#i love goofing around in 3d

[krembruleed]

alright, the other day i loosely implied that i would make a behind the scenes/tutorial type of thing. momma didn't raise no liar, so here goes nothing i guess!

step 1) rough sketch

honestly i skip this entirely if have a really concrete idea of what i want to do. sometimes compositions are just beamed into my brain from On High and a sketch is unnecessary.

step 2) 3d ref

this is where i refine the composition, lighting, camera angles, props, etc. i use DAZ studio for model posing and blender for almost everything else (props, horns, lighting, rendering).

here's a 10 minute video on how to pose models in DAZ if you're interested in doing something like this! it's not very hard! basic posing requires almost no technical know-how.

i've heard magicposer and virt-a-mate are also good for model posing, but i don't have any experience with either program.

after i'm done posing, i transfer the models to blender so i can work on props, environment, and lighting because doing it in DAZ is ass. you can see that i went overboard on the ref for the paladin i worked on last year by modelling armor.

step 3) lineart

at this stage i'm synthesizing my 3d models, reference images, and style choices into lines.

the 3d likeness of my models is poor because I don't have time for that shit, so this is where my humongous folder full of bg3 screenshots comes into play.

for example: looking at my screenshots, astarion's forehead tilts back towards the back of his skull, much more so than my reference model. his chin and jaw are sharper and longer, and the transition between his brow ridge and nose is almost a straight line. if i combine the information from my 3d model and astarion's face, i get something like this:

3d models aren't fleshy (ie, tummy rolls, wrinkles, muscle deformations, butt squish) unless one puts in A LOT of effort like absolute madman chris jones.

you guys know bernini, right? he has a couple great examples of this. see how hades' hands press in on persephone's leg?

this is what we want to add in the lineart because it's too much effort for 3d. laziness is king.

i guess i draw clothes at this stage too, but for some reason there aren't many in this image. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

step 4) base color

i have a little color picked palette that i use for everybody so i get their skintones right before i start messing with colored lighting. i'll use overlay and hard/soft light layers clipped to the base layer during the shading step later.

step 5) shading

if you thought we were done with the 3d part, guess again! i posterize my 3d reference so i can see the shapes of the shadows and highlights better. if i'm not feeling it, i can go back to 3d and change the lighting really easily.

could I make a cel shader for this? yes. am I going to? No. custom shaders are for people with intelligence and I am fresh out. posterization it is.

from there, i do a pretty standard cel shading deal that i usually blur and set to low opacity. (for this image i stuck to no blur because i had been looking at a lot of morebird's art and was really feeling the hard edges)

photoshop is what i use for final rendering because it has bangin tools. the brush customization alone make ps worth it, but i also particularly abuse puppet warp, noise generation, the camera raw filter, and layer styles.

step 6) background

i put the least effort possible into a background and then i blur it into oblivion so you can't fathom the depths of my ineptitude.

and then i have a finished image! ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

[awrkive]

[DRABBLE] COLD NIGHTS & BLURRED LINES (m) — JJK.

you were used to jungkook making the first move every single time but this particular night, you couldn't help but change things up a little bit.

PAIRING jungkook x (fem) reader

GENRE r18+ (minors dni pls)

WORD COUNT 4.1k (this is def not a drabble anymore but its like 70% smut anyway saur 🤷🏼‍♀️)

WARNINGS/MISC jk in grey tracksuit 😢 oc is not a procrastinator everybody booed. kinda domestic vibes everyone wants to have what they have including ms delusional me !! this is my literally me fic kinda (this is literally just oc thirsting over jungkook OEBDIDHSJEB) also imagine 3D jungkook guys.... 🙏🏼 smut warnings: oral s*x (m&f receiving, 69 position), penetrative s*x, multiple positions, overst*mulation, creampies, unprotected s*x (dont fls 🙏🏼)

NOTES heyyy so i reread cnbl last night and scrolled thru unanswered messages on my inbox and found these 2 (amongst many IEBDIDHSHD) drabble reqs for cnbl and decided to write it bcs i love and miss them!! unfortunately i lost my ao3 password and i have nowhere to post this so whatever im gonna start posting here again LMFAOOOO. anyway, i hope u guys enjoy this 💗 this is most esp dedicated to the second anon i hate college as well i hope this drabble brings you joy ☺️

‼️CN&BL FULL FIC CAN BE READ HERE

You missed who you were thirty minutes ago.

Before Jungkook arrived, you were extremely focused on the essay you've been stalling to get done since last week.

You were set on finishing the paper tonight, determined to submit it a day prior to the deadline – which is two days from now. You've never been a procrastinator and you wouldn't dare start now. But ever since Jungkook called, arriving a little over five minutes after your conversation on the phone and entering your dorm room, you have never been the same. Gone was your will to finish your essay; it yeeted out the window the moment he came in.

It wasn't that he was doing anything wrong, per se. He wasn't pestering you or doing anything to distract you from doing whatever it was you were doing. During the phone call, Jungkook told you he just wanted to hang around and you were in on it. "As long as I finish this essay without you doing anything funny" – that, was what you said. Joking, a little pointed, when he came barging in your door, socks on and hair still slightly wet from the shower he most probably had at his own apartment.

When you said those words, the goof just wiggled his brows, smirking with a look of mischief written all over his face, and then kissed you in such an unnecessarily passionate way that had you internally keening when he broke away. That gave you an initial idea that he would, indeed, do some funny business. If you were honest to yourself, you wouldn't have really minded that at all.

That was thirty minutes ago. Jungkook surprisingly hasn't tried to touch you at all for the past thirty minutes. In the present, he is just sprawled on your bed watching something on your stupid iPad, airpods plugged in both ears, letting you work in peace on your laptop.

Thirty minutes ago, that would've been fine. Because ultimately, you could focus on your essay and finish it then pass it way before the deadline but no, your problem right this moment does not lie on phonology, it lies on why does Jungkook have to lean his back on the headboard, thick eyebrows meeting each other every now and then as he watched his movies, and put that white t-shirt and grey sweatpants on himself?

You've been having an internal battle with yourself trying to fight the urge to look over your shoulders for him every three damn minutes, groaning quietly as you thought about how Jungkook looked so ridiculously hot doing the bare minimum. Literally nothing. He was doing absolutely nothing. And he was making you feel weird in your belly!

Wait. Is it your period? It ended two weeks ago, though, so that is definitely not that. Maybe you are ovulating? You'd have to check your flow app.

Absent-mindedly, you let out the begrudging moan you've been trying to hide.

"God."

As if alarmed, Jungkook suddenly shoots up and speaks after what felt like centuries.

"You okay? Am I bothering you here?" He said, voice dripping with honey and face full of concern. You got even hornier.

Oh my god. You wanted to cry.

You send him a tight-lipped smile. "I'm fine. And uh, no. You're good."

Jungkook doesn't pry further and goes back to his binge. Meanwhile, you force yourself to think of something.

Another long five minutes later, and you are still halfway done with your essay. The unfinished document only seems to taunt you. So, you let out another sigh, quite quiet this time so you don't make Jungkook think he was being an inconvenience. You made up your mind and just decided to give in to your urges.

You shut your laptop down instead of pressing sleep as you are sure there is no way you can do any more work tonight.

Standing up from your seat, you approach Jungkook on your bed.

He looks up at you the moment you hovered over him, taking his eyes off the iPad. When the mattress dips from your weight, Jungkook's lips stretch into a cute smile.

Your horniness dissipates a little over his adorable face.

"Done?" He asks, lifting a hand over your face to tuck a strand of hair away that you didn't even notice. You shake your head. Jungkook leans down to kiss your cheek. "So, tired?"

You scrunch your nose. "Kinda."

He kisses your mouth when a pout forms there.

"Eaten anything yet?" Jungkook scoots over to the side to make room on the bed for you. You fit yourself in the space, albeit tight (this was a dorm room, alright), and Jungkook is quick to slide his arm under your neck while he still holds the iPad on the other.

"Just reheated some leftover pasta from last night." You cringe over your last meal. It didn't taste good at all but you were way too hungry and delivery took forever to your dorm.

Jungkook seems to know that that pasta was shit, but he doesn't comment on that. Just hums and kisses the side of your head.

Ugh.

"Wanna order something in? Thai?" He suggests, looking at you.

But right now, eating Thai or whatever is the last thing on your mind. Though you would like to eat something else.

You tell him so. Except the last part, of course. Please. You have decorum.

"Uhm, no. I think I'll pass on that. Unless you haven't eaten." you say, playfully pointing a finger to his chest.

"Nah, Taehyung cooked dinner. I'm pretty full." Jungkook says, chuckling.

You had a smart remark on your tongue, something along the lines of, "Then why'd you offer to eat if you already have, weirdo" but to be honest with yourself, you already knew why. Jungkook liked seeing you eat. Dude practically buys most of your meals, now that you think about it.

But your still horny-adled brain went to go and tell your hand to search for his bare stomach under his shirt. And so it did. Forget about having decorum, shame is out the door when you press your palm to the flat surface of his stomach.

"Doesn't feel full at all." You commented, feeling the hard ridges of his abs. You hate them right now. But you would also really, really, like to see them.

Jungkook only chuckles at that. Before he can say anything, you ask him, "Hey, quick question."

"Hm?"

"Can I suck your dick?"

"Huh?" Jungkook, ever the man he is, put the iPad away for the first time since he's been here. Confused, but still, you could not have mistaken the look of pure interest in his face the moment you asked him that.

"I want to suck your dick, if you let me." You say, clearing yourself up. You are putting on a brave face, but internally, you are screaming.

So what if this thing between you has been happening for like… ten months now, almost a year? Jungkook was usually the one to always initiate sex and blowjobs were almost a rare occurrence in your sex life because you told him it hurt your knees but the real reason was because you didn't think you were very good at it. Jungkook never asks for it either, and sometimes you feel bad for only reciprocating handjobs during oral sex quickies but! He never says anything about it so maybe that was fine? Anyway, it's not like this is gonna be your first time sucking him. It's just the first time you initiated with your own words.

"Oh, you're serious?" Jungkook scoots over to his side and lays sideways to prop himself up. "Really?" He has an excited smile on, and you know that because of the way his eyes crinkle.

"Don't make me repeat it." You say pointedly, pushing him a little bit. Jungkook doesn't even budge at the slight attack, only holds your hands in his.

"No, I just… I thought you said no fooling around tonight." He says.

You shrug. "Yeah, well."

You don't expect him to tug you closer to him using his hold on you, and you were thankful you managed to suppress a loud squeal when he laid on his back and caught your whole body on top of his.

"I guess you can't resist my charm, after all." Jungkook says, grabbing a handful of your ass.

"Jungkook, please, you're scaring my lady boner off." You roll your eyes as you adjust yourself on top of him to get more comfortable.

"Take care of my gentleman boner then, baby." He counters and just because of that you avoid the kiss he was about to give you.

"Don't ever say gentleman boner ever again." You pinch his nipple and he let out a laugh at your petty retort. You knew he was sensitive there. But even then, you were starting to feel the growing need concealed under his sweats, and you were set on giving him the blowjob of his life tonight for some reason.

"I have a suggestion to make," Jungkook says suddenly, stopping you from crawling down to his body. You arch your brow at him, he continues, "I don't think we've ever tried sixty-nine, yet, haven't we? Because I also really want to eat you out right now."

"Oh, well, yeah…" you nod. You find yourself heating up at the way he casually tells you the last part.

"So…?"

You haven't really tried that either, and not just with him, but also with your other sex partners that only really summed up to less than four people, and that's including Jungkook. Anyway, the sixty-nine position sounded interesting.

"Okay, sure." You shrug.

"Fuck, you're the best."

This time, you give in to the kiss he gives you and pretty much after that it turns into a heavy make-out session with Jungkook fondling your boobs underneath your overused highschool PE shirt while you ground down against his erection that only kept growing harder as seconds passed.

You are panting when you break away, a string of saliva in between your lips, breathing for some air. Jungkook kisses his way down your neck, suckling on your skin and soothing it with his tongue.

"Take your shirt off," you say, already impatiently tugging at the hem of his clothing.

Without a word, Jungkook frees himself from the fabric. "You too, and your panties. Please."

You chuckle at the "please" but nonetheless straddle him to take your shirt off. Jungkook looks up at you with hooded eyes, massaging the bare skin of your waist as you wriggle your hair out of the neckline. He grips your waist as you lift your bum off his stomach, pulling your panties and shorts down in one go one leg to another.

"Shit," Jungkook hissed at the sight of your glistening pussy that has gotten wet overtime, hands roaming all over your body like he doesn't really know where to touch. Always fascinated and in awe with what you show him, always so eager, so touchy. And you always love his undivided attention. Makes you feel like a princess for some reason. Doesn't help that he calls you that sometimes, too.

"Oh, fuuck," he groaned when you sat on his stomach. You couldn't help but let out a quiet moan, too, feeling his hot skin and your cold pussy touching together. "Angel, fuck, come here, let me kiss you."

You lean down to kiss him and he quickly reciprocates, his tongue entering your parted mouth, swirling and licking inside, taking your breath away. You could feel yourself smearing your wet mess on his abs but you couldn't really care less, not when Jungkook looked like he couldn't, too, squeezing every inch of you he could get his hands on. And they were everywhere, alright. Your breasts, your waist, hips, ass, his thumb on the inside of your thighs, all the while kissing you like he was hungry for it.

Jungkook jostles you a little when he lifts himself up a little to slide down the grey sweatpants you have a love and hate relationship with, his dick shooting up his abdomen and touching your ass as a result.

He stops kissing you.

"Alright, one more minute of you grinding against me will make me nut. Sit on my face now, baby."

Blood shoots up your cheeks, making you feel hot. A little funny, given what you are doing right now. But he can't just be so casual about it! He was asking you to sit on his face like he was telling you the grass is green. Regardless, you kiss him one last time.

"Don't suffocate." You warned him, already reversing your position as easily as you can so that your back is facing him.

You hear Jungkook chuckling from behind. "Please, I'll die happily suffocating in this pussy."

"Please don't talk about dying." You deflect, already feeling so shy about the whole thing. Indeed it was your first time to try this position, and you quite didn't know how to act. You wonder if he's done this already in the past, but found yourself irritated at the thought of him doing this with anybody else. You'd have to assess what that feeling of irritation means later.

"Hmm," Jungkook hums, grabbing the globes of your ass and fondling them before you could even properly place your knees on both sides of his head. With his hold on the flesh, he pulls you closer to him until you feel his breath on your core. "Ah, shit, will never get tired of this pussy, baby. Fuck, you're so wet."

You try to focus your attention on his hard dick against his stomach, veiny and rigid, red at the tip and shining with pre-cum. Wrapping your fingers around the base, you lean down a little more so that you can begin teasing him.

But Jungkook beats you down to it as he licks a long stripe across your pussy. It has you keening and stumbling a little over, feeling so good at the contact of his tongue against your sex. You hear him hiss before he says, "Come on, pretty, sit on my face, don't hover."

You hesitate before giving in, and Jungkook is quick to continue the ministrations of his tongue on your pussy. The position was so new to you but you couldn't help but think it was so good, feeling him this way, albeit still a little conscious about cutting off his air supply. But as Jungkook starts licking and sucking, you remember his cock in your hand and it prompts you to stroke him up and down; slow, because your mind is cloudy from the way you could hear the slick of your pussy from Jungkook's licking.

Leaning down, you kiss the head of his cock, licking his pre-cum off the top. There was Jungkook's groan again, and you thought that was a good sign, then continued to suck his tip a little just to see it getting even redder.

Jungkook suddenly gets more aggressive in the ministrations of his tongue, from his slow yet precise strokes, he starts increasing speed, fingers getting tighter on your asscheeks, the tip of his tongue prodding at your entrance giving you a taste of being full.

It prompted you to whimper, Jungkook only humming, seemingly pleased with himself. Letting out a shaky breath, you resume stroking his cock, twisting your fingers around the base. Soon, you lean even closer so that you can wrap your lips around the head.

Jungkook's groan was a pure sinful sound of pleasure as you did so. Nevermind that he was having his own feast on your pussy, you were determined to make him cum. And to do that was to suck on the tip gently at first, swirling your tongue on the cum that's building up on it. You joined the motion of it with your hand stroking the shaft up and down, cheeks hollowed and sucking the air in your mouth to create a suction that has Jungkook slightly jolting in his position.

"Oh, fuck yeah, baby, that's it, you're so good at this… shit," He says behind you, moving his mouth off your pussy and replacing it with two fingers. Jungkook slides them in easily, the squelching sound so apparent it cannot be mistaken for anything else if there was anybody but you two in the room. "You like this, baby? Hm? You're taking my fingers and my cock so well."

You moaned around his cock, heat starting to spread all over your body as Jungkook began to join his digits with his own mouth, devouring your pussy like he always does when he goes down. You start losing your rhythm on his cock, choking on it a third time now as you haven't really managed to fit it all in your mouth. You've always tried to, but he's always been a little too big for you. If it was a skill issue, you didn't care, Jungkook enjoys it just as much as you do.

When Jungkook rubs your clit, that's when you start shaking on your knees, threatening to crumble down.

As if he knew what was coming, Jungkook suddenly says, "Don't come yet, baby, not now." and you swear you would have actually cried.

What you didn't expect is Jungkook suddenly sitting up, his hands gripping your hips so that you don't jostle on top of him. You let go of his dick as he slides you off his body, and you let him manhandle you into sitting on his cock that slides in too easily like your pussy was fine silk. You now sit on top of him in what seems to be like a reverse cowgirl position, except that you aren't the one in control of your own movements.

"Oh, K-kook – Jungkook!" you yelped as he bounced you on his rigid dick, your body melting against his.

"Shh, take my cock, angel. You can do that for me, right? You're so pretty right now, I wish you could see yourself." Jungkook whispers against your hair, and you pathetically nod, craning your neck up at him to seek for his mouth. He smiles at you, the gentle nature of it so contrasting to the way he was controlling your hips, bouncing you in and out of his cock. "My pretty little angel."

He kisses you passionately, and as seconds passed his hands began to travel upwards to cup your breast, fondling it in his hand and pinching your nipple. You also started to initiate your pwn movements, meeting Jungkook's thrusts from below you, all the whole moaning in his mouth at the pleasure of his cock touching every crevice of your pussy.

The feeling of this never gets old even if you've done it exclusively and quite constantly with each other for the past ten months. Sex with Jungkook is always just so intense it always keeps you on your toes.

"K-kook, I'm cumming," you gasped in his mouth, feeling that build up in your belly

"Hm," Jungkook leaves your boob in favor of your pussy. Kissing you one last time on the mouth, he leans against your shoulder to watch as he spreads your nether lips. You look down to his hand there, fingers spreading the lips apart witnessing your own hole getting split open by his engorged cock. The sight was so lewd and obscene you couldn't help your moan. Then, Jungkook begins rubbing your clit again, fast and with a purpose, this time to make you finish. And he finally gives you the green light to do so. "You can cum now, baby."

And as if prompted by his simple words, you came, feeling a gush of wetness coming out of your pussy. You watch the way Jungkook kept his fingers in there, massaging your hole and kissing your neck.

"Jungkook…" you bury your face into the crook of his neck as you come down from your high, pussy throbbing and spasming from the intense feeling of cumming. He did edge you from when he ate you out.

"Good girl."

And again, Jungkook changes your position. From sitting up, you are now laid against the bed again, with him switching your positions so now he's the one hovering and you underneath him. He grabs your hips up and enters your pussy once again, sliding his cock in and out to chase his own orgasm. Your moans only encourage him to go faster, his grunts filling the room.

"Oh, that's it, Kook, you come for me too." You say, reaching for his stomach with one hand and fondling your own boob with other for his own consumption. Jungkook always liked seeing you play with them.

"Yeah, you're so sexy like that," he says, even picking up his speed higher.

Soon, he was cumming with a pained groan, and you didn't expect to cum a second time the same time he did.

Another gush of slickness slides down your pussy while Jungkook pulled out completely. But he was putting it in again a second later, rubbing his dick against your core. You sigh, partly at the sensitivity but also how pleasurable it all still felt even though you've come twice now in the span of almost what? – thirty minutes? Maybe an hour?

"Pretty fucking pussy you've got here, baby," Jungkook says before pushing his cum back into you, making you cry out. "Never gonna get enough of this. Of you."

You whimpered, clinging to his forearms as he continued his actions.

"Cum for me one more time?" He asks, staring deeply into your eyes.

And you couldn't possibly do that. Coming twice was not at all what you envisioned your night to be, thrice was a heart attack. But at the same time, you couldn't really resist his pleading eyes and his deep voice and his still hard cock pushing his creampie deeper into you.

So you nod your head, and Jungkook leans down to swipe the strand of hairs that sprouted all over your face overtime, wet on the hairline from your sweat, just before he slides his cock all the way in again, repeating that in and out routine, the slamming and the bottoming out, the quickening oh his pace and your toes curling once again that impeded your orgasm for the third time that night.

When you finished, exhausted and spent the fuck out, Jungkook laid on your boobs and kissed all over, playing with one of your nipples in his other hand. You were flat on the bed, dead weight, looking up at the ceiling and closing your eyes to cool yourself from what had just happened.

"Okay, that's enough, Kook, we gotta clean up." You say, massaging the soft curls on the top of his head.

He only let out a non-committal hum.

"Jungkook."

"Yes, baby?"

"Enough sex. I'm fried." You say, pulling his hair slightly to make him look up at you. But that was a bad decision of course 'cause he only seemed to enjoy the teasing.

"Just saying hello to these amazing boobs of yours." You rolled your eyes at his retort, nonetheless accepting it.

"Thanks, I guess."

Eventually, Jungkook stopped being clingy and finally found the will to fetch a wet rag from the bathroom. He cleaned you up and and you didn't bother dressing up except the panties you asked him to get for you. Soon after that, you cuddle together in bed.

"Hey," Jungkook suddenly whispers behind you, fingers massaging your hip, mouth press to your head. You hum. "I think we should do that more."

You try to look over your shoulder. "What? The sex?" you say, chuckling.

Jungkook pinches your hip. "Yeah, I told you we should have sex everyday. But that's not the point, I meant the sixty-nine."

"Well, first of all, having sex everyday is physically not possible," you roll your eyes though he couldn't see. "Second, I enjoyed that position, too. A little bit distracting, but definitely really enjoyable."

Jungkook agrees. "I think you just gave me the best blowjob of my life, if you wanna know."

"Really?" you confirmed, smiling up at him.

"Almost nutted when you sucked my head."

You chuckle, slapping his chest and roll your eyes again for how many times now?

"No but seriously…" Jungkook suddenly turns, indeed, serious. But he's still smiling, though, just a little less playful with his tone. "What was with you tonight? Did you finish that essay?"

Oh god, your essay. Right.

You feel your cheeks heat up a little remembering how you were basically thirsting over him him a while ago. And for no reason too.

Despite cringing internally, you shrug. "No, not really, but submission's two days from now and I just wanted to kiss you, I guess."

That made Jungkook's smile even bigger. He doesn't say anything more but only scoots even closer to your neck, kissing your hair.

"Hm, I always wanna kiss you too, and I do. But I love it when you ask for it."

You think you'll start doing it more, too.

all rights reserved © AWRKIVE , 2023

[tiyawnyana]

Kinktober: Day 21

Phone/Throat Comm Sex

A/N: I love writing dialog for this goof

Pairing: Lo'ak x (fem) Human reader

Warnings: teasing, sex toy, phone/throat comm sex, nipple play, dirty talk, peneration

¤¤¤

You hear a faint noise. Very quiet, but you strain your ears to listen.

Pacing around the room, it gets louder by your desk, and you quickly realize it's your throat comm and ear piece. You secure it around your throat, inserting the ear piece.

"-llooooo?" Lo'ak calls, "Are you theeeere?"

You stifle a giggle,"Yes? What's got you calling so late?"

"Well I didn't think you'd reply, was really just testing my luck," you can hear that coy smirk on his lips,"why are you awake?"

"Why are you awake?" You chuckle, fixing up your desk.

"Can't sleep-" there's silence for a moment before you hear a huff,"missed you."

"You just saw me like two hours ago," you giggle lightly, peeling off your shirt and getting comfy for bed.

"That was forever ago.. besides we haven't gotten alone time lately," his voice carries a suggestive tone.

You snort, rolling your eyes as you quickly brush your teeth.

You're pacing back over to your bed when your eyes catch onto the drawer you had some things stashed away in.

"I know we haven't gotten much time together lately.. we could always do something, a date night?"

"Too far away," he whines like a child and you snicker quietly,"Need you now.."

"Lo'ak, I am not a booty call," you laugh lightly, then you hear him gasp dramatically.

"Wait- I have an idea," there's rustling on the other end for a moment before he's back, a little breathless,"Just had to close my room off."

"Why..?"

"For my brilliant idea- go and grab one of those toys of yours from the dresser."

You jump, gaping like a fish.

"Yes, I found where they were, doesn't matter-"

"Lo'ak!" Your voice is high pitched and an embarrassed blush covers your cheeks.

"Whaaat? You're not so secretive, just F Y I," he snickers, then sighs,"seriously though.. I thought this might be fun.. phone sex.. if you want to try it?"

You sigh, nibbling on your lower lip. There had been a persistent heat between your legs for about two, three weeks now? You missed him, he's been so busy as of late- you only got to see him for appropriate moments with others, never really alone.

You shake your head, heading over to the dresser,"Fine.." and look at the few things you had. A 3D printer was really a god send, along with a left over toy that thankfully was never used nor opened before you.

"Fuck yeah- OK set the mood, what are you wearing?"

You snort, rolling your eyes,"The tanktop you tore, it's a crop top now and," you look down at the shorts, cringing at the faded earthly ducks,"underwear."

"You're wearing those duck shorts again, aren't you?"

You quickly tug them off,"Nope- not at all," then grab the blue vibrator you had made.

He chuckles,"Sexy, now take it all off, baby."

You shiver at the purr in his voice, swallowing thickly before listening. You grab a towel and toss it into your bed. Your top ends up tossed away from your bed as you clamber onto the plush blankets and lay on top of the towel with the vibrator in hand. Your practically buzzing with excitement.

"O-okay.. it's off," your voice wavers.

"Good girl," you hear his voice getting a little breathier,"Want you to tease your nipples for me."

You nod, before quickly speaking out a soft 'Okay', dragging your fingers down your chest to softly touch your nipples. You tease as he asked, tracing around them before pinching softly to harden them up. You whine lightly at the feeling.

"Wish I was there, wanna bite on those perfect little nipples," he breathes.

"Lo'ak-" you pant,"Wish you were here, miss you-"

"I miss you, baby," he huffs,"Too perfect for me."

You heart swells and you grin,"Touch yourself for me?"

"Fuck- of course," he groans.

You hear rustling and he huffs in relief, a skin slapping against skin sound coming from his end and you smirk weakly, trailing the buzzing toy over your clit. You increase the pressure and sigh in bliss.

"Baby- put it in yourself," he speaks soft and it almost sounds like a plea.

You blink then nod, turning it off, sitting up to gently prod the tip at your entrance before inserting in one fell swoop. You gasp, a punched out moan sounding on the other end and he groans.

"You touching yourself?" You whine, head tilting back just slightly as you picture him gingerly stroking himself off.

"Ye-yeah, god," he tries to stifle a whimper but it still sends that zing between your legs,"wish I was there, oh fuck-"

"Don't- don't cover your noises, please," you plead with a whine,"Want to hear you."

You hear him exhale followed by a broken off moan. You languidly thrust it in for a few moments before finally turning it back on; you toss your head back and moan brokenly as it thrums inside of you.

"Uhhn, mmf, fuckfuck," your voice is a whimper. Your thighs clench for a moment before you're able to calm down just slightly enough to be able to thrust it in and out of your cunt.

"Imagine its me," he breathes hard.

You can't help the snort,"kinda hard when it's barely half your size."

He snickers as well,"That's true, but- just imagine it, please?"

"Fine, fine, I'll imagine your dick shrank."

"No!"

"And that it's vibrating now."

"No- wait, that's okay," and you both snicker.

It's then that you break off into a whine,"Hhhn, fuck, Lo'aaak," as it pulses inside of you.

"Shit- yeah, baby? Like how it feels?"

"Yeah- yes, oh god."

"Wish I was there to see you, we'll have to use those next time, won't we?"

You blush at the thought, but an idea occurs,"You could- can fuck me open with this, then your cock?"

He groans loudly, the sound of skin slapping gets quicker as he jerks himself off.

"Could tease you with it- fuck, I have so many ideas now," he moans.

You giggle lightly, panting,"We can try all of them, hun," while thrusting it with more of a sequence. At this point you're dragging it against your pulsing walls, whining pathetically into the mic.

"Promise? Want to cum in you all the time- want everyone to know you're mine," he speeds up.

"That's so- so dirty, Lo'ak," you whine.

"Yeah- want to dirty you up, fuckfuck."

You reach a hand up to pinch at your nipples, whining breathlessly. They harden up and you can't stop thinking of the last time he sucked on them; they were tender for a week! But it felt too good for you to really be upset.

"Miss your mouth on me-" you groan, switching to the other side.

"I'll bite you all over, mark you up," The tone in his voice has you whimpering hard,

"Mmph, fuck, Lo'ak, Lo'ak!" You moan, thrusting the toy into yourself faster. The vibrating is hitting all the right spots. The wet squelches have you almost feeling embarrassed but you can't seem to care enough. Your head cranes back against your pillow as you cry out in bliss, your other hand leaving your nipple to press against your sensitive clit.

"That's it, baby- Eywa, I wish I was there to see you," he moans, and you can faintly hear the wet slapping of his hand jerking his cock off,"Want to touch you, that toy of yours is nothing compared to me, isn't that right?"

You whine, panting,"doesn't even fill me the way you do- uhhn," your hips buck involuntarily and you gasp loudly as the vibrations pulse hard against that spot inside of you.

"That's right- oh fuck- I love being inside you," he whines and it has you clenching around the vibrator,"Love seeing you take all of me- the fact that I can see myself poking through your belly- ugh, fuckfuck-"

You can't think, only moaning brokenly into the air.

"You're so good for me, baby," his voice is desperate and he's breathing harder.

Your thrust that vibrator into yourself despite your wrist cramping, your middle and index finger rubbing harder into your clit.

"Mmmf, fuck, pleaseplease," you babble nonsense,"Need you- God, Lo'ak! Oh- please-"

"Love when I get to eat you out," his grin is clear,"You're always so wet for me- you taste so good."

"Hnn, fuck- want you to fuck me with your fingers," you moan out and you grin at the shakey moan.

"Want you to cum on my face," he whines, and your back arches, vision going white as you cum to the image.

You collapse, slowly coming back to your senses to hear him speaking.

"Love it when you ride me-" He stutters, breath hitching as he belts out a moan. It breaks off into a whimper before he's silent for a moment. You assume he's finished, judging by the faint hard intakes of breath.

You whine, quickly reaching down to pull the toy out of your sopping cunt, wincing as you drop it onto the towel.

You breath for another few minutes before huffing,"We're having that date night tomorrow, alright?"

He chuckles weakly on the other end.

¤¤¤

A/N: love him

Taglist:

@akoyaxs

(Lmk if you want to be added!)

[reides]

leaving alola behind him, reides the kingdra headed for generation 8 of the pokemon games in his quest for more ribbons! gen8 of these games feature the galar region (via pokemon sword and shield) as well as the sinnoh region (via pokemon brilliant diamond and shining pearl)! this leap to gen8 was super alarming, as my beloved kingdra moved from the 3ds to the current nintendo console - namely, the nintendo switch! it's crazy to think about how this whole journey began on my copy of emerald version, slotted into my pleasantly clunky brick of a grey ds.

reides' journey through the generations has been filled with its highs and its lows, but once he arrived safely in pokemon home, it meant that i could be a bit flexible with my approach to the ribbons available in swsh and bdsp! (it also meant bidding farewell to my shoddy photos of my (3)ds screen for these posts... they will be missed...)

anyway, before i get into the story of reides' gen8 journey, i gotta do my customary shoutout to all the other parts of his ribbon master quest. it's really easy this time around, as i finally put together an index for these posts on my personal site! you can find it here! that page also has a lot of information about the challenge itself, along with some helpful resources if you'd like to take it on. as always, you can also peek in my ribbon master tag on this blog, too.

if you're all caught up with the story so far, it's time to get started on a brand new chapter.

transferring reides into my copy of pokemon shield was a really emotional experience. kingdra looks absolutely gorgeous on the switch, and i was blown away by how awesome the shiny form looks, too. this moment on the beach at sunset - with a galarian slowpoke and a kingler lurking close by - felt pretty cinematic. it was also really nice to see my trainer character again! i absolutely love all of the different fashion items available in swsh. immediately, i knew that i had to make my ribbon mastery team a big ol' pot of curry for all of their hard work thus far.

we also played together while we camped out. i was really glad that i was already in shield's post-game, as it saved a whole lot of time on this ribbon master journey AND meant that i'd have tons of toys for my pokemon at my disposal.

after goofing around for hours, i finally decided to take on the first ribbon available in galar. this ribbon was the galar champion ribbon, which your pokemon receive upon entering the galarian hall of fame. i ended up needing to play through the galarian star tournament first, though, as i had procrastinated on doing that for the longest time... so reides ended up taking part in a few more battles than one would think!

it was absolutely awesome to see dynamax in action with reides! it made me wish that kingdra got a gigantamax form, but i guess that would be a bit too amazing for anyone to handle, huh? while taking on this ribbon, i also realized just how much i missed the vibes of the gym challenge in the galar region. the wide stadiums, the cheering crowds, the MUSIC... all of it is so incredibly top-tier and it really got me pumped up! not to mention seeing the absolutely INCREDIBLE cast in action. shoutout to everyone but especially piers. all hail the reigning king of the pokemon punks.

anyway, reides was eventually able to sweep his way to victory in both the galarian star tournament as well as the league battles. he joined the hall of fame and got the galar champion ribbon!

with that handled, it was time to take on galar's battle tower. according to most, this battle tower is an absolute cake-walk, as you can dynamax while most of your opponents (barring leon) can't. it was just a matter of buckling down and spending the time required to amass your wins. as a result, i ended up abandoning the tried and true durant strat and instead took the og trio of albatross, origin and reides, himself, along for the ride.

hilariously enough, i ran into ONE road-block in this tower in the form of a shedinja which i could literally not attack. i had NO moves that could get past its guard... sobs. but another nice thing about the galarian battle tower is that it isn't streak-dependent, instead swapping over to a system relying on ranking up or ranking down. so i brushed off this shedinja encounter without letting it get to me all that much, haha! i also taught albatross shadow ball... just in case.

ribbons also got a bit of an upgrade in the switch games of pokemon. no longer limited to just being pretty graphics on the ribbon screen, you can now equip one ribbon on your pokemon and give it a little title every time you send it out in battle. i equipped the ribbon that reides got for mastering all of the contests in omega ruby, which granted him the title of 'shining star'!

it was so nice to see it every time i sent him out, but i can definitely see myself swapping between all the various titles at reides' disposal!

my climb to the master ball rank was fairy uneventful, though i really understood this child's plight. it's how i felt many times while in various battle towers during this ribbon master journey.

eventually, i made it through the rank itself and got to the final battle against leon. though i had faced him at the end of each rank prior to this moment, it still felt very intense to encounter him knowing that this was my very last battle tower match for the forseeable future. also, his battle tower outfit is SO DRIPPY. love him so much.

not gonna lie, it was pretty funny seeing him say something so inspiring while looking so sad (and the snowscape from one of dynamax-form reides' attacks really added to it). leon is an absolutely amazing character and one of my fav champions ever, though, so i was thrilled that he got to be the final match in my battle tower saga!

even though the swsh battle tower was WAY easier than the others that i faced, i was still so happy to be done with it. my goodness. i really went from ignoring the battle towers in the series to gaining streaks of ~50 in each and every one... it's kind of unreal. reides truly earned the title of 'tower master'!

upon getting the tower master ribbon, we were done with galar. i was sure to make my pokemon team some more curry before they set off for sinnoh! but i honestly wasn't too torn up about leaving galar, as pokemon home lets us shift pokemon between the switch games however we'd like. after so many one-way transfers out of prior generations, it felt kind of surreal - and was also a huge relief.

this cute curry wasn't the only treat that got eaten, either! i made some pokemon cookies in Real Life to celebrate, as well. i used cookie cutters from the official pokemon store to make these pikachu and munchlax cookies!

i then set my sights on the remake of diamond version... pokemon: brilliant diamond!

the last time reides visited sinnoh, he did so via my childhood copy of diamond version. as i wrote in my post about the gen4 part of reides' journey, this copy of the game was already in the post-game, so i didn't have to play through any of diamond's plot whatsoever when he arrived. however... for this sinnoh visit, i actually didn't have a post-game available! despite owning brilliant diamond since the day it released, i had barely played it. (fun fact: in my first run of the game, i ran into a shiny bidoof on my very first night playing it. i ended up transferring all of the pokemon in it - bidoof included - to pokemon home and restarting it, though, as i was toying with the idea of doing a shiny starter hunt... and then i simply never touched it. so i guess restarting it was actually a waste of time. weeps.) i knew that i'd need to play through its plot to get the ribbon that reides needed, so... you know what that meant.

it was time for a whole other adventure to begin.

i decided to keep reides in the pc for the storyline part of this playthrough. i wanted to raise a team of pokemon from the sinnoh region, and i knew that reides' status as a fully ev and iv trained pokemon at level 100 meant that he would absolutely STEAMROLL the plot. we still went on walks together very often though, and he had his pal hammer the garchomp in the pc for company! (i usually raise a garchomp for my sinnoh teams, as it's one of my fav pokemon in the sinnoh region, but i decided to try to resist this time around and limit myself to pokemon that i had never raised before!)

i absolutely loved my brilliant diamond playthrough. the art direction is a point of contention in the pokemon fandom, but i'm a big fan of it! it seems like people either love it or hate it, and, thankfully, i'm definitely in the 'love' camp! the chibi style is endlessly charming, and the environments were just gorgeous. something about the lighting in brilliant diamond is just SUPER pleasing to me, and re-visiting sinnoh like this allowed me to really appreciate it. since my diamond file was in the post-game, i guess needing to play through this one in its entirety actually kinda worked out in my favour, huh?

i was super delighted to see that the ribbons screen is absolutely gorgeous in this game, too! i really like the status screen featured in bdsp. it's so nice and colourful.

this simple little screenshot is also really important to me. you see, when i was a kid, i got diamond version as a gift from a family friend. he'd gone abroad and generously brought back it back as a present for me. back then, the country that i live in didn't get pokemon games in a timely manner at all (we'd get them in video game stores months after they released in the u.s.), and i actually had no idea that diamond version even existed. (not knowing that a new pkmn generation dropped was a recurring experience in my childhood, LOL.) so playing this game for the first time made for a really magical experience. i have a very, very clear memory of playing it for hours and hours on the night that i started it up... until i could barely keep my eyes open. i trained my team a whole lot and was exploring this route right outside of jubilife, and i thought that the small island on the water was very pretty. i saved there for the night, imagining my trainer setting up a little camp for herself and her pokemon... and now, every time i'm on that route, i can't help but smile at the memory. so you can imagine just how happy i was to take a photo with reides there, with the updated graphics and everything!

furthermore, on the course of my sinnoh journey, i ran into lots of old friends... including none other than riley!

thanks to the way he helped me out in the gen4 battle tower, riley is a really special character to me now. so i was really happy to see him and play through iron island with him! after thwarting team galactic, he surprised me with a little gift.

i actually wasn't planning on raising a riolu - much less a lucario - on my main team AT ALL... but, upon receiving this egg from riley, i knew i had to. as silly as it may sound, i thought it would be a great nod to our time in the battle tower all those generations ago! and so, on that note, here is the storyline team that i journeyed through sinnoh with, and who helped reides get to where he needed to be:

as you can see, there's a bit of a theme going on with their nicknames! i decided to name each member of my brilliant diamond team after in-universe berries. i thought it'd be cute!

anyway, the berry bunch and i had a fantastic time exploring sinnoh. days passed, and, eventually, we faced what i believe to be the most difficult league in any of the pokemon games... including the most daunting champion battle ever.

cynthia lived up to her status as the most skilled champion in the pkmn franchise thus far. we had a battle for the ages, knocking 5 of each other's pokemon out. i actually almost lost to her - she had me completely backed into a corner. but my team pulled through, as kelpsy the glaceon MIRACULOUSLY toughed out an attack that should have knocked him out (via the affection system - namely, if your pokemon really loves you, they can occasionally 'survive' attacks that'd knock them out with 1hp instead) and managed to land a single ice beam on her garchomp. this clutched out the win, and my team was added to the sinnoh hall of fame.

now that i had access to the post-game, i could focus on reides once more. to get his ribbon in brilliant diamond, we'd have to foray into the brilliant contest scene.

brilliant contests are a calibre above the typical condition contests and are linked to all of your contest stats rather than just one. you actually don't gain access to this category unless you've achieved a master rank win in all of the solo-stat categories. luckily, ribbons from oras are recognized in bdsp, so reides didn't have to prove his worth to the judges and could instead get right to competing in the brilliant contests.

in addition to this category, bdsp also introduced some new contest mechanics, too. your final contest score can be split into three parts: 'visual', 'dance', and 'move'. these all seem pretty self-explanatory; the visual part is linked to your pokemon's contest condition/sheen, the dance part is linked to how well you perform in the rhythm game, and the move is linked to your timing in executing the one contest move that you're allowed to take in with you during the contests. but the visual part actually has an element of added complexity in bdsp, as it also involves a new mechanic of placing stickers on your pokemon's pokeball so that cool effects play when you send them out. (this feature was also in the gen4 sinnoh games, albeit not incorporated into those games' contests.)

the effects which these stickers play have a direct impact on your pokemon's visual score. however, for brilliant contests, normal stickers don't really cut it. instead, people recommend grinding out champion stickers (from taking on cynthia's rematch team post-heatran plotline) and showstopper stickers (from beating the other master rank contests) in order to get a decent appeal score. since reides didn't need to take on the master rank contests, i didn't have any of those - and i wasn't all too interested in grinding for more. i figured that grinding out champion stickers would work out better, since they give more points in the visual portion of the contest, anyway.

before starting that grind, i decided to give the brilliant master contest a try with nothing but the base-game stickers. given reides' perfect contest stats from omega ruby, i wondered if his contest skills would be enough to scrape through and secure a win.

as it turned out...

...they were not. people are NOT exaggerating when they talk about the difficulty of the brilliant master rank contest!! i was pretty shocked that my lovely kingdra was getting absolutely terrible visual ratings. (LIKE, LOOK AT HIM!! LOOK AT HIM!!!!!!! HE'S SO CUTE!!!!!!! AND PERFECT!!! AND SWEET, TOO!!!!!!!!) anyway, my outrage aside, it turns out that using those two types of stickers to boost your pokemon's visual rating is pretty much a necessity. the rhythm game portion of it is also not to be underestimated and typically requires a bit of practice. luckily, i'm fairly decent at rhythm games, but i knew that i would have to get those stickers from cynthia after all. i played through the pre-requisite bit of the post-game - catching heatran in a premier ball! - and made my way back to the league. with my storyline team vibing in the pc and my ribbon mastery team ready to FIGHT, i got settled and began grinding out the battles.

initially, i intended to get 20 champion stickers on the ball so as to fill it up entirely with them. after getting 8 stickers in one night, though, i was kind of worn down and decided to give the contest another try. i also taught giga impact to reides, as it's SUPER good in the bdsp contests (your pokemon gains a big boost to its score when you use it while you have a positive 'jam' score in the dance game) and can be easily bought in the veilstone department store. i was delighted to see that my protag's mother - johanna - was there for this contest, as well as gym leader fantina. both johanna and fantina are great at contests in-universe, so i was excited at the prospect of at least succeeding on this contest round, even if reides didn't manage to clutch out the win.

...however, by some miracle, reides managed to do just that!! not only did i finally manage to succeed in the brilliant master rank contest, but reides also secured the win. at this point, it was, like, 4 in the morning for me. i was absolutely astounded; i actually wondered if i was somehow hallucinating. the twinkling star ribbon was the one and only ribbon that i needed in brilliant diamond, and after so much work to get to this point...

...it was finally granted to reides!!!

upon recieving this ribbon, reides acquired all of the ribbons that he needs in order to be a ribbon master... save for ONE. one (1) single ribbon stands in his way... and that ribbon is the one that's granted to a pokemon for emerging victorious in a master ball ranked online battle. now, i can technically get this ribbon by putting reides back in pokemon shield and trying to climb the ladder in gen8... but, as you likely know, the current gen (as of me writing this post) is gen9. that means that the gen8 battle servers are... well...

empty.

okay, no. they're not entirely empty. but people have stories of waiting for hours to get into one single match, and i'm not sure if i want to put myself through that unless i absolutely must. and i might just have to, as kingdra hasn't been officially announced as part of the generation 9 pokedex... however, with indigo disk on the horizon (3 more days!!!), i figured i'd wait to see if kingdra would be included in its national dex before subjecting myself to gen8's very delayed match-making times. if it isn't, i'll just devote another post to my competitive climb in lieu of a gen9 one. (tbh, i'm considering making a totally seperate blog post for my very first foray in the vgc realm regardless - but we'll see how it goes!)

either way, i really, really enjoyed my time with reides in gen8. it has been so awesome to see him in games that i can play with the most up-to-date nintendo console, and kingdra's models across the switch games have just been so incredibly snazzy. i said this at the start of the post, but it truly is crazy to see just how far my little shiny horsea from emerald version has journeyed. i love reides so very much and i couldn't possibly be more proud of him!!!

so let's keep our fingers crossed that reides will be allowed into gen9 so that he can explore the paldea, kitakami, and unova regions! thanks again for cheering him on, and i'm looking forward to writing another update soon!!! that update may very well include reides finally achieving full ribbon master status at long last, so i'm already excited for it! :D

[capncococharms]

Games I Enjoyed in 2023

I did a big blog post last year where I listed all the games I enjoyed playing and gave my short thoughts about each of my experiences... and I'm doing it again!

Since 2018 I've kept a digital sticky note to keep track of all the games I've played AND finished throughout the year. For 2023 lots of folks claimed it was the "BEST" year for gaming and to some degree... I guess??? Depends on who you ask, but to me I only enjoyed like a handful of new releases and played a lot of older games (or remakes of older games). It was a year of reflecting back on what made me love video games more than looking forward to what's "new".

In 2023, I've finished 32 games. That's 10 more games than I finished from last year but out of all the games I played, here are the ones that stood out to me and left a pretty positive impression.

LIVE A LIVE

I never had a chance to play the SNES version, but I was very familiar with the game to some degree from the old days when I use to browse forum threads about RPGs I've never heard of. I knew I would get around to playing it one day and thankfully it got a remake on the Switch (and then it got a PC port later this year). I didn't get to properly play it last year, but after sitting down to play LIVE A LIVE... it's a game with a really powerful soundtrack, engaging characters, and a unique story that left me wanting more games like it.

I could type up many reasons why I like this game, but I feel it's something you have to experience more than anything. I don't want to spoil anything about this game. If you love Chrono Trigger then you will have a great time with LIVE A LIVE.

Final Fantasy VII- Crisis Core Reunion

I love FFVII and FFVII Remake. When they announced they were remaking Crisis Core I was excited to finally see what the deal was and by the end of this game... it left me a very broken man sobbing my eyes out. As a stand alone game it works very well even if you're not familiar with FFVII. It's a touching and contained story about a man striving to be a hero. Zack is a person I wish I could be in terms of confidence and wanting to do what's right. He's also a goof ball and I am very happy I got to know him more through Crisis Core. I don't want to say much about this game either, but PLEASE play it if you haven't! It made me finally understand why people love Zack so much.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

I've put off this game for way too long. I had the chance to get into it when this game came out on 3DS, but I was too busy in college then. I ended up playing the PS3 version of the game (this was before the MGS Master Collection came out to every platform). At first... I wasn't a fan of this game. I struggled to play this game and felt like an idiot when it came to sneaking. I got stuck at the Volgin fight and out of spite, I started over on "Very Easy" to better equip myself. After working my way back to Volgin, I enjoyed my experience more and was engaged with what was happening around me. Once the game was finished, I was tearing up and couldn't help but think about how often true heroes are forgotten and how history is retold.

Thank you for the heartrending experience, Hideo Kojima.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

I had a weird experience with Zelda games this year. Tears of the Kingdom released and I went in hoping it would be a great follow-up to Breath of the Wild. I wasn't the BIGGEST fan of BotW. I had some faith going in that TotK would be a better experience. Unfortunately, after making it back to Hyrule my fears sort of came true. It felt like the same game I played almost 7 years ago except you can use bubble gum to craft and make things which is... fine I guess.

I kept pushing on hoping the story was going to set up something great and for a while, it did! The BIG twist was interesting, but once I got to the final scene I wanted to chuck this game out the window. The newer Zelda games just weren't doing it for me anymore so I decided to replay some older Zelda games (Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD which was a TON of fun to replay) and decided it was time for me to give Majora's Mask another chance.

I ended up playing this on NSO and after a month or so, I 100%'d the game and greatly appreciated what this game had to offer in terms of setting, story, soundtrack, and characters. The setting is dark and terrifying yet it still keeps a goofy demeanor. I just fell in love with exploring and seeing how human this game can be (especially the finale). This is what I want to see with future Zelda games. I miss having ACTUAL dungeons and linearity, but we won't get that again. I hope that there will be another 2D Zelda game or Nintendo goes back to its roots with 3D Zelda games, but here's to all the indie devs out there trying to recreate that GOOD Zelda magic.

The Great Ace Attorney (Adventures)

I love this series but fell off during the 3DS era with AA6 (I still need to play that...). Since this game is more of its own thing I thought I would give it a shot and MAN! This game took the AA formula and dialed it up to 1000. In Ace Attorney fashion I love the characters, I love the puzzle-solving, and the mystery aspect where everything is tied together (especially that finale omg). My only irk is that the cases tend to go on a bit too long compared to AA 1-4, but I can let that slide because I was streaming this game, and having to voice and read EVERY bit of dialogue was exhausting (I plan to play Resolve on my own time next year so I can get through it much quicker). Ace Attorney still rocks and I hope to catch up and play more in 2024 (looking at you Apollo Justice "Trilogy").

Ranko Tsukigume's Longest Day

One of the shortest games I played this year. I love SUDA 51's work and wanted to give this a shot and it sure was an experience, to say the least. The gameplay is simple and difficult at weird times, but the one thing that sticks out to me about this game, in particular, is the absurdity and goofy humor (which is... basically expected with a SUDA 51 experience) with its visuals and jumping to different art styles and animation. Something about this small game makes me want to start working on my own projects more than anything. You can tell this was made with a creative team and the devs from Tokyo Jungle worked on it to so maybe that's another game I should look into as well... Overall, this was like a fun snack to chew away at left me with my heads in the clouds.

Pizza Tower

I don't need to say much about Pizza Tower. If you've played it, then you get it. Go play Pizza Tower! The OST and crude cartoon art style is what gives this game... uh as the kids call it... "soul". It's the Wario Land game that Nintendo will never make. It's 25% off on Steam! GO PLAY PIZZA TOWER!

Hypnospace Outlaw

Had a rough time playing through this game at first because it would crash pretty often. Turns out the game would connect to the wrong graphics card so after I got that sorted out, I finally got to play this game in peace, and... man... there's nothing else like this game in terms of telling a story/ narrative through faux web browsing. It's a game that perfectly emulates the experience of the late 90's internet browsing. There's a particular joy in exploring page after page to learn about all these characters and their hobbies. Letting the player take a small peek into their lives is a treat. As you get deeper into the game, you start learning about some of these people and who they are underneath their online persona. Without going into spoilers, the game went in a direction I didn't expect with its tone. The final arc of this game left me with some tears and a HUGE respect for what once was before what our current internet has become...

Hypnospace is really really cool.

Undertale Yellow (Pacifist Route)

Kinda unexpected that a fan game would end up on my list, but I'll make the exception. From what I've read, Undertale Yellow was in development for 7 years and that dedication and work shows in terms of presentation, story, and new characters. For a fan game, it doesn't heavily depend on needing the cast of characters from the base game of Undertale to tell its OWN story. Like Undertale, you fall in love with these new casts of characters and go through many vignettes in each part of the Underground where you get to learn about how these monsters live, and just like Undertale you'll laugh, you'll cry, and wish that the journey would never end. Once again I don't want to spoil anything, but for a prequel to Undertale's story... it's surprisingly more powerful than I thought it was going to be. Congrats to the entire Undertale Yellow team who worked on this. It was a pleasant December surprise that made me want to work harder on my passion projects.

I feel to some degree, I love this game probably a little more than Undertale itself...

Probably...

One thing for sure is that this game is helping me tide over until the new chapters of Deltarune come out.

2023 was a great time to play my backlog and give games another chance. Also trying out new stuff in the process despite my current feelings on the gaming industry at the moment...

I hope in 2024, I can continue to dedicate my time to slowly chip away at my backlog and try out new games (or older games I missed out on). Video games inspire what I want to do creatively and I love seeing what people can create and put out there.

[wiispywitch]

Attack on Titan OC - Joanna Elytis🪻💪💜

♡. ToyHou.se | Instagram | AO3

~

Name: Joanna Elytis

Meaning: Joanna- God is gracious; Elytis- Odysseus

Nickname(s): Jo (by Tay, Mel, and Hange), Joker (by most of the veterans) 

Alias (if any): N/A

Age: 18

Gender: Female

Nationality: Eldian (Hebrew descent)

Birthday: December 10th, 832

Birthplace: Karanes District, Wall Rose

Current Residence: Scout Regiment Headquarters (location varies)

Sexual Orientation: Lesbian

Relationship Status: Taken, later married

Language(s) spoken: Eldian

Life-Long Dream: To marry the love of her life and have a family with her

Goal(s): To gain her mother’s respect, to make her family proud, to make Levi laugh, to bring Mel and Ymir back home safe

Like(s): Cooking, children, long strolls in the city, riding and grooming horses, coffee, making her friends laugh, arm-wrestling, messing with Levi, Bethany, big dogs, giving out nicknames for her friends

Dislike(s): Being woken up early, mornings, arrogant people, stupid drama, her mother, Minister Nick

Bad Habit(s): She tends to goof off a lot, she's very confrontational and tends to punch first and ask questions later, she talks back to authority and this has led to her getting in trouble by her superior officers, when she’s sad she buries her real feelings rather than open up about how she really feels and preferably hides behind humor, oversleeps

Hobbies: Cooking, fitness training, horseback riding, arm-wrestling

Fear(s): Abandonment, her friends splitting apart up, never getting her mother’s respect

Personality: Bubbly, confident, caring, helpful, humorous, loyal, dedicated, hard-headed 

Favorites(not necessary)-

Food(s): Peach cobbler, coffee, chocolate 

Color(s): Purple

Season(s): Summer

Activities: Cooking

Time of Day: Midday

Extras: Animals- Grizzly bears; Literature- Romance, nonfiction; Flower- Lilac

Appearance-

Height: 6'11” (186 cm)

Weight: 165 lbs. (75 kg)

Hair style: Long hair tied back into a ponytail, bangs on the left side of her face

Hair Color: Brunette

Eye Color: Chocolate brown 

Skin Tone: Olive

Body Shape/Build: Muscular, tall, full thighs, wide hips

Birthmarks: N/A 

Scar(s): N/A

Other: She has cute dimples 

Health-

Memory: Average. She's very observant and is great at remembering small details, which is useful when she’s out on expedition or even when it comes to their friends.

Sight (do you need glasses?): Normal

Mental: Anger issues, quick tempered

Physical: Fit, she loves exercising and making sure she keeps her body fit and muscular

Allergies/Other: N/A

Sleep patterns (how you sleep and how much rest do you get?): While she has a decent sleep schedule, she has a habit of oversleeping and is very cranky in the mornings. She needs to be forced out of bed and often times it became screaming matches between her and the commandant

Abilities/Statistics (1- lowly skilled, 10- highly skilled and tell why)-

3D Maneuvering Gear: 9/10 

Intelligence: 4/10

Martial Arts: 9.5/10

Battle Skill: 7/10

Agility: 7.5/10

Strategy: 5/10

Teamwork: 6.5/10 

Passion: 8.5/10

Affiliation: Scout Regiment

Former Affiliation: 103rd Cadet Corps 

Grad. Rank: 12th

Status (Alive, Missing, etc.): Deceased

Relationships-

Parent(s): Filip Elytis (father), Leah Elytis (mother)

Sibling(s): N/A

Other Relative(s): Diesel (pet dog), Bethany Sawyer (wife)

Love Interest: Bethany Sawyer

Best Friend(s): Taylor Schuyler, Melody Oglethorpe

Friend(s): Petra Ral, Nifa, Hange Zoë, Reiner Braun, Connie Springer, Sasha Blouse, Jean Kirsten, Eren Yeager

Enemy(ies): Reiner Braun, Bertholt Hoover

Hero(es): Hange Zoë

Rival(s): Levi Ackerman

Quote(s):

“None of the scouts are saints, I would know. But at least we weren’t cowards hiding behind the walls and lying to the people while you sit around on your asses as your same people are dying! We ventured out there because we know there is more out there than what’s here!”

“It's gotta really suck living a lie your whole life. That's just not me. I'm happy being who I am instead of trying so hard to please others.”

History/Life: Joanna Elytis is the daughter of retired Garrison soldier Filip Elytis and housewife Leah Elytis of Karanes District. She was a very energetic child with a friendly yet hot-headed personality and always put her friends’ needs over her own. Despite her friendly nature and her willingness to welcome others with open arms, throughout her childhood she was frequently harassed by the other children in her town because of her open attraction to girls rather than boys. Many of her friends turned against her, and even most adults saw her as a troublesome girl and kept their children from having anything to do with her. Fearing that someone would tell her family and what they might do, she worked up the courage to do something she was terrified to do, and decided to tell her family—to her surprise, Filip assured her that whoever she loved would not change the fact that he will always love her and she will be his daughter no matter what; Leah, on the other hand, was disgusted by the revelation and declared her as an embarrassment to their family. This put a lot of tension between Leah and Filip's marriage, and Joanna always thought she was to blame for it. This didn't stop the harassment amongst the children, either. Joanna tried to laugh it off at first as a means to not let it get her down, but when she was shamed by her own mother, it shattered her in a way that made her feel like she was worthless. Eventually she snapped, and decided that she wasn't going to be pushed around anymore. Her being much bigger for her age, she fought back and made sure anyone who dared mess with her would leave her alone for good.  

“Sorry! I told you I don't hold back!”

The only ones Joanna felt were truly there for her throughout her life was Filip—he always stood up for her when Leah tried to shame her, reminding her that she was still their daughter—and a street dancer and her eventual lover Bethany Sawyer. She always admired Bethany from afar, and they would end up meeting after Joanna left home after having a screaming match with Leah. The both of them immediately became close, and Joanna ended up staying out with her the whole night exploring the town and getting to know each other. It wouldn't be long after that night that a romantic relationship between them blossomed. It was then decided that Joanna would enlist in the military and prove to her mother that she was deserving of respect. Originally, she had intended to follow in her father’s footsteps in the Garrison Brigade, and she had plans to move her and Bethany into a small village where they would be married and have a family of their own. Although it was hard saying goodbye, Bethany supported Joanna’s choice to join the military as she wanted her to be happy, and promised her that she would wait for her. They would write letters every night to each other in the three years they were apart.

Of all the cadets in the 103rd Cadet Corps, Joanna was one of the few physically strongest recruits in her corps. Commandant Shadis saw potential in her strength, however what held her back were a number of factors: Her biggest weaknesses were her sleeping in during the wake-up calls and getting into screaming matches with higher ups when she was forced out of bed, and her having a tendency to joke around or talk back to her higher ups with an attitude, thus earning her the nickname "Joker." She got herself into trouble on multiple occasions. Joanna was often punished by being sent to kitchen duty, which wasn't really a negative for her as cooking was her passion, so Shadis had to think of other means as punishment such as loss of food privileges. She would mature in her three years of training and began to grow a bigger respect towards the authorities, especially to her commandant. 

Joanna settled with joining the scouts after she thought about how her life would be in the Garrison, and it wasn't until hearing about the fall of Shinganshina that she felt motivated to make more of an effort to help others. She enlisted into the Scout Regiment, and formed a close bond with many of the veterans, especially Hange Zoë, and became best friends with rookies Tay Schuyler and Mel Oglethorpe. Joanna formed so close of a bond with them that she considered them as sisters. When Mel is captured by the Armored Titan, Joanna blamed herself for not being able to turn back, and made a vow to help bring her home and take revenge on the traitors. Joanna was one of the many scouts arrested when the government began to turn against the scouts, and she was very vocal about the cruelty the MPs endured to them as Bethany protested for the scouts release. She was pardoned of her scout activities thanks to the new rightful queen of the walls. Realizing that she was just one step away from death's door, Joanna made the choice to marry Bethany and have a grand ceremony, two months prior to the mission to take back Wall Maria.

Joanna was killed in the recovery operation of Wall Maria after she sacrificed herself to save Tay from the Colossal Titan's intense heat. Her body was practically charred, and she was left buried under debris as she held on tight to her best friend.

Joanna had high hopes for her future. Even in her last moments in life, she believed that she lived. But she still would have one regret, and that would never fulfill her promise to come home to have a future with her dearest Bethany. She had hoped that her mother would be proud of the sacrifice she made. But later in life, she learned to accept that she was surrounded by others who cared about her the most, and it would be enough for her to live a happy life.

Bonus Facts

-Her voice: Japanese- Sayaka Kinoshita (Mirko, My Hero Academia); English- Amanda Céline Miller (Makoto Kino/Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Moon)

-Joanna loves to challenge her comrades to arm-wrestling challenges. Her favorite opponent was Reiner. The only one who's managed to beat her was Mikasa and Reiner (a few times).

-She is a Sagittarius.

-She has a jasmine scent.

-Her alignment is chaotic-good.

-She and her family are middle-class.

-Joanna is one of my first gay characters that I’ve ever created. I made her during a time I was figuring out my own identity (I’m a demi-sexual lesbian), and she means a lot to me in that regard. 

-The ship name between Joanna and Bethany is called AnnaBeth.

-In much older drafts, she was going to be paired with Tay and heavily hinted at having feelings for each other until she was killed off. I’ve since decided to change their relationship to have a more sisterly bond and give Joanna a partner of her own.

-Back in the day as a cadet, her comrades got really excited when she was on kitchen duty since she was one of the best cooks they’ve ever had, even with what she was limited with. Even Shadis took a liking to her food although he will not admit it out loud. In the scouts, she’s put in charge of kitchen duty and even works alongside Mel to come up with some new recipes for their comrades.

-The only ones she had not beat in arm-wrestling are Levi and Mikasa.

-One time when Oluo tried to wake her up for their next mission, without thinking she had punched him in the face and caused him to accidentally bite his tongue. She would say sorry to him at least once or twice a day, but since then it was Levi’s job to get her ass out of bed. 

-Filip taught her how to cook, and had she not joined the scouts, she would’ve worked in a restaurant in Karanes.

-In a modern AU, she would be working in a restaurant as a line cook. As stressful as the job could be, it is something she loves and is very passionate about even if it's not a fine-dining restaurant. Her aesthetic would be tough punk, and she has a huge obsession with unicorns.

-In a Harry Potter AU, her Hogwarts house is Gryffindor, and her Patronus is a unicorn.

~

OC Profile Credit: AliceCantBeStopped

[alectoperdita]

What creative hobbies does your interpretation of Joey and Kaiba (in general) have or do? Like for example, drawing, creative writing, 3D modelling, sculpting, woodworking, etc

I do remember reading one of your chapters from the gundam crossover series where joey did sketches lol

I don't think I really have a consistent view of creative hobbies for these two. In fact I don't seem to write a lot about them having creative hobbies unless it's directly plot relevant. Ironic, given 90% of my life outside of work revolves around my creative hobby.

Canonically in the manga, Jounouchi is mentioned as enjoying plamos. Which makes a lot of sense to me that he likes making stuff with your hand. It's also hard to have a lot of creative hobbies when growing up poor. So I can see Jounouchi wanting to make a lot of stuff like plamos and kits, but that shit gets expensive fast if you do the whole painting bit too. One of the pleasures of growing up and making your own money for Jounouchi will be getting to explore those hobbies he might have always wanted to but couldn't because of financial reason. That opens the door to related hobbies like painting/sculpting/woodworking.

(Related, I love making Jounouchi a carpenter. I think it's an excellent trade for him to pick up, giving him both room to grow and decent financial security).

Conversely, traditional sketch art/doodling is relatively inexpensive and a much lower barrier to entry re: tools. So that's why I think drawing/sketching is a nice hobby that Jounouchi could pick up and enjoy earlier on. In the Gundam crossover, that combination of a love for plamo and sketching definitely informed his career choice.

I think Jounouchi enjoys singing too, but he probably thinks of it less as a hobby than as a way to goof around. He's pretty good too when we take into account his Japanese VA's singing career.

Kaiba, on the other hand, lived a life of (relative) financial security. However, given how strict his education was, I dunno if he was ever given much of the mental space to explore creative hobbies. Art might have been seen a frivolous waste of time within his home schooled education. The one exception to that might be music. I can see Gozaburo insisting on Kaiba learning an instrument or two. But at that point it's more about developing a skill set to show off (and maybe me projecting the Asian experience of your parent forcing you to pick up an instrument because that's classically considered part of a well-rounded education in many East Asian cultures). Violin or piano are the most likely candidates here. Kaiba is good at them, because he has to be. He can't not learn it well if Gozaburo is invested in that part of his education.

How much he personally enjoys it is up for debate.

Definitely one of those things that I imagine falls quickly to the wayside once he's out from under Gozaburo's control. But that also offers opportunities for him to maybe rediscover it later in life, after his skill set had rusted a bit from lack of practice, and learn to enjoy the hobby for itself while relearning the ropes.

A lot of the creative hobbies I've written for Kaiba follow the same development model, including tea ceremony and calligraphy.

I guess that makes them both kinda comparable, because they've each lived a life of scarcity in their youths (more financial for Jounouchi, and emotional deprivation for Kaiba) that robbed them of opportunities to explore their creative sides. As they heal and grow, they can begin to explore those possibilities for themselves.

[star-shard]

So. Trigun Stampede.

Who doesn't love Trigun. I first saw the series back in high school and that show has stayed in my top five ever since.

So when news hit that a remake was in the works, I got excited. Especially after hearing the 3D animation was actually really good. Change in style or not, it was worth a look!

...And then I watched episode 1.

And it should be studied on how not to do episode 1 of a remake.

This is going to be spoiler city down below. Irrational venting too :)

Funny how I'm starting off with a 'spoiler warning' when Trigun Stampede spoils a major plot point in the OPENING SEQUENCE. We immediately are introduced to child Vash and Knives, even Rem is there.

At first I was thinking, okay that's weird. Sort of skipping over the build up and mystery of their connection and just explaining it right away, fuck my drag I guess.

But, whatever, the show starts off with a bang, it's an impressive space sequence.

And then we get a time jump and we're introduce Meryl and.... Roberto De Niro. And they're reporters.

....Where's Milly.

Where is she.

And who is this cardboard cut out of a character she got replaced with?????

I just finished the episode today and I don't remember SHIT about this man or what he looks like. Just a carbon copy of every cop type/doesn't play by the rules/I'm getting too old for this shit/you're in for it now, rookie

I could spot Queen Milly ANYWHERE, tall sunshine girl with a bad ass gun up her coat. And she was a legitimate partner to Meryl, they actually liked each other.

They were cute, in the original it right away establishes their dynamic as pretty in over their heads, but still hard workers. Why did this need to change, what does it addWHERESMILLY

And might I just say insurance disaster investigators is way more fresh and funny than regular ass news reports, it just is.

So anyway, in Stampede they're looking for Vash for an interview. And they happen to run into him. He's tied upside down. Not a terrible intro, a big part of Vash's character is him getting into wild situations.

They then immediately find out his identity from some military guys passing by.

Compare this to the first episode of the OG. Vash is built up like crazy. We see the town he's 'ruined', different bounty hunters are after him. Vash is so mysterious that all these guys confuse each other for who's the real Vash.

In Stampede? 'Yeah that's Vash, moving on'

THAT'S SO MUCH WORSE WHY DID IT SKIP THE BUILD UP.

It's like this show is RACING towards the next plot point, it's not giving the characters any breathing room, none at all. Any establishing character moments just come off as: fuck I guess we should show something about these guys instead of just exposition for a moment.

In the OG the story is pushed by the characters FIRST, not by a checklist.

Alright so here's new Vash. He looks. Fine. The hair difference is whatever. Not a fan of the new coat. The original was so well designed, the way it moved begged for really dynamic poses. This red coat just a large rectangle. Once again, it's sort of vague, can't recall details.

So they go to a small town bar. And Vash is welcomed by the townspeople.... Naturally, explaining why he's a good guy.

In the OG Vash is just sort of a wanderer that ends up in weird situations. And he IS a good guy, but part of why he's interesting is they show that through subtle moments. Like his dislike of violence, or the dirty look he shows a bounty hunter that's shitty to one of his subordinates.

Even if he's a good guy, there's questions about if he actually is a hero or more chaotic neutral.

In Stampede? 'Oh yeah Vash saved the town for free :D'

So. OG Vash: Insanely mysterious to the point where he can't be picked out from a crowd, dangerous with what he's left in his wake, yet never has casualties, has surprisingly good qualities, is a wacky ass man, goofs around in a battlefield but will rescue people in a split second, shows it all through natural dialogue and how he reacts to sudden situations.

New Vash: We're told he's wanted. We're told he's got a high bounty. He's pointed out to us right away. We're told he fixed a power planet. He's told to look at it again. He's told to participate in a duel by someone else so he does.

I don't want other characters to explain Vash or characters pushing him to his next plot point. I want to see Vash reacting, making decisions, saving the day because he sees the opportunity and jumps right into it.

It's only during the duel that we see a little of Vash's real character. That he's non violent, good with a gun, and a little quirky. Idk why we had to go through a wackass plot to get here, but we got here.

And then it ices the cake with ANOTHER Knives reference at the end of the episode. In episode 1 of Trigun OG, we see Knive's gun in the OP and thats IT, we don't know his name, we don't even know there's a villain yet!!

Trigun OG perfectly captures a stylish slow burn, but keeps it exciting through character's interactions. In the OG we don't even know we're on a colonized planet! The only hint is the two suns and weird ant eater horses in the first episode.

But because we already have three really likable characters in the OG, we want to follow their stories, we're along for the ride, we want to figure out his mystery of what's going on.

Stampede has all the pieces but it's lacking the heart, plain and simple. It lacks the original style, pacing, kick ass music, it's more interested in the lore rather than the characters, it cut out one of it's best characters, Vash is blander in both look and personality, and while the 3D animation really is pretty good it just can't compare to the 2D original.

Some of this rant is just 'it's not as good as the original', but even if it was a stand alone it's front loading of information is really sloppily presented.

All that being said, this is just episode 1. Who knows maybe it'll pull a hat trick and become a good show.

But just based off episode 1, I can't see it becoming a great one.

[sapphireraeburn]

Goofing off with the dragon babies again. Here is Crystal posing and Clover is unimpressed. Ha ha xD

Clover is now dragging Crystal around by the tail. xD

—-

I’ve been goofing off with these little 3D prints. I have a few desires, and I have a love/hate relationship with Crystal’s wings. (I need to come up with original names for them. Ha ha.)

I wish the mouths could move, the legs could move better, and the wings weren’t so stiff yet I wish they would hold their pose better. There’s no pleasing me. Ha ha.

Still loving these cute little guys. May pose them with my crystals soon. It would be a better backdrop than my arm and occasional bits of my living room.

[crownednova]

I’ve only seen love directed towards RtDLDX, and while I think that’s lovely, I’ve always had several issues with it that I haven’t seen many else talk about. So that’s what I wanna do… talk about it. This was originally gonna be in the form of an essay, but I wrote the first draft half asleep, there is no saving that, and I think more of a point form, individualised analysis would get my point across better. This also means there isn’t going to be much for positives. Pretty much anything I don’t mention should be assumed I am either fine or happy with. Despite that though, I do still think the negatives are enough to cause me to not enjoy RtDLDX, at least not as much as I wish I could. But enough preamble.

New White Wafers Dialogue

Let’s start off with the two least impactful gripes. In fact, I’m just gonna get this one out of the way before getting onto the actual topic. Ability Stars look so much worse now. I get they’re 3D models now, but man, they just look so flat. Where are my RtDL Ability Star fans at? Okay, now to actually begin. All the other changes to Story Mode are great, but wow, I do not like his “Such Easy Targets” line. It feels like a betrayal of his facade. I’ve said in the past that RtDL has my favourite Magolor, which is why this stings. This isn’t like any of his other new/changed dialogue, while his Extra Mode dialogue also stands out, it still feels closer to how he acts. Not to mention, this is him finally being honest. He’s allowed to drop the facade here, it makes sense. But in White Wafers? I just can’t see him saying that. In the original, he does come off as shady, and he does mess up his story, but in a completely different way. I feel a similar slip up is when he calls Kirby a Hero in Cookie Country. At that time, he isn't supposed to know that. He also changes his story from “Just Crash Landing” to “Being Attacked by Landia.” Those are his brand of slip ups, I can’t imagine he’d mess up that badly as to say “Man I love scheming. Oops I mean crocheting ☺️” It’s also a lot more relaxed than what I expect from him. I always interpreted RtDL Magolor as having this stress to his dialogue. His ship is in shambles and he needs to keep up a lie. He still goofs around, but it’s in a completely different tone, it still has undertones of panic. This however, reads more like one of his upgrade lines in the Epilogue. Some may find that appropriate, but Magolor is never written consistently, and trying to add connections only makes things worse. Also, forgot to mention, this is just a straight up spoiler. Sure, the game is 11 years old, but Forgotten Land introduced so many new Kirby fans, people who know nothing about the series, to reveal your biggest twist, especially in a way that feels like a betrayal to the character you’ve written, I just can’t understand the idea behind this change. Because what is the point? I keep asking myself this and I genuinely can’t comprehend it.

Extra Mode Changes

Extra Mode got a glow up in RtDLDX, that’s obvious from the first stages, so then why do I find myself preferring the original? It’s consistent. 1-1 is probably the most fun I’ve had with RtDL in years, so to be greeted by that, only to be met with the exact same mode I’ve played countless times, it’s crushing. It feels like it was set up to get you excited, just to pull the rug from under you. I could get it if it was deliberately there to convince you to buy the game, but if you’ve made it this far, you already own it. So why? While this inconsistency ruins the mode for me, I can’t help but have a more, sympathetic outlook. The original mode is a clear sign this game was rushed, while most of the game, you wouldn’t even be able to tell. I don’t know if those who worked on it were happy with how Extra Mode turned out. Maybe that’s presumptuous of me, but DX was their chance to fix this, but they didn’t. If it isn’t obvious, I think Extra Mode was once again rushed. 1-1, while maybe a bit unfair, still felt like there was love put into it, as much love as the bosses. And 2-1 and 3-1 also got noticeable attention, but much less. The fact the first levels got this attention, makes me feel like they were just developing the levels they could, I can’t explain it as well as I’d like, but it still stands out to me that way. But, while I appreciate the effort, it only makes it feel more unfinished than the original. I’m just so sad about this because this was their only chance to fix the original, it just stands out compared to all the other Extra Modes from the games after. Even something simple like letting Player 1 be Dedede, Meta or Bandee would have done so much for this mode. And, as I’ll soon say, Magolor Epilogue does nothing to circumvent  this. Magolor Epilogue Part 1 - Gameplay That’s right, a two parter! This is gonna be hard though, as I don’t know where my biases begin, and where they end. While this is obviously all subjective, I still would like some ground to stand on. So, I’m gonna start with what I like and what I think works. Let’s start with the bosses. Besides the marketing, which really should have its own section, they’re pretty cool! They innovate on the original bosses, Electicky Dooter is my favourite boss from this game. But it does suck they aren’t more original, or the fact the minibosses are still the same ones from Story and Extra Mode. It just makes the fact all the world bosses were spoiled for us hurt all the more. Next are Ordeal Doors. I love them. They work around the required upgrades so perfectly. Being able to know what the player will have means they can make memorable and fun stages. The regular stages are the exact inverse of this. They’re bland, forgettable, they have to work around the fact that you may never upgrade your abilities. I often see people praise the freedom the upgrade system provides, but I only see the inverse. It’s restrictive. The most the regular stages can do is play around with the boss abilities. However, those are often so weak, done so much better in the Ordeal Stages, or aren’t intuitive for movement that they can’t stand out. The combo system is much more interesting as a mechanic, and the game can properly play around with it, but the upgrades encapsulate everything I dislike about how it feels to play. No, everything I dislike with this whole Epilogue. Magolor Epilogue Part 2 - Tone and Story

I get it’s Kirby, but Kirby has done good and serious stories, so then why is Magolor Epilogue such tonal whiplash. The intro and tutorial capture it perfectly. Magolor almost died, he basically did. He lost his friends, his magic, he’s alone. Good thing he can think uppity thoughts! That’s unfair, I love his upgrade dialogue, I don’t want them to take away the humour, but there has to be some sort of middle ground! Make it clear his jokes are a form of coping, make the pause screens talk about his thoughts rather than vagueing towards Grand Doomer being the final boss 4 times in a row. Give us a look at how he actually feels!!! This is worse in the ending, we never see him actually feel guilt for what he’s done. We’re just told he’s redeemed now, we’re told that on a pause screen that’s not even accessible for 30 seconds!! It’s not even a case of show don’t tell, because they don’t even tell us anything! What I find worse is that he doesn’t even have to confront Kirby to apologise, not really, he literally gets to start living out his dream, stalling until the whole situation blows over until he just gets to show up on Pop Star, somehow, where there is barely any tension left. He gets off easy, he dies, and he gets rewarded for it. LITERALLY TOO!! I’ve never liked his Star Allies moveset. It was so clearly busted, that it felt like he’s stronger without the Master Crown. So in response to this, they canonise this moveset and it’s even more busted. It all comes back to the fact he’s constantly rewarded for his betrayal. He loses nothing. And it’s infuriating, because how am I supposed to expect him to be redeemed when he didn’t have to suffer for anything he did. Sure, he cries at the end of the mode, too bad we never know how he’s feeling anywhere else. They didn’t even answer how he got back to Pop Star, instead answering how he got to the Dream Kingdom. Idk about anyone else, but I just kinda assumed he got there with the Lor, the “real” answer doesn’t feel satisfying at all. He doesn’t even do anything interesting in the Clash games, nothing, not unless we get another Clash sequel. I just, I just wanted him to apologise to Kirby, but instead, it feels like HAL is doing everything in their power to make sure he doesn’t. The worst part is that I’m still hoping for that Clash sequel, I’m waiting for them to execute what they’ve set up, but I just don’t think it’s happening. I just wish I could see what everyone else sees in Epilogue, but I just can’t.

Merry Magoland

I guess I should wrap this up with Magoland. It’s not that bad, but I think it suffered the most from feeling slapped on with no real purpose. I like the Minigames, but I’m more talking about the park itself. I don’t like how it looks. It might just be because I’m not a fan of Magolor’s ego, or at least never saw it being this kind of ego, but it doesn’t work here for me. From what we’ve seen of Magolor’s work in the past, it’s always had this sort of child like aspect to it, like it was made with crayons and cardboard or building blocks. It created a nice aesthetic, albeit, a rather disconnected one, Drum Dash and Dream Collection look nothing alike. But to see them completely ignore what those two set up for a boring DisneyLand parody? Especially one played so positively? Idk, maybe I’m expecting too much asking for another “Capitalism is Bad'' metaphor, but still, Disney is very well known for being a garbage company so???? It’s funny how a place meant to look as innocent as possible is immersion breaking for being as innocent as possible. In reality, it’s not that bad, Manager Magolor acts nothing like Story Mode Magolor, but that’s a consistent thing with all his appearances so whatever I’ve grown to accept it. I just wish Dream Collection and Drum Dash got more love. Especially since Last Land of all things was referenced back in Dream Buffet, I still love that btw. Some sort of visual link might have helped, but even without them, I just think gaudy isn’t Magolor’s style? Like it totally is, but this brand of it doesn’t feel like him. However, I don’t write for him, idk his “true” personality, his “true” taste, maybe he likes Glitter and I can’t stop him. It just serves to make the new stuff feel out of place juxtaposed to the more natural, magical and mechanical settings of Story Mode.

And I guess that’s it, I never want to do this kinda thing again. Being this negative, although my true feelings, is just exhausting. I hope no one agrees with my issues, but if you do, hope it’s nice to see someone talk about it lol. I’m not giving up on this game though, I want to come back in a few months and see how my feelings have changed. I doubt it’ll fix everything, but I hope I can gain a new appreciation for this game, critiques and all. I guess thanks for reading as well, it means a lot to know people care about what I have to say.

[transmandrake]

Concept that will never ever happen but man, 3d renders for a petsite with dress-up ala neopets or flight rising would be a great like, time-saving strategy. Like it is mindboggling the amount of effort that goes into a single item in FR... but 3d would make the possibility of fully dress-upable pet sites way more viable (i mean. Im sure theres more but I can only think of those two. And thats fair! Flight rising is petsites georg in terms of, whatd you call it, production level)

Like, instead of redrawing a hat 30 times, model it once, and then slap it on with minor adjustments for them all, and theoretically once you have a system of what fits what, adding on another beastie wont keep exponentially increasing the work of adding new clothes.

Then, render the creature and the clothes as spearate images, and have the site layer them as appropriate and compress into a final single image. That would mean no shadows and stuff, but thats already something you cant really do in 2d, but it would be a lot more noticeable.

Also wayyyy wayyy easier to do multiple poses.

That's also making me imagine the possibility of animated petsites... prerendered probably but man, imagine like, pokemon amie but on your computer or phone with your lil dressupable creatures. As much as I hold petsites dear to my heart, I do think they're on their last limb simply because most people don't go on their computer to goof around. Like technically you can play FR on your phone but its just not the same. (Side note but um. Anybody want a nature/water sprite? I feel a lil bad theyre rotting on my account considering they must be pretty rare at this point)

The idea of a petsite as an app causes me some form of revulsion, but I'm not sure why. If anything thats what I always wanted as a kid, but most games like that are... well. Shit. But I'm also not 12 anymore so maybe 'mobile games where you have some dudes to take care of' has expanded as a genre.

But in theory it would be cool. In general I think petsites came up with a lot of fun ways to interact digitally that arent anywhere else, that would make some unique videogames.

Went on tangent below lol

Also same with those dragon breeding mobile games that you really shouldnt play but are a guilty pleasure of mine... I'd love to make a whole game based around completing a compendium of dragons by collecting different ones and combining them.

As much as I hate to say it though they fundamentally revolve around waiting a lot of time between attempts, that I cant think of a way to keep the excitement of getting something different without being the shitty mobile game style ohhh you can wait 4 hours... orrr pay usss... like, just removing the paying would just make the game annoying.

they are genuinely fun if you have no money and are resistant to addiction... which is sad, I wish I could translate the gameplay loop in an equally fun but non-exploitative way.

But i guess animal crossing does real time stuff and people love it, but it also doesnt seem the sort of idea to make a good chill out game... the only way i can think of is to just make it so on average by the time you come back from playing the 'find more dargons' part of the game, that your combinings should be ready. But making that into a factory sort of advancement would be... kinda fucked up lmao.

You obviously want to make the dragons feel like pets or companions and not breeding stock. But also the angle of 'you are a dragon conservationist and you must convince as many dragons as possible to Fuck' sounds kinda funny... like how in FR obliterating dragons for money is well-rationaled as sending them off to serve their deity, but in reverse.

[raeloganthesonic06fangirl]

So, I was playing "The Pizzeria Roplay Remastered" on Roblox because it's honestly a well crafted set of maps that are very accurate to the games with additional areas and the Pizzaplex map is really expansive and interactive, and I decided to load myself up as Plushtrap Chaser because I had originally gone in as Springtrap to try out a few things since I got enough coins earned from tasks to buy the morph, but someone kept ramming me in the head with a Fazdrone ((to be fair, I was playing as William, so that's on me)), but anyway, I loaded up Plushtrap Chaser, and which has a few "outfits" that are basically just Damaged, Fixed, Damaged Box, Fixed Box and Default.

So, I decided to suit up with the Fixed Box and just idle around the Atrium as a sort of goof around, and I ended up coming across a Vanny and Glamrock Foxy, who were clearly being in character with thier dialogue for whatever RP they were doing, before Vanny just blinks out of existence.

Then Glamrock Foxy noticed my box and long story short, I ended up being hooked into a short RP of being a found toy in the Atrium that got escorted to Rockstar Row and that's how I got stuck on a shelf motionless for about 15 minutes. 👀

Normally, I don't do RPs, but they were so into it with the "Yarg, what might this be?", I sort of had to play along. 😅

Anyway, I have to say that TPRR is such a good game on Roblox, like, there's so much care put into the recreations of the maps, a cool hub world to access everything, achievements and minigames, costumes you can unlock with coins or tickets you can scrounge up, based on the canon game characters, the Fazbear Frights characters, the TFTP characters, Silver Eye Trilogy Characters, hoax characters, FNAF Analog Characters ((yes, Squimpus McGrimpus and Walton Files gets some representation there)), redesigns... It's really loaded with a lot of fan love, and the models look really good for it being on the Roblox engine. You can do actions for the characters to bring to life and a lot of them have thier dialogue on a soundboard so you can slap down some laughter or taunts if you want to be friendly or haunt the place.

Basically, if you want to explore the locations, there's some fantastic recreations of the old games layouts in 3D, and seasonal skins applied to the places, like right now, there's snow and ice all over them, and during Halloween had everything spooky and Fazbear's Fright was on fire, and you can explore the FNAF 4 house with a secret passage that goes right to Fredbear's Family Diner, and an unground tunnel that takes you to Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental.

Again, I am impressed with the sheer amount of stuff to do that I keep forgetting that it's just Roblox.

[protagonistheavy]

Finished Mario Wonder and yeah, it was an average Mario sidescroller experience. I really don't feel like this is inherently a better "direction" than anything the New series was doing, in many ways it still very much still New with a better coat of paint. It felt like the whole game was lacking something, at least considering just how short it is.

I love all the new enemies but so many of them appear in just one or two courses before never being used again. Many of them have fun and unique mechanics that would have been fun to see mixed together in different ways, but you usually only get just the one course featuring that enemy. I do like the enemies that play-out like standard enemies, like goombas and koopas, but with their own special quirks that mix up gameplay just a little. But beyond that it's more disappointing how often enemies will just disappear from the game once you've gone past their stage.

There's also a significant lack of challenge anywhere in the game. With how easy of a time I was having getting through each course, I was really expecting there to be a hard mode unlocked by the end, or even a whole other circuit of challenging courses to go through. But there isn't. I still have a few stages left to 100%, and a few that I straight-up haven't found yet, but I'm not particularly encouraged to go and finish everything when it doesn't feel like there'd be any real reward for it. Maybe I'm still missing some obscure secret ending...? But I sort of doubt that.

I don't think it's that mean to compare Wonder to Mario Odyssey, and on every metric, Odyssey is the better game. The 3d environment allows for more engaging puzzles and enthralling worlds, the capture mechanic was a superior substitute to plain power-ups, and there were far better secrets to discover that made exploration and replays more valuable. Wonder is a very, very traditional experience, which really stands out with how "wEiRd" it really wants to be -- it's sometimes embarrassing how wacky Wonder thinks it is, when most of the Wonder Seed moments are pretty par for Mario games. The only thing Wonder has over Odyssey is multiplayer, but I'm not so convinced that having friends to goof around with would make my experience any better lol.

So in the end I guess I'm kinda let down. I was hoping Wonder would be a bit braver in trying new things but in some ways it feels even paler to a normal New Super Mario game. Aesthetics have been improved, but core gameplay is still way too simple without any options to make the game harder or more compelling.

[frunbuns]

List five things that make you happy, then put this in the ask box of the last ten people who reblogged something from you. Spread the positivity!!

Ooooooo, okay

Animal Crossing. It's just such a special part of my life and it really defined my childhood. just,,, sitting in the back of my dad's car in the summer, driving down some road in Sweden with my 3DS for hours and hours. And playing New Horizons with my friends. We all live in different countries, but we can still hang out in silly little video games and just goofing around.... Yeah <3

The colour yellow. It's just such a lovely colour. Bright and warm and the right sade of it just fills me with so much joy. Van Gogh was onto something there about yellow. I love Vincent's paintings. The way he uses yellow. Love that guy, honestly.

My lego BD-1. The little lad, the fella, the lil guy. Obsessed with him. I have so many pictures of him, and I like patting his lil head. I'm just like Cal fr. Combines 2 things I greatly enjoy: The Mantis crew and lego. Shout out to my mom for getting it for me for christmas

Cats. They're just little guys. What's not to love? I love small cats, big cats, medium cats. They're all special to me <3 I finally got to play Stray a while ago and what a great experience. Loved being a little guy, just running around. Splendid experience

Art. I just love art. Any form, whether it is paintings or drawings or sculptures, movies or tv, photography, video games, music, litterature. I love art. What a truly great thing we have, creating these beautiful and moving things from our very souls full of love and care. Something that speaks to us and we share it with the world bc art is meant to be shared and enjoyed toghether. Like we just do that. Incredible. What a world we live in

[seeya-at-the-movies]

3D model pipeline attempts under the cut pt. 1

1) Had fun with the posing on this one - working with a model feels a lot like posing a doll, and in hindsight people use dolls all the time for poses? It definitely has me thinking about new angles to explore, I think that’ll be what makes this fun for me.

2) Rough trace. I kind of hate this step a lot, and it shows in the trace - cuz of it  I’m losing what little life was in the pose from the 3D model! Woof. Still, I’m learning a lot about the shoulder from this. Probably not “factual” shoulder info, but “passable” shoulder info. This step needs to be tossed in favor of a different one due to [unfun] and also [results that piss me off].

3) Better “trace” in which I draw over the model. This was less boring to do, probably because I was actually engaged with the drawing (thinking about what I wanted to modify from the model and making those adjustments).

4) Honestly yeah! I think this actually really works for me. I get to block in the pose with the 3D model (the most overwhelming task in drawing for me bc of keeping track of all the different body parts), roughly sketch over it to modify, then slowly ink over that w/ details (I think I actually really love inking, cuz i get to fixate on all the little details). I’m starting to get distracted though cuz I have an interview coming up in three hours so my brain wants to Fixate on that instead of drawing. Probably need a proper ref for the arm pit.

5. I ain’t gonna ink All This but it’s fun to see the lines transform. Maybe I could ink all this. Noticing when I get inking fatigue flipping the canvas helps a lot, I think I’m just not Enthused about legs and feet rn. Also very eager to jump into coloring. Drawing this is teaching me that I need to do some paw and fur studies, still don’t grok either of those well.

6. Final inks. Time to explore color.

7. Blatantly yoinking shadows from my 3D modeled. csps lighting engine isn’t super accurate but it -is- passable. Works for me!

8. I thought blatantly yoinking the shadows would work but it actually makes it look Very 3D... I’m doing a lot of goofing around in this stage and it’s not coming together the way I want, time to start fresh and try something else.

9). I think I want this dog to be white, sort of like a bull terrier an a fox had a weird Mischivious kid.

[somethingsyoushouldhear]

Sick of Sitting at My House

Something always reminds me. Lately all I think of is you and I have been spending virtual time with you every minute I can. Being goofs, sharing perspective, and working together. I’ve loved every minute. That’s the kind of person you don’t want to lose in your life. The kind that does just that and can keep you up talking till the sun rises. These people are rare and come in all forms, but when you meet them you certainly never forget them. 

This was the case with you, and right now, I can’t help but wonder what you’re thinking as the chat tells me your typing. The anticipation alone makes my heart stop. I know what you say, but what do you mean and how more importantly, do you feel. How can we feel together? All I want to do now is be your purpose and to work together on commonality.

I can’t help but feel the same from you, from everything. After just a few days or hours of separation, I’m left here inseparable from a piece of technology to communicate with you. Your life’s work and mine are very similar in projects, but neither of us seem to care. We bond over it, often comes to me in a melody.

“Do you want to build a roboottt? or code our AI around a cloud? I think some kubernetes is overdue. I’ve even started 3D printing haptics” That’s Frozen for the non-Disney people.

Needless this May 25th I can’t help but tell you how much and how fast I have grown to care about this particular person. I wanted to share because you were right the other night at 2 AM. I did keep you waiting for a little too long by about a decade. 

Well, I’m here. I can be yours if you’ll have me and I think you will. I don’t know how or why, I just know how you make me feel. Like I said in the start, that’s rare, and for me, it’s not the talking, but the fact you and I seem to be happy. Like we just are, in each moment.

I wasn’t looking for anything and you probably weren’t either...lol, I didn’t knowww. Either way, the things and experiences in common are unreal and I long for your companionship. These endless nights and days are eternal in such a way that makes me grow impatient, yet hopeful. It’s a good impatience because it’s like every time that there's

a message

a notification

a join in zoom

an event

anything

I forgot everything and you somehow you become my whole world. I live a full life, but somehow we make time for each other. By the way this is the sentence on 5/3/2022 that did it for me:

“ But then you could say that there was an observer for the whole event. Because for all you know, the cat is already dead and you observed it's death, although not by viewing the cat itself. However, you did watch the box it was contained in. You could see the box shift box and forth as if something moves around. And you also watch the box lie silently on the platform, as if there was no life within it to begin with. As for bonds per atom, you also have to consider the quarks and which pairs are contributing to the bond. “ - You

“Yes the whole event, probably more than one. The cat's state wasn't important it was the fact it had the either or option based on radioactivity. What is this death, linear thinking has no room in science, nor motion because this is just the superposition. Yeah the quirks, fucking quirks, they were already bonded! So now you want to change Strong Forces, crazy talk. sdf kf;jkndsa\” - Me

It was at that moment that I realized you more that liked me and we had like developed our own language, we couldn’t focus any longer without flirting, going from existentialism to physics I believe. You really had me at Camus. That’s neither here nor there. 

To the reader, this probably seems like nothing, but to me at the right time on the right night with the right person, stupid little efforts like this make a difference and more importantly illustrates a friendship not found often anymore.