#rather pixelated here but still a cutie

[slowestlap]

Max streaming with Team Redline on twitch | 12 December 2023

[duskgraves]

Angel's Game - Chapter Four

Tw: death, suicide, temporary amnesia, blood and violence

"A movie night, that was all it was meant to be," Babe said as they stared out at the burning landscape around them. "You were even going to be invited as well. Just us, Angel, and our mates."  They sighed, rubbing their forehead. "And now we're stuck in a literal pixelated hell."

It was a short walk as they were led through a forest and eventually coming to a small village. It was full of life with the last rays of light shining on it from over the horizon and the villagers were going around speaking to one another and working. 

But they were only speaking in villic. And looked almost human too but it was just off enough that it raised the hairs on Babe's and Angel's arms. They kept looking at the group but anytime they got close they would scurry away. 

Angel pouted to shake off the eerie feeling, "Damn I was hoping that they would be able to talk for once."

Starlight looked at them confused and replied, "They are though?" The two looked at Starlight for a moment before moving over to Cutie who looked at them both confused. 

"Can you not hear them?" 

Angel shook their head. "No, they're just talking in hmms. Wait you can? What are they saying?" Eyes lighting up eagerly. 

Starlight looked over to them for a moment before answering, "They're not a fan of newcomers but they're too afraid to do anything and would rather not engage."

Babe winced. "Damn, they're afraid of us? I kinda feel bad now for all those villager farms I made." 

Angel looked off in the distance in thought. "I've tortured so many." Cutie and Starlight gave the two a look before meeting eyes and deciding to move on. 

"We're in the village now, did you want to get their food now or in the morning?" Starlight questioned.

"Let's wait till morning, better not to risk anything, even in a well lit area. We'll need to make some beds first. You still got leftover iron, Babe?" They nodded and quickly made some shears before heading over to the sheep pen. "Cool now, should we borrow someone's house to sleep in or sleep under the stars?"

Cutie scoffed slightly, "I hate camping, we're sleeping in that house." They nodded towards it, making the two turn to a tower connected to a house. 

"You want to crash a church?"

"Jesus is forgiving," Cutie retorted before heading to it and opening the door. The priest villager immediately booked it to a different house before they could even fully step inside. 

Cutie took off their hat throwing it on the steps before sitting down next to it. Starlight took a seat by the wall to look out the window as mobs began to spawn further into the trees. Angel kept the door open and their head stuck out to keep an eye on their friend who was just hurrying back. 

Babe moved inside letting them close and block the door. "Got lots of wool, you got enough wood?" Angel smirked but was quickly cut off,  "No dick jokes. I'm tired." 

They pouted but answered as they set down a crafting table, "Yeah I should have enough, here you go." Babe quickly put together four beds and began setting them down. 

Angel called out, "I call the white bed." 

"They're all white."

"That's the joke." 

"Goodnight everyone," Babe interrupted, shooting their friend a look before getting into their own bed. 

"No one appreciates comedy anymore," Angel whined as they fell face first into theirs. 

Starlight blew out the torches before choosing the last bed there was and whispering, "Goodnight." They got a chorus of whispers back before it went silent with only hisses, groans, and the rattle of bones coming from outside the door. 

The next day the group was woken up to sunlight on their face and the creatures outside being burned alive. Angel groaned loudly, rolling over to bury their face while the others began getting up. Babe sat up on their bed and nudged Angel with their foot. But when they only got an annoyed groan they pushed harder to knock them to the floor. 

Curses were shot at them while Starlight lowly laughed and Cutie snorted. 

"Everyone here's a bully and I hate you all," Angel complained with a scowl. 

Babe couldn't help but smile. "Alright, let's split and gather as many hay bales and vegetables as we can then meet back up here to make the food." They took down the wood that covered the door while Cutie put their hat back on and Starlight helped Angel gather the beds.

Starlight asked as they stepped outside, "What about meat? Can't we kill some of the animals for food?" 

"I mean.." Angel winced. "I've never killed an animal back home and I'm too much of a wimp to do it here. I'll stick to hay bales!" Then scurried off. 

"I'm with Angel on this one, I was hoping we can get through this with as little death as possible. If you want to you can and I can lend you a furnace but I'm not comfortable killing them." Then turned heading off to one of the small farms. 

Starlight asked as they watched them walk off, "The animals aren't real are they?"

Cutie rolled their eyes, shaking their head. "No, those two are dramatic. If we're stuck in a video game then everything in here is nothing more than pixels and code." They then paused, looking through the pockets of their robe before asking, "I don't suppose they gave you a knife or anything." 

They winced. "That should've been something I asked for." 

The other sighed as they took out several potions. "Guess we'll have to see how fast a potion can kill them then." Turning towards the pen of sheep with Starlight following behind.

They stopped just outside of it and Cutie pulled out several red potions. They hesitated for a moment as they drew their arm back but proceeded to toss them all into the middle of the pen. The two froze as the sheep cried out in pain simultaneously before falling to the ground in a white puff, leaving only behind their wool and meat. They looked at one another unsure of what to say. 

Starlight finally broke the silence. "Let's say it was programmed into the game and we didn't just painfully and ruthlessly slaughter them?"

"Agreed, agreed," Cutie replied, shaking their head before hopping over the fence to pick everything up. 

Angel and Babe were already back at the house with several furnaces set up when the two arrived with armfuls of mutton and wool. 

Angel excitedly hopped off one of them, putting out their hands to take the wool off of them. "Yay! This should help us with the ender dragon."

Cutie paused as they handed over the meat to Babe to cook. "'Ender dragon'? That's the 'boss' of the game right? How will a bed help with it?" 

"Well you know how I told you yesterday that the last fight takes place in a separate realm? Well beds will explode in it and the dragon takes a lot of damage from it."

Babe added in, "And they're much easier to obtain then tnt." 

Starlight questioned, "That sounds really dangerous. Exploding beds? I feel like I'd  die from it before a dragon will." 

"It can be risky but if you know what you're doing then you shouldn't get hurt from it. In the actual game hiding behind a block would keep you safe but we'll have to be careful. Who knows if that mechanic applies here."

Babe then broke the furnaces and passed out the cooked food. "And that's why it'll be a last resort. We can use the wool to make string to make bows. Long range is our best bet on fighting it." 

"Are we going to have enough arrows?" Cutie asked, finishing their mutton and regaining their health and hunger. 

"We'll get those from the nether, piglin trades are random but one of them is arrows and usually those drop more commonly than pearls." Babe wiped their mouth, their health now full again. They looked over to Angel who gave them a thumbs up with a nod. "Let's get going, finding a lava pool could take us minutes to days." 

Angel groaned loudly. "I swear if I have to spend another week just wandering aimlessly I'm going to scream loud enough that David will hear me from across dimensions." 

Their friend just rolled their eyes and nodded towards the ocean just peeking out from past the trees. "Let's stick to the beach for now and then when the area gets more open we'll head inland more."

"But wouldn't we have better luck finding lava further from water?" Cutie asked, as they walked from the village and through the forest.  

"Maybe, but the forest is too dense right now and way too many mobs can hide in here. It wouldn't be safe. We'll already be in a lot of danger going into the nether, we shouldn't risk taking any unnecessary damage," Babe answered as they stepped out onto the sand.

They could see several stand alone hills in the water along with tons of sea life that were near the surface. It seemed to have no end and only the ocean went on to the horizon. 

Angel stared longingly at the water, "Can we hold off on the adventure, I want to swim, I feel so gross right now." Babe grabbed their arm as they attempted to walk to the water.

"Sorry but no. You can swim when we get back home." They groaned but let their friend tug them along just as a bolt of lightning then struck down where the two were once standing. 

Angel shrieked, flinging themselves backwards onto the sand dragging Babe along with them. Starlight hissed instinctively as they backed away while Cutie held out a potion at the ready. 

They all looked in different directions, trying to spot their attacker with no luck. The air was tense as the two got up, moving over to the others quickly. 

"Uhh you think it's possible that it was just a freak of nature kind of thing?" Angel suggested. But their hope was instantly crushed when the water began rippling.

A figure slowly emerged from the depths. Their brown clothes drenched from what looked to be years submerged in saltwater. They were tattered and clung to the person's tinted blue skin. 

"Anyone recognize them?" Angel asked the group.

Starlight replied, "No but they have to be from our world, right? Is there that void dot thing on them?" 

"Not that I see yet," Babe announced, "But be careful, lightning in this game is super deadly and if you're unlucky it can one shot you." 

Another bolt of lightning went shooting down making them all split to dodge it. The drowned was remaining in the water, hunched in an animalistic way. They gurgled in anger when no one had been hit. Raising their trident once again to reveal skin and the dot on their waist.

Starlight shouted immediately at the sight of it, "It's on their waist!"

Babe eyes quickly shifted towards it. "Good eye," they replied, grabbing Starlight's arm as they moved out of the way of another bolt. 

"I think I can web their trident and get it away from them." 

Babe shook their head. "No, too risky. Lightning can shoot through it and hit you before you can get let go." 

"What do we do then?" 

"We have to get the trident away from them," Cutie then told Angel, body completely tense and eyes refusing to leave the drowned. The drowned had their attention on the other two at the moment giving them time to plan.

"How you want to do that, ask them nicely for it? 'Oh please sir, just a crumb of your trident is all I need'," Angel mocked, getting a death glare in return but then a look crossed their face. 

"That won't work but maybe using some bait would. Said you wanted to swim right?" They then grabbed Angel and tossed them into the water, instantly grabbing the drowned's attention. 

They screamed out in shock resulting in water filling up their lungs and causing them to splash around as they tried to swim up to break the surface. They coughed out water, head whipping around to see the prongs of the trident just inches away from their face. The hybrid's lip was pulled back in a snarl as lightning began to crackle on their weapon. 

Angel attempted to swim backwards, blood running cold. They shook their head eyes pleading to the hybrid who just looked back mercilessly.

But before they could be hit, a web then latched on to the trident and it was yanked out of their grip. 

They yelled out in surprise eyes turning to Starlight who collapsed in pain, gasping desperately for air as electricity shot through their web and through their body. 

Angel reached for their crystal, thankful it didn't fall out of their pocket and went lunging for them. But before it could make contact a hand was wrapped around their throat and hot breath on their face. They looked up to see them glaring down, lips pulled back to show a row of piranha like teeth.

Before they could call out for help the two went below the surface and into the depths. Their hands instinctively went up to their throat, letting go of the crystal in favor of trying to rip the hand away. But in a useless attempt nothing seemed to move it. Their eyes grew blurry, barely able to make out the other's features anymore.

But before things could go black bright lights then began shooting through the drowned's skin and closed the void with a muffled crackle. The grip on their throat was gone and arms went around their waist, pulling them up to the surface. 

Angel once again coughed out water, greedily gasping for air as they were pulled to the shore. They were laid down just as a bottle met their lips and forced a liquid down their throat. The pain from their body quickly vanished and their eyes became clear again. 

"It's okay, you're okay, I got you," Babe assured them, hugging them tightly. Angel wrapped their arms around them, eyes looking behind to see the drowned still halfway in the water but knocked out. Cutie stood by Starlight with Babe's and Angel's crystals in one hand and a healing potion in the other that they passed over. 

A blinding hot anger then shot through them as they slowly began to get up with the help of their friend. Eyes locked onto Cutie who looked away from the spider hybrid chugging down the potion.

"Fuck you!" They shouted with tears in their eyes as they stormed over and shoved the witch harshly to the ground. They hit it with a groan. Babe quickly grabbed onto Angel, pulling them away before they could do any more damage. 

"Fuck you fuck you fuck you!" They screamed over and over, hands shaking in rage. 

Cutie brushed the sand from their clothes as they stood up. "I get it, I'm an asshole but we needed to do something."

"'Do something'?! You almost got not only me but Starlight killed!"

"And I'm sorry about that but we didn't exactly have time to sit around and figure out a better plan. I want to get home as soon as I can just like the rest of you."

"Well we can't get home if you actively try to kill us!"

Starlight then moved in between them and snapped, "Both of you shut up!" It shocked the two into silence. "This isn't my first world I've been stuck in and arguing and fighting won't get us anywhere, trust me I know. We only have each other and clearly we need each other. Me and you," they turned to Cutie, "have no idea about anything in this world. And you two," looking at the others, "may know this world but have no abilities or powers like us and only have your swords and axes to protect yourselves with."

"So if we want to make it out of here we work together, and if it means we stay here awhile longer," glaring eyes shift to Cutie's avoiding gaze as they continued, "Then we stay here awhile longer, clear?"

Cutie clenched their jaw for a moment before letting out a defeated sigh, finally meeting their gaze, "Crystal."

Before anyone could speak a pained groan came from the figure in the water. 

Babe looked at Angel who sighed, giving them a nod as they let them go. They gave a small squeeze on their friend's shoulder before going over to the hybrid as they began waking up. The two crouched on opposite sides while the others hung a bit back to give them space. 

Slowly they blinked their eyes open, spitting out salt water as they gained consciousness. 

"The fuck?" They mumbled, blinking their eyes rapidly as they tried to gain sense of their surroundings. 

"Hey you good now? Less murdery? No more lightning?" Babe hit Angel over the head with a glare. They yelped and shot them a look back. 

"What's your name hon?" Babe asked gently. 

They rubbed their head before looking up at the other's crouched figure and answered, "You can call me Lovely. Where are we?" 

Angel explained, "It's complicated but in the simplest terms we're in some sort of minecraft dimension."

"...Minecraft? Like the children's game?"

Angel huffed, standing back up. "The audacity." 

Babe warned with a glare, "Angel."

"I'm about to start another fight."

Starlight placed a hand on their shoulder, pulling them back a bit to give them room. "Let's let them talk while we heal you up, Cutie can you help?" They nodded and moved over to them, ignoring Angel's glare. 

When the three moved a bit away Babe let out breath. "This is probably really confusing-" 

"Ya think?" Lovely scoffed, rubbing their forehead as they pushed themselves up with their other hand. Then pausing when they got a better look at their skin. "What the hell?" They looked down seeing their clothes and pieces of flesh missing that showed bone underneath. Quickly their face turned into panic.

 "I know I know! Let me explain-" 

"Explain?! I'm missing skin! I look like the fucking blueberry girl from Willy Wonka! IS THAT MY RIB?!" They screamed, frantically looking at their arms and body. Lifting their shirt up to reveal part of their ribcage showing. 

"You're fine, you're fine!" Babe attempted to reassure them. 

"The fuck do you mean 'I'm fine' my fuCKING BONES ARE SHOWING-!" 

"But they don't hurt right?" They interrupted 

They snapped back, "No they don't h-" then paused, a realization crossing their face. "Oh my god." They gasped, slowly touching their ribs and eyes widening when they could grab onto it. "Oh my god, oh my god, why doesn't it-Am I dead?" 

Babe frantically shook their head. "No, no..well kind of. More like the undead, just let me explain please." They waited a moment to see if they would start panicking again but luckily they just stared at them wide eyed. "Thank you, you're a drowned which means like a zombie but underwater. We have no idea why we're here or why we seem to have mutated with this world. But we're trying to get home right now and believe that it'll reverse any of the changes. Whatever happened to you is a part of this game and when we leave it should leave it behind."

It seemed to have calmed them down some. "So I'm not stuck like this?" 

They shook their head gently this time. "No, I promise you'll be fine." They sighed, looking at Babe like they held the world in their hands. 

"We'll all be fine," Angel then added in, trident in hand as they headed over to the two. "I mean unless you try to smite us again then we'll probably be fine," They teased handing over the weapon and catching Lovely off guard. They hesitantly reached out for it, looking up to them before taking it. 

They got up to their feet, examining it before beginning to take a step out of the water when Angel shot out their hands to stop them. 

"Careful!" They shouted, causing them to freeze looking down as if they were to step on something. "You can't leave water, you'll burn."

They instantly took a step back. "I'll what?!" 

Babe muttered, as they saw their panic come back again, "God dammit it Angel." Then began explaining, "Drowned are water creatures and need to stay in the water to survive. As long as you at least have even one foot in it, or the sun isn't out, then you'll be fine." 

"Well this just got harder then if they can't leave water," Cutie snipped.

"Let's just hope we find it near the shore then."

"What are you looking for?"

"Lava," Babe replied, "We'll need it to go to the nether which will help us get out of here."

"Lava?" Lovely asked, "How much do you need?" 

"Not too much, just a small pool of it."

They nodded a bit as they thought with furrowed brows. "It's weird but I have some memory of this place and I might know where some is actually, can you all swim?" The group looked at each other a bit confused but nodded. "Good, it won't be too far of a swim come on." They turned and began heading into the water with the rest following behind. 

Underneath the waves laid a large coral reef with tropical fish all moving around it rapidly. Lovely swam by it unbothered while the others kept getting entranced by the sight but quickly followed when they shouted back and waved them forwards. 

They were led to a mountain in the middle of the ocean with a large cave entrance near the bottom of the sea. Quickly swimming through it and popping up into an air pocket not too long after. Inside was a small pool of lava just a few feet away from them. It lit up the cave brightly and heated them up from the cold water. 

"This'll be enough?"

Babe nodded. "It's perfect." Taking a step forwards but was blocked by Angel who had held out an arm to them as they took out a bucket.

"Step back, I can do the speedrun thing." 

"Speedrun thing?" Cutie questioned.

They rolled their eyes as their friend began to make the portal. "It's just building the portal using only the bucket. Angel's real proud that they can do this." 

"Done!" They then exclaimed, making the group look back at them and the finished frame of the portal. "Now Babe can you do the honors of lighting it?"

"I don't have a lighter."

"...The fuck do you mean you don't have one?" 

"I forgot to pick up some flint."

"How did you- you knew we were going to need a lighter so why wouldn't you grab some?"

Babe argued back, crossing their arms over their chest, "Well why didn't you?" Lovely sighed deeply before jabbing the end of their trident on the ground with a loud crackle of electricity. The two went silent, turning as they pointed the prongs at the portal and a bolt of lightning shot out and hit the frame. 

It lit up purple and a strange noise began to emerge from it. Purple particles floated from it and disappeared into the air. 

Angel whispered to Babe, "Is it weird if I'm kind of turned on by that."

They got their arm pinched. "You have a mate," they hissed back. 

"Sharing is caring." They pouted while rubbing their arm. 

Starlight interrupted by taking a step closer to the portal. "This'll take us to the nether?"

"Yep, and it might be a bit of a walk to find what we're searching for so hopefully us being near the bottom of the ocean won't put us in some annoying place."

Lovely questioned, "Anything more we should know about this place?"

Angel explained, "Lots of lava, fire, fire monsters, and well more fire." 

"Great, so we're walking right into the gates of hell," they grumbled before heading to the portal but was stopped by Angel with wide eyes. 

They questioned with furrowed brows, "What are you doing?"

"You can't come with us." Angel frantically shook their head. 

"Why-oh!" Babe said, smacking their forehead with their palm. "They're a drowned, they need water to survive. And the nether evaporates any that's in it."

Angel nodded and continued, "You'll dry up faster than a fish in a dryer." 

"Weird phrasing but okay," Babe muttered to themselves. 

Lovely winced a bit but sighed and nodded. "Alright, I'll wait out here then. I'll see if there's anyone else that's from our world."

"Alright, stay safe. Remember to stay in the water and uhh don't do drugs."

Lovely couldn't help the small smile that formed. "I'll see you soon."

The four turned back to the portal. A hand then slid into Angel's and they turned their head to see Babe looking at them. 

"We can do this." Angel gave them a nod and a halfhearted smile then turned their focus back again. Taking in a long breath of the salty air before stepping through the portal with Babe and the rest in tow.

[1kook]

ZOOM CALL

⇢ meeting one

jeon jungkook x (f) reader

⇢ series masterlist

summary: In a sea of black screens and faceless names, there’s one smiley boy that beams back at you through the dimly lit screen of your laptop, a tiny Jeon Jungkook (he/him) tacked to the corner of his window. genre: fluff, slice of life, smut (tags tba) warnings: jk is a ditzy lil nerdy sweetheart, college crushes, social distancing -_-, use of the zoom app, 1kook Builds a Healthy Relationship (Version 2.0) ratings: M (18+) wc: 3.2k

notes: well. here we are. as always i have to thank common sense (coincidentally named rumu @kigurumu​ ) for reading this over and pointing out little details <3 after much deliberation, i have decided to post our beloved zoom jk (see origin story here) in the form of short ‘drabbles’ depicting diff zoom calls with this being The Beginning™️ so please... bare with me </3 ty to all the nice ppl who have been excited for this, luv u very much 🥺

There are times in human history where words captivate their audience; times when single words or phrases wrap around the listener, melt into their bones and radiate warmth from within. But rarely does one word manage such an impact, rarely is it as revered and as cherished as the word cancelled is to most college students. 

Class is cancelled, group meetings are cancelled, the stupidly big semester final project was cancelled. You could cancel nearly anything, and in most cases, it would be beautiful. Cancelled meant more time to sleep in the morning, an afternoon free of pesky project partners, a pleasant reprieve from having to socialize with anyone. It was a glorious word with heavenly connotations that brought tears of joy to your eyes whenever you saw it appear in an email preview.

Except this one.

Spring Semester 2021: On-Campus Classes CANCELLED — Social Distance Measures as per State Regula…

Your last semester as a student in university… online? You couldn’t believe it. All these years of studying rigorously, cramming for exams, attaining a near perfect GPA— just to sit in your bedroom and stare at your computer screen for the last 15 weeks of classes? Had your friends not been there to mope with you, you’re certain a part of you would have gone on a rampage and cursed every bacteria known to mankind for doing this to you.

It was your last year, you whined in private (never in public; your friends had always considered you the mature one, the studious friend who kept everyone in order), yet here you were, setting up your desk for your last ever first day of classes with quite possibly the biggest pout on your face.

Zoom, your school had raved in an email a few weeks into the break, the desktop application that will keep us united in these trying times! As if, you huffed, giving the stupid application permission to connect to your computer’s camera and audio systems. What even was proper Zoom etiquette? Did you have to enter the meeting and greet every student cheerfully? You had always said hi to your classmates before, but something about saying it over a computer mic felt awkward.

The feeling doubled when you finally entered the meeting, only to be met with a sea of black screens save for your professor, who seemed to be clicking around his computer in a rather confused fashion. This was going to suck, you thought bitterly.

You had entered the room ten minutes earlier because, well, you always showed up to class a few minutes earlier than the scheduled meeting time. But was there any point to doing that here? Usually, the time before class was spent making small talk with said classmates, discussing the readings or the assignments, talking mindlessly about whatever came to mind. But something in your gut said it would be weird to do that now.

So you sit in silence for the next ten minutes, nervously tapping your pen against your desk as you wait for the professor to launch into whatever introductory monologue he had planned. You toy with your phone, scrolling through your twitter feed only to see a brigade of tweets from students all over the nation suffering the same fate as you. It was a trending topic.

Two minutes before the class starts, you hear the tell-tale ping of someone entering the meeting. You wave it off just like you have your other 41 classmates thus far, but then there’s the clearing of a throat, and a sweet, “good morning” filtering through your speakers. Lifting your head from the hunched over position you had assumed while glancing at your phone, you’re startled by the sudden handsome face that appears before you.

In a sea of black screens and faceless names, there’s one smiley boy that beams back at you through the dimly lit screen of your laptop, a tiny Jeon Jungkook (he/him) tacked to the corner of his window.

He’s nothing short of a dreamboat, soft and doughy cheeks that catch the hue of the screen light, highlighting his cheekbones in a faint blue color. Imploring doe eyes blinking widely at the screen as he clicks around, narrating his confusion in a low mumble (mic still on, how cute). Dark hair— was it brown? black? the pixelated screen made it hard to tell —messily pushed away from his face.

And his voice, oh his voice. It matches his gentle appearance perfectly. A soft snort. “Am I the only one here?” he says, thin lips pulled to the side in a bashful grin.

The professor laughs with him. “No, but you are the only one with your camera on,” he responds.

You’re not sure if it’s the professor’s teasing jab at literally everyone else or the need to support the cutie who smiles softly at screen, but suddenly, a handful of windows come to life. Your classmates fill up the screen, dressed in an array of styles with bedrooms (and, on the rare occasion, dorm rooms) to match. You nibble at your bottom lip, finger hovering over the button that will expose your appearance to the rest of your classmates

Eventually, the wordless peer pressure, the need to be a good student, and the supportive face of Jeon Jungkook (he/him) have you inhaling sharply before dutifully clicking the camera on. Your face appears on screen, nearly lost in the now overwhelming sea of faces. You’re one of the last ones to turn your camera on, both pages of your zoom meeting participant windows filled with the contrasting images of your classmates joining from their bedrooms. The professor claps in delight, and finally dives into the mandatory first day of classes spiel.

Syllabuses, group work, asynchronous lectures. You’ve heard these words all before, have practically memorized this class’s syllabus like the back of your hand. The pros of being an overachiever. The cons are, however, that you think every question your classmates ask is stupid. Read the syllabus, you want to scream. But it’s the first day of class. You don’t even know who your assigned study group partners (as mentioned in the syllabus) are and you certainly don’t want them to dislike you so soon. They can do that after the third meeting, but not today.

You’re not entirely surprised when your attention drifts away from the professor and the endless sea of stupid questions he’s left to answer. Even when you realize you’ve stopped paying attention, you don’t bother forcing yourself to tune back in. No, instead your focus drifts across the windows of faces.

Some of your classmates are as bored as you, glaring at the screen with disinterest, or glancing off to the side probably at their phones. So you start looking at their rooms, analyzing their decorations and posters as if you’re a professional critic on some house design show.

Jeon Jungkook (he/him) is in a rather plain dorm room. Plain light gray walls— or maybe it’s white —free of decoration. He’s sitting at the provided desk, just like you. The only reason you focus on that is because there’s a multitude of your classmates lazily sprawled across their beds, slumped over a couch. Hardly anyone is sitting at attention like you. Well, except for Jeon Jungkook (he/him). He’s practically exposing the entirety of his living accommodation with the way his camera is set up.

Above eye level, reaching just below his chest, with the room all laid out before you. A neat twin bed, sheets meticulously made. It almost looks like the decorative set at a furniture store with the way the comforter and variety of pillows are placed. He doesn’t seem to be in the crappy dorms you remember, which leaves you wondering where exactly he’s been assigned. You know certain sports clubs get fancier dormitories. Anyway, there’s a door off the side of the bed, a black guitar standing in the corner just behind it. You wonder what’s behind the camera, if maybe his desk is as organized as the rest of his room. Maybe his closet is his weakness, you muse, imagining poor Jeon Jungkook (he/him) with a tornado of a closet. But the thought doesn’t make that much sense, so you discard it quickly.

Anyway, his dorm room. It’s neat and orderly, makes you tilt your head curiously as he swivels from side to side before you. As for himself, he’s dressed in a plain white sweater, hoodie strings perfectly even. His hair has long since fallen over his forehead, but he’s pushed it over this time in a fluffy side part. He was adorably soft.

He’s paying attention to the professor like he genuinely treasures every word that comes off his tongue, nodding along understandingly. He’s even got a pencil in hand, leaning forward every few seconds to scribble something down hurriedly. Not like this is all on the syllabus or anything, you think.

But as soon as the thought crosses your mind, it’s dispelled just as fast. He’s only trying to be a good student, you scold yourself, feeling oddly mean for wanting to make fun of this sweet boy. Especially when he raises his hand a second later and asks the first good question of the day. Something about the grading scale for group projects and how much is determined by the group members themselves. You’re not too sure, the words get a little fuzzy when he starts speaking and his pink lips pull down into an endearing pout.

A couple minutes later and your professor finally wraps up the questions, telling everyone to email him if any other questions arise throughout the semester. Just as you’re sighing in relief, he utters those dreaded words: “Ice-breakers!” he exclaims, and the whole class grimaces, much to his amusement. He says something about feeling the excitement through the screen, but then changes gears. “Since it’s a little hard to talk to your neighbor, I’m going to test out the Breakout Rooms and see how that works, okay guys?”

You frown. Breakout Rooms? What on earth was that? Like most of your classmates, this is pretty much your first rodeo with the Zoom application. He was sending you all into small groups, where? The answer presents itself a few seconds later, a message box appearing on your screen.

The host is inviting you to join a Breakout Room: Group 4

Your professor is still chattering in the background when you nervously accept the invitation, his voice suddenly cut off as your computer jumps to a new loading screen. It takes a while before you’re suddenly dumped into a new room. And then you’re staring at your own face, blown up on your own screen in a rather uncomfortable way. Jeez, did you really look like this?

As soon as you get to picking at your appearance, your mirrored reflection jumps to the side, once, then twice more to fit the three new guests in your room. Silence fills your bedroom as you and your classmates all stare at each other nervously for a couple seconds, unsure of what to say. This was, after all, your first meeting.

Just as you’ve gathered all your courage to click your microphone on, the screen jumps around once more and suddenly Jeon Jungkook (he/him) is in your Breakout Room. Immediately, his surprised face melts into the most reassuring grin you’ve ever seen, and he’s practically jumping forward to turn his mic on.

“Good morning, everyone,” he says, smooth and low. It’s like the awkward tension melts away under the pressure of his pretty smile, your classmates responding back with polite hellos and good mornings to him. You barely get yours in before Jeon Jungkook (he/him) starts talking again. “So… how are you guys?”

His words, sweet and caring as they are, send the five of you into a rather mindless conversation. Talking about nothing really, just whatever comes to mind about the class, about the semester, about the remote learning. Then Jungkook— “just Jungkook is fine!” he tells the other four of you with that same too pure look on his face after someone refers to him by his whole name —starts talking about some movie he had seen on Netflix the other day, something his friend recommended to him. Truthfully, you have zero interest in the type of plot he is describing, and you can tell some of the other people in your group don’t either. But he’s absorbed in his storytelling, features lit up as he details every last plot point of the film like his life depends on it. There’s a wordless agreement to let him ramble on.

By the time Jungkook has finished his novella recapture of whatever movie he was talking about, a green message bubble appears at the top of your screen. It’s a message from your professor, who is telling you the small group meeting will end in a few more minutes.

“Aw, that sucks,” Jungkook laughs, rubbing at the back of his neck sheepishly. And then, “oh! We haven’t answered our icebreaker question yet!”

Ah, yes. The reason for this small group was to get to know each other, not for Jungkook to recount an entire two hour movie for you all. “Oh, right,” you agree, probably the first words you’ve said in the past five minutes. You navigate to the chat box, where your professor had hastily dumped the question before sending you all off. “What’s one thing you miss most about being on campus?” you read aloud, glancing back at the screen.

Your group mates are all in various states of blissful comfort, the gaps of their nervousness smoothed over by Jungkook’s bubbly personality, and the hesitation they’d shown at the beginning is practically gone. Someone steps forward and says something about the campus dining hall. Jungkook laughs, loud and airy, claps his hands all cute too. Someone else says the library because it was a good place to study. There’s a lull and you jump in quickly. “I think I’ll miss the couches by the gym in the student center the most,” you confess, though you doubt anyone knows which ones you mean. They were a set of brightly colored couches tucked into a cranny behind the Starbucks just outside the campus gym, avidly avoided by the gym rats who were determined to ignore the sugary drinks and snacks.

Apparently, the hiding spot isn’t as secretive as you thought. “Oh, the ones by the Starbucks?” Jungkook exclaims, excitedly looking at his screen. You have this fluttery feeling that he’s looking at you for the first time. You nod, and he quite positively beams. “I love those!”

“Yeah, I spend a lot of time there,” you say, though it’s a little stilted because you’re not exactly sure how you’re supposed to react to Jungkook’s enthusiasm. Though his outgoing personality cloaks you in comfort, his pretty smile has your heartbeat acting a little funny.

Jungkook’s got these huge eyes, blinking owlishly at you. “Really? So do I!” And then you both seem to have the same realization. His head tilts to the side cutely, an amused smile on his face, “I’ve never seen you there.”

“I’ve never seen you there,” you shoot back, a little snarkier than necessary, but Jungkook doesn’t seem to notice. His smile turns goofy.

“Woah,” he says in a rather dreamy tone, “isn’t that so cool? We spent so much time in the same place, but never crossed paths before,” he babbles. He’s stopped looking at his computer, leaning back in a sort of dazed manner with this sparkly look to his eyes, much to everyone’s amusement. Except yours, because frankly, it sounds a little bit like he’s describing— “fate!” he says suddenly, like it’s truly an aha! moment. He pauses, taps his finger against his chin. “Or anti-fate? I’m not sure. But it’s like— we could’ve met so many times before and we didn’t.” Doe eyes return to the screen, flickering around until they presumably land on you again. “What do you think, __?”

And he’s just so cute, makes the rigid shield around your chest soften for the slightest moment as you nod meekly. “Uhh, yeah. Fate,” you agree, and then get to hear him laugh and giggle for about three seconds before you’re suddenly thrown back into the larger Zoom meeting.

Weirdly flustered, you hurriedly click your microphone back off, and nearly contemplate the camera too. But then the professor is asking you all to share what you talked about and you’re resigning yourself to a few more minutes of screen time while the class wraps up. By the looks of it, not everyone had as an enjoyable time as you did. Part of you is thankful you didn’t get stuck in an awkward small group. The other part recognizes wholeheartedly that it’s all thanks to one smiley boy at the bottom of your screen.

“And group 4?” the professor asks, and you blink yourself back into attention. Before you can unmute yourself and answer for your group, Jungkook is beating you to it.

“We talked about a lot of things,” Jungkook answers cheerfully. From your view, you get a front row seat to the sheer power of Jungkook’s magnetic personality, watching as all your listless classmates suddenly snap back from their daydreams to zero in on whatever Jungkook is saying. He fills in the professor about what you talked about, from the movies to the couches, and you feel weirdly mushy when his eyes flicker across the screen before settling with a soft smile.

He can’t possibly be looking at me, you tell yourself. Your hand jerks forward to turn the camera off, but in your haste, end up knocking down the water bottle on your desk. You scramble to straighten it, thanking the universe for the fact you actually remembered to screw on the cap. You glance back at the screen, and nearly die when you catch sight of a giggly Jungkook, smile hidden behind an adorable sweater paw as he laughs at something on screen. Oh no, was he looking at me? you panic.

“Alright, everyone,” your professor says in that “I’m about to wrap this class up” voice. Too close to the screen, voice a little too loud. “Good meeting today, I’ll see you all again on Wednesday. Stay safe.”

“Bye!” Jungkook sings sweetly, and everyone else follows as they all bid adieu to the professor. Still a little frazzled from the possibility that Jungkook may have watched you flail around like a total loser, you take a second longer to turn your mic on. Your classmates quickly leave the meeting, leaving only a few stragglers until the very end.

Surprisingly, Jungkook is here too, brown eyes focused on the screen. You unmute yourself. “Um,” you stammer, eyes unwillingly flickering over to Jungkook who smiles at the sound of your voice. “Goodbye. Thank you,” you rush out, and then quickly leave the meeting as well.

With the meeting over, you’re left staring at the home page of the Zoom app, heart beating a little too fast to be normal. Your face feels warm, and your fingers tremble from some unfamiliar, giddy feeling in your chest. You exhale slowly, hand coming up to rub at your chin as if that will somehow explain the weird excitement from your Zoom meeting. Maybe it was just adrenaline, or nervousness, you try to convince yourself. After all, the first day of classes is always nerve-wracking.

Except when you navigate to your class page and begin to mindlessly scroll through the class roster, there’s a weird stutter to your heartbeat when you catch sight of that Jeon Jungkook (he/him) that appears halfway down the list.

Copyright © 2020, 1kook on tumblr. absolutely NO reposts allowed.

[sarifel-corrisafid-ilxhel]

Taxxon Anatomy Inspiration Post

I am still trying to figure out a good way to draw Taxxons. I really have a lot of things I want to do with Taxxons, in particular a Taxxon named Bent-Leg, but I’m never satisfied! I think I have their head figured out, but the body is giving me trouble now. So I’m gonna throw my thoughts here in an easy to visualize format. For reference, here is the Book Cover impression of a Taxxon. It is ugly and makes little sense. I know aliens are alien, but I like my aliens to have some biological grounding, and this has none whatsoever. Suffer with me and gaze upon the monstrosity.

Okay, time to start compiling a list of things Taxxons have and are like.

Fact #1: Taxxons are around 10 feet long on average, sometimes longer. Okay, we have an actual concrete number to work with here, so that’s easy. On Earth during the Mesozoic Era, there was a gigantic centipede known as Arthropleura, which was also around 10 feet long.

Keep in mind this is a wide, flat creature, kind of like a gigantic land trilobite. Taxxons are more tube-shaped and as thick as a tree, but the overall length and width of the centipede is almost spot-on for Taxxons.

Fact #2: Taxxons are bright yellow on average, with some potential variation.

Okay, easy enough to consider. Also, Taxxons have nightmare hunger. Caterpillars are voracious little beasts. So the Taxxon-Caterpillar comparison is easy enough to make.

Fact #3: Taxxons are burrowing creatures. This one gives us some difficulties, actually, because burrowing creatures are generally long and slender. While Taxxons are long, they are anything but slender. While burrowing snakes and lizards tend to dig with their noses, Taxxons instead have a rotating hellmouth that crushes rocks.

There are burrowing creatures who use their face to burrow, such as this cutie.

That’s a Nematode from South Africa which is found deep in the crust, where it burrows through rocks hunting bacteria and other primitive lifeform.

However, the sheer thickness of Taxxons and their raw power brings to mind something decidedly less organic:

Fact #4: Taxxons are soft-bodied and squishy.

The Velvet Worm is perfect here. With the exception of mineralized mouthparts (which Taxxons appear to have, per the book cover art), velvet worms are soft and squishy ambush hunters. They are rather skinny compared to Taxxons, and they’re kind of fluffy (hence the name), but they are structurally similar. They use internal pressurized fluid as a skeleton- it’s implied Taxxons are similar because of how easily Taxxons squish when hit or crushed.

Fact #5: Taxxons have lots of legs

This one I don’t really need an art reference for, because the Velvet Worm and Arthropleura both cover this nicely. According to the cover art, Taxxons have 20 legs and 12 claws for a grand total of 32 limbs. However, the books imply Taxxons have dozens of legs without ever giving us a clear number. The smallest possible number which could be referred to as “dozens” is 2 dozen, or 24 legs. But it’s probably more than that, because no one would say “Dozens” when they could just say “two dozen”.

The above image of Arthropleura should have at least 48 limbs, judging by the number visible. The caterpillar has 24. And the Velvet Worm has somewhere around 88 limbs (My best guess, it’s hard to see some of the legs).

Now, it’s real easy to see *why* the book cover images would have fewer legs. It’s just easier to draw. And the books are never specific, but usually

Fact #6: Taxxons have four big eyes with internalized segmentation and an exterior jelly layer.

Now, I don’t really have a good reference for this. Most animals with segmented eyes have the lenses on the outside, and most animals with jelly eyes only have a single lens. All I can really think is that Taxxons have camera-style eyes, but their retina is subdivided into many, many lenses. For most creatures, these many lenses would all create a single image in their brain, like a pixel TV. However, Taxxons appear to see thousands of seperate images (book #43), which Tobias comments on as being unusual and a sign they had a primitive brain. The only advantage to this that I can think of is that they use it for parallax determinations, which would give them great depth perception and motion tracking. Tobias also mentions seeing color, but it’s not clear how much color vision Taxxons have relative to Humans. He describes Jake and Rachel as pink, but we don’t know if he means “Flesh pink” or “Hot magenta”. I’ll assume “flesh pink”, which probably means Taxxons have full color vision.

Fact #7: Taxxons are basically centipede-centaurs

This is one of the most interesting aspects of Taxxon anatomy. Taxxons are, as previously established, around 10 feet long. However, they can rear as much as half of their body up off the ground to look a human in the eye. Not only that, but their forelimbs are distinctly arm-like, with the top ones having 3 pincers and the lower ones having 2 pincers.  That always makes me think of caterpillars again, as caterpillars can also rear up like that and have specialized forelimbs which are different from their regular walking legs.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Taxxons are actually a lot like gigantic caterpillars, which makes me wonder if a properly fed Taxxon can eventually pupate and turn into a flying horror. Hmmm. Probably not. But still fun to think about. Maybe they could at some point in their past but they don’t anymore because of the Yeerks? Taxxon butterflies. No, wait, I’m getting off topic.

Ummmm....Yeah here’s everything I have as far as inspiration for Taxxons goes, and I will get back to you once I have some ideas on how to actually draw them in a way that pleases me! I still absolutely love thenixart’s Taxxons, which are exemplified here: https://thenixart.tumblr.com/post/188823841740  They are so huggable and soft and they’re almost perfect, but I don’t want to copy them with my design. So yeah, time to figure out what works for me!

[inkribbon796]

The Lost Ones Ch. 2

Chapter 2: A Star is Born

Summary: Now that Anti has his clone of destruction it’s a lot smaller and a lot less destructive than he planned. But that doesn’t mean he can’t get some chaos out of the little scientific miracle.

Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

The glitch demon was not impressed.

He honestly didn’t know what he had expected, he’d barely been a part of the process past snipping off pieces of aura. But a brat sleeping in a glass box wasn’t what he’d expected.

Where was the doom? The chaos?

Anti glared at Beauregard, “It’s tiny.”

“Yep,” Bouregard was almost bouncing with glee. “We’ve named him Paul-08 since he’s the eighth one. He’s about five months now.”

“Don’t care, prolly not keeping the name,” Anti warned. “Ye said it was alive, looks pretty still ta me.”

She looked disappointed, “He’s sleeping, and we really like that name. Besides, he’s just a baby.”

“Don’t,” Anti repeated. “Care. Is it alive or not? I didn’t get ye fookers their auras ta throw a baby shower.”

“Yes, he’s alive, he’s just sleeping,” she told him. “We’re starting to get him to try solid foods.”

“Good,” Anti immediately reached in a picked the baby up, realizing one thing. “This kid’s freezing.”

“Yes, we think it might have something to do with the maternal side genes,” she admitted.

Anti stared at her before looking the baby over, who was starting to fuss. Fighting the urge to dump the kid back in the incubator and walk away, he studied the kid a bit closer, a light coating of dark fluff was already on top of his head, and his eyes were starting to darken from the normal baby blue.

Then his brain halted, “Wait, I didn’t brin’ anythin’ extra.”

“Oh, the maternal genes came from Smoky,” Beauregard was silently coaching Anti how to hold the baby, and to Anti immense relief he stopped fussing. “Whenever it turned more red it was receptive to cooperating even if it did become more aggressive in the process.”

“Smoky?” Anti repeatedly.

“Yeah Smoky and Bubbles, we gave them nicknames because it was shorter than writing Dark Aura and Warfstache Aura.”

“I like it,” Anti decided, “continue.”

“Well you would not believe how uncooperative auras are, it took us ages to actually get the kid. He had to coax Smoky into making the shape we wanted and after a couple tries we got this little cutie.”

The baby let out this little bubbly giggle.

It reminded Anti more of Wilford than Dark, but all he needed was the thing to keep breathing.

“Kay, we’ll be back,” Anti said, already opening up a portal and taking the kid through.

“What?” Beauregard looked panicked. “Wait! He hasn’t had his—”

Anti was stepping through with the kid and smiled, “Let’s go find your big scary dads and watch ‘em squirm.”

A couple of stolen baby things later and Anti was standing in a downtown plaza with the kid in a harness attached to his own chest, waiting while holding a phone he’d found ages ago and was using to post pictures online with him and the baby. The picture’s caption read: Not ready for swimming lesson but still likes the water. Don’t tell his dad.

His favorite so far was the picture he took was the one he took standing on a large fountain in Dark’s territory, holding two fingers up with the kid trying to grab the water.

Anti had to admit, the kid definitely inherited all of Wil’s charm and none of the anything Anti didn’t like about Dark . . . which fortunately for the kid that was everything about the Entity.

So Anti was checking his phone, standing next to Wil’s radio station, the kid trying to grab his phone and was fussing a little bit. Which meant that he was either hungry or something like that. He’d have to take the kid back at this rate because he was not changing the brat’s diaper.

In total he’d had the kid out for about ten minutes before he dodged Jackie who tried to snag the kid directly off his chest.

“Hey, hey,” Anti floated up and the kid started crying at the gust of wind suddenly rushing by them, startled and scared. “You don’t just steal kids, what kind of hero are you?”

“Okay, Anti,” Jackie approached carefully, having lost the element of surprise. “What’s it gonna take ta get that kid back ta their folks?”

A dumb hero, and a whole lot of noise. Anti smiled. “I don’t know, why don’t yah come an’ take it from me?”

However Anti was grabbed from the back of the carrier straps and dragged back towards the ground by Silver.

“Come on, Anti, just give us the kid,” Silver ordered. “Poor kid’s probably hungry.”

The screaming the kid was doing was starting to become shrill, a dull ringing confused for Jackie’s tinnitus, but was a byproduct of inheriting Dark’s aura.

Anti wrapped his arms around the kid and glitched himself away, slamming into a car. The instant Anti’s aura kicked up, the kid started snuffling instead of crying, trying to put some of the glitching pixels into his mouth.

“Come on, bend reality, do somethin’ yah ankle biter,” Anti demanded.

“Anti, don’t be a bastard, give us the kid,” Jackie demanded.

“Wish I could,” Anti looked at the car he’d crashed into and knocked it into the news station with his aura, it hit the gate and crashed into the entrance.

“Oops,” Anti smiled, and predictably color started to drain from the area, an odd red and blue effect echoing out from nearby objects. Well kid looks like Daddy’s on his way, Anti thought to himself.

If the glitch couldn’t get his kicks from the kid, he would get it from Dark.

Dark came from the shadows right in front of Anti, his aura whipping around him threateningly, “Anti!”

“Shit. Shit. Shit.” Silver muttered under his breath, Anti was one thing. It was bad enough that Anti had the kid, but he hadn’t done anything with the kid yet. But Dark hated kids, he’d gone on the record for his disdain for children. He didn’t let them get into his network, he didn’t let them get near him. And Dark was already pissed.

“Ahhh,” a little coo came from the kid attached to Anti’s chest and two little hands reached out to touch Dark’s aura.

The act just about gave Silver and Jackie a heart attack. They’d seen adult superheros get hit by Dark’s aura and come out the other side like they’d bent sent through a blender.

Dark jolted when his aura met with something strangely familiar. His aura calmed down without Dark’s permission.

“What is that?” Dark asked, pointing down at the kid, his finger was grabbed by the kid.

“Jeez took yeh fer-fookin-e’er ta show up,” Anti rolled his eyes and took the kid off of him, and shoved the kid into Dark’s arms who looked about ready to drop the kid on the spot. “See if I babysit fer ye fooks again.”

Dark looked actually confused and Anti knew that regardless of if they actually kept the kid, he was going to savor this for the rest of his existence. Anti had never seen Dark twitch and blink so much, the ringing a bit more subdued.

The infant was already sticking Dark’s tie in his mouth and chewing on it.

“Anti!” Dark yelled at him as Anti began walking backwards, a huge smile on his face. Wilford pushed the car out of his way, looking frustrated and angry, the situation successfully escalating. “What am I supposed to do with this thing?”

“Uh, uh,” Anti held up his index finger. “Favor’s done, I charge full price next time.”

Wilford grabbed Anti who started whispering something to him.

Dark however glared at the happy child in hands who he was trying to hold away at arm’s length. He was smiling, drooling all over his tie, which was still loosely hanging from his mouth. Bright dark brown eyes beaming with happiness and his pudgy little arms reaching towards the mob boss.

A slew of questions was going through Dark’s mind:

Why did he give me a kid? Why would he even have a kid? Oh fuck! Is he Wil’s? What am I going to do if it’s Wil’s?

“Uh, Dark?” Silver asked.

Dark let out a little sigh of relief, “Finally you heroes are good for something.”

He turned and held the kid out for Silver. “Here, take the wretch back to its mother.”

Silver seemed to exhale in relief, “Yeah no problem, do you know who—”

“Well if you wanted a break, Darky, all you had to do was ask,” Wil chuckled as he snagged the kid out of Dark’s hands before Silver could take him.

The superhero stared at Wil in absolute horror, realizing that he’d rather have absolutely anyone holding the kid except for Wil.

The little boy let out a startled cry but going completely silent, starting up at Wil with large round eyes. Wil’s almost invisible aura making the kid’s pupils dilate just a little bit.

“Long day, huh Junior?” Wil smiled as the kid reached up for Wil’s curled mustache. “Did you have fun with Uncle Anti?”

“Wil, let’s not play games right now,” Dark demanded. “Give them the child.”

Wil looked confused at that, the baby grabbing at one of Wil’s suspenders and starting to chew on it. “Why? I got done with work early? I can take Junior for the evening.”

Silver and Jackie looked at the baby, Dark and Wilford, and then at each other.

“Wil, it is two in the afternoon, you didn’t get done with anything,” Dark spat, pointing at the cat lying in front of the radio station. “Anti threw a car at you.”

Wilford almost did a double take, staring at the car, “How long has that been there?”

“Give me the child,” Dark demanded, holding his hand out, his aura already trying to pry the baby from Wil’s arms. “Just go back to work and I’ll fix this.”

The baby started fussing and crying, grabbing onto Wil’s shirt.

Wil’s aura snapped into visible sight and Dark’s aura was slapped away, the mad man holding the boy closer to his chest. “You don’t remember Junior?”

“There’s nothing to remember,” Dark spat angrily, his ringing almost shrill, his shell echoing and fracturing. “Anti found some brat off the street, give it to me.”

“He’s ours!” Wil huffed, the baby’s crying was almost shrill, the boy’s ringing cry lost in Dark’s much louder one.

Dark felt the need to strangle Wilford, his fingers itching to summon an axe to bury into his chest. “You stupid idiot, Wil, that child isn’t yours!”

Silver and Jack were trying to get close but the dueling auras didn’t permit it. The situation was quickly spiraling out of control.

Wil let out an offended gasped and quickly slipped through a portal with the infant, almost slicing off part of Dark’s aura when he tried to stop him.

His shell was fragmenting into dozens of copies as Dark stewed in his own caustic anger. Then he screamed in furious anger, most of his aura turning into a caustic, blood red. His aura tore up the pavement and the gate, and just about anything else he could reach.

Dark’s fury turned to Anti who was just cackling off to the side, finding the whole mess utterly hilarious. He was floating off the ground.

He was in front of the glitch demon in an instant, glaring down at him in molten fury. “Where did you get that thing?”

Anti fought for breath before smiling, “Don’t know what you’re talkin’ ‘bout Daddy, maybe yeh should go catch yer boyfriend ‘fore he kills the kid?”

Dark raked his claws across Anti’s face, narrowly avoiding destroying Anti’s tentatively corporeal form, but stomping into a portal to follow Wil’s decaying magical trail.

Cheering victoriously at himsef, Anti picked himself off the ground and saw one more game to play, Silver and Jackie already putting out a frantic call for a missing baby.

“How long before you think they realize it’s fake?” Anti chuckled, floating next to the two heroes.

“What?” Jackie demanded, pausing in his report of the kid.

“Pffft,” Anti laughed. “Come on, I magicked up a bag ‘a flour an’ stuck a clump ‘a dog hair on it. I mean what kid smiles at that piece of shite? I’m amazed Dark bought the illusion.”

“Anti, if you are fucking with us, and that was a real kid, it’ll die,” Silver threatened darkly.

Anti just laughed, “I wonder if Wil will try an’ make cookies outta it before or after he realizes it’s fake? Did you see Dark’s face when Wil told him no, I didn’t think Bubbles had it in him.”

Then Anti left, chuckling to himself, after all the lab coats had made one brat, if Wil killed it they could just make another one.

Silver and Jackie were just standing in the wake of destruction, unsure what to do.

“What are the chances he’s lying,” Silver demanded, “you’ve known him longer than me.”

Jackie frowned, “I don’t know, Anti doesn’t usually mess with kids, but they stopped crying when Dark first took ‘em, so maybe he’s telling the truth.”

“Let’s put out that APB, if that kid’s real we need to find their mom and fast,” Silver decided.

“Good thinking,” Jackie agreed and the two of them checked that everyone in the station was okay before leaving to find Abe.

[nocturnalazure]

5, 31, 43, 44 & 45 for the OC meme? :D

Awwwww....! Thank you for the questions, you’re the best! ❤️

5. If you could make only one of your OCs popular/known, who would it be?

Haha... I’m probably repeating myself like an old lady, but it would make me really happy if my Nate was more popular. ^^; (Teacher’s pet, I’m telling you)

31. Pick one OC of yours and explain what their tumblr blog would be like (what they reblog, layout, anything really)

Tough one...! I’ve been racking my brains over it! Among the social media users, there would be:

- Emily: an artist, mostly uses Pinterest for inspiration boards

- Jay: you’d find him on Discord or Pillowfort

- Tim: he’s a professional Instagrammer and he’s also on Twitter

- Kyle: also on Twitter, uses it mostly for promoting Sunrise on Pluto

- Ulrich: has an Instagram that he updates once in a blue moon

- Laurie: lurking on Twitter, has a self-hosted blog and an inactive Discord account

I could go on and on... but Tumblr? Who the hell would be on Tumblr? Then I realized... it’s the perfect place for Jessie, my little cutie pie.

That’s where he’d be able to post poems, thoughts and photos that he cannot share elsewhere, on a very minimalistic layout. And you know what? I am now convinced that Ash would love his work. Too bad he’s not on Tumblr and they’ll never meet.

43. Do you have any certain type when you create your OCs? Do you tend to favour some certain traits or looks? It’s time to confess

It’s pretty clear that I have a thing for bad boys. And characters with a tragic past. And star-crossed lovers. Put everything together and you have the random AFATWG character. ^^;

I think I’m rather classic with regards to looks. I don’t use sliders or tons of cc so I’m not even sure my characters have distinctive aesthetics. I do have a tendency to favor dark hair for both male and female. [Spoiler alert: with one notable exception but even for that character, having fair hair is going to be a handicap.]

44. Something you like about your OCs in general

The fact that I try to give them some kind of depth? I love the generational aspect of the game precisely for that reason: I know where my characters come from and what made them the way they are. They are not one-dimensional, at least not to me.

45. A character you no longer use?

Plenty of them got lost along the way! With more than 200 Sims in AFATWG, there was only so many I could tell a tale about! Thankfully (or not), most of them pixels are dead now.

Still alive and spectacularly put on the sideline is Elliott. I had a whole substory planned for him in Dronningslund and everything, but the hood kept crashing on me and it made me lose my mojo. Last time you see him is here and you don’t even see his face.

[rkevent]

It’s a brand new weekend and a brand new episode of the Mnet Global Auditions. It’s already the third one and, for the first time in years, the show brings back the duo challenges to check what the contestants have to show for themselves when they’re with someone else. Some of the more memorable performances from the previous episode get a second to shine as small cuts appear on the screen before the public is reminded of who was sent some. In a survival show, not all will survive.

“What were your thoughts on last week’s episode?” The interviewer starts asking the contestants. “I thought my heart was about to explode. No, seriously!” LEE SUWOONG lays a hand over his chest and feigns exasperation. “I was terrified,” CHWE HANSOL comments. “I really thought that it was the end of the road for me. The fact I’m still here… I’m grateful for it every day.”

It’s CHOI MINHO’s face on the screen now. “I think there’s a lot of talent on the show this season and it’s amazing that the judges can narrow down the top 3.” HWANG YEJI appears next. “Getting told by Tiger JK himself that I am a good dancer- made me really happy and honored, honestly, I never imagined that I would be mentioned in the top performances. Let alone chosen the best dancer?” She nods her head. “I was confident that I wasn’t going to be grouped in with those who were eliminated,” JEON HEEJIN says, “but I wasn’t expecting to be picked as the best that day- like, not at all. I can only hope to keep meeting their expectations as we go forward.”

The camera spins around the set, showing the small modifications for the new episode. The contestants are all seated next to their partners and, as majestically as always, the CEOs make their way to their seat, officially starting the episode. From one of the corners, a judge picks up his microphone.

“Let’s bring the first performance of the day, please.” Hyun Bin asks and a camera zooms in on the duo sitting in the furthest corner. It’s pixelated, but it’s clear that one is a tall man and the other is a much smaller girl. The two make their way to the stage, and their identities can be confirmed. “CHOI MINHO checking in,” the man says with a grin. “I’m LEE NAKYUNG! Please watch us nicely!” 

There’s a couch prepared for them and the girl is the one to lay down on it while the man chooses to lay on the floor. Before the song can start, the screen shows Minho in his interview. “How was it working with your partner?” They ask him, and he opens a wide grin. “Nakyung is the best. I couldn’t have asked for a better partner for the duo stage.” And then it’s the girl’s turn on the interview. She places a hand on her chest, her eyes shooting up while she smiles. “Ah, I really…” She looks back to the front where the camera is. “I’ve been a big fan of Convex since before their debut so this is… this was really something to me!”

They focus on her face while she’s laying down before showing Minho again on the floor. The audio around them is of someone leaving, closing the door behind them, and then driving off. The man takes on the role of a dog and goes pester Nakyung, the cat. At the start, their performance is cute and theatrical, incrementing their animal’s behavior to the dance. Suddenly, instead of running to the other’s arms, the girl pretends to hit him in the face. With this, the song takes a complete turn to something more energetic and the duo truly gets to show off what they got. In the end, however, had left at the start of the song comes back, and Minho drops his partner on the floor before laying down as he had at the start. To pay him back, Nakyung steps on his stomach before reclaiming her spot on the sofa. 

It all ends as it had started, and the man appears again on the screen for some final comments. “We got to show different sides of us. Doesn’t Nakyung make a cute cat? I hope we get to work together again someday.” And the girl appears again, adding her own thoughts. “I hope that if there are more group opportunities in this season, that they pair him with someone else. I think most contestants could really learn a lot from working with him, just like I did.” Before they can call out the next duo, the camera shows the two in their seat once again. “I think we did well,” she’s the one to whisper to him.

“I enjoyed their performance a lot,” PARK WOOJIN says, “and I think that kinda routine needs good teamwork to pull off.” He stares blankly at the camera before continuing. “From an audience’s standpoint at least, it was just enjoyable to watch.”

The second duo to perform is two girls who make their way to the stage together. On their way there, KIM MINKYUNG gives CHOI YEWON an encouraging pat on the back. For their introduction, the two speak in unison. “Hello, we are Minwon.” Then, they move on to their personal introductions. “I’m Yewon the cutie rapper,” she says her words as cute as possible before winking at the judges. “I’m… just Minkyung, but I’ve never received any complaints!” The other jokes and then both move to get in their positions.

Choosing a song from Global Icon meant that you needed the charisma to make it work, and both girls show no problem with it. Yewon is in charge of the rap, and Minkyung is in charge of singing, and the dance isn’t too hard for both of them to follow along. If that wasn’t enough, the dance break is given to their cute rapper who shows off the skill she decided to move away from the last episode. She does her moves cleanly before stopping with a hand on her hip and a smug look on her face.

Once the song ends, the two share a hug before leaving the stage. Soon it was time for another pair. CHOI YOONA and WANG JACKSON take on the stage, and before they get to introduce themselves, the man appears seated for his interview. “Oh, I really enjoyed working with Yoona! She’s a really nice person and she’s also dedicated.” The girl also gets her turn. “Jackson's a sweetheart,” she says smiling. “We got along great — I think I got lucky getting paired up with him.” 

She’s the one to open up the stage, the rapper in their duo. Their standing side by side, holding to one of each other’s hands. They get close a lot during their performance. There are times when one will cup the other’s face, while others when someone will touch the other’s nose, or pull them closer together. Therefore, the dance choreography is saved mostly for the chorus. It’s nothing too challenging, probably to fit their skills. Overall, it’s clear that they’re having fun from start to end. The performance ends with finger hearts that are aimed at the judges up on their seats. They hurry off the stage when they're done, but their faces appear again for some final thoughts.

“I think it was easier to work with one person, rather than a group?” Jackson comments. “Last year… there were a lot of opinions, and a lot of tension, but when it’s only me and her, it’s really easy and fun to work. We can only hope we delivered a good performance.” Yoona is shown as well. “Is it okay if I say I think we did well? Jackson and I wanted to do something fun and upbeat, we wanted to enjoy ourselves onstage — and I think we did. I did, at least.” She says, smiling.

Two more make their way to the assigned spot on the floor. The girl makes sure to give herself a proper introduction. Waving both hands, she grins brightly. “Do you see me? I’m SIA KIM!” When the camera moves over to her partner, CHWE HANSOL, he’s smiling. “Hey, I’m Vernon. Hopefully, this gets you thinking about your first love in the best of ways.” While they get ready to start, the boy appears somewhere else. “How was it like working with your duo?” They ask him.

“With Sia? She’s amazing.” He says without hesitation. “It was like two peas in a pod. Our heads were always in the same space.” Sia gets to share her thoughts as well. “I was a little nervous at first? I’d never met him before. We ended up working well together, actually! I helped to pick a song that I thought was good for both of our skills. We just really complemented each other, I think.” And so the lighting changes to accommodate their performance.

The girl is the one who starts by singing. Instead of going with a complete cover of their chosen song, they do some of the smaller movements so that it fits their own skills. The colors of their outfits match as if they’re a real couple and their voices work together to show their puppy love story. It’s during the chorus that they truly make use of the original choreography. It isn’t too hard to keep up with and it matches their skills well while they have fun. In the end, Sia rests her head against Vernon’s and looks out to the cameras, her hands lifted up to show a pair of finger hearts. “How do you think you did?” It’s the boy on the screen again being asked questions.

“I mean… isn’t that for the judges to tell me?” He scratches his head lightly before they move on to his partner. “I think we managed to show a bright side of ourselves today, and it was really fun to work with Vernon. Either way, I won’t have regrets but I’ll… cross my fingers. I think it’s all I can do.” HWANG YEJI appears to share her thoughts. “Chwe Hansol’s performance with Sia really had me captivated when I watched. They looked like a couple in love, right?” She smiles.

Followed by them, is two boys this time: DO KYUNGSOO and KIM YUGYEOM. They introduce themselves briefly before getting ready to perform. The two wore plaid shirts, but Yugyeom had a beret on his head, while Kyungsoo simple let his hair messy. “I will admit, I’m a pretty shy person.” Kyungsoo is the one to say it in his interview. “So I was nervous about the fact we were going to work in pairs.” Yugyeom seemed to have shared some of these thoughts as well. “I was nervous at first, you know? He’s a singer who I haven’t seen any dancing from. We both went into this unsure of what to expect. A singer and dancer paired who can’t do the other skills? Talk about a work in progress.” He laughs a bit at his joke.

When their performance starts, though, it’s clear that they plan on showing all of the skills they own. They’re both dancing, and they’re both singing, even if there was a claim that they weren’t good at each other’s skills. At some point in the chorus, Kyungsoo walks forward and shows the palm of his hand. On it is a red heart taped right at the center, and the boy shakes his hand excitedly before returning to the rest of the choreography. Once the chorus is over, Yugyeom puts in more energy on his dance, showing what he got. The ending pose is a heart that the two make together. “This was the most difficult performance for me to date,” Kyungsoo says. “I haven’t danced much in the past and it was hard. I think it is important to keep challenging yourself. One does not grow by staying comfortable.”

Yugyeom says the last few words. “I think we really came together as a good team.” LEE NAKYUNG appears to comment. “Kyungsoo didn’t have the skills to keep up with Yugyeom and it didn’t feel like they had harmony at all. Kyungsoo’s performance last week was so creative and eye-catching… I’m sure it was Yugyeom’s fault, though. I don’t even remember his performances, at that. I doubt he’ll make it far, and if he brings Kyungsoo down with him then that’ll be a shame, really. I liked him.”

The camera zooms in on HA SUNGWOON as he wipes his palms against his tights. “Nervous?” He asks the one beside him, his partner for the week. NA JAEMIN looks over to him and smiles a bit, humming as he nods his head slightly. “It’s now or never, though…” It’s the first of the two who takes on the interview. “I only vaguely knew of Jaemin in previous rounds,” he admits. “When our pairing was first announced I was pretty anxious. I didn’t know if we’d be able to work well or not. And admittedly, some of my fears were valid — I mean, we definitely clashed in the beginning. We both have strong opinions and we’re stubborn not to back down.”

Returning to the two on their seats, their names are the ones called. Sungwoon gives his partner a double thumbs up and a smile. “Let’s get it done!” They make their way to the stage, and start off with introductions. “We’re your lucky stars, Sungwoon and Jaemin.” Sungwoon is the one to finish it. “We’ll be performing with our own spin, courtesy of Jaemin. We hope you enjoy!” They choose to perform a rearranged version of a song originally performed by a female vocalist. The change in keys makes it easier for him to sing it, and while he does so, Sungwoon looks Jaemin’s way from time to time. The rapper gets to show off his skills in a long verse, and after their performance is done, the two share a one-armed hug. 

After them comes what could be considered one of the more unusual combos. HWANG MINHYUN and SONG YUQI stand on the stage together as partners for this week’s mission. “I had fun,” the male admits in his interview. “I wasn’t sure what to expect when the names were called, but we got along well, and I think it translates well in our performance.” They take their seats on the stage this time, Minhyun holding onto his guitar. He gives her a nod before he starts playing.

They chose an acoustic version of a group song and, while he plays, Yuqi moves her head around waiting for the cue to her first lines. While the lyrics are gloomy, they try to keep the melody somewhat upbeat. They change glances throughout the song and move their bodies along to the rhythm. After they’re done and have to leave the stage, the two hug each other. “I’m so proud!” Yuqi tells him. “No matter what…” the girl holds onto his hand. “You’re amazing.” And so they show the man back in his interview. “I’ll be cheering her on for the indefinite future. You can count on me, Yuqi,” he says to the camera with a thumbs up.

“I could’ve done better, shown more of myself maybe, and I have some regrets looking back. It was nice to be able to play on stage.” KANG DANIEL appears on the screen next. “I really liked Minhyun and Yuqi’s performance. Their arrangement was really nice, and I thought it showed off their styles well. They’re both really strong and it was… a bit graceful? Elegant.”

This time is for HWANG YEJI and PARK JUNHEE to take over the stage. “Junhee oppa has been amazing,” the girl nods in her interview. “He has a great voice and is very underappreciated. He is in the same boat as Minho… not as known maybe but he’s amazing as well.” Junhee introduces himself first, followed by the girl. “Today, I want to show another side of myself.” She looks over to her partner who nods her way, and just like that they’re ready to perform.

The boy starts in the center singing acapella. After his first four lines, the song starts to play, and Yeji appears from behind him. She starts to sing as well, this time also dancing along to her words. Even with their song being in English, the duo does a good job at it, expressing the strong feelings that came with the musical song. When they finish, the two are standing side by side. Junhee swings an arm around the girl’s shoulder as they bow, and then exit. “I’m so proud of you,” he says to her. “We did well, didn’t we?” The girl chuckles, this time back in her interview. “I don’t think I can talk about how thankful I am to Junhee oppa. Thanks to him and my hard work I can say that I’m proud of myself.”

“Yeji had a lot of confidence when she walked on that stage,” DO KYUNGSOO comments on the performance. “I think that helped with her performance. Honest, I think she might win this whole thing.”

The next few names are called: JEON HEEJIN and KANG DANIEL. The boy looks over at the one beside him and gives her a grin. “Let’s do this.” He slings his bass over his shoulder as he stands up, and the scene cut to show him in his interview. “Heejin is great. She’s younger than me, but I admire her a lot. She’s self-assured and knows she’s meant to stand on stage, and she is. I was really scared of her at first,” he admits with a laugh. “Just because she- she won the title of best singer! And that’s entirely justified!”

“Working with others has never been an issue with me,” the starts on her own interview. “But I will say I do tend to perform better when I’m able to do exactly what it is I want to do- no one knows your strengths and weaknesses as best as you do.” They both stand on the stage, each with a different instrument. While Daniel chose his bass, Heejin carries an electric guitar. Just as worthy of the title given to her, the girl starts off by singing. The duo also decides on changing a more popular song into a dance remix, making it their own. While Daniel sings as well, the boy is also given some rap to perform as he did in the previous episode. Their voices eventually echo around the room, finishing off strongly. “I’m really proud of this,” the boy is the one to say it.

“I feel like this is where I really shine. I’ve put ‘instruments’ as my main skill on my MGA form for two years ago,” he laughs. SOHN YOUNGJAE appears on the screen. “If I remember right, Daniel hyung was involved in a band remix last year as well… Doesn’t it feel like a repeat? Honestly, I can’t help but wonder what he’s doing in a competition like this. Him and the rest of the band guys as well. I mean are they trying to become idols or do they just want to promote themselves? If they’re just here to promote their band… I think they should have let people who actually want to be here have a chance instead.”

“Let’s do this,” LEE HOHYEON mutters under his breath, sending a small nod towards JO YURI, his partner. Once on the stage, they take care of introducing themselves. “Hello, we are Riot!” The boy continues alone. “I’m Riot’s cool rapper, Lee Hohyeon.” And the girl finishes it off. “Hello, I am Riot’s main vocalist — Jo Yuri.” She smiles and waves towards the judges. “Please enjoy our performance.” Before they can actually start it off, it’s time to show some of the boy’s interview first. “I have to admit, it wasn’t easy at first.”

He lets out a small laugh. “We really didn’t hit it off on the right foot. But we managed to make it work and with a lot of hard work.” The cameras are back on the stage, focusing on each of their faces before their chosen song starts to play. “I want to see you all moving in those seats.” Hohyeon starts by looking at the CEOs before turning towards the other contestants. Yuri is the one who starts singing, voice deeper than what she had shown before. While the girl is in charge of reaching each pitch, the boy takes on the rap. When their gazes meet, they smile. During the chorus, the duo decides on following the choreography which is simple but adds a little extra to the whole performance.

They bow in thanks at the end of their performance before returning to their seats. Yuri gets her moment, too. “I was honestly surprised that we ended up working together. Plus, we definitely killed that stage, so uh…” she shrugs. 

The next performance is by two girls, KIM JUNGEUN and JUNG EUNJI. “We’re Kimjungeunji,” Jungeun says in the safety of her interview, not in front of everyone else. “I haven’t shown much of my singing yet but she encouraged me to do my best.” But then a rather different question is asked. “So, did Shin Yuna’s comment about your dye get to you?” The girl who, now, has brown hair rolls her eyes and the scene is perfectly cut to show one from the previous episode. “Jungeun was a trainwreck.” One of the eliminated contestants, SHIN YUNA, says in the black-and-white filter. “Even her dye job couldn’t help her performance.” Back to the present, Jungeun comments about it. “Well, it seems to have helped. I’m here still,” the girl states. “She isn’t. Maybe she should have dyed her hair blonde, so she could stay in the competition.”

On the stage, both Jungeun and Eunji stand with their back to the camera, a hand on each other’s hips. With the start of the song, the girls turn around, and Jungeun is the one who starts singing, something she hadn’t shown before. They dance throughout the song, but it’s after the end of the chorus that things get serious. There’s a switch on the song, and what’s happening is a dance break which incorporated many aspects such as floor choreographies, wacking, and tons of hair-flipping. When Jungeun attempts a high note, Eunji joins her soon after, showing off her own set of abilities.

“It was a perfect remix to showcase their vocal talent.” CHOI MINHO says. “I think I was hooked the whole performance.”

Next up is a couple of boys, KANG HYUNGGU and SEO CHANGBIN. “How was it like working with your duo?” They ask Changbin first. “Oh, with Ggu - I mean, Hyunggu-ssi?” He laughs awkwardly at his response. “Please cut that first part out.” It’s on his partner’s interview that the other’s supposed mistake makes some sense. “I was surprised that I was partnered with Changbin, actually,” Hyunggu says. “I didn’t think that out of all the people here that I would be paired with someone that I’ve known for most of my life?” He grins then cups his mouth, leaning closer to the camera. “Binnie-ssi, I know you like to pretend you don’t know who I am, but we both know it’s a lie.”

They are each standing on their spots before their introduction. Hyunggu starts by screaming, running, and then doing a cartwheel, before hopping into Changbin’s arms. “The floor is on fire!” His partner replies appropriately. “It’s okay, I’ll freeze the floor, then.” Changbin spins, pretending to get rid of the lava and sets down the other boy back on his feet. “Hello, we are fire and ice!” They properly get into position this around, waiting for their song to start. It starts off with them both singing together. There’s a choreography that goes along with it and they start together with it as well. While Changbin raps, Hyunggu stands to the side, adlibbing and moving his hands to the beat. The dancer eventually gets his own chance to shine with a dance break of his own.

After being done, they high five each other before sitting down.

“Prepared, hyung?” KIM SEUNGHUN asks the one beside him, KIM HYOJIN. “I’m as prepared as I could be,” the other replies. It’s their turn on the stage, and they stand there together before introducing themselves. “Hello, we’re Spicy Pork! I’m Kim Hyojin,” he says. “And I’m Kim Seughun!” The other says. “Like our team name and our hair colors,” Hyojin gestures at their head, his with a red color and the other with ash brown. “We’ll make sure to burn the stage with our spiciness!”

Before they can start their performance, Hyojin appears in his interview. “It was like a dream,” he laughs. “Have you seen Seunghunnie? He’s handsome, tall, good at singing, charismatic - wow. He’s like my soulmate. I love you, Seunghunnie.” The boy flashes a finger heart to the camera and the other side of this romance, Seunghun, also gets to add his own thoughts. “I call him my soulmate,” he can’t help but cringe. “I’m embarrassed!” The boy hides his face behind his hands, laughing at himself. “Hyung, I love you!” he ends it with a playful and exaggerated tone.

The moment the instrumental starts, the two begin to sing in harmony. They carry fiercer, more serious expressions than the ones they were showing off before. It’s a rock remix of a more recent song that plays, and they have to live up to the part. The playful duo of soulmates has a new intense gaze to show off. Their tones are different but they don’t crash. They harmonize for the high note and then intercalate. When it finally comes to an end, they hold their charismatic poses before leaving the stage.

The next duo walks over to the stage, LEE CHAERYEONG, and NAM JOOHYUK. “To the top, we’ll be iconic!” The two say at the same time before introducing themselves individually. “How was it like working with your duo?” They ask the male of the group, Joohyuk. “Honestly, a bit daunting,” he admits. “I mean, you know at the end of the day you’re working not just for yourself anymore but for someone else’s dreams too. But I’m insanely grateful to be paired up with Chaeryeong-ssi. She was amazing to work with and she’s one of the most talented contestants around.”

They smile at each other before the start of their chosen song. It’s a popular song even these days, proven by the fact they had chosen it. The two manage to carry the skills to execute it properly, Joohyun with singing, and Chaeryeong with rapping. Having ranked as one of the Top 3 in dancing the week before, she also manages to show off in that area, even if the choreography isn’t the hardest for someone like that. Once they’re done, the girl gets to share some words from her interview as well. “It was very interesting to work with a complete stranger, but I think we worked together well and created a really nice performance. It was also really nice to show everyone on stage!”

Two more appear for their turn. It’s LEE SUWOONG and WONG YUKHEI wearing matching outfits. “Prepare for trouble,” Suwoong starts. “And make it double,” Yukhei continues, both of them pointing to the camera. “I’m Lee Suwoong,” the first one introduces himself by pointing a thumb to his chest. “And I’m Wong Yukhei!” Just as it often goes, there’s a break for comments, this time starting with a few words from Suwoong’s interview. “It’s like we’re platonic soulmates! At first, I was a little intimidated, because he’s tall and handsome, but he’s easy to talk to and doesn’t get stressed at all!” An image of his partner appears on the screen, a heart matching the ones on their matching shirts floating around him.

Yukhei appears after him. “I hope we can remain friends.” The heartbreaks, but the boy continues to speak. “He’s a fun guy and I think we go well together. It was sort of like working with an old friend.” And so they’re back on the stage, a bench appearing behind them. Yukhei starts off by singing first. Suwoong brushes his chin, and this wouldn’t be the only romantic moment between the two of them. They take a few steps back, sitting on the bench. When Suwoong begins to sing, the two hold up a sign with ‘I ❤ U’ written on it and then pretend to kiss behind it. They dance together, and the romantic duet carries on like that. It ends with them sitting back on the bench and a hand heart.

Taking a bit of a twist in the performances so far, two beings walk to the stage. They both have boxes on their heads as they bow down and then finally take them off, revealing their identity. It’s MIYAWAKI SAKURA and SHIN RYUJIN. “How was it like working with Sakura?” They ask the other member of the duo. “It was honestly the best thing that has happened to me in this show so far!” Ryujin says. “I enjoyed my time with her the whole time and whether we were practicing, out shopping for our outfits or making our cute boxes I had a pleasant time.”

The song they chose is fun and different. Both girls get to show off their rapping skills, starting with Sakura, and then eventually getting to Ryujin on the second half. When it’s the chorus and instrumental is what takes over their performance, the two girls dance together in a dorky, goofy way, feeling the rhythm of the song. It’s silly but refreshing. When they’re done, Sakura appears in her interview. “She really complimented my style of rapping, she has a deep voice that meshes with my soft voice!” She giggles softly, placing her hand over her mouth.

“Ryujin and Sakura were both cute. DO KYUNGSOO comments. “I appreciated the change from regular hard rap songs.” HWANG YEJI also has thoughts to share. “I doubt anyone imagined two girls to pull that off so well. It was like made for them and they had fun on stage. It was contagious.”

After the two girls, come two men. There are only three duos left, and with the boys come two chairs to the top of the stage as well. They introduce themselves as PARK JINYOUNG and YOON JEONGHAN. They each take a seat but, right before the song starts, it cuts to Jinyoung’s face. “We worked on musicals together in the past. I looked forward to being with him on stage once more,” he pauses. “I think we connected easily and shared ideas that strayed away from our main comfort zone. We took a risk. He made taking that leap a lot easier.”

Back to the stage, the song starts to play, and the two follow the same choreography, except mirrored. Jeonghan is the first one to sing. The dance is sensual but not sexual, and the two try to keep it like that. Without the presence of backup dancers like in the original choreography, they are bound to use each other instead. Jinyoung cups Jeonghan’s chin, one of the changes needed to be made for them to fit. They stand up from their seat and the dance gets more intense while they harmonize together. Their expressions follow the concept of the song with intense gazes and grins. With its end, Jeonghan appears in his interview as well. “I’m very happy with the stage Jinyoung and I put on. I don’t think I could’ve had a more suitable partner.”

With each performance closer to an end, the next duo is composed of PARK WOOJIN and ZHOU JIEQIONG. “I hope I don’t embarrass you up here.” She grins, elbowing her partner as they rise from their seats. “Let’s have fun, yeah?” And to that, the boy replies with a “yeah.” They are up on the stage now, and the girl is the one who starts them off by speaking in Chinese. “Hello!” She greets. “We’re the Cuties.” As she says this, the look on Woojin’s face is of pure regret. “We spent the week choreographing this ourselves so we hope you all love it!”

The look on Jieqiong’s face is of excitement during her interview, though. “I was so. freaking. excited.” She says. “I love working with other dancers, and Park Woojin and I worked really good together. He’s a cute and a talented kid.” Woojin shares his thoughts right after. “Her talent for choreographing is really cool. I’m grateful to her for guiding me along. I know I must’ve been a bit of a drag,” he chuckles nervously, rubbing at the back of his neck. Back on the stage, the two are crouched next to each other, side by side while the song starts to play around them.

They interact with each other, which is a notable amount, just as much as they do with the audience at the start. The choreography starts strong, and that carries along as the song progresses. They aren’t scared to get close to each other either, but it all stays in the lines of playfulness. The fun and upbeat song seems to be a good pick and one that matches the name of their group with their dance. Even at the end, they get to play a bit, following the fading music.

“They did a great job.” LEE NAKYUNG comments. “There was a lot of interaction between the two of them. They didn’t worry with getting close and I think that helped make it very refreshing.”

When it’s time for the next duo, SON HYEJOO giggles as SOHN YOUNGJAE offers his hand for her to take. They link hands and sway between them on their way to the stage. They bow dramatically before the start of their introduction. The girl introduces him first. “Give it up for our main boy, Sohn Youngjae!” And then he is the one to introduce her. “And this is Son Hyejoo, AKA Olivia in the house! Together we are Sons of Anarchy!” The team name is a pun on both of their surnames. “Please take care of us!”

The girl takes her position on the floor and the boy remains standing. With the start of the song, the two start stretching and yawning. When Youngjae lays down, Hyejoo sits up and starts to rap. Youngjae had his lines to sing, and then jumps into the chorus, both figuratively and literally. The original choreography that served for nine people was adjusted to fit only the two of them. When the song ends, the two of them fall to the ground dramatically. “Noona is a really cool person, don’t you think?” The boy says in his interview. “I think girls who rap are totally awesome!”

Hyejoo speaks a bit as well. “I’m really pleased with how this week turned out. I think we were able to show a different side of us.”

The final performance arrives. “It’s nice to see you again!” TAKADA KENTA greets with his partner, YOO TAEYANG, by his side. “We are Taiyo. It means ‘sun’ in Japanese, which is our name because we’ll be burning you up today.” The other boy wraps up their introduction. “Please enjoy our stage.” They face away from the judges, prepared to start.

Kenta starts it off by walking away, turning around and walking towards the judges this time as Taeyang comes rolling in beside him. They move around each other, following the same routine but giving each of them the chance at the spotlight. Taeyang gets his time to dance alone, followed by Kenta’s turn. They reach toward the judges, making a gesture with their hands. For the last piece of the song, they dance next to each other, but with their movements mirrored. In the end, they stand back to back in the middle of the stage. “I think that we did good,” Taeyang comments with a few small nods. “I think we complement each other well.”

“I think, um…” Kenta says in front of the camera. “We were really sexy. That’s all I can think about.” LEE SUWOONG appears again. “When you look at them… you don’t really think ‘sexy.’ Taeyang is always too serious, and Kenta’s cute. I told them to show off their abs during this part, but they didn’t listen!” SON HYEJOO has some thoughts to share as well. “I really enjoyed the powerful dance duo. I think it’s the perfect opportunity to watch these amazing dancers both of who have their own styles within the same category come together and produce something that sharp and precise.”

Bringing an end to the performances, the camera pans over the judges slowly before Tiger JK picks up his microphone. “There were a total of 20 duos, and you were all judged as a package, not individually. All of you gave your best here today. Even so, we’ve come to an agreement that some did better, and some did worse.”

“Who do you think is the most likely to make it to the next round?” The interviewer asks. “I mean, isn’t it kinda obvious?” JO YURI comments. “I feel like everyone who placed first in their skill will. Other than that, it’s a game of chance, really.” DO KYUNGSOO adds his own thoughts as well. “I think SUWOONG and YUKHEI had great energy together.” He puts an emphasis on the last word. “I really thought they looked like a couple.”

LEE HOHYEON comes next. “Also…” he chews on his bottom lip. “I do think it’s a little unfair. Of course, Mason is going to be one of the best. He was previously a debuted idol and had proper trainee training. How is everyone else supposed to compete with that?” CHWE HANSOL appears on the screen this time. “People keep mentioning Minho having been in Convex before makes the playing field unequal but wouldn’t it be held to a higher standard for him competing with rookies when he already debuted? He had expectations that had to be met and now he has to exceed those plus the expectations of others here too. Plus his fanbase is no joke. Even I am a fan of Convex.”

The screen shows the set again, this time slowly coming closer to the judges. It was time.

“We’ll start off today,” Tiger JK continues, “by announcing the top 3 performances.” The camera shows the contestants this time, all of them probably wondering if it’s their name that will be called. “I’d like to invite to the stage three duos. These are CHOI MINHO and LEE NAKYUNG, CHWE HANSOL and SIA KIM, and LEE SUWOONG and WONG YUKHEI.” The man nods slowly as the top best contestants of the week make their way to the stage. On each of the duos, one half was part of the top 3 on the previous week, each for a different category.

With all of them lined up, the man proceeds with his speech. “All of you showed that you could not shie on your own, but that you could also complement each other well. The six of you managed to show your own skills, as well as highlight that of your partner and deliver a good performance. However, only one of you can be considered the best of the week.” He takes a pause, staring at the contestants below him before he shares what’s on his mind. “The best duo of the week is… CHOI MINHO and LEE NAKYUNG.”

The man nods again, the corner of his lips only raising slightly. “You did not only show off your abilities regarding performance skills, but you put on a creative performance. While the two of you are very different, you managed to come together and use that to your advantage.” His gaze moves to the other contestants on the stage. “Of course, the four of you also did a great job. Congratulations to all of you.”

With the end of the announcement, all were looking forward to, it was time to break the news people were trying to avoid. Another judge picks up his microphone getting ready to speak.

“Unfortunately, not everyone can win.” So Jisub nods, scanning the room with narrow eyes. “Just like last week, there will be eliminations today. You were all evaluated on your performance as a duo and, because of that, we’ll be eliminating both members that took part in the performance.” This was already known information but that the CEO makes sure to remind everyone of. “While last time 10 contestants had to go home, this time it’ll be 6 of you. This means that from the 20 duos here today, 3 will be eliminated.”

The camera pans over some of the contestants' reactions before returning to the judge. “And the first duo to leave us is…” The usual tense song that plays exactly in moments like these gets stronger, everyone in the room nervous to know who it’ll be. “PARK JINYOUNG and YOON JEONGHAN.” So Jisub nods in their direction. “While you two seemed to have worked well together and complimented each other, I think you just complimented in a way that made you both seem mediocre. You’re both talented individually, but it felt like your performance overall wasn’t as great as we had expected it to be. We hope that, in the future, you’ll find something that works best for you.”

Jisub looks down once he’s done, confirming who is next that he needs to call. “The second duo to leave us is… CHOI YOONA and WANG JACKSON.” The screen shows some of the random reactions from the other contestants. “While it was clear that you were having fun on the stage, there are more factors to a good performance than that which, of course, you didn’t get to reach. You can’t just do what you like because you like it, but it needs to be something good, too. We may have had some expectations for you so, this was truly a shame.”

And so there can only be one elimination left. “The last duo to leave us today is… HWANG MINHYUN and SONG YUQI.” If the last duo could have been considered a surprise, this is at least a little bit harder to believe. “Considering Yuqi was one of the top contestants on her skill last week, this was a tough choice to make, but one we all agreed with. We could see that your previous stages could be considered a bit different from the other, and we were looking forward to seeing what you could come up with. It’s safe to say that wasn’t what we expected and also not better than it, either. It’s a shame that the result had to be this, but it’s what it must be.”

When the man finishes speaking, someone else picks up the microphone. This is usually the time they congratulate the ones who passed and say goodbye to the ones that are gone, but Katie Lee says something instead. “Except… this may not be the end of your road just yet.”

To see all the of this season’s contestants, click here!

And now, let’s see what’s in store for our fourth episode!

After the announcement of the latest eliminations, those who moved on to the next challenge were once again organized in duos, but this time with different partners. Both of the people involved should show at least one of their performance skills. The theme is to impress and to manage to show your colors even when sharing the stage with someone else. A list of the duos can be found below:

#5050 - ZHOU JIEQIONG #5032 - LEE SUWOONG

#5048 - YOO TAEYANG #5035 - NAM JOOHYUK

#5047 - WONG YUKHEI #5038 - PARK WOOJIN

#5045 - TAKADA KENTA #5033 - MIYAWAKI SAKURA

#5043 - SON HYEJOO #5029 - LEE HOHYEON

#5042 - SOHN YOUNGJAE #5027 - KIM YUGYEOM

#5040 - SHIN RYUJIN #5026 - KIM, SIA

#5039 - SEO CHANGBIN #5011 - HWANG YEJI

#5037 - PARK JUNHEE #5023 - KIM MINKYUNG

#5034 - NA JAEMIN #5013 - JEON HEEJIN

#5030 - LEE NAKYUNG #5022 - KIM JUNGEUN

#5028 - LEE CHAERYEONG #5014 - JO YURI

#5025 - KIM SEUNGHUN #5002 - CHOI MINHO

#5020 - KIM HYOJIN #5017 - KANG DANIEL

#5018 - KANG HYUNGGU #5007 - DO KYUNGSOO

#5015 - JUNG EUNJI #5008 - HA SUNGWOON

#5006 - CHWE HANSOL #5004 - CHOI YEWON

Eliminations will be made in duos which means that if a performance is considered sub-par, both contestants will be eliminated. Therefore, make sure to work well together and choose something that fits the two people involved. Or not! Take your risks if you’d like to.

The twist this time seems to be that those eliminated on this episode may still have another stage to show what they got. Those six people were organized into three new duos and will arrive earlier than the rest for the recording of their part of the episode. Only one duo will be allowed to return. After the results are announced to them, they’re allowed to wait backstage where a TV can be found and watch the rest of the recording. Those who don’t get a chance back on the show will only be allowed to leave after the other contestants are already on set to avoid breaking the surprise that’ll be the revelation of the returning duo at the end of the episode. Both of the people involved should show at least one of their performance skills. The theme is to impress and to manage to show your colors even when sharing the stage with someone else. A list of the duos can be found below:

#5049 - YOON JEONGHAN #5010 - HWANG MINHYUN

#5046 - WANG JACKSON #5036 - PARK JINYOUNG

#5044 - SONG YUQI #5005 - CHOI YOONA

All contestants are supposed to make their own way to the recording studio prepared specially for this episode. The set will be the same as last round and will look something close to this. On each side, 18 chairs will be prepared for the contestants to sit on and watch each other’s performances. The duos should sit together and, to ensure so, the seats have been marked with their numbers. Starting from the first chair on the left and going all the way to the last one on the right, the numbers will follow the list of duos found above. There will be an empty pair of chairs which are to be taken at the end recording with the announcement of the returning duo. Just because most eyes will be on the performance doesn’t mean no one will be paying attention to you. A set of cameras will have their lenses ready to capture any sort of interesting reaction from those watching (beware of the evil editing) while a couple more will allow different angles of the main performance to be captured.

Sitting on the higher ground, much more comfortable chairs are lined in front of the stage — five in total. This is where the CEOs of each big company will be sitting to make sure only the most captivating contestants will continue their journey to make this the best season yet.

                          Tune in next Saturday, the 20th, for our fourth episode!

MGA Season 5 episode four preview: It’s the second week of duo performances, and things couldn’t be more interesting! Will the contestants get to work well with new people, or will this be their new demise? If your favorite contestant got eliminated on the last episode, will they manage to come back? Tune in next week to find out!

[ All of the performances were aired in their entirety. Cuts from the show itself were uploaded to Mnets’s Official Youtube Channel. ]

If you made it this far, either if you were eliminated on this episode or not, you may add +3 POINTS IN A PERFORMANCE SKILL to your points tally. Make sure to link back to this post for verification.

Contestants have until midnight EST at the end of Friday, the 19th, to post their 200+ words solos about the duos challenge in front of the CEOs. Please tag all related posts with #rkmga5 and #rkmga5duos2. They’ll have two minutes to perform their chosen skill to capture the attention of the CEOs (as long as it doesn’t break any laws). Good luck! Song choices should be submitted to the rkevent inbox. Two duos performing the same song will not be allowed and this will be chosen on a first come first serve basis. This applies to the returning duos as well.

After the last performance is done, the CEOs will leave to discuss their thoughts privately. While this happens, the contestants will be taken one by one into a small room to be interviewed on their thoughts of the current state of things. They will be asked a variety of questions and some may be included in the list found below! Feel free to come up with your own questions if you think they can be fitting.

What did you think of the results last week?

How was it like working with your duo?

How do you think you did?

Were there any performances you liked?

Were there any performances you didn’t like?

What did you think of ___’s performance?

Which duo do you think complemented each other the most?

Was there anyone you think that brought their partner down?

Who from those eliminated last episode do you think will return?

Is there anyone you are certain will move onto the next phase of the MGAs?

Is there anyone you are certain will be eliminated today?

Once they’re done, they’ll be taken back to their seat to wait, or may go to the bathroom if needed.

You may also write an extra 200+ words solo about your muse’s interview, as explained above, to also be posted until midnight EST at the end of Friday, the 19th. For doing so, you may earn +2 CHARISMA OR CREATIVITY POINTS and these can be added to your points tally as soon as it is posted. Please tag all related posts with #rkmga5 and #rkmga5duos2. Please link this post as verification.

[readmeri]

I do love to dip into the SL Reddit, I post my blogs there, much to the disgust of some of the patrons and I also like to read the threads posted. Many of them are asking for advice on where to get something or how to solve a problem. Some of them are pure gold. I was there just now reading a discussion where the OP had asked what the weirdest/wildest experience you ever had in SL was.

It really got me thinking and quite honestly, some of the answers I read were so much wilder and nuttier than anything I can come up with but I’m going to have a go, here and now.

At AAi (rest in peace) we’d put a set into events and it was attended by loads of people including Limey Linden who simply hopped onto the pole and boogied the night away. Limey was a British guy living in the US and, obviously, working for Linden Labs. He was a strange black shaped avatar. In fact, I do somewhere have a picture of him on the pole, but I can’t find it anywhere – I think this was in 2009.

Here’s a pic of him taken by someone else, Tim Deschanel

  Another time, I was out shopping and a guy IM’d me and asked me if he could be my slave. He was very polite and nice, but I explained I didn’t really have a use for a slave. He enumerated the various ways in which he could be helpful, how he wouldn’t expect anything in return and all that. I said I had a partner who wouldn’t like me having a er… pet man. He said he would help Thom out too if he wanted. I was just about to close him down and he said something that nearly, almost worked… “I could sort your inventory out for you, however you wanted. I would spend hours and days on sorting it if that’s what you wanted?” Oh I was so tempted, soooo tempted, but figured giving my password to a stranger however polite he was might be a bad idea.

And then there was another oddness, one of the few I can actually recall anyway (I’ve a short memory and let’s face it, SL strangeness becomes normal) was the religious nut. This person went through a phase of IMing me for a few months with the hellfire that my local Methodist church had neglected to instill in me all those years ago. Apparently, I – along with many of you – will be burning in hell for all eternity for the transgressions we commit with our pixel selves (he must have been spying for some time).

And finally, finally, I’m going to have to be a wee bit vague, because this one involves someone still in SL for sure. I managed a club before we had AAi and I was there along with the DJ playing at the time, a lovely girl called Plava. Plava originated in a country which was at war with another country. A guy who ran a very big group used to promote sets at clubs arrived for the set and apparently, he was from the other country in conflict. They had a rather large row about it and he left.

That shoulda been that, but…

When I next came to send a notice in that group, I found I couldn’t. I notecarded the guy and explained. No response. I asked Thom to contact him on my behalf and explain, no response. I asked the person who owned the club to intervene, she did and he replied he’d taken away my notice sending rights and blocked me. No mention of why.

Some time later, I was talking to another club owner (Alex at Alt7) and she mentioned this guy, I told her what had happened and she said, but that’s nuts. I’ll talk to him, he seems to like me. She got in touch and he spoke to her about it. Apparently, although his English isn’t great, the reason for my (now 10-year blocking) is that I started the war in Vietnam, it’s my fault. This is, of course, despite the fact the Vietnam war thankfully ended in 1975 when I was just a twinkle.

She tried to impress upon him that it simply could NOT be the case, but he was having none of it and replied something along the lines of ‘It’s people like her that start all the wars’, as if to say that if I hadn’t started that particular one, I was sure to be responsible for one of them!

😮

So… what’s the strangest thing/weirdest thing/wildest thing you’ve ever had happen to you in SL? Please tell me all! ❤

ReadMeri Mericat Ireland Cynful Top

ReadMeri Mericat Ireland Cynful

Click to see them bigger!

What ARE you wearing?

Pose – Manifeste Model 755 Top – Cynful Laced Up Top + Corset Set [Mait/Frey/Is/HG] Collabor88  NEW! Hair – .Shi Barak  Uber NEW! Rings – RealEvil Elektra Rings Shorts – Thalia Heckroth Charlotte Shorts Shoes – Pure Poison Lucy Pumps & Socks Visit – Kun Tei Ner

Notes:

The Cynful Laced Up Top and Corset Set is available right now at C88 for those of you with a few linden dollars burning a hole in their pockets. You can enjoy a perfect fit of this top if you have a Maitreya Lara or a Belleza Freya, Isis or Hourglass body. You can change details like the corset colour, the laces and even the metal colour of the eyes. Nice!

I paired it with my fave Frida shorts from Thalia Heckroth, I don’t blog for them but hey… I might consider it if they asked me nice :D. Seriously, they’re super cute shorts and they fit well. Sometimes it’s nice to have something that skims the curves rather than clings to them.

The hair, OMG, the hair. Aside from my beloved KoKoLoReS, .Shi is perhaps my favourite SL hair designer. They’re always so quirky and stylish. I feel 110% more cool in a .Shi hair.

Also, I hate to rub it in but I’m wearing Pure Poison shoes again which I did pick up in the flash sale that is no longer on for 10 L$. However, these cutie shoes can be yours for the very reasonable price of 99 L$. Not at all shabby!

Here’s the jigging for the rigging… let’s enjoy my rather muted attempt at Sia’s Elastic Heart.

  Strangest thing to happen in Second Life? I do love to dip into the SL Reddit, I post my blogs there, much to the disgust of some of the patrons and I also like to read the threads posted.

[nazih-fares]

While most SNK fans are waiting for the potential King of Fighters XV, the developers figured it would be fun to play around with the iconic female fighters of the franchise and a different gameplay, in hope to spice thing up with SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy. While it looks like a simple game mainly for fans, there are some core ideas that make a big difference, but is it worth it?

The “story” of SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy starts right after the event of the King of Fighters XIV tournament. Kukri, one of the King of Fighters newest characters created a parallel dimension to lock up several of the female tournament fighters, pitting them against each other. To escape, they will have to team up in pairs and kind of fight by Kukri’s rules. Extremely simplistic and brutally sexist (i’ll explain why later on), SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy’s story mode will only have us chain one match after the other until eventually reaching the final fight and discovering the true motive of Kukri. The latter wants to expand his parallel dimension into the real world, and turn all defeated fighters into sand statues for his private collection.

As the name suggests, SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy will ask you to fight in duos, with one being the main attacker, and other considered like a supporting one. There are 14 fighters to pick, which not only are just female but overly sexualized it’s not even funny. I mean hell, the SNK guys even managed to reduce the amount of clothing on an already very revealing original cast. Whether it’s Mai Shiranui who’s now wearing a cow-themed underwear with horns (image below), or even Mian who’s supposed to be in Sichuanese opera traditional attire is now underdressed. Hell, even SNK’s iconic Terry Bogard was turned into a Fatal Cutie, and is now a voluptuous female fighter with an oversized pair of breasts. I get that sex sells, but this is really over the top even for the developer.

Nevertheless, regardless of this negative aspect of the game, SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy is a different kind of fighting game. You see, lowering the health bar of your opponent to 0 is not enough to knock them out, but requires you to use and land a final attack known as Dream Finish. To do that, it will be necessary that your gauge of SP is full enough, which itself gets filled after landing successful combos, counters or blocking. It’s important to mention as well that you can switch places with your supporting partner to restore your SP bar, but the life bar is common to both fighters (not like your typical tag-team based fighting game like Marvel vs Capcom). In terms of core mechanics, it’s still quite standard, with a strong hit, low hit, special hit and so on, with a strange decision to have the block not automatic but assigned to its own button (which might require some of you veterans to get used to). This translates into simple combos though with a maximum of a 4-hit chain, but that rather helps to bring newcomers into the genre.

SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy is really a plethora of fan-service, especially when it comes to customization. Each of the 14 fighters (and upcoming one via a steady flow of DLCs) have a total of 3 different costumes including their “classic” outfit. The rest of the items are mainly to for you to stand out against your online opponents. Sadly, while there’s hundred of different accessories, they rather lack imagination, and only a rare handful feel truly creative.

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For the rest of the game, you will discover in addition to the story mode your usual classic modes like traditional versus, survival, training, a tutorial and local Ad-Hoc lobbies for up to 8 players. While they don’t unlock any new characters in the game when compared to the story mode, these extra modes are here to grind and get in-game currency to buys accessories and customization items. On the front of the online mode, there’s a fun functionality where you can wager your money before each match, which could lead to more intense matches since there’s more than just bragging rights.

Finally, in terms of technicalities, the game is graphically solid even on the Nintendo Switch. Then again, the visual identity and effects are not really demanding, but you’ll see a difference when switching to docked mode. The game gets a tad pixelated, as I assume it gets expanded to fit the screen, but not to a point where it’s not fun. But where I really get annoyed is on the front of sexualizing even the effects. You see, if it wasn’t enough to have half-naked fighters on the screen, the visual effects and even voices are like a very feminine version of a Shonen with each blow or impact. So while we’re accustomed to fire and electrical hits, here everything is turned into some sort of Powerpuff Girls rainbow and cookies effects which could push people away from it.

SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy was reviewed using a Nintendo Switch digital download code of the game provided by NIS America. The game is also available on PlayStation 4 and PC via digital and retail store releases. We don’t discuss review scores with publishers or developers prior to the review being published (click here for more information about our review policy).

SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy is a weird fighting game. It tries to appeal to newcomers while banking on hypersexualization of its characters while downplaying game mechanics which might push away fans.  While most SNK fans are waiting for the potential King of Fighters XV, the developers figured it would be fun to play around with the iconic female fighters of the franchise and a different gameplay, in hope to spice thing up with SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy.