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blackhakumen · 4 years

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Mini Fanfic #427: Joker and Queen Play Some Mario Party (Super Smash Bros Ultimate)

Ren: Makoto, you sure you wanna play Mario Party for our date today?

Makoto: (Smiles Softly) I don't see why not. Plus, it has been a while since we actually play one together.

Ren: True. But you do know that this game can and will get hectic down the road, right?

Makoto: Eh. I'm sure it won't go too crazy this time.

First Turn....

Computer playing as Wario obtained a Star hiding inside the Hidden Block on screen.

Ren/Makoto: WHAT?!!!

Makoto: Are you serious right now?!

Ren: (Shook his head Slowly) He didn't miss, Makoto. He did not miss....

Makoto: B-But....this is the first turn of the game....

Ren: Yep. Told you this is gonna get hectic.

Makoto: (Facepalms while Sighing)

Three Turns Later....

Toad starts going up in and down on his Pirate Ship Costume on Screen.

Makoto: (Drops the Controller and Slowly Place Two of her Hands all over her face)

Ren: (Snickering) What's wrong?

Makoto: Ren.....I don't think I could ever see Toad the same way again....

Ren: Why? Cuz he's humping the air in his Pirate Ship suit?

Makoto: ('Groans')

Ren: (Burst out Laughing at Makoto's Dispense) Aha man...This is great. Seeing you squirm like that...I just can't...(Continues Laughing)

Two Turns Later......

Makoto, playing as Yoshi, was able to beat someone's record on Mecha Marathon on screen. The number of yards was approximately Thirty Nine.

Announcer: NEW RECORD!!!

Ren: (Eyes Widened) Jesus Christ, Makoto.....

Makoto: (Giggles Softly) Are you impressed?

Ren: Understatement of the decade....Were you always this good on these Button Mashing Minigames or is this has something to do with your Aikido training?

Makoto: Well.....I guess you could say that my recent training is involved in some way. But truth be told.... I'm actually kind of skillful in these types of games. Even when I was younger.

Ren: Really now?

Makoto: (Simply Nodded) Mmhmm. (Giggles Softly) I can't remember how many times I was able to out best my sister in Mecha Marathon alone during those days. I even tried beating my own record once.

Ren: (Chuckles Lightly) Keep this up and I might as well call you "The Button Mashing Queen" for now on.

Makoto: (The Button Mashing Queen huh?....) (Begins to Smirk while Flipping the side of her hair Elegantly) Why, Ren, while I am oh so flattered by the lovely nickname, maybe try saving the flattery after I beat in Mario Party....(Boops on Ren's Nose) 'Kay?~

Ren: (Shrugged) Whatever you say.....(Gives Makoto a Surprise Kiss on the Cheek) My Queen~ (Goes Back to his Spot)

Makoto: (Immediately Starts Blushing and Then Begins to Turning Away from her Now Chuckling Boyfriend) H-Honestly....

Three Turns Later....

Makoto uses a Golden Mushroom to get a 7.....

Ren: Seven....

.....Then another 7.....

Ren: Seven......!

Makoto: Oh...my.....

......And one more 7 on screen.

Makoto: (Smiles Excitedly) I got a Complete Match!

Ren: (Gives Makoto a Thumbs up) Nice. I'm pretty sure they'll give you Twenty Coins or-

Toad said he'll give Makoto 50 coins on screen.

Ren/Makoto: FIFTY?!!!

Ren: For real?!

Makoto: How is that even- (Starts to Come to a Realization) Ohhhh.....I get it now....

Ren: (Turns to Makoto) What?

Makoto: Okay. So I rolled three Sevens, right?

Ren: Yeah.....

Makoto: ....And the number seven is technically a lucky number. So that means......

Ren: Having three Sevens is an automatic Jackpot....Damn.... Can't believe I forgot that fact. (Shrugged) Guess we all know who's the Coin Star gonna be.

Makoto: (Smiles Brightly and Confidently) Yes. Yes we do. And who knows, maybe this board will go in my favor.

Two Turn Later......

Makoto: What do you mean you want Boo to steal my star?!

Ren: (Shrugged while having Mario, the character he's playing as, Stand in front of Boo on Screen) Sorry, 'hon. But let's be honest, the moment you got that Jackpot, instantly makes you a huge threat.

Makoto: (Eyes Widened in Disbelief) T-This is ridiculous! Why couldn't you steal from Luigi?! O-Or from Wario?!

Ren: They're not nearly as a threat as you are. Plus, you're already in the lead of getting the Coin Star soooo........

Makoto: That's doesn't mean you have to steal my Well Deserved Star!

Ren: Ah c'mon, Makoto. I'm sure you'll be able to get another one.... probably.

Makoto: Ren, I swear to your Goddess Mother....If you even think about picking Yoshi's name in the box, so help me, I-

Ren picks Yoshi's name on the box, having Boo steal Makoto's Star on screen.

Makoto: No!

Ren: (Shrugged While Chuckling) Welcome to the world of Mario Party, My Queen. Hope you enjoy your stay.

Makoto: (Slowly Turns to Ren with a Glare in her Eyes) Mark my words, Amimiya....One of these turns....(Pokes on Ren's Cheek) I. Will. Get. You. Back. For. This!......(Pauses at Poking Ren's Cheek for a minute) This..... isn't bothering you in the slightest, is it?

Ren: Nope. It's more adorable if anything....(Smirks at Makoto) Just like you are right now~

Makoto: (Blushes while Pouting at Ren) I am not cute!!

Two Turns Later.........

Toad starts going up in and down on his Pirate Ship Costume on Screen.....again.

Ren: You know this might be his daily workout routine, right?

Makoto: (Slowly Turns to Ren Eyes Widened in Disbelief) Why are you trying to ruin Toad for me?!

Ren: Cuz.......... Reasons.

Makoto: You're just doing this to mess with me, are you?

Ren: (Shrugged with a Smirk on his Face) Pretty much, yeah.

Makoto: (Facepalms while Sighing) Figures....

Two Turns Later.......

Ren and Makoto was able to win a 2 vs. 2 Minigame together on screen.

Makoto: (Smirks Victoriously at the Screen) This is what happens when you underestimate The Queen and Joker.....

Ren: (Smirks at the Screen as well) ...... Should've consider yourselves losers when you had the chance.

The couple gives each other Hi Fives as they continue playing the game.

One Turn Later......

Makoto: (Gives Ren a somewhat Evil Smirk on her face once Yoshi is in front of Boo on screen)

Ren: Uhhhh....Why are you staring at me like that.

Makoto: (Chooses The "Steal Star" Option and Scrolls down to Mario's name)

Ren: (Starts Getting Scared Now) H-Hold on now! D-Don't you think we need to talk about this first? I mean....(Chuckles Awkwardly) Why would you want to steal a Star from someone like me?

Makoto: Oh gee....I don't know where to start~ How about the time you STOLE a Star from me a few turns ago.

Ren: Okay. I admit....That was a pretty dick move on my part....

Makoto: Ya think?

Ren: Yes. B-But c'mon! You were a threat then. I had to do something to slow you down. Can't we just let bygones be bygones?

Makoto: .................No. (Was About to-)

Ren: Wait!! Y-You shouldn't steal from me!

Makoto: (Raised an Eyebrow at Ren) And why not?

Ren: It's... it's because I Love You!

Makoto: .....................What?

Ren: Yeah! Uh...You heard me! I love you very very much, Makoto Niijima! All day, Everyday! I mean.... Don't you love me too?

Makoto: (Sighs as she Place her Controller down on her lap and Gently Grab Ren's hand) Ren Amimiya, you of all people should know that I love you more than you or anyone else in this world, will ever know. You mean everything to me, remember?

Ren: (Smiles Softly into Makoto's Eyes) How could I? You mean the world to me too.

Makoto: I know........ However....

Ren: (Eyes Widened once He Noticed Something Sinister in his Girlfriend's Voice) !!!

Makoto: It's just like what Pitto said to everyone of us here, Ren......(Evil Smirk Forms on her Face) "Everything Goes in Mario Party."

Ren: Wait, NO-

And just like that, Makoto bring Ren's hand down onto the "A" Button on Makoto's Controller, causing Boo to steal his Star instantly on screen.

*You Got Star Fanfare Plays*

Ren: Well.......I guess you say I deserve that one, huh?

Makoto: Pretty much. But......

Ren: Hm?

Makoto: (Gently Squeezes Ren's Hand while Blushing a Little) I really do mean it when I said I love you.

Ren: (Begins to Smile Sincerely before Giving Makoto a Kiss on the Forehead) Never doubted you for a second, My Queen~ (Starts Blushing Too) I just hope that you didn't doubt me either. Cause...I really meant it when I said I love you too, you know?

Makoto: (Happily Gives Ren a Loving and Relaxing Hug) I know. And I never doubted you or those words either. Not even once.

Once Ren hugs Makoto close to him, the couple stayed like this for a couple of minutes, when suddenly.....

Ren: Hey, Makoto?

Makoto: (Snuggling into Ren's Embrace) Hm?

Ren: (Pause the Game) Instead of just finishing the rest of the game....How about we watch a movie insted?

Makoto: (Smiles Softly) Yeah. I'd like that very much.

Later that Evening......

Futuba: (Look Through the Window to see Ren and Makoto Snuggling with one another Under a Blanket) Ugh... Look at them... Acting like a bunch of Lovey-Dovey teenagers...

Dark Pit: (Rolled his Eyes) Tell me about it. They might as well give every other couple in this mansion a run for their money at this point....

Pit: (Carrying Some Shopping Bags with him) I dunno, you guys....(Smiles Brightly) I think pretty cute together.

Futuba: Too cute if you ask me.... Honestly, it's stuff like this makes me glad that I don't have a Love Interest.

Dark Pit: Wait. Don't you have a crush on that Yusuke guy or something?

Futuba: (Immediately Starts Blushing) W-WHAT?! I-I don't have crush on Inari!!

Dark Pit: (Raised an Eyebrow) Really? Then how come you keep calling him that whenever you see him?

Pit: Yeah. Why do you call him them?

Futuba: (Blush Starts Getting Darker) N-No reason!! I-I always call him that!! It's nothing special or anything! Honest!! (Squeezes Her Cup of Drink so hard that it Breaks)

Dark Pit: Whatever. (Opens the Door to get inside)

@keyenuta

@26shann

@cyber-wildcat

@albion-93

@chompycroc

@ink-correctsmashbrosbloo

@princeoflions123

#inari #super smash ultimate #ren amimaya #makoto nijima #futuba sakura #pit #dark pit #humor #cute romance #teamwork #ren x makoto #shumako #futuba may or may not have a crush on a certain roght now lol #mario party 2 #mario party #competitive #have to edited it again to make it perfect. sorry about that

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tokiro07 · 4 years

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Okay...

So the theory goes that Jumpman, the Mario from Donkey Kong, is actually the father of Mario and Luigi (based on the fact that the original DK is supposedly now Cranky Kong and the current DK, who has faced off against the current Mario, is the son of DK Jr.)

If that is true, then Jumpman is likely the same Mario that worked as a demolition man in Wrecking Crew, given both the era of the game and the fact that Jumpman could easily have been a generalized construction worker (as he was stated to be a carpenter in DK). There is a Luigi in Wrecking Crew, though, so maybe not, but who knows, twins could easily run in the family and maybe Jumpman named one of his sons after his brother

Either way, that would mean that Jumpman, the father of the Mario brothers, worked with Foreman Spike, who for some reason hated Jumpman and his brother. Depending on the game, Foreman Spike bears a striking resemblance to either Wario or Waluigi. Now, we already know that Wario and Waluigi are canonically not brothers, so I’m not saying that Spike is both of their dads.

Just one of them.

(Long post under the cut. This whole thing really got away from me, but I think it ended pretty nicely, so I hope y’all enjoy it)

Probably Wario’s, if I had to bet, given that we know Mario and Wario have known each other since childhood (stated explicitly in the instruction manual for Six Golden Coins), so it would make sense for them to know each other if their parents were work “friends,” and it would especially make sense for Wario to be as hateful of Mario if his dad, Spike, were hateful of Jumpman. Hell, it would even explain his name. Jumpman has a kid and names him after himself, and then Spike has a kid around the same time and decides to invoke some nominative determinism and labels his kid “bad Mario.”

How Waluigi fits into the picture is ambiguous, but with a number of simple solutions. While some early sources indicate that they are brothers (strategy guides, official websites, etc.), while later sources refer to them as either cousins (Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games) or as friends (Mario Sluggers, voice actor Charles Martinet). They could be adoptive brothers, but this wouldn’t really explain the visual similarities, unless Waluigi explicitly modeled his appearance after Wario or Foreman Spike. This wouldn’t require that they be brothers at all, though, as Waluigi could have done that even if he was just a friend. The cousin aspect works best at explaining the visual similarity and even the name, as that would mean that his name was chosen to spite Luigi just the same way that Wario’s was chosen to spite Mario. The only issue there is that we’ve never heard of Spike having any siblings. He’s had multiple conflicting designs, so MAYBE there’s multiple Spikes and Spike is a family name, but I doubt it.

Personally, while the cousin angle wraps everything up the most neatly, I’m still a fan of the idea that Waluigi is some kind of shapeshifted disguise for Tatanga, since the two are both purple misanthropes with an unhealthy obsession with Princess Daisy, a hatred for the Mario brothers and an odd friendship with Wario. This would also of course explain why the exact nature of their relationship is so unclear, since it would imply that they’re outright lying but can’t keep the story straight. I would rather the cousin thing, though, since I would like Tatanga to be able to make a comeback, but that would still be a really fun twist.

The one major hole in all of this, though, is that Pauline appears in Mario Odyssey and gives no indication that she’s not the same Pauline from Donkey Kong, implying that Mario and Jumpman are, as they’ve always been presented, the same person. However, there is surprisingly an explanation for this. You see, in the original Donkey Kong, the damsel in distress was a blonde woman referred to as Lady. It wasn’t until the remake for the GameBoy that she was redesigned to be the brunette Pauline that we know today. While particularly damning sources (Shigeru Miyamoto, Smash 4) have claimed that Pauline and Lady are the same person, various extended Mario media present them separately (The Cat Mario Show, a 1994 encyclopedia, various Mario manga), and even present them as having opposing personality types. Naturally, Shigeru Miyamoto should be considered the most credible source here, but that’s no fun, and he also said he was Bowser Jr’s mom, so I’m going to ignore him.

So.

Jumpman’s pet Cranky Kong kidnaps his girlfriend, Lady, and he has to save her. Sometime later, Jumpman orders two children from the stork with Lady, whom he names after himself and his twin brother, Luigi, after a somewhat delayed delivery. His work rival, Spike, and Spike’s brother...Stanley the Bugman, why not, maybe he blames Mario for DK getting into his green house, both have children delivered around the same time, and name them Wario and Waluigi to spite Jumpman’s children. The Mario brothers and Spike children grow up to hate each other, and DK Jr. has also grown up and decides to kidnap Mario’s girlfriend, Pauline, just as his father did to Lady all those years ago. Mario saves Pauline, but unlike Jumpman and Lady who were brought closer together by their trauma, they break up, although they remain friends. Some years later, after Mario has established himself as a recurring hero to the Mushroom Kingdom, gets a toy line which DK III becomes weirdly infatuated with, leading to Pauline’s second kidnapping by a DK (or this is the first time, and Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2 was just a remake of DK on the GameBoy to give more context, the specifics aren’t too important here). Sometime after this, Pauline becomes mayor of New Donk City, which is adorned with references to Donkey Kong and his family’s crimes as if it’s all one big joke to these people. But I digress.

Somewhere in all that, Mario is given a castle for some reason, which is the last straw for Wario, who I imagine is working on a farm at the time, given that his best friend is a hen named Hen. Deciding that back breaking labor doesn’t satisfy his ambitions while his rival lives it up as a hero, Wario enlists the help of the alien Tatanga (who now that I think of it, he may well have met on his farm during an attempt to abduct a cow or something) to trick Mario to leave his castle so that Wario may steal it.

After Mario foils Wario’s plot and reclaims his castle, Mario extends an olive branch and invites Wario to play tennis with everyone, as that’s just the kind of guy he is. Wario, realizing he doesn’t have a partner, either a) invites his cousin Waluigi, who has gone into construction like uncle Spike (evidenced by his excavator in Mario Kart), since he loves sports and hates the Mario brothers as much as Wario does, or b) recruits Tatanga and has him disguise himself as someone who could ostensibly pass as a family member to lay low in case anyone tries to hold him responsible for his crimes (which they wouldn’t since they never try to arrest Bowser or Wario, but apparently he doesn’t know that)

As far as I can tell, the only thing we’re missing is where Waluigi was when Wario and the other Star Children were being delivered by the Stork and intercepted by Kamek. Perhaps he got passed over since he didn’t have a star? Maybe Bowser captured him and found he didn’t have a star, then discarded him.

Actually, what if...

Waluigi was SUPPOSED to be delivered to Spike.

Waluigi was SUPPOSED to be Wario’s brother.

But when Bowser went back in time to find the seven Star Children, he messed up the route that Waluigi was supposed to be on. When the Stork got Waluigi back, he accidentally delivered Waluigi to the wrong house, the way he did to Mario and Luigi at the end of Yoshi’s Island (as shown in Yoshi’s New Island). Unlike with the Mario brothers, though, the Stork didn’t catch this mistake, and Waluigi grew up in the wrong household. Maybe it was even Stanley’s, and Waluigi’s inherently nasty personality clashed with Stanley’s kindly personality, but he still inherited his adoptive father’s love of plants! Can’t believe I was able to work that back in.

That’s why no one knows if they’re brothers, cousins or strangers! Because they don’t know who he was supposed to be delivered to, but they can’t deny the visual similarity! That’s why Waluigi’s so misanthropic, because he wasn’t delivered to the right house and he felt out of place!

That last bit could easily be explained by being raised under Spike’s influence, though, since Spike is apparently the kind of jerk who would sabotage his own employees to get a bigger paycheck for himself.

Either way, I think that lends to a really solid idea for the story of a Waluigi game.

A long time ago, I suggested a game where Waluigi somehow travels through time and goes through levels themed around various Mario franchise titles (Waluigi’s Time to Shine), but now I know how to frame it! Waluigi, feeling odd about his family situation, asks Bowser how he travels through time so he can see where he comes from. Bowser throws him through a wormhole and Waluigi witnesses the events that lead to the Stork delivering him to the wrong house. He decides this is either Bowser or the Stork’s fault (Bowser makes more sense, but it would be super funny if the Stork ends up being the final boss) and journeys to exact revenge. The spell or technology tethering him to the past messes up, however, resulting in Waluigi being in flux and going through all of the Mario franchise.

It’d be really funny if when playing through the Yoshi’s Island section he becomes his baby self and knocks Mario off of Yoshi (resulting in Mario’s capture by the Toadies), giving Yoshi some weird new ability the way the Star Children did in Yoshi’s Island DS, but I’m not sure that having one level have a completely different control scheme would be the best idea.

It could also be that Waluigi rides Yoshi as a full grown adult, which would also be pretty silly given his lanky proportions.

A Wrecking Crew level near the end would also be a fun way to bring the story full circle, revealing Waluigi’s relation to Spike and Wario, and establishing that Mario and Luigi are the children of Jumpman and Lady.

Waluigi, Nintendo’s ultimate loose end, would be the catalyst through which all of the loose ends of the Mario franchise are tied.

Get on that, @nintendo

Edit: This ended up having a couple of revisions, but rather then amend this post, I just ended up making two others. You can check those here and here

#super mario #waluigi #wario #foreman spike #mayor pauline #stanley the bugman #pauline #long post #speculation #my theories #game ideas

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uribo-in-space · 4 years

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Star Trek TOS First Time Viewing Reaction - S2E2: Who Mourns for Adonais?

DISCLAIMER: I have seen some TNG and Voyager when I was a child and later the AOS movies as a teenager. I felt quarantine time was the right moment to begin the ambitious project “Star Trek marathon 2020/(2021?20??)”, meaning I’m going to watch all of Star Trek starting with TOS finishing with Disco (or maybe we have Strange New Worlds by the time I catch up haha). I started TOS last month and I AM LIVING. IT’S AWESOME and sparks so much joy. I decided I could just write up my thoughts as I am viewing it for the first time as a memory of the experience, not knowing most episodes at all. So, there we go.

Spoilers obviously - just in case somebody else is 50 years late like me, haha.

Opening scene: Scotty flirts with a female lieutenant on the bridge. So far so cute. What about the dialogue from Bones and Kirk accompanying this scene though?

MCCOY: I'm not sure I like that, Jim. KIRK: Why, Bones? Scotty's a good man. MCCOY: And he thinks he's the right man for her, but I'm not sure she thinks he's the right man. On the other hand, she's a woman. All woman. One day she'll find the right man and off she'll go, out of the service. KIRK: I like to think of it not so much losing an officer as gaining SCOTT: Come along. (He and Carolyn enter the turbolift.) KIRK: Actually, I'm losing an officer.

like - what? I had to rewatch this scene to fully understand what they’re saying. I think it’s interesting that, despite TOS being like 50 years old now, I find it easy to forget we’re actually in the 60s/70s when binge watching. Watching it now is sometimes a weird meta experience as you tend to overlook elements that were considered super futuristic in the 60s but are perfectly normal now, so that you actually miss some FUTURISTIC elements because you’re living those aspects of FUTURE already. Yes, of course women quitting their jobs after marriage still happens, but it is not considered a “rule” or “natural order of events” anymore, and is (talking from a western perspective) more of a choice and you would not assume this happening automatically. Especially if you produced an utopian sci-fi series today, that concept would probably not be included. Anyway, it’s pretty interesting that female Starfleet members seem to drop out of service after marriage and it is not considered something a captain or anyone can do something about in the future (I mean, apparently the men still continue their service? I only have divorced Bones for reference so far though). Anyway, TLDR, I am not judging the 60s relics as they are a product of their time, I think they are rather an interesting addition to the viewing experience in 2020, considering the writers did think this concept would persist in the far future. Back to the episode.

IS THAT A GIANT HAND IN SPACE

I love that Chekov casually assumes he has hallucinations - like bro do you have reasons to believe that and what did you do in your free time

This hand really kills me. I also could not believe what I am seeing but I love it

Spock stating he is not offended because you need emotions to be offended - interesting, Spock, so what happened when Kirk pulled a yo mama joke on you in that Paradise Hippie Love Romance Pollen episode (man that was a gem of an episode)

Chekov has one of the most HILARIOUS lines in that episode (next to having one of the most hilarious hairstyles, his hairstyle looks like an interesting over the top take on the Beatles haircut and his head looks so much like a mushroom I feel like he has a side job in Mario Kart):

APOLLO: Search your most distant memories, those of the thousands of years past, and I am there. Your fathers knew me, and your father's fathers. I am Apollo.

CHEKOV: And I am the tsar of all the Russias.

KIRK: Mister Chekov.

CHEKOV: I'm sorry, Captain. I never met a god before.

Chekov be sassy to gods

I can’t let this haircut go, as it got me thinking: Is there a hairdresser on the Enterprise?

That’s a thing to explore

What gossip that person might hear sign me up

So, the guy really is the God Apollo huh

Costume note 1: That toga Apollo wears is SO SMALL like - “SIR nice to meet you but you’re REVEALING THINGS please sit with more modesty OR - NO NOT LIKE THAT”

Costume note 1, addition: Nice to see the ratio of revealing costumes of men & women wearing sexy revealing clothing in this episode is very equal

Apollo really has a worshipping kink huh

But as a Greek god you probably have that

Also where ARE the other gods? Like he just casually says they are all gone... “with the wind” but... why? Did they suffer from worship withdrawal like he does now?

Also: I really LOVE the concept they introduced that the Ancient Greek gods were just a bunch of space travellers visiting Earth who decided to chill there for a while and be all powerful and worshipped. But as Kirk says in the end they were a huge factor for mankind to move to the Golden Age, which is a cool thought.

Seriously what a fun premise? I would watch that as a series. Hera, Artemis, Zeus, Apollo etc. all chilling on their ship and having fights and romances and space adventures on strange planets. I imagine them being a really chaotic and high-maintenance bunch though

Thinking about it, Apollo said he was a demi-god with a human mother (if I understood that correctly) so basically he was born on Earth and never saw (what I assumed is) their home planet until he was an adult and they returned (why did they return?)? But the Enterprise crew defeats him by finding out his “god powers” are actually originating from the temple structure on the planet, so does that work long distance then?? Like they could access their home planet powers from far away...? And not the powers themselves are passed down by genes but rather the access to it? Or is it that they need worship to thrive (like that’s why it worked on Earth and they just need a temple?) Questions over questions. Love the concept overall.

Kirk, Scotty and Chekov talking about energy patterns and science and how to defeat Apollo (also Chekov you’re such a smart boy! and he says he is only 22 in this episode awwW and the others are looking at him like - wow a child is with us) and Bones just randomly... grabs a bowl of fruit, holds it a bit and puts it aside - as I saw no note for that in the script I think it was improvised by Kelley... but why? Like was somebody from the staff whispering last minute “oh no that bowl is ruining the shot take it away subtly if you can”? It really startled me but it’s kinda funny.

Chekovs hair is even more FLUFFY and voluminous in this scene like did they bring the Enterprise’s hairdresser with them? (It’s cute)

CHEKOV: Perhaps if I assisted. KIRK: How old are you? CHEKOV: Twenty two, sir. KIRK: Then I'd better handle it.

Also I like protective Scotty in this episode. I think it is one of the first times he really gets some character development and proper screen time

Kirk being choked by Apollo is on the thin line of really intense acting and passing into Shatners school of overacting but - it works so I am giving a thumbs up for very INTENSE acting

I feel somebody shouted at him “MORE INTENSE” “MORE MOANING” “INTENSITYYY” “BE MORE CHOKED”

Lieutenant Carolyn is kind of a weak character and is pretty much the embodiment of a 60s ideal of a woman but HELL she is beautiful

Costume Note 3: I actually like the cut of her costume, it is an imaginative take on the toga and also sexy - I was surprised they aired it like that tbh - like from one side it looks like she is topless really

Costume Note 3 addition: but then HOW did they fix it? Like she’s not wearing any kind of bra and the fabric is not attached to anything so I guess they glued it to her skin in a lot of places huh - also there is a scene with a storm and a strong wind where I feel the way she tries to protect and cover herself is not just acting but really an attempt by the actress to catch her costume from flying away and not trusting the glue the costume people used

I don’t want to imagine how many wardrobe malfunctions she had with that costume and how many times she stood there topless in front of everyone so... idk

I guess same goes for Apollos costume lol so fair

On a more positive note on the portrayal of women is Uhura’s role here. Her in that mechanics uniform building a bypass circuit in that crammed space under her console (she still has her full hairdo which gets all squished oh NO and the hairdresser is down on the planet fixing Chekovs mushroom!) - you go girl

UHURA: Mister Spock, I haven't done anything like this in years. If it isn't done just right, I could blow the entire communications system. It's very delicate work, sir.

SPOCK: I can think no one better equipped to handle it, Miss Uhura. Please proceed.

Thumbs up for the supporting Spock.

Also I love every time Spock takes over the Bridge. It’s so cool.

So that’s all! Overall a campy episode at first look but I was pleasantly surprised by the concept of the Greek Gods being space travellers etc. Thumbs up for that giant hand too (pun intended). I like to imagine that like with episodes that play in a middle-age setting they just had a set from another movie lying around and thought - how can we make this a strange planet - but that’s really part of the charme of it for me.

This was a long text huh.

BONUS QUOTE (or rather BONES QUOTE?) - as it was my favorite:

MCCOY: To coin a phrase, fascinating.

#star trek tos #star trek marathon 2020 #star trek #star trek episode reaction #star trek tos s2 #star trek tos s2e2 #who mourns for adonais

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taco-night-frenzy · 5 years

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Crocs and Robbers

Toadette and Goombella, two of New Donk Police Department's (or NDPD) finest.

It's a night in New Donk City like any other when they get the call that a certain crocodile crook is causing crimes. Can they apprehend such a slimy sleazebag? (Spoilers: Probably.)

Fandom: Mario Characters: Goombella, Toadette, Croco Rating: G Mirror Links: AO3 Notes: Think of this as a teaser for a much longer Detective Luigi fic I'm working on that will be based in the same universe as this one, and takes place before it. Thousand Year Door and Mario RPG will be represented most here, but there's going to be some slight references to Mario and Luigi: Super Star Saga as well, as that game will play a major part in the longfic that I'll be posting later. Hope you enjoy!

New Donk City moved with its usual hustle and bustle. Neon lights twinkled like the stars in the night sky, or at least Toadette assumed that’s what the stars looked like. Not that she ever saw them here. Toads of every shape and size mingled happily along the sidewalks, with even a few Koopas and Goombas mixed in! Maybe things here in Mushroom District were actually turning around.

“Hey, hey, Toadette!” Goombella yelled, mouthful of shroom crepe, crumbs spilling out with each word. “After our shift, we should totally go shopping! You need some better off-duty clothes, girl! Also, you gotta try this, it’s great!”

“I’m driving!” Toadette complained weakly, but truth be told, she just didn’t want to eat it. It probably wouldn’t look good for a couple of cops to be eating sweets while patrolling. “Plus, I think I dress just fine! It’s comfy! My vest and dress match with my hair, you know?”

“Yeah, but every Toad dresses like that! It’s so basic, y’know?” Goombella completely ignored Toadette’s complaint, holding up the crepe in front of her with her mouth. It wasn’t like she could use her hands.

Toadette tried to mask her expression but felt at least a little heat in her cheeks. To Goombas, mouths were just like their hands. It wasn’t anything weird to them, but it still took some getting used to. Toadette took a tentative bite of it, making sure not to get too close to Goombella’s lips. Sweet creamy vanilla meshed together with light rubbery mushroom, all tied together with a fluffy wrap. It shouldn’t work, but…

“Tastes all right,” Toadette admitted, not exactly a huge fan of mushroom style foods, being a Toad and all. “Is this from Zess T. again? Isn’t she, like, basically holding you ransom for money?”

Neon yellow from a Fire Flower sign hit Goombella’s shocked face, her blonde hair highlighted with red light. “Huh? W-well, I mean, I did step on her contacts… You gotta respect her culinary talents though.”

Toadette frowned. “I don’t like the way she treats you. You’re a cop, you know? People should treat you with respect. Just because you’re not a Toad-”

“She does!” Goombella argued desperately. “Just, um, in her own way. Or else, I don’t think she would have given me this treat.”

Before Toadette could counter with ‘Well you gave her those ingredients to make it!’ a raspy Toad voice screeched out from the radio.

“All units, all units! There is a robbery in progress at Dixie Orphanage over at the intersection on Dixie and Cranky Street! Suspect goes under the name of Croco and is reportedly armed and dangerous!”

“What the heck?”

“What the hell!?” Goombella practically spat out her crepe. “Orphanage? Who the hell robs an orphanage?! I knew Croco was low, but this?!”

Toadette wracked her brain. She should know this one, she really should! But… just in case. “Uh, who is Croco again?”

Goombella shook her head. This kind of thing always came so easily to her. Goombella knew everyone and everyone knew her. Toadette didn’t understand how this could be.

“He’s that purple skinned crocodile! He’s partners with Popple! You know, the self-proclaimed shadow thief? They’re a bunch of jerks who’ll do anything for a quick coin! Apparently, even stealing from an orphanage. Croco’s known for his bombs, so it’s best we keep a safe distance. Also!” Goombella seemed to get really offended at this part. “That freak wears crocodile skin crocs! Can you believe it? Totally messed up, and totally tacky!”

Like always, that was a little more information than Toadette needed, but she appreciated it anyway. Before she could hit the sirens, her phone vibrated in her pocket. She quickly glanced at the message.

Yahoo! Hiya, Toadette! Just lettin’ you know I’m gonna be out late tonight! Gonna go explore some old building by Smithy’s territory! Heard a rich old Boo used to haunt the place, so there’s probably treasure! Don’t call the cops on me if I’m not in time for breakfast at Shimi’s lol. -C. T.

“Eh? Who is it?” Goombella asked anxiously, gobbling the crepe down quickly. She really wanted to hit the siren button.

“Just my brother,” Toadette sighed. “Going out to explore some haunted house by Smithy’s. I’ll call him back later.”

Goombella frowned, the effect less powerful when she had whipped cream around her lips. “Hey, you sure he’ll be okay? That’s not a safe part of the city, y’know?”

Toadette quickly put away her phone. “The Captain’s always fine, you know him. He’s done stupider things. Anyway, we really should get going! I want to show Chief Toadstool we don’t need Mario’s help for everything!”

“Ohmigosh, I know!” Goombella said excitedly, bonking the siren button with glee. Red and blue lights swirled above, and already cars were moving out of their way. “Peach never thinks I can do anything! She always credits you!” She rummaged under her seat. “Hold on, grabbing the mushroom.”

Grinning, Toadette slammed her foot down on the pedal, deftly weaving through the streets. “I know, I know, the Chief still has a little trouble with Goombas,” Toadette said, drifting left through an intersection, the blaring sirens filling her with adrenaline. “But she’s warming up to you! Honest!”

Goombella hopped back up onto her seat, red speckled mushroom held daintily in her mouth. “Psh, don’t I know it. Even took you a while to trust me.” It was hard to tell what with the world spinning around in flashes of light and sound, but Toadette felt a hint of sadness there. “I’m glad I can help with the Goomba rep though, y’know?” She grinned. “Anyway, you ready to boost, girl?!”

“Yes, ma’am!”

With an excited huff, Goombella stuffed the rubbery thing inside a little tube on their dashboard. Instantly, the engines exploded with power, and the exhaust rumbled as their little cop car shot out of the streets and dangerously into the night air.

“Woo ho ho hooo!! Yeah!!” They screamed in unison, barreling towards whatever criminal thought he could cause trouble in their city.

Tires screeched, and car doors slammed. The orphanage was illuminated in the color of justice, red and blue. As per usual, Ted N. Toad was the first to arrive, but also the last to actually do anything. Luckily for Toadette, he had at least set up some police tape and was hooting and hollering at any passersby to stay away.

“What’s the situation, Ted?” Toadette asked the worried looking Toad, hands at her hips.

“H-he’s got the kids and Monster Mama hostage!” Ted said, stumbling over his words. “I-I would have gone in there and handled this myself, but I left my bazooka at home…”

“Sure,” Goombella said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. A very powerful move, considering most of her body was eyes. “You say that every time, Ted.”

Other Toads didn’t take well to Goombella’s sass. “H-hey! I would have! Really! Where’s your bazooka then, huh?”

Goombella didn’t back down to them. Not anymore. Toadette was here. “Don’t need one. Isn’t that right, Toadette?”

Toadette nodded smugly, her hand motioning around the glowing Fire Flower in its holster at her side. Goombella may not have been issued her NDPD (New Donk Police Department) Fire Flower like everyone else, but Toadette would be damned if they’d give her crap about it. A bonk from Goombella hit way harder than a Fire Flower ever would anyway.

“W-well, whatever!” Ted whined, pouty face at full force. “Things are a mess right now. His demands are insane! I have no idea what we should do!”

“What’s he want?” Toadette asked, already afraid to hear the answer.

“A million coins!” Ted cried, throwing his hands up in the air dramatically. Are us Toads always like this? Toadette thought to herself.

“A million?!” Goombella repeated angrily. “The Dixie Orphanage barely makes ends meet as it is! Monster Mama relies on donations to keep it open! What the hell is Croco thinking?!”

Hearing the commotion outside, a slimy voice oozed out into the streets from the orphanage. “Nyah, see, it’s a great plan you maroons!” Through one of the windows, the purple croc stuck a megaphone cautiously, his cliché voice echoing out for everyone to hear.

“Ain’t nobody wants to see a buncha kids explode, see? You pigs’ll pay up! And, AND! If ya don’t, I bet that big palooka, Bowser, will, see? Buncha little Goomba kids and Koopa kids in here! That jerk’s LOADED!”

“You slimy freak!” Goombella yelled back, hopping up onto one of the police cars. “Bowser talks big, but he’d sooner smash you and the orphanage just to shut you up! If you keep talking like that, there’s gonna be an army of Koopatrol’s out here, busting down the door!”

“S-should she be talking to him like that…?” Ted whispered.

“It’s fine,” Toadette replied. “She knows what she’s doing when it comes to speaking.”

“But, uh… antagonizing the guy holding a bomb to an old lady and kids?...”

“Shhh, Ted.”

Croco’s voice broke over the megaphone and an old lady’s raspy voice made it out during his shocked state. “…see I told you…” followed by an overly loud “Quiet, ya wise guy!”

“Toadette, hand me a megaphone will ya?” Goombella said in a hushed tone. Toadette retrieved it quickly from their car, propping it up in front of Goombella. “Thanks.” She cleared her throat.

“Hey, Croco! So where’s your pal, Popple, eh? Not like you to go out on your own!”

The gator’s eyes swiveled back to the window, his pupils sharp as his teeth. “Why should I tell ya nothin, ya dumb broad!?” He hissed into the megaphone, making sure to puff his cigar out the window for everyone to see. “Popple was busy, see? Said he had more important things to do than rob an orphanage! Can you believe the nerve of that guy?”

Goombella grinned a toothy grin to Toadette, one that only they could see. “Oh, really? Why’s that?”

Croco was clearly getting worked up talking about his partner, leaning outside the orphanage’s window. “Said he had some bigwig to talk to! What’s a bigwig want with a thief likes us, eh? He just doesn’t wanna hang out anymore, I bet!”

Goombella nodded along, but her eyes locked onto Toadette’s. She was giving her a signal. Her eyes glanced at the front door of the orphanage. The place only had two floors, and certainly wasn’t well fortified. Next to all the other tall buildings, the orphanage looked like an on old sack of potatoes left to soak in the rain.

Toadette cautiously stepped forward, making sure to stay out of Croco’s eyesight. He was busy complaining. She gripped the stem of her Fire Flower tight, feeling the heat of its petals burning the air around her. One wrong move, and everything could come burning down. Literally and figuratively.

“Yeah, Popple always has been a totally bossy jerk, hasn’t he?” Goombella said. The way she talked about the guy, it was so strange, it was like she really knew everything about him. “Gets angry at the drop of a hat, too, right? Bet you hate having him as a partner sometimes.”

“Ugh, yeah!” Croco groaned, opening up the window just a little more, cigar now held casually between his scaly fingers. “Literally, too! I drop my hat off while we was muggin’ some chump last week, see? Guy blows a gasket! Starts callin’ me a big dumb palooka, sayin’ I don’t respect the job!”

Toadette used this time to reach for the door. Flimsy. Felt like she could rip it off its hinges pretty easily. But also locked. Croco wasn’t that stupid. She turned to Goombella who was chattering away with Croco like a gossipy school girl and motioned a fist silently at the door. Goombella nodded.

“OhmiGOSH!” Goombella shrieked into the megaphone. “TELL me about IT! My BOSS is TOTALLY the SAME WAY sometimes, Y’KNOW?”

Croco rubbed a slimy finger into his ears, cringing at the horrible static noise coming from Goombella’s megaphone. “Yeah, I know, but do ya gotta scream about it, ya dumb broad? Geez. Thought I heard somethin’ too…” He turned back away from the window for a moment. “Hey, old hag, you trip or somethin’? Keep quiet!”

Toadette let out a sigh of relief, brushing off the splinters from her uniform. The door had fallen apart like a wet pile of twigs at her tackle, and thanks to Goombella, it seemed Croco was none the wiser.

“Man, and just who is Popple to tell you off like that?” Goombella went on, her voice carrying that strange attentiveness. Toadette hoped she never faked it like that with her. “In front of a dude you’re robbing, too? Like, hello!? Embarrassing much?!”

“Oh yeah! And get this…” Croco continued, completely lost in her storm of gossip. At least Toadette knew she should be fairly safe. For now. She’d have to act fast. Gossip only stayed interesting for so long.

Three pairs of eyes gazed out of a doorway at Toadette’s sneaking form. Each eyeing a different part of her. One on her badge, one on her pigtails, and one on her Fire Flower. Goomba triplets. They were tiny, even for Goombas. Their age couldn’t even be in double digits yet.

“Heya, lady!” One called out. “Hey, are you here to get that stupid gator guy?” Another said. “He’s a jerk, I hate him! He kept saying to call ‘Uncle Bowser!’” The third whined. “We don’t know him! Our daddy did, but he’s gone! Monster Mama said he’s working for Uncle Bowser.”

If Toadette hadn’t spent so much time with Goombella, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to interact with these little Goomba kids so easily. Being chatty was clearly a Goomba thing, wasn’t it?

“Shhh,” Toadette hushed them softly, nodding along to them. “I am here to get him, but you guys need to be quiet for me, okay? Why don’t you three run along and…” She struggled to think of something. “Play pretend shop or something?”

“But lady!” The third little Goomba whined. “We got nothin’ to sell!” The first one explained. The second one was happy just looking upset and giving Toadette big puppy-dog eyes.

Gah, she didn’t have time for this. Toadette was no good with kids! She had to think fast. She swung her head around, looking for anything in his dingy little building, her pigtails slapping her in the face at the motion. Ow! Stupid things!

…. Oh! Wait!

“Here, sell some mushrooms!” Toadette whispered, undoing the pink mushrooms at the end of her pigtails. Her braids fell apart, pink hair falling at her back, but she saw the way the kids’ eyes lit up and knew she had made the right decision.

“Gee, thanks, lady!” The Goomba triplets said in unison, catching the pink mushrooms in their fangs with ease. Smiles on their faces, they scampered into another room, calling out some other kids to come look at the new stock they got in their store. At least maybe the others wouldn’t be too scared.

Finally, she could make her way up the stairs unhindered. Each stair creaked awfully, but Goombella appeared to have Croco in her chatty clutches.

“So, I says to him, I says…”

“No way! He said that?”

“He did! Like, I get that he takes thieving seriously, but I gots feelings too!”

His voice became clearer and clearer, and Toadette knew she had found the right room. She’d need to end this quickly. Breathing deep, she clutched the doorknob, and swung it open, shouting in her most police-y voice, “Freeze! Claws where I can see ‘em, Croco!”

“Nyeh?!” Croco grunted, cigar falling out of his fangs and onto his crocs. “Yow! W-what’s the big idea!?” He stuttered, staring into the emotionless eyes of a burning Fire Flower. “Y-yous dumb broads! You tricked me! That ain’t fair!”

The old Toad known as Monster Mama quickly scrambled out the doorway past Toadette, whispering her thanks along the way. She’d keep the kids safe. Now it was just him and her here in what looked to be the orphans sleeping quarters.

“Sorry!” Toadette grinned, loving the power that came from a situation like this. “Let’s make this nice and easy, okay?”

“Oh nice!” Croco growled, gritting his fangs together so hard that sparks flew out. “Real nice! Pretend to be my friend, eh? Knew I shouldn’ta trusted nobody but good ol’ Popple! Well, well, tell you what, kid!”

“Stop talking!” Toadette commanded, her hand tensing over the stem. “I told you, put your claws up!”

“Sure, sure,” Croco conceded, lowering his sack of presumably stolen goods to the floor. “I just need to find a way to pay ya back, see?”

“Enough!” Toadette growled, eyeing the wall behind him. “Claws up, now, or I shoot!”

A snarl. A flash of fangs and white. His claws were out and lusting for her neck. “Pay ya back in spades, kid!” He spat, saliva dribbling wildly down his snout as he lunged.

He was quick, but Toadette was quicker. She fired her shot. It missed him.

“Ha, dumb broad!” Croco laughed manically, clearly forgetting the bouncy nature of these fireballs.

Before he could reach her, the flaming ball bounced harmlessly against the wall and back at him, engulfing his tail in hot red. The thug toppled down before her, legs a blur as he ran circles, smoke trailing behind like he was trying to send out a smoke signal. If anyone could read it, it’d probably say, ‘Help, my tail is on fire.’

“Yeowch, my tail’s on fire!” Croco translated helpfully, chasing after his own tail like a dog. Still, even now, he thrashed about, sack and all, pushing Toadette into the center of the bed filled room. She waited till he calmed down, finally having caught his flaming tail, sucking on the thing with tears in his eyes.

“Give up yet?” Toadette huffed, clutching her Fire Flower confidently. “Or should I turn up the heat?” Oh, that sounded cool. She wished Goombella heard that.

“Grrr! You’re a filthy cheat!” Croco hissed. “Well, I can cheat too, see?!” In an impossibly quick motion, he reached into his sack and pulled out a tiny bomb, shaped like a bob-omb. Cute. “Bombs! Never leave home without ‘em.” His fangs splayed wide in a terrifying smile. “Try settin’ me on fire again, dumb broad! See what happens! Blow us all to smithereens!”

Toadette flinched, still keeping the Fire Flower’s gaze at the smug crook. “You’re out of your mind!”

“I’m a bettin’ gator!” Croco growled, eyes glowing wildly in the doorway. “And I bet you can’t do it! Sure, you’ll get me, but you’ll be blowin’ up all the kids too! Boo hoo, ain’t that sad!?”

Her mind was a torrent, her hands were shaking. She had nowhere to run here in the middle of the room. She had no time to think. She messed up. Bad.

“That’s right,” Croco said, his voice low. “That’s what I thought, toots. Now, yous is gonna drop that Fire Flower, real slow, see? And when yous do that, I’m gonna cut ya up into mushroom stew! And then I’m gonna-”

Bonk!

Huh!? Bonk!?

Croco’s body fell to the ground like a pile of fake crocodile-skin wallets, his tongue lolling out of his snout. Goombella landed next to him with a stylish flourish and a wink, her head only slightly bruised where as his was already growing a massive red bump.

“What a sleazebag!” Goombella huffed, looking over his unconscious head. Coins danced around him instead of dazed Power Stars. “God! I’m so glad I got to slug him after talking to him so long! Yuck! Next time, Toadette, you do the talking, and let me do the action stuff.”

“Oh, Goombella!” Toadette cried, running forward and hugging the blonde girl tight. “You saved me! Thank you so much!”

“W-what’s with you?” Goombella’s voice was muffled in their embrace. “I thought that was your plan! Get him in the doorway so I could sneak up and bonk him, y’know?”

Toadette shook her head, smiling so hard it hurt. She kept squeezing Goombella in her arms like she was a big soft plushie. “Nope! I didn’t mean to do that at all!”

“Ohmigosh, you ditz!” She laughed, now finally accepting the hug more. Toadette’s pink hair fell onto hers making them a big mess of sweat, tangled hair, and maybe some tears. But that’s okay. Goombella wouldn’t tattle that part. It was tough to let go, but Toadette decided it’d probably be good to let Goombella breathe.

Her cuffs made a satisfying clink! as Toadette snapped them over Croco’s limp wrists. Just in case.

“Peach is gonna flip when she sees you nabbed Croco!” Goombella cooed, gathering up his body onto her head, carrying him out of the orphanage with ease.

“When she sees we nabbed, Croco!” Toadette corrected, opening the car door and stuffing him in like a bunch of old socks and sandals into a closet. “I couldn’t have done it without you!”

“Aw, she’ll never believe I did anything.”

“I’ll make her believe it if I have to!”

Goombella looked down at her feet. “You totally don’t have to do that.”

“I don’t, but I want to.” Toadette nodded, her hair feeling weird against her neck. Maybe Goombella’d help her braid it back to normal again after.

She turned to the dumbfounded Ted N. Toad, who looked like a bazooka had gone off right in his face. “Take care of this for us, will ya, Ted?”

“U-uhm! Y-yes ma’am! I’ll, um! Get statements and clean up and let everyone know we’re good here!”

“Thanks.”

When they got back into their car, Goombella grinned towards Toadette. “I totally heard your corny line, by the way. About ‘turning up the heat.’” She giggled. “That was GREAT.”

“Oh my gosh, don’t tease me!” Toadette whined playfully. “It sounded cool in my head!”

“Sure, sure, whatever you say, girl!” Goombella laughed as their car pulled back out into the bustling streets of New Donk City. Just like always, the neon lights greeted her with their alluring twinkling. “But after this, we so gotta go shopping, okay?!”

“Aw, c’mon! I gotta be up early to meet my brother for breakfast! How about tomorrow night?”

“Okay, okay, fine!” Goombella agreed happily.

It wasn’t long before their conversations returned, talking about this and that, and what tomorrow might bring them. Toadette was glad she had such a good partner, glad she had someone to share these lonely drives with. Maybe she’d miss their shopping spree or whatever, but there was always tomorrow. Goombella and this city would always be there waiting for her tomorrow.

#mario #goombella #toadette #croco #paper mario #super mario rpg #fanfiction #my stuff

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imagineaworlds · 6 years

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(1) brandewyn

summary: Thais Bolton lives in the OASIS. Well, sort of. Her dream is to one day live in the OASIS as Brandewyn with her best friend Wade. But he’s more concerned with the three keys James Halliday left behind after his death. The two of them embark on a familiar journey through the OASIS to save it from corporate assholes who want to take it away.

pairing: wade watts x female!oc

word count: 2,725

warnings: cursing. panic attack. ptsd.

(1) - (2) - (3) - (4)

My nose wrinkled back at the smells of 2045 Ohio. After all of this time, one would think I had gotten used to the rotten food, the spreading rust, and the chemical fumes surrounding me in every step; but, no. Every morning I still wished that I could smell fresh air for once, see the sun as it once was, and run in the grass. My parents would tell me stories of them chasing each other in the meadows, pushing each other on a swing roped to a large tree branch, and watching the clouds when they got tired. But then they moved here. Well, really everyone did. Ohio was the place to be once the OASIS opened.

All of my life I’ve lived in the OASIS. Every day was the same. I got out of bed, got dressed, and headed out for the day. When I walked out of the house, I noticed that Wade had already left, the rope tethered down to the first level. From the ground, he was waving at me, inviting me to join him. Like my parents, Wade and I had been friends since we were born. My parents knew Wade’s before they died, and they even offered to take him in, but his Aunt Alice wanted to look after him. Unlike my parents, however, we didn’t have some epic love story about love at first sight and growing up with your soulmate attached to the hip. Instead, Wade and I were just close friends. And I promised myself that I would never tell him that I wanted more.

I grabbed at the rope, and slowly lowered myself towards Wade. As I got closer, I could see his disheveled dark brown hair more clearly, and his index finger pressing the bridge of his glasses further up on his nose. Another thing we shared, our poor eyesight. Wade had these terribly small glasses with no frame, while I had big glasses with large white frames. He teased me about it, saying I looked like I was from the 70’s. Just a decade shy of what he considered to be the best decade of all time. Wade was obsessed with everything 80’s, and that was mostly to do with his obsession with Halliday. His fascination showed by his badly stained Star Wars: A New Hope white t-shirt. He tried to hide the embarrassing stains under a blue flannel, but I knew that shirt well enough. I had bought it for his birthday a few years ago.

As I tethered the rope, I listened to Wade dig the toe of his shoe into the dirt while he waited impatiently. I rolled my eyes at him. It wasn’t like he had to wait for me. He always chose to wait. I kicked his shin playfully before walking past him. Wade shook his ankle out as he hopped after me. “Morning to you, too, sour pants,” he joked. I responded with a fake laugh. “So, what’s your plan today?”

I looked at Wade, watching as his hands gripped onto his backpack straps to keep it high on his shoulders. In the OASIS you could do anything you wanted. Dancing, singing, racing, sports, shooter games, etc. You name it, Halliday created it. “I dunno,” I told him. “Probably join the race.” That was something I hardly ever did. I left that kind of stuff to Wade and Aech because they were always better at it than I was.

First time I ever raced, I nearly zero’d out; and if it weren’t for Wade, I would have. Thing was, I had just gotten past the dinosaur when an IOI car rammed into mine, sending me spinning into a brick wall. The car was totalled, and more IOI cars were approaching, I’d be hit again, and zero’d out. When I tried to jump out of the car, I found my legs stuck. I couldn’t move. My heart was racing in my chest, and I kept glancing over my shoulder to watch the cars getting closer. All I could do was keep trying to pull my legs out of the wreck, and scream for help. In the craziness of it all, I hadn’t even noticed that Wade turned around to come get me.

Too close for comfort, I would tell Wade every time he encouraged me to give it another try. So, I thought that I would never try the race again. But what else was I going to do to pass the time?

The rest of our walk was quiet— unusually quiet. But it was close to Wade’s parents’ anniversary, so I tried not to pry. When we got to the junkyard, Wade went to his bus, and I went to mine. Wade was first to discover the junkyard as a great place to hide out all day, so he got the bigger bus. Coincidentally, there were only two buses there, but they were on opposite sides of the pile of trashed cars.

I had only been in Wade’s bus a couple of times because he claimed that it was his “sacred place”. I didn’t blame him, though, for not wanting anyone to invade his privacy, I didn’t want that either. The few times I had been in there, iti was to help him look over some new information he found about Halliday. His entire bus was covered with news clippings, magazine covers, posters, pictures— everything Halliday.

We weren’t separated for long, of course. Once I was logged into the OASIS, I tracked down Z, who last logged off at the Halliday’s Journals. A friend of mine named Soyzie passed me, she was wearing her famous Rosalina from Mario Kart skin. Everyone on the track knew her because it was nearly impossible to get Rosaline, yet she did.

“Brandewyn!” she called after me, her blue dress flowing behind her.

I turned towards the tracks to look at her. Alright, I’ll be honest. No one played Mario Kart anymore… unless you were under the age of twelve. The two exceptions were myself and Soyzie. Both of us had a rough time at Halliday’s race, so we found comfort in the little kid’s sport which we dominated. “Hey, Soy,” I high fived her. She asked if I was staying for the next race, claiming that Black Power Ranger, as we knew him, was back. He was our only true competitor, but he loved to troll us. “No, I’m actually meeting up with a friend of mine. I’m gonna give Halliday’s race another shot.” Soyzie looked shocked. “I know, but someone has to get that key, right?”

Soyzie nodded, “Have fun,” she waved as racers dressed in Mario and Pokemon outfits lined up.

When I arrived at Halliday’s Journals, Z was waiting for me at the portal. “Wasn’t sure if you’d actually come.” I shrugged. “You’ll be fine. Just bail if something’s wrong.” Z put a hand on my shoulder, “Aech can fix a car, not a zero’d out player.”

As we jumped through the portal together, we found ourselves in the midst of complete chaos. Sixers were marching in their ordered lines, and there were few Gunters left, so they filled the other spots. At the front we found Aech standing proudly with his monster truck. It was infamous on the race track for squashing other cars underneath its large tires. For the most part, Aech only tried to get the Sixers, but there was always the one unfortunate noob who thought it would be smart to go under him.

Next to his large truck was an empty spot. Him and Z shared a handshake, “I saved a spot for you,” he said to his best friend. Then he looked to me, “Sorry, Brandy, didn’t know you were coming.”

“That’s alright, Aech, I’ll head to the back. Probably safer, anyhow.” Both boys nodded in agreement. As Z was about to set up his car in the free spot, he froze. “What is it?”

Z shook his head, “I have to go in the back. You can have this spot, Brandy.”

“Oh, man, really?” Aech laughed, “You have to steal gas coins from zero’d Sixers. That’s a new low, even for you.” Z hit Aech’s large arm.

Aech pretended to be hurt, whining like a baby, while I set up my car in the front spot. Quietly, Z walked away from us. I only had two cars, the one from my old racing days, and my Mario Kart bike. There’s only one rule amongst my friends at the Kart tracks, bikes only. Everyone knows that bikes are better than cars, only the little kids used karts. But that bike wouldn’t survive this track. That bike was used to dodging banana peels, not wrecking balls; and skidding along paved tracks, not normal streets. There was only one other option.

As the car set up, I thought about how Aech fixed it for me after the wreck. It was totalled, but with Aech’s mods and coins, he made do. The car was a GTA based maroon Jester sports car with the number 53 on the sides, and the number 8 on the hood. The 53 was obviously based on Herbie the love bug, but it also represents feeling free to do what you think is right even when the world is telling you no. That number is on the sides to remind me to stay grounded and level headed. The number 8 represents power, which is why it’s on the hood of the car.

I opened the car door, and jumped in. Every sound set my teeth on edge, the engines revving and the cheering from Gunters were just a few small examples. But the minute the light turned from red to yellow, nothing else was on my mind except getting to that finish line. No fucking this up. I thought to myself just before the light turned green and green fireworks shot into the sky. At the same time, everyone pressed on the gas pedal and we were off. Aech, having a heavy truck, started a bit slower, but sped up.

Off the bat, Sixer cars were crashing all over the place, and we weren’t even off the bridge. Old Gunter friends of mine were catching up to me. And soon I had to start weaving through the sea of Sixer and Gunter cars. I pushed my car as much as I could, eyeing the broken, twisted ramps ahead. Everything was moving fast— faster than I ever recalled. Against the wheel, my hands were shaking, and my palms were sweaty against the leather.

One by one, cars flew off the ramps; and some crashed, while others made it across. My grip tightened, and my foot pressed harder on the gas, and then I just prayed. For a fleeting moment, it was peaceful. I didn’t have to weave, curse other drivers who cut me off, or worry about any upcoming obstacle. I was free flying through the air, and then the car dropped back onto the track on the other side of the jump. I cheered loudly as I made a sharp left turn.

“Guys, are you seeing this?” Z asked myself and Aech. I didn’t know what he was talking about, but Aech did. He described a bike from Akira, a movie I had seen only about a thousand times. And then I realized who he was describing.

My eyes shot wide, “Art3mis is here?!” I exclaimed.

Aech scoffed, “No way is it her.”

“No, I have seen all of her Twitch streams, read all of her blog posts. It’s her.”

“Where are you guys, anyways?” I asked while driving under a bridge. Around the next corner would be the obstacles before where I crashed last time.

Z sounded like he was in a struggle as he spoke, “Just landed off the ramps. Where are you?”

I looked ahead. Swinging from the sky, seemingly attached to nothing, gigantic wrecking balls rained down upon us. To my right, a Gunter got scooped away by one, coins falling from where they once were. I didn’t think twice before collecting the coins. I looked around to see who my nearest competition was, thinking it would be a Sixer, but I saw no one. Just in case, I looked in the rear view mirror. Nothing. Over my shoulders. Nothing. What the hell? I thought to myself.

I jumped the construction sight small ramp with ease, and started to slow my speed. I didn’t mean to, it was just instinct. Ahead, there was China Town, where I crashed last time. If my heart wasn’t pounding hard enough in my chest from adrenaline, it was about to explode from anxiety. In my stomach, I felt a pit growing like I was about to puke. My breathing was short and wavering, and my eyes started to water. “I can’t to it…” I muttered as I bailed. Just before I reached the trigger for the T-Rex, I came to a halt, my brakes shaking under my shoot, and the tires tried to grab the ground as I skidded to a stop.

“What are you talking about?” Z asked worriedly.

A Sixer car zoomed past me, triggered the T-Rex who picked up the grey car and crushed it between its large teeth. “I can’t pass the dinosaur,” I said as more cars started passing me. It hadn’t even occurred to me that the Akira bike had passed me, and then the Back to the Future car passed me. My head hit the steering wheel, the siren sounded like a whisper compared to loud clamor of cars and roars from the T-Rex. “I’m sorry…”

“It’s okay,” Z said, determination now ringing in his voice.

“I had to bail to,” Aech added angrily. Then his voice cheered, “Go! Go! You got it! Go, Z!” The way he was cheering, it sounded like Z was about to win, and I wasn’t even there.

Suddenly, it didn’t seem like I needed to worry about that. “Shit…” Z growled. “Art3mis isn’t going to make it,” he said. “King Kong will zero her out.” Quiet. “Bail!” he shouted at someone. “Bail!”

I put the car in reverse and started slowly heading back to the start where we would always meet up after bad races— and all of them were bad races. I waited for Z and Aech, sitting on the hood of my car, playing on my in-game Gameboy. In the real world you could never find old technology, it was really hard and expensive. But in the Oasis, I had three Gameboy’s, two of which were customs. It was weird to be playing a video game inside of a video game at first, but I got used to it, and it’s how I started passing the time.

More and more Gunters trudged back with low health and their damaged vehicles pocketed. Some were drinking healing potions and putting “bandages” on for more health. Others, who had nothing, slowly let their health come back. In the exodus, I saw Aech’s giant avatar next to two smaller avatars. I recognized one as Perzival, and the other as the Art3mis.

As the neared, I pocketed the Jester after dismounting it, and greeted the three of them with a smile. Z was glowing with excitement, and Aech was rolling his eyes at every other word. “Oh!” Z exclaimed, “This is my friend Brandewyn,” he said it like I was an afterthought before continuing on his nerd rant. I couldn’t blame him, though. Who could? He was meeting one of the greatest OASIS streamers, someone he aspired to be like.

I cleared my throat to grab their attention. “I’m headed out. But I wanted to give this to you, Aech.” I threw the miniature figure of my car at him.

He caught it and looked at me, bewildered. “The Jester?” he questioned with both excitement and disbelief. I nodded. “You’re giving me the Jester? Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. My Copper Key Race days are over. I figured if anyone was going to take good care of it, it would be you, Aech. Treat her well or I’ll cut your balls off in the real world.” I laughed as I waved goodbye and took my OASIS visor off, Z saying something about wanting me to stay. I didn’t hear him.

#ready player one #ready player one imagine #ready player one imagines #ready player one smut #ready player one series #wade watts #wade watts imagine #wade watts imagines #wade watts smut #wade watts series

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reefs-n-relaxation · 6 years

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Getting to Know me

There’s a thought that often times pops into my head when I’m super depressed, “nobody knows who you are, not really.” You’d think that’s just the depression talking, but it’s actually true. I unintentionally do a pretty good job of hiding aspects of myself. In an attempt to rectify that, I’m going to ramble on about whatever comes to my mind. I’m not interesting or anything, but if I were to suddenly vanish I’d like if people actually had a proper idea of who I was. Here we go:

Name: My name is Reilly. That one I haven’t really kept much of a secret, haha. Who Am I: I’m a guy who was raised by two different households which I’m very greatful for because I think it helped me in being more open minded and aware of stuff in life. Later on I was also raised by an even larger household known as the internet. I loved going on to youtube to watch AMVs, listen to Linkin Park, and check out memes, but I loved it most of all for a chat site called TinierMe. TinierMe introduced me to so many people who had the same interests when back home nobody in the area really understood me or gave a shit about my interests. My pals from TinierMe helped me so so much in becoming who I am today, but its closure and the subsequent loss of said friends put me in a DEEP depression that hasn’t gone away no matter how many friends, exercise, medication, or improved eating habits I throw at it. I don’t let me depression define me, I’m not just a sad sack and I do what I can to keep people around me from being sad, but it’s also done a lot of damage and influenced many of my life decisions. Depending on my mood I could either give everyone in the world a hug and some good memories and compassion, or I could destroy the planet without a moments hesitation. At my worst and most depressed I used to go to certain websites and watch people die to make myself feel better, not because I liked watching people die, but because I liked to pretend they were me. It was fucked up, and I’m not like that anymore nor have I gone on to the site in years. I’m very ashamed and saddened at how desensitized I’ve made myself. These days I try to be far more positive and increase positivity in others as well, and it’s very hard work but also very worth it. In the end, I’m a passive average joe who likes to think, observe nature’s beauty (especially oceans and the stars), and dream about having dreams. I’m not really overly good or bad at anything, and when I die it’ll go unnoticed by the world.

Favorite Color: This is always changing. Usually though my favorite colors are shades of pink, purple, or green.

Favorite Food: My food tastes are all over the place. I’m willing to try just about anything, though I tend to dislike foods that are eaten by themselves (Ex. steak, pork chops, chicken breast). That being said, my #1 comfort food would have to be fried/coconut shrimp with some fries and cola. It’s not something to have very often, but every time I do have it I’m relaxed and genuinely happy/SUPER.

Music Tastes: My musical tastes are about as varied as my food tastes but I’ll try to condense a list of some of my all-time favorite stuff: Grynpyret - Boba Beach Sonata Arctica - San Sebastian Flight Facilities - Clair De Lune (feat. Christine Hoberg) The Protomen - Keep Quiet Flight of the Conchords - Rambling Through the Avenues of Time The Pierces - We Are Stars Oasis - Don’t Look Back in Anger Milo - The Ballad of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy John Denver- Annie’s Song Enigma - Sadeness Akeboshi - Seeds Rei Brown - Picture Frames This list was waaaaaay harder to make than I thought it’d be, and there’s stil a whole lot I’m leaving out haha.

Favorite Movie: Swiss Army Man by far. The music, scenery, plot, symbolism, humor, writing, acting, every aspect of the film is pretty close to perfection in my eyes. When I saw it for the first time I was mentally in a situation very similar to the main character though, so I know there’s a bit of bias here. The movie is weird and definitely isn’t for everyone, but very few movies about a suicidal mean teaching a corpse that life’s worth living will be. Please go check this film out!

Hobbies: I really don’t do much in life aside from lay motionless in bed like a vampire waiting for the moon to rise. I enjoy scribbling and imagining about creatures and characters but never actually doing anything with these thoughts. I’ve also taken up painting miniatures which can be quite fun. My main hobby though is voice acting. Recently I’ve been straying away from it, but it’s brought me a lot of joy and helped me to meet a bunch of really cool people so I’m sure I won’t be gone for long. Love Life: Once upon a time I had a wonderful dream, it took place in a wonderful Venice-like city with pastel colored buildings and vibrant plantlife everywhere. This dream spawned a crush that crippled me for YEARS. Nothing ever came of it in the end though, which is probably for the best. I’d like to think I’m a romantic, but really I’m just lazy and want someone to talk to haha. So, in conclusion I probably should not’ve added this segment, but oh well. Friends: Over my life I’ve had so many friends. Frankly I’m a VERY shitty friend to have, and I feel bad for people who like me to tell you the truth. That being said I love each of my friends very much, even if I don’t show it and push them away. Favorite Book: When I was little I used to love reading and would read all kinds of stuff, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve read books less and less. I think school is to blame for this, but some of my favorite books have come from forced readings. At the height of my love for reading I actually used to browse a fanfiction site named after Lemmy Koopa from Super Mario every day haha. These days I mostly just read Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure with the occasional comic book or other Shonen Jump series. Favorite Video Game(s): This is always a hard question for me, but I always reach the same conclusion: The World Ends With You. It’s a game I picked up in my younger more emo and angsty about socity years, so the game and especially the ending were very influential to me. I play and have played all kinds of games, however, I love the culture and creativity of video games far more than actually playing them. When it comes to Nintendo stuff though, I could talk about most series’ all day (Yoshi and Kapp’n are two of my favorite characters in all of gaming), and Smash Bros. especially always makes me happy because of how it brings everyone together. P.S. A Rhythm Heaven rep for Smash PLEASE Random Thought/Philosophy: One of my favorite games is Yoshi’s Island on the SNES. That game in particular has a fantastic philosophy. The game is a simple platformer where you must traverse the level with a baby on your back who you have to take care of by not getting hit. You can beat the levels normally, or you can try to perfect the levels by finding all of the hidden red coins, hidden flowers, and by not allowing the baby to take damage. Each level has a brand new Yoshi (indicated by a new color) and introduces new elements and themes. These ideas translate well to a happy life in my eyes. Take good care of those who you love and those who you can protect, go with the flow and embrace whatever new experiences life throws at you, don’t be afraid of change, and you don’t always have to be perfect just make sure that you are having fun as you go along.

I think that’s good for now. Apologies for the long post, but this is something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time but haven’t really had the courage or the drive to do. If you’re reading this I both apologize and thank you for taking the time to do so, and I hope your opinion of me hasn’t soured (though if it has that’s completely understandable). If you have any other questions or clarifications about stuff that you’d like to know I’d be delighted to talk to you, but if not that’s cool too. Hope you’re having a wonderful day/night, and hope you keep having these wonderful days until we meet again. :)

#Reilly Journal #get to know me #get to know the blogger

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troyfullbuster · 2 years

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Mario Party Superstars review!

Video review here: https://youtu.be/3aLV2wOp_H0

Mario Party Superstars is everything we wanted since they created Mario Party the Top 100 for Nintendo 3DS five years prior. After Nintendo’s attempted reboot of the Mario Party series in Super Mario Party, they went back to the classic formula…and by that I mean literally with classic boards and classic minigames. Essentially, we got what we wanted since the 3DS Mario Party: A shortened best of Mario Party’s history in its boards and minigames.

After going through every single map and playing nearly every minigame I think it is safe to say this is one of my favorite Mario Party’s and could be the best one. Yes, I know it is a bit of a cop-out calling this my favorite when it has some of my favorite boards and a lot of my favorite minigames but it’s true! The updated graphics, the options for fast text, choosing classic or modern music, fast CPU turns, skipping their item minigames and turns in minigames (only if it is a one-at-a-time game) really gives the player a fantastic option if they want to play solo. Local multiplayer is just as fun and hectic as usual, though my one gripe with the game has to be with the amount of lucky spaces and the item selection. They brought back the Super Mario Party items rather than the classic items and I just don’t think they work as well in the classic maps as the original items did.

Things like the Boo Bell technically exist, but only in Horror Land for whoever Boo thinks is going to win (usually the 4th place person) and it just made me miss the madness of good RNG at the item shop or making plans based off what items you can get. For end of games the bonus stars make a return, but not in the classic style, it can be a bonus for nearly anything going from Minigame star, to Slowpoke or most Unlucky star! This really makes the game accessible for anyone of any skill level and is a pretty good addition for those playing with others who aren’t too familiar with the game or series. My favorite feature though has to be the ability to choose what kind of minigames you want. With this you can choose from having just Nintendo 64 minigames, Gamecube ones, skill based ones, “family” ones, or just your favorites while you play in a Mario Party match.

Mount Minigame is the other feature in this game for solo and online play besides the classic Mario Party (that’s the name of playing the boards). Mount Minigame is like Minigame island where you can play all the minigames in a free-play mode, a coin battle mode (aka who wins the most), and where you access the special sports minigames and puzzle games. I’ve always loved these games and think Nintendo did everyone a favor they didn’t have to by bringing these back in and they are just as chaotic and fun as ever. Lastly, Nintendo has a single player minigame mountain feature where you go head-to-head in Daily Challenges and minigame showdowns, though they weren’t open when I was playing at first.

For those who are wondering how the controls for the minigames felt compared to the classic games honestly, they controlled nearly the same or better in some instances! Bombs away got a huge improvement in movement, ground pounds in Mushroom Mix-up are KEY now, bumper balls doesn’t feel like a human draw machine, and everyone moves as smooth as butter. Honestly, nearly every game is improved though I think they buffed character movement too much that Dungeon Duos felt weird at first.

Overall, this game is not going to win GOTY (over Metroid Dread) but is a must-buy for not just any Mario Party or Mario series fan, but any Nintendo Switch owner. It’s the perfect game for friends and family, the online features gives solo playing a bigger reason, and who doesn’t want to get all 50 achievements from Kamek while leveling up their MP card to Level 99!

#mario party superstars #mario party superstars review #gaming #video games #gaming review #gaming reviews

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allofbeercom · 6 years

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The final bar? How gentrification threatens America’s music cities

Austin, Nashville and New Orleans have thrived on the success of vibrant music scenes. But as rents rise and noise complaints become more common, do they risk ruining what made them famous in the first place?

At a Sixth Street bar in the heart of Austin, Texas a pop up version of Sebs jazz club from the Hollywood hit film La La Land is being set up its blue letters yet to be switched on. Nearby, a replica of Breaking Bads Los Pollos Hermanos fast food restaurant has appeared, causing a minor Twitter frenzy.

These are just two of the attractions materialising in the city in time for the music and media festival South by Southwest (SXSW), and throughout the 10 days of the event it is hard to find someone who isnt wearing an official SXSW wristband worth $1,000.

What started 30 years ago as a celebration of Austins local music scene, though, is now in danger of harming the very thing that made it unique. SXSW brings in hundreds of artists from around the world, 200,000 visitors and $325.3m (250m) to the citys economy. Its success has helped Austin establish music as a fundamental part of its development, but at the same time, as many as 20% of musicians in this self-appointed live music capital of the world survive below the federal poverty line.

According to a recent study by the Urban Land Institute, the city is in the effective 11th hour of the endangerment of the live music scene, brought on by Austins rapid growth it is now the fastest growing city in the US in terms of population, jobs and economy.

A downtown wall mural in the shadow of new high-rise construction in Austin. Photograph: George Rose/Getty Images

Its a difficult reality for the city to confront. Austin is one of the three major US music cities, alongside New Orleans and Nashville, that have capitalised on this local culture at the risk of ruining the scenes that made them famous in the first place. In Austin, the local live music scene is now paying the price for its success. Brian Block, of the citys economic development office, says despite an apparent city-wide financial boom, local musicians income is at best stagnating, and possibly declining.

Hayes Carll, a 41-year-old Grammy-nominated artist who recently won Austins Musician of the Year, says that for most Texans, Austin is the mecca of music cities. It was where it all came together: the songs, the record stores, the community, the identity. It was the first place I went where I could say Im a singer-songwriter and they didnt ask me what my real job was.

Music lives throughout Austins 200 or so venues, the annual music awards and festivals, and the many brilliant artists including Townes Van Zandt and Janis Joplin who have called it home. It was where Willie Nelson allegedly reunited the hippies and rednecks when he first went on stage at the Armadillo World Headquarters in August 1972. Today, Austins love of local creativity is immortalised in folk singer Daniel Johnstons Hi, how are you? mural, depicting his iconic alien frog near the citys university.

SXSW brings $325m to the Austin economy each year. Photograph: Larry W Smith/EPA

But despite this rich history, long-standing venues in Austins downtown Red River District are being forced to adjust to an influx of new neighbours mostly expensive condos or hotels. Rising rents have forced venues like Holy Mountain and Red 7 to close, while noise complaints are an ongoing problem hotels offer earplugs for a better nights sleep.

Therere some less than wonderful aspects to the growth process, and I know a lot of friends who have had to leave Austin, says Carll, a Texan who has lived here for 12 years. Austin is going to have to fight to keep some of the things that made it special like the affordability and how you could be yourself and do whatever you wanted. When you become the hot cool city that everybodys moving to, some of that freedom can get pushed out.

The city government is keen to stress that theyre working to preserve the live music scene. In 2013 the Red River District was given its cultural title to highlight its local significance. Block says they are now implementing a Red River extended hours pilot programme in the hope that an extra hour of live music on the weekend will bring increased revenues to help cope with rising costs, and more paid work for the musicians.

Willie Nelson performs in his annual 4th of July Picnic at the Austin360 Amphitheater. Photograph: Gary Miller/Getty Images

The city is also revising its land development codes for the first time in 30 years in an effort to raise the profile of entertainment districts. There are other support systems that come from outside government too, such as Haam which provides access to affordable healthcare for low-income musicians. Music is very important to the culture, to the local economy and I think it will remain so. Hopefully we can get ahead of the issues we know are coming, Block says.

But some feel its too late. Im worried Austin will change negatively, says Carll. Its great that Austins identity revolves around music, and that the city government is trying to do things to correct it. But none of that will matter if musicians cant afford to live there, or the venues are shut down because of noise complaints, or you cant get to the venue because youre stuck in traffic on the highway.

New Orleans: music from cradle to grave

Louis Armstrong and his All Stars in a still from director Arthur Lubins musical New Orleans. Photograph: Frank Driggs Collection/Getty Images

Across the state border in Louisiana, New Orleans is facing similar problems as it develops and gentrifies. There are fears that without local government actively supporting musicians, the scenes survival could be at risk.

How do you keep a [music scene] real and authentic and yet encourage people to get involved? Its a paradox, says Jan Ramsey, editor of local magazine OffBeat. Theres an authenticity to the music and the people who make it, and the integration of black and white culture here we never want to lose that.

John Swenson, journalist and author of New Atlantis, Musicians Battle for the Survival of New Orleans says the music accompanies you from the cradle to the grave; its born out of the neighbourhoods and permeates all levels of society. Jazz was born here, tracing back to the mixture of African drums and European horns played by slaves in the late 19th century; and part of its musical heritage is a long list of prodigious artists, from Louis Armstrong to James Booker.

The Spotted Cat. Photograph: Alamy

This culture attracts some 10 million tourists to the city each year. But what is unique about it and gives the scene greater strength is how it has become an invaluable lifeline for the citys regeneration after the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

In the Spotted Cat, one of the long-standing venues on Frenchmen Street, manager Cheryl Abana talks quietly as a jazz singer performs to a crowded room. For a couple of years [after Katrina] it was pretty sad here and the music scene really helped out with trying to get everyones spirits up. It really helped build the city up again, she says.

One of the most successful programmes to support the creative community following Katrina was Musicians Village, devised by Harry Connick Jr and Branford Marsalis alongside Habitat for Humanity. Situated in the Upper Ninth ward one of the places hardest hit by the hurricane it is a community of homes built by volunteers to support displaced musicians. Its a symbol to musicians that my community will be there when I get back; were going to keep that tradition alive, says Jim Pate, executive director of the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity.

A decade on, and artists of all genres and ages live in the village, including some of the godfathers of New Orleans heritage like Little Freddie King. The musicians came back to New Orleans because music lived here, says Swenson.

People listen to music at a home in Musicians Village. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Nashville: the original music city

In Nashville, Tennessee, just a few blocks away from the famous honky tonk highway of Broadway, mayor Megan Barry sits in her office overlooking the state capitol. She is surrounded by motifs of Nashvilles music history: theres a framed photograph of DeFord Bailey sitting on the steps of the Ryman auditorium, the first African American to perform at the Grand Ole Opry; and in the foyer hangs a painting by Chris Coleman of Kings of Leon. He gave it to Barry as a gift.

Music is everywhere. Although it has a heritage as influential as New Orleans, here it spreads further: from inside the mayors office and the governments music council, to pretty much everyone you meet in the city who either plays it, writes it or listens to it (every taxi driver I meet is a musician; my Airbnb host is a songwriter).

As soon as I mention the phrase music cities, Barry interrupts jovially: Well, I think theres only one! Music has been part of Nashvilles foundations since the 1800s when it established itself as a centre for music publishing. Its heritage goes back to the Fisk Jubilee Singers who were based here the African American a cappella band who were the first musical group to tour the world, raising money for freed slaves. Upon hearing them, Queen Victoria allegedly coined Nashvilles title as a music city, which is now plastered across Tennessee billboards.

Bars and honky-tonks line Broadway in Nashville. Photograph: Brian Jannsen/Alamy

In 1925, WSM radio station was founded, which went on to broadcast the Grand Ole Opry now the longest running radio show in the US that gave rise to some of the greatest names in country music. Music Row, the 200-acre area near downtown at its peak housed 270 music publishers, 120 record production agencies, 80 record manufacturing companies, 80 booking agencies and more. Elvis Heartbreak Hotel was recorded here at RCA in 1956; Bob Dylans Blonde on Blonde was recorded nearby at Columbia Recording studios 10 years later.

Now, the $10bn industry music industry provides 56,000 jobs, supporting more than $3.2bn of labour income annually. We cant undersell its importance to our overall economic viability and continued growth and prosperity, says Barry.

Nashville is projected to grow by 186,000 residents and 326,000 jobs in the next 25 years, and like Austin, has to confront uncomfortable growing pains in the form of gentrification. But music is firmly intertwined with the citys municipal plans for how it will develop in the future.

DeFord Bailey was the first African American to perform at the Grand Ole Opry. Photograph: GAB Archive/Redferns

The city provides affordable housing for musicians, and music programmes for school children, as we know our graduation rates go up when kids are involved in music, says Barry. They go on and they have a career in music and then it feeds the job creation. Its about feeding that pipeline.

I think that although music evolves and changes, the ability for Nashville to grow and change with it has been part of our success.

At Dinos bar in east Nashville, 26-year-old musician Cale Tyson is sipping on a beer. He is one of thousands of artists who moved here because of its history. I feel like Nashvilles a town where musicians are treated really well. I dont think anythings closed off here, says the Texan singer-songwriter. In Nashville the competition and being around so many good artists forces you to work a lot harder.

People continue to migrate to Nashville because of this (about 100 a day), and this influx has inevitably changed the music scene for better or worse. The country music capital of the world which ignited the careers of Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn and Kitty Wells to name just a few is now home to a burgeoning hip hop scene in the citys so-called DIY clubs. Jack White moved in and set up a branch of Third Man records in 2009, while bands like Paramore, Kings of Leon and the Black Keys have all migrated here.

Nashville has even spawned a genre called bro country, where burly men sing about chewing tobacco and celebrate being a redneck (with lyrics that repeat red red red red redneck), their odd rap verses a world away from the original country music that formed the soul of this city.

But the commercialisation of Nashville has led to accusations that country music is dead. A few years ago US country singer Collin Raye made a heartfelt plea for the city to get back to its roots and remember the musicians who built and sustained the Nashville industry and truly made country music an American art form, he said. It needs to be that way once again. God Bless Hank Williams. God Bless George Jones.

And people are still trying to keep this alive. I dont think traditional country went away, says Brendan Malone who runs a traditional honky tonk an event celebrating country music in the east of the city. The fire was still kindling. It just needed to have some gasoline poured on it.

At Malones Honky Tonk Tuesdays, a man in a check shirt is barbecuing some ribs in the car park of the US army veterans club. Inside, ageing regulars sit at the bar nursing whiskeys to the sound of Hank Williams on the juke box.

In the main room, men and women of all ages wearing Stetsons and western shirts take turns two-stepping with each other as the band covers songs of Ernest Tubb and Red Foley. They perform against a backdrop of the US flag laid out in fairy lights.

Theres a sincere sense of pride in Nashvilles history here, despite how far the city and its culture has changed. With support from the mayors office to the local community, it seems Nashville took a bet on music and it paid off.

Follow Guardian Cities on Twitter and Facebook to join the discussion, and explore our archive here

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/the-final-bar-how-gentrification-threatens-americas-music-cities/

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nullset2 · 4 years

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Why New 3D Mario Games Suck

Before I go to bed I want to write a quick article about my opinions of Mario games. Ah, Mario games... I will never tire of you. Crisp and clean, to the point and joyfully so. Just jump, mofocka. Games that revel in the concept of moving around, making it inherently fun. Is there more noble of a proposition in gaming? Has there ever been more lucid game design?

Yet, I think that modern Mario games suck.

Like everyone and their grandmother (and if your grandmother plays Mario send her my regards, she's cool as hell, dude) I've been playing Mario 3D All Stars to have me a nice time. However it does reinforce this idea that I've always had, that Mario games, even though they may share the same broad aesthetic values and mechanics, are different from each other by nature. In this article, I propose that this change over time has actually been for the worse, leading to a loss of complexity in platforming game design with each successive iteration which is being traded away in favor of more cinematics and bombastics.

First things first, we have the beautiful Mario 64. A timeless classic and most of us' first foray into 3D games (yes, this was the very first game I ever played where the notion of the third dimension actually mattered. I had already played Star Fox but in Star Fox you don't really move in three dimensions, you're just in a plane going on rails and you cannot move completely freely). I played this before I even touched Doom or other first person games of the sort.

Minor parentheses by the way: did you know that Star Fox was inspired on the Inari Taisha temple? The beautiful, big long mountain shrine in Kyoto full of orange gates?

Fox translates to Inari and its creator, Dylan Cuthberth, who loved Japan a lot, got inspiration from it which he applied to his new bizarre fucking mind bending 3D tech which he then pitched and sold to nintendo and then became the basis for the Ultra 64, which was to come, and thus one of the main pillars of all modern 3D gaming as a whole? Holy shit, right? In Star Fox you cross gates to gain powerups and to make it fun to maneuver around with your Airwing... How come that I had never seen the connection?

But anyway. Back to Mario 64.

It is commonly told that Mario 64 was created by Miyamoto parting from the concept of a "secret garden". Most of the development time initially, it is said, was spent on Miyamoto and Tezuka, Mario creators, fine tuning the movement system in an isolated garden map without any enemies or hazards.

The purpose of the secret garden was threefold: first, the team was used to designing Mario games as 2d platformers and they were uncertain about how to take Mario games into the 3D era (a literal, flat-out equivalent conversion of classic mario, think Super Mario World, powerups and all, was considered at a certain point in development, creating linear, obstacle course stages with a beginning and a goal, the remnants of which still linger in the final game as the bowser stages, an idea which was finally fleshed out with the Mario 3D series on the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, 20 years later (!)), so they needed a way to hash out ideas about how to design this new installment.

Second, Miyamoto took as one of the goals of the project to design Mario's movement with a supreme level of fidelity, so he'd use this area to test and test and test all of Mario's acrobatics, to make them feel smooth, convincing and entertaining to play. He'd say that as long as a move didn't feel right in the garden, it couldn't be used in the final game, creating in the end as something that feels a little bit like ninja acrobatics on rollerskates or ice skating.

Third, the team eventually realized that, since 3D content was incredibly expensive to create back in 1995, when commonplace computer 3D animation and design was still quite in its infancy, they needed to develop the skill to design little sandboxes which were good enough to run around in over and over without getting tired of them (think of it as if constructing a highly detailed, complex diorama, an idea fleshed out finally in Captain Toad from Super Mario 3D world, again, 20 years later (!)). This was to create more content for the game while reusing the same architecture and geometry for the levels, since resource usage had to be maximized. The remnants of the garden are still present in the final game, as the Castle Grounds.

So, do you see the level of SOUL invested here? The level of care, the amount of love placed into each and everyone of Mario's moves in Super Mario 64? And the results show it: the game allows the player to tackle all objectives at their own pace, in their own terms, however way they can. The game forces nothing down your throat: blast to the island in the sky? Well, maybe just long jump to it if you're gutsy enough, no need to wait until you unlock cannons. Or get the 8 red coins first if you want. Or just fuck it, and go and release the chain chomp first because he looks very cool and this is probably the first power star that all people who play the game get first. Or just, fuck it, you can skip that objective all together if you want, just collect enough stars for the next door unlock.

Jump, double jump, triple jump, dive, dive from jump, punch, breakdance kick, backflip, turn and backflip, long jump, wall jump, grab objects and throw, jump-shortkick, slide down, ground pound, fly from triple jump, swim, crouch... and even crawl. I count a total of 20 possible interactions with the environment, maybe even more I'm missing. All movements completely available to you from the start to mix and match the way you best see fit (except for flying, which is unlocked like 15 minutes into the game). The world is yours and you're free, go nuts son. The only variable is your skill at the movement system.

So you can probably see why this is delicious design. There's never a single way to clear most power stars in the game, instead the decision is left to the player, which the game trusts is smart enough to figure out solutions to problems on their own. Wanna jump for it? Sure, if you can. Want to wait unil you got the powerup? That's cool too. Want to go play another level? Sure thing! OR FUCK IT! JUST RACE THE KOOPA IF YOU WANT!

So you can probably see why I loathe the fact that the sequel was based exclusively on giving people a dumbed down version of the same shit, with a fucking dumb water pack.

Come 2002 and under pressure to perform, the team releases Super Mario Sunshine and it's the most bland, dumbed down sequel ever (though, could anyone really live up to such a predecessor's prowess?). In an attempt to make the game accessible to more players (tm), the game is stripped out of its complexity. Mario no longer moves as a gracious, roller skating gazelle that can navigate the world in the most agile and beautiful way ever. Instead you screech down to a halt the second you stop pushing the direction stick instead of providing people with that most delicious sense of momentum and friction SM64 had. Boo Hoo! Baby think 3D platforming is too hard? BABY CANNOT HANDLE PING PING WAHOO ON THE N64? Then we give babby a water nozzle which will allow them to correct any miscalculated jump ever (it's insulting that this is the best solution they managed to come up with) HOORAY!

But hey! Sunshine has good things about it! Uh... the water is pretty! (that's probably where all the development time and resources probably went anyway).

SAY WHAT? WE GOT TO RELEASE THIS YEAR? AND THEY WANT US TO INCLUDE 120 STARS AGAIN? FUCK! WE RAN OUT OF TIME; JUST ADD BLUE COINS, DUDE! YEAH WHATEVER! SHIP IT! THIS IS THE GAME! I'M GONNA GO LIE DOWN AND HAVE A BEER! FUCK IT!

Mario Sunshine is not a bad game, but it's not a bold, groundbreaking game like its predecessor was. It detests and rejects the fact that you are a competent platforming game player. It nerfs everything down. It makes it almost impossible to lose. It plays things too safe and too easy, replacing action game design with flashing lights, prettier graphics, and an easier experience; it has its moments but it's an inferior game mechanically: jump, double jump, triple jump, hover, rocket jump, turbo run (why), walk on tightropes (why), spin in air (why), spin from ground into high jump, turn and backflip, swim, spray water, spray water and dive, wall jump, ground pound. It's only 16 moves -- less than its predecessor --, and they have less complexity and are easier to execute.

Not only that but you're no longer free to tackle objectives the way you see fit. The world is now a container for several course-clears, and no longer allowing for the freedom of open world games. If you pick Shine 1, you WILL clear shine 1 in that run of the level. If the game wants you to watch a cutscene (of which there were none in SM64), you WILL watch the fucking cutscene. Wash rinse repeat until you get enough shines to clear the lamest end boss in video game history.

Again, it's not a bad game but it reeks of suits getting involved in the process and demanding shit to be made easier because otherwise it wouldn't sell. It reeks of misplaced priorities. It's a pretty game and it's nice for an afternoon, but after that you just have blue coins left and hooooooooooooo weeeeeee I'm not touching that shit. The most asinine side quest I've ever seen in a video game: to find blue coins hidden in random spots, usually by cleaning a spot of graffitti, and exchange 10 of them for a single shine, the collection of which cannot be stacked and forces you to watch a cutscene every time. Reeks of laziness.

Then Mario Galaxy comes out and Jesus Christ. It's like they don't give a shit at this point. Open-world, acrobatics-centric 3D Mario is just fucking gone. This is probably the point where it became cheap enough to make 3D content en-masse that they just started copying the classic Mario formula in 3D to churn out content.

The bad thing, is that at a certain point it feels as if the games play themselves and I've always been against it and will always be against it because I'm into games due to the fact that they're something which engages my brain. I don't like games which just keep me there, passively looking at the screen, reacting to quick time events. I want to be immersed, engrossed and I want to feel that nice sense of exploration and fun experimentation that you only get with open world games.

The games are back to linear now: even though, in Sunshine, they made an effort to at least make things seem open world, they don't care anymore in this one. It's all just linear levels happening in planetoids which you visit in a sequence, to, yet again, remove all hazards and all notion of challenge and complexity, even more than before. And you have to shake the wii remote to spin to top it off, and this gives you a free save if you miscalculate a jump. The galaxy games were extrapolated through the 3D series: Super Mario 3D Land and 3D World (strong candidates for most bizarre title to a video game ever), to form which is called the "course clear" vein of 3D mario games, starting from the Galaxy games.

See, nintendo themselves differentiate between "Course-clear" 3D Mario and "Open World" 3D Mario. Once Super Mario Oddysey got announced, they came out with this interesting infographic about their classification for 3D Mario games:

Don't get me wrong again, there's nothing inherently bad about these types of Mario game, and Galaxy 2 and Mario 3D World are both some of the best video games ever created, but I think that something got lost in transition when compared to the sublime finesse of the movement system in Mario 64. The way it respects your intelligence, the way it drops you in an open world and gives you freedom, the way that its worlds are built, I think that all of this has never been paralleled, not even by nintendo themselves for some reason, and I think the reason why this happened is that, maybe the excellence of Mario 64, quirks and all, was a product of its time and the limitations in production ability for 3d content and graphics that surrounded its creation at the time.

Yet, Lo and Behold! 2017 is here and Super Mario Oddyssey is in the horizon and it promises to be the Next Big Thing (tm) since sliced bread. A TRUE and HONEST return to form, to the Glory Days of Mario 64! And the game is way too enthsiastic with its embracing of Super Mario 64 nostalgia: there's literally a whole level inspired after the Mario 64 castle grounds in Mario Oddysey and the whole notion of absolute freedom from Mario 64 (somewhat) returns (but not completely because you still are subject to doing a main big event per level, after which the rest of the level unlocks; once you clear the game, the second half of the game unlocks even). And the emphasis is back into acrobatics again, which is a good thing: playing with your hat can get you places if you're handy with it.

But my biggest gripe with Super Mario Oddysey is that it's not completely honest as it claims to be. It's a course-clear game hidden under a coat of paint of an open world-game. It's literally Zelda Breath of the Wild's half-assed design all over again: big empty world full of collectibles, with tiny "levels" to be found. Once you find a game, it's time to do a thing --wash rinse repeat. In Mario Oddysey you explore around until you find a pipe or a door or a character and you get plunked into a Super Mario 3D World style course-clear game with additional collectibles. So it's not really the game which it was told to be. The levels don't feel like beautiful dioramas, and the acrobatics, even if nice, are nowhere near as rich as the SM64 acrobatics. There's infinite lives this time around, so there's no real feeling of risk. The game rehashes its own content, you make a tower of goombas, cool. Then you make it again, twice as long. Then you make it again, in the water. Then you make it again, in the beach level. Then you make it again, in the ice level. Then you make it again. Then you make it again, then you make it again...

You could argue that they were onto something with the capture system, because it's an attempt to enhance the movement system while at the same time it's trying to keep things interesting, but the bad thing is that this is really not the case. Captures are contextual, and you're expected to capture an enemy, do something with it, then leave it behind, so it's not a skillset that you build up on, it's yet another course-clear level in a disguise.

So even though it's a good game, it's not the game that it set out to be, I'm sad to say. The Brilliance of Super Mario 64 is yet to be rivaled, and Nintendo should feel ashamed of it. It's been 20 years, man. Where has your mind been all along?

Alright Nintendo, to conclude, here's a freebie for you. This is how you design your next Mario game so it fucking kicks ass: you bring back the SM64 movement system and ADD ONTO IT. Do NOT take away from it, just ADD. Complexity is good in games. All of your fans are fucking 30 year olds, they can handle a complex game.

Next, you develop a vast, broad, massive open world. Think GTA-size. You set up 1200 stars and you place them all over the world in ways where it is EXCITING by itself to explore the world. Make it so people can collect stars at their own pace, ANY WAY THEY WANT, and expand the world accordingly. Keep the Super Mario Oddyssey persistence, where once you capture a moon you don't have to go back to a menu screen, that was a good addition. Embrace the diorama mentality and go nuts with the world. Fill it with waterfalls, caves, chasms, canyons, and provide the player nothing but their acrobatics to clear everything in the world. Avoid pre-scripted sequences (they can still be good for some things like bosses). And make the world seamless, none of this island in the sky thing anymore. Moving around and getting stars should be their own reward, not "getting to find a course clear level".

#works

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vendily-blog · 6 years

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This is gonna be a long one about the Mario Timeline...

Spoilers for a large number of the games in the series, mostly for the ones that I’ve played.

So to start, I need to establish two things. First, the Paper universe is separate from the rest of the games (Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam), and I’ve only played the first one. (I really need to beat it...). Second, it get’s really hard to accurately place the timing of the Super Mario series, as well as their relation of the other RPG Mario series, so there are a few headcanons, clearly marked as such, and a lot of is is by release date, which is fun.

I realize I get more sarcastic as I get along, I wasn’t expecting the list to get this long, because kept on adding more games.

Okay with that settled let’s get to the games.

Baby Luigi is kidnapped and the stork is captured by Kamek and his cronies. Baby Mario and the Yoshi’s rescue them both and beat up Baby Bowser (Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island)

The Stork delivers the bros to the wrong house, and while fixing that mistake, Baby Luigi is kidnapped and the stork is captured by Kamek and his cronies. Baby Mario and the Yoshi’s rescue them both and beat up Baby Bowser, fucking Bowser comes back in time to fuck with shit, and the Adult Mario also comes back in time to help by giving you that powerup that is literally just a “you suck at this level, don’t ya”, while disguised as a pipe. (Yoshi’s New Island, which is fun. I beat the whole thing in one sitting the day I got it)

Future Kamek and his cronies kidnap all the babies so Bowser can get the star babies. Magic powers or something. Baby Mario and Baby Peach are rescued by the stork and the Yoshi’s rescue everyone, yay! (Yoshi’s Island DS, my first Yoshi’s Island game.)

The shroobs take over Mushroom Kingdom. Time is fucked because Peach wanted to ride in Professor E.Gadd’s Time Machine. The Adult Bros team up with their now toddler selves, and proceed to nearly ruin the Mushroom Kingdom. Nearly. Also E.Gadd stopped studying Thwomps after his lab is destroyed, and moves to Boo Woods in Evershade Valley to study ghosts. (Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon)

The adult Mario and Luigi move to the Metro Kingdom and do construction work (Wreaking Crew. Also Super Mario Odyssey. It’s a headcanon)

Pauline is kidnapped by Donkey Kong Sr., who latter ages poorly and goes by Cranky Kong nowadays. Mario rescues her but she loses her purse. (Donkey Kong, Super Mario Odyssey)

Mario and Pauline date, but it doesn’t work out and they have an amicable break up and stay friends (Mostly headcanon, Super Mario Odyssey)

Mario and Luigi do plumbing instead. While working, they get attacked by various creatures, including Koopas and Spinys. (Mario Bros., as well as headcanon, though Mariowiki lists an interview confirming that this game takes place in New York, so also Super Mario Odyssey)

Mario and Luigi move back to the Mushroom Kingdom. (No game here, but not really a head canon either.)

Princess Peach as well as a few Toads are kidnapped by Bowser, and the rest have been magically transformed into Question Mark blocks. Mario and Luigi go and rescue them all. A number of Toads are inspired by their bravery and proceed to do as much as they can to help them in the future, including one group becoming the Toad Brigade, led by Captain Toad.(Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Galaxy. Headcanon includes Toad Houses in all of the games that have them)

Bowser, not undeterred by his earlier defeat at the hands of the plumbers, kidnaps Peach again and puts more challenges in their way. They beat him anyway. (Super Mario Bros 2 JPN)

Mario has a trippy dream. (Super Mario Bros 2 USA)

Goddamn it, Bowser. This time not only does he kidnap Peach, he enlists the Koopalings to steal the magic wands from the smaller states within the Mushroom Kingdom and transform their rulers into various creatures. He ends up effectively defeating himself, because building a death pit covered by blocks you can destroy is a smart idea (Super Mario Bros 3, my favorite)

Princess Peach hears news that the ruler of the neighbouring kingdom, Sarasaland, Princess Daisy, was kidnapped by space monster Tatanga. Mario goes on his merry way to rescue her. (Super Mario Land)

Wario takes over a castle that Mario had, for some reason, while he was rescuing Daisy. Do I really have to include this game, it doesn’t fit any more, even if it is fun. (Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins)

Bowser, who had laid low on Dinosaur Island in the Cascade Kingdom, traps the Yoshis in eggs and kidnaps Peach again, putting the Koopalings in charge of keeping Mario away. We all know what happens. (Super Mario World, headcanon on the location of Dinosaur Island based on Super Mario Odyssey. You can’t tell me that the skeleton in Fossil Falls isn’t a giant Reznor)

Bowser and the Koopalings open hotels and kidnap Peach (Hotel Mario)

Bowser kidnaps Peach, but gets thwarted, not by Mario (though he did give a good trouncing), but a giant sword. I didn’t beat this game, but robots happen apparently. (Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars)

Bowser kidnaps Peach in 3-D!!!!! Mario defeats Bowser after building speed for 12 5 hours and many parallel universes. (Super Mario 64, I love Pannenkoek’s videos. Did you know there’s are a number of faster routes now for the A Button Challenge?)

Paper Bowser has stolen the Star Rod, and seals the Star Spirits into cards, then, you guessed it, kidnaps Peach. Paper Mario fixes everything, but he’s overprotective, so he doesn’t let Paper Luigi help him. (Paper Mario 64)

E.Gadd at this point had captured a large portion of the Boos and Ghosts in the Gloomy Mansion, including Boolossus, a very loyal servant to King Boo. King Boo, in revenge, attack and frees all of the captured ghosts and Boos, and decides to trap all of his enemies, including the Mario Bros., who are on his hit list for some reason, into paintings. (Luigi’s Mansion, Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon)

Luigi finds the letter saying he won a mansion in the mail. Ecstatic, he tells Mario to meet him there. They don’t meet. Mario is trapped into a painting, and Luigi almost is himself if E.Gadd hadn’t come to the rescue. Luigi saves Mario, everyone’s happy. (Luigi’s Mansion)

Mario accompanies Princess Peach on her vacation to Isle Delfino. Luigi stays home because the mansion was enough excitement for now. Bowser Jr fucks shit up and kidnaps Peach, to impress Bowser. Mario saves the day in the end. (Super Mario Sunshine, which emulates poorly)

Prince Peasley from the neighboring Beanbean Kingdom warns Princess Peach that Cackletta was after her voice. Cackletta and Fawful steal a Birdo disguised as Peach’s voice, though Peach ends up getting kidnapped. Then not kidnapped through a stunt that people love to draw, Luigi crossdressing (and a fine one too). Stuff happens, Bowser get’s possessed. (Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga)

A toy company using Mario’s image creates a new line of Mini Mario’s. Donkey Kong really wants them, but they have sold out, so he robs a store. Mario was in the area and stops him, though it turns out Donkey Kong had dropped all of the toys. Enraged, Donkey Kong grabs the toads running the store and climbs to the top of the building. Mario rescues them, and in the process, knock Donkey Kong off the building onto a truck delivering the next shipment. He tries to steal those, but fails miserably. Donkey Kong is sad that he failed, but Mario gives him a free Mini Mario to cheer him up. (Mario vs Donkey Kong, which I sadly can not find a copy of.)

Paper Mario goes on an adventure. Paper Peach is kidnapped by an evil oganization trying to summon a shadow demon, and Paper Bowser just... messes around I guess. (Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door)

Bowser kidnaps Peach again, sending a letter of invitation in her name to the Mario Bros and Wario for some cake. They also get captured. Yoshi rescues Mario, who rescues Luigi, who rescues Wario. They do stuff, and Mario beats Bowser, because Bowser asked nicely to fight him. (Super Mario 64 DS)

Bowser, irritated with all of his losses at the hands of the Mario bros gets his hands on the Vibe Scepter, which can manipulate the emotions of everyone in it’s vicinity. He kidnaps just about everyone but Peach. Peach, armed with Perry the umbrella that used to be a human or something and really abusable mood swings, fight Bowser. (Super Princess Peach)

E.Gadd reveals the Time Machine he’s been working on. Princess Peach travels back in time and accidentally messed a lot of things up.

Peach gets kidnapped by Bowser Jr while on a walk with Mario. She gets rescued, and Bowser temporarily becomes Dry Bowser. (New Super Mario Bros.)

Mario and Luigi Go to collect coins. Princess Peach is kidnapped by the Koopalings. Rinse and repeat. (New Super Mario Bros. 2)

A Mini Mario amusement park is opened in New Donk City, and both Mayor Pauline and Mario have come to see the opening. Donkey Kong attempts to woo Pauline with a Mini Donkey Kong at the same time that Mario offers her a Mini Mario. Pauline takes the Mini Mario and the heartbroken Donkey Kong grabs her and rides the elevator to the top of the building, taking presents along the way. Mario saves the day using the Mini Marios and everybody is happy. (Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis, headcanon involving Super Mario Odyssey)

Paper Mario and the rest of the crew go on an adventure in Parallel dimensions to stop the multiverse from getting fucked. (Super Paper Mario)

Bowser hasn’t done much in a while, so he fucking kidnaps Peach during the Star Festival by lifting her castle into fucking space. Mario also get’s launched into space. The Toad Brigade give Luigi a lift as they travel through space to help Mario, though Luigi get’s lost somehow and the Brigade get stranded on Honeyhive Galaxy. Anyway, an adventure happens, a Luma throws itself into a Blackhole the Bowser had created in his new galaxy, and everybody is happy. (Super Mario Galaxy)

The Mushroom Kingdom gets two Star Festivals as Rosalina had passed close by a second time during the events of the first game. Bowser, nor to be out done by a double festival, proceeds to double kidnap Peach. Yeah... (Super Mario Galaxy 2, also personal headcanon, because there’s no way this game is 100 years after the previous one.)

Archivist Toadette finds pieces of the Dark Moon in Evershade Valley and gives them to E.Gadd to study. He later finds the rest of the pieces and the restored Dark Moon pacifies the ghosts. (This is 100% headcanon.)

Bowser ends up inhaling everyone in Peach’s Castle as well as a bunch of stuff found around the Mushroom Kingdom because of a Vacuumshroom given to him by Fawful. Some random stuff happens, including Bowser turning into a giant whenever he is basically almost dead, and a ball of Dark matter being the final villain. (Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story. Also, because of Tumblr, I can’t play this game any more without thinking of fucking fetishes. Good Job.)

The Koopalings and Bowser Jr kidnap Peach at her birthday party. Mario and Luigi go to rescue her after the initial shock of the incident wears off, though not before two very brave Toads ask to join them. The rest proceeds fairly normally, and Princess Peach is rescued. (New Super Mario Bros. Wii)

E.Gadd sells the King Boo Portrait at a garage sale. (Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon)

Bowser kidnaps Peach and knocks all of the leaves off the famous Tanooki Leaf Tree that looks like it has a tail. Mario saves the day and every gets a tail. (Super Mario 3D Land. You can find that same tree in Odyssey.)

Paper Bowser becomes really powerful because he gets a sticker stuck on him. Using this power, he beats Paper Mario, kidnaps Paper Peach, and sticks a bunch of toads to the wall for the hell of it. Paper Bowser plays with tape, and we all know how this ends. (Paper Mario: Sticker Star)

Captain Toad goes on an adventure to collect Green Stars and rescue Archivist Toadette. After rescuing her, he sees a green star fall into the clear pipe to the Sprixie Kingdom.

Mario, Luigi, Peach, and a Toad are enjoying a festival until they find a clear pipe. After repairing it, a Sprixie Princess exits, telling of Bowser capturing the other princesses before being captured herself. The crew follow, and everybody gets a cat suit. (Super Mario 3D World)

King Boo puts his plan into place, shattering the Dark Moon and hiding the pieces. Fortunately, Luigi is summoned by E.Gadd and with the help of the Polterguist 5000, collects pieces of the Dark Moon. Turns out Mario was turned into a painting, as well as the Toads that aid E.Gadd in his research. Luigi defeats King Boo again, Mario is saved and the Dark Moon is restored. (Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon)

Luigi has narcolepsy. Bowser and Antasma team up to steal the Dream stone and grant their wishes. A much needed ego boost is given to Luigi. (Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, which is fun.)

DK kidnaps Pauline for literally no reason. Mario uses toys to save her. (Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars)

Luigi drops a book and unleashes the Paper universe. Paper Bowser and Bowser team up and kidnap both Paper Peach and Peach. Mario, Luigi, and Paper Mario also team up and save the day. While they were gone, Shy guys drink paint or something. (Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, Paper Mario: Color Splash)

Paper Mario paints stuff that the Shy Guys drank, I guess. (Paper Mario: Color Splash)

Bowser kidnaps Peach so he can marry her, and steals stuff for his wedding. Mario and Cappy get stylish. And this damn game is beautiful. (Super Mario Odyssey)

That’s the whole series, not really including the Wario games, or the Yoshi games, as well as the various spinoffs like Mario Party and the like. But other than that, if it has Mario in it, it was included.

#mine #mario #mario & luigi #paper mario #super mario odyssey #mario odyssey #super mario 64 #superstar saga

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myvmk · 6 years

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Star Wars

Updated February 1st, 2018

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

Episode II

Star Wars Month

The MyVMK Staff had been planning on bringing the guests of MyVMK Star Wars month. This was a theme that they had been wanting to do since the beginning of December of the year 2017.

All of the MyVMK Designers had sat down in a meeting to decide the fate of this months theme. February's theme was decided on after a Counsel vote among the Staff members.

After two months of careful planning, the MyVMK Staff were proud to bring the new months theme to the guests of MyVMK, with hope that it would be one of the best months in the galaxy.

Please note that all releases will happen on the 1st, 8th, the 15th and the 22nd of every month at 12am EST. This will be the schedule until further notice.

The new client alpha is now out for everyone to enjoy! To enter, just hit the big blue button that says ENTER (ALPHA) after you login to the website. We hope you enjoy the hard work that has been put into this, and any feedback is welcome! You can post feedback about the new client on our official forums!

This week's release in the Inner-Space Shop, some treasures brought to you straight from merchants across the galaxy! Available starting now through January 7th! There will be a ride track located in the Space Mountain Quest Deck public room leading to the Inner-Space Shop due to some issues with the Tomorrowland Quests.

Tatooine Day Room

Tatooine Night Room

Also out this in the Inner-Space Shop are two new rooms both inspired by the desert planet of Tatooine. If you thought Luke's home was hot in the movies, you are going to love stepping into it. Available starting now through January 7th!

As a special event for February to celebrate Star Wars Month, multiple MyVMK Jedi Masters have put together a very unique special event for you to all enjoy. Introducing The Jedi Training Academy. Battle your way through 5 levels of trials and tribulations of becoming a Jedi. Fall short and you’ll be sent back to study the sacred Jedi Texts. More information coming soon!

Join us for our HOST events this month and see what some of your favorite HOSTs have been working on just for you! This weeks HOST prize is Yoda's Hut with the consolation prize Degobah Swamp Carpet! Stay in line after the event ends to receive the out of this world queue prize Degobah Swamp Stump! May the force be with you!

Join the MyVMK Staff for an impromptu game of Hide and Seek! All throughout the month, the staff will be hosting Hide and Seek games and hiding in public rooms only. Games will be announced as an in-game announcement and on our Twitter (@MyVMK) 15 minutes before the game begins. To win, you must walk up to a staff member that is hidden and say the following statement exactly: "I found you (StaffMemberName)!". Make sure to use the correct prefix (VMK_/HOST_/GA_). If you win, you will receive the pin of the staff member you found! You are allowed to win only two times per hide and seek event. The staff will not hide in rooms where players are already sitting. Do not "camp out"! This will ensure everyone has a fair chance at finding the staff members. May the force be with you out there seekers!

Grab you X-wing Starfighters and TIE Fighters and head on over to Tatooine Market Trades for a chance at finding some most wanted pins. We do not accept Free, NPC, or 1 Credit Pins!

Pull this month's exclusive pins from the Sword in the Stone! For a chance to win, ride the rides in the Fantasyland Courtyard and you will have a chance at getting a Sword in the Stone pin! You can use this pin to have a chance at pulling the sword from the stone, and if you succeed, you will win one of these pins as a prize or some credits!

New Blind Bags can now be obtained through all of your favorite mini-games! Each mini-game requires you to get so many points before you receive a Blind Bag so be sure that you balance your Jedi Studies before trying to collect all the Tsumazing Pins before they leave next month! Please do not play any of the mini-games against your clones. Guests that are found to be doing this will risk having both their main account and their clone account banned.

Avast there mateys! Sail on over to the Pirates Treasure room for a chance to plunder some great loot! Be sure to collect as many of these treasures as ye can before they are sent back to Davey Jones Locker! Available all month! Credit to ChrisKuhn on blendswap for the millennium falcon!

Create a Great Guest Room! Get Recognized!

Guest created Guest or Game Rooms demonstrate originality in concept and design. Our judges are looking for creativity, so try using traditional items in different and unique ways. Rooms are judged randomly by MyVMK Staff every month and selected from guest rooms.

January Best Guest Room

Join saturnvmk in “Super Mario”! Welcome to the Mushroom Kingdom! Can you help Mario rescue Princess Toadstool from Bowser's castle?! Use arrow keys to move & A/B to get through the three Level 1 courses. Collect 100 coins for a Power Star. Watch out for Koopas and Bom-ombs! Congratulations!

The Best Guest Room Winner receives: - 10,000 credits - A Castle Suite Guest Room Pin - plus furniture! - Best Guest Room Award Pin - Plus! A party in Club 33!

Create a Great Game Room! Get Recognized!

Create a game room and play with friends and others, and a MyVMK staff member may notice your idea! Game rooms that get the nod offer a new game idea or a new twist on an old favorite. In all rooms we look for room owners who welcome everyone with a smile and show a willingness to answer questions about their room.

January Best Game Room

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Check out Mad Hatter's Putt Putt Party” by Stephherrs. Welcome to Mad Hatter's Putt Putt Party. The rules are simple. Pick the "stroke" that will lead to a hole in one or be forced back to try again! Once you score, continue to the next hole through the red teleporter! Please read all descriptions! :D Congratulations!

The Best Game Room Winner receives: - 10,000 credits - A Castle Suite Guest Room Pin - plus furniture! - Best Game Room Award Pin - Plus! A party in Club 33!

This could be you! Find out the details on entering for Best Guest Room and Best Game Room by clicking here!

Ever wanted to know more about your favorite staff member? Now you can! Every month we will be interviewing a different member of the MyVMK Staff. Here is the most recent interview!

Strong with the force, this staff member is. Say hello to this months staff of the month, VMK_Rey!

What is your favorite thing to do around the Kingdom?

Oh, definitely hanging out with guests in their guest rooms! I looove seeing what they put together, whether it be a creatively-themed room or a fun game! We’ve got a lot of talent in our community. :’)

What is the best item for building your rooms?

For building MY rooms, I’m going to be 100% predictable and say the four colored lightsabers we have in-game: blue, green, purple, and red! When you walk into a room and see those bad boys, you know it’s going to be a good time.

What has been your favorite HOST event thus far?

Ooooo, the first thing to come to mind was HOST_Dumpling’s Heroes of Winter Maze this past December! There were SO MANY ROOMS and each and every one of them was so well done! Ooo, also, last month, “A Sitch in Time” hosted by HOST_Duchess also got me amped up every time I got to help out! Props to her for elevating her event to the next level with “It’s Just You” by LMNT as its soundtrack! That's my JAM.

What is your favorite mini-game in MyVMK?

Pirates of the Caribbean! What’s better than a 4v4 game of Ship Battle?!

What is your favorite type of Guest Room?

I feel very passionately about the Skull Rock Guest Room… buuut maybe this month some new rooms will be released that I’ll love even more! ;)

Favorite MyVMK memory?

This whole month is already my favorite MyVMK memory. This. This is it.

What is your favorite Public Room in the Kingdom?

Y’all are nuts if you think I’m gonna pick just one. I love love LOVEEE the Waterpark Pool, the Inner-Space Ray Room, and the Monorail Train as standalone rooms, but the classic VMK music up and down Main Street genuinely makes me tear up – ESPECIALLY the Castle Forecourt. Gets me every time.

What is your favorite theme on VMK?

Star… Wars…? :)

What is your favorite Disney park?

The Magic Kingdom has alllllways been very near and dear to my heart, but I got to experience Hollywood Studios for the first time last year. Sorry for sounding like a broken record, but their Star Wars stuff blew me out of the water. If I ever get to go to the new Star Wars land after it opens, I'm not sure my fragile heart will be able to take it, honestly.

Who is your favorite Disney Character?

Rey, Leia, and Luke Skywalker (Star Wars), Woody (Toy Story), Ralph (Wreck-It Ralph), Rolly (101 Dalmatians), Kristoff (Frozen), Rapunzel (Tangled), Sadness (Inside Out), Sulley and Boo (Monsters Inc.), Will Turner (Pirates of the Caribbean), and Ella (the live action Cinderella in 2015)! I… just have a lot of feelings, okay?

Is there any advice you would give to guests?

Believe in yourselves. Dream. Try. Do good.

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blackhakumen · 5 years

Text

Mini Fanfic #104: The Cheating Joker (Super Smash Bros Ultimate)

Futuba: Guess we're playing "Day at the Races", boys and girls! All or nothing!!

Ann: (A little annoyed) Well that seems like an understatement. That literally took almost every bit of coins I had!

Ryuji: Hey, it's better than them taking fifty.

Lucas: I think they do that in the third game, Ryuji.

Ryuji: For real? ('Sigh') Man, we've been playing three of these OG Mario Party games a lot lately that I'm already starting to lose count...

Dark Pit: Let's just get this over with already. The sooner, the better.

Ren: (So this a betting type of minigame, huh? If I'm not careful, I might not have a chance of gaining that star............maybe using "this" for one simple minigame wouldn't hurt anyone...)

Makoto: Ren!

Ren: (Return back to reality) Hmm?

Makoto: Are you ready?

Ren: Oh umm yeah. I'm ready to go.

Futuba: (Press "Start" to start the game) Alright! Let's get started!

Dark Pit: You're enjoying this way too much than you need to be.

Futuba: (Shrugged with a smile) Nothing's wrong with a little optimism from time to time. You should try it sometime, you know?

Dark Pit: I'll pass.

Ren: (Secretly Activated the Third Eye before picking Boo) (Okay. Here goes nothing...)

Ann: (Picks the Bob-omb)

Dark Pit: (Picks the Whomp)

Futuba: (Picks the Thwomp)

After the players made their choice, the four racers began to race. It was a real close one, but ultimately, Ren's Boo came out the winner. Receiving 56 coins in the process.

Ren: (Relieved) (Oh Thank God I made the right choice...) Alright.

Makoto: (Starting to get suspicious of her boyfriend) .......

Futuba: Welp. Looks like Ren's on the clear of getting that star. Nice one, bro!

Ren: (Smiles) Thanks, Futuba.

Makoto: Excuse me, Futuba. You think you could pause the game for a second?

Futuba: (Confused but Pause the game anyway) Oh umm okay....

Makoto: Thank you. (Turns to Ren with a disappointed glare before sighing) Alright, Ren. What's going on?

Ren: Huh? What are you talking about, Makoto?

Makoto: When you won that minigame, you sound almost "too" relieved that you were able to even win at all. I don't want to ask you this, especially in front of everyone, but....you didn't happen to cheat on that minigame just now did you?

Almost everyone: ('GASP')

Ren: (Started to lie very quickly) Whaaaat? Psssh! Naww! I would never ever do that-

Makoto: (Pierce a cold glare at her boyfriend) Ren.... don't even try....

Ren: (Gotten terrified by the stare before sighing and coming clean) Okay........I did cheated.....

Almost Everyone: ('GASP')

Dark Pit: (Chuckles while Smirking) Damn, Joker. I didn't take you as the cheating type.

Pit: (Confused) Wait...how was Ren able to even do that?

Ren: (Laughs Awkwardly while Rubbing the back of his head) I might of...sort of....used "the Third Eye" to choose which is faster.

Ann: ('Gasp') Ren Amamiya!!!!

Ryuji: Are you serious, bro?!!

Lucas: "The Third Eye".... What's that?

Makoto: It's this ability Ren has which was supposed to be use for clues and important items. (Turns to Ren in disappointment) Not for cheating.

Futuba: (Glares at Ren) I thought I taught you better than to cheat at Mario Party!!

Morgana: (Glares at Ren) I thought I taught you better than to cheat at all!!!

Bayonetta: (Appears out of nowhere) Honestly, Renny. You didn't have to blow your own cover like that, dear.

Everyone (even Lucas) gave Bayonetta a "Really?" Glare.

Bayonetta: What? I'm just trying give my son some pointers here. If he's going to try and cheat successfully, he has to know how to stay as normal and unresponsive as possible until the bitter end.

Futuba: (Yep.... she's definitely Ren's mom alright...)

Lucas: (Facepalms) Please don't do this right now, Ms. Bayonetta....

Bayonetta: ('Sigh') Fine. I'll go back and bake some more cookies for you little rascals. (Playfully pulls Ren's cheek with a smile) Remember what I told you, okay, sweetie?

Ren: (Smiles a little while Blushing) I'll keep that in mind. Thanks, mom.

Bayonetta: (Walks away before winking at Ren)

Makoto: ('Sigh') I guess we can resume the game now. (Turns and boop Ren on the nose) But no more cheating from you. Got it?

Ryuji: (Turns at Ren) That goes double from all of us!

Pit: Yeah!

Ren: (Sighed with a bit of an amused smile on his face) Don't worry, you guys. I promise.

Makoto: (Kiss Ren on the cheek) Thank you.

Ren: (Smirks Playfully at his girlfriend) Has anyone ever to how an amazing detective you are?

Makoto: (Smirks back) Not really. But I do love it when you tell me that I'm amazing. Makes me feel pretty good if I'm being honest.

Ren: You don't say~

Futuba: (Covering Morgana's ears) Geeeeez...will you two quit your little flirting and focus on the game already?!

Ann: (Covering Lucas' ears) Seriously...

Pit: (Notice that Dark Pit is covering his ears as well) Wait, why are you covering my ears too?

Dark Pit: Cause shut up.

@keyenuta

@kira-vera

@scribblehooves

@ink-correctsmashbrosbloo

@gengar-sans

@ma-lemons

@princekirijo

#super smash bros #ren amimaya #makoto nijima #bayonetta #ann takamaki #ryuji sakamoto #futuba sakura #morgana #dark pit #lucas #pit #ren x makoto #mario party #mario party 2 #ren uses his abilities to cheat at a simple mario party game #humor #bayonetta is best mom #bayonetta is ren's potential mom #have to edited it again to make it perfect. sorry about that

19 notes · View notes

dorkwhowrites · 7 years

Text

Boys Don’t Kiss Boys

Group: Bangtan Boys

Pairing: Yoonmin

Genre: Fluff

Yoongi always liked Jimin the most.

Jimin wasn’t like the other boys. Jimin was different, much kinder. He didn’t want to hit Yoongi or steal his lunch like all the others boy did.

Instead, he wanted to play with Yoongi.

Yoongi always wondered why out of everyone did Jimin chose to be with him. But he was happy because at least he had a friend.

They were on the playground during lunchtime. While everyone else was away playing Yoongi and Jimin were hidden behind the trees playing pretend in one of the many elaborate stories that Yoongi came up with.

This time Jimin was playing a young prince that needed to be saved and Yoongi was the knight in shining armor that was going to save Jimin from the clutches of the evil dragon-a one-eyed teddy bear that they had found in the toys’ room.

“Stop right there,” Yoongi bellowed in his loudest voice to the teddy bear behind which Jimin was quivering with fear.

“What did you say?” Yoongi asked in a dramatic voice.

Jimin cried out louder.

“Do not worry prince for I am here to save you,” Yoongi said to Jimin before returning his attention back to the dragon.

“You,” he said raising his sword which was a broken branch that Yoongi had found in the school garden. “You’ll face my wrath”

Yoongi raised the branch above his head letting out a loud yell as he hit the teddy bear who toppled and fell down the ground making Jimin scream in a shrill voice.

Yoongi continued to hit the teddy bear for five more times until he stopped his chest heaving up and down staring at the teddy bear.

“I told you,” he said. “Evil always loses”

He then looked at Jimin who was sitting down on the ground hugging his knees looking scared. Yoongi threw his faux sword down and went up to Jimin offering him his hand.

“You’re safe now prince,” he said.

Jimin looked up at him and then gently placed his hand into Yoongi’s palm letting Yoongi help him on the ground.

“Thank you,” Jimin said. “You are a very brave knight”

“It was my duty,” Yoongi said with a small bow making Jimin smile a little.

“You risked your life for me,” Jimin said. “You are noble”

Yoongi nodded remaining expressionless until he saw Jimin smile again.

“Because of your courage you are now awarded a thousand gold coins,” Jimin said.

Yoongi’s face changed into a little frown.

“Jiminie,” he said. “That is not what you were supposed to say,”

“Huh,”

“Your lines,” Yoongi sighed. “You messed up”

“But…”

“What do you think the princess does when the knight saves her?” Yoongi asked.

Jimin bit his lip thinking hard.

“Kiss the knight,”

“Exactly,”

“Huh,” Jimin repeated.

“You were supposed to kiss me Jiminie,” Yoongi said. “I saved you from the big evil dragon so you should kiss me to thank me,”

At that Jimin started laughing.

Yoongi’s face flushed a little.

“What is so funny?” he asked. “It’s in all the movies. When the princess gets saved she kisses the knight”

“But we’re boys,” Jimin said.

“I don’t understand,” Yoongi said in a confused voice.

Jimin sighed.

“Yoongi,” Jimin said. “ Boys don’t kiss boys”

The bell rang just at that moment and Yoongi felt Jimin’s hands grabbing his.

“Come on now,” Jimin said. “We have to get to class or the teacher will yell at us again”

Yoongi didn’t protest as Jimin dragged him inside the class along with the rest of his classmates but all Yoongi could think about was what Jimin said.

That continued as Yoongi was sat on the kitchen table absent-mindedly forking his pancakes but not bothering to take a bite.

“Yoongi,” he heard his mother. “Is everything okay?”

Yoongi nodded a little taking a small bite and chewing on it.

“Was someone being mean at school?” his mother asked in a careful voice. His parents were no strangers to his problems at coping with students in his school. He wasn’t like the other kids who ran around the field for no reason and scream their heads off. Yoongi was calm and was usually lost in his head. He was different but kids found it as a reason to pick on him. Finding Jimin as a friend was a miracle for Yoongi.

“No,” Yoongi answered but his mother knew something was definitely off because Yoongi never took longer than 10 minutes to finish his blueberry pancakes but he had been sitting in front of his plate for the past half an hour not bothering to take a proper bite.

“Yoongi honey,” his mother said. “You know you can tell me everything right?”

Yoongi looked at his mother and nodded a little.

His mother smiled.

“So what is it?” she asked. “Did you have a fight with Jimin?”

“No,” Yoongi said in an offended voice. “I will never fight with Jimin. He is my best friend and I love him”

This was true too because unlike other kids who always picked up fights with their friends about everything from a broken crayon or food, Yoongi and Jimin never ever fought.

“That’s good,” his mother said with a smile. “You shouldn’t fight with your best friend”

Yoongi nodded agreeing.

“Well then what is it that is bothering my little sugar?” his mother asked and Yoongi could feel himself getting red at the nickname.

“I…,” he said and paused a little. “Can boys kiss boys?”

Yoongi’s mother looked surprised for a second before she smiled at Yoongi.

“Of course honey,” she said.

“Really?” Yoongi asked unsurely.

“Boys can kiss boys, girls can kiss girls and boys can kiss girls,” she said. “It doesn’t matter”

Yoongi smiled a little before giving his mother a hug.

That night he was still thinking about it as he stared up at the ceiling of his room which was covered in little stars that his dad had painted himself for Yoongi.

His mom said it was okay for boys to kiss boys.

But for some reason, 4 year old Yoongi still wasn’t convinced as he kept thinking about it.

‘Can boys kiss boys?’

Yoongi was seated on the far end of the auditorium alone watching Jimin up on stage rehearsing his lines. He was a bit uneasy sitting alone especially among people that left no chance to bully him but he had promised Jimin that they would go home together after Jimin’s rehearsal for the upcoming school play. He was just keeping his best friend’s promise.

Jimin was clearing his throat as he began reciting his lines and Yoongi watched amazed and frankly proud of his best friend delivering his lines with so much confidence.

He was playing Romeo and a girl named Alia was playing Juliet. Alia was one of those people that found making Yoongi trip or teasing him very funny but only when Jimin wasn’t around.

Jimin was friends with all of Alia and her snobby friends but at least he wasn’t like them.

Yoongi would be lying if he didn’t feel scared that one-day Jimin was just gonna stop talking to him but he didn’t.

“You are my best friend,” Jimin would say to him.

That somehow made Yoongi worry less.

“Tybalt,” Jimin yelled. “I do not want to fight you”

The boy named James who played Tybalt made his way towards Jimin brandishing his plastic sword swinging it as Jimin did the same and they began sword fighting.

Yoongi watched attentively until he heard a clap.

“All right kids,” the drama teacher said. “That’s enough for now”

James and Jimin both dropped their swords and walked down as the teacher told them the schedule for the next week.

Yoongi saw Jimin take his backpack and walk to him.

“You are here,” Jimin said.

“Of course I am,” Yoongi grinned. “I promised you I would be here”

Jimin smiled back.

“My mom’s gonna pick us up,” he said. “Maybe we can ask her to let you sleep over”

“Sleepover?” Yoongi asked in an excited voice. “But what if my mom says no?”

“I’ll tell my mom to convince her,” Jimin said and Yoongi nodded with a smile.

Just then Yoongi saw James and Alia make their way towards them. Yoongi gulped a little as Jimin flashed them a grin.

“Hey,” James said. “Will you come to the park with us this evening?”

The question was directed only at Jimin but he didn’t seem to notice as he answered.

“Oh no,” Jimin said. “Yoongi and I are gonna play Mario Kart today. Maybe I’ll be able to beat him today”

James and Alia looked at Yoongi with a slight scowl.

“Oh that’s fine Jimin,” Alia said. “We can go to the park some other time”

Jimin nodded.

“Mom’s here,” he said. “I’ll see you both on Monday”

James and Alia waved goodbye as Jimin and Yoongi left the building and headed straight to the car.

“Hey kids,” Jimin’s mom smiled. “How was school?”

“Good,” Yoongi could barely answer as Jimin launched into a very detailed description of everything that had happened in a loud, enthusiastic voice.

Jimin’s mom listened amused.

“Also mom,” Jimin said. “Can Yoongi sleepover tonight?”

“Jim…” his mom began.

“Please,” Jimin said. “Pretty please”

“Okay fine,” his mom sighed. “I’ll talk to Yoongi’s mom”

She smiled at Yoongi who gave her a small smile back.

They reached their home soon and both of the boys raced to Jimin’s bedroom to play Mario Kart for the next 3 hours and despite Jimin’s repeated tries Yoongi still managed to beat him leaving a very gleeful Yoongi and a fuming Jimin.

But all was forgotten when they were called downstairs for dinner.

Jimin’s mom had made Mac n cheese something both the boys loved and they ate dinner as Jimin talked to his mom and Yoongi made a little conversation.

They went upstairs once again and this time to watch Mulan, their favorite Disney movie along with some popcorn that Jimin’s mom had made for them.

“Boys,” she said. “I want you both to sleep as soon as you finish the movie okay”

Both Jimin and Yoongi nodded not really listening as they watched the movie. It was 12 am when they finally finished it and neither of the boys felt sleepy in the slightest.

“Yoongi,” Jimin said.

“Yes,”

“You are my best friend right,”

“Yes I am,”

“Which means we can share secrets right?”

“Yes,”

“And we don’t tell this to anyone right?”

“No,”

“Can I tell you something?”

“Yes you can,”

“Do you think they will make me kiss Alia in the play?”

“What?” Yoongi asked loudly.

“James said that Romeo and Juliet kiss,”

“Do you want to kiss her?” Yoongi asked.

“No,” Jimin said making a face. “But what if I have to”

“I don’t think they will make you kiss Alia,”

“Are you sure?” Jimin asked.

“No,”

Jimin sighed.

“Girls are much better at all that stuff,” Jimin said.

“Huh, but she is just 9?”

“They know how to kiss and stuff,”

“Do they?” Yoongi asked.

“James said so,”

“Oh,”

If we do ever kiss,” Jimin said. “I don’t want her to think I am bad at it or something”

“Oh,”

“She would probably make fun of me,” Jimin said with a dramatic sigh.

“You…” Yoongi said. “You should practice”

Jimin looked up with a wide surprised look and a grin.

“Genius,” he said.

But slowly his expression changed.

“But with who?”

“I don’t know,” Yoongi answered.

Jimin sighed again.

“I am in trouble,” he said. “They will laugh at me”

“Jimin,” Yoongi said in a small voice.

“What?”

“We…we can practice”

“What?” Jimin asked loudly.

Yoongi’s voice grew smaller.

“Or not,” he said thinking that Jimin was definitely gonna think that Yoongi is a complete freak just like the rest of his grade thinks he is.

Yoongi didn’t look at Jimin playing with a thread on his pillow.

“Maybe,” Jimin finally said.

Yoongi looked up as if he had seen a ghost.

“Really,”

“Yeah,”

Yoongi gulped as Jimin got up and sat beside him. They leaned and Yoongi could feel his heart beating faster than it had when he had seen a snake in their backyard.

Yoongi thought about the many kisses he had seen in movies and how it was just perfect and nice (not all of them as Yoongi remembers seeing a man almost shove his tongue down a girl’s mouth and he was completely horrified as he switched the channel)

Their lips touched for a brief second and Yoongi’s eyes were wide open as Jimin pushed off.

“No no ew,” he said throwing his pillow down.

“Wh...What?”

“We can’t kiss,” he said. “We’re friends”

“But so is Alia,” Yoongi said meekly.

“She is a girl,” Jimin simply said.

“Kissing is gross,” he added with an afterthought and made his way to the bathroom as Yoongi sat horrified a strange tingling feeling in his stomach.

Jimin came back washing his mouth.

“I am going to sleep,” he said. “Goodnight”

“Night,” Yoongi mumbled as he wiggled into his sleeping bag slightly hurt by the fact that Jimin hadn’t bothered to get into his sleeping bag and had slept on the bed instead. It was their thing to sleep together in sleeping bags during sleepovers pretending they were camping.

It’s my fault, Yoongi thought as a single tear trickled down his cheek.

Weeks later Yoongi was sat on the front seat watching Jimin’s play his chest heaved with pride over his best friend’s performance.

And then it happened.

Jimin kissed Alia albeit on the cheek in a swift moment and for some reason, Yoongi’s heart broke a little as he could hardly focus on the rest of the play until everyone stood up clapping.

The kids went backstage and returned after about half an hour but Yoongi kept waiting until Jimin finally appeared running towards him and his parents.

His parents kissed him and praised him and then Jimin hugged Yoongi.

“Did you like it?”

“You were amazing,” Yoongi said. “You were the best”

“Thank you Yoongi,”

They went to celebrate Jimin’s performance at Chuck E Cheese and then got pizza and Jimin’s parents agreed to let Yoongi stay for the night.

“So did you see the kiss?” Jimin asked.

“Yes,”

“It was on the cheek,” Jimin said. “So I didn’t mind”

“It wasn’t gross?”

Jimin shook his head no.

“Oh,”

Yoongi stayed silent for a few seconds hurt that Jimin had called their kiss gross.

“It’s late Jiminie,” Yoongi said. “We should sleep”

“But but we were supposed to talk all night,”

“I am tired,”

“Okay,”

“Goodnight,” Yoongi said.

“Night,” Jimin said.

They both got into their little sleeping bags and in a few minutes Yoongi could hear Jimin snoring but sleep didn’t come to Yoongi.

Yoongi felt he was being weird because he didn’t mind kissing Jimin.

Boys are gross, Yoongi told himself. You shouldn’t kiss boys he told himself again.

Jimin was right he thought. Boys shouldn’t kiss other boys.

Yoongi loved the piano more than he had ever loved anything ever in his life.

When his fingers hit the black and white keys, his eyes closed as he only heard the music he felt he was in another world. A perfect world where he didn’t have to worry about anything or anyone.

It was just Yoongi and his music.

His peace was disturbed when he heard a slam of the door. Yoongi’s eyes opened as he turned around to find Jimin walking towards him.

“Knew I would find you here,” Jimin said with a grin.

“Jimin,” Yoongi smiled.

“I heard some of what you were playing,” Jimin said as he took a chair and sat on it. “Sounds amazing”

Yoongi looked down turning a little red. Compliments always made him a bit shy.

“It’s just a song I’m working on,” he mumbled.

“Can I hear it?”

“Not yet,” Yoongi said. “I have to work on it”

“Oh all right then,”

“Aren’t you supposed to be at dance practice now?”

“Canceled,” Jimin said leaning back.

“Why?”

“Miss Jenkins couldn’t make it today,” he said. “She twisted her ankle”

“Oh that sucks,”

“Yeah,” Jimin said. “That’s why I decide to come here and bother you”

Yoongi laughed.

“Also,” Jimin said. “Victoria asked me out today”

“What?” Yoongi asked.

“Yeah,” Jimin said.

“What did you say?”

“We are going to the movies tonight,” Jimin said.

“Tonight,” Yoongi asked.

“Yeah,” Jimin said.

Yoongi just nodded not wanting to remind Jimin that tonight that they had decided to check out this new video game that had come out. He was looking forward to it all week but he didn’t have the heart to ruin Jimin’s date. So he didn’t say anything.

“Are you gonna kiss her?” Yoongi asked.

“Depends,” Jimin said. “I still don’t know if I like her that way”

“Okay,”

“I heard that Kayla has an eye on you,” Jimin said.

“On me?”

“Yeah,” Jimin said. “She likes you”

“Oh,”

“What? Won’t you do anything?” Jimin asked.

“Nope,”

“Why not?”

“I am not interested,” Yoongi said.

“In Kayla?”

“No,” Yoongi said. “In dating”

“You are 16,” Jimin said. “And you have never had a girlfriend yet”

“I don’t mind,” was all Yoongi said.

They had this conversation a lot before about how Yoongi never dated anyone. Even when Jimin tried to get him to date one of his friends or some girl had developed a crush on him. He would just say no without any coherent reason.

Frankly, Yoongi hadn’t changed a lot from when he was a kid. He was still quiet and liked staying alone and he had only Jimin who was his friend and a few music kids that he talked to. All of Jimin’s friends were too obnoxious for him. Too loud, too fake but now they didn’t really target Yoongi because Jimin had sort of a reputation in their school and they were only nice to Yoongi because he was friends with Jimin. So Yoongi only kept up with them for Jimin’s sake.

“Are you done practicing?” Jimin asked.

Yoongi nodded.

“Let’s go home then,”

They got into Jimin’s car and he drove Yoongi to his home.

“Hope your date goes well,” Yoongi said as he left the car.

“Yeah bye,” Jimin waved smiling.

Yoongi waved back as he went inside his house.

“Hey honey,” his mom said as she saw.

“Hey, mom.”

“I thought you were gonna be at Jimin’s,” his mom said.

“Oh he had to take care of something,”

“Okay,” she said.

“Mom, are you going out?” Yoongi asked as his mom was dressed in a much fancier way.

“Yeah,” she said. “Your dad just surprised me with tickets to this play”

“Oh that’s nice, have fun,” Yoongi smiled.

“Thanks, honey,” she smiled. “While we’re gone why don’t you get that blonde kid from your music class to come over… what’s his name?”

“Namjoon,”

“Yeah invite him over,” she said. “He is such a nice kid”

“I’ll see if he’s free,” Yoongi said.

Yoongi texted Namjoon and almost immediately got a response saying that he was totally down to beat Yoongi in some video games.

Yoongi was a little glad that he didn’t have to spend the evening completely alone.

Namjoon came soon and the two boys didn’t take long to start playing and Yoongi would beat Namjoon very easily resulting into a very disappointed Namjoon reminding Yoongi too much of Jimin. It had been days since they had sat down and played games.

Just then Namjoon got a call and he picked it up talking in a hushed voice his hands covering his mouth. Yoongi was slightly curious.

“Who was that?” he asked.

“That was my boyf-girlfriend,” Namjoon corrected himself but Yoongi was too quick and noticed.

“You said boyfriend,”

Namjoon sighed.

“Yeah that was my boyfriend,” he said.

“Oh,”

“I get it you probably don’t want to see me anymore,”

“What?”

“I get it, trust me,” he said. “No straight guy wants to be caught hanging out with a guy”

“Namjoon…”

“I should just…”

“Listen,” Yoongi said. “I am not homophobic okay. I don’t care if you date any gender”

Namjoon looked like he didn’t expect Yoongi to say that.

Yoongi continued.

“I like you because you’re cool and you like music and you are quite nice,” Yoongi said. “You dating boys isn’t gonna change that and frankly, it is none of my business”

Namjoon’s face changed into a smile.

“Sorry,” he said. “I was too quick to judge but I have bad experiences before”

“I get it,” Yoongi said. “They are jerks”

“Yes, they are,” Namjoon agreed.

“Who is your boyfriend?” Yoongi asked. “Do you mind telling me?”

“He’s a senior,” Namjoon said turning scarlet. “His name is Seokjin”

“Oh, I know him,” Yoongi said.

Seokjin was one of those ridiculously good looking seniors that girls loved. When Yoongi had first seen him he was a little overcome by how handsome he was. Even though girls adored him he would never so much as even glance at them leading most people to believe that Seokjin felt he was too good looking for the girls in the school.

But now Yoongi knows why.

“For how long?” Yoongi asked.

“About a year now,” Namjoon answered.

“Cute,” Yoongi said making Namjoon laugh.

“What about you?” Namjoon asked. “Girlfriend?”

Yoongi shook his head no.

“I don’t feel like dating anyone,” he said in a way that was convincing enough for Namjoon to not ask him any questions and Yoongi was particularly grateful.

“I should leave now,” Namjoon said. “I have to meet Seokjin”

Yoongi grinned a little.

“Enjoy yourself but don’t get too freaky”

“Yoongi,” Namjoon whined turning red and Yoongi just laughed as Namjoon left him all alone in the living room and then Yoongi let out a little sigh because now he was alone which meant he would start thinking and that was something that he had been running away from.

He was 16 and he had never felt so confused in his entire life.

He had begun noticing that when he had turned 13 boys around him had only one thing in their mind and that was girls.

They talked about girls and had crushes. They were fascinated by the bizarre creatures that were women.

But not Yoongi.

He didn’t have a stash of magazines with scantily clad girls nor did he ever had the slightest interest in watching porn like everyone else (including Jimin were so into)

He didn’t want to impress girls nor kiss them.

To put in simple words he just didn’t want anything to do with them.

At first, Yoongi didn’t take much notice but now he felt he was a freak for not liking girls. He didn’t want to be one so he tried his best as he looked at pictures of naked women and porn on the internet but he felt nothing at all.

At that point, Yoongi had just given up but the thought that he was weird but it still bothered him in the back of his mind. He felt like he never past his girls are gross phase. Especially now that even Jimin wanted to set him up with girls but he didn’t find himself having even the slightest interest in dating any of them.

Maybe he still hadn’t found the right girl that would turn his whole life around the moment he saw her walking down the street and he would fall in love and live happily ever after.

Yoongi at least hoped that was the case.

His phone buzzed distracting him.

It was Jimin

‘Hi’

‘Hey’

How was the date?

We made out

For real?

Yup, it was quite fun

Where are you now?

Victoria’s, her parents aren’t home

WHAT

Chill, her parents own some good whiskey and we decided to get drunk

Uh fine. But it’s a school night

Yoongi, learn to live a little

Yoongi decided not to reply leaving Jimin on read as he went upstairs and finished his homework before eating a dinner of microwaved lasagna and then watching Netflix until his parents got home and he went to bed.read as he went upstairs and finished his homework before eating a dinner of microwaved lasagna and then watching Netflix until his parents got home and he went to bed.

That night he saw a dream. It was very vivid. He was standing in a field wearing a white shirt and jeans and on the other end was Jimin dressed identically and suddenly they were running towards each other until they fell down on the ground and Yoongi was on top of Jimin looking into his eyes and for a moment he could hear Jimin’s shallow breaths until Yoongi pressed his lips onto Jimin’s kissing him softly and feeling Jimin’s soft hands on his face.

Yoongi felt like he was in heaven not caring at all as he kissed Jimin when he was woken up by the obnoxious sound of his alarm.

He sat up scared and sweating over the dream he had. The worst part was this wasn’t the first time. But for his own sanity, Yoongi had convinced himself that every teenager had dreams of kissing their best friend one time or another even though he was pretty sure they didn’t.

Not pondering it over too much Yoongi showered and brushed his teeth and ate a breakfast of toast only to get a text from Jimin telling him that he won’t pick up Yoongi, so Yoongi took the bus to school instead and reached just in time for his first class.

Yoongi didn’t see Jimin until lunch time and then he spotted him sitting next to Victoria laughing with all of those loud obnoxious people that Yoongi never liked.

Yoongi almost turned around to leave when Jimin began waving at him.

Yoongi reluctantly went up to the table and saw Kayla stiffen.

“Hey,” he said.

“Sit with us,” Jimin said

Yoongi looked at all of their faces and everyone except for Kayla and Jimin didn’t look happy on seeing Yoongi.

“I… have to like catch up with the music kids,” Yoongi said. “See you later”

Jimin nodded and Kayla gave him a little wave as he left. Maybe Kayla wasn’t that bad and he would have dated her if he liked girls Yoongi thought.

Yoongi decided to sit with Namjoon and his friends that he briefly knew.

Hoseok who was also a junior like Yoongi was a loud but nice hearted kid and Yoongi found him too much to bear sometimes but he still liked him. Taehyung was a sophomore and Hoseok’s boyfriend as Namjoon had told him since Yoongi didn’t mind gay people. Lastly, there was Jungkook the shy freshman who always had very little to talk.

They were also joined by Seokjin who was probably the nicest person Yoongi had met in their school.

Every time Jimin was a little too busy Yoongi hung out with Namjoon and his friends instead and he liked them a lot.

Yoongi was glad he had found his little group of friends.

It had been 4 months since Victoria and Jimin had started dating.

4 months of Jimin acting stupidly in love and having little to no time left for Yoongi and Yoongi have persistent dreams of him kissing Jimin to the point that it was worrying him.

He was currently sat in his bedroom his laptop open as he typed in

Am I gay?

A million results of quizzes and people asking the same question popped up and for a moment Yoongi felt relieved that he wasn’t the only one who questioned his sexuality,

Though Yoongi was convinced he couldn’t be gay,

He shut his laptop and lied down on his bed slowly falling asleep.

He was awakened only when his phone was ringing too close to his ears.

It was Jimin.

Yoongi picked up.

“I called you 10 times,” Jimin yelled.

“I was asleep,”

Jimin sniffed.

“Jiminie are you crying?”

“No,” Jimin croaked.

“Yes, you are,”

Jimin didn’t reply.

“Where are you?” Yoongi asked.

“At Jefferson Park,” he said.

Yoongi immediately cut the call and grabbed his jacket heading to the park which was about 15 minutes away from his home and he managed to find Jimin sitting on one of the swings.

“Jimin,” Yoongi said.

Jimin hugged him and began crying dampening Yoongi’s shirt.

“What happened?” Yoongi asked.

“Vic…Victoria”

“Huh?”

“She cheated and we broke up,”

“Oh,” Yoongi said rubbing Jimin’s back as he cried.

“Shush, it’s gonna be fine,”

Jimin sniffed his head buried into Yoongi’s chest and Yoongi couldn’t help but think about the countless dreams he had where Jimin was cuddled up to him.

“No one loves me,” Jimin said.

“I do,” Yoongi said.

Jimin looked up from his teary eyes and then out of nowhere kissed Yoongi and then they both realized what had happened.

“I…” Jimin said and then got up running away from Yoongi leaving him alone wondering what in the actual fuck had happened.

Yoongi too made his way to home more confused than he had ever been because he just had his first kiss with his best friend and he had liked it but was he even gay? Was Jimin gay?

Yoongi’s head was hurting and he fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

The next day was Sunday and Yoongi decided to meet Namjoon at a café.

They both got their coffees and sat down.

“So,” Yoongi said.

“Yes,”

“Jimin kissed me yesterday,”

Namjoon almost spat his coffee out.

“What the…”

“Yeah,” Yoongi said. “He broke up with his girlfriend and he was crying and he kissed me”

“Then?”

“He ran away,”

“Oh.”

Yoongi sipped his coffee.

“Namjoon,”

“Yeah,”

“I have a question,”

“What?”

“How did you know you were gay?”

Namjoon looked a little taken aback.

“I just knew because girls weren’t as appealing and I found myself looking at boys and then after meeting Seokjin I just knew that I was um gay,”

“Oh,” Yoongi said. “Because I think I am gay”

“WHAT”

“Yeah,”

“Because Jimin kissed you,”

“No, I never liked girls,”

“So you like boys?”

“No,”

“How does that make you gay?”

“I like Jimin,”

“Like as in like?” Namjoon asked.

“Yeah,” Yoongi quietly answered. “I think…I think I do”

“So you liked the kiss?”

“Considering it was my first kiss it wasn’t that bad,”

“You never kissed someone until yesterday?”

Yoongi shook his head no looking down as he felt Jimin’s lips on his and just how many emotions he had felt at that time.

“Is Jimin gay?”

“No,”

“Then why did he kiss you?”

“I don’t know,” Yoongi answered.

“Did you guys talk after that?”

“No,” Yoongi answered.

He was too scared to text Jimin.

“You should,”

“Yeah,”

“Damn out of all people Min Yoongi was the last person I thought could be gay,”

“What makes you say that?”

“I don’t know,” Namjoon said as Yoongi checked his phone and his heart flipped a little when he saw Jimin had texted him.

“Jimin told me to meet him at Jefferson Park again,”

“Go,” was all Namjoon said. “You need to figure out what’s happening”

Yoongi nodded as he got up leaving the café and walking to the park. Since it was a bright afternoon the park had a lot of kids and Jimin was sat on one of the benches.

Yoongi walked up to Jimin.

Jimin forced a smile as Yoongi sat next to him.

“About yesterday,” he began. “I am sorry Yoongi”

Before Yoongi could say anything he continued.

“It was just me being emotional. I didn’t mean to kiss you. It just happened,”

Yoongi nodded.

“You are my best friend Yoongi,” Jimin said. “And a boy and it’s just I didn’t mean it like that”

“I am sorry,” he said again.

“It’s…its fine,” Yoongi said.

Jimin smiled and then hugged Yoongi but Yoongi pulled away quickly because the last thing he wanted was Jimin to touch him.

“I…,” he said. “I have to go, piano practice”

With that, he walked back home and locked himself in his room before he let a few tears slip because he had come to the awful realization that he liked Jimin more than he thought he did and that he was definitely gay.

But he knew Jimin didn’t want to kiss boys.

2 months had gone by since Jimin and Yoongi had kissed and things weren’t the same at all.

Victoria and Jimin had got back together and he had asked her to prom. To distract Yoongi from this sad news Namjoon and Seokjin took him to a gay bar using fake IDs but that ended as a disaster because Yoongi was an emotional drunk who cried about Jimin to random strangers.

Jimin and he barely talked anymore and they were like strangers now which hurt Yoongi because the last thing that he had thought that he would lose his best friend. Even his mom noticed but until now Yoongi had successfully managed to evade any kind of question about Jimin lying about why they barely hung out anymore.

But the damage was done.

“There are so many other boys Yoongi,” Seokjin said to him.

But they weren’t Jimin, Yoongi thought. He only liked Jimin.

He watched with a heavy heart every time he saw Jimin and Victoria around school or at places making out because it reminded him too much of the kiss that he so desperately wanted to forget. He was being stupid because Jimin looked like he was loving life being with Victoria and Yoongi probably never crossed his mind.

It hurt him to think about it but he had to learn to live with it.

He had even decided to not go to prom but since Namjoon and Seokjin forced him to he decided he would do it only for their sake and made an effort to get a rental tuxedo for the special night.

They had all piled up in Seokjin’s SUV with Hoseok and Taehyung sitting in the back and Yoongi sitting with Jungkook who wasn’t the quiet boy he used to be when Yoongi had first met him. Now they talked a lot and Yoongi really liked the boy and how he talked about his dreams to Yoongi that he would only ever confide with Yoongi. He liked the fact that the younger saw him as an older brother.

They reached the venue and Yoongi sighed with a heavy heart bracing himself to see Jimin towed with Victoria dancing.

They walked in and people were already dancing though there was no sign of Jimin yet as Yoongi leaned against the wall sipping punch.

Beside him, Namjoon and Seokjin stood close though they weren’t dancing because they still didn’t want anyone in their school to know nor did Taehyung and Hoseok who were simply content with holding hands in a discreet manner.

Just then Jimin walked in looking as breathtaking as ever his recently dyed blonde hair styled to perfection and his arm around Victoria.

Yoongi looked away and Jungkook gave him a concerned look but he managed to smile and sip his punch.

He looked again and Jimin and Victoria were dancing a little too closely gazing into each others’ eyes dreamily and Yoongi’s heart broke just a little as he saw their foreheads touch and Jimin smiled.

Yoongi had enough as he walked out of the venue and straight to the small lawn and sat down on the cement benches. He was alone except for a couple who were making out and Yoongi was pretty sure they didn’t even notice him as he sat down wallowing in self-pity and sorrow. Coming to prom was a very bad idea. He couldn’t wait to get home.

Just then he felt a tap on his shoulder.

He expected Namjoon or maybe even Jungkook but he was more than surprised when it was Jimin.

“Yoongi,” Jimin said.

When Yoongi didn’t say anything Jimin’s face fell but he sat down next to Yoongi anyway.

“Why are you here?” Yoongi finally asked. “Victoria must be inside waiting”

“She can wait a little longer,” Jimin said.

“Do you have something to say?”

“Yes,”

“What is it?”

“I miss you, Yoongi,”

There was a long pause.

“I miss you too,”

“Why can’t we be like before?”

“I don’t know,” Yoongi said in a hushed voice.

“I know,”

“You do?” Yoongi asked.

“The kiss,” Jimin said. “It changed something”

“Yeah,”

“I think we both know that,”

“Yeah,”

“The kiss taught me something,”

“What do you mean?”

“I am saying that the kiss changed what we have,”

“We barely talk,” Yoongi said.

“Not just that,” Jimin said.

“Huh?”

“When I kissed you Yoongi, I felt something a spark inside my stomach. It’s something that I’ve never felt when I kissed Victoria or any other girl,”

“So you don’t regret the kiss anymore?”

“No,”

“Why not?”

“It told me something that I was too scared to know,”

“What?”

“I like you Yoongi,”

Yoongi could feel himself getting angry.

“Stop joking Jimin, it’s not funny,”

“I mean it Yoongi,” he said in a calm voice. “I like you in a way that I would like to date you and kiss you”

“What the…”

“Can I?” Jimin asked. “I am sorry but would you give me a chance”

“Are you being serious?”

“Yoongi, I always hid from who I truly am and after that kiss, it became harder to escape from it because all I could think about was that kiss we had and how much I wished we could do it again,”

Yoongi couldn’t reply anything.

“I am gonna kiss you,” Jimin said. “Tell me if you don’t want to”

Yoongi instead just leaned in and kissed Jimin and he could feel Jimin smile as they kissed and Yoongi could feel a fire burning in the pits of his stomach as he never wanted to stop but they did now their foreheads touching as they smiled.

“I like you too,” Yoongi said.

“Wanna go inside?” Jimin asked. “It’s cold here”

Yoongi nodded.

“We can dance too,”

“But…”

“I don’t care what they think about me,” Jimin said. “Not anymore”

Yoongi who smiled grabbed Jimin’s hand and walked in his heart fluttering just a little.

He finally had an answer to the question that he had always bothered him.

Boys can kiss boys.

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