix. I suddenly knew strategy game kung-fu. The game would set up almost impossible odds and, sometimes after an insane amount of consideration, I’d find a solution. I could boost the range on one weapon for the one turn I need it. Or maybe that shield I’ve never used would actually come in handy here. Oh wait, this pilot has a special skill I could utilize. The solutions are always there, you just have to look for them. It’s a beast of a game, but one I became utterly mesmerized with.

2. Dead Cells (Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC)

I jealously watched early access PC players make run after run on Dead Cells. I heard people extol the game’s virtues on countless podcasts, and then, finally, the game released on Switch and I too could experience its splendor. And boy, did it deliver. Dead Cells bends over backwards to tailor the game experience to you. It allows you to choose what and when to unlock new skills, letting you further customize your arsenal as you play. It accounts for novice players who need to take their time getting through its sprawling levels while also providing options for crafty veterans who are able to speed through its content. And yet, as much as it caters, you’ll inevitably get to a point in your run where the game says “OK, now we’re going to test you.” I have failed that test every time. I have not beaten Dead Cells. But I am damn sure ready to try again.

1. Into The Breach (Switch, PC)

Where Super Robot Wars X is a turn-based mech strategy game on a macro scale, with an inconceivable amount of systems and options to deal with for your double-digit army of robotic fighters, Into The Breach stuffs all the same intensity into a comparably tiny grid and only a trio of battlers. It maintains the perfect amount of complexity, making every unit, every weapon, every move and every choice matter. It’s the ultimate chess game. And just when you think you’ve wrapped your head around its mechanics, it hands you a new team of mechs that plays completely differently. Runs are short, but meaningful, and the optional challenges (that let you unlock more new teams) push you out of your comfort zone to learn new strategies. Not only is it my favorite game of the year by a country mile, it might be one of the best games of all time.

#goty #gotggoty2018 #chase koeneke #minit #golf peaks #alto's odyssey #final fantasy xv pocket edition #florence #pokemon let's go #holedown #super robot wars x #dead cells #into the breach

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weaselle · 6 years

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Story Time

Not too long ago, I posted a brief explanation of my siblings ( http://weasowl.tumblr.com/post/177478767230/springdday-ommanyte-does-anyone-genuinely ) I ended that with “Also, my origins are steeped in mystery and my siblings are actually my cousins by blood, but that’s another story.” I wrote out the long story about my mysterious origins and details about my life and experiences, and a computer mishap erased it as though it had never been. Again. I don’t know if it’s something in me or something in the world at this point, but I guess I’m not ready/supposed to tell y’all that much about me. So I’m going to tell you about my Grandmother and her children instead. No pictures or anything this time.

My Grandmother was left-handed and the reason I love cooking and definitely some kind of Being. Her title was The Grandma. She had 4 great grandchildren by the time she died, and so her daughters became Grandma, but she was THE Grandma. She had this way about her, like she was incredibly present, but also paying attention to everything in the whole world. And then sometimes (notably when you fucked up) it was like she pulled her attention off all those things and put the whole thing on you; it was very unsettling. And she had the Voice, which she almost never used. The last time Grandma traveled on an airplane with us, we were going though security and she couldn’t go through the metal detectors because by then she couldn’t get out of the wheelchair for longer than twenty seconds at a time. The TSA agent said she was going to search her or pat her down instead, and reached for my Grandmother. And Grandmother said, in the Voice “Don’t touch The Grandma” The TSA agent blinked and looked at grandma’s eldest daughter (a celtic witch if ever there was one) who merely shrugged and said “...don’t touch the grandma”. TSAgent hesitated as if about to reach forward and insist, thought better of it, called TSA Supervisor over. TSA Supervisor explained everything to The Grandma - it’s just a quick pat-down, everybody who can’t go through the detectors has it done, they won’t even ask her to stand - and then reached forward to pat down my grandmother “Don’t. Touch. The Grandma” TSA Supervisor’s hands stopped as if hitting glass. She looked confusedly back and forth between the TSA agent and my grandmother for a second, and then the confusion left her face and she stepped aside, looked at the TSA agent and said “Don’t touch the Grandma” and waived us through security. They didn’t even scan the rest of us It’s a shame she couldn’t fly anymore after that, she loved to fly; when K’s son died, she married P, a WW2 B52 crewman who taught her to pilot small planes, and they would fly up and down the coast to any cities they wanted to visit - she knew the West Coast in a way few people do. (note, one of the only things I know about my paternal grandfather, the man who married the Japanese grandmother I’ve never met, is that he was a German soldier...that man’s son joined the US air force, and became my biological father) One morning in the deserts of Nevada a year after P’s death she woke me up and said “get dressed, were going to into town to the casino; P visited me in a dream last night and told me I’d win a video poker jackpot with a royal flush today” and we drove into town so she could spend fifteen minutes playing video poker. I say fifteen minutes, because after fifteen minutes she hit her jackpot with a royal flush in hearts, and we went back home. She used to sit in her chair in her living room with her back to the kitchen wall, and I’d go to leave the kitchen and I’d hear her from the other room “don’t you leave my kitchen mat like that” and I’d look over my shoulder at the mat in front of the sink, and sure enough, it would be all rumpled up; sorry grandma. Grandma and I shared a birthmark, a red stain I won’t describe fully. And my grandmother and I were both adopted. Let me explain. My Grandmother was adopted by a nice family. And then that family all died, and she was adopted AGAIN. She married an Irish American, a man whose father I am named after: K, who came here from Ireland to work the Alaskan gold rush. She and her husband lived with K a while, and this is a story about that: Every Sunday. great grandpa K would go off on his own for a couple hours to “walk in the woods”. Grandma followed him one day. K walked into the woods, packed a pipe, sat down with his back to a tree, and took a small handful of nuts and seeds and fruits and leaves out of his shirt pocket. He scattered them around. Soon, as if expecting him, several animals came and helped themselves. The squirrels climbed all over him, on his head even. The raccoons sat in his lap. The birds sat on his knees and shoulders and in his beard and peered into his face. The deer checked his jacket for more snacks. After they hung out for about an hour, they all went on their way. Then K smoked his pipe and went home. Grandma and K’s son had 5 kids. One died as a child. The eldest became an ER nurse and a savant witch. She would never admit she is a witch, but there’s a horseshoe over her door (not the front door, mind you, but the door she actually uses) and she’s the one who taught me to always leave a single spider in your house when you clean. She has a natural way with plants and animals - the deer eat everything but her herb garden, which isn’t even fenced. This year one of them stayed in her backyard for nearly two months raising twins to be big enough to take back to the herd. She recognizes individual squirrels and birds and knows their personalities and habits and things about their families. And of course as an ER and ICU nurse, she’s a hell of a healer. The youngest was a witch, but sadly neglected, remained immature. Still, she had talents. She could fool people and make them laugh as easy as breathing, like some kind of glamour. Every long line of strangers she ever waited in became a party among friends. Could literally smell if you were lying to her. As in, she’d lean close and take a couple deep sniffs and then be like “Nope. Tell me, where did you really go after school?” The only brother became a wandering holy man of sorts. Used to hitch-hike around the country in robes stuff with a small, like, cult; then quit them to just grow his own holy experience. He died in his 30s. And the middle sister was my mother. She was double jointed and very dyslexic, and everyone says she was incredibly gifted in many ways. She did intricate artwork in ink, fractal gardens and faux woodgrain that was made of salvador dali faces, stuff like that. She was self taught on the piano, used to just walk up to a piano and play songs she made up on the spot that sounded how she was feeling and little crowds would gather. Made her own exercise equipment. Could pick up an accent within minutes and become semi-conversational in days. When I was two and she was too poor to feed me she taught me how to go around a restaurant to each table and ask super cute if I could try a bite of their food. She had me with a half Japanese guy in the Air Force (he didn’t stick around). Then when I was about three, she sent me to live with her eldest sister, because her life got too, ah, interesting. Like, her partner had a hit put out on them. It wasn’t safe for me. By the time I was six it all caught up with her, and she died in an accident when she jumped out of the passenger side of a car and tried to run away as it stopped at an intersection. That’s when her eldest sister adopted me. So here I am, same birthmark as my psychic grandmother, orphaned son of a savant creative criminal and a Japanese-American soldier, named after my Irish, gold hoarding, bearded, pipe-smoking beastmaster great-grandsire; raised by a celtic witch, and filled with a burning desire to be instrumental in creating a new and more humane age of humanity, where everybody has more power to live whatever kind of life they want while reenforcing core values of earth-garden stewardship and educated love/care for all. When I reached adulthood, I nearly stopped aging physically (I’m 40, people typically guess between 25 and 30). I’m really good with animals, and I have a unique relationship with Lady Luck. I have all the witch tools, but they’re just what I use in my life - like, I have one nice specially chosen chef’s knife. It’s the knife I use for everything, To me, THAT’s an athame, not some dragon themed chrome thing you put on a shelf and take down to wave around on “holidays”. If it’s really a holiday, and my athame is really a knife, then it’s being used to fillet or dice something for a holiday meal. It is special because I use it to make every meal I cook, and I’d truly feel lost without it. That’s just my personal brand of witching, mind, you do you. I get these weird moods that fill me durring which I can charm almost anyone to help me in almost any way I want, which is actually sort of frightening, but not while it’s happening. So, clearly, I’m either some kind of changeling and the chosen one, or I should seek professional help

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mandareeboo · 6 years

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Unfinished work #3 (Completed Chapter)

Seeing how I did squat over the weekend, I figure this is as good a way to showcase my goods on Fanfic Preview Monday as anything else.

‘Course, this’un is actually finished, but I felt weird about putting on Fanfic or Ao3- probably because I’m a really casual AT watcher- so it’s been sitting in a folder collecting dust. (Also, I wrote it all really late at night, so that’s a thing)

Title: Potato Stacks

Summary: Never thought of one.

Setting: Right after "Elements"

Bubblegum wakes up feeling like she's lost something special. It's that kind of loss where your whole body aches for it, that bitter taste at the very back of the throat. Admittedly, it's not a very special feeling, despite it being connected towards losing something special. But that's the way of the world, she supposes.

She also wakes up warm. Not blanket-warmth, but body-warmth.

"Marcy, I know you're awake," she says without opening her eyes. "You float when you sleep."

As if to disprove her point, Marceline lifts her head off her chest with a groggy, "Wassat?"

"Oh. You were asleep?"

"Yeah."

"I don't remember you ever sleeping on an actual bed."

Bubblegum feels her shrug. "I was extra tired this time. Still am, really."

She felt bad. Not about turning her into a marshmallow- that's not something she did of sound mind- but for working her marshmallow bod that hard. What kind of leader didn't give snack breaks? "I wanna get up."

Marceline hums indecisively. "No princess junk?"

"No princess junk," she agrees. It's only now that she becomes aware of Finn and Jake, snoring next to them. "They were pretty shook, huh?"

Marceline takes the neutral road on that question via not answering, rolling off of her with a small grunt. Bubblegum lets that slide- she might as well, right? She's let everything else slide lately- and maneuvers her way around the other two bed mates, greatly warmed by their concern for her. She never really imagined they'd be this close. Then again, she's never been good at imaging the future. She forgets variables, like others' personal volition and morality. When she glances over her shoulder, Marcy is still on her side, and still not floating.

Bubblegum moves to the window and pushes back the curtains, revealing the kingdom below. All things considered, it's not as bad as it could be, but there's still so much to do. Apologize to Phoebe, for one. And there's surely some sort of damage somewhere from all the chaos. Maybe a few new laws or treaties to be signed. She rubbed at her temples, feeling a headache coming on.

The next few days are going to be hell.

Marceline cracks open her eyes and pushes herself onto her elbows. She catches sight of the curtains and lets out a weak hiss, falling back onto the sheets as if personally wounded. The window doesn't face the bed. Bubblegum had it made that way specifically. "Ugh. No fair. I can't guide you back to bed when you're standing in a shaft of sunlight like that."

"I'm not sure I want to be guided," Bubblegum confessed quietly, mind far away. "Is it bad that- that I kind of miss being the pillar?"

"You've got a thing for control, Bonnie." Marceline shrugged. "It's not good or bad. It just is. Y'know, unless you're using it as an excuse to do good or bad."

"I'm not going to deny that. But that's not what I meant."

"Then I'm lost." Marcy waved her arms in the air. "How 'bout you guide me instead, huh?"

She found herself chuckling a bit at that, leaving the window behind, curtain still open. Despite the sun's glare, the room is still fairly shaded and dark, like a cave that had just had a hole punched into it. Bubblegum sat on the very edge of her own bed, hands politely on her lap. "It's hard to explain, but also not."

"Is this 'bout to get philosophical? Because it's cool if it is, but we should prolly get some red into me before we start talkin' the meaning of life."

Bubblegum wrinkled her nose. "Not philosophical. More like nostalgic."

Marceline pulled a pillow free from the multitude Jake had managed to grab, tucking it unceremoniously under her head. "I can do nostalgic."

Of course you can, she finds herself thinking. You're a relic of the past, preserved and given new life. A reboot. The age difference between them isn't all that large, when you consider eternity, but they come from two different worlds. "Being the pillar- I was connected to everyone, you know? I could feel all of them. I could feel you, I could feel Tree Trunks, Crunchy- even Flame Princess, for that short while. I knew where everyone was, and how they were feeling, and what they needed." Bonnibel pulled a single leg up, her knee digging into her chest. "I guess it just reminded me of home."

The black-haired woman is fully sitting up now. That's the nice thing about Marceline. She well-aware that they've got eternity to talk through pretty much anything. "Is this about the Mother Gum?"

She found herself nodding. It's never been easy to discuss the Mother Gum. It's not something she's ashamed of- it's just hard to find someone who understands. Marcy and Finn and Jake- they never had anything like that. A lot of people in her kingdom were made by Bonnibel's hand; separate, uniquely silly, never knowing the wonders of having a 'regular' birth. "I can sense Neddy right now. Did you know I can sense him?"

"I did not know that," Marcy says. "That's pretty neat. Is he happy?"

"Oh, yeah. I doubt he even noticed anything changed." Bubblegum breathed heavily out of her nose. "It was a bit like coming home, is what I'm trying to say. Not exactly the same- no one was forced into the Mother Gum, and we didn't change to become part of it. We just were, and we were together, and there was no separating us."

"Until you got separated."

"Right."

"Didja ever have any second thoughts about that? About leaving?"

"I don't regret things that haven't occurred," Bonnibel answered firmly. "I simply analyze them. If I hadn't followed Neddy, I would've become one of the many in that particular dropping. That wouldn't be so bad. But I'd have to live with the reminder that my brother was all alone in the world and probably defenseless, and the lack of resolution would've driven me up the wall. There's also the fact that I probably wouldn't be here if I didn't go- there wouldn't be any Candy Kingdom, and there wouldn't be a Princess Bubblegum. And I like doin' my PB thing. I like knowing that I've helped mold history, even if it's not always in a good way. I like knowing that Neddy is safe and happy and where he feels he belongs forever." She cast the vampire a look that could almost be misconstrued as shy. "I like knowing you."

"Bonnie?"

"Yeah?"

"No offense, but your birth sounds super trippy, dude. I mean, you were part of a hive mind." Marceline paused, watching out of the corner of her eye as Bubblegum retook her place next to her on the bed. "Is that hypocritical? I feel like that's hypocritical. I'm literally a demon spawn."

"The Mother Gum isn't a hive mind," she said, perhaps a bit too quickly. She never did like the connotation people got when they heard 'hive mind'. "It's a multi-person being, within which those beings are incubated and then popped out. It's like birth, really. If birth was full of bubblegum."

"Didn't you drop down in an old building?"

"Yeah. I fell into a puddle."

"Yeah, no. That's not like human birth."

"Human birth sounds weird. And a lot more messy."

"It probably is."

As if on cue, Finn stirs, sitting up with such suddenness it's a wonder he isn't dizzy. "Princess?"

"I'm here, Finn."

He relaxed almost at once, reaching out his hand to find Jake's fur. His metal hand clenches and un-clenches as he tests it. He does that a lot after a fight, making sure the circuits aren't damaged. It reminds her of Shoko; which is, in itself, a paradox to consider. Or perhaps hypocritical? Can a person be hypocritical in their mannerisms? He reminds her of Shoko because he is Shoko. Simple as that. "Marcy, you good?"

"Kinda hungry, kinda not willing to get out of bed just yet."

Finn accepted that fairly easily, considering he was the most viable source of nutrition in the room. "We don't have to get up yet, do we?"

Bubblegum shook her head. "No, we're good," she reassured him, then added a few clicking sounds under her breath, as if making sure she remembered how to do so. "I think the whole world is dead after junk like what just happened. We can resurrect it later."

#Fanfic Preview Monday #Adventure Time #Princess Bubblegum #Marceline the Vampire Queen #Unfinished Work #Fanfic #Fanfiction #This is fine to reblog/like

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starsword-library · 7 years

Photo

Chrys got what they wanted in the end. We have deemed the test a success despite the circumstances. Professor Wiz is still worried about the safety of it all, but there's not much to do. Chrys themself has consented multiple times to participate in the experiments, and there's no sign they are being harmed by them, only momentarily exhausted. By how invested they are in this, I feel they would be much more hurt if we stopped or if they failed. And although I berated them before for their carelessness, I understand how they feel, and I realize now I would probably feel the same in their place. We should not stop until we truly reach a dead end.

Professor Wiz still instructed me to wait several loops before the next experiment. I'm supposed to get used to the Defense Force and to observe Chrys' normal routine there and make sure they do not overexert themself or feel too pressured with the tests.

Those were the professor's instructions, and they make it clear how things will be from now on.

From the next loop on, I'll be overseeing most of the project. I won't be under the professor's direct supervision anymore. I'll be leaving the planet without even knowing when I'll come back.

It's exciting.

It's exciting but, I'm not sure my brain has even fully comprehended it. I fear it won't do it until everything really happens.

I never expected to leave so early, or at all. Even Professor Wiz stayed on planet for most of his life, doing work on the local ruins. It's how I expected my life to go, too.

Now, I guess I won't be seeing them anytime soon. In the end, I'm glad the professor brought us here of all places. It gave me a chance to see my birthplace for a last time before I leave. I don't know if you can or should say goodbye to a place, but that's what I felt I was doing when I went there earlier this night.

The Nest Mountains look just like I remember from all those rings ago. The metal fence covering the whole perimeter, and I could still catch glimpses of the cameras, alarms and weapons around.

Without any authorization or reason to enter, I just stood there next to the fence. As sentimental as I felt, and still feel about the visit, there wasn't anything I could do there.

Anything besides retelling the whole story, because Chrys showed up there.

"Guess I'm not the only one sightseeing then?"

"Indeed," I answered. "Have you rested well?"

"Oh yes, don't worry about it, I'm fine, even Verona could only worry so much before taking a nap given how early we woke up this morning. So I decided to take a look around and confirm that I have not wrecked up this thing during my freakout back then," they said, focusing their camera at the mountains.

"I see. Good to know it's not broken then, I admit I didn't even think of that."

"Don't worry, it survived worse." They took a picture. "Anyway, I'm guessing by the big uninviting fence that we shouldn't go inside, right? Been circling around these a while and couldn't see a way in."

"Oh yes, you need special permission to go in now. If you're curious about the inside, I have plenty of books with pictures of before but, I too have never been there, as far as I remember of course."

"Far as you remember? Then it was still open when you were a lil' kid or something?"

"Oh, right, I've been thinking about the similarities all this time, but I never actually told you. I forget that it's not obvious for outsiders."

"Huh? What do you mean, 'similarities'?"

"You're not the only one with a mysterious past. For all we know, I might have been born here. Right around the same time the Diagram Disk went missing."

"Oh." They inched forward, eyes in the mountains again. "So, this Diagram Disk going missing is what closed the place?"

"Yes. It was one of the most important artifacts of this planet, and what gave name to the island."

"This island was once home to the ancestors of the Cubit species. They didn't have the metal shells and flight capabilities we do, and lived hiding in underground nests and caves inside these mountains. The entrances to those can still be found in our age, which makes the place such an important historical site.

The Diagram Disk was a mystery, though. It was a big metal disk, half buried amidst the nests, full of diagrams and inscriptions that haven't been fully deciphered to this day, as they don't fit any other known language or style. But several researchers believed they described our flight abilities, and views of the planet, and of the stars. It might have been a record of the first Cubits to have ever lived, or even be somehow related to their emergence, as the metal was nearly the same as the one from our own bodies.

There are many hypotheses, but the point is, it was a unique relic. Being so tied to our origins, most people treated it with a sort of reverence even."

Chrys stood there a while in silence, eyes down.

"...Who would even steal such a thing?" they asked in a whisper.

"I have no idea. Anyone interested in seeing it could just visit and ask the university for deeper research. We never found a single clue of its whereabouts. In fact, we don't even have proof it was stolen. There were traces of its extraction from the ground, and just that. No sign of who or what carried it, and cameras and alarms didn't register anything either."

"What if it was, some sort of camouflaged ship? Wouldn't be caught on camera at least."

"That was suggested, but the alarms should still work, so it would have to be an even more elaborated scheme, not to mention expensive, which brings us back to why one would do it in the first place."

"Yeah, that's as far as my ideas go, sorry."

"No problem. At this point I feel that most have given up on ever finding an answer. They were already out of ideas when they brought me here, rings ago."

"They thought you could know something just because you were born here? Is it an uncommon thing then?"

"Of course. No one lives in the Uncovered Areas, much less inside the mountains."

"But you were there."

"Yes."

"It was Professor Wiz who found me. He had came to the island to research the Diagram Disk, and in his third loop here, the disk was reported missing. He went along the people investigating the situation, and found me in one of the nests.

I was just a baby, but already clearly mutant, so Professor Wiz took me as a subject, and no one ever figured out anything else about my origins. So, as I said, we're somewhat similar in that regard it seems."

"Well, yeah, didn't expect anyone to get to my level of weird, really. Never been called a mutant either but hey, doesn't sound too off the mark, I guess."

"Well, for you who knows, we don't have anyone to compare you to. But as for me, these oddities here make it pretty clear I'm not an usual Cubit."

"Uh, you mean, these aren't legs?"

"We fly and so do our hands, we have no need for limbs or feet. These here have no purpose, though they are not a bother either, just a part of me. Like the oddities in my back. They aren't even the most important parts of my condition, but the most comprehensible and apparent ones."

Chrys stared at me with an amused expression. "Weeell, I don't wanna poke too much if it's your personal stuff but, by 'comprehensible' do you mean you also have unexplained powers, because that would explain why you got all up in my case since the start, but it's also a bit too coincidental I think."

"Oh, of course no, you're showing way more potential that I ever did. I don't have any particular skills, except if you count the near-perfect memory I suppose."

Their eyes twitched as I finished my sentence. "Yeah Mag that sounds like a super thing worth noting, you know! It's got the 'perfect' right there and everything!"

"Uh, you're not wrong. I suppose I'm just used to it. It's quite useful for writing reports."

"Oh I can imagine. Still pretty funny how you all pester me when I don't care much about my regeneration but then go and skip your own stuff like that."

"Well, I still defend that you have greater potential, but you're right, it is easier to overlook our own talents than others', because of how natural they feel."

"Right, right,” they nagged, then softened up. “I was mostly just messing with you right now, don't worry. I mean, in the end you were right about everything. I am sorta learning spellcasting now." They took a deep breath. "Seriously, thanks for, all of this I guess. If you hadn't bugged me so much about it being possible I could have come and left without a clue."

"No need to thank me, I did what I should as a student. Also, you saved my life. I have even more reason to be thankful."

"Yeah, I think we all could have done without that scare. I'm..." their voice lowered a bit. "Glad I could pull that off. Still, uh, I've been meaning to ask this, for a while now, your metal still got blow up didn't it? Is it gonna be okay or...?"

I turned around a bit to show them the wound. "It's okay, it's been healing back. Oh, though I did mention I had some mutant parts here, didn't I? I have no idea if those will grow back or not, they've always been weird, even now I still feel them. It even slipped my mind they are gone."

"Uhhh," Chrys muttered, pointing to something in my back that I obviously couldn't see, "you mean the transparent things here?"

"Huh?"

<prev next> read from the start

#starsword library #a story #to be continued #mag's reports #road trip space trip #a unique student of healing #mag #odd flower of the stars #chrys #the researcher of old star paths #professor wiz

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revy-likes-punk · 7 years

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I’m a few hours into The Evil Within 2. I’m on the way to the Theater in town after finding Sykes. I gotta say The Evil Within 1 was more enjoyable for me. I mean I’m still pretty early in, but TEW1 was way more inspired and thought-through. Lemme run it all down:

TEW2′s improvements to gunplay and movement along with really good visuals are nice, but that’s kind of it. I feel like the Phantom-Pain esque open world is really harmful to the horror feeling, it’s not very scary when I can just go fucking anywhere and am unbound by any mortal wall. I feel like developers think that linearity is a black/white issue; either you’re super-linear, or balls out open world. You can have a game be linear and still have exploration be a factor. TEW1 wasn’t quite that, but you still could explore places to find shit like keys, or map pieces and other collectibles. TEW2′s open world becomes a sensory overload and I just wanna play the main story quests so I can get through it all. The design of Sebastian’s saferoom is interesting for sure, being his office at the KCPD but compared to the saferoom of TEW1 it pales. TEW1′s saferoom was constantly changing, from newspaper articles related to character revelations appearing, to occasional creepy things happening that alter the environment. Tatiana was meant to have an air of weirdness about her but it wasn’t overblown. She rarely talked and she didn’t 100% have a feeling of knowing everything that was going on. In TEW2 she talks way too much and seems to know more than she should. TEW1′s saferoom created an interesting contrast; “safe” by Ruvik’s definition wasn’t very safe by our standards. It was a place of safety in your mind where you couldn’t be physically harmed. But it still felt creepy and you didn’t feel totally safe. TEW2′s saferoom is too cozy, there’s a cat (yes I know that’s a callback to Juli’s DLCs in TEW1) and the only changing aspects are a corkboard in Sebastian’s room and a slide projector you can access with some dialogue. There’s the upgrade chair from TEW1 that returns, only it looks like a regular chair, and returns to looking like it offscreen when you get up from it using the magic of camera angles (I actually like that a lot). The upgrade tree is sort of nice but arbitrarily requiring a special item to progress further (Red Gel or High grade weapons parts) is honestly kind of dumb. Just make higher upgrades cost more, for fuck’s sake.

TEW1′s setting I felt was way better. Sure, a lot of people can argue that mental facilities are overused in horror, me included, but I still like them a lot as a setting; it’s why I liked Silent Hill and Outlast so much. It’s not entirely to demonize the mentally ill; it’s because mental hospitals can very often become a place where people prey upon the mentally ill, as One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and any recollection of early 1900′s asylums can teach us. I would know, I live near one that’s kind of become an urbex hotspot because of its creepiness. Outlast and TEW1 were examples where the focus was more on people doing fucked up stuff in the asylum. It was a scary place, and the Jacob’s Ladder overtones of all the main cast going fucking nuts and nothing being 100% real was really creepy and off-putting.

TEW2′s setting feels like the initial intent was to tap in on some Stephen King stuff; a northeast american rural town, bad paranormal shit happening, the Haunted everywhere brings “Cell” to mind. But beyond that, they don’t really go all in with it. The designs of the Haunted are just not as varied as the first game; the first had Haunted that had barbed wire wrapped around them, a weird skin infection with boils, some were impaled, some were invisible and had a strange Cthulu look to them. Some even had two heads and a KF Patriarch-ish chest tentacle; and on top of that there fat variants of these, and on top of that there were masked variants which were shown to be smarter, more tactile, and tougher, as they could duck and dodge shots better, they avoided traps and they could use firearms as opposed to the rest of the Haunted just using melee weapons. Here, they all have the same base design; glowing eyes, weird boils and fucked up skin. There’s like one extra variant that calls Left 4 Dead’s witch to mind; a feminine one that walks around cradling a kitchen knife, croaking all the way like a Clicker from The Last of Us, and it takes two “sneak kill” animations to kill. And yeah, I know the comparisons to The Last of Us are a bit overdone considering The Evil Within as a whole is just The Last of Us with Japanese horror enveloping it.

The boss monsters all feel very basic; they all seem inspired by the Yurei of Japanese folklore (damn, that’s never been done before) with their long black hair and feminine bodies (even the rescue team’s psychologist Yukiko Hoffman looks like Samara with a medic BDU on). Most of them boil down to a basic formula; “Woman’s body + ____”. Woman’s body + a camera. Woman’s body + more woman’s bodies + a buzzsaw. Woman’s body + more woman’s bodies + MORE WOMAN’S BODIES. Compare this to bosses from the first game; while not being the most unique, they at least were better than a bunch of half-baked variations on Kayako. We had The Keeper, who was basically Sebastian’s Pyramid Head but with a more heavy-handed (ha) symbolism behind him. We had Amalgam, which was a bunch of bodies together in a hideous mass of flesh, and that KF-Patriarch tentacle. Laura was pretty much the only Yurei variant, and she was a spider-ish lady that had a bad weakness to fire. Heresy was another spider creature with gross tubings and a maggot infested stomach. Quell was a weird squid thingy, and Shigyo was this weird-ass water monster with the game’s characteristic SAW-esque metal head fixtures. In fact, TEW1 had quite a bit of its aesthetic owed to SAW. From Juli Kidman’s water enclosure and The Keeper, that both call back to Saw V, to the excess of tiled flooring and metal in places it shouldn’t be on people. But it was fairly consistent for a Japanese twist on American horror. While a lot of the monster’s symbolism and importance to Ruvik got kind of heavy-handed, it at least was there. And it felt inspired to some degree. TEW2 just feels all over the place.

Let’s talk about story. Mobius is dumb. They are dumber than dumb, a secret society pulling strings is not interesting, they are just annoying. Ruvik should’ve been the sole antagonist of TEW1, having this added layer of dumb extra shit was unnecessary. I feel like it wasn’t the best progression for Sebastian’s character, as well. When a character has trauma that fucks with them and hampers their progress psychologically, it feels weird for your story’s progression to completely justify their paranoia about their kid’s death, then completely undo it by telling them the kid is still alive. Juli and Castellanos feel like different people as well. Stefano is another villain that is pretty uncompelling. At the start he had plenty potential. A lunatic, whose gimmick is art; he uses photographs to freeze his murder victims in time, a perpetual loop of being shot/stabbed/cut over and over again. But as you get deeper in, he just gets fucking stupid. Like oh, his background is “Oh no he photographed a dude getting blown up and got injured and now he liked to make snuff photography I guess.” Come on, man. Ruvik wasn’t the most interesting man in the world. he was an Alex Mercer-lookin’ dude with some weird and dumb justification but he at least had semi-understandable anger and some actual background.

Maybe I’m being harsh, I dunno. I’m still playing TEW2 and enjoying it to an extent. I just kinda find it a bit underwhelming compared to TEW1. That’s all.

#The Evil Within #Shinji Mikami #the evil within 2 #vidya #me #banter

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