#like one time i was watching something cute and non messed up and it auto played some fucked up murder thing

[ssaalexblake]

Show: this is one of Britain's most notorious crimes!

Me, who lives where it happened and has never even heard of it: ... Sure jan

[demonfox38]

Completed - Baba is You

I can't believe this is the first game I've perfected on Steam.

Like, I don't like achievement systems in video games, okay? I prefer to set my own goals. Sure, there are some achievements that are interesting, like learning to use a certain mechanic in a cool or efficient manner, visiting hidden rooms, or even running around with nothing but my character's default busted sword just to prove a point. Mostly, I just want to finish them. I don't go jumping through flaming hoops because I want people to think I'm cool. I'm from Iowa. I'm critically uncool by design.

If a game is good, I will put in the extra work. Like, getting 100% souls in "Castlevania: Aria of Souls" and 200.6% map completion in "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" is now just routine for me. With "Baba is You"? Well, circumstances are just a teeny bit different.

"Baba is You" is a puzzle game from independent developer Arvi Teikari. Your primary goal in the game is to create statements out of nouns, verbs, and conditions and use those generated rules to complete levels. It's basically catnip to programmers. These puzzles are packaged in cute, scribbly animations and gentle music. Ultimately, its soft presentation is the figurative sheep's clothing under which the wolf of this game lives, dragging its players through increasingly more complex situations, sitting there, laughing, its whole world wiggling in its adolescent mockery of you and your sluggish brain.

You're not always even Baba. I know. The absolute betrayal.

I originally saw this game being streamed back in 2019. A frustrating feeling overtook me as I watched the player work through the puzzles. I could feel myself solving them before she could, and it was making me itch. I didn't want to have any more spoiled without giving it a shot myself, so I purchased the game, put in a few hours, and then dropped it for two years. Hell, the major reason I came back to it was that I was babysitting my mom's very needy poodle, and I was more or less trapped on the couch with her during her entire stay. Had to do something. So, I decided this was it.

"Baba is You" really is the ultimate "Yeah, I'll get back to this" game. You know what I mean? There's always a handful of games that you make a little headway into, and then you think, "Yeah, I'll get back to this" and then drop it. I try not to be this way. Video games are expensive, and I want to get as much value as I can out of them. But man, does this game get overwhelming.

I mean, the TAS for a 100% run is currently around an hour and forty-five minutes. That's for 226 puzzles. That is a lot.

Granted, you don't have to finish every puzzle if you don't want to. The game can let you slide free with your first ending after completing only three subworlds on the main map. You know how many people get to that first ending? Like, we're talking maybe getting through 3 hours of gameplay or so. As of this posting, it's around 7.8% of all players on Steam. In comparison, here are first time ending numbers from other games I own on Steam:

"Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon" – 38% (Cleave the Moon)

"Trine" – 29.6% (Completed!)

"Dust: An Elysian Tale" – 23.9% (…And the Dust Settles)

"Fez" – 14.7% (Kill Screen)

"Psychonauts" – 13.2% (I Thought That Was Unbeatable!)

"Typing of the Dead" – 12.9% (Experimental Fiction)

"Final Fantasy VII" – 9.4% (End of Game)

That's right. From a percentage point of view, more players will put 80 hours into a 20+ year old RPG than 3 hours in this game. So, what's up with that?

At first, I wasn't struggling terribly with the game. I was making a pretty steady clip through it, stopping occasionally to check out the game's wiki. (BTW—view that on a laptop browser, not a mobile one. The background makes it hard to read some of the verbs and conditions.) My first tap-out in 2019 happened around the "Forest of Fall" block, when the game started introducing teleporting puzzles. My second brain-snap happened about 18 hours in the game when I accidentally created the phrase "Level is Key" in the puzzle "Fragile Existence," and then I realized that I could both create this level as Baba and had to create another level as a flag to win the overworld map.

And then there was a submap.

And another.

And another.

Holy crap, my brain was not ready for the mess that was Depths and Meta.

At one point, I stopped myself and reviewed why I was overcome with despair at my own stupidity. A part of it is yes, the game looks very cute, and the language used in the puzzles is very simple. So, when you don't get it, it's like saying you don't get "Sesame Street." And hey, maybe you wouldn't if it was in Mandarin and you only speak English. But, I did want to beat myself up for my sluggish responses and my growing feeling of helplessness. Why couldn't I beat the simple sheep game for babies? Was I really that stupid?

I think it helped to know what troubles I had my playthrough harder. This included:

Using text to push objects past barriers. (Yes, text exists in the world, and unless it's floating, you can use that text to move objects around. It's like hitting a car with a stop sign.)

Assuming attributes on an object that weren't actually assigned (i.e., assuming a door was locked or a wall would prevent me from moving through it, even if that wasn't the case.)

Manipulating text to double-layer nouns or break up commands by wedging an inactive/non-solid object in them. (See: Prison.)

Realizing that "you" doesn't always have to go to a certain destination. Sometimes, "you" just need to have something move over there or push something into where you want to go.

Remembering to use the "Wait" button to let moving objects finish their paths.

"Defeat" is a condition that applies only to "you", not objects in your possession. (They may instead be destroyed by "Sink").

Some rules need to be created and destroyed in the same turn.

Things that move on their own can be used to carry commands through obstacles.

Sometimes, you've just got to count your steps when you're taking an action and see if you can reduce them.

And granted, despite my stupidity, there were some puzzles that really clicked! I particularly enjoyed using the "Word" condition, as it allowed for me to treat both words and objects as a noun to make assignments. There were also times where I had to spell out the commands I wanted from letters left on the map. Fun! Natural! And hell, who doesn't enjoy a good block pushing puzzle, now and again? Super easy. Makes sense. Key is push, door is open. Of course!

Ass is Hot! Of course! (Wait, that wasn’t the solution...)

I tended to lock up more when the "Defeat" piece was on screen. I mean, you can always undo your mistakes, and there's no life limit or anything like that. But, hearing your player character go splat when you mess up is flinch-worthy. Additionally, I hated having to build complex paths for objects to follow. Like, screw the entirety of Adventurers. Also, learning what the "Lonely" condition meant felt very unnatural. It was hard to even tell why I was splatting until I read up on what it meant.

Interestingly, changing the language of the game only affects the menu's language, not the game itself. (I was wondering if adding a layer of comprehension to objects would stop me from auto-assigning properties to them or not. Makes sense that it's all in English, considering the "form objects from letters" puzzles.)

I felt bad when I finally gave up on putting effort into solving the puzzles on my own. I did. But, I was also 18 hours deep into my file in a single week, and I wanted to get back to my other hobbies. I felt that if I gave up on "Baba is You" again, I wouldn't finish it ever. And then, those 18 hours truly would be wasted. Also, I felt sick that only 7.8% of people had gotten to the first ending screen. The game isn't bad! It's hard, but not bad! I wanted to at least give it enough dignity to finish it off, even if I was more or less reading what I needed to build with one eyeball and building it with the other.

And hell. Given all of the version differences of this game and the amount of time that has passed since its release, it is a teeny bit YouTube proof. Not completely invulnerable, but I did catch a difference or two here and there. And it's not like the wiki's the clearest with what you need to do, even when they're telling you exactly what to do. You've got to mind your space with your words. At the very least, don't push anything aside or wreck it until you absolutely must.

I can't emphasize how much I felt bad about giving up. I mean, it's one thing to look at guides for other game types. You can get knowledge on how to beat a boss or level, but you've physically got to develop the skills needed to vault through that goal. With puzzle games, knowledge is 99% of what you need to accomplish your task. The rest is just putting in the solution as elegantly as possible.

92.2% of players didn't bother to do even that.

I won't pretend to say I know enough about puzzles to make an excellent puzzle game. However, I do think brevity would have helped this game. Like, think of puzzle games people like. "Tetris," right? Even a long game of "Tetris 64" lasts me a couple of hours at most. "Portal"? That's a handful of hours supported by plot and fun dialogue. So is the sequel. "Panel de Pon" / "Tetris Attack" / "Puyo Puyo"? Those are like "Street Fighter" arcade campaigns. Like, 15-20 minutes. To have a puzzle game go on for hours and hours without any character motivation or plot in sight? Yeah. That's going to burn a lot of people out.

Like, this game could have just the over world, a single hidden world, and then the Center portion, and that would have been more than enough. And then you know what could have been done with the rest of the puzzles? Put them in a new game! "Baba is More!" Bam! A second game, now with extra "Inception"-styled mind screws! Twice the money earned! (Yeah, okay. This plan might stink of capitalism.)

Making 226 puzzles is impressive. However, brevity is the soul of wit. Sometimes, design can be contradictory like that.

But, its achievements? Perfectly laid out. Truly finishing the game is likely to net you everything. I only had to put in a couple of hours after the true ending, and really, only fifteen minutes of that was solving the puzzles. The rest was just finding what I had missed. (I've heard rumors that "Baba is Baba" is bugged, but I think you just need to look up how to get the Level is Win solution in Meta figured out. The rest is elbow grease.)

I don't know if I can recommend this game. Again, having a case of the bad feels over that statement, especially since it seems like the developer has his heart in the right place. I'm hesitant to recommend this because when I was playing it, I had a migraine that lasted three days straight. Granted, there were possibly some external factors to why I had that. A fat polar vortex. Stress from work. Some hormonal influences. Not enough caffeine or water. Just generally living in the United States in the early 2020s. Plenty of things to crush my skull. I don't think it's in good taste to recommend something that will cause others physical pain. I mean, I'm used to games cracking my hands, but that's not exactly healthy behavior. I certainly wouldn't want to give someone an epileptic attack. Why would I want to drive a nail through their skulls, either?

I do think the game is solidly designed. It's a smart little cookie. But, it is unintentionally discouraging to get through, especially if you feel like you can't ask for help. Like getting a clue or an explanation is cheating.

Look. Try. Try hard. Be as honest and earnest as you can be. Just don't expect to do everything in your life alone, okay? I mean, there are times you've got to get an external perspective. I frequently had to crash after school with mathematics teachers and badger professors to explain topics outside of class. You think I was going to come up with how there are different kinds of infinities on my own? Hell no. I'm not creative in terms of mathematical proofs. But, I sure as hell can explain how different infinities work now! Even post-schooling, I still research topics, particularly when building or fixing things. I wouldn't have learned half of the things I've learned about maintaining game cartridges or building dollhouses without suggestions from professionals and enthusiasts. It's just part of life. You ask for help so you don't burn resources—especially something as valuable as time!

[jalapeno-princess]

All I Need is You

(Guys I miss Mark so fucking much *Cue Tori Vega I think we all miss Mark)

Songwriter Mark X Reader

Genre: Extremely fluffy angst (is that even a thing?)

Word Count: 5.8K

Summary: For all your life, your parents raised you to be the perfect daughter of every parent’s dreams. You did every single thing your parents forced you to do and never did you complain about anything they’d make you do, no matter how badly you wanted to. That all changed the day your path collides with Mark Tuan. After being stripped of your childhood completely in order to be respective and follow your parent’s desires, Mark shows you how beautiful life can be when you do the things you want to. Mark is the breath of fresh air from a life you feel so suffocated in. For the duration of your relationship, you did your best in hiding him from your parents in fear of them disapproving of the older boy. However, once you graduate from college, you decide you are old enough to make your own decisions and you build the courage to introduce your boyfriend to your family. The night starts off without a hitch; everyone seems to really like him up until your mom asks him what he does for a living. That’s when things take a turn for the worst and your mom gives you an ultimatum; to chose between the love of your life and your family.

A/N: Hey guys, so I’ve been wanting to write an imagine based on the song Paris by the chainsmokers for the longest time and here it is. Only when I reached the middle of writing the story did I realize this is the complete opposite of my other story “Second Chances” LOL. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this story (most of it is written in past tense so I hope you don’t get confused).

We were staying in Paris To get away from your parents And I thought, "Wow If I could take this in a shot right now I don't think that we could work this out" Out on the terrace I don't know if it's fair but I thought "How Could I let you fall by yourself While I'm wasted with someone else

"If we go down then we go down together They'll say you could do anything They'll say that I was clever If we go down then we go down together We'll get away with everything Let's show them we are better Let's show them we are better Let's show them we are better

“Hey, everything okay?”

It was currently 2:45 a.m. and normally, you’d be fast asleep right now but you couldn’t help feeling as if the bed grew more spacious and colder than it was when you first went to sleep. Mark was your own personal furnace; the two of you fell asleep pretty early after a long day of sightseeing and an even longer night of love making.

After multiple rounds of his all but gentle kisses on your neck, jaw and chest as he rammed himself in and out of your velvety walls, you both were too tired to get up and clean yourselves off. He immediately pulled you in to his chest and wrapped his arms tightly around your waist while placing his face in the crook of your neck and whispering sweet nothings until his dreams finally took a hold of him. It’s been like this for the last three weeks since you and Mark ran away to Paris in the hopes of hiding from your extremely overprotective and non-understanding parents.

You’d go sight seeing, visit a couple of museums, cute little coffee shops and sometimes you’d even go to a farmer’s market and you’d buy food to make for recipes you and Mark learned while watching whatever they had on television. Almost every single night ended up in sex; on a few occasions, there were drunken stupors where one of you or sometimes even both of you would have a little too much to drink and you’d have wild, kinky sex.

Then there were the days where you’d argue over minuscule and unnecessary things and usually Mark would be the first to give up and apologizing with his head between your thighs. Most of your love making sessions were soft, passionate and very romantic.

To strangers or people who weren’t familiar with him, Mark gave off an intimidating and sometimes standoffish kind of vibe. It was only because he was actually very shy and soft spoken and those who actually knew him were aware of how talkative and outgoing he could be around those he was comfortable with.

Unfortunately, your parents were the kind of people you’d always sought praise from and you’d do whatever you could to make them proud. Ever since you were a little girl, you went along with every command they would give you, you never complained about the clubs they’d put you in or the clothes they had you wear. It wasn’t as if you were the only child, you had three other siblings but since you were the youngest, your parents were a little more strict with you even if you never gave them a reason to question or mistrust you.

It wasn’t until Mark came in to your life that your relationship with your parents took a completely different turn. You’ve known Mark since middle school and although you hardly ever talked to him, you did admire him from afar and you could only wish to build up the courage so that maybe one day, you’d be able to at least say hello.

He was always such a social butterfly and made friends with anybody he’d interact with. All the girls in your grade had a crush on him, but you couldn’t blame them. Not only was he a sight for sore eyes, he was such a free spirit; he had decent grades and not once did the teachers have any problems with him like they did with his friends. But he was never one to genuinely care about his education, and unfortunately that was his downfall.

When you finally entered high school, it’s as if the world felt like it was time for you and Mark to come together and for your two worlds to become one. In your first semester, he was in almost every single one of your classes. You didn’t think you were the smartest person in your grade, but you did pretty well in all the subjects. All those years of long, grueling days of summer school actually paid off. Sometimes, you hated being the youngest.

Your parents expected so much out of you but they never seemed to care about anything that your two older brothers and your older sister did. They all got to join groups, clubs and sports that they genuinely liked whereas you were coerced in to learning how to play the violin and the cello. You were thankful that school was considerably easy for you seeing as how your parents made education your first priority.

While your brothers would play video games and your sister would talk on the phone with her friends, you’d be practicing math problems and read books about the civil war. You didn’t think you got to experience a legitimate childhood you’d witness all your classmates and friends had. For that reason alone, you always felt different from everybody else and it was the reason why you were so hesitant on continuing friendships with the few friends you did have from middle school.

You could never relate to anything they’d talk about; all their favorite movies they’d watch, the latest installment of Grand theft auto that they’d play, going to each other’s houses—you weren’t even allowed to cross the street by yourself let alone go out with your friends. Entering high school by yourself had to be one of the most scariest things you had to go through and because your siblings were at least five years older than you, none of them would be there at least if you needed someone to confide in or run to.

From all the stories you’d hear from each of them, their high school experiences were ones for the books. Both of your brothers joined each and every sport you could think of and your sister was the co-captain of the cheerleading team. She also had a few boyfriends in high school and you felt as if a lot of the mistakes she made were the reasons why your parents took complete control of your life.

It didn’t take long for Mark to acknowledge your existence; in fact, what you didn’t know was that back in middle school, he noticed you even if you didn’t realize it yourself. While all the girls would ogle over him and try to get his attention, he would find himself admiring you from afar.

Mark always thought you were so cute; you were always hesitant to answer the questions your teacher would ask you even if everyone was aware you knew the answer, whenever someone asked you for help you were always so quick to attend to them no matter what they were asking of you and he could never get the way you would blush when you were flustered out of his head.

He had no problem talking with other girls, but he’d become a mess at even just the thought of having to talk to you. Mark was quick to pick up on how you had most of your classes together, and he was going to use this to his advantage. Only a month in to school, both his algebra teacher and his language arts teacher pulled him to the side to tell him that he wasn’t doing too good in their classes. It wasn’t that Mark was purposefully failing his classes in order to get you to tutor him, he never was all that amazing in school to begin with.

High school wasn’t even half as easy as middle school was. Getting anything lower than a C wasn’t going to cut it and now that he had two Ds, he planned on asking you for some help. When Mark did approach you and asked you to help him catch up with a couple of missing assignments and to help teach him some algebra formulas, you had a hard time believing he was even talking to you. In the beginning of your tutoring sessions, he was always quite the gentleman.

He’d give you his full attention, always waited till you were done talking before he’d ask you a question, he’d tell you silly jokes so that it wasn’t always about studying and learning and sometimes he would drop you home after your meetings. It didn’t take long for your tutoring sessions to turn in to something more and only three months after getting to know each other, he asked you to be his girlfriend.

Dating Mark was a dream you never think would become a reality. He was extremely kind hearted and took care of you in ways you didn’t think you’d be able to experience. You were shocked when he confessed that he’s liked you for all these years, and you were quick to admit the same to him. Knowing how your parents could be, you decided to keep your relationship with Mark a secret and he was very understanding about the entire thing.

The two of you would sneak around during and after school for the entirety of your high school years and your love for one another only grew stronger as the time went by. You fell in love with him in tiny little coffee shops, in the back of the library where you’d be making out together when you were supposed to be studying. You’d lie to your parents and say you were preparing for tests and picking up on extra credit when really you’d be lying in the back of Mark’s truck, cuddling in his arms while looking up at the stars.

Mark did a great job at helping you take your mind off of how perfect you were supposed to be. He was the breath of fresh air that you’ve always craved and now that you had him, you didn’t think you would be able to let him go. Ever. He made you feel like a little kid again; you actually got to experience all sorts of things you’ve wanted to do as a child through your relationship. It didn’t take you long to fall in love with him.

Being in love was an indescribable feeling. Every time something good happened to you, he was the first person you wanted to tell and whenever something bad happened, he was the shoulder you wanted to cry on. He always knew the right thing to say; but if there ever was a time he didn’t know how to respond to something, he would just hold you comfortingly while whispering sweet, encouraging words in your ear.

People claimed that perfect people didn’t exist and if that’s the case, then Mark came pretty close. You felt as if he was sent in your life to be your safe haven; your sanity. The burst of color in your world of black and white. He had a habit of telling you he loved you every single day and even if he weren’t to do so, his actions spoke for him. You don’t know how you did it, but you actually did a great job in hiding Mark from your parents for the last few years.

There were times where you did come pretty close to getting caught; whether it was because of how loud you didn’t think you were while talking on the phone with him, or when you’d come back home with swollen lips and tousled hair. It didn’t matter to you though. A part of you was ready for whatever response you’d receive from your parents. Honestly, Mark was the kind of guy you’d bring home to your parents; so you weren’t afraid of the idea of introducing him to your family.

The only thing you were really worried about was what they would say when they were to find out you were hiding a boyfriend from them for over six years. After graduating from high school, both you and Mark went straight in to college. You went in to study criminal law and he had high hopes of becoming an engineer. Three months in to college, Mark decided it wasn’t for him and as his girlfriend, although you were upset at the idea, you supported and trusted his choices.

College wasn’t for everybody. With that being said, it was then that you found out he wanted to become a songwriter. In the few years that you’ve known him for, not once did he ever talk about wanting to write songs. You didn’t think he was passionate about music in general let alone wanting to write music for artists but when he showed you a few of the songs he had wrote, with most of them being about you, you knew he was extremely talented.

Mark always had a way with words and now that you saw them written down on paper, you knew you’d continue to support his dreams and his future endeavors and that you would do anything to help him if he needed it. Before you knew it, four years came and gone and you graduated from college with your bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. It didn’t take too long for law firms to reach out to you with internships and to see if you were interested to work for their companies. Mark was also very successful  with his career.

He started off small; he wrote a few things here and there for some up and coming artists but it wasn’t anything too major. No matter how patient he was, there were times he did grow discouraged and felt like giving up but you never allowed him to. You saw how passionate he was about writing. You’d watch him stay up trying to write down any ideas that would pop through his head.

The road to success wasn’t easy, but when he got an offer from a record company to write songs for a popular artist you both listened to, he was extremely over the moon and made sure to let you know your love, your patient, your support and your determination to help him succeed was what kept him going.

The day came where you felt like you were ready to tell your parents about the man you were head over heels in love with and the reaction you got wasn’t one you were expecting. When you brought him over for dinner, both your mother and your sister raved over how good looking he was and your brothers tried their best to come off as the older, overprotective brothers boyfriends wouldn’t want to mess with. But when they heard Mark played fortnite, they were sold.

Even your father took a liking to him once Mark told him his favorite football team were the Patriots. Everything seemed to be going perfectly and you were so upset with yourself for keeping him a secret for so long. It wasn’t until your mother asked him what he did for a living that things only went downhill from there. I’m a songwriter. You could still remember the grave look on your mom’s face and with the way she motioned for you to follow her and your father in to the living room while excusing the three of you from the table, you knew it wasn’t going to be good.

You were angry that she didn’t wait for dinner to be finished or even for Mark to go home before ridiculing him on his career. It was obvious that she wasn’t too happy to hear he was a musician but it didn’t matter what she thought. Hell, you didn’t care about what anyone in your family thought about him. You loved Mark, with every beat of your heart and there was nothing your parents could say or do to change your mind about him.

“You are to break up with that boy immediately.”

Your eyes widened in shock at your mother’s command and for the first time looking her, hell, looking at your parents, you didn’t feel afraid of them. This time, you had something beautiful worth fighting for. This wasn’t something minuscule; it wasn’t something you could just stop like piano lessons or tennis practice. This was an 8 year long relationship she was telling you to end and there was no way you were going to lose against your parents without putting up a fight.

“No.”

The scoff that came from your mother’s throat wasn’t unexpected. This was the first time ever you talked back to either of your parents. This was the first time you actually said the word no in your 23 years of existence and damn, it felt really good.

“Excuse me? Did you just tell your mother no? Y/n, he’s a musician! He will never be able to give you the life you deserve! That is not a career! You’ll be the one having to take care of your entire family, I refuse to let this man ruin your life. You’re going to throw away everything you’ve worked so hard for—for someone whose position in your life isn’t promised. You know better than this, there are plenty more men in the world with better jobs and probably better living situations. Mrs.Choi’s son is a—“

“I don’t give a shit about Mrs.Choi’s son or Mrs.Park’s son or anyone’s damn son for that matter. I love Mark. I am in love with Mark. I only want Mark. Mark is all I need. I don’t care about what his job title is. It makes him happy and he’s pretty fucking amazing at what he does. But like I said, I don’t give a shit what he does for a living. He could be a garbage man and I’d still love him with every fiber of my being because that’s what love is mom. Love is not money, it’s not a big mansion in Beverly Hills with a doctor husband and six cars I will probably never drive. Love is what I feel when I’m with Mark. He takes care of me. He makes me laugh when I’m sad, he makes me smile even in the most inconvenient situations. He does my laundry, cleans our apartment, blow dries my hair when I’m tired, takes me to and pays for all my doctor’s appointments. We’ve been together for almost 8 years and these last 8 years have been the best years of my entire life because of him. The two of you stripped away the entirety of my childhood from me and Mark was the fountain of youth to help me experience actually being a human.” If looks could kill, the glare your mother was sending you would have you six feet under, but you didn’t care.

“I’m not a little girl anymore. I’m grown. I’m an adult for crying out loud you guys can’t tell me what to do anymore. I’m sorry you can’t accept it but I love Mark and I plan on doing so for the rest of my life and there’s nothing either of you can say or do to change my mind.”

“If you leave with him tonight, you are never allowed back in to this house ever again.” The burst of confidence and bravery you had confessing your love for Mark and the fact that you had every intention of staying with him went right out the window at your mother’s ultimatum. Was she really making you choose between your boyfriend and your family? There was no way you could choose between the two of them. Yes, Mark was the best thing that’s ever happened to you. But to lose all contact with your family because your parents were being unfair and irrational with their decision? She didn’t even take the time to listen to your words; did she not care about your health, happiness and well-being? Here was a man putting her youngest daughter on a pedestal, giving her the entire world and more but yet she still couldn’t accept that. You didn’t know the consequences of your next few words, but it wasn’t even a question. “Mark, we’re leaving. Let’s go.”

Your boyfriend came out from the kitchen and you had a feeling he probably heard the entire conversation between you and your parents, but your mind was so focused on leaving before things could get any worse. “Y/n, wait, sweetie think about this—think about what you’re doing—are you really willing to give up your family for a boy?”

“A man—he’s a man and yes—he’s all the family I could ever need. He’s shown me more love and support in our 8 years of being together than either of you did in the last 23 years of my existence. If you were a really family, you’d accept Mark for who he is and what he does and you’d be happy with the fact that he takes such good care of me but no. Your pride, your reputation, your wealth, your social status and your ego are more important than my feelings and what I want. You don’t care about me. You never cared about me you just cared about what others would think about me and I’m sick of it. I’m done. Have a nice rest of your life. Assholes.”

You marched out of the house and a huge weight was lifted off of your shoulders. With the rate you were walking, your boyfriend had to practically jog to catch up with you because you were filled with so many different emotions. Anger. Sadness. Grief. But no regret, nor any remorse. You knew you made the right decision in choosing Mark because not only did you choose Mark, you chose yourself. You were no longer going to allow your parents to dictate your life anymore.

“Baby—are you alright?” You gave him a sad smile before stealing a soft kiss from the corner of his mouth.

“Maybe not right now, but I will be. Take me home Mark.” Your siblings tried to get in touch with you for weeks, trying to get you to come back and to talk things out with your parents, but the damage was done. Neither of them were going to accept your relationship. It was a tough pill to swallow, but you accepted it for what it was.

Even if one day they came around and accepted Mark being a songwriter, there was no way you could ever forget the look of disgust on your mom’s face when Mark said what his job was nor could you forget how your dad just stood there and said nothing. It genuinely showed that neither of your parents really cared about you even if you were the star child out of the four of you and that’s what was hurting you the most.

Mark did his best to try and take your mind off what had happened and every time you’d look at him while he was sleeping, while he was cooking the two of you dinner or while the two of you would shower together, you’d see the glint in his eyes as he looked at you like you were one of the seven wonders of the world and you knew you made the right choice. You’d pick him again and again every single time.

He never brought up the fact that your parents didn’t accept his passion but you were sure it must have hurt him. Especially because that’s was caused you to be cut off from your entire family, but he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t extremely content with your decision. A few weeks ago, Mark got a call from the record company he was working for and gave him the opportunity to travel around Europe to work with a couple of the entertainers there and he didn’t hesitate to ask you to tag along with him.

The adventure started off in Italy, then you found yourselves in London and Greece. Each and every city was more than you could even imagine. The scenery was so beautiful, the food was delicious, the people were so sweet and the fact that you got to experience it all with your soulmate; your favorite person was a feeling you would never be able to fathom in to words.

Paris had to be your favorite place you had visited so far and you were sure it had to deal with the fact that it was the city of love and you were making the most of it with the love of your life by your side. It was currently winter in Paris right now; the temperature only grew colder as the days went by which is why you were shocked to see Mark outside on the balcony in only his underwear, but the sight did make your cheeks pink.

No matter how many times you’ve seen him naked, you always got so shy and flustered. He was freezing cold when you finally found your way behind him, you placed your chin on his shoulder blade and left a soft kiss there while lazily wrapping your arms around his hips. The giggle that fell from your lips at the feeling of your bare chest against his back couldn’t be helped, he was so cold and the frost nipped at your skin.

It took you a few moments to notice the cigarette in his hand and when you did, you grew worried. Mark hated cigarettes. He hated the smell and hated the negative effect they had on people’s bodies. However, you noticed he began smoking them after working with a well-known rapper who claimed that smoking helped him relax. It was a habit you weren’t too fond of; you knew it was probably damaging his lungs and you could taste the ash in his kisses, but you knew something had to be bothering him for him to want to even start smoking so you never tried stopping him.

For the last month, you haven’t seen a pack of cigarettes lying around the place nor did the scent linger on his clothes so you knew there was a chance he stopped. Seeing that ugly death stick in between his fingers made your blood boil; you didn’t want anything happening to his health because of a stupid decision he‘d make whenever he was upset.

“Go back to bed baby. I’ll be there soon, I just needed a little break. I’m fine.” You’ve been with Mark long enough to know when he was lying. You didn’t have to see him; the lack of confidence in his voice and the way he tensed up against your body made it clear that something was indeed on his mind, and there was no way you’d be able to go back to sleep knowing he was overthinking.

“Talk to me Mark. Something is obviously bothering you and I want to be able to help you.” He released a long sigh before putting out the cigarette and turning to face you. His eyes were red and puffy and there were dried tears on his cheeks.

The idea of him crying made your heart hurt; he was always the strong one in your relationship. No matter how rough life would get for him, he never showed that he was having a hard time. He hated burdening other people, especially you. So all his battles, he’d keep to himself. You hated that he never confided in you the way you always seemed to with him. You wanted to be able to help him carry the burden or to help fight the war in his mind that he was battling alone.

“Why did you do it?” You immediately looked at him in confusion. What was he talking about? What did you do that could be causing him so much distress and frustration?

“Mark—“

“You gave up everything to be with me. You’re completely cut off from your parents, you gave up your job at the law firm, you had to sell your car, you left all your friends without any explanation as to why you were leaving—just for me. I can’t give you everything that I want to just yet. I can’t promise to give you a big house, a nice car—we’ve been together for years and I have every intention on marrying you y/n but I can’t afford to buy you the ring of your dreams—I’m honestly nothing. I’m a college dropout trying to become a renowned songwriter y/n. Sure, I’ve been getting quite a few amazing opportunities but it isn’t enough for us to be set for the rest of our lives nor can we really be comfortable. Like your mom said, there are many men out there who’d be able to take care of you in the ways that I can’t. All I can do is love you y/n, and fuck. I love you more than you can even fathom yourself. But you deserve so much more and sometimes love isn’t enough—“

“Do you hear yourself right now? Are you really asking me why I left my life behind to be with you? My family, I love them dearly. But you know how I feel about my parents, how they sheltered me, overprotected me, forced me in to doing things I didn’t want to. They never did care about how I felt; not once did they stop and think maybe they were working me to the bone. I was never happy Mark. Until you came in to my life and I really don’t know what I would do if I were to lose you. I’m assuming you must’ve heard what my mom said and don’t you dare listen or even think what she said was true. You are not nothing Mark. You are so talented, so hardworking, so passionate and dedicated and if anyone deserves the world baby—it’s you. I meant what I said when I told her I couldn’t give less of a shit about any materialistic things. What’s a fucking Porsche going to do for me if my husband neglects me? What’s a big house if the person that I love isn’t there to share it with me?” You brought your hand up to cup his cheek and released a sigh of relief when he leaned in to your palm.

“You and I could live in a fucking box and I wouldn’t care and you wanna know why? Because you’re there. All I need is you. I don’t care where we go, who we meet, how much money we have in our bank accounts; as long as I have you right beside me, I’m not worried about anything. I can get another car Mark, I can find another job, I can make new friends—but there is never going to be another you. So stop beating yourself up about the decisions I made in the last few months. I did it for us. I did it because I love you. I will never love anyone the way I love you. Now get it out of your head that I deserve someone better than you because a man like that doesn’t exist. And yes—your love is enough Mark. It’s all that matters to me. The way you take care of me when I’m sick, or hold me close as we watch a scary movie. The way you take a bite out of my food to make sure it isn’t too hot, although I feel like you use that as an excuse just to try my food. The way you can be so tired, yet you want to sit down and listen to me go on about my day. You love me Mark. You never fail to say it, but it means more to me because you never fail to show it either.” At this point, his tears were flowing steadily from the bird of his eyelids and you found yourself wiping them away every time new tears fell.

“A person’s job title, the amount of education they’ve received, the kind of car they drive and the house they live in; none of that matters babe. I know you probably hear this all the time, but it’s what the inside that matters. Genuinely. All the wealth, the riches, it doesn’t make you better than anyone else. Your personality, your selflessness, your golden heart, your generosity, your patience, the love you never fail to show others, that’s why I fell in love with you. Oh—and your stupidly handsome looks but that’s besides the point. I’d go wherever it is that you’ll go. Whatever you need me to do, or be in order to help you grow as an artist or just a human being in general, I’ll do it. I’ll do anything for you Mark Tuan. And one day, when everything works out with your career, we can rub it in my parents faces. No more tears my love. It’s just you and I; and that’s what makes me the most happy. Oh—and I don’t need a big wedding or a huge diamond ring to get me to marry you. You could get me a ring pop for all I care. I just want to be with you. We could honestly elope in one of the hotel’s chapels if that’s what you want.”

He didn’t miss a beat before bringing his hands on either side of your face and roughly connecting your lips together. His mouth was warm and wet against yours, his kisses were rough and needy. It’s as if he was putting everything he wanted to say to you in to the kiss. How grateful he was for you. How much you meant to him. How much he loved you more than his heart could genuinely handle. Mark knew he needed to continue fighting for his dream in order to prove to you that you made the right decision in choosing him. Soon, the atmosphere was filled of sexual tension and it didn’t take too long for you to feel something hard against your thigh.

“I just—I hope—fuck. Thank you baby. I could never thank you enough for everything that you’ve done and continue to do for me. You’re the most ethereal being to walk on this earth you know that. I really, really do not deserve you but I will spend the rest of my life proving to you that I’m sure happy you chose me. Don’t tempt me, I might just go down to the gift shop and get you that ring pop. I love you—so fucking much my beautiful girl. God , only you could make me hard as a rock while I’m in the middle of crying—I know it’s 3 A.M, and I promised I would take you to the Champs-Élysées later on today, but I really want to show you just how grateful I am for you. I also kinda want to solve this problem in my pants and fuck the shit out of you so let’s go baby. You might have to rent a motor chair to get around once I’m done with you.”

[cclaudias]

desi adam hcs

his name’s adam because he’s an nri(non residential indian) and all nris are big white weebs, so his parents thought it would be “good for him“ if he had a white name that whites could pronounce.  

he’s bengali but he doesnt know bengali at all. the only word he knows is mach, which means fish, and its hindi word is machli so...

also, you’re literally not bengali unless you can recognize the word fish in at least 20 different languages.

adam’s watched every single khan movie from the 2000s, like every other indian kid and when his 15 yo cringy romcom loving ass watched dilwale dulhania le jayenge he cried and obviously knew every song by heart. 

adam in class, singing softly:  ~Tujhe dekha toh yeh jaana sanam || Pyaar hota hai deewana sanam || Ab yaha se kaha jaye, hum || Teri bahon mein mar jaye hum~

shiro, who has a huge crush on adam and just needs an excuse to talk to him: that sounds nice. you have a really nice voice.

adam, blushing: 

shiro, also blushing:

shiro, trying to make his pining ass less obvious: btw, what does it mean?

adam:

adam:

shiro:

adam: haha it’s in punjabi. i don’t know. 

its in basic elementary hindi btw and its one of the sappiest most romantic songs ever.

when he first takes shiro and keith to india the first time its wild (its also their last time, Shiro's to terrified to go there again).

on their first day, everyone adam knew in india was there to greet them. his extended family, his relatives, his neighbors, his long lost family members. their house was so full people barely had place to move. 

it didnt help that shiro was famous. he was the face of the garrison and all the children knew him. he had children attached to his arms for days. the smallest of them all, a 1 yo named aliya, gets oddly attached to keith. the baby’s adorable, but keith doesn’t know what to do with it.

aliya: *comes and stands in front of keith*

keith: *awkwardly smiles at her*

aliya: *bursts out crying and runs away*

keith: ????

aliya: *comes up to keith and stands in front of him again*

adam: i think she wants to to carry her.

keith, scrunching his face up in confusion: but why is she crying?

adam: you smiled at her.

keith: so?

adam, not having the heart to tell keith his forced smile looks hideous: maybe try smiling at her more - naturally.

keith: what do you mean?

adam: i mean stop acting so fucking emo all the time, your act’s frightening a baby.

keith, deadpanning with narrowed eyes: what act?

he eventually gives up and picks her up. she’s quiet at first but then she slaps him. he stares at her with his eyes wide open and she giggles and slaps him again.

keith: adam, she’s hitting me!

adam: i told you to smile at her properly, stop glaring at her.

keith, whining: but she’s laughing!

keith turns back to her and glares at her. she stares back at him, her thumb in her mouth. when keith opens his mouth to speak, she pulls her thumb out of her mouth stabs her drool-covered thumb in his eyes.

keith, dropping her immediately, with tears in his eyes: THIS IS WHY I DON’T LIKE BABIES! 

adam watched keith avoid each of his cousins narrowly and decides that since this kid's his now, he'll have to face this family one day or another. 

adam: keith, will you come with me for a minute? I need to talk to you about something.

keith and his naive non-indian ass, thinking: oh thank god he's getting me out of his family mess.

adam, leading keith to a room full of indian adults ready to smooch and hug him: oh hey guys, this is shiro's little brother keith. 

every single auntie in the room, rushing to keith to pull his cheeks, smooch him and laugh: he’s so cute! omg his cheeks are so chubby!!! oof you’re so fair!! my god this boy’s so shy! 

keith's never followed adam anywhere since.

shiro: keith, they were just being nice.

keith, on the verge of crying. again.: one of them slapped my BUTT shiro!

when they’ve settled in a few days later and met every single human being in kolkata they need to, adam takes shiro out to the marketplace. he’s not going to go to the mall and sacrifice his bengali pride even for his bf, so now their just walking along a really crowded street with millions of stalls put up all around them. 

adam’s here to buy apples and chikoos but he wants to treat shiro to things he’s been longing to eat since his last visit to india. 

they first drink daab (coconut water) and then then adam drags shiro to the sweets shop.

adam: this is where you’ll get the best things you’ll ever eat. we’re eating jalebis first because the rasgullas are sweet and it’ll lessen the jalebi’s sweetness.

shiro, surprised to see his bf so excited about sweets: i thought you didnt like sweet food.

adam: these are JALEBIS, takashi!!

when shiro bit into the jalebi, he knew why his bf loved it so much. 

on their way out, shiro asks adam if they can have one of the food stuffs being sold at the stalls.

shiro: adam, we didnt to any food stall. they're literally the most populated stalls here.

adam, following his gaze to find a pani puri stall: takashi. babe. those are foods that can only be digested by indian stomachs.

shiro, completely confused, but now more curious: i wanna try some.

adam: im telling you. its a bad idea.

shiro, rolling his eyes: sure, sure. i think my stomach can handle this. 

adam: takashi. remember when we were taught about avoiding street vendors in second grade.

shiro:

adam: it was made specifically for these. 

shiro finally manages to drag adam to the stall.

adam: are you sure you want this?

shiro: why are you being so dramatic about this?! Yes.

adam to the vendor: bhaiya doh plate golgappe dena. (he asked for two plates of pani puri)

adam eats only one, but they’re fucking delicious and he’s never had them before so shiro ends up eating six. he keeps trying to feed adam who just shakes his head. 

when they’re sitting in the auto rickshaw, shiro asks adam why he was so insistent on not eating those. adam just leans back and lays his head on shiro’s shoulder

adam: you’ll see.

and shiro did.

he had diarrhea for three nights.

shiro, just coming from the washroom and realizing he needs to go back in: why is it only at nights, though???!

adam, shaking his head: you’re in india, takashi.

when they’re in the airport (shiro: finally 😩), keith’s jumping around because he really needs to pee.

adam: can’t you hold it till the flight?

keith: i’ve been holding it the whole way!! i can’t!

adam, sighing: fine. the washroom’s that way.

keith comes back, more still than he should be after relieving himself, his eyes a bit wide.

keith:

shiro: what’s wrong? are you okay?

keith: the washroom...

adam, shaking his head: be grateful you’re at the airport. at least the washroom’s decent.

both shiro and keith looking at adam:

adam: what?! i told you to hold it till the flight. 

shiro: what’s wrong with the washroom?

keith: it’s... not. very sanitary. 

adam: *snorts on the water he just drank*

shiro and adam’s favorite date nights are at home (and its not because of adam’s stingy indian ass). they both make one indian and one japanese dish and adam loves this because it’s domestic and economical (he can’t help it. he’s indian. stinginess runs in his blood. its painful to use a dollor he knows may save him someday.) (he also knows there’s going to be no such day but its always good to stay safe).

on some nights when they’re feeling particularly romantic, adam will play some romantic hindi song and they’ll dance to it. now that shiro understands hindi, he’s almost spooked at how romantic these songs are.

they’re dancing to tum se hi one night and shiro has his arms wrapped around adam, whose hands are on shiro’s shoulder. adam then leans against shiro and rests his head on shiro’s shoulder, in response to which the other man presses a kiss against adam’s temple. 

moments like these work as a stark reminder for adam. its in these moments knows he wants to spend the rest of his life with shiro. waking up for work with him in the mornings and spending the weekends watching crappy romcoms and slow dancing would just be a part of his everyday routine and there’s nothing he wants more. 

when shiro pulls away, he’s a bit startled. 

adam: is everything okay?

shiro, looking ready to shit: ah yea. just um, wow, we’ve been together for so long.

 adam: *quietly raising his eyebrows at his bf*

the song ends then and adam’s surprised to hear the next song. his eyes widen as he turns to shiro. 

adam: is that...?

shiro, nodding and laughing quietly: you lied to me. it wasn’t in punjabi.

adam, who was staring and the speakers connected to shiro’s phone, now whips his head back to shiro who bends down on one knee: shiro. what are you doing?

but he already knows what shiro is doing. and his heart’s racing and he somehow has tears in his eyes as tujhe dekha toh plays in the background.

shiro, pulling out a ring with shaky hands: adam, i’ve known and loved you for eight years now-

adam: you’re seriously proposing to me with thiS SONG??!!

adam doesn’t realize that his statement made shiro panic because he’s in the midst of asking god how he managed to find a man who thought any song from dilwale dulhania le jayenge would ever possibly make a good proposal song. once his holy conversation with god is over, he turns back to shiro, smiling and takes his hand to tug him up then proceeding to kiss him hard till they’re both out of breath. 

adam: i’ll marry you but promise me to never choose a hindi song for the wedding. my cousins will be there. 

[retphienix]

(Random) Game Recommendations

It’s a new year (or a few days prior as I type this and prepare it for new years) and completely unprompted here’s some game recommendations because I want to mention some games.

No rules really, just some random games I’ve either played for the blog or outside of the blog- heck- it’s not even all games I played this year and it’s definitely not games exclusively released this year.

The last one, for reference, was a little over a year ago on 7/29/2017 with this aiming for new years 2018 into 2019. Also I would change a few things about that due to Bamco not knowing how to stop themselves from ruining a game for microtransaction greedy money grabbing, but I digress.

Hamtaro Ham-Ham’s Unite! for the game boy color

This one is a game from my childhood that I’m so glad I completed through this blog.

If I were to sum it up I’d say it’s a game about learning hamster words and solving simple puzzles (usually making use of these words to interact with characters / the environment) to gather up Hamtaro’s friends for a meeting.

It’s too cute for its own good, it made me shout “THIS IS ON A GAME BOY COLOR” many many times because it looks too good in my opinion and is overflowing with adorable animations, and it’s just makes you feel good.

Ham-Ham’s Unite is a really relaxing and uplifting game, and it certainly left me in a better mood throughout my entire playthrough.

I hear Ham-Ham Heartbreak is even better, so I’ll be keeping that in mind the next time I want to revisit Hamtaro and friends.

Clickpocalypse 2 for android/iOS and apparently even in your browser (news to me)

Yes yes, an idle game. And one I haven’t played in months at that- but then again I haven’t played Hamtaro in a long time as well so I don’t see that as discrediting what I saw in it.

I, usually at least, just don’t enjoy phone games. Not for the bull crap “It’s not real games!” rhetoric, but because as time as gone on phone games have gone further and further from what makes a game good and instead have mostly become manipulative Skinner boxes. Even if they don’t SUCCESSFULLY drain your wallet, heck, even if they don’t have direct monetization and only use ads- they always seem to fail to balance the ‘game’ and the ‘greed’ and you’re left with no game.

You turn it on, play it for a little while, and then you realize you’re almost exclusively being used and you’re not actually getting anything out of the game.

This isn’t an incredible example of directly countering that mentality- it’s just one of a few games I’ve found in the previous years that successfully balance the other way for me at least. I’ll mention another arguably more successful- but inarguably more messy example for the next game.

The reason I mention Clickpocalypse 2 is because, well, it’s a good idle game that hit a very specific aesthetic and enjoyment for me. This is a VERY idle game, you did VERY little- you can’t even “click” to increase speed as the name might suggest. Your input is exclusively “Pick the party. Choose when to use potions or spell scrolls. Equip equipment (it’s simpler than that sounds, it auto lists the best found loot and you tap to equip). Tap to level up when you get the xp etc.

It’s really really hands off- but it felt great to me.

The aesthetic it lands on is classic RPG goodness and the party does as you’d expect, clearing out dungeons and grinding while you check in to equip and level them choosing what skills they learn.

It’s a game I enjoyed because it’s, well, a good idle game. It doesn’t bury you in “You should be tapping this non stop or else” gameplay. It carries enough enjoyable mental tricks like stronger gear and leveling up to make it fun, and the monetization is, well, the most optional thing I’ve seen in a long while.

I’ve played so many games that rely on ads and they all feel highly necessary. This has a similar idea- there are optional ads for buffs like double achievement points (used for permanent buffs across multiple adventures) or tempoary allies- and these are helpful as heck, but man.

Because this is SUCH an idle game, they honestly feel like the most optional ads around. I watched plenty because I enjoyed the game and less because I felt like I needed them in any way.

But there’s not much to say that would convince someone this is a great game. I just think it’s a good idle game for messing around on your phone. It gave me that feeling of watching a friend grind through an old FF game- a very specific feeling, but that’s what I got out of it. A chill idle with a nostalgic feel and the balance of “game” vs “phone bull crap” was tilted heavily towards the game side for me.

Buriedbornes for android

Lord that image is larger than I planned for, my mistake.

Buriedbornes was nothing but a surprise to me. I’ve played a few games I enjoyed on the phone in recent times. Idle Apocalypse and Clickpocalpyse 2 being high up there (not sure how Idle is now, but pre-beta was alright). Even fell into Dokkan for a little while. But this?

I downloaded this because I thought “Oh my god it’s trying to pretend it’s dark souls or bloodborne, what on earth is this.”

And you know what it is?

A REALLY good roguelike with traditional turn based combat!

Like a REALLY good one. It has that feature I adore in good roguelikes where things can seem impossibly difficult, but then you get a couple good drops, you tweak your character to emphasize a certain playstyle, and BOOM! You just beat the entire game in one run deep into the endless mode on a character that seems unkillable due to strategies you built from the drops you found.

And it has the foresight to tell you at a certain point “Score stops at this point so you’re just playing to collect things in your beastiary of items so you might as well stop” along with ways to end a run, though my preferred way to end a god run is to keep making deals with various demons until I end up with a curse that is guaranteed to kill me on the next boss that way I feel like I gambled to death.

Look, I know the last game might have seemed a little floaty on merits, but try this game.

It’s simply fantastic. Dive in, die, dive in, die, and then stumble onto a perma stun build or an infinite shield build or a barrier regen build- you can stumble unto so many unique ways to play and I honestly had a lot of fun breaking and being broken by this title.

Wasteland 2 for PS4/Xbone/PC/Switch

Let’s get away from phone games and handhelds in general.

Wasteland 2 is a game I was looking forward to ages before release. I remember stumbling across news of it being kickstarted or something similar- and bookmarking it for future reference and promptly forgot until I saw it in stores and started berating myself for not getting it at release.

Now it took me a long while to get around to Wasteland 2; Long enough to hear from some that it wasn’t as good as they wanted and others that it was too complicated. Long enough to build doubts.

But my god.

This is a game that I highly recommend you come in with a quick start guide of some sort. Seriously. No it’s not impossible or anything- and I’m sure fans of the original will scoff at me for saying as much- but no, really. It’s “Fallout before Fallout” except now it’s well after Fallout (obviously) releasing in 2014, and it takes that oldschool complexity seriously.

Mostly.

Basically, just read up a quickstart guide, I found a wonderful one for my purposes (pretty sure that’s the exact one I used) because character creation at the start pretty much dictates what your first impressions are gonna be- ranging from “Oh, okay, this is pretty neat, I’m hyped to dive into this” to “OH MY GOD THIS IS TERRIBLE AND EVERYONE SUCKS AT EVERYTHING AND I’M NOT A FAN”.

If your reaction is the latter, I recommend restarting and fiddling with your team composition. You can play however you like- but this is a game that kind of expects your first run to be “mostly diverse” before you attempt a less specialized team in the future.

Enough of that. Wasteland 2 is a newschool fallout game. That’s what you need to know. It’s got a ton of post apocalyptic fun, plenty of moral moments ranging in quality from “Oh heck that’s good” to “.... not good enough” but there’s a lot more good than bad.

The first half of the game is simply better put together than the second half, to be honest, due to budget and deadlines or some other dev level nonsense, but that doesn’t make the rest of the game throwaway- it just sorta simplifies towards the end and then culminates in a massive boss encounter, which isn’t terrible by any means.

Combat’s great if you enjoy oldschool fallout and want some nice squad x-com style battles. Death is scary (very scary). And, heck I don’t know, it’s just a fantastic fallout game. Like a REALLY fantastic fallout game.

I made characters I grew attached to and it felt so natural to do as much because (thanks to the quickstart guide) my team was VERY diverse so I began to associate each of them with their skills and the playstyles those skills dictated.

Seriously, with a short read on what skills do what this is a fantastic game that I’m very glad I got to play through. Oh, and if you’re on console the text is stupid small- go into the options and change that. Also, don’t do what I did which made me sad to notice- don’t type up a large Bio for your characters (at least on console) because a bug prevents the Bio box from scrolling, meaning you will forever lose access to your long backstory ;-; Don’t do that.

Wario Land: Shake It! for the Wii

God I love this game. This goes up with Hamtaro as another feel good game and in a similar way it left me feeling in a much more optimistic and generally positive mood as I finished it.

I am a huge fan of the older Wario Land titles, the first one is one of my favorite games on the game boy- but I never really kept up with Wario until recent years. I didn’t play the later games, didn’t try his mini game compilations, and didn’t look at console releases at all until much later.

I heard of this game from a Wario marathon stream setup someone was doing years ago and took note only for one fact “It’s got good graphics”.

Like that was it. I saw this and went “Pretty” so I took note to get it later on.

I had no idea it’d end up being one of my favorite games, but here we are. This game hit like a truck with quality. You can easily coast through the game if you’re struggling with the harder challenges, but my god, there are SO many challenges hidden all around for treasures. The gameplay is FANTASTIC, the motion controls are SMART (come at me) and that aesthetic! MY GOD, that aesthetic! The entire game looks like a fox kids cartoon or something similar and I adore it.

This goes down as one of those games I’d recommend to just about anyone. You have a wii, find a way to play this. Truly, one of, if not my absolute favorite platformers of all time.

Well I’m dropping this a little early because I don’t mind being off season.

12/28/2018.

There are a metric ton of games I could talk about or recommend, but I had some oddballs I wanted to say and a couple feelgood games I wanted shown as well.

Quick bonus titles would be EDF 5 (a ton of quality of life changes and it’s EDF!!! SHOOT BUGS!), Play Yakuza you dinguses, if my whole emotional sputter and that whole side blog I made didn’t give a hint- Doki Doki Literature Club is worth a play, Dragon Warrior Monsters is the best pokemon game, The Fall was very interesting and enjoyable, Nioh is Bloodborne done right, and God Hand is great.

Have a great new year, everyone~

[rainy--dayys]

Extra Cheesy - Sweet Pea x Reader (3/?)

Summary: After literally bumping into the cute pizza guy and then promptly running away, (Y/N) has something to take care of which may or may not lead her in the direction of said boy?

Words: 2658

Warnings: Swearing, yelling, cheesiness!

A/N: I firstly just wanted to apologise to you all for how long it took me to finish this part! I was having a tough time finding inspiration to write but seem to have suddenly gotten my mojo back! Again, super sorry about making you guys wait for me but thank you for your patience!

A/N/N: I am feeling so much love you guys! Your responses have warmed my heart so much that a third part was in order! I decided to do this chapter a little differently and have it in the readers point of view! Let me know if you liked it like this and if not, I can always make a chapter 3.5 back in Sweet Pea’s point of view!? :))

You can read part 1 Here! And part 2 Here!

Readers Point of View

It was oddly quiet in the halls today.

I could actually breathe in the sweet smell of silence as strange as that sounds.

Ever since Southside High shut down the halls had been over crowded with tattoos and leather jackets. Not that I have anything against the Southside at all, I don’t have anything against anyone but the halls have been so crowded due to the closure that I spent most of my lunch times in the library or outside.

I was walking briskly but freely through the halls, sticking towards the lockers as I didn’t want to run into anyone when I rounded the corner and coincidently smashed straight into a large and muscular make-shift wall.

Colliding with the figure I was thrown to the ground, books strewn everywhere and a basketball could be heard bouncing away from my ass which was sore from the fall.

Standing up and wiping my legs, I began to pick up the mess the person had created, starting by picking up my books and their gym bag in hopes to make a mends.

“Oh my gosh I am so so sorry! I can’t believe I just did that, I should be more careful!” I rushed out as I finished grabbing the remains of my Biology book. To be fair, it wasn’t exactly my fault, he really should be looking where he’s going but I didn’t want to anger the boy more then he probably already was.

“You had all of this room and you decide to slam straight into me, great!” He grumbled sarcastically, snatching his gym bag out of my hands without so much as a thank you.

Placing his bag over his shoulder he yelled angrily, “Next time, watch where you are fucking going!”

That was it.

That was the final straw.

I was furious now! Sure, I had run into him but I am nothing compared to his tall stature.

“I said I was sorry okay? No need to be an asshole about it,” I yelled at the tall boy, looking up for the first time to see what Jerk had been such a dick about a little accident.

Looking up, my eyes met the ones that I couldn’t stop thinking about since we first met. It was the boy who I delivered pizza two all those days ago.

Sure, he was an asshole and yelled at me both times we have interacted but look at those chocolate brown eyes. How can you not fall in love with those orbs of melted chocolate.

God, they make me swoon.

The next thing I knew I was staring into the boys eyes and instantly regret calling him an asshole, even though he is one.

A sudden realisation washed over me as I remembered where I was headed and I had no time to stop.

Before I had even realised what was happening, my feet were taking unusually fast strides and were suddenly carrying themselves, and myself along with them out the doors of Riverdale High.

I could hear him.

I could hear his deep, sultry voice calling out after me but I couldn’t stop.

I couldn’t stop myself from running away, like leaving the scene of an awkward, humiliating crime.

And yet…

I want nothing more then to turn straight around, apologise for calling him an asshole and to smash my lips into the giant hunk but I couldn’t.

How could I when I would be letting down the person who needed me the most.

Without even realising it, my body had auto-piloted me to that person. The one person who depended on me and relied on me more than anyone else in the world. The person who-

“Y/N!”

“Hey Buddy! How was school?” I laughed as my little brother run up to me and hugged my lower-half.

Once he was done, I took his hand in mine and we began our long trek home. I would love to take the bus home or even drive but we need that extra cash for food or necessities.

“It was good! We got to play with Lego and do a giant obst-obst-“

“Obstacle?”

“Yeah that one, an obs-ical course! And we had cake cause it was Jackson’s birthday and and..”

“Hey there kiddo, slow down and take a breath! It sounds like you had a full-on day today!” I laughed, ruffling his shaggy hair that definitely needed a trim, which again would cost much more then we could afford.

As we continue to walk the long treck home from (Y/B/N)’s school, we slowly but surely cross the invisible line between the two halves of town; the Northside and the Southside, on purpose of course.

Out of pure habit and years of experience, I grabbed (Y/B/N)’s hand a little tighter and bought him closer to my side, knowing that on this side of town you could never be too cautious.

It wasn’t like I don’t trust Southsiders, I am one after all, but there are some people on the Southside who cannot be trusted.

The Serpents are trustworthy, some can be a little scary and cut off statue heads but they are relatively harmless. The outsiders (like myself who do not belong in a gang) are trustworthy and just like to keep to themselves away from all the gang violence and rivalry. But the Ghoulies, they are the ones we have to watch out for.

Finally reaching the trailer, I unlock the rusty door and rush (Y/B/N) inside so he can have his afternoon snack and finish his homework before I have to go to work.

After cooking up a feast that consisted of a toasted sandwich with a side of 2 minute noodles, I was now ready to head off to work.

(Y/B/N) was now safely tucked in his bed, fast asleep and shouldn’t wake ‘till morning.

So everything should have been going to plan, correct?

WRONG!

“Forsythe Pendleton Jones the Third you answer your fucking phone right now or so help me I will shove your beanie so far up your ass that it’ll never see the light of day! Arghhhh just get your sorry butt over here because I have to leave and you have to baby sit, remember? Ughhhh get here NOW!” I whisper yelled into the phone, in awe of how dim that boy can be at times.  

I really didn’t want to leave my little brother at home alone but I also cannot afford to lose this job.

If I lose this job then (Y/B/N) won’t be able to eat or get new clothes that he really needs or a haircut. I don’t care if I starve, wear old clothes or have raggedy hair, he doesn’t deserve that life and just because our parents ditched us, doesn’t mean I’m going to fail him.

So with all this weighing in my mind, I take one last look at his tiny frame and grab my jacket before practically sprinting out the door and towards the pizza place I’ve been working at for the past few months.

After serving many costumers and delivering many pizzas, I was finally walking the tiring path to that little place known as home.

With my corny blue cap long gone, I dragged my feet one foot at a time as I struggle to keep my eyes open. It was currently two in the morning and I was finally making my way home.

In the end, Jughead had ended up calling and saying that he would check up on (Y/B/N) but he couldn’t stay long which wasn’t an ideal situation but I had no other choice.

I had to just trust that (Y/B/N) would stay asleep and that no scumbag Ghoulies broke into our trailer which, considering where we lived wasn’t an unlikely situation.

As I climbed the steps that lead to the trailer door, I was hit with this sudden sensation. A sensation that I couldn’t quite explain except that it felt like someone was behind me.

Whipping my head around I was met with four boys. Three looked around thirteen and the other was smaller, more familiar.

The four boys where walking up to the trailer across from mine when I saw them knock on the door as loud and as obnoxiously as they could and then run as fast as they could, seeking cover behind anything they could find.

The older man ripped open the door in nothing but a singlet and boxers and started to search for the ding-dong-ditchers frantically and with a scowl on his face but alas found nothing.

Sighing, he turned around and stomped back inside, closing the door behind him as irritably as he opened it.

So these were the infamous ding-dong-ditchers that had been terrorising our neighbourhood for the past few months. They have been non-stop knocking on every trailer for forever but I’m never home to deal with it, however I do get some choice words thrown around by Jughead when he baby sits.  

Loud cackles could he heard from behind two motorbikes, as the little shits emerged from the darkness, revealing their identity like a dumb superhero.

I gasped loudly as one of the faces becomes abundantly clear.

(Y/B/N).

(Y/B/N) was a part of the thugs that were bugging serpents and ghoulies alike, probably earning them all a death wish if they were ever caught!

No way!

This isn’t like him at all! Someone must be making him do this and I am going to give those someone’s a piece of my mind!

“Do you little shits mind telling me why you assholes and my innocent little brother are knocking on people doors at two in the morning?” I questioned, walking over to them and crossing my arms over my chest to try and show some sort of dominance. After all, they are only like twelve, right?

“What’s it to you? He’s always home by himself or with that beanie wearing dickhead who doesn’t take his eyes off of his computer for long enough to notice he’s even gone!” The tallest done yelled back, stepping in front of the gang.

Oh I am going to slaughter Jughead, slowly and oh so painfully.

“That’s because I work you fucker! I make a living, so he can even be in that trailer!” I counter, stepping closer to the kid.

“Well maybe you should work harder cause that metal box you call a trailer is an actual shit fest and should be compounded!” He barked, stepping up so his face was closer to mine.

“You talk about my house ONE. MORE. TIME. And I will bash your teeth in so that you have to drink your dinner through a straw. So, you either step the fuck back and let me take MY brother home before you twats turn him into one of you losers or I bash your fucking skull in? Which will it be?” I yell through gritted teeth and don’t back down.

A flicker of fear flashed over his glossy eyes as he stepped back towards his friends, the same expression on their faces.

I use this opportunity to grab (Y/B/N)’s hand and pull him towards me.

“Now, I suggest you leave here and don’t come back! And if I catch you ding-dong-dumbasses ding-dong-ditching another one of these trailers, I’ll inform each and every tenant and they’ll eat you shit heads for lunch!” I growled, turning fast and practically dragging my little brother back towards our trailer, the footsteps of the kids could be heard running as far away from Sunny Side trailer park as their little feet could carry them.

Pausing suddenly, I turned around and bent down to talk to my little brother. I grabbed his shoulders and tried to look in his eyes as his were cast towards the floor.

“And you! What in the world were you thinking (Y/B/N)? I have bought you up to treat people how you want to be treated and this is what happens. Do you want people to knock on your door at three in the morning, wake you up from your slumber and then just leave?” He shook his head, tears forming in his eyes.

“Then why would you do that? I know you and you are not silly buddy! You are so smart, so what happened?” I sighed, my voice going from a stern one to merely a whisper.

“It’s because you are never home!” He cried, tears streaming down his face. I pull him into a rib crushing hug as he continues to sob.

“I spend all day at school without my big sis and then come home to see you for a little bit and then you leave again and you leave me with Jughead. I don’t even like him, he has a weird name! Why are you always leaving me?” He sniffed, tears flowing freely down his tiny face.

(Y/B/N) is at an age where he just doesn’t understand why I work all the time. He doesn’t get that money doesn’t grow on trees and that I have to work my ass off to afford food every night.

Sighing, I pull away from him, so he can look into my eyes.

“Buddy, I leave so that you can go to school and you can have lunch! If I didn’t have to leave I wouldn’t, you know that!” I began to tear up. This was all my fault.

He was rebelling at such a young age because of me and my stupid working hours.

“But how about this, I’ll drop some hours on the weekend okay buddy? I’ll cut back work on the weekends so that we can spend it together, alright?” I said with a sad smile.

His face lit up like a Christmas tree, his grin as wide as could be. His arms wrapped back around me and hugged me as tight as he could.

As much as I wanted to enjoy this moment, I just couldn’t. We were already struggling as is and now I have to cut back on hours. Maybe I’ll be able to pick them back up on a weekday? That means finishing at four and getting three hours sleep but if it means that (Y/B/N) will be happy and out of trouble then I can’t say no.

“Now, before we go back inside there’s one more thing we have to do!” I say, standing up and grabbing his hand.

That night I had (Y/B/N) go to all of the houses and apologise for his part in the ding-dong-ditching affair. We didn’t have to worry about waking anyone up because I’m pretty sure the whole neighbourhood heard our little conversation anyway.

“I’m sorry Mister, I didn’t mean to make you mad!”

“I just wanted to say sorry…”

“I don’t know who the other boys are!”

These were some popular statements of his that night whilst making our way through the rows of metal containers.

Trailer after trailer and apology after apology, we were finally up to the last one.

It was around the corner from our own trailer and looks really familiar but so do all the other ones so I didn’t really dwell on it.

Walking up the steps, hand in hand, I knocked loudly on the door and waited for an answer, if there was going to be one.

“This is the last one and then we can go back to bed, okay?” I looked down at (Y/B/N) as he yawned and rubbed his tired eyes.

“I am super proud of you for doing this and apologising for what you’ve done!” I whisper as I squeeze his hand and smile softly at him.

Suddenly, the door is ripped open and I’m met with someone who I had no intention of interacting with or talking to any time soon…

“What the fuck do you-“ He screamed in my face, causing (Y/B/N) to hide behind me.

“Oh, hey there little miss sunshine…”

A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed this part! Let me know what you think and if you’d like to be tagged in the next part! Also, feel free to request anything! :))

Tagged:

@daring-to-screw-up @galaxyrose10 @unaveragewriterfreak@friendlyneighbourhoodweirdo @somanyfandoms264 @serpent-squad

[shirtlesssammy]

13x22: Exodus

Then:

Gabe came back to save the day!

Now:

Sam’s alive! And Lucifer just wants to be part of the gang, and to get to know his son. Dean is in protective Mom mode and tells Gabe to kill Lucifer. All the anger and hostility causes Jack to fly off to safety.

To keep some semblance of order, Cas puts the angel warded handcuffs on Lucifer, while Lucifer tells the group that they have about 31 hours before the rift closes. Rowena’s holding down the fort, and not looking too positive about the whole situation. Also, Sam sets his phones timer for 31 hours. A: Won’t the battery run out before then? And 2: Shouldn’t you maybe set it for 29 hours or something just to be safe?

Dean checks in with Sam to make sure he’s ok, and he is. Dean just thought he lost his brother, and Sam just thought he died. This was a worthy hug.

Now Sam, can you at least clean your blood off your neck? Yuck.

Sam tells Dean that he will handle Lucifer.

Meanwhile, Jack’s off alone reeling from meeting Lucifer for the first time. He flashes back to the video of his mother (was this new footage or from earlier?), and Sam (so protective, so parental), and then to the security guard he accidentally killed and au!Kevin dying for the “cause”. Oh, sweet little nougat (at what age does he have to reach before we have to stop calling him our little nougat?).

Cas escorts Lucifer from point A to point B at the camp (like, where were they going?) Anyway, they take a pit stop so Luci can be snarky and Mary can punch the devil in the face (again). Yay!

Mary is 100% badass and I love her, but do you ever stop to think about how great it was for Sam to have Dean raise him and not Mary or John? They were a mess! Sam and Dean show up to tell Mary they need to start heading back to the rift to make it home in time. Mary tells them she’s not leaving. There’s work to be done here. She’s fought beside the people here. There’s too much to fight for. That goes over like a lead balloon. Sidenote: Mary’s makeup is on point in the AU. Maybe it’s not such a bad place after all?

Cas, Jack, and Lucifer parley and Jack wants to listen (UGH) to what Lucifer has to say.

Lucifer tells Jack that he can ask him anything. “Why does everyone hate you?” Lucifer makes some good points (and some icky rapey Buckleming points, ugh), but nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.

Back in Dean, Sam, and Mary land, Dean’s arguing against fighting the good fight, and asks Sam to back him up, but Sam being Sam, he agrees with Mary. “Wait, what?” Dean asks, incredulous. “Mom doesn’t want to leave these people.” Dean’s poor face. Sam suggests they bring them with, regroup, and come back stronger than ever. Just as Dean questions the ability to cram 25 people through the rift, a VERY dramatic Cas arrives to tell them Jack is now with Lucifer.

Lucifer has a one on one with Jack but TFW interrupts, trying to make it clear to Jack that they’re his family, not Lucifer. Jack then calls Lucifer his father (BIG UGH).

The group heads out to the basecamp.

Mary and Dean get some time to talk. Mary wants Dean to give Jack a break. Man, Mary’s conversation about Jack learning about Lucifer, and seeing him for who he is through his own eyes. Dean should be taking notes on how to think about his own childhood, and his own memories of John.

Gabriel, who was off scouting, comes running at the group alerting them to incoming angels. Battle stances commence, and then the angels just disappear into smoke. It seems the handcuffs don’t work in the AU and Luci just smoked them all, and then dissolved the handcuffs. Oops.

It seems the basecamp is Singer Auto Salvage --it’s not in Sioux Falls but it’s damn nice to see that sign again. And it’s not our Bobby (Goddamnit, where is he?? Andrew Dabb, how have you failed us on that storyline?), but he’s just as much a curmudgeon. Dean asks about Charlie and finds out Ketch and her went off to find an angel kill squad.

Lucifer and Jack continue the family reunion. Lucifer tells him all about the other archangels. Ok, Buckleming, you get one pass if you scripted that high five. It was funny and cute. I give 90% of the credit to Jack though. They meet up with Gabriel.

Gabe can barely hold in his hostility for Lucifer. GABE!

Charlie and Ketch find the angels, but it’s a trap! They’re captured.

Team Free Winchester try to convince the leadership at the camp to head over to Sam and Dean’s world. “You want us to follow you through some magic door that’s gonna blast us the hell out of here and into some fairy tale world where everything’s pretty?”  DUH. Just do it, Andy!

The AU campers will talk about it. At the end of the meeting, Bobby comes up to tell Sam, Dean, and Mary that Charlie and Ketch were captured.

Ketch and Charlie are having a great time hanging with angels. Eating angel food cake, playing ring toss with halos. The whole nine yards. Or, urgh, Ketch is getting tortured and interrogated for the resistance base location. Ketch snarkily resists their efforts, earning my grudging respect. (Boris: Ngl, watching Ketch get tortured was kind of poetic. But he’s on his big redemption arc so I guess it’s also sad. Remember folks: Ketch killed Magda!) Then they bring in the big guns. AU!Castiel, complete with insane lip twitch. AU!Castiel does not look well, as evidenced by his non-floofy hair and rogue eye that's probably gone bad from incessant “reprogramming.”

In the resistance camp, TFW interrogates the human that betrayed Charlie and Ketch. I only picked up on this in the rewatch, but Dean nods to Cas to start and stop his mind meld on the guy. I know this can be seen as teamwork but I'm sort of super duper gutted by that. I keep remembering how Cas oftens sees himself as a tool and I feel like he's in that role right now – an instrument of torture wielded by Dean Winchester.

Anyway.

shudder

Cut to Lucifer whining to Gabriel about how boring it is to wait for an attack. Gabriel is quietly amused at Lucifer's desire to rush out and be big and heroic to impress Jack. “I've known you since the stars were made,” Gabriel tells him and he thinks Lucifer’s full of shit. “Humans are innocent and beautiful,” Gabriel says (while I whisper to him that I suddenly really really love him). Lucifer’s motivation for his corruption of humanity was down to jealousy, plain and simple. Lucifer pulls a single man tear which... Whatever, Luci.

Back with AU!Cas, he hones in on Charlie. “Everyone has a breaking point,” he tells her before he tries to suck her mind out of her head. (I'm definitely NOT thinking about how AU!Cas hit his breaking point. He's broken. Shattered. A sharp blade of pain.) There's a ruckus outside, saving Charlie momentarily. It's Mary and TFW! They bust in and defeat the angels guarding Charlie and Ketch. Outside, Castiel confronts AU!Castiel.

Cas tells Castiel that he's grown used to humanity and that he prefers humans to angels. Despite this, they both agree that they're the same, and then Cas kills AU!Castiel. I have a whole headcanon about this scene. Ready? Okay. AU!Castiel is broken, tortured by Heaven into existing as a mere weapon. Cas sees this and recognizes his fate, his horrible scars and terrible weaknesses. He sees the soldier. He sees the broken person. And he kills him easily because he views it as both mercy and necessity. AU!Cas is irredeemable, so damaged is he. Now, all he can do is rest eternally in the Empty.

Let's take a hug break.

Cas shakes it off (OR DOES HE?) and everyone reunites at the camp. Bobby announces to the Winchesters that they're all planning to head back with them. Super! It's time for a PARTY BUS! Dean fixes a school bus (Natasha fans herself) and everyone piles onto the bus to head out. Sam runs after Jack and tries to keep him from fulfilling his promise to kill Michael. Sam wants them to regroup and plan a good attack and Lucifer agrees. Jack...listens to Lucifer and then calls him “father.” Yikes, Jack.

The vehicles, packed full of many of my favorite characters, head down the road to the rift. Eek! I sure am glad those rifts mostly only open just off of roadways. When they arrive Sam sees the rift is starting to close.

Rowena's exhausted on the other side, desperately trying to keep the rift open. Everyone files in and through. “About bloody time,” Rowena greets Castiel breathlessly. On the other side of the portal, angels zoom in. Michael arrives with an impressive wing display.

Lucifer and Michael begin to fight while Sam, Dean, and Gabe just....stand around picking their noses, I guess. Until Gabe decides to start fighting Michael. Michael pulls out his archangel blade and they fight. We're feeling pretty good about it until Gabriel gets knifed. NOOOOOOOO every time! 

Sam angrily pushes a weakened Lucifer away from the rift and then jumps through. The rift closes behind him leaving Michael and Lucifer behind in the AU.

In the bunker it's a PARTY. Sam thanks Rowena. Charlie and Ketch have forged a friendship (odd but I’ll allow it). Dean and Cas share emotional stares a.k.a. an “eyefuck.” Jack is sad.

Bobby gives the troops a rallying speech and everyone experiences warm and fuzzy feelings. I mean, I certainly do. Look at all their friends! Take that, Team “All My Friends are Dead.”

Back in the AU, Gabriel lies apparently (possibly? definitely?) dead on the ground with charred wings. Lucifer and Michael plot together to get back into the Winchesters’ world and strike a deal. Lucifer will get his son and Michael gets the world. Booo bad deal.

Party Quotes:

What do we do about Lucifer?

You are who you choose to be.

I am not your “sport”

That may be the dumbest friggin’ idea in a landfill of dumb ideas.

You want us to follow you through a magic door that's gonna blast us the hell outta here and into some kind of fairy tale world where everything is pretty?

For whatever reason, I got a good feeling about you two.

See you on the other side, bitches.

And you’re an ass clown.

Way to go, DAD!

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