#just let her touch grass nintendo

[fioreofthemarch]

If Zelda is stuck underground for the entirety of TOTK, I’m just going to be incandescent with rage. Like, if so, what was it all for?

Zelda is an explorer too. She was studying the tech in BOTW, studying potions. She travelled around alone right up until it was no longer safe to do so. In Champion’s Ballad she takes it upon herself to seek out and lead the Champions. It’s her idea to check on Vah Ruta in the BOTW epilogue. In the first TOTK trailer, she’s the one with torch (she’s leading their expedition!)

If after all she’s been through, she just gets locked up and relegated to being a tutorial voice and a speedrun goal, again, while Link gets to explore a bunch of ancient relics and history without her? I dunno. The kingdom isn’t gonna be the only thing in tears is all I’m saying

[rshmra]

PRETTY BOY!

plot: niki swears he met the girl of his dreams at the convenience store late one night- however, his discovery proves to be misguided. the "girl" he likes is actually just a really pretty boy, and he's the main vocalist of the new and wildly popular boy group of four, X_CAPE.

<- prev. masterlist. next. ->

written: 2.4k words

chapter eleven: emo shins

"for the last time, stay away from abigail, she's mine."

"not if i get to her first."

"you bitch-"

the seemingly never-ending squabble for the fictional female continues, eventually resulting in yn losing the current battle.

he curses as riki's avatar manages to swoop in mere seconds before his can, gifting the girl a chunk of amethyst. "shit-faced ball licker." ni-ki's laugh fills his ears as he adjusts his phone's position with one hand, flipping him the bird with the other.

"that's a new one."

it's been well past an hour since they began the call, their other members preparing for bed at this point. the facetimes they have can get kind of random, but usually they'll either fall asleep watching a movie on netflix or just end up in a multiplayer game on switch. yn introduced stardew valley to riki a week or so ago, and since then they've been grinding co-op on their shared "peeniz farm". ridiculously immature, but both found the title hilarious. however, there seems to be a recurring argument over who gets a certain purple-haired character.

"she doesn't even like your gifts, all you give her is flowers."

"because i don't spend all my days in the fucking mines?! weirdo."

"who fishes and forages the whole time again?"

"me, ki. i'm the one that touches grass."

"hey."

"shut up," yn rolls his eyes exaggeratedly, finally relenting with a sigh. "whatever, you can have her. i'll just go for the emo instead, i guess."

"at last, you give up." ni-ki exhales contentedly, then frowns. "wait what emo."

"you know, the emo guy that never comes out of his room? hair looks like a bird?" yn racks his brain for the name, snapping his fingers once he gets it. "sebastian, that's it!"

"oh."

an elongated pause ensues.

on riki's side, it's due to a mild... celebration, of sorts. he has to move from the camera view in order to quietly pump his fist into the air, paired with a whispered "yesss" that has jay shooting him a weird glance as he passes by the living room. he hopes he isn't looking into the situation too much, but according to what just happened yn confirmed rather explicitly that he's into guys, which is a total win. yes, they flirt a lot, but not exclusively with each other. plus, it's not like they're being serious. they may have a close relationship, but they've never spoken about this subject before, and riki wouldn't ever make assumptions. he's not a dickbag, he doesn't think a guy's automatically gay just because he appears feminine.

don't get the kid wrong though, he's not quite gotten to finding a label for everything going on. he doesn't know what he... is, he doesn't know anything beyond the fact that he has a small, teensy-weensy crush on yn. he's had one the moment they met, it just took him a little longer to actually acknowledge it, since he's not felt this way for anyone. he hasn't told a soul about this, but clearly sunoo's pieced it together (the bitch knows EVERYTHING) and knowing him he probably let it slip to sunghoon. the others for sure have their suspicions, but they haven't fully caught on yet.

but what if he's only messing around? the possibility majes ni-ki grimace. it's not that deep, it's only a video game. this is much too complicated. does he casually inquire further, or does he leave the topic alone? dammit, decisions, decisions.

meanwhile, yn's kinda freaking on his end. he's managed to maintain a perfectly composed poker face as he shifts to lie down with his nintendo, but the silence is sloely unnerving him. did i just... unintentionally out myself... with a fucking emo? he runs a hand over his long hair, inwardly punching himself. it's okay, it's fine. why would riki judge? they're best friends, he'd never pull that kind of shit. he's nothing like him.

fuck, the overthinking's getting to him. he's ready to use an 'i was just kidding' card until his companion speaks up. "why him, though? go for a better guy, at least."

and just like that all his fears are chased away, replaced by an eased smile as he stares fondly at the boy on his phone rather than the game. "yeah? and who do you suggest?"

"i don't know, like... shane?"

"shane? you've gotta be shitting me."

"why?? what's wrong with him?!"

"what- he's a raging cunt and likes nothing but beer! not my type. incredibly not my type."

"oh?" feeling bold, riki perches his chin in his palm with a smirk, inquiringly peering at yn. "what's your type then, yn?"

immediately he returns the energy. "hm... i dunno..." he acts like he's pondering the question, despite already having a response in mind. "maybe someone like y-"

"yn is that your lychee jelly in the kitchen, 'cause otherwise i'm eating it."

kuli sticks his head im from the doorway of the jack-and-jill bathroom they share, and the moment's over as fast as it began. distracted, yn tears his gaze from niki's upon remembering his prized bucket of sweets he'd left. "touch my snacks and you're fucking dead. be right back," he excuses himself with a quick reassurance, and with that leaves two of his closest friends with each other.

kuli rubs the back of his neck sheepishly, leaning against the doorframe. "i interrupted something, didn't i."

"if you count arguing over who to go for in stardew valley, then yeah."

the corner of his lip quirks upward. "the correct answer is anyone but shane."

"...he can't be that bad."

"what- he's a raging cunt and likes nothing but beer!"

kuli's surprisingly the only other member of yn's group thar riki really got more acquainted with since being introduced. despite the amount of warnings about how "scary" he could be, kuli was the most friendly and welcoming toward him, especially when they first met. he kinda reminds niki of jungwon, to be honest (especially with the fear factor that plays into both's roles).

it definitely isn't that he doesn't like the remaining two. he just doesn't get the chance to talk to ivory a lot, and with chaeri... it's a little weird. ever since he dropped an absolute bomb with that "no repeat of last time" and conveniently forgot to elaborate, they haven't had much of a conversation. half of riki is tempted to ask about it, but the other half feels like it'd be an invasion of privacy on yn's part. it worries him from time to time, but he figures that if he hasn't been given the entire story then it isn't that important, right?

(oh how wrong he is.)

niki's mouth stretches into a satisfying yawn. it's past 11:30 by now, and he knows he's supposed to wake up early, but he refuses to be the first one to sleep. kuli laughs at him as he shakes himself awake. "just go to bed if you're tired, dude."

"i'm not tired."

"trying to hold out for longer, i see. how sweet!"

"you shut up."

"yeah, shut up." yn grins as he returns with a giant container of jellies and a white loaf in his arms, shoving kuli out of his bedroom as the older laughs and shutting the door. he moves to sit back on his mattress as the loaf jumps onto his head, giggling quietly at riki's sleepy blinking. "does kiki need his nappy wappy-"

"fuck offfffff." he mumbles, tired eyes lighting up once he hears a meow from the loaf. "is that... you have a cat?!"

"ki, i literally showed you him last night."

"...no you didn't." yn heaves a sigh, peeling his chubby pet from his hair and bundling him in his arms. "he looks like a dumpling."

"which is exactly why i named him mandu." he cracks a smile. "let me guess. stupid and unoriginal?"

well, to anyone else niki might laugh and say it's stupid and unoriginal, but this is yn we're talking about here. plus, simping aside, the name really does fit said cat. "no, i like it. it's very, very um... " he struggles to think of a word. "...food-related?"

"you need sleep."

"leave me alone, i don't wanna end the call and if i bring my phone back into the room sunoo'll never shut up and you know how annoying he gets."

"i'm telling him you said that." heeseung grins as he walks by. "night yn!"

"night heeseung!"

"don't you dare-"

riki tries to stand up from the couch, only for his knees to give out after being curled up on them for so long. yn unleashes a high-pitched cackle, and heeseung takes off to his room.

their night ends shortly after this, with both falling asleep within mere minutes (though not without a brief twitter login on both parts). however, as usual, the phone stays on for hours, even as they slumber.

notes: again, i apologize for the long wait... cant promise it wont happen again tho 😥. got carried away writing then got lazy at the end,,, do yall prefer written parts or not? also forgot abt the twt privs whoops, i js wanna jam pack as much fluff as i can into this shit before it gets SERIOUS 😆 yall arent ready

taglist: @silkentides @nikikids @totoroblop @winter-world @phantom-butterfly @simsoobean @byu @noredplz @sh0uj0-r3i @onementally-unstabel-kid @thepeachyhub @enhypen-reblog @ao5riki @bearseulgs @le0-0nidas @gothhyucks @to-toad @ddeonubaby @nootnootpinguuu @sunseeking-cryptid @priochebun

bold can't be tagged!

[treehouse-void]

Meeting Family Friends part 1

I know it's been awhile, but I'm back with more stories. Pokemon belongs to Nintendo, Dragon Ball Z, and all characters from it mentioned, belong to Akira Toriyama, Lord X belongs to a Twitter user who goes by losermakesgames, and Mecha Sonic belongs to Takashi Iizuka. Everyone else belongs to @hiddeninthenullandvoid, who is helping me with writing for the next while or so.

It had been a few weeks since had trained with her dad and with various others in the multiverse, such as Goku, Vegeta, and Beerus.She was exhausted, even after a week long break, she still felt her muscles ache from the strain she put on them. Immortale, ever the kind soul, let her take a break back at her own universe, where she was currently relaxing underneath a tree. It was spring, warm weather, the sounds of other pokemon playing in the tall grass, and the smell of fresh air. She took a deep breath of the fresh air, not wanting to do much of anything as she felt her body melt into the ground below her in a relaxing way. She then heard the sound of a portal opening and her father stepping through, the portal closing behind him.

“So, Gia…” X said after it closed. “I hope you’re feeling a bit better from all that training.”

Gia responds that she is, but wishes her soreness would go away as she gets up and rubs her front left leg where she could still feel a bit of leftover pain. He mentions that it’ll take time to heal and to rest for a bit longer. He mentions that it will help her get stronger.While she rests her sore body, X tells Gia why he is here.

“I have a surprise for you. I’d like to take you on a little adventure, show you some of my friends, does that sound good to you?” asks X.

“Sure…beats doing nothing. Can I say goodbye to my friends first?” asks Gia, getting up on all fours.

“Of course,” X responds happily, knowing how important it is to keep in touch with friends.

---

Gia runs off to the usual meeting place, where everyone decides to hang out and play some Pokemon games. Elan looks up from what they’re playing and tackle hugs Gia.

“My father wants me to meet some friends of his,” the female Eevee explained. “So I’m going to be going on a bit of a multiversal road trip for a while. I figured I’d let you guys know ahead of time before I went.”

They all were ok with it, Reme wishing he could go on one someday too while Elan felt like something major was going to happen. The male Eevee made her promise to stay safe with one final hug, and she promised while he hugged back. Water Gun told her “Good luck.” before asking for her to bring back something cool for him.

With the goodbyes said, X picks up Gia and sets her on his shoulder, before focusing his power into a small, rusty ring. The ring expands, becoming larger than X, with a portal opening in the center of the ring. It showed a field of dying grass, with a yellow sky. The scent of blood wafts from the portal, making Gia’s nose scrunch up in disgust. X steps through the ring, and into the strange new world. Once there, the ring closes behind them, and X sets Gia down on the ground. The grass feels rough under Gia, like walking on sandpaper almost. There weren't any sounds of animals to be heard, only the sounds of wind and waves crashing against rocks. It put Gia on edge as she walked through the field, looking up at X, wondering who he was meeting here.

“This place belongs to an old friend of mine, Lord X. He’s a good guy, I think you’ll get along just nicely.”

Gia looks forward again, and spots a strange looking hedgehog, leaning against a tree. She slowly approaches, and the hedgehog turns, facing Gia. They are a bit on the short side, with periwinkle colored fur, black eyes with red X’s for pupils. They smile, their teeth being a dark yellow in color. X waves to them, and they wave back.

“Ah, X, good to see you my friend, what brings you here?” says the hedgehog, whom Gia can only assume is Lord X.

“Good to see you too, I’m taking my daughter Gia on a little adventure. Wanted to introduce her to you first.” says X, motioning to Gia.

Gia waves and introduces herself as the one being talked about. Lord X walks a bit closer, and kneels down to look her in the eyes. He softly laughs, and reaches a gnarled hand out to scratch under Gia’s chin, which she slightly pulls back at.

“No need to worry, I’m just wondering how you’re so…different than your fathers, you mustn’t be born from…normal means, are you?” asks Lord X.

X clears his throat, catching Lord X’s attention.

“Yes, Gia was found as a normal Pokemon egg, which Immortale went and healed. She’s the 2nd oldest child.”

Gia nods to confirm it’s true. Lord X stands up, and stretches a bit.

“So, we’ve been introduced, you need to leave, or do you wish to stay for tea?”

X nods, and looks over into the setting sun.

“That would be nice, you aren’t currently transmitting, are you?”

Lord X shakes his head no.

“Transmitting?” Gia asks mostly to herself aloud. “Transmitting what?”

“No, I’ve gotten a shot, won’t be transmitting any X-12-” Lord X stops, and looks to Gia.

“X-12, a virus that turns people like you, into demons like me.”

“I’ve never heard of it,” She explains.

“Well, both of your fathers have it, lucky son of a gun can’t transmit it, at least not in the normal sense.”

“Is that why I don’t have it?” She asks.

“Your dad said it just a bit ago, you were made from an egg, not through the normal means. So you didn’t get it through genes. I have a kid of my own, made the normal way, and they have it because I have it. Passes down through parents to the kids."

“Oh,” Gia responds, feeling a bit dumb before remembering the tea. “You said something about tea, didn’t you?”

Lord X nods, “That I did…here, I’ll take us there.” Lord X turns away from Gia and X, and begins to walk through the field.

“Come along now, it’s only a few minutes from here on foot.”

X walks behind Lord X, following him through the field, while Gia quickly runs to catch up with them.

---

The sun continues to set on the horizon, and it slowly grows darker and darker, with no sight of Lord X’s home anywhere. The sky slowly fades from a dull orange, to a dark red. It’s also getting hard to see, but soon, a large building can be seen in the distance.

“There’s my home, it took a bit longer to get here than I thought…” says Lord X.

“How long does it normally take?” Gia asks curiously.

“It takes about 10, maybe 15 minutes normally for me,” says Lord X. Gia looks at the large building, trying to figure out what it is. It looks like a large mansion, with dark purple bricks. There isn’t a fancy yard, just a simple dirt path that leads up to the front doors. Lord X leads X and Gia up to them.

“Here we are, once inside, feel free to make yourself at home, I’ll have someone make the tea.” Lord X goes up to the door, and goes to open it.

Thanks again for reading and yes we have returned to present day type stuff. Once again, @hiddeninthenullandvoid is being a cowriter of sorts for me for however long it needs to happen. It might be a short while or a long while, but for the time being they're going to help me write these stories. Thank you for reading, and sorry it's probably longer than usual.

[neoyi]

Pokemon Pokemon Pokemon.

Part 1: https://neoyi.tumblr.com/post/701862985957801984/i-cannot-believe-the-school-principal-is-pulling-a

Part 2: https://neoyi.tumblr.com/post/702995488069287936/look-i-get-you-and-your-teachers-can-bond-to

Part 3: https://neoyi.tumblr.com/post/704016193905950720/god-would-someone-please-hug-avren-this-poor-kid

Okay, you know what game? You got me with that plot twist! You son of a gun!

This is endgame territory, so spoilers galore! More under the "Keep Reading."

To my surprise, Area Zero was very... pristine. I was kind of expecting dark tunnels, rocks, and/or caverns since it's a giant crater, but that's a stupid way of thinking that.

Why wouldn't life grow there after thousands of years of untouched nature? Of course there would be waterfalls and grass and Pokemon roaming around. It's also restricted, rarely touched by humans, so it wouldn't have many manmade structures either. It's weirdly kind of unnerving, but never let it be said nature isn't full of surprises.

Also the battle music here is a certified banger.

It's so damn cool to see Pokemon from distant past or in my copy, the distant future. Like we've seen glimpse of the former through fossils that can revive certain prehistoric Pokemon, Jurassic Park-style, so this is a bit of a step. My biggest disappointment is that I wished they could have teased this a bit more!

It's established a few of these past/future Pokemon have snuck out from Area Zero and into other parts of Paldea, and we do see a couple of them in their Titan forms. But imagine traveling around the world at any point past the tutorial, collecting Pokemon, and suddenly you run into one that looks like a robotic version of an already pre-existing one.

Maybe it's a new variation! Maybe it's a weird science experiment! At first, you don't know the answer, you just accept it as a type of Pokemon because they're all unique and varied like that. It's only when the plot reveals at the end after hours and hours and hours of playtime that you realize that no, these aren't natural and not of this time period.

How cool would that have been?

In any case, I think seeing new Pokemon that came from different time period is a stunningly novel idea. Man, I don't know how, but I really want to see more Pokemon from the distant past or future. I mean, Legends Arceus did something similar with Hisuian varieties that existed centuries past. Maybe we can get a Pokemon game in the distant future that elaborates on this or something.

I'm kind of used to Nintendo games not having voice acting, so the lack of doesn't bother me nearly as much as it does for others, but I agree scenes like these where you're controlling the character as your companions talk really could have been weighed favorably through spoken dialogue. Especially because the dialogue box is automatic and can be missed if you weren't paying attention.

Nemona, Penny, and Avren are constantly talking during your journey down Area Zero. You get to know bits and pieces of their personal lives that haven't been spoken for up until now. I ended up really enjoying this portion because it makes sense for them to just now talk about their lives - none of them know each other.

Prior to this, they were all students who just happened to go to the same school. Several times, Avren speaks of Nemona in a rather unapproachable, somewhat disdainful manner (presumably due to her ace status and rich background.) Then you have Penny who just came back from essentially a nearly two year suspension and have since largely kept to the sidelines. These are kids with completely different social and influential background that in any other circumstances, would be unlikely to join together if it weren't for you, the player character.

So you have these kids trying their damnest to work together in spite of the general what the fuckery going on Area Zero, and their vastly different upbringing. One of my favorite part is when Penny talks about her embarrassing father because he had the audacity to give her adorable nicknames ("Pen Pen"), something Avren envies greatly because he doesn't get that from his old man. In another conversation, Nemona has to emphasize that she's not some spoiled, rich kid and prefers battling to being pampered.

Like I love the way Penny speaks because she's abrasive and has no filter since she's been somewhat asocial and subtle. Or how Avren tries to boost his skills because the poor kid wants validation.

It adds a hell of a lot of depth to these characters and their growth, as well as an added complication of having to work together in a dangerous mission when they've barely been more than an arm's length away from each other. By the end of the game, you don't just have a group of loyal friends, you have a group that's just beginning a friendship. And that's beautiful, man.

MY BOY GETTING CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.

So I thought Professor Turo didn't connect Avren for years because he had successfully traveled to the future and couldn't return home. I figured he found a way to communicate, but that was the extent of what he could do. That's why he needed his son and PC's help in gathering the necessary materials as well as powering Miraidon back up in order to rework the time machine so he can safely return home.

But that's not what happened and what really did blew my goddamn mind!

Fuck you, man.

[orange-waterfalls]

Just Dance for the Nintendo Wii

Yancy x gn!reader

ty anon for the request!

A/N: Shit was so fun to write I swear. Just Dance was my childhood. I had a thing about memorizing all the dances in all the songs in all the games I got. I also didn’t actually look at the moves in the corner I just watched the dancer lmao. And when I found out other people didn’t do that I just ???it’s so much easier???? I might’ve projected onto Yancy a lil bit. It’s a fun fic! It is a fun and light-hearted fic, I promise. Couple curse words. TW mention of smoking and cigarettes. That’s about it. I think it could be seen as platonic or romantic. Reader does call him “babe” at one point but I call my friends darling and sweetie so I think it’s fine. Might be a few typos since I never read through my fics lmao. Enjoy!

Word Count: 2.9k

Lunch ended and you immediately shot up out of your chair, making your way down the hall. Your friends stared after you, slightly offended you didn’t even bother saying goodbye. You would have any other day, but this was important.

You stomped your way to the warden's office, pushing past the guards who mostly just gave you confused looks. You would have made your way around them, asking them to make some room, but this was important. 

You kicked the door open and stomped up to the desk. The warden jumped and put a hand over his heart. You were not an aggressive person. Really, you weren’t. But this. This was important. This was the most important thing you ever came up with.

“Jesus, child, you ever heard of knocking?” He breathed, exasperated. He looked like he was gonna keep talking, so you slammed your hands on his desk. A few months before, he probably would have had you thrown in solitary for even walking in there. But you’re a good person, and you behave for the most part. So he raised an eyebrow and waited for you to make whatever point you wanted to make.

“Wii,” you said, simply. He blinked a couple times.

“Beg pardon?” He laughed. You were on a bit of a power trip and wanted to respond with “then beg”, but the conversation probably would have ended there. You made it this far without breaking down, you couldn’t stop now.

“I want a Wii,” you said, slowly. The warden squinted at you before chuckling a little. You glared daggers at him. Laugh at you, will he?!

“Now, kiddo, that ain’t--”

“Shut up. I don’t care. I just need you to listen.” He gave you a look and leaned back in his chair. You quieted for a moment, thinking about exactly what you were gonna say. You honestly hadn’t thought you’d make it this far.

“Go ahead, I’m a busy man,” He shook you out of your thoughts. You squared your shoulders.

“Yancy likes to dance,” you stated. You stared at each other in silence for a moment as you prepared your words in your head. He waved his hand, telling you to keep going. You cleared your throat, “Yancy likes to dance… and we don’t have access to the internet.”

“And you’re not going to.” He warned.

“Yeah, yeah, I figured…” You sighed. “But that’s not what I’m here for.” He knitted his eyebrows together in intrigue.

“Alright…” He leaned forward, arms on his desk.

“Yancy can’t keep coming up with songs and dances when he gets bored. It takes a long time, and he’s getting burned out. I think that if we had another- if we had access to prepared dances and songs, it’d be better.” You stuttered. That’s okay. As long as he was listening. “I think if we had a… a game, a dancing game. Like Just Dance on the Wii or something, then we’d be better. Happier? I mean, we’re happy, but… more-more happy. There’s never… too much… happy…” You lost yourself towards the end there. You started shaking a little as the whole situation hit you like a train. What the hell were you doing? This is a PRISON, not a middle school. Why would they want you to be happy? Oh, this was a stupid idea… no. You made it this far. Sure this was stupid, but you were NOT going to back down. Not until you got a-

“Ok.”

“Huh?” You asked, dumbfounded. You stared at Mr. Murder-Slaughter, and he stared right back. “What’d you say?” He stood up from his desk and walked over to you. You fought the urge to book it and stood your ground. You puffed up your chest a little to look intimidating. From the smirk he got on his face, it wasn’t working.

“I said, ok.” Your shoulders dropped and you let out a shaky breath.

“Really? I mean… really?” 

“Sure, why not. Boosts morale, stops people from wanting to escape.” He shrugged. You stood there, mouth agape, probably looking like a moron.

“Thanks.” You murmured. He smiled at you, and you smiled right back. He took your shoulders and spun you around towards the door.

“Yeah, yeah, now get outta here! You’ve got dishes to do!” He pushed you out, and you gave him one last smile before running down to the kitchen. He watched you trip over your own feet and shook his head. You ran past a guard, who heard the noise and got confused.

“What the hell was all that?”

“Fuck around and find out!”

---

You startled awake to the sound of talking coming from outside your cell. You rubbed your eyes and looked around, not seeing your cellmate. You sighed and managed to lift yourself up out of the bed. You stretched and heard your back crack in several places. That sounded… worrying to say the least, but you had other things on your mind. For example: where was everyone?

You made your way through the prison, eventually ending up in the common room where everyone was talking over each other excitedly. 

“Sorry, forgot to set the alarm!” A guard apologized. You nodded at him. You turned and saw Tiny and slid over next to her.

“What’re we doing? Is it Thursday already?” You whispered.

“Nah, warden bought a game system,” she answered. You stared at her, mouth open slightly. “Keep staring at me we’re gonna fight.”

“Uh, sorry.” You blinked and looked forward, standing on the tips of your toes to try and get a better look. “What gaming system?”

“A Wii. Warden said we each get 30 minutes per week.” She explained. She then waited for you to respond. You didn’t.

“Dude, you alright?” She gently reached out and shook your arm.

“Hm? Oh, yeah, I’m good.” You mumbled. “He buy any games yet?”

“Uhhhhh Super Mario Bros, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Animal Crossing, Smash…”

“Mm-hm, mm-hm, as he should.”

“I think those Wii Sports games…”

“Just Dance?”

“Don’t know. Said to talk to him if there’s a game you want.” You nodded and gave her a small fistbump before walking over to the warden, who stood away from the group. You leaned over and saw BamBam and Sparkles in a heated game of Smash Bros. You stood next to the warden and watched.

“So, you actually listened to my request?” You looked up at him in slight disbelief.

“Course I did. Why not? Like I said, boosts morale.” He smiled. You nodded and you both looked forward again.

“How much was it?” You inquired.

“$100 on eBay.”

“Deadass?!”

“Absolutely. Great condition, too. Been used before, but not necessarily broken.”

“Come with the games?” “Some. Had to tell the guy I was buying it for my foster kids for him to give them to me. Them along with the Wii is what made it $100.” He explained

“So, we’re your kids now?” You snickered.

He only answered with a hum. You looked at him, blinking rapidly. 

“What?” He said in a defensive tone.

“Nothing! Don’t worry about it!” You waved him off. He crossed his arms in a huff but dropped it.

“Buy Just Dance?”

“In the back. Saving it for when Yancy shows up.”

“Shows up? He’s not here?” “No. He went to the yard when everyone gathered here.” You hummed and looked down, thinking.

Why did Yancy leave? Did he not care about it? Did he not want to play? That would complicate things a little…

“Instead of speculating, why don’t you go ask him?” He scoffed. You looked at the warden, scandalized.

“You’re an easy person to read, child.” He set a hand on your shoulder. “He might be out in the yard.” You sighed and walked away from the cheering crowd as BamBam pumped his fists triumphantly and Sparkles fell to his knees.

---

You opened the door to the yard, peeking out to see if anyone was there. Lo and behold, there he was, Yancy, sitting on the grass having a smoke. You walked over to where he was and plopped down next to him. He jumped a little, but breathed harshly once he saw it was you.

“Whatcha doin’ out here?” You queried, softly.

“Hm.” He grunted in response.

“Everyone’s inside… having some fun…”

“Hm…”

“I think Jimmy might play Animal Crossing…”

“Hm.”

“Yancy, what’s wrong?” You sighed and turned your body towards him a little.

“Nothin’, nothin’s wrong.” He lied. “C’mon, man, we both know that’s a lie.” You tilted your head to look at him. He avoided your eyes.

“Yancy.” You said sternly. He faltered a little hearing your concern. He glanced at you. Your eyes softened. “What’s wrong?”

“Is just… I never really gots to play games when I was young… and… I dunno… don’t know… how to...” He mumbled. You nodded in understanding, shifting until your shoulders were touching his. You stared at the fence while Yancy kept smoking. You tried not to cough when he exhaled his smoke, but you couldn’t help it. He looked at you apologetically before putting the cigarette out on the grass. You both sat there for a little, enjoying each other’s company. 

“So…” you breathed out after a little while. He turned to you with an eyebrow raised. “You’re upset because you don’t know how to play the games?”

“‘N I’ll look stupid while playing ‘em, yeah.” He finished with a scoff. A smile grew on your face.

“I know a game that’ll be really easy for you…” you sang. He furrowed his eyebrows at you.

“...what is it?” He hesitated. You bit your lip to keep from giggling as he looked at you worriedly.

---

“Wait, so… the hell is Just Dance?” Yancy scratched his head as you led him back to the common room. It was late, and everybody else was back in their cells. You convinced a guard to let you out by pretending you were gonna cry.

“It’s a game where you dance,” You said in a condescending tone. “Come on, Yance, use deductive reasoning.”

“I’on even know what that means,” He argued playfully. You brought him to the small TV, handing him a remote as you turned it on.

“It just… There are songs with dances prepared, and you have to do the dances as you see them on screen. Got it?” You looked up at Yancy, who was busy staring at the glowing screen of the tv. It was on the Wii home menu, so there wasn’t much to see. However, to Yancy, it was one of the coolest things he’d ever seen.

“Whoa whoa whoa, wassat?” He pointed at the screen and jumped a bit when he saw the cursor move as he moved the remote. He shifted it over until it was on the Mii Channel.

“Uh… that’s the place where you can make a little avatar of yourself. It works on some of the games, but not Just Dance.” You explained. “...you wanna make a Mii?” He pouted and gave you puppy dog eyes. You rolled your eyes and stood up, bringing your Player One cursor on the screen and clicking the channel. 

You told Yancy the mechanics, how to change everything, and what to do once he was done. You made your own Mii, explaining everything along the way, and told him to make his once you were done. Yancy, being the creative boy he is, spent half an hour on his Mii, trying to get everything perfect. You just stood next to him, trying not to yawn. Like I said, it was late. Eventually, he finished and you both got to see your Mii’s next to each other, along with some other people’s. He kept dragging his over next to you, trying to force them to interact. He got very upset when you told him they couldn’t hug or anything. He let you exit out of the channel and go into Just Dance. 

“Any particular song?” You scrolled through the songs, letting them play for a couple seconds so he could know what each was like. 

“Stop!” He called. “Go back.” You scrolled back to the last song you let play.

“Britney Spears? Serious?” You teased. It was all in good fun, you loved her too. Who wouldn’t?

He grumbled a little to himself. It sounded a little like “not my fault her songs bop”. You breathed out a chuckle and clicked the song, whisper-singing the lyrics as you did.

“My loneliness is killin’ me… Blue, green, orange, or pink?” You asked. After not getting an answer, you looked at Yancy to see the problem. He was frowning at the screen. “Yance?”

“Why’re they all girls?”

“Because it’s a traditionally girl-ish song.”

“I’m not a girl.”

“I know you’re not. Just pick a color.”

“Why are they cheerleaders?”

“Because they can be. Yancy, pick a color.”

“But why-”

“Yancy I swear to God pick a fucking color.” He hummed and then picked blue. You picked green.

You got into the same stance as the girl on the screen, and Yancy copied you. The music started up, and you started dancing. Yancy seemed a bit startled as he hurried to copy you. He wheezed out a little laugh, flailing his arms a little, trying to figure out what move you were on. You bit your lip to not laugh at him. You both kept going, and Yancy eventually got into the rhythm. He stuck his tongue out in concentration and you stared for a moment, not believing how adorable he was. Then you remembered that there was a winner in this game so you shook your head and kept dancing. 

Eventually the song ended, and you both breathed a little harder than normal. You looked at your scores, and found that you'd won. You clapped your hands and cheered. Yancy crossed his arms.

"Whatever, this is my first time!" He scoffed. But you could see the smile on his face. You stretched your arms and yawned, turning the Wii off and leaving the remote.

"Welp, we should get back--" you turned to head towards your cell.

"No!" Yancy stood in front of you. You tried to go around him, but he kept blocking your way. He grabbed your shoulders and held you in place.

"I want a rematch."

"Yancy, it's late…" you whined.

"Just one more! Please?" He pleaded. He, again, gave you those puppy dog eyes you could never say no to. You sighed loudly, grabbing the remote again and turning the Wii back on.

"I don't understand why you can't do this yourself…" you mumbled, clicking on Just Dance again.

"I… like spending time with you," he said softly. You squinted at him.

"You'd feel awkward dancing alone, huh?"

"Yeah…"

"Fine."

"Ooh! Let's do--"

"Nah, nah, nah. You're keeping me up. I get to pick the song."

"...'This is Halloween'?"

"Bet your ass."

"But that--"

"Shut it, Yancy, I'll leave."

"Okay! Sorry… 

"..."

"...can I be the pumpkin?"

"Of course you can be the pumpkin, babe."

---

You woke up really tired in the morning. You didn't know when you got back to bed, but the guard that let you out was asleep by the door when you arrived. You didn't even consider escaping, you were so tired. You just entered the cell and shut the door behind you.

In the morning, you got up and dragged yourself into the common room again. Everyone was playing the Wii again. You rubbed your eyes and stood next to Tiny.

"Fuck happened to you?" She scoffed.

"Yancy happened…" you yawned

"Ah. Long night, huh?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Ye-no. Wait, what? No, gross. We played Just Dance."

"Oh, was it fun?"

"For the first couple. The rest I was way too tired to be happy about…"

"Aw, did wittle baby need theiw nap?" She teased.

"I'm not wi-little! I'm not-I'm not little! Shut up!" You complained as she laughed.

"Well, Jimmy played Wii tennis against a guard. Now he's playing the warden."

"Seriously? Oh my God."

"He's currently the reigning champion."

"Who's going against him next?" You hear a thud, like someone fell.

"Got-dang it!" Mr. Murder-Slaughter yelled.

“That’d be me,” She patted you on the back before walking up next to Jimmy. Mr. Murder-Slaughter passed her as she walked, limping. He stood by you.

“You seem to be having fun.” You teased.

“Ah, shut it…” He growled and rubbed his arm. “How’s Yancy?” 

“He’s good. He likes the game a lot.” You explained.

“I’d hope so, otherwise there was no reason to buy this thing.” He scoffed.

“Eh… I dunno about that…” You listened to Tiny laugh loudly from where she stood in front and smiled. You turned your head a little and saw Yancy leaning against the opposite wall. You caught each other’s eyes. He nodded his head to the Wii. You shrugged and walked up. He did the same. 

Once Tiny and Jimmy were done with their match, Jimmy keeping his title as champion, you and Yancy walked up to the wii, taking the remotes and clicking Just Dance. 

“What song should we do?” You scrolled through the list.

“Avril Lavigne!” Someone yelled from the back of the room. You had a sneaking suspicion of who it was, but kept it to yourself. 

“Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne it is!” You clicked the song.

“Uh… I don’t know this song, bud,” He whispered to you. You clapped a hand on his shoulder.

“Oh you’re gonna love it.”

“I’m not sure I like that look.”

“Calm down, it’ll be great.”

“Okay… can i be the punk girl?”

“I wanna be the punk girl…”

Cue the puppy eyes…

“...fine, you can be the punk girl.”

[the-bloodycircle-cb]

𝙏𝙒: 𝙈𝙐𝙍𝘿𝙀𝙍, 𝙈𝙀𝙉𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉𝙎 𝙊𝙁 𝘽𝙇𝙊𝙊𝘿, 𝘿𝙀𝘼𝙏𝙃, 𝘿𝙍𝙊𝙒𝙉𝙄𝙉𝙂, 𝘿𝙀𝙋𝙄𝘾𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉𝙎 𝙊𝙁 𝙑𝙄𝙊𝙇𝙀𝙉𝘾𝙀 𝘼𝙉𝘿 𝙃𝙊𝙍𝙍𝙊𝙍 𝘾𝙍𝙀𝙀𝙋𝙔𝙋𝘼𝙎𝙏𝘼 𝙏𝙃𝙀𝙈𝙀𝙎

𝙋𝙇𝙀𝘼𝙎𝙀 𝙋𝙍𝙊𝘾𝙀𝙀𝘿 𝙒𝙄𝙏𝙃 𝘾𝘼𝙐𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉 𝙊𝙍 𝘼𝙑𝙊𝙄𝘿 𝙁𝙍𝙊𝙈 𝙍𝙀𝘼𝘿𝙄����𝙂 𝙄𝙁 𝙏𝙍𝙄𝙂𝙂𝙀𝙍𝙀𝘿 𝘽𝙔 𝘼𝙉𝙔 𝙊𝙁 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝘼𝘽𝙊𝙑𝙀.

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𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩: 7398

𝓟𝓪𝓰𝓮 2 𝓸𝓾𝓽 𝓸𝓯 8

❝𝓨𝓸𝓾 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓶𝓮𝓽 𝔀𝓲𝓽𝓱 𝓪

𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓻𝓲𝓫𝓵𝓮 𝓯𝓪𝓽𝓮, 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮𝓷'𝓽 𝔂𝓸𝓾?❞

It was a warm Sunday evening in a quaint little suburban area. The sun peeked over the fluffy clouds, golden rays spilling onto the red shingles of the roofs.

A young boy- somewhere in his teens- was skipping with joy down the sidewalk, clutching a clear plastic bag in his hands. He had waited incredibly long for this day, saving up his allowance to finally purchase the very thing he's been eyeing for almost three months now.

"I can't believe I finally got the collector's edition of Majora's Mask! This thing is antique~!" He chirps to himself, watching the game cartridge jiggle around in the plastic bag.

The walk back home took no less than five minutes, kicking off his shoes and making his presence known to his mother. He was quick to shower and have dinner before rushing back upstairs, already done his homework in advance so he could finally game in peace.

Throwing his hood over his head, he inserts the cartridge into his Nintendo GameCube he got two Christmases ago, grinning when it goes in easily.

"Finally, I hope the game doesn't lag. I spent all my pocket money on this shit, it's old but still playable." He mutters to himself, remembering the words from the antique shopkeeper earlier that day.

The smile that spreads across his face at the sight of the game loading successfully was filled with excitement and relief, clicking on a new slot before pressing play.

“Huh. There's a few glitches in this thing.. heh, must be the age. It did come from the early 2000s.” He snickered, getting used to the controls of the game.

A few hours passed and it was late into the night now when the male began to feel uneasy. He had passed through a few locations in the map and he felt as if something was watching him play. But that was impossible, his parents were sleeping and he was the only child.. it should definitely be impossible, shouldn't it?

He could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand when he finally found the source of his anxiety in the dimly lit room. Eyes widening by a few fractions, he stared at the pixelated character in the background of the screen, blinking in disbelief.

“Is that... The Elegy of Emptiness statue of Link?” He sputters, watching as the pixels shift around, as if reacting to his words.

His fingers shook a little as he held the controller in his hands, chewing on his bottom lip.

“This must be like.. an easter egg or something, right? Yeah, haha, definitely. It's like.. and extra companion.”

The teen thinks to himself, feeling himself calm down at the thought. He disregards the way the statue continues to slink through the map with him, resuming his gameplay.

Things seemed to have calmed down, the male sinking back into his gamer zone but deep down in his stomach he could feel fear bubble. Ever since his revelation the dialogues that he encountered kept glitching, some of the words too pixelated to make out and some even being changed to words like “why?” and “stop”.

He doesn't let the goosebumps stop him though, pushing the sight of the uninvited visitor to the back of his mind as his fingers pressed the buttons to move his character.

But then, things.. went terribly wrong.

“Ah finally, now if I cross this I'm pretty sure I'll get to the other cliffside. Just walk down the bridge and I'll arrive at the next town!” He chirped to himself, eyeing the digital clock on his bedside.

01:34 a.m.

Right as he stepped foot on the long bridge, he heard it. The change of soundtrack from the normal roaming one to a more.. unnerving one. The teen's eyes searched around the screen, unable to find the statue anymore.

“That's funny.. it was there a few minutes ago.” He mutters to himself, continuing to move down the bridge. The music picked up, sharp notes piercing his ears as he watches the pixel water below churn and glitch.

He continues to feel uneasy, breath hitching in his throat when he spots a text box pop up under the Link character. Eyebrows furrowed, he felt ice cold fear wash over him despite being wrapped in a blanket. The text glared at him in the darkness of his bedroom as he jumped when his clock ticked.

02:00 a.m.

“You shouldn't have done that.”

A cold voice rasps, the sound grainy and distorted as it resonates through the headphones he was wearing. He almost screamed, unable to move his fingers to click the next dialogue.

But he didn't have to.

The next text box appeared by itself, again with the same glitchy letters and the same cold, disembodied voice.

“How foolish of you to have continued playing even after knowing there was something wrong with the game. How desperate are you youths to play this wretched game?”

His words couldn't seem to exit his mouth, being stuck in his throat when he froze up in absolute terror. He doesn't know what was going on, who was talking to him? Were these dialogues supposed to be apart of the game?

“You look absolutely terrible, did I scare you? I was waiting for you to finally realize it, take a guess what music is currently playing.”

Without needing to move, he saw his laptop screen lit up from his desk, eyes flying to stare at it in shock. He got up with shaky hands, staring at the game file before falling back onto his bottom.

DROWNED.wmv

He scrambled back to his GameCube, seeing no more glitchy dialogues but his own character nowhere to be seen. He blinks, gasping when he sees he statue yet again, this time it seemed to have his Link avatar in its grasps, dragging it over to the water's edge.

It took him too long to finally process what was happening, and it only hit him full force when he heard the first piercing scream. It was that of a young boy, fearful and pleading as he cried bloody murder. The teen's eyes could only stare helplessly as he watches Link kick and squirm in his statue's grasp, the sound of the struggle evident over the music.

“LET ME GO LET ME GO LET ME GO.”

He fell back in horror when the statue pushed Link's head down into the river, hearing the drowned out screams coming from the still alive Link as he's forced to take the water down his lungs.

The male finally found the courage in him to stand up and make a run for it, right as Link's lifeless body starts floating down the river.

Then again, he was too late.

Right as his fingers touched the doorknob he was flung back to the floor by an unseen entity, groaning in pain. He had hit his head on the desk side, swimming through consciousness and unconsciousness when he felt it.

Drip

Drip

He looked up, about to scream when he had his mouth covered, the man above him giggling from the terrified look on his face. He had no visible eyes to be seen, only pure black voids of his eye sockets and a single red dot as his pupil. What was more unnerving though, was the sight of him seemingly crying with the tears dripping down his cheeksn

And those tears were blood.

The man dragged his limp body to the GameCube, a small flash of light before he no longer felt the carpet of his floor. Instead, he felt cold damp grass underneath his body, looking up to see the moon shining.

His assailant had brought him into the game. He was transported straight into Majora's Mask.

“Y'know, I expected some more struggle from you. Are you just gonna stay there and let me drag you all the way before the inevitable happens?"

The male could only attempt to toss and turn as he was dragged by the legs, finally orienting himself to struggle once he hears the rush of the river a few feet away.

The teen finally screamed, he screamed and kicked and flailed and tried as hard as he could to free himself.

But did he really think his captor would let that happen?

“Aha, now this is more entertaining~ You remind me of myself, far back from now. I was here too, struggling and screaming for my life. But who came for me?”

His eyes grew cold, brushing the bloodied tears away. “No one.”

With that, his assailant tossed him into the river, gripping him by the hair. The man's hair shimmered to an almost silver in the moonlight, though streaks of gold were highlighted by the dim lighting. The teen let out another plead, clawing at the man's fingers to free himself only to elicit another giggle.

“You're funny when you beg.”

SPLASH

He started to flail again, screaming as he feels his lungs burn. He kept struggling, and with every struggle more water enters into his mouth and nose. He screams and screams and screams, the music of DROWNED.wmv getting louder and louder until it stopped.

Yuta hummed, finally loosening his grip on the boy's hair. He watches his lifeless body float down the river in a similar fashion to when he ‘killed’ Link just now, a satisfied grin on his face.

The next thing you know, the mother would go to wake her son up only to find an empty bedroom. It would be classified into one of the many missing children cases, remaining unsolved, forever. No sign of any struggle, no windows opened and nothing out of the ordinary. The only exception was the GameCube, the screen now completely pitch black with a text box in distorted letters.

“You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?”

𝓑𝓔𝓝 𝓓𝓻𝓸𝔀𝓷𝓮𝓭! 𝓝𝓪𝓴𝓪𝓶𝓸𝓽𝓸 𝓨𝓾𝓽𝓪

【Ｔｈｅ　Ｓｅｃｏｎｄ　Ｐａｇｅ】

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘾𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙤𝙧: @yanlee @yanlee-spam

𝙑𝙞𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙨 (?): @time-for-confession @m00n-purplerose-chatbot @yourdaddychan @hunter-chaeyoung @domyukhei @amazingspiderhan @yanderexhoshi @yourcupidchuu @m00n-miaka-cb @xx-macabre-chungha-xx @your-jaemin @seventeen-chatbot @soft-hyunjin-chatbot @playboy-jun @leextaeyong @moonlightchn @ateez-zombie-wonderland @camboy-superm @madmanwoodam @midari-jieun @underground-ateez @ghost-hyunjin @gryffindorxjeno @yanderesungie @mafia-chaeyoung @angelhyuck-cb @caretaker-johnny @dancertenbot @roomie-xiaojun @heartbroken-yeji @exoticdancer-chatbot @criminalinvestigator-mingyu @softbf-skz @seoyejibot @lawyer-jungwoo @la-soleilmafia-cb @mafiaxwayv @sk-tao @jungseonghwa @incubuswooyoung @floristluda @empress-jiaqi @yarindere @alteredjiaqi @ateez-treasure9au-chatbot @yandere-jaehyun @spn-seungwoo @demon-nct (DM if you want to be +/- especially if this kind of concept makes you uncomfortable.)

[fnlrndcllctv]

THE YEAR IN FIGHTING GAMES: 1994

As the original release of Street Fighter II turns 30 this year, we are taking a look at the landscape of fighting games between 1991 and 2021 on a year by year basis!

This week, Shaun Eddleston takes a look at 1994…

1994 was an eventful year for video games.

Nintendo was starting to wind down on its production of NES games, while celebrating the success of games such as Super Metroid and Donkey Kong Country on the Super Nintendo. SEGA’s Sonic The Hedgehog series was going strong with Sonic The Hedgehog 3, and games such as DOOM II and Warcraft were making their way onto computers all across the world.

It was also a year where Germany placed Mortal Kombat II on its index of media works deemed harmful to young people by Germany's Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons effectively banning the game from sale in the country (and remained that way all the way up to 2005!).

Let’s take a look at 1994 in fighting games...

One of the more obscure Neo Geo titles, Aggressors Of Dark Kombat (known as Tsuukai GANGAN Koushinkyoku in Japan) was an interesting title that felt like a bit of an experiment in the genre. The game’s movement feels more like it would fit into your standard beat ‘em up game such as Final Fight and Streets Of Rage, and even drops weapons into the stage for fighters to use. 

The game also includes a fun comeback mechanic, the “GAN GAN attack”, which kicks in once a player’s health bar drops below a certain point, and their power bar is full. Once one of these mega attacks connects with an opponent, the player automatically wins the round.

Art of Fighting 2 continues the story that kicked off in the previous year’s entry, as we immediately learn that the identity of Yuri’s kidnapper, the tengu masked Mr Karate, is none other than Takuma Sakazaki, Yuri and Ryo’s father. This is all part of a much bigger criminal plot that ends up being spearheaded by a certain young crime lord from another popular SNK fighting title…

As for the game itself, almost every aspect of the Art Of Fighting experience was rebuilt and polished. The character sprites and stage art looked better, and a new “Rage” gauge mechanic was introduced into the mix. All of the game’s characters are immediately playable in arcade mode, and each have their own specific dialogue when interacting with other fighters.

The first 3D weapons-based fighting game was also one of the earlier releases on the Sony PlayStation, and was poised to be the game that would “outshine” the impressiveness of Virtua Fighter’s groundbreaking graphics.

While it didn’t quite beat out SEGA’s franchise, Battle Arena Toshinden still had a couple of interesting aspects to it that are still worth mentioning today. 

First of all, it is arguably the first “true” 3D fighting game, as it included the ability to side-step or dodge roll during a fight. This meant that the act of avoiding projectiles now had more options outside of blocking the hit or jumping over it, giving the game a little more depth (both mechanically and visually).

Thanks to the newly opened up 3D movement, ring outs are also possible in the game, where players can lose a round by simply falling off the side of the stage. This is an element that many gamers see as a bit of a cop out during a fight, but I personally see it as a fun way to humiliate opponents and even bring overly confident fighters back down to earth.

Capcom’s massive success with Street Fighter II was one of the most important moments in video game history, and the game was still going incredibly strong since its release 3 years prior (including this year, which we’ll touch on later in the article). There was a big question that lingered though; what non-Street Fighter fighting game would Capcom bring to the table next?

That game was Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors.

Darkstalkers wasn’t a million miles away from Street Fighter II in terms of gameplay. It utilised the same six-button L/M/H attack layout, and even used a Super Gauge that would be shared with the series.

The main strength of Darkstalkers that set it apart from its more famous older cousin, and that was its characters and theme. Instead of a tournament of worldwide fighters that many 2D fighting games utilised, Darkstalkers took inspiration from classic horror movies from the Universal era and offered a cast of 10 fighters that range from werewolves, sasquatches and vampires to Egyptian mummies, zombies and a Frankenstein’s monster for good measure. 

A spooky cult favourite!

1993’s Fighters History was a controversial entry in the fighting game genre. Not necessarily because of any violent content or especially iffy storyline, but for just how similar the game was to Street Fighter II. It was so similar, in fact, that Capcom attempted to sue Data East for just how much of a shameless ripoff the game was.

Capcom wasn’t successful with the lawsuit, and Data East went forward with a sequel, Fighters History Dynamite.

The game, perhaps more commonly known in some places as “Karnov’s Revenge”, added more characters (including the game’s boss fighters, Karnov and Clown) to the playable roster and spruced up the game's stage backgrounds.

Other than the slightly expanded range of fighters, and a hilarious hidden character to discover, not a lot else has changed from the first title, and still feels like it can’t shake off the original comparison that it got into trouble for.

Many 2D games up to this point were trying to mimic Street Fighter and Fatal Fury’s cartoonish graphics, there wasn’t really anything outside of Mortal Kombat’s digitised graphics that truly felt “next-gen” going into the middle of the decade.

Enter Killer Instinct.

While Rare as a developer was having a fantastic year already, with the success of Battletoads and Donkey Kong Country leaving long lasting impressions on the industry, their fighting game was a revelation in arcades, bringing a mix of 2D gameplay on 3D stages, strong bloody violence and a ridiculous new combo system to the table.

The characters were memorable, the animated FMV sequences were jawdropping to watch, and witnessing the game announce blare out “ULTRA COMBO!” whenever someone nailed a particularly savage sequence of hits just felt right.

Why not check out our thoughts on the game’s “killer” soundtrack?

Inspired by the popularity of Ryo Sakazaki (Art Of Fighting’s main protagonist) and his appearance as a guest character in Fatal Fury Special in 1993, SNK decided to go all out and start a crossover fighting series that brought together characters from their library of past games.

The game, named after the fighting tournament in Art Of Fighting and Fatal Fury, allows players to choose from a selection of 3-member teams that have been designated to different countries of the world, and matches revolve around an elimination system. In addition to a selection of original new characters, KOF ‘94 mixed together the Ikari Warriors, Psycho Soldier, Art Of Fighting and Fatal Fury franchises to fill out one of the largest fighting game rosters around at this point.

The game’s music is the subject of our very first entry in the Soundtrack Sunday series, so check it out!

Of the slew of games that took direct inspiration from Mortal Kombat, very few actually left a lasting impression.

One of the exceptions to this was Primal Rage, which saw stop motion dinosaurs and prehistoric apes duke it out for supremacy in the new “Urth”.

The game, which also took inspiration from Taito’s Dino Rex from 1992, caused its own controversy with one of its fatalities. In 1996, a woman from Arizona said that her 11 year old son had bought the game, and used a strategy guide to execute the “Golden Shower” fatality (in which, as the title suggests, the character Chaos urinates all over the corpse of an opponent). She flipped out and started a grass-roots campaign against Primal Rage, which resulted in some US stores withdrawing copies of the game, including the already-censored SNES version, which didn’t even contain the offending move.

The game was also successful with its merchandise, and saw a line of toys and a board game to accompany it.

The first Samurai Shodown game was, and still is, one of the finest fighting games of the early 90’s, so SNK had a huge task on their hands when it came to creating a sequel.

With Samurai Shodown 2, they absolutely knocked it out of the park in pretty much every aspect. All of the sprites of the characters who reappeared from the first game had been completely remade, a bunch of new characters had been added in, everyone got amazing new moves and a number of new game mechanics were also introduced to make the game feel much more balanced and fun to play.

One of these new mechanics was the “Weapon break” system, which meant that if a player got hit with a particularly powerful attack, there was now a chance that it would knock their weapon clean out of their hands, leaving them unarmed until it was recovered. The sheer panic of scrambling to pick up your sword while the opponent is slashing away at you is a thrill that still feels as effective today as it did back then.

Street Fighter II’s reign as king of the arcade fighting games was starting to wind down by 1994, so the game saw a final upgrade in the form of Super Street Fighter II Turbo, which added more game speeds, new animations and moves for all of the characters, a new “SUPER” gauge system and the introduction of  a hidden character that would quickly become one of the franchise’s most recognisable fighters; Akuma!

While many more casual players may not have felt the real impact of these changes (this was the third update in as many years since the original release), it remains as the “definitive” version of Street Fighter II, and is still used in tournaments to this day.

Developed by Namco (and ported to PlayStation in 1995), Tekken took the 3D fighting style that was pioneered by 1993’s Virtua Fighter, and added its own spin on things in regards to the control system.

Instead of using the traditional fighting game inputs that corresponded to the strength of the attacks, Tekken utilised a system that dedicates a button to each individual limb of the fighter. In doing this, the game became more of a learning process for players that wanted to do special moves and combos. This departure was so innovative, that experienced players could now figure out special moves by studying the fighters limb movements during their animations.

Known briefly as “RAVE WAR” during its beta test stage, Tekken quickly found itself as one of the most popular PlayStation games in history, and became the first game to sell over a million copies for the console.

Take a look at our thoughts about the game’s soundtrack!

Virtua Fighter was an incredibly important moment in gaming, so following up with a sequel that lived up to its predecessor was absolutely vital for SEGA.

Luckily, with Virtua Fighter 2, they managed to not only surpass the first game in the way it looked, but how it played too. Improved movesets ramped up how authentic each individual martial arts/fighting style felt, and with things running at 60FPS in the arcade version, the game felt like it was miles ahead of its competition.

The third entry in the World Heroes series was yet another improvement on the games that preceded it, but considering the sheer amount of solid competition it was facing in 1994, it still fell to the wayside.

The game added two new fighters and added a brand new boss to face off against, but things were starting to feel somewhat dated with the series now, and it suffered as a result.

While there were many action-adventure and side-scrolling beat-’em-ups based on characters from the Marvel universe, it wasn’t until the early 90’s until we got a fully fledged fighting game. It only made sense that Capcom, one of the heaviest hitters in the genre at the time stepped forward to fix this.

Released in arcades in late 1994, X-Men: Children of the Atom established what would become a beloved and fruitful relationship between Capcom and Marvel, and laid the foundations for the successful “Vs.” series that fighting game fans have played for nearly 25 years now.

The game is loosely based on 1993’s “Fatal Attractions” storyline, in which Magneto and his Acolytes return to confront the X-Men, tempting Professor Xavier to cross a moral line to stop them. It’s a pretty insane storyline with some fairly gnarly imagery (one such example sees Wolverine getting the adamantium ripped out of his skeleton!), and the good vs. evil dynamic lends itself perfectly to the setting of an arcade fighting game.

1994’s entries in the genre saw developers starting to take full advantage of the new 3D graphics that SEGA introduced with Virtua Fighter in the wake of a new console generation, while 2D fighting games kept on coming hard and fast to try and best Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat’s popularity.

Join us next week as we take a look at the games of 1995!

Did we miss anything from 1994 that’s worth mentioning?

Let us know in the comments below!

[milkypompon]

Animal Crossing into Your Heart | Raihan x Fem!Reader

ℝ𝔸𝕀ℍ𝔸ℕ 𝕏 ℝ𝔼𝔸𝔻𝔼ℝ

𝕀𝕄𝔸𝔾𝕀ℕ𝔼: Where Leon is the best (worst) wingman of Y/N and Raihan. Leon realizes that the only way to meld their hearts into one was to have the pair spend late nights playing Animal Crossing New Horizons together.

𝕎𝕆ℝ𝔻𝕊: 846

𝔸𝕌𝕋ℍ𝕆ℝ'𝕊 ℕ𝕆𝕋𝔼: I’ve been spending way too much time collecting eggs for Bunny Day in ACNH...

ℝ𝔼ℚ𝕌𝔼𝕊𝕋𝕊 𝔸ℝ𝔼 𝕆ℙ𝔼ℕ

𝔼ℕ𝕁𝕆𝕐

“Hey princess! Watcha got there?” Raihan picked through his way across Y/N’s Cinderace sprawled body on the living room’s wooden floor, careful not to wake them up. Y/N’s position was similar to her beloved Pokemon, except she reserved the whole couch. 

After Y/N claimed the title of Galar’s Champion, she promised to keep in contact with each gym leader. So, here they were, from the grass gym leader to the ex-champion lazily meandering and chatting in Leon’s house in Postwick. 

Raihan poked Y/N’s foot. Busily fidgeting around the buttons on her Nintendo Switch, she was unresponsive to his question and the implied  request of lifting up her legs in courtesy of allowing him to sit down.

“Oh come on…” Raihan playfully rolled his eyes and opted to tickling her feet. He got a response alright. Right in the no-no square. 

He rolled over and groaned dramatically, “Damn woman, that’s one way to greet someone!”

“Shit! Didn’t see you there mate!” Y/N tossed her Switch at him. Raihan quickly recovered from his theaterics and caught the device with his slender fingers. 

Leon entered the room with a serving platter which rested a happy amount of chips and salsa. 

“You must really trust Raihan with that 300 pokedollar gadget,” Leon commented.

A light dust of pink covered Y/N’s cheeks, “Y’know, when you call the godly Nintendo Switch, a gadget, it makes you sound like a boomer!” 

The whole room bursted out in laughter. Raihan snorted and Y/N couldn’t help but crack up at his odd noise. 

“Alright that’s enough, let’s get back to business,” Y/N pulled on Raihan’s sleeve, causing him to plop down onto the couch. She comfortably nestled her legs on top of his. It was Raihan’s turn to blush a little. 

Bea sat up from the corner of the room, leaving Nessa, Milo, and Gordie shouting random words as they played Headbandz. She rolled her eyes as she made her way to Leon, “God, the sexual tension between them is making my own virginity quake.”

Leon’s eyes widened and shoved a single chip with a fat dollop of salsa. 

“You really think the extra Tamato will shut me up?” Bea said in between crunches, then pulled away the platter with the snacks from his hands and returned to her own shenanigans. 

“So much for taking my own fill,” Leon sighed. 

“Hey Lee! Get your Switch, I need help collecting organisms, so I can get Blathers’ museum as soon as possible!” Y/N’s eyes twinkled with excitement. 

“Oh man, am I the only one here without a Switch?” Raihan looked around the room as everyone flashed their hand-held consoles and hummed in agreement. “Okay, there’s no way in heck Kabu actually has one.”

Y/N said in a knowing voice, “Actually if the winner of a Super Smash Bros.’ battle became Champion, then I bet my entire Poke-savings that I wouldn’t be one right now.”

“Because I would be,” Kabu walked into the living room with a book in hand, as if on cue, then left as quickly as he entered.

Raihan’s mouth gaped open and Y/N giggled at his reaction.

Leon undocked his Nintendo Switch from the TV and handed it to Raihan. “But, don’t worry mate! You can have mine and I’ll order another one for myself,” he flashed his signature smile at Raihan, then winked at you. 

Y/N’s eyes widened, then contorted her face in an angry expression, which had little effect due to her deep red blushing face. Unluckily for her, Raihan caught Leon’s “secret” wink. He decided to dismiss it. 

Raihan and Y/N exclaimed in unison, “Are you sure?”

“You’ve been waiting for the special edition console of Animal Crossing and the New Horizons game for a literal year!” Y/N expressed. 

“Yeah! Don’t worry about it. Like I said, I can find a replacement,” Leon reassured his friends, as he handed the hand-held console to Raihan.

“Well thanks mate! I’ll make sure to use it up ‘til it's drained dead,” Raihan held it carefully. 

Leon ruffled Y/N’s hair and made his way to the kitchen to finally snack on the chips and salsa he’d been craving. 

That purple-haired brat is definitely something else. Embarrassing me and shit, Y/N thought quietly. 

“Lee, c’mon! Y’know Nessa just styled my hair!” Y/N exclaimed in annoyance. 

Raihan raised his fingers and carefully tucked away strands of soft hair behind her ear. He sat a little too closely than friends should be. 

Y/N’s attention was averted away from Leon’s brotherly act to Raihan’s gentle touch and the warmth they shared. Her eyebrows rose slowly at him, which contrasted to his ears turning redder by the second. 

“S-sorry! Just tryna help you mate!” He pulled his hand away and coughed lightly. “So, what’s this game you and Lee have been going on about?”

“It’s uh, called Animal Crossing,” Y/N pulled her eyes away from Raihan and back onto the game, hoping to hide the tinge of pink on her face.

Leon knew that Raihan and Y/N’s late nights were soon going to be filled with catching critters, listening to hourly music, and nestled in each other’s arms after a long day of playing Animal Crossing. Their relationship will reach into New Horizons.

[moist-astronaut]

things my friends and I have said over the last year

“I’m verbally illiterate” “Isn’t that called dyslexia”

“I’m going to chemistry and I’m gonna light myself on fire” “No” “Damnit let me burn like the witch I am!”

“Don’t worry it’s not anti-Christ it’s just anti-government”

“I’ve been getting migraines everyday and I’m considering chopping my head off” “But that would kill you” “Two birds one stone!!”

“I swear to god I will hug you” “My house is 5 miles away and my doors are locked” “Your locks are FEABLE”

*writing an email* “Bitch comma”

“Ok but I could be a top” *laughing* “What I totally could be!” *laughing and crying for literally 6 minutes straight*

*on a group call, friends cat misha walks into the room* “Tell misha I would live and die for her, whichever she prefers” “She says thank you” *cat noises*

*joins discord vioce chat at 11:26 pm* “You guys are gae but I love you” “Thank you saeren very cool” “Goodnight” *leaves chat at 11:28pm*

“Jake jake jake jjjake -j-jaaake hey jake” “W H A T” “Can I eat your pens” “I literally have a restraining order against you”

“I’m educatn’t”

“Me calling you to dumb to be a slytherin is payback for you leaving multiple handprint bruises on my legs” “It’s not my fault your skin is weak”

“He’s rolling so that we can walk” *rolling in the grass and collecting leaves on his jacket* “I’m rolling for your sins”

“There are 7 of us so we can each be a deadly sin” “I wanna be Ross” “You mean wrath?” “No that dude from Friends”

“Ok but other than his strict attraction to women, his multiple wives, his hatred of gay people, and the fact that he is dead, what is standing between me and Joseph Smith the All American Hottie from being happy together”

“Consider: Mullet” “No”

“I do my homework while loudly eating a pop tart asmr”

“No no listen, he’s my brother, he’s a bastard of my dynasty…I might just ransom him off”

“These Norwegian bastards indroduced a fucking PLUAGE to my COUNTRY”

“Ooooo meth”

“Half of my life is me resisting the urge to sing the zaboomafoo themesong, the other half is me actually singing the zaboomafoo themesong. So either way my entire life revolves around zaboomafoo.”

“I just don’t think I would hire a gay man-wait no I’m not homophobic”

*chucks half a gallon of milk in a gas station* “-ah- got milk?”

“Gimme your sternum boy”

“Nooooooo he stole my sternum!!!” (Side note these were two separate occasions)

*being force fed milk duds* “No!! This is the worst way to die!!”

“Hey babe come over I have a hammock and a heated blanket”

“Be afraid, be prepared- IN THE WORDS OF SCAR”

“Stress eating stress gummies Stress eating stress gummies Stress eating stress gummies stress eating-”

“I thought to myself ‘Y’know if I die today this is how I want to be remembered- a leather skirt and leg warmers’”

“I think I’m telling you to go to sleep” “You’re gonna have make me” “I can’t tell if this is cry for help or flirting” “Yes”

“This is at best cannibalism and at worst being straight”

“Oh look Percy Jackson’s here now, ooh they replaced every character’s face with Mr. Bean. I hate it”

“You can’t be mean to me! I’m gay AND a woman! That’s a hate crime!” “Yeah well I’m brown and Muslim! Square the fuck up bitch!”

“Babe it’s not very metal to be afraid of your hair dresser” “It’s not very metal to have a hair dresser and yet here we are” “It’s fine you’re into glam metal”

“Hey augie, got any grrrrrrapes?” “I’m doing IXL :(“

“Can I come?” “No” “What if I bring watermelon?” “You can come, leave the watermelon, then leave” “:(“

“What in the jersey shore”

“Rad’nt”

“Ok but consider: Mullet-hawk” “I can and will divorce you”

“Dee-vorce 👏 Just to 👏 re-vorce 👏 👏 “

“Ah yes, that’s why I’m fat…for combat reasons…”

“You fool I consent!”

“My Boston fern is being a bitch but that’s because it’s winter and that’s BITCH season”

“You walk through the rest of the house and it’s like ‘ooo witchy and aesthetic’ then they’ll get to the guest room and it’ll just be a tacky twink Fever dream”

“Who needs a scalp”

“HeHe, sexing”

“Council has decided, your vibes are rancid (and not the band)”

“You’re never to young to hate women”

“Look at me I did the dishes I’m a 1950s housewife with a strangely new jersey accent and affinity for lesbianism”

“Well look who has the table now”

"contrary to popular belief, fuck you"

"There's nothing here that requires whisking, i'm just problematic"

"If you could go anywhere in the world with two people, who would you choose?" “New Orleans!”

"So he proceeded to bite me on the butt...like, really, really hard."

“I don’t cheat, I win. It’s not cheating if it’s consensual.”

“My mouth, my choice”

“Do you like my ombré of a tan"

“Who’s the cutest in the chat right now then?” “It’s Paige!” “No, it’s obviously Augie.” (paige's boyfriend)-said by a straight man

“Francis is just a one and done.”

“Would you ever have a threesome?” “...yes...” *To Francis* “Sure!”

“How do you feel about anal sex?”

“Of the people in this room, who would you most want to make out with?” “Augie” “The answer is yes, but only if it’s 6 feet apart.”

“Square, flat, and overcooked.”

“The virus would be over if everyone would breathe underwater for 5 minutes.”

“I have daddy issues, but not with my father.”

“You’re a ladies man but you have two boyfriends.”

“That means lesbian in sign language” “No, that means fuck boy in American”

“I’m like a parasite, you can’t get rid of me. I’m here forever.”

“You’re like my long term hit man”

“Is it Jake?” “No, why would the evil Russian man be Jake?” “Because he would never hire a gay man and you don’t look like a gay man”

“Jake is homophonic, Augie is racist, and Francis is a woman hater!”

"Grew a korean radish, 1 star"

"I've got more cause i'm a rich boy, and by that i mean my father sometimes buys avocados. And that's on what? Upper middle class"

"Tell your good for nothing boyfriend to stay away from my mom"

"It's not inciting violence it's just ~inspiring it~ "

"Listen bitch just because you have avacados and a roomba doesn't make you better then me"

"i would totally let narthex ruin my life. and that's on what? daddy issues and bisexuality"

"who is titty"

"how is he racist" "he hates the french and russians right?" "don't forget italians" "that's just self loathing"

"This is the last time i wear a thong- it's for educational purposes"

"babe come over i'm a burrito"

"he put bread with milk. luckily he passed away"

"you touched my wiener!" "you offered it!"

"foot'nt"

"i took a shower and realized the floor doesn't bounce"

"i love ass whoooaaaaaa i meant cassie"

"Rosalie you're the deciding vote. Be decisive." "Dude i'm bisexual and a gemini. what're you talking about?"

"Okay so to recap: jake is homophobic, augie is racist, francis is a woman hater, and now paige is a bunny abuser?"

"Just bring a watermelon keychain and it'll be fine" "Whooaaaa i'm gonna need a big key then"

"If you were blind what would you even see"

Post Traumatic Youth, plus D for danny's disorder"

"i think she's past the phase where she likes people just because they're russian"

"francine is a lesbian, but only during quarantine"

"don't be a home wrecker!" "i can't help it!"

"we are not doing coed tents" "i wanted to go purple-ing though"

"if it's not perfect i'm gonna through hands" "with who" "i don't know, the CEO of stupid"

"don't make me feel guilty for bullying you"

"it doesn't look very cash money cool but okay"

"slinky cat" (ferret)

"The pond behind my house didn't freeze all the way through this winter, so i couldn't go ice skating" "okay, so i have an idea. we can go to walmart and get-" "ANTI FREEZE!" "well, yes- wait, no. No, the more i think about that definitely no."

"The amish will win, the amish will prevail" "the amish will conquer us all!"

"He do be kinda mafia doh"

"i'm being sneaky sneak. stairs go creaky creak. and i need. DRUGZ"

"brain on shutdown, power saving mode"

"Somebody go tip her, she's dancing like a stripper" "thatd be nice- oh wait no!"

"fellas, is it gay to lick your homies eyeball?"

"it's not racist if you're only targeting one group of people" "that literally racism" "but what if they're french"

"i'm not racist yet but the option is available, and it's good to have options"

"they don't call me Mr. Steal Yo Boy for nothing!" -a straight man who has a girlfriend

"i think he has a bad habit of not dating girls"

"kinda hot tho 🥵 in a Santa Claus kinda way...hoe hoe hoe"

"i'll be your hot jacuzzi bubble dealer"

"when deceit and doubt fills you up, you cleanse your mind through creative activities, such as making organic soap"

"friendly reminder #4: you're never to old to eat a freezie-pop"

"sorry i'm just nervous" Chinese Teacher: (Waving her hand in front of her face) “Just pretend I’m cabbage.”

"me when my dads name is publicly broadcasted on the radio for his 14 felonies and assorted war crimes"

"<@!523669420435046401> I sentence you to a solid nine by the banhammer. For your crimes against Humanity, God, Satan, and Matt Frank. See you in hell."

"Danny, just because you're playing *Just Cause* doesn't mean you need to Just Cause our friendship!"

"Silly Matt! You fell for the ole’ Heimlich maneuver!”

"i got a bunch of new shirts over quarantine" "you would"

"Ok, there's a 32 year old doctor in new Jersey dying right now" "Yeah, but to be fair everyone in new jersey has a pre-existing condition"

“This is the longest period of time we’ve had without a Nintendo direct” “Maybe they’re gonna make a Nintendo indirect?”

"you’re looking extra white today.” "thanks i've been practicing"

"do you have any batteries" *looks inside shirt* "not yet"

"let's go colonize the middle school!" "yyayayyayayay!!!" " wait I gotta ask my mom first" What happened next is know called the *Juniors burden*

"oh so you're a DOWNSTAIRS milk kinda guy"

"you are literally the human embodiment of crumbs in a bed"

"The Berk-ey Creamery isn’t a place, it’s a people!”

 "He shoved a floating joy-con straight up his flux-capacitor.” "great! now it's paired"

"No, that isnt armor, the real armor are the friends you made along the way"

"This one goes out to all my lady friends out there *proceeds to kill himself in game*

"i'm a coward" "that's what a coward would say!"

"rest is for cowards and fools"

"every time you speak you take years off my life"

"Shark dick hoo ha ha"

"Me and the boys brushing our teeth at 3 AM"

"remember if you kill yourself the fascists win"

"The Beatles aren’t real. Have you ever seen a beatle? No? Exactly." "Babe” "Shut up I’m right."

*reading over these quotes* "god i hate that" "you said that!"

[jennfercheck]

What are some Just Eddie Things

oh anon you opened pandora’s box with this one

eddie spends a lot of time in his room listening to music. when he was a kid he found his dad’s old cds in a box and snuck upstairs to his room and spent all day listening to elvis and the platters and fleetwood mac and queen on his CD player (because he knew he’d be in big trouble if his mother found out he went digging through his dads things again) and so began his love of oldies and 70s music and he spends half of his childhood dancing around to his dad’s favorite music, jumping up on his bed and spinning in his desk chair and singing into his hairbrush

he likes to collect snow globes. which is interesting because he has never stepped foot out of derry. but his (cool) aunt travels all the time for work and so she sends him a snow globe from every new state she visits. he only has about 30/50 but he loves them all. his favorite is from oregon

he. lives. in. sweaters. he lives in them! he is always wearing them! christmas sweaters? check. university sweaters? check. oversized sweaters with horrific patterns on them? check. embroidered sweaters? check. eddie kaspbrak loves sweaters.

he claimed casper the friendly ghost as his favorite movie the second he saw it at age five. he heard “can i keep you?” and absolutely lost his fucking mind. also he liked to imagine that if his dad had lived, they would’ve been a lot like casper and his dad

when he got his nintendo DS the first thing he did was invite richie over so they could play their DS’s together. except they got so distracted by sending each other pictochats of poorly drawn portraits of them and their friends that they never actually got around to playing anything

he is ridiculously good at hide and seek. like to the point where the losers refuse to play with him. one summer, they played at bill’s house, and eddie hid in georgie’s toybox for two hours—he refused to come out because he wanted to see how long it would take them to notice that no one had found him. and they knew that was exactly what he was doing. so they left him up there for two whole hours

for the first four years of his life, he got constant ear aches, so he spent a lot of time on the couch with a warm rag over his ear and cartoon network on the tv (he would change it from PBS the second his mother fell asleep). his favorite show to watch was power puff girls and he didn’t care who knew it. and this is why his item for show and tell was a powerpuff girl book that READ the words in THEIR voices OUT LOUD in the first grade

bill is his designated errand friend. if eddie needs to pick up ibuprofen from the store, bill is there with him. if he needs to wander around a mall aimlessly to vent about his mom, bill is there with him. hungry? let’s go bill. wander around walmart aimlessly because there’s nothing else to do? come on bill i know you’re not busy.

when he gets his first ipod, his mom (unsurprisingly) puts a password lock on it so that whenever he wants to buy something she has to put her password in. one day she lets it slip that the password is his dad’s middle name. go figure that it’s HIS first name. and that’s how eddie ends up with “birthday cake” by rihanna on his ipod in eighth grade

every time he has to get gas, he drags someone along with him. it used to be richie but then he got gas all over eddie’s shirt because he pulled the pump out too fast and eddie had a panic attack because he thought that he was one second away from erupting into flames. so now he brings everyone but richie because he has ptsd

he hates vans. eddie kaspbrak said FUCK vans i would rather chop off my own feet than wear fucking vans, i’m not tony hawk, fuck you, i hate california and i hate you you van wearing fuck (words he actually said to richie once)

he sucks at writing papers so bad and eventually he has enough of sucking and goes to ben for help. they of course get sidetracked by talking about their crushes that go nameless because neither of them are about to admit who it is they’re really talking about but they both know and they both know that they know but ALSO know that what they say to each other is confidential

he draws hearts on everything... this is a Ceritifed Eddie Thing

he has never washed a dish in his life and one night they have dinner at mike’s and they have to clean up the mess and eddie is like “mike where’s your dishwasher” and mike’s like “oh we don’t have one :)” and eddie malfunctions he literally does not understand what that means at all because they only ever use the dishwasher at home because his mom says the soap and tap water could give him a rash

he loves roller skating but he acts like he isn’t good at it and then the losers go roller skating and he leaves them all in the fucking dust without a single glance back. they’re all fumbling against the wall (mike is able to go around with some mild wobbling) and eddie just glides past them like “it’s easy!” and everyone yells at him to shut up all at once

his favorite color is purple. that’s all

he doesn’t really like to be touched all that much. and physical affection makes him feel Weird. but. he fucking loves hugs. he loves hugging and being hugged (but only by the losers.) in most loser club photos eddie can be found clinging to a member

and last but certainly never least: he loves taking pictures but like only of his friends. his entire camera roll is just photos of his friends literally just existing. bev laying in the grass during the summer with a smile on her face. mike leaning his head on stan’s shoulder while they laugh at something together. ben gaping at richie because he said something particularly upsetting about their history teacher. bill jumping with georgie on the trampoline with a big ol smile on his face. richie with ten french fries stuffed into his mouth. a blurry self timer photo of them crammed into a booth at a diner at 2am, whipped cream on their noses because apparently it was going to look funny according to mike. and eddie loves every single one

[yasmeensh]

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link - The lore

I know this is an art blog but i can’t contain myself and I need to talk about zelda2 lore. Why? You all heard about the botw sequel being darker, much darker. And people made connections to Majora’s mask, because it was a dark sequel. But you know what? Zelda 2 was also a dark sequel. Nintendo are doing it for a THIRD time and I'm proud. Sit tight and maybe grab a snack because this will probably be a long passion essay. Here we go.

Most of you MIGHT be familiar with the storyline of Zelda2, but in summary, here is how it goes: Princess Zelda from an ancient time has been put to spell by a curse. Only the power of the full triforce touched by a pure heart can wake her. Finally after hundreds of years, the chosen one came along (Link). Link must place 6 crystals in 6 palaces to break the spell on the Great palace where the Triforce of courage is enclosed. Once there, he takes the triforce, completes it with the other two pieces, and wakes zelda up. The End.

And Here is the story in MORE detail (unless you are in a hurry , I recommend you read it. The top summary is just for people who have no clue what the story is:

    The king of hyrule always passes down the power of the triforce to his son next-to-be-king. This time however, he wants to give it to his daughter, Zelda, because he believes she is wiser and more considerate than the son. The son was very upset about it and has summoned a wizard to scare the princess and give up the triforce to him. The wizard however, overcome with hatred towards zelda, uses all his magic to put her to an eternal sleep, and he dies (only recently in the hyrule historia has the identity of the wizard been revealed: he is a follower of Ganon, or an embodiment of ganon himself (sort of like ghost ganon in oot or blight ganons in botw. So in this case he might have not died but just extinguished all his powers)). The son, overcome with grief for his sister, promises that every girl born into the Royal family henceforth will be named Zelda. He locks the triforce of courage far away, so only those worthy of it will be able to access it, and leaving the remaining two in the castle, unable to use its full power.

Hundreds of years have passed by and no worthy hero came by, until now. On his 16th birthday, Link noticed that a mark resembling the triforce glowed on his left hand. Worried and Confused, he goes to seek information on it from Impa. She tells him that he is the hero chosen to save the sleeping princess Zelda. She gave Link a scroll written in ancient text that only the true hero can read to ensure that he is in fact the chosen one. Link was able to read it despite never seeing that language before. The Great Palace where the triforce of courage lies is locked with a spell. The spell comes from 6 different temples, and he must break part of the spell at each temple so he can open the gates of the Palace. To do that, A crystal must be placed in each, and that is exactly what he does.

While Link is going on his journey, the minions of Ganon are going after him, trying to capture him and use his blood to revive Ganon (It’s unclear if they want him alive or dead, or simply his blood. All we know is they want to use Link’s blood in a sacrifice to bring Ganon back from the dead). If Link dies, Ganon will be revived, so he must remain alive. At the end of the trial to the triforce of courage, Link was made to fight his own shadow by the triforce keeper. After defeating his shadow, he made the triforce whole again, wished for the curse on Princess Zelda to break, and she woke. The End.

Now that is my extensive summary on the official story. Obviously I will fill in now MY theories on some points. My biggest point is Link fighting his shadow. Why did Link have to fight his shadow? Why was Link not ready to touch the triforce? He already went through ALL the trials, so why this now? My theory is that Link’s heart was not pure. Only a pure heart must touch the triforce. A corrupted heart will corrupt the world when the triforce is touched, no matter what the wish is. Link was most likely the chosen hero, but he is not completely pure. I believe Link was made to fight his shadow as a final step to touching the triforce; to cleanse his heart from any evils that are in it. Why would Link be evil and corrupt? I don’t know, but that’s hella dark.     Another point, that can be connected to BoTW, is Link’s death, and the revival of Ganon. If you played AoL before, then you are familiar with the red screen of death and Ganon’s evil laughter. Well, if Link dies, that means Ganon will return. That means Link should NEVER die. But he is not a god or eternal deity. He will die at some point during his journey after the events of the game or simply from old age, or whatever. He will die. At this point, if the people of Hyrule really want Ganon to remain dead, then Link should simply disappear once he dies. If he were to be buried, they have to hide his body somewhere the monsters will NEVER reach. I have no idea where that could be: the dungeons of hyrule castle? Something similar to the Great Palace? Maybe. The better option is to burn him, but I don’t know if people in Hyrule do that (they probably should in this case because yikes Ganon)

Where am I going with this? I’m not sure, but It vaguely reminded me of Ganon(dorf) coming back to life in the new BoTW trailer. Who was he even? A new ganondorf? Or one we already know?

Lets go back… what about AoL Link’s death? Another option for keeping Link out of the hands of Ganon’s minions is for him to never die. To be absolutely safe, protected, and strong enough to protect himself, and to live eternally. And I know the people of hyrule (at some point) will have that technology available, because BoTW Link was revived after his death. Link can probably die countless of times and still continue to live because of that shiekah tech. Now about the tech, AoL seems too middle ages, right? WELL… this is going to sound dumb but the temples in AoL have elevator thingies in them. Shiekah technology? Maybe. It could be a manual pulley system. Or pure magic. We don’t know, but we are a step closer at least.

BASICALLY i see a lot of similar points between these two games and idk if nintendo accidentally did that or took inspiration from aol but its cool that these two games share the concept of the kind of tragedy hyrule will go through if link dies and the idea of Ganom coming back to life.     Why am I even getting into BoTW… let’s get back to AoL lore! If you played AoL, you might be familiar with the Link dolls. Dolls that save Link from death (i.e extra lives) those dolls are pretty creepy and they look like a tiny hunched over limb Link. They are scattered throughout all of hyrule, and you find them in random weird places, like at the beach, in a swamp, inside a temple, in a cave, near a graveyard, forest, etc. They are everywhere. Who put these dolls there? No one knows. But someone is totally trying to save Link from dying on his journey. If he dies, Hyrule is screwed. Could it be Goddess Hylia? The fairies? A magician? Link Dolls are extremely strange and Nintendo could have gone more in depth on them because they provide some super cool dark lore.

Also we can’t forget about Kasuto Town. All the inhabitants of the town went to camp in the forest because their town was destroyed. Why? No one knows, again (everything in this game is shrouded in mystery). There is only a single man living there in old Kasuto. Kasuto town is entirely destroyed, all the buildings are decaying and crumbling, the air looks nasty and the sky is purple. There are ghosts EVERYWHERE. And if Link didn’t acquire the cross before entering, he will not see the ghosts at all and will just die from being hit by what looks like air. Now the civilians! The civilians are hiding in the forest! In-game, you will never be able to find them unless you hit a random block of grass with the hammer, and then it will appear. They are well hidden. Something must have destroyed their town, something terrifying, and they are hiding from it. The entire population has gone to hide in the depths of the forest. Now I have a theory that these people COULD be related to the shiekah. Those people are magic experts. You learn something called The Spell in old kasuto. And in new kasuto, you use this spell to raise a small temple from the GROUND to get the key in it (idk man but reminds me of the shrines) You also receive the final magic container there. So, yeah, those people definitely have a magic obsession or *super powers*. (i’m hinting at it but these people could be the shiekah). Also one more thing, these people are begging Link to save hyrule. They are the only people who are begging him to do something. They know HE will save hyrule. In all other towns, it only seems like Link is asking for advice and they answer Link is a random nobody. However, the people of Kasuto are AWARE. (shiekah much? idk)

This is not too lore-y but it’s about how dark this game is: there is so much red in it. Game over screen is red. The lining of the triforce on Link’s hand is red. The windows in the temples are stained red (blood?). The Tinsuit sprites have fresh blood dripping down their swords. Also, sleeping Zelda’s dress is red. I can’t brush that off. Whenever I think of AoL I think of the colour red. There is so much to say about AoL... But what I want to say is that this game is HELLA dark. I hope Nintendo uses its lore in future games, and adds references, because it can totally work if they try to. This game has a lot of lore material to work with. Nintnedo should consider expanding on it (and botw was inspired by loz1, it would only make sense if the sequel will mirror the original loz sequel too :3)

PLEASe share your ideas! I’d love to hear what you all think! There are many ideas to go around so share your thoughts! And one last thing, AoL is very difficult. If you want to try it, be prepared to see the colour red a lot, cry a lot, and rage quit a lot.

Thank you for reading my very long post! Enjoy your day <3 <3 <3

[chroniclackofselfpreservation]

Daily Writing #16 - The Water Tower

(TW: implied mention of suicide, panic, heights)

The water tower at the edge of town was the constant recipient of many a local legend. The sixth graders often claimed it was built by aliens—supported in the fact that no one in town had ladders anywhere near long enough to build something of that stature.

It’s long, brassy legs and rotund body made it look like some enormous, four-legged spider. The fifth graders purported that it, in fact, was, but simply encased in metal—like Han Solo in his carbonite prison. We simply awaited the day its captors saw fit to release it upon us. 

My best friend, Kyle, thought it was neither of these things. As fourth graders and new arrivals to being “in the double-digits”, it fell to us to debunk the mysteries set by our seniors—even though Kyle was still technically nine for one more month.  

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” I said, trying to rub warmth back into my arms. It was early spring, and the heat of the coming summer hadn’t quite taken  hold yet. 

“Shut up, Jesse. You think that everything’s a bad idea,” Kyle countered, staring up at the bottom of the water tower, arms akimbo. 

“Yeah, well most of the things you come up with are, so let’s just go back to my house. We can play Nintendo and my mom just bought a whole bag of chocolate-covered pretzels, so—”

“There’s a hatch on the bottom,” he muttered, cocking his head to the side. 

“Cool! Now, can we go home now?”

Kyle started up the rusty ladder lining one of the monstrous spider’s legs. “Why’s there a hatch on the bottom? It’s supposed to be full of water, right? The hatch should be on the top. Otherwise, all the water would fall out.” 

“I guess, but—hey! Kyle, come back here! You’re going to fall!”

“Stay on the ground, if you’re so worried,” Kyle shot back, continuing his clamber toward the top of the tower. 

Cursing his bad luck in best friends, Jesse wrapped a hand around the first rung of the ladder. It had rained only an hour ago, so everything was slick and cold. They’d be lucky if they didn’t slip and fall to their deaths trying to disprove a bunch of pre-teens.

Revulsion shuddered through him as the mud from Kyle’s shoes transferred from the rungs to his hands. 

Don’t be a sissy, he heard Carl snark in the back of his mind. 

Jesse bit his lip and began to climb.

His ascent was slow, and the chill from the freezing metal began to seep into his bones, making his fingers numb and slow to react. Kyle was nearly at the top now. 

“Jesse! There’s something written on the door!” 

“What does it say?” he huffed, losing his patience. If they didn’t fall to their deaths, Jesse sure would make Kyle wish he had. 

“I don’t know. It’s in some different language.”

“Okay, so it was built by foreigners. Big deal.”

“I’m going to open it.”

“Kyle!” Jesse shouted, “if you so much as touch that door—ah!” His foot slipped through one of the spaces in the ladder up to his hip, slamming against the metal. Pain radiated through his leg and groin. Jesse’s ears rang slightly and he felt dizzy. It was all he could do to keep his hands clenched around the upper rungs. 

“You okay?”

“I hate you,” Jesse spat, trying not to vomit.

Kyle didn’t respond. Instead, Jesse heard the horrifying squeal of metal on metal as his friend turned the hatch. He didn’t even try to free himself from the ladder, he just held on for dear life and hoped they didn’t end up flooding the entire town. 

Nothing happened. 

“No way,” Kyle breathed. 

Jesse squinted his eyes open, praying he didn’t see an enormous spider slowly coming to life. 

The hatch hung open on two hinges. Warm amber light spilled out of the opening, in sharp contrast to the dingy gray day outside. The port lay just far enough away from the ladder than Kyle had to release one hand and fully extend the other arm just to reach it. 

Jesse’s stomach did somersaults. He could see it now. Kyle’s hand slipping, so easily. His body falling, hitting the ground and crumpling, arms at odd angles. The last few breathes gurgling out of him...

Just like his sister. 

Jesse’s breath came harder now. The world started to spin. The sirens would be next. Then the questions. Why’d they do it? Why didn’t you stop them? How could you have let this happen?”

“Jesse!” Kyle barked. 

Jesse didn’t look up. He couldn’t see that again. He wouldn’t. His leg was beginning to throb from lack of circulation. 

“Look at me, Booster,” Kyle said, much gentler now. Jesse relaxed a touch at the affectionate nickname. “I’m fine. There’s another ladder.”

Desperately trying not to cry, Jesse managed to lift his head and open his eyes again. 

Kyle poked his head out from inside the opening, his cedar-red hair swinging and his cheeks flushed from being upside down. Next to his head was a flimsy rope ladder hanging maybe six feet down. 

“Climb the rest of the way up, and I’ll swing it over to you.” 

Jesse took a breath, slowly repositioning his free foot on the rung below. He gradually stood up again, pulling his other leg from between the rungs. It still ached terribly, and his hands shook so hard, he’d be surprised if he didn’t end up falling again. 

“After this, I’ll ask my mom if she’ll buy us ice cream,” Kyle said for good measure. 

Jesse managed a short laugh. That would be nice. 

The edges of the world were still a little blurry, but somehow Jesse made it to the top. He wasn’t brave enough to lean out on one arm, instead hooking his elbow around the top rung. Kyle didn’t say anything about it, and swung the rope ladder side to side until Jesse could get a grip on it. 

He didn’t let go of the metal ladder until he’d hooked both arms through the loops, but he still screamed as he swung in mid air above the ground. They were at least a hundred feet up. It took even longer for him to gather the courage to clamber up the rope and let Kyle drag him inside the port. 

The air was warm here. Sweet, even. Jesse could hear running water somewhere, and despite being inside a hollow water tower, it felt as if sunlight filtered down from some invisible tree canopy above them, warming his skin. The ground was wood-paneled with grass and other small plants creeping up between the slats. 

“Oh, hello, boys,” a rich alto voice said. The woman it belonged to stood on an open second level at a table piled with books and papers. 

Kyle pulled Jesse to his feet. “Are you a witch?” he asked without preamble. Jesse tried to find his words, still feeling like he’d fly apart at the seams if anyone spoke too harshly. 

The woman cocked an eyebrow. “Very astute of you Kylan.” Her gaze fixed on Jesse, and his chest seized. 

“Kingsblood, boy, you look jittery as a pixie after a shot of espresso,” she tutted. “Here,” she descended the stairs and held a square of brown stuff out to him. “Don’t worry it’s just chocolate. It’ll help.” 

Jesse took the square and warily placed it on his tongue. It melted instantly, and his muscles relaxed. Kyle scampered around the witch’s heels like an anxious puppy, asking question after question. The woman patiently obliged. 

Maybe this wasn’t such a bad idea after all. 

[latitudesunknown]

Day 22 on Tiny Haven

In her morning announcement, Marie is as cute as ever.

😂💛

I get a phone call from Mélo, who, unlike his father/uncle/whatever, is actually calling to give ME money. I love those two little raccoons. Nothing bad had better ever happen to them.

Talking about that, their shop keeps surprising me.

Still have no shelves, but yes, I’ll take a life size model of the human body, thank you.

Also, really nice touch, Nintendo. I had to sit on my hands not to buy it, and now that I see it again, the regret is intense. 😭

My praying on shooting stars yesterday has paid off. The beaches are littered with glowing rocks, and more wash ashore at the day progresses.

This being said, and I think I forgot to mention it yesterday, wishing on stars quickly started feeling more like a greedy grab at money than an innocent wish-making, just because there were so many stars to wish upon. Next time I’ll pace myself more.

In a bottle, I find a blueprint for a pocket library. 

So close to getting the blueprint to make books, and yet so far. Still, I LOVE pocket libraries, and can’t wait for the day I can place one in the middle of our little village.

(I also cannot wait for the day I can actually trace paths and roads. I have a horrible intuition that the prerequisite to unlock such a skill is to build that stupid camping grounds Tom wants me to build. How long till I cave in? Probably not long at all)

In the main square, I bump into a red dragon called “Djason”, which is just about the worst name anyone has ever received. Poor dude. Djason (seriously, hurts to even write it) is crazy about insects. 

I instantly wish I could introduce him to Thibou. That would not doubt be a discussion for the ages.

He tells me if I bring him 3 specimens of any insect, he will create a piece of art about that insect for me.

!!!

So many insects I love, and suddenly, my mind is blank. I have never seen an insect in my entire life. I am at a loss.

So as always when I’m at a loss, I just start running around. As I’m climbing up the cliff, a dragonfly zooms past my ear. A dragonfly! Of course! That’s my favourite insect, isn’t it?

Unfortunately, in the 2 seconds it takes me to whip my ladder back out and clamber down, the dragonfly has vanished.

I start running around again, and then I spot my true favourite insect and feel like an idiot.

🐝

A bee!

Of course it has to be a bee! Bees are literally my favourite creature on the entire planet. The day I get around to getting a tattoo, it’ll be a bee. Bees are perfect in every way.

Of course, excitement makes me sloppy, and I fail to catch that bee.

And the next bee I find, where I somehow manage to land right on her when vaulting across the river in my frenzy to get to it.

The third bee is in my garden, and I get so frenzied I end up whacking my flower bed with my net, while the little bee buzzes away, throwing me weird looks.

...

Nothing works. I leave the game opened while I work, standing in the middle of flowers. I pretend to gather wood and grass as if I couldn’t care less about bees, as if the bees would actually look at me and go “nah, she’s too eager, let’s stay hidden.”

In the end, I decide to catch what I can actually catch, and am soon walking around with my pockets brimming with crickets, butterflies and praying mantis.

(pretend you can’t see the bees. That’s a spoiler)

But I really want those bees.

There is a happy ending, of course. 

Not only did I finally manage to get a fucking grip long enough to catch 3 bees, but it turns out I was right to wait. Djason (*shudders*) will only accept one commission. If I had turned in those dragonflies, I would have been so gutted!

He says he will send me that painting soon. I can hardly wait.

That’s a little intense, Djason, but no worries, I have no intention of renegading on my order.

Now that this has been done, I can finally go about my regular business on the island, talk to my lovely neighbours, get gifts for no reason, etc.

Also Abraham comes and waters my garden, which is incredibly nice of him.

In the evening, I see something strange in the river, and soon realize it’s a giant bug.

😱😱😱

I have never felt such kinship to Thibou before. Abomination, indeed!

I see my first tarantula in weeks, and now that I know it’s worth a lot of money, I decide to catch it. Of course, like so many before me, I get bitten instead. By the time I wake up, it’s vanished, off to target another innocent victim.

But that’s okay. Today was very good, and I managed to caught my bees!

I go to bed with my head brimming with excitement for tomorrow’s fishing contest. I hope it’ll be as lovely as I’m expecting it to be. 🎣

[soulerflaire]

So I beat the story of Pokemon Shield yesterday, and now I’ve had time to think about everything. Spoilers below the cut. Also super long post.

First I wanna focus on gameplay.

Overall, fantastic Pokemon game. I liked a lot of the new Pokemon, I felt there was a really good variety of Pokemon available throughout, graphics were good, the gym missions were (mostly) clever and (mostly) fun.

I heard people had complaints about the starters, but I like them. I picked Scorbunny and was terrified he’d end up Fire/Fighting, but Cinderace (and all the starters) remained single-type. I think their designs are cool! I love Rillaboom’s drum and Cinderace’s soccer fireball attack. I like Inteleon the least of the three, but I still think his design is neat. It is basically finger guns: the Pokemon, which is funny, but not particularly interesting to me. I’m glad I picked Scorbunny.

I liked the set up of the Gym Challenge, though the pacing was a bit weird. Not sure if that was me or the game, but I felt like there was very little story between each gym. That led to me doing several gyms in rapid succession, then spending 3 hours in the Wild Area doing nothing, then tackling another set of gyms. But the gym challenges were fun! Except the fire one. I hated that. And the battles themselves felt awesome! The crowd cheering (especially in the final part of the music, oh my god that was so good), the huge Pokemon, the dialogue, it all made for a match that felt like it mattered. Even if I one-shot all their Pokemon, the match still felt meaningful. It wasn’t just stomp and move on.

I think the Wild Area was a cool experiment, but either make the whole game like that, or don’t have it. It feels like the Safari Zone; an area disconnected from the rest of the game, with the express purpose of catching Pokemon and nothing else. Except it’s so huge and seems to have every single Pokemon in the game, so long as the weather is right, that I feel like there was no point in catching Pokemon anywhere else. Why bother even touching the tall grass when I’m travelling through the regular world, when I can just catch whatever would be in there in the Wild Area later? And frankly, I never really got punished for that mentality. I can just catch them all in the Wild Area later. The only hurdle is they all turn level 60 after you become champion, which I have very mixed feelings about. I would like to hear their explanation for doing that, tbh.

Max Raid battles feel really cool, but god damn, Nintendo, you have got to get a better connection system. Half the time, I can’t find any raids to join because there are no shout cards popping up and the button to get new cards isn’t there for some reason. Even when I can see the cards, most of the time I fail to join, either because the raid already started or the person cancelled the raid. There’s only a 3-minute window to join, and with the infrequent appearance of cards (with no timestamps) I have no idea if any of the cards I see are even from the past 10 minutes, let alone past 3. And the NPCs are randomly selected and use their moves randomly, so once you get to the 5+ star raids, you cannot use them at all. One of them is a friggin’ Magikarp that uses Hydro Pump for no damage and misses half the time anyway. Why!? That was funny exactly zero times!

The music, however, I have zero complaints about. Fantastic soundtrack! I love the gym battle music, and the Team Yell fight music, and the Wild Area bagpipes, and the legendaries fight music, and just pretty much all of it. If they release the soundtrack, I’m buying it immediately.

Graphics were good. I wasn’t blown away by them, but it’s a pretty game.

One thing I noticed is how rushed things started to feel towards the end. Initially, the world feels enormous. Routes are long and winding, and it really feels like exploring things. But the further into the game you go, the shorter the routes get. And there’s no Victory Road at all. Just an extremely short route called White Hill, with, like, 6 trainers and a couple grass patches. You take a train to the White Hill Station, and if you look at the map, you see you ended up skipping an entire mountain and a stretch of land twice the length of the actual route. Kinda feels like they planned to do something with all that space, but cut it later on. The forest that they did the 24-hour stream of, Glimwood Tangle? It’s tiny. Like a third the size of Viridan Forest. It’s gorgeous, sure, but I spent more time exploring the first town than I did in that place. The final town certainly looks enormous, but then it turns out you can’t access half of it, and a huge chunk in the middle of the part you can access is taken up by the rail station. Which has nothing important inside it. Just a generic mart and some NPCs to talk to. There was honestly a lot of stuff the seemed like it was gonna be something later, and ended up being nothing. If it’s all content that got cut to release the game sooner, that’s extremely disappointing. Frankly, I wonder if they bit off more than they could chew, turning Pokemon into a console game. They clearly were trying to make it worth being on console, but ended up running out of time.

Now for the story. This is probably the first Pokemon game I feel this way about, but honestly: I loved the characters, but found the story to be pretty lackluster.

Hop has a wonderful character arc, where he’s boastful and energetic, but slowly loses confidence as he keeps losing Pokemon battles, and falls into a depression after a particularly hard defeat. He seems to pull out of it after encouragement from friends, but then he spirals into it again when you beat him in the finals. He spends most of the endgame putting himself down and saying he can’t do anything to help, but as you travel together stopping the Dynamaxed Pokemon, he perks up again (thanks in part of Piers being a really good Dad despite having no kids), and all this culminates in him saying he’s realized being champion isn’t really for him; instead, he’s gonna become a Pokemon professor and travel around helping people and Pokemon wherever he can. It’s really sweet, and I like that we see a rival who actually does get upset that they keep losing to you all the time, without turning them into a villain. Hop is never not your friend during all this; he’s just sad and needs so many hugs.

Marnie was a lot more fun of a character than I was expecting. From the official art, I thought she was gonna be the super reserved, stoic character who gets angrier and angrier as she loses to you over and over. But she’s actually outgoing and fun, and loves battling the player even if she loses. And her brother Piers is just as good at subverting expectations. He’s all dressed up as a super punk rocker who’ll be a terrible influence on everyone, but he’s definitely the Tired Adult of the group when you’re travelling around trying to fix things, and he’s a good Dad friend. Team Yell is much less creepy now that I have context. Piers is a gym leader, and Team Yell is the gym staff that he asked to go help cheer Marnie on during her gym challenge. They’re overzealous, but they’re just trying to help her. Some of them even start cheering for you instead, once Piers acknowledges your skill.

Bede can go fuck himself. I know they tried to give him some kind of backstory or whatever, and some vague punishment/redemption with Opal making him the new Fairy Gym leader, but dude’s a dick, through and through.

I could go on and on about the characters, but this post is already getting too long, so I’ll talk about the story itself now. Through most of the game, you get hints that something bad is happening or going to happen, or something is going wrong, but every time one of those hints pops up, the adult say “Let us handle this, you focus on your gym challenge.” And that kind of bothered me at the time, because it’s like if you get the guard station outside Saffron City and start to argue with the guard, then Lance shows up and says “Hey, why not skip down to Vermillion City? I’ll take care of this.” And that’s the end of it. Next time you try to pass through, it’s open and there’s nothing wrong. You know something is going on, but no one will let you near it, so you just keep going on your gym challenge.

Later you find Leon (the champion) in an argument with Chairman Rose (owner of every corporation in the region) about an energy crisis. Rose says we need to start dealing with it now, Leon says it won’t happen for a thousand years, why do we need to bother right now. Then of course the Chairman triggers the Darkest Day right before your championship match with Leon, ranting about the energy crisis and whatnot, then you have to go stop the super powerful legendary Pokemon he released for Real Reasons That Definitely Make Logical Sense And Don’t Need Explained No Sir. At first, I thought this with a super shitty take on the energy crisis, that we’ll run out of fossil fuels and not have renewable energy ready. But if that’s the case, it’s extremely clumsy, because 1) no owner of a corporation gives two shits about anything a thousand years from now and 2) they had the guy warning everyone about the future crisis also be the guy who almost destroys the whole country. I chalked it up to being rushed and tried not to think about it too hard.

But now I’m thinking differently. There’s something Leon says, after the whole Darkest Day thing is averted: he’s gonna start thinking about the future now, and start working on ways to make the future better (or something to that effect). I think maybe the “moral” of the story is that we shouldn’t just let problems be until they come to a head, and we shouldn’t rely on others to take care of the problems. We relied on the adults to handle things in a reasonable manner, and it nearly led to the apocalypse. So maybe that’s the point? Don’t rely on others to take care of things; if you see a problem, try and fix it. And likely specifically talking about climate change and the destruction of the environment. Galarian Corsola is a bleached, dead coral for a reason.

If that’s the case, then A+ for message, D- for execution. But it’s Pokemon, I know they can’t get too serious about things. But it mostly led to a story I didn’t really enjoy, full of characters that I loved. While I would prefer to finally have the remake of Gen 4, I wouldn’t be sad to see a Sword and Shield 2.

[yinxiong]

the sun is always setting somewhere else

Characters: Lee Haechan x Reader (3rd person perspective)

Genre: drabble + fluff, oneshot

Word count: 2428

Summary: all that glitters is not gold, but maybe the boy who walks in sunlight would beg to differ.

Notes: inspired by Lisa Oppenheim’s photograph series I saw at a museum recently (should definitely search it up). also not really sure where this story went, or why it ends so badly, but it used up the last of my fanfic juices, so enjoy :)) (also for my evil hyuck stans @hyu-ck and @thorns-and-bumpy-roads <3)

-

she’s stuck.

stuck in her room, stuck in her house, stuck in the suffocating world of pretty dresses and shoes and glitter and money, money, money.

she’s sick of it.

“if you’re so sick of it, why don’t you just leave?”

she glares at the boy lounging on her king-sized bed, sinking into the plush velvet pillows as he taps away on his nintendo.

“easy for you to say. you’re just working here for the summer. you don’t have to live in this ugly world of gold forever.”

“yeah, but you can at least leave the house. no one is stopping you from going down to the carpark and taking one of those oh, i don’t know, shiny porsches and making a run down the hill. i’d say you’d get halfway to the main gate before they even notice your room is empty.” he snaps the gum in his mouth and blows a bubble, eyes fixed on the screen and not even sparing her a single glance. (not that she cared, or anything. she doesn’t care for much these days.)

“might i remind you that the reason i’m grounded right now is because i tried to do that last week with my father’s motorbike?”

he simply shrugs and pops another bubble, “you just chose the wrong vehicle. those things don’t cover like my shiny four-wheelers. plus, why would you take one of his personal bikes? he doesn’t even let me touch them, let alone you.”

“maybe i just wanted some attention,“ she grumbles, throwing a poorly-aimed pillow at his head (it misses). “no one remembers i exist unless i do something bad.”

he suddenly jumps up and rolls off the bed, shaking out his caramel hair streaked with blue and pink so it’s falling daintily over his forehead (she wonders if it feels as soft as it looks).

“wanna get something to eat? i’m starving.”

“from the kitchens? i’m so sick of eating gourmet food,” she sighs for the nth time that day, flopping down on the too-comfortable mattress in defeat.

“who said anything about gourmet food? i’m in the mood for some ramen.”

it takes her a moment to register his words.

“you mean you’re going out?” sitting up, she furrows her brow in confusion. “you don’t have a car.”

he smirks and waggles a finger dramatically, “yeah but i can always borrow one.”

she stares at him blankly, “they moved the keys so we wouldn’t be able to get into them.”

her ears are met with a soft groan, though instead of frustration she catches a hint of amusement in his tone, “you’re literally so dumb. makes sense you’re always stuck in here.”

“shut up, hyuck.”

“just kidding, angel.”

with a chuckle, he pulls a bright red key from thin air, dangling it in front of her face triumphantly, “you forget that i literally live in the carpark. i’m the one who moved the keys, so guess who has a ride out of this place?”

she scoffs, unable to hide her grin, “idiot. where are we going?”

reaching out, she makes a grab for the ticket to freedom, but before she can even brush her fingers against the plastic, he’s jerking his arm back with a teasing smile, “who said you were coming with me? i’m pretty sure you’re grounded-”

“hyuck!”

it’s been approximately forty-seven minutes since she’s left the mansion riding shotgun in the cherry red mercedes-benz convertible donghyuck snagged (so much for stealth), and so far there’s been no sight of any security car or helicopter out to hunt them down. maybe they could pull off this escapade after all.

“if you fall out because you leaned too far, i’m not responsible,” he shouts against the roar of the wind, and she can’t help but roll her eyes at his disguised worry.

“it’s better than having to go back to that hellhole.”

“normally i’d argue, but you’re being exceptionally annoying about it today so sure.”

“be quiet and just keep driving, please.”

“what does it look like i’m doing?”

she turns around to shoot him a glare, “i’m pretty sure i said to ‘be quiet’ too, though it sounds like you’re doing the exact opposite.”

he raises an eyebrow above the ridiculous gold-rimmed sunglasses perched on his nose – a complimentary gift scavenged from the glove box – and gives her (or what she assumes to be) a pointed look.

“who said i had to listen to you? my car, my rules.”

“my family owns this car, hyuck.”

“well i’m driving, angel, so better deal with it. unless you want to go to that business party at seven o’clock tonight, and i’m pretty sure that’s at the very bottom of your to-do list right now.”

sighing in defeat, she crosses her arms and falls back into the seat, watching the pristine emerald lawns of rich properties bloom into landscapes of rugged mountains and stubborn trees, grass now running rampant in their true realm. it makes her feel a little better, to know that no matter how hard they try, humans could never conquer the wild spirit of nature.

closing her eyes, she unties her hair and lets the wind take it up in its greedy hands, combing through with an untamed freedom she doesn’t remember experiencing in a very long time.

perhaps there’s still a little hope left for her.

the closest city is not much of a city at all, just an assortment of sun beat shops and motels surrounded by tiny houses dotted along a single road, but it’s filled with people who don’t eat and sleep in money, who don’t give a shit about whether their champagne tastes french enough or not (they don’t even drink champagne here).

for the first time in ages, she’s able to breathe.

“convenience store ramen has never tasted so good,” she sighs, happily slurping down the sodium-packed bane of her mother’s existence. “i missed being unhealthy.”

“if we were closer to seoul, i’d take you to the little ramen shop my brother works at.” donghyuck drums his fingers on the tiny wooden table they’re crowded up against, watching her attack the bowl he abandoned. “they make the best noodles in the entire country.”

“even better than the ones chef lee makes?”

“a hundred times better.”

“you better swear on it.”

he places a hand on her head and ruffles her hair playfully, “of course, angel. anything for you.”

his voice is void of mirth, replaced with something new, something bordering a fondness that makes her pause mid-bite.

she’s never noticed that before.

“what’s your favorite thing to do in the summer? besides stealing cars and hiding in my room because mrs. park will have your head if she catches you skipping jobs?”

tilting his head, he props an arm beneath his chin so she can catch the familiar twinkle in his eye. “why the sudden question? i thought we were on strict ‘no invading personal space’ terms.”

“shut up, you broke that the moment you started hanging out in my room.” huffing, she turns away so he wouldn’t see the sudden flush in her cheeks. “i just… never asked you about your life outside of mine. you’ve been here for two months but i don’t think i know much besides what music you like and which video games you play instead of studying.”

he blinks, pink lips parting slightly in surprise before he snaps out of his daze and gently prods her in the shoulder, “well, angel, it’s never too late to find out.”

the sun is skating across the surface of the water when donghyuck pulls up to the beach. jumping out the moment he stops the car, she begins running toward the water, not even stopping to check if he was behind her.

she gets about halfway there before stumbling to a stop in the sand.

“wow, thanks for waiting, angel. i didn’t know you were this excited to see my favorite place in the area,” he pants when he finally catches up. glancing at her face, he furrows his brow when recognizing her lost expression. “what’s wrong?”

she glances down at her trembling hands, then back up to see his concerned eyes. brown and warm and laced with an emotion she doesn’t know.

“i’ve never gotten this far before, hyuck.”

there’s a soft touch on her fingers, and he’s squeezing the anxiety from her nerves.

“hey, it’s going to be okay. i’m here with you,” he smiles, so sweet and genuine and she wonders why there are two suns in the sky. “don’t you want to see the sunset?”

somehow she manages to nod, and the next thing she knows they’re standing at the place where the sea kisses dry land.

“whenever i miss my family, i convince doyoung to lend me a car and drive out here. it’s only been a few times though.”

“did you come here a lot with them?”

he laughs, a melodious sound that turns her insides to melted chocolate. “nah, only once with my brother when he got me the job. we were just passing by, actually, but the sky was covered in purple and he just had to stop the car and take a picture.”

“oh. why is it so special to you then?”

he pauses, watching the lazy waves crawl ashore in scattered petals of white foam.

“before we left, he told me… he told me that no matter how far apart we were, the sun will always be setting somewhere. like it doesn’t matter where, but as long as i remember we still see the same sun every day, it’ll set and we’ll be a day closer to seeing each other again. kind of silly, i know.”

she takes a breath, inhaling the salty sweet air and letting the foreign scent wash through her mind.

“i don’t think it’s silly.”

his hand falls from hers as he flashes her a look of surprise. “really?”

“yes, really.” shrugging, she steps closer to the water, sticking out a foot as if daring the sea to lash out and pull her in. “if anything, i think that’s beautiful.”

from behind, she hears a light scoff, and she feels the corners of her lips lift up.

“you’re not really so bad, you know.”

“wow, i’m touched. what makes you think that?”

“most rich kids are really dumb and pretentious after growing up in money, but you’re nothing like them. you have real dreams and never looked down on someone poor like me.”

she almost loses her balance when she whips around to find him staring at the sand, hands shoved in his pockets and looking so, so small.

it makes her heart twinge.

“poor? you, poor?” a loud laugh of disbelief tumbles from her mouth. “how could someone who spends his entire summer working at a hellhole just to help support his family, someone who listened to the broken girl when no one else would, someone who saw me as something more than a spoiled brat and actually became my first friend, ever be poor?”

“angel, i’m working for you because i have no money. i’m literally poor.”

she shakes her head and grasps at his sweater sleeves, trying to find the ends of his heartstrings sewn into the seams.

“donghyuck, you have a heart of gold. you’re the richest person i’ve ever met.”

finally catching his fingers again, she looks up at his glowing honey face, the amber flecks of sun dancing in his eyes sending her into a mesmerized daze that steals her breath away.

their shoes are wet and the water is freezing, but she feels warm, oh so warm, when his firm arms wrap around her numb body and squeezes the lifelessness from her veins.

he smells like cinnamon and peaches and late summer bonfires, and she never wants to let go.

“you deserve so much more than what they see.”

the summer ends as fast as it came.

“angel, you have my number. just because you’re going across the ocean for a few months doesn’t mean you can’t contact me.”

she angrily bites down on her lip, blinking back the tears prickling at the corner of her eyes in frustration.

“i’m going to miss you.”

he chuckles and runs a hand through his faded hair, and she almost hits him for looking so pretty when she’s about to cry.

“well me too, angel, but it’s not like you’ll never see me again. i still have to take you out for ramen, remember?”

“can’t i just not get on the plane?”

“i don’t think how it works, angel.”

“don’t call me that, it’s just going to make me miss you more.”

with an angry huff, she shoves the stuffed bear he won her at a carnival into his arms, stomping away as childlike as she dares.

“christ, why are you so cute even when throwing a fit?” he mumbles, picking up her abandoned belongings and chasing after the spirited girl. “hey angel, wait. i have a gift for you.”

she counts to five seconds before slowing to a stop, listening to his rushed footsteps and the jingle of keychains bouncing on her bags until he stumbles into view. from his sweater, he pulls out a polaroid camera, finally revealing the reason behind the bulge in his pocket she’d been so suspiciously staring at since leaving the car.

“remember what i told you that evening at the beach? well, i thought that since it worked for me, it might work for you too.” clearing his throat, he holds it out as a peace offering, a smile ghosting his heart-shaped lips when she hesitantly accepts the present. “for each time you miss me to the point of going insane – which i really hope you don’t, that would be really hard to explain to your parents – i want you to go and take a picture of the sunset. doesn’t matter where or how pretty, just a sunset. that way, you’ll remember that we’re still connected, and we’re one day closer to seeing each other again. how does that sound?”

one pause turns to two, three. yet still he stands there, patient and waiting with his heart on his sleeve.

“hyuck?”

“yeah?”

“can i kiss you?”

“well if you’re really that desperate, angel, i guess-”

there’s nothing more satisfying than the feeling of being able to shut donghyuck up, and with his soft sighs and sweet lips and gentle hands tangling in her hair, she knows this is something she could definitely get used to.

-

fin.

[satoshi-mochida]

The Pokemon Company and Nintendo have released a new video, information, and a trailer for Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee! introducing secret techniques, partner-exclusive moves, partner interaction, Celadon City, and special Switch bundle.

Get the details below.

Secret Techniques

On any journey, you’re sure to run into obstacles. Maybe your path will be blocked, or maybe you’ll have to cross the sea to get where you need to go.

Thankfully, your partner can learn handy Secret Techniques to help you!

Exclusive Moves

Your partner can learn some exclusive moves that no other Pokemon can learn. Because it’s going to be by your side throughout your journey, your partner needs some reliable moves to make sure you’re ready to face any challenge!

As you shower your partner with love, it’ll sometimes send you a sign during battle. Wave your detached Joy-Con when the partner sign appears to have your partner use its special partner power.

Your partner may even send you a sign when it’s not the one battling. If you respond, it’ll cheer on the Pokemon in battle by boosting its stats!

—Pikachu

When you see the partner sign in battle, your partner Pikachu will be able to use Pika Papow. The power of this move will increase based on how good of friends you and your Pikachu are.

Pikachu can also learn the Water-type move Splishy Splash. This move has a chance to paralyze opponents!

—Eevee

When you see the partner sign in battle, your partner Eevee will be able to use Veevee Volley. The power of this move will increase based on how good of friends you and your Eevee are.

Your Eevee also has a Water-type move it can learn—Bouncy Bubble. This move will heal Eevee for half the damage it deals to the opponent.

The Electric-type move Buzzy Buzz will leave the opponent paralyzed after the move hits.

Make good use of the Fire-type move Sizzly Slide. This move will always leave the opponent with the burned status condition!

Play with Your Partner

In between exploring and battling, it’s a good idea to relax with your Pokemon buddies. Enjoy a little playtime with Pikachu or Eevee in order to strengthen your bond with it. It will sit on your arm, allowing you to pet, feed, and even tickle it. Good things might happen as the two of you become closer.

You can play with your partner Pikachu or Eevee when you’re not in battle by selecting the Pikachu or Eevee icon on your main menu. The more time you spend with your partner, the more it’ll grow to love you! As you become closer, it’ll give you high fives or even find gifts for you as you travel. Lots of good things can happen if you’re friends with your partner!

Interact with your partner Pokemon by controlling the cursor with a detached Joy-Con. You can pet and play with your partner, and it may even grow closer to you as you become friendlier with it. In handheld mode, you’ll be able to play with your partner directly by using the touch screen.

Dress Up Your Partner Pokemon

You can feel closer to your partner Pokemon by dressing alike! Yes, you can dress up your partner Pokemon in various outfits, give it accessories, and change its hairstyle. Coordinate your wardrobes by matching their outfit to yours, or mix and match different items to give your partner its own style.

While playing with your partner, you can give it a quick makeover by ruffling its hair using the touch screen. Its hairstyle will change depending on your actions. Try out different things until you get a hairstyle you like. Find a good outfit to go with your favorite hairstyle to make your partner truly your own!

Celadon City

There’s a lot to see and do in Celadon City! This large city, known as the “City of Rainbow Dreams,” has loads of places to explore, including an arcade and a department store. Just watch out—Team Rocket seems to have a presence here. What could they be up to?

Erika, sometimes called the Nature-Loving Princess, is the Gym Leader of the Celadon City Gym. She specializes in Grass-type Pokemon, so make sure your team is ready to counter her Pokemon’s attacks.

Special Nintendo Switch Bundle

A special bundle that includes a Nintendo Switch system will be released on Friday, November 16, 2018, complete with Pikachu- and Eevee-themed Joy-Con controllers, a digital copy of Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! or Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee!, and a Poké Ball Plus!

The front of the Nintendo Switch dock features Pikachu and Eevee gazing at you in a most adorable fashion.

As for the system itself, it includes Pikachu- and Eevee-themed Joy-Con controllers.

The back side of the console has Pikachu and Eevee silhouettes drawn on it!

Pre-order the special Nintendo Switch bundle.

Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee! are due out for Switch on November 16. View the screenshots at the gallery.

Watch the trailers below.

“Personalize Your Adventure” Trailer

Nintendo Switch Pikachu & Eevee Edition Trailer

Japanese Trailer