#someone explain what made these books so great they got a game series and a netflix series

[super-cosmic-library]

loosely based on this post

tw: mentions of blood

Look, everyone had gone through a vampire phase. One Mrs. Stephanie Meyer had a heavy hand in that. And even if one had somehow managed to skirt the whole Twilight saga, there were a litany of other vampire books/tv shows/movies that came in its wake. Almost everyone in the 2010s wanted a vampire boyfriend. Even Robin, whose taste veered toward the more extraterrestrial side of paranormal fiction, had confided in Steve that she wouldn’t mind having an undead, blood sucking vampire girlfriend.

All in all, Steve didn’t get it. Why did nearly all of the girls in his grade fawn over the idea of getting with someone older than their great grandfathers? It was gross. Not to mention the fact that vampires didn’t have blood, so how would they even be able to get it up in the bedroom? 

The whole mess baffled him to no end, and he was grateful when its popularity died down. He didn’t know if he would be able to take listening to Max and El giggling over Edward What’s-his-face.

His relief, however, was short lived. Just as the kids he baby sat started to enter high school, the Twilight saga had a resurgence of popularity all thanks to TikTok. Only this time, he didn’t just have to hear it from the girls. Max and El had gotten Lucas and Will to watch the movies with them, which led to them reading the girls’ copies of the books. And, look, Lucas he understood. When Steve was in high school, he would have done anything to please Nancy. (Luckily, she had been more interested in the rising popularity of the dystopian genre. He had thoroughly enjoyed listening to the Hunger Games series on audiobook.) But Will? Even if he was just doing it to bond with his sister, Steve thought the boy had more taste than that.

And when Lucas and Will became obsessed with it, so did Mike and Dustin. Again, Steve understood Mike, even though unlike Lucas, he was totally oblivious to his crush on Will. But Dustin? As far as Steve was aware, Suzie wasn’t allowed to read the series, even though the creator was also Mormon.

At least Erica was still at the age where she turned her nose up at any hint of romance.

But, you know, it wouldn’t be such a big deal if the kids obsession with vampires contained itself to the fictional world. He could deal with it better if it did. If then, they might be able to talk about other topics of interest. Hell, Steve would give anything to listen to the boys ramble all day long about their Dungeons and Dorks game. But Steve wasn’t so lucky.

Because while he loved the kids’ strong, creative imaginations, it meant that sometimes their fictional obsessions would spill over into the real world. And that. That was what he was really fed up with.

“I swear, it’s him,” Dustin nearly shouted over the other boys. “Same name. Same exact hair. He’s a vampire.”

Steve restrained a groan as he looked up from the dishes to see Dustin, Lucas, Will, and Mike at the dining table crowded around what appeared to be a high school yearbook.

“He can’t be!” Thank god, Mike was being the voice of reason. (Something Steve never thought he would be.) “I’ve seen him walk to his van in the sun, and he was totally fine. Also, on spaghetti day in the cafeteria, he ate, like, three slices of garlic bread!”

Steve had thought too soon.

“Then how do you explain this?” Dustin asked, gesturing to the page.

“Maybe it’s someone he’s related to?” Will offered.

“I don’t know,” Lucas said. “The resemblance is uncanny.”

Curiosity got the best of Steve. What could he say? Even if he hated this whole vampire thing, he enjoyed the weird little adventures his kids went on. Steve didn’t have many friends growing up. Hell, aside from Robin, he didn’t have many friends now. At least, friends his own age. It made his heart warm, seeing all of them getting to be a bunch of idiot children together. 

But they didn’t need to know that.

“What are you little shits looking at?” He slung the dish towel he had been using to dry the flatware with over his shoulder, and made his way over to the table.

“Steve, we think our new DM is a vampire!” Dustin announced excitedly.

Steve put his hands on his hips (his signature mom pose, according to the kids), and rolled his eyes. “Vampires aren’t real.” 

He didn’t say it to dull the kid’s enthusiasm. If anything, antagonization was their form of love language. Plus, Dustin always took the discouragement as a challenge to double down on whatever stance he took. Steve had to admire the kid for his confidence in himself. He knew first hand how easily that could be stripped away. 

“Then how do you explain this?” Dustin slid the yearbook over for him to look at, pointing at  the man in question. “He’s been in high school for years.”

Steve glanced down at the page. “Oh, Eddie Munson? He was in some of my classes last year. He was held back twice; though, that may have been because he almost never showed up to class. But that doesn’t mean he’s a vampire.”

“This is an old yearbook, though,” Lucas countered.

“If last year is old, then how ancient do you think I am?” Steve snipped. He pointed to the class picture that captured his likeness. “Look, there’s me. Does that mean I’m a vampire?”

“Steve, this isn’t your yearbook.” Dustin held the cover of the book up for Steve to read. There on the cover, in green and gold, were the words “Class of 1985.”

“What?” He snatched the yearbook from him, and flipped back to the page they had been studying. “No, that’s . . .”

He trailed off. Yes, that picture had captured his likeness; however, it was his father’s name that was written underneath. His father, who he was apparently the spitting image of.

“Maybe it’s his dad,” Steve tried, flipping through the pages. “Or his uncle. Doesn’t he live with his uncle?”

“We already checked the rest of it.” Mike snatched the book away from him. “He’s the only Munson in there.”

“His dad and his uncle could have not been in high school together,” Will countered.

“Thank you for being the only reasonable person here.”

Will blushed at Steve’s praise. 

“I am telling you,” Dustin trudged on. “Eddie Munson is a vampire. And we’re going to prove it.”

~~~

Proving it ended up being more challenging than the boys had thought. As Mike had already proved, Eddie had no aversion to garlic or the sun. Crosses, Lucas pointed out, had no affect on him either, seeing as he wore one on his ring. So there went that theory. Dustin had even followed him into the bathroom one day to see if Eddie had a reflection in the mirror. He ended up having two Eddies stare at him like he was a creep.

Either none of the stereotypes were true, or--and Dustin was loathe to admit it--Steve was right.

There was still one more thing they could try.

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Lucas said.

Dustin huffed. “Well, do you have any better plans? Because the only thing we haven’t tried yet is a stake to the heart, which is a dumb thing to begin with because that could kill anyone.”

“What about holy water?”

“And how are you going to get a priest to agree to bless a bottle of water?” Mike asked.

“My pastor might do it,” Lucas said.

“Let’s just try this first,” Dustin said. “And if it doesn’t work, you can call your pastor.”

The plan was simple, really. While they were playing DnD that afternoon, Dustin was going to “accidently” get a paper cut. Eddie’s reaction to the fresh blood would determine whether or not he was a vampire. It was fool proof.

Unfortunately, it seemed like Dustin was a fool. Who could blame him, though? Eddie was an amazing Dungeon Master. He knew just how to craft a story to suck just about anyone in. It wasn’t until they were packing up at the end of the session that Dustin remembered the plan. That probably explained the looks the other boys had been shooting him the entire time.

Dustin was just about to drag the edge of a piece of paper across this hand, when the drama room door banged open.

“Alright, you little shits. Get in the car. I’m already having a bad day, and I don’t need your moms blowing up my phone asking where you are.”

“Steve, why do you have a tampon in your nose?” Will asked.

Dustin glanced up at Steve, only to find that the man indeed had a bloody tampon in his nose.

“I had a nose bleed, and didn’t have any Kleenex in my car. It’s the only thing Robin or I had. And it works, so I don’t want to hear anything more about it.”

Blood.

Dustin nearly gave himself whiplash turning his head to look at Eddie. Eddie, who was staring at Steve with eyes that could only be described as ravenous.

“King Steve,” Eddie drew out as he approached Steve.

“Munson.”

“Now why’s a pretty jock like you carting around a bunch of nerdy freshmen?”

“I baby sit them.”

Eddie chuckled. “Yes, they are a bunch of babies.”

That was met with a round of protests from the kids.

“How hard was your nose bleeding? Aren’t tampons supposed to be super absorbent?”

Lucas was right. There was a ring of blood leaking down the tampon.

“Are you okay?” Will asked.

Eddie, however, did not look okay. Dustin had never seen him so focused on one thing as he was with Steve’s nose. And that included DnD.

“Yeah, it just happens sometimes. I’ll be fine. Now come on, or Robin’s going to start honking.”

They were being corralled out of the building before Dustin could come to any concrete conclusions, but judging from the way Eddie had stared at Steve’s nose, he was sure their hunch was correct.

Now they just had to prove it.

~~~

Turned out, the best way to prove their DM was a vampire was to show up at his trailer unannounced. Catch him off guard while he was at his most comfortable. In fact, the hardest part about the whole thing had been trying to convince Steve to drive them over to the trailer park. In the end, he was a push over as always.

Dustin bounded up the steps to the trailer, the other boys close behind. He pounded on the door. “Eddie!”

A crash came from inside, followed by a grumbled “shit.” A few moments later, Eddie swung open the door.

“Couldn’t have given me a heads up?”

“We have some urgent DnD questions. Couldn’t’ve waited for you to respond.” Dustin and the rest of the boys pushed passed him into the trailer. Only Will hesitated, sheepish look on his face.

“Hey, wait, what are you doing!” Eddie called after them.

“Oh my god, have some manners,” Steve slammed his car door closed.

“Steve,” Eddie began. “They roped you into this?”

“They threatened to walk otherwise. Couldn’t let them get hit by a car or kidnapped.”

The four boys searched around the tidy trailer, not even trying to appear like they weren’t.

“What are you knuckleheads doing?” Eddie asked.

Steve, who they had not informed what they were doing, seemed to have caught on to their plan. “Not this again.”

“You know what they’re doing?” 

“Guys, look!” Mike, staring in the fridge, exclaimed. The boys ran over to him.

“Hey, you guys, get out of there!” Eddie exclaimed.

“Yeah, knock it off. Let the man live in piece.”

Dustin, Lucas, and Will gasped when they saw the contents of the fridge. Yes, there was normal people food in the fridge--nothing to write home about. But stacked on the top shelf was the motherload: bags and bags of blood.

Mike grabbed one and held it out for Steve to see. “We fucking told you!”

“Eddie’s a vampire,” Dustin vibrated with excitement. “Eddie, you’re a vampire.”

“Eddie’s not . . . there’s gotta be . . .Eddie?” Steve looked to Eddie as if asking him to deny the kid’s claims.

Eddie crossed his arms over his chest and heaved out an exasperated sigh. “Looks like you caught me.”

“I fucking told you!” Dustin shouted at Steve.

“Language.” Steve snapped. “Eddie, come on. Be serious. Vampires don’t exist.”

“Telling the truth, Harrington.” Eddie flashed them his fangs. “I am a vampire.” 

“You’re teeth aren’t normally that sharp,” Will said.

“I can control when my fangs come out,” Eddie said with a shrug. Then, to demonstrate, he retraced his fangs, so his teeth looked human again. “It’s been handy in hiding from mortals. In fact, you guys are the first to figure it out. Surprised it took this long for anyone to notice, honestly.”

“So you’ve been able to hide in plan sight for, like, hundreds of years?” Dustin asked.

Eddie slouched down onto the couch, understanding that he was about to be pelted with about a million questions. “More like forty.”

“Forty?” Will asked.

“I was turned in the ‘80s. ‘86, I think. I don’t know, the years start to blur together.”

“So, you’re just as old as our parents?” Mike scoffed. “Lame.”

“But I look much better than them.”

The boys took his nonchalance as permission to start their rain of questions.

“So do you have vampire powers?”

“How can you eat garlic?”

“Does the sun not burn your skin?”

“Do you have to get permission to enter new places?”

And on and on they went, only briefly pausing for Eddie to get a sufficient answer out. Meanwhile, Steve just stood by the door. Dustin could tell he was trying to process the fact that he had almost graduated with a vampire. Dustin could understand. Had he not already been convinced himself, the information would have taken a bit to accept.

When Steve finally came back around, he joined the group surrounding Eddie. 

“Why are you still at Hawkins High?” Steve asked. “You were in class with my parents. Couldn’t have you gotten out and gone someplace people won’t recognize you?”

Eddie paused, actually giving that question some thought. The other boys let him think it through instead of feeding him more questions. They wanted to know the answer too.

“Well, I tried to once, but then Wayne started having health problems, and I didn’t want to leave him alone. When I realized that I had stopped aging, I decided to stay with him even after he recovered. Realized that if I don’t grow old, I’m going to outlive him. I’d rather spend the rest of his life with him, than in hiding and regretting it when he’s gone. As for people recognizing me: you’d be surprised how little attention the freaks of Hawkins get.”

The group sat in silence for a moment, letting his words sink in. Dustin supposed that if he were turned into a vampire, he would stick around to spend as much time with his mom as he could.

“Speaking of, where is your uncle?” Lucas asked.

Eddie smiled to himself. “Technically, he’s my little brother. We started doing the whole uncle/nephew thing when he got too old to believably be my brother. And he should be finishing up his shift at the hospital. Decided to become a nurse after finishing chemo. He has always been the smart one. Besides, it helps with procuring my stash of blood.” 

Mike perked up at that. “So you do drink blood?”

“Yes.”

“But we’ve seen you eat real food.”

“You’re point?”

Mike huffed. “So do you need blood to live, or is it just a craving--like wanting a Coke?”

“I can eat real food, but it doesn’t fully satisfy my hunger. Only drinking blood does that.”

“Have you ever?” Steve gulped. “Have you ever drank blood from a person.”

“You offering?” Eddie smirked.

Steve flushed.

Weird.

As his friends continued to talk, Dustin’s mind wandered. It was no secret that Steve found men attractive. He was the biggest slut in Hawkins, after all. And Dustin had only ever seen him nervous around men who he thought were really hot. 

Oh, Dustin could have fun with this. After all, didn’t everyone want a vampire boyfriend?

okay, well this completely got away from me. will I make this a series? mayhaps.

[sunflower-lilac42]

✧ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐡 || flowers au ♔

summary: violet gets into a crash and connor can't stop his thoughts

warnings: car crash, mentions of dying, sad, hospitals, crying, me saying "sob, cry, tears, bawl" too much

notes: um hey guys, this is a result of emma being in an angst mood (and gray's genius thoughts) please forgive me for the ending. | add yourself to the taglist ➵ taglist!

publish date: 02/17/24

au masterlist | nhl masterlist | main masterlist

“Hi Connie, I just- I wanted you to know that I went to the game tonight. You did great, I’m so proud of you.” There was a pause, “I’m sorry for our fight. I know you care about me and I know you were all stressed with making your return, so I’m sorry. I-” 

And that was the end, but that couldn’t be the end could it? Connor pulled his phone away from his ear, frantically rushing to see if the voicemail buffered or stopped completely. When he saw it had reached the end and the time ran out, he panicked even more, millions of thoughts rushing through his head. “What if this was the last time I heard her voice?”

His hands were shaking as he threw on his jacket and made his way down the hallway to his friend’s apartment, knocking on the door rather timidly. Lukas opened the door laughing at something Kevin had said and his face went blank as soon as he laid eyes on Connor, “What’s wrong?”

He couldn’t speak, afraid to break down or to spill every thought that was going through his mind. He showed him his phone, allowing him to play the voicemail for himself, “Okay so she left you a voicemail? I’m not really seeing what the-”

“She’s in the hospital right now.”

“She’s what?” Kevin got up, walking over to the two, “What’s going on?”

“Violet’s at the hospital, she got into an accident. She was on her way back from the game, she came to see me.”

“Hey, it's not your fault. She’s old enough to make her own decisions. Did her brothers call you?”

Connor nodded, running a hand through his hair. He was distraught, confused, and heartbroken, every single negative emotion he could think of was how he felt right now. Kevin was the one to make the first move, running to grab his keys from his bedroom, “Alright let’s go.”

Lukas and Kevin grabbed their jackets and followed their friend out of their apartment, all but running down the stairs and through the hallways. It was about ten minutes into the drive when he realized he should call Ollie, dialing her number slowly, “Hey Ollie.”

“Connor.” 

“I know you’re mad at me but now’s not the time. Vi’s in the hospital.”

The anger faded from her voice, “What?”

“She wanted to come to the game tonight, once she heard I was playing and on her way back she got into an accident. I don’t really know what happened, Adam and Luca didn’t really explain it all that well to me.”

Ollie was shocked, not having the brain capacity to form thoughts besides the one that was blaring through her mind at the current moment, “Can I come?”

“If you want, yeah. I’ll send the hospital to you, just be careful?”

“Always. Thank you for calling me.”

He hung up after that, moving his way to call someone else. Kevin looked at him in confusion, “Who are you calling?”

“Luke.”

“Richardson?”

“No. Hughes.”

The call rang through his ears as he waited for him to pick up. It took him three times to reach him, Luke was hostile when he answered, “What the fuck do you want?”

Connor groaned, not wanting to deal with it right now, “Violet’s in the hospital.”

“She’s what?” Luke sat down, managing to find his way to a seat before he collapsed. 

“In the hospital. She got into an accident. Adam and Luca didn’t say much besides that but.”

“I’m booking a ticket.”

“Luke, you know that I know that she wouldn’t want you to miss the stadium series for her.”

“Fuck that, I’m flying there.”

“Luke.” It was the first time in a while that his voice had sounded this sure, this stern.

He heard him sigh, “Okay fine. But right after that, I’m coming down there.”

“Not expecting anything less. Do you-” He sniffled, the state of Violet coming back into his head, “Do you want me to call Cole?”

“No, I can do it. You just worry about getting yourself there. She still loves you, you know?”

He was unable to hold his sobs back, “Yeah.”

Luke hung up after that, leaving Connor to stare out the window. Kevin and Lukas were both worried about Violet, there was no doubt that she was like their little sister. But they were too worried about Connor, who looked as if he was so close to banging his head against the car door, “She’s gonna be okay, man.”

“You don’t know that. No one knows that. That- That could’ve been the last time I ever heard her voice and I will never forgive myself for the way-”

“Stop it, stop it, stop it! Just stop it, Connor! She is not going to die so get that out of you’re fucking head.” It was the first time Kevin hadn’t really spoken to him besides the few words he said back at their apartment. His voice was laced with tears, almost on the verge of breaking out in sobs like his friend.

Both Lukas and Connor were a little startled by his outbreak. There was no doubt that she and Kevin had grown close over the past couple of months. They were always texting each other at any time of day, making sure the other was okay. They would send each other tiktoks throughout the day, along with reels, shorts, tweets, and anything. It became their thing to at least send one of those and call it the meme/video of the day. 

The car ride was silent from there until the hospital, no one daring to say a word. When they arrived, they couldn’t decide whether or not to run in or walk in, so they compromised. They ran from the parking lot to the entrance of the emergency room, walking the rest of the way. They walked up to the desk, giving the lady the biggest smile each could muster up, “Hi. We’re here to see Violet- uh sorry, y/n Fantilli.”

Before she could even say anything, footsteps were approaching them, “Connor!”

The three turned to see Adam and Luca, who looked as if they were out of breath, “Hey, we can take you back.”

The receptionist nodded and allowed the two to take the three back to Violet’s room. Adam turned to the three, “I’m going to warn you guys now, it’s not going to be a pretty sight. She’s really banged up, there are cuts all over and her arm is broken, and a lot of other things that you’re just gonna find out about.”

Connor took a deep breath, nodding, “Is she awake?”

The two boys shook their heads, Luca being the one to speak, “No. They uh, said she’s in a coma right now. It was a pretty nasty hit, apparently.”

Anxiety rushed through the three boys’ bodies. Adam let them in, moving out of the way, the three stood in shock when they saw her. The brothers were right, it wasn’t a pretty sight, “Hi Mrs. and Mr. Fantilli.”

“Hi, Connor. How are you doing, honey?”

Connor only nods, tears rushing to his eyes. She hugged him tightly, “She’s strong, she’ll pull through.”

He nodded once again, pulling away to wipe his tears a little embarrassed, “I- um. Can I-”

Luca nodded, “Yeah, go for it.”

They all left the room, leaving the two alone together. Connor sat in one of the seats, holding her right hand, “I’m so so so sorry, Vi. I shouldn’t have fought with you. It was stupid, the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. God, I can’t- I can’t tell you how sorry I am.”

He allows himself to cry, “You have nothing to apologize for. You didn’t do anything. And thank you for coming tonight. I know you had class tomorrow, you have class tomorrow. It means a lot to me. And I’m sorry for not telling you I was playing or about my appointments. I love you so so much, sweet girl.”

Five more minutes passed, all in silence except for his cries. Adam and Luca came in, looking at him concerned. He wiped his tears again, looking at them, “Did you guys talk to her?”

They both nodded, “Yeah, bud. We did.”

“She left me a voicemail, and told one of the guys to tell me to call her when I got back.”

“She did?”

He pulled out his phone and played the message, “Hi Connie, I just- I wanted you to know that I went to the game tonight. You did great, I’m so proud of you.” Pause “I’m sorry for our fight. I know you care about me and I know you were all stressed with making your return, so I’m sorry. I-” 

He sobbed again once it was over, his earlier thoughts coming back. The two brothers did their best to calm him down but were getting almost nowhere with it. He started to hyperventilate, his breathing rushing, “Connor, hey hey it’s okay. She’s gonna be okay, alright?”

“But what if I never hear her voice again? What if the last thing I said to her was that she was being too protective, too overbearing? What if the last thing she said to me was in a broken tone? What if that’s the only thing I have left of her? What if she doesn’t come back to me?”

Luca and Adam couldn’t control themselves or their tears any longer at the sound of Connor’s questions. They brought him into a hug, the three of them all crying their eyes out. None of them were sure of what was going to happen. And all they could think about were the ‘what if’ questions.

𝑻𝑨𝑮𝑳𝑰𝑺𝑻 ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

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[ethankyou]

A while back I had a chance to play Cyberpunk Red, which is the 4th edition of Cyberpunk by Mike Pondsmith.

Red is also the successor to Cyberpunk 2020 which was the inspiration for the notorious Cyberpunk 2077 - haven't played, don't intend to, not the subject of my discussion here!

So how did it go?

Cyberpunk Red is a lot of crunch though plays really easy once you get past the initial learning curve of the rules.

But there are a lot of rules.

I find my go to when learning a new game is to find a video of someone trying to give a briefer on the game system and then go to the book to cement those ideas myself.

I found this video pretty helpful when researching character creation. XPLoveCat does a whole series guiding through the creation process. If you like to listen to someone explain things (it's a big help for me) this might be a great place for you to start too!

Once you pick your lifepath, if you're going with the beginner one (i don't remember what it's called it's been nearly a year sorry!) the creation process is pretty smooth, it's just following some steps. There's a medium and veteran version of the life paths that add more complexity to your character creation process and I feel like since our group was a bunch of RPG vets we could have handled that, but it does speed things up to go with the quicker start for a one shot.

Meanwhile Red is like "You have 60 skills and one of them is fashion and one of them is looking good."

Whenever I'm starting a new game I also like to have a character sheet handy so I can piece everything together. And once you get Red's character sheet in front of you, it really begins to feel like a game from the 90's with a modern coat of paint.

The character sheet in question. 3 pages!

There's a lot of fun to be had in older systems! But newer systems have opted to streamline things like skills and stats and stuff nowadays. I remember being glad that 4th edition D&D cut skills by more than half by just folding a lot of similar ones together, something that would continue into 5th edition as well. There were some casualties along the way though (rip use magic device, and all the extra knowledge skills!) and typically the stuff that got cut was stuff that would facilitate like... You know.... Playing a character? Not just murderhoboing your way across the country.

Pictured below, everything that is "Cool" in the year 2045 (taken from a custom character sheet)

Creating a character is an interesting process because it follows this lifepath system. So you choose one of several paths and the game streamlines the creation process by directing you which page to go to next in an almost "choose your own adventure" sort of layout. This is very helpful, but while it's easy to go forward, it's not so easy to go back. If you went to the wrong page or just didn't like what you read and want to try something else, you'll be searching for where you made that wrong turn. A lot of ttrpg books can be like this so this isn't exactly a new problem, but the way the book is laid out it really does need you to follow this path to new pages instead of discovering the information yourself by reading on. I guess just write down the page numbers of places you want to go back to before flipping forward.

Initially finding things on the sheet is tough because if you're told to make a "Tracking" check, you might not immediately assume that's an Int skill. Since the skills are grouped by attribute, you'll have to go through the process of figuring out what skill belongs to which group. I don't think this is a bad thing, because the alternative would be an alphabetical list of 60+ skills, which might make it harder to figure out their associated stat, or would just make the sheet more bloaty with repeated stats beside each and every skill. All games have an adjustment period to them and this is a pretty minor one. I remember this being a sticking point for our group after playing it originally but having some time to think on it I think there's a valid argument to be made either way. Someone in our group even mentioned this was one custom character sheet away from not being an issue and I agree. And apparently others do too because there's a lot of them out there! Many of which sort the skills differently and many also try to condense the 3 page sheet to 2. I know there's a lot of wasted real estate on the third page but it's pretty cool!

There are also apparently free quick start rules that come with premade characters and everything! Free is free and you can check that out on drive thru RPG! It's called easy mode but my understanding is this includes the core rules too. This would probably be the best choice for a one shot game to test the water but we just weren't aware of them at the time.

But a major part of creation is your role. This is the part I might be the most critical of. While they give you a lot of skills and everyone has access to the same skills, each role has basically one major ability that only they can do. The med tech can use medicines to help the groups, the netrunner can take more actions while in a netrun. That kind of thing. But that's pretty much it. Improving your role may allow you to use your role abilities better or more frequently, but there's not a lot in the way of new abilities.

And also the divisions between the roles feel pretty arbitrary. Like the med tech is the only one who can use a bunch of medicines. But why? Everyone has access to the first aid skill, which is something the med tech is also proficient in. What's stopping someone from taking one of their medicines and using it?

I think having well defined roles for each player is very important! And the roles do provide this, but I don't feel like they go far enough. We did only play one session though so perhaps this is something that would be more evident over time.

I played a Netrunner (a hacker) which ends up also having to play a little minigame separate from the rest of the action. I knew what I was getting into but wanted to try it out to see how the game handles it. In previous games that I've played a hacker, it bogged down the game by either having an entire session play out for the hacker while everyone else waits, or does nothing while everyone else is in the middle of the action because they have to stay with their big cool hacker rig. Red deals with this in a really great way - your rig is a headset that has wifi. And if you want to hack a secure system, you need to be hardwired into that system. This means the Netrunner has to be on site and still has an opportunity to join the action. Or may even be forced to do both at once.

As far as the actual hacking game goes, I really like the implementation of hacking a cyber infrastructure. You bring programs that all serve different functions, such as attacks or other actions and then you have to fight your way up the digitial infrastructure, with each level offering more rewards, but higher threats. The programs all have a fantasy aesthetic and the architecture functions kind of like a dungeon in Netspace. You can take multiple netspace actions, but you're still able to act in meatspace as well during this time. Sometimes you'll have to balance your actions in and out of netspace.

The biggest problem I had with the Netrunner goes back to my problem with roles. There's a Tech stat and several Tech skills so what kind of check do you make? Why, you add your role to your roll! The Netrunner uses their role, which starts at +4. Compared to their Tech skills which are floating around a +10 or so. Now the DVs for these checks are all lower to compensate for this but... Why do we gotta do it this way?

There could easily be a skill that could have covered this and the DVs could have been comparable to everything else in the game. You might think, well if other characters were allowed to hack, they could prove to be just as effective as the Netrunner so it has to be a balance issue right? Well the Netrunner role allows them to take 3 actions a round in Netspace which would make them much more efficient than someone without the role. But also having the role is what grants the interface feature, which is required to take NET actions at all! But even though the Netrunner is obviously the best choice for the task, what's stopping someone else with a rig from attempting the same thing and just being less efficient at it.

The way I guess this is addressed, is that you can take on other roles potentially? You have 4 in your starting role, so I believe you'd start with 1 in a new role. But with a +4 in my Netrunner role I found that I struggled a lot, so I can't even imagine floundering around with just a +1. You'd be at the whims of the dice.

Despite that though, I appreciate the game does allow this sort of multi-classing. Especially since many of the roles seem to be very gear based, so it feels silly to not allow any crossover.

In the end, the hacking did feel balanced, which is important. But it didn't feel awesome, which i guess is what it came down to for me. But I also failed a lot of those checks Netrunner checks, which brings me to my last major gripe.

Rolling a single d10 for checks is fine, but if you critically fail on a 1, which is 10% of the time, that is lame. I don't mind using a d10 for checks but without some kind of way to mitigate 1's it makes things brutal, not in a fun or challenging way. I feel like if I was going to play again, I would need the crit fails to just be gone altogether.

Overall, I did enjoy Cyberpunk Red! I think it's a bit hard to dig into for a oneshot, but we managed just fine. If you really wanted to get a feel for it though, I'd recommend you play a 3-5 session arc. This game is definitely worth your time!

I'm also curious about going back to previous iterations to see how it's changed over time.

So, fun fact time, Cyberpunk Red was published in 2020, 30 years after Cyberpunk 2020 was originally published which is goes hand in hand with every scifi media that has predicted a date in the "far future" that we have now reached (and passed!).

See you in 2045 for the 5th edition of Cyberpunk I suppose!

[lord-rosenth0rne]

Went into FNAF with low expectations and I'm glad I did. Any movie that looks THAT GOOD with legendary puppeteers creating characters that seem to have just been pulled directly from the games will have some huge drawback to it and that was the writing.

Also, when I hear "it's for the fans" coming from Hollywood of all places, I know something's up. Something got Disney-fied in order to have it appeal to a larger crowd that may water down the content.

The actors were great, LOVED Matthew Lillard and his Scream reference, the atmosphere is creepy when it needs to be and the animatronics were just perfect. The cameos and easter eggs made it so nice.

The storytelling sucks. BAD. Bad to the point that I'm going to have to sit down with my mother later after she watches it and SHOW her (because the movie has a problem with telling, not showing) what her granddaughter, my niece is actually in love with that the movie skips out on, that being the horror itself. This is a HORROR franchise and it's gotten soft over its continuation.

The script should have been given to someone who was a fan of the series, particularly the first three games (can't say the books as they seem to have their own premise), AND a horror movie buff. The movie forgets it's a horror movie and doesn't seem to know what it wants to be.

There are a lot of key pieces I would have changed to make it enjoyable for newcomers while simultaneously being for the fans:

-Make this a series and not a movie. Mike should be in jail by the end of the movie with all the stuff they glossed over. Cop gets gravely injured and he and his sister are the only witnesses? With Afton "dead" and locked away, who else could have done it? The woman he's in a custody battle with is lying dead on his floor AND he has a history of violence and drug use? Yeah. No. This needed more time to deal with its issues or be rewritten entirely which I am all for.

-Garrett's disappearance needed to have a DIRECT line to the pizzeria instead of happening in the middle of BFE Nebraska.

-Nix the dream crap. Mike should have been killed the first time he ever fell asleep in that place. Next security guard, please. Though, I will say, if he falls asleep or he loses consciousness, they could have Garrett communicate with him to give a couple of clues on what he needs to do next and warn him to stay away from the animatronics.

-Speaking of animatronics, they're vengeful spirits that should go after anything with a pulse. Or at least any adult with a blindness for faces. While I can excuse how they acted around Abby, I can't excuse it around Mike or Vanessa. They should get the same treatment the idiots who broke into the place did regardless of who they are.

-Utilize the cameras more to keep an air of mystery and horror going. Maybe have Mike chase some kid through the place like Max did only to go look back at the cameras to see that he wasn't chasing anything or if he sees a kid on the cameras, he goes to find them only to find the respective animatronic standing there instead. Lean harder into the paranormal aspect.

-Have Afton's motives actually explained. WHY was he doing this? What was his end goal of killing kids and putting them in suits? Yeah, it can be a simple answer, but not one given in the movie. Also, have him more involved in the plot. Have him physically haunting the place as Springtrap. Having Mike ask him "Why" and him answering "Why not?" would be fucked up as hell and mirror real-life child kidnappings/murders. Grieving families do ask the killers of their loved ones "Why?"

-Nix Vanessa. OG fans remember when we had to piece things together through visuals. Not exposition. Mike should find out about the other disappearances through articles and such, even Garrett's disappearance which he could be trying to solve, and stumbled upon a golden opportunity when he found a Craigslist ad for a Night Guard for the very place his brother went missing. Besides, Vanessa has her own lore that wouldn't be in play until later additions to the franchise. Nothing like finding out the body of a dead child is hiding in one of the animatronics by "injuring" the animatronic to keep up the horror aspect.

-I would have kept the family angle with Mike knowing Afton was his father, he just used "Mike Schmit" to get a job at the place his father is protective over to investigate instead of "Michael Afton", given how common "Schmit" is. Afton himself probably wouldn't recognize him unless face to face.

-Bring in Henry Emily. Give a red herring that maybe HE'S the one behind all of it. Have him investigate at the same time Mike is and neither trust each other with that information, causing them to suspect one another.

You see, this movie would have been ten times better if they used what was already there instead of using an entirely different story with the same characters. They could have used old cliches and made them work.

[bananathebookworm]

TLOVM Season 2 Eps 7-9 Ramblings

EP. 7

- I love the Feywild design so much. In general, the distinct designs of each location in this show are amazing, but I really enjoy how well they convey the Fewwild’s unique atmosphere.

- Percy’s such a fucking dork oh my god...

- Oh good. The sword’s corruption is visible to the others now.

- Grog trying to keep the sword sounding a little like Travis’ own frustrations bleeding through. I know he hated not being able to use Kraven Edge to its full potential in game.

- I do not like these jumpscares I have anxiety fuck off

- Garmelie! 

- Scrawny Grog!

- Vax’s anger at Percy... understandable why he feels that way, but I don’t know that I like it. 

- I love hearing more of the cast singing this season. Also turning “Makin’ My Way” into a new song... fucking phenomenal. I need the album for all of the music this season with full versions of everything.

- Also appreciating Scanlan the caregiver. I remember Sam/Scanlan always made a point to make sure everyone else was healed before accepting any himself.

- Garmelie fucking with Percy is my favourite thing.

- Feywild acid trip... I don’t know if this is amazing or terrifying.

- These fights are so fun. I love seeing their more creative battle tactics come to life.

- Percy letting Vax know he has his back even if Vax wants nothing to do with Percy... 

- I also love seeing these villain conversations that we never got to see in the campaign.

- Scrawny Grog is reminding me of Fjord losing his powers and Travis’ struggle feeling useless in the fights they had before he got them back. 

- Syngorn! Time for more Twins backstory.

- Wait, that’s the end of the episode already? Fuck these are too short.

EP. 8 

- Again loving the designs of this place.

- Velora! She’s so cute!

- Ugh. Syldor. Fuck off. Stay on the cute sibling bonding.

- Wilhand! Let’s stay with the Trickfoots for a bit.

- Can we throw Syldor out that window behind him. I hate him so much. (Kudos to Liam, Laura, Matt, and Troy for creating and bringing this character to life in all his despicableness.)

- Was not expecting to see Scanlan shoving something up Grog’s ass... but here we are...

- Percy telling off Syldor and standing up for Vex. And Vex telling him off immediately after.

- “What does fuck you mean?” I wish they had kept the entire sequence of Velora picking up phrases from Scanlan.

- The lighting in this series is so well done.

- I hate watching villains exploit a characters’ insecurities... poor Vex.

- “I can fix you.” SHE’S NOT BROKEN FUCK OFF.

- “My heart is someone else’s.” HELL YES.

- I love fire elemental Keyleth. And also just Keyleth.

- “The Fey Realm is definitely better in the books.” Okay nerd.

- ARTIE REVEAL! Also love that Matt is voicing him. I couldn’t imagine anyone else doing it. 

- “He killed me with them.” Grog backstory next! 

EP. 9

- Boulder, parchment, shears! I love how many inside jokes they work into the show while still making them make sense.

- Scanlan’s red beret! I love the little hat on the little dragonfly.

- Kaylie!

- Grog’s backstory is another reminder of the stark difference between hearing the backstories on stream and actually seeing them brought to life.

- Dark-haired Pike! I wonder if they’re ever going to explain that change now that they’ve shown it.

- “No one wants your damn autograph!” followed by an immediate zoom out to Dr. Dranzel tucking a piece of paper into his jacket. Brilliant.

- Also changing Scanlan’s story a bit so that he was never a part of Dr. Dranzel’s group, but Kaylie is.

- Oh good. Ripley and Umbrasyl are here. This is good. Everything’s great.

- Once again the dragon designs this season are terrifying

- Kevdak’s death is going to be the most satisfying one this season holy fuck.

- I love that Pike pluralizes “Buddies” every time.

- The Tabaxi mother with her baby... my heart...

- Ending on Grog screaming Kevdak’s name. Ugh. Chills. This fight is one of my favourites

-----

GENERAL

- I can’t believe there are only three episodes left and they haven’t taken down a single dragon yet. And yet so. much. has happened.

- Also can’t help but wonder how the two groups are going to reconnect. One of my favourite parts of the Kevdak fight is the use of the locket and Vex isn’t with Grog right now. There’s also a key Scanlan and Vax conversation after this fight that I hope they kept, but could easily be moved to a different time.

- I like the idea of splitting the party for these episodes. I didn’t think I would, but it really helped to get some important parts of the story told concurrently and concisely instead of spread out over the entire season. 

[ilovescaredysquirrel2]

Family movie recommendations but hey have LGBT in them

I might as well make this post before I forget, and even though I'm straight, I still support LGBT. I just ended up falling in love with a man, but that doesn't take away the fact that I will support anyone who gay, lesbian, bi, ect... Just love who you want to love. I'm also a Christian and I know that people think Christians don't support LGBT but a lot of us do, we believe that Jesus wants us to support everyone and love everyone, and not hate them for a stupid decision. As a straight person, you might think I might not be the bets person to pick out nice LGBT family movies and maybe I'm not, but I am an expert when it comes to underrated family and kids movies. My best friend is bi and she has most of the same feelings about these movies as I do. When Disney tries to be "inclusive" and supportive, they either sneak a gay kiss in the background, or make a big deal out of it. Got news for ya, none of these movies on the lists are Disney!

Early Man (It looks like the villain has a boyfriend. Dino is his assistant, while he has another man named Stefano, come and rub his back while he's in the bathtub. There's a gay kiss scene with two cavemen in the background after they win the soccer game and there's also a gay kiss scene with Dug and Hognob, but Hognob's a pig.)

One Stormy Night (Okay, I don't think Mei and Gabu are gay, but Zack and Beach probably are. The author of the books didn't flat out confirm this, but he doesn't care if people used their imagination and made any of the characters gay. I feel like Zack & Beach are either gay, or just really close friends. They're not confirmed to be though)

Duck Duck Goose (The two cranes are actually confirmed to be gay. Though they maybe minor characters, they're adorable and funny. Duck Duck Goose is also an unforgettable movie with great characters. The story focuses more on family and a goose learning to make the right decision and help ducklings, so anyone can enjoy it)

These next ones are technically SHOWS, NOT MOVIES!

George and Martha (It's a cartoon that focuses on two hippos, a guy and girl, but they have two male alligator friends who are confirmed to be gay... and this was a 90s cartoon! This is the oldest one on the list, it's like from '97 or something. And before you go on judging it for being a 90s cartoon, it's not like Rockos modern life or PPG, it's way more kidlike than those. It's not filled with a ton of dirty jokes or anything. The two alligators are named Oscar and Wild and the have a puppy who George and Martha babysit, in an episode, and both alligators refer to themselves as "Daddy" to the puppy, meaning that they're both fathers to the puppy. Pretty woke for a 90s cartoon, eh? The show was based off a book series and no one ever heard of it because it aired on the Qubo channel and even though I had cable, I was one of those lucky ducks who got to watch Qubo.) I'm an American btw, idk if people outside of the U.S heard if it either

ToddWorld (Okay, yeah, they showed gay lions in the background but it's still a little bit of representation and it's explained to little kids in a nice way so that they can learn to accept it later on. I mean, it's not explained in a way that they won't understand. I also heard they mention it in the books saying "Some families have two mommies or two daddies" or something, but I never read the book, I just heard someone on Instagram mention it).

Even if you're not in the LGBT community, these are still amazing movies! You can still watch them. Again, I am NOT apart of the LGBT community, but I still support it. If you ever heard of any of these movies or shows, tell me about how you feel about them. Which ones surprised you the most, probably the 90s one, huh? It surprised me too. If you give these a try, tell me what you think

[roxy206]

Artificial Phallus Safety In The Shower & Beyond — 03/21/2023

watch here | listen here

Stopppp these coordinated outfits

Old maiden type of adaptations?

What is that about? It’s about racism. It’s just racism

Racists are stupid. You can’t be racist without a good healthy dose of just plain old fashioned stupidity

When the villains hate racism you should look inward

Omg Katya leading up to make a recommendation to Trixie. But like, she so knows how to pitch this to her & I love that so much

I think you will gobble it up like a turkey dinner you fucking bitch

Katya trying to get Trixie to make this book Rec her top priority 😭

It’s probably going to be made into a tv series & then we can complain about how it’s different than the book

Mary, you have got to read this book — Trixie for the love of god please read the book for Katya

I love it, but you’re yelling at me because I found something I like that you’re not a part of & now you’re like, well what about me?

The Hunger Games reference pleaaase. We truly are in a Hunger Games renaissance

We were overdue really for a Dune mention

👀 I’m just going to leave that there & if you know me you’ll know why

That’s the whole story

I think it’s about you being a hospitable presence in a new cohabitation scenario

I look great today though I was just going to say you haven’t complimented me on my outfit, hair, or makeup Yep. I sure didn’t Oh we have fun

What are you doing in a couple weeks?

Episode eight. Two days — she’s so real for that

I LOVE when the two of them talk about media

You wanna burn up this pussy?

Petition for these two to actually consume the media they recommend to each other & then talk about it. You know once they go back to weekly pods they’re going to start saying again how they don’t have anything to talk about because they see each other all the time for work. Like honestly I would like them to do their own out of drag version of ILTW but I’ll take the recap convo version on the pod 100%

I’m trying to watch more things

😭 it’s the way it’s SO clear Katya wants to talk to Trixie in depth about these shows / books / etc

Anything else you hate about my drag today? Anything else you’ve been harboring?

Can I just say how much I love when we’re getting the pod, ILTW, & UNHhhh all at the same time? It feels correct

What even is this ad for 😂😂😂

And the fact that they decided to record that ad together?

Shut up

✨ Psychic ✨ Was that psychic or was that just talking?

The leg touch though

The leg caress thoughhh

CADET KELLY omg

I forgot what I was gonna say Thank god

When you can’t even understand Katya through her wheeze laugh 😂😂😂

🥺 Katya rewatching Weather

I’m laughing so hard I’m about to cry at Trixie’s reaction to Katya blurting out I stuck a huge dildo up my ass oh my god

Are you sure you’re not rinsing yourself off in a fish tank?

What if it goes like this: I’m tired, can we stop? And I say, yes, let’s go to bed — together. And have sex — they are such assholes

I’m just trying to stay prepared

I honestly don’t know if I could explain to someone why I love these two so much but the girls who get it get it

[ghosts-and-blue-sweaters]

In regards to the seven sentence tag game:

Let's see if I can manage this without going off into the entire plot of Gears of War and a comprehensive guide to the history, science, culture, society, and economic structure of the world of Sera. Or worse, start ranting about the themes of the story. 😅

So within the world of Gears there's a superweapon called the Hammer of Dawn. It's made up of a network of satellites that can rain down firey hell in concentrated bursts. It's a constant presence within the games, books, and comics and helps showcase the gray areas of humanity in a horrific but necessary way. Basically, big scary laser weapon from space. Not to be used lightly.

One of the bigger plot devices in Gears of War 5 is that they're trying to get the HoD back online. Most of the satellites have been lost, destroyed, or knocked offline and unreachable after the near apocalypse the world of Sera endured. The first mission in the game is to find and launch a working satellite. Unfortunately, one satellite is difficult to aim and doesn't cover a large surface area of the planet. One of the next missions you play is an evacuation of a COG settlement. Obviously things go wrong, things are looking bad and my poor sweet darling JD (James) fueled by guilt, pride, and fear decides to use himself as a targeting beacon for the HoD. It works until the satellite goes haywire and Baird no longer has control over it. And then everything goes to ratshit. JD gets hit with a blast that basically cooks him. He ends up severely wounded and in a coma for a while.

Now that you've got some knowledge to go off of this piece is a little bit of introspection on the relationship between JD and his father, Marcus. I'm kind of going for a "these are the times he remembers holding his son" thing. The first being only a few hours after JD is born. The next time being on JD's sixth birthday, only a short time before his mother's death, an event that drives a huge wedge between Marcus and JD. And the last being this moment when he has to drag his dying child to CASEVAC. I'm wanting to explore Marcus's guilt in not being there for his son and how he feels powerless as his little boy lies dying at his feet. One of Marcus's biggest issues throughout the entire series is his messiah complex. He believes it's his job to shoulder pain and suffering for everyone else. For him to be unable to do that for his own son has to feel like a major failure on his part. We don't really get a whole lot of this from Marcus's point of view within the game or the accompanying book. That's all mostly explored from Kait's perspective which is important and great, but poisonous relationships between parent and child are very important to me and I like to explore them in all their multifaceted detail.

So what did JD do? He lied. He put people that depended on him in danger. And he knowingly killed innocents. Eventually, his hubris caught up with him. And now his father has to face his own as they race for the chance to save JD's dwindling life.

And oops I rambled in your ask box. 🤦 Sorry.

Let's see if I can manage this without going off into the entire plot of Gears of War and a comprehensive guide to the history, science, culture, society, and economic structure of the world of Sera. Or worse, start ranting about the themes of the story. 😅

Me when I try to explain Ghostbur or Wilbur or Tommy or anything related to Dream SMP to someone who’s not in the fandom XD I usually end up going into a whole lotta detail lol—probably much more detail than is truly needed.

But it’s fun, so :D

Big scary laser weapon from space, gotcha!

NOOOOOOO JD *carefully covers him with a soft blanket and pats his head*

Ough… oh Deathy. One of my favorite things to read about is complicated relationships between family members. Oh gosh. Oh this fic sounds amazing oh my goodness. OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!

YEAHHHHHH FATHER-SON RELATIONSHIPS THAT ARE MESSY YES YES!!! I LOVE!!! OH MY GOSH YES!!!

You absolutely don’t have to apologize, my friend! Reading rambles is one of my favorite things to do :D And this story sounds sooooo good oh my gosh-

Now I’m curious: what do JD and Marcus act like? What are their personalities? Now that I know the backstory I’m very curious about other aspects of them :0

[kolbisneat]

MONTHLY MEDIA: December 2022

And so another year draws to a close. It was surely a strange one and I have this weird feeling that 2023 is going to be a good one? Just a hunch. Anywhere here’s all the art I experienced this month.

……….FILM……….

House (1977) I knew it was gonna be dreamlike and indescribably weird but I was still consistently surprised. Fun and sad and beautiful and again...weird. We watched the interviews included with the Criterion Collection DVD and it added so much. I never would’ve known “Mac” was short for “Stomach”! Just bursting with ideas and I saw someone describe it as a cinematic I Spy and that really resonated. Lots of details that are easily missed so I’ll definitely be watching this again.

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022) Incredible. Everything I wanted (and didn’t know I wanted) out of a Weird Al biopic. I wasn’t expecting so much of the humor to land for me and if you at any point enjoyed a Weird Al song I think you’ll dig this movie.

Mean Girls (2004) A really great watch, even to this day. Aged better than a lot of teen comedies, though I did find the soundtrack distracting this time? Were teen movie soundtracks always so...shoehorned? Oh well you still can’t beat such classics as “That’s why her hair is so big, it’s full of secrets”, “You go, Glen Coco”, and “get in loser we’re going shopping.” 

Gremlins (1984) An annual holiday tradition and one that really gets me in the Christmas spirit. It’s something about those carolling creatures and them all singing along to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves that does it for me.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) Another annual tradition and the artistry in the Rankin/Bass specials hold up so well.

The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974) Having never seen this before, I was interested in watching a Rankin/Bass film without the lenses of nostalgia. Surprisingly dark in a lot of the story, but just as weird and charming as the other productions.

……….TELEVISION……….

Andor (Episode 1.01 to 1.01) Season 2 of The Mandalorian was probably the last Star Wars media I’d watched and wasn’t planning on checking this out...until everything I heard was raving about it. You know what? It’s worth checking out. Really great character-driven television that has something to say! I really hope Andor season 2 doesn’t fall into the same trap as The Mandalorian.

Cybergunk (Caleb Gamman, Youtube) Okay I don’t normally include stuff I watch on YouTube but this series made me realize I should! I’ve been burning through Gamman’s catalog but his Cybergunk series is really resonating with me. It feels like it’s explaining the technological stall we’re experiencing right now in a concise and entertaining way. Watch it here.

……….READING……….

The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale (Complete) An interesting, and depressing, read. Though to be clear, it’s not a hopeless read. I really appreciated each chapter ending with researched suggestions for reform. It really does make the case that most problems that the US polices are made worse by policing. Maybe some of them wouldn’t even be problems if they weren’t policed? As a non-US reader it definitely acted as a cautionary tale and with that in mind, I wholly recommend.

Alice: Through the Needle’s Eye by Gilbert Adair (Complete) Books that build off of Carroll’s work is often hit or miss for me. The trend seems to be dark, brooding, and skewing towards YA. Nothing wrong with that but that doesn’t click with me. This. This clicks with me. It’s a spiritual successor to the first two stories in the tone, plotting, and style. You want whimsical poems and wordplay? You got it. You want nonsensical characters? There’s a full cast here. Anyway, big fan.

Spider-Man: Blue by Jeph Loeb and Time Sale (Complete) It just feels right to read this in the winter, you know? All the snowy skyscraper scenes and Peter getting sick from the cold. Classic stuff. 

……….AUDIO……….

I’m Your Empress Of by Empress Of (2022) Just started listening to this but really digging it so far!

……….GAMING……….

Oz: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting (Andrews McMeel Publishing) The holidays meant we only played a handful of times but it was a great couple of sessions! The broke into a castle, stole a book, discovered strange rock creatures have infested the Munchkin District’s capital, and more!

Neverland: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting (Andrews McMeel Publishing) The Mof1 group is spinning a lot of plates at the moment. They’re hunting newts so that they can enter a cave and return an eye to stop a terrible evil from being released. Super fun!

And that’s it. See you in January!

[sixohsixoheightfourtwo]

watchlist tag game!

tagged by @telomeke !

got a bit long so behind the cut

Currently watching -

A Boss and a Babe (Thailand 2023 / GMMTV) - watching this weekly. ok . LISTEN. I said some stuff in the tags of my first reblog about this series, when i had only seen the trailer, basically that it looked like they absolutely nailed what they were going for in terms of the tone, the dynamic, the chemistry, that it might be a bit silly but it looked GOOD. and . i stand by this!

I know there are people who aren't enjoying it... there always are. There are also people who have beef with Force & Book's previous series who are carrying that prejudice into this show. (imo enchante's biggest crime was that filter they used. everyone looking weirdly smooth. freaky tbh.) (also the last 2 eps were basically unnecessary but let's not get into it.) I feel like I saw a lot of people esp. at the beginning making excuses for watching ABAAB - saying well of course it's not good it's not doing anything new, someone even saying 'it's so bad it's good' - which baffles me lol. SO not how I feel about it! it's good! if you like it just accept it; if it's not for you it's not for you.

any way . Force + Book have really nice chemistry, great at showing the characters' comfort / ease / gentle loving care for each other without a lot of fireworks or histrionics. And tbh not a lot of like - tension even! they're too comfortable for there to be tension! eg. the scene where Cher helps Gun unbutton his shirt and they both go very quiet about it. & the scene where Gun accidentally crashes cher's livestream and he's not even really mad about it. It feels kind of like My School President in the tone it's going for, in that it's a bit silly and light but there is some substance beneath it and it can be cute but actually not overly NICE. And it feels like it's progressing towards a more natural idea of how a relationship develops than certain older bl which can be a bit all or nothing (eg. i JUST watched tonhon chonlatee .. scream) And this is surely gmmtv's first office bl since Sotus S which was five years ago? w/ever I feel like this series is maybe a bigger deal than it looks. Also it's a perfect non stressful weekly watch. (really feel like i almost DIED watching NLMG week to week.) check back in with me in uhh six weeks or whenever it's done.

Our Dating Sim (South Korea 2023 / Viki) - watching bc people on my dash were really into it. I'm two eps in and it's well done but it's not making me CRAZY the way I always want to be made crazy. I do love the k-bl short series format and the k-bl style of storytelling often gets to me quite intensely so I'm hopeful.

Bokura no Shokutaku/ Our Dining Table (Japan 2023) - one ep in. made me crave onigiri soso bad. I haven't read the original manga so I am watching fresh, no expectations. the first ep was totally delightful.

SUCCESSION - watching it weekly with one of my siblings . if u follow me u will know I am deeply into it & even a little weird about it & have been since november 2020. hashtag tomgreg rights hashtag kenstewy rights hashtag tomshiv rights. here's my hot take: in some ways i think the most recent ep was BETTER than the previous one.

Riverdale - watching it weekly ... admittedly usually while doing something else eg cooking. Listen. Riverdale is.. not explainable in any sensible way. If you know you know. Many things about it are stupid and unbearable but its derangement is unparalleled and i appreciate that. Almost no one is a full 3-d character it's like watching puppets.

How To with John Wilson - I absolutely love this series, it's on iPlayer in the UK but I think it's originally HBO. ep 1.6 How To Make Risotto actually haunts me. framed as a series of tutorials, it veers and goes off on tangents, in form it's kind of like visual essays edited together from .. fairly random footage shot on the streets of New York. with a lot of visual gags.

Looking forward to watching soon -

Our Skyy 2 ... truly .... I am going to be so insufferable for the next eight weeks. I'm planning to watch all of it - the only series I haven't watched is Star In My Mind. i WAS most anticipating the ATOTS episodes because i just want to see phupha + tian again. But NLMG and Eclipse and MSP look like they're doing some absolutely wild & funky things so yeah i am excited for all of it.

Only Friends - I think they've just started work on it right? but yeah. looking forward to getting a little unhinged about this.

The Eighth Sense - tbh I think i'm going to wait for it to finish before I watch it. I need some of the discourse to die down a bit so I can go in with the right frame of mind.

Still deciding if I’m gonna watch

Probably most of the upcoming GMMTV series I'll at least try but generally I like to read a few reactions before going in.

tagging @phneltwrites @brofisting @missionlameturtle @hexenmeisterer

[ambraambrose]

A surprisingly enjoyable Halloween

Series: Open Heart

Pairing: Ethan Ramsey x F!MC (Casey Valentine)

Raiting: fluff (maybe a few swear words)

Author’s notes: I tried not to spoil anything of Game of Thrones.

The mention of Casey’s scar will be explained in another story I’m working on.

All characters belong to pixelberry and George R. R. Martin

Dedication: I want to dedicate this fic to @crazy-loca-blog

Ethan sighed when he left the hospital. This awful day was almost over. It was Halloween,  Ethan hated Halloween and all the hype about it. Some other doctors and nurses appeared to work in costume. Ethan would never done this, he hated costumes anyway and thought it would be also unprofessional. He hadn't anything against it when someone at work wore a costume, especially the nurses who had such a hard job, most of the time they had to take all the blame for the anger and frustration of doctors or patients and got a shit of money for this. On Halloween they usually felt happier in their costumes and because of that Ethan wouldn’t have said anything against this ever. but he was annoyed that some of his colleagues tried to force him to join them and didn't let him of when he kindly refused. He knew Donahue's would be full of drunk people in costumes but he needed his scotch at Reggie’s bar to clear his head after that awful workday.

A few minutes later he sat at his usual spot at the bar, Scotch in hand eyebrows knitted in concentration while he was surrounded by Clowns, Ghosts, Nuns, Superheroes and animals. He should ask Reggie to forbid costumes next year. while this idea was attached him more and more he heard an now too familiar voice. "Hey Dr. Ramsey. Are you weighing up if you get Reggie to ban all this weirdos?", she asked smiling. "Rookie, how do you get the idea i would do such a thing?" She just raised an eyebrow and both laughed.

Ethan drank her appearance in watching her costume very close up and down rubbing his index finger over his chin. "And who are you tonight?" "I am Daenerys of the House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, The Unburnt, Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Queen of Meereen, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Protector of the Realm, Lady Regent of the Seven Kingdoms, Breaker of Chains and Mother of Dragons." With raised eyebrows and open mouth Ethan looked confused at her. She looked to the floor and bit her bottom lip a little bit ashamed her hands folded behind her lower back. "I guess you don't know the book series "a song of ice and fire" or TV Show "Game of Thrones" that's based on the books." "You're absolutely right." Somehow he wanted to take her embarrassment away and he didn't want to let her go he only wanted to keep her here with him as long as possible. Although she was pure beauty to him the way she looks he adored her in this costume cause she looked so damn cute and sexy, a wig of long blond locks with some parts in braids, a brown leather crop top showing her beautiful stomach where her skin looked as soft as all of her. He recognized a scar on the left side of her ribcage what brought a sudden concern to him. What happened to her? He wanted to know really badly but would never ask her about it, not yet. He tried to focus on her in her costume in front of him. The matching leather skirt over a pair of riding pants really made her look like a warrior queen, his little warrior queen he allowed himself the thought. Completed was the outfit by three toy dragons, a black/red colored one on her left shoulder, a green one on her right upper arm and a white one on her left wrist. "Alright i don...", she started wanting to return to her friends cause she thought she would annoy him. Ethan realized she was about to leave and suddenly he felt a strong wish to get to know what Game of Thrones is about. "Hey Rookie, what is it about?" surprised and confused she asked, "what is what about?" "This ice and fire stuff." "You really want to know?" "Yes!" "Well this will take a while." in answer he gave Reggie a sign to bring both of them new drinks. With a shy smile she settled herself on the seat next to him and started to tell him the whole story. They were turned to each other, Ethan leaned his chin and cheek on his hand and listened attentive to her. The way she told him the story, also explaining the differences between books and TV series was intoxicating to him he could listen to her all night long. By the time she finished she looked up at him with relieved sigh and he smiled at her. "Sounds really complicated and similar to the hospital life", he said to show her how interested he was in what she told him. “And this Daenerys is your favorite character?” Her eyes lightened up in excitement when she answered: “It is hard to chose one favorite, but she is definitely one of them.” He smiled: “I understand. Well, I like this Tyrion-guy.” She laughed at that. “Why doesn’t that surprise me.” They looked at each other, both searched for a reason to spend more time together. “So…”, Ethan started. “I bet I can guess who your friends are dressed like.” Only the look on her face was enough reward only for his idea itself. “Okay, I’m game. What are the conditions?” “If I win I can ask you one question.” “What question?” “One that helps me on my observation of the mysterious Casey Valentine “, okay he had definitely too much alcohol otherwise he would never acted so inappropriate. But she smiled. “Fine. But if I win… you’ll come with us to the next bar for more costume-weirdos and Halloween-karaoke-night.” Hell no, he had to win this bet. “Ha, you’re going to lose, Rookie.” He felt so carefree when he was with Casey. “We’ll see.”

He started, leaning unintentional closer to her: “Okay, Dr. Greene is this bastard, Jon Winter or was it snow?” “’Snow’ and this is correct.” He continued with a smile.  “Dr. Trinh is his little sister, the revenge-girl.” Casey nodded. Euphoric he went on: “Dr. Olsen is this evil kid king. Is Lahela the mother of this evil kid? Cers… Cars…” “Cersei, correct and correct.” “Okay and Dr. Varma is the nun who enjoys to punish Cersei. And the paramedic is the horse king and your husband.” He couldn’t help but feel a little ache in his heart. Did this mean, they were a couple? He tried to focus on the moment and Casey seemed to want to explain. “Yes, Bryce thought Khal Drogo was perfect for Raf. And you got all correct, I’m impressed.” She smiled lovely at him and he couldn’t help but return her smile. He must look like a goof and he hoped she wouldn’t notice how whipped he was by her presence. “Thank you, Rookie. So did Lahela chose who wears which costume?” “No, we all did for someone else, but I guess Elijah and I weren’t really fair because we did each other a favor with our choices for each other.” She looked on the floor while saying this but when she looked up again, she had an even lovelier smile on her beautiful face. And of course it was a relief for Ethan that she and the paramedic didn’t decide to do a couple-costume-thing. “So do you want to cash your prize now?” In the moment he opened his mouth again to say something someone shouted for her. It was Dr. Varma: "Case, we have to go!" "Coming!" was there a hint of disappointment in her eyes? Was she eventually enjoying his company as much as he enjoyed hers? "So that's my cue, we are heading to the bar you saved yourself from visiting." Both smiled at this private joke. She pursed her lips, considering something. “I know you won but of course you could still join us, it will be fun." was there a little bit of hope in her gaze? Did she want him to come? Wait did he want to go with them? He wanted to go with them just to spend more time with her but he didn't want to risk to be longer and closer in her company, he was too afraid someone would realize how enchanted he was by her and even if this goddamn evening was more fun than he ever could imagine, he still hated Halloween. "Thanks Rookie, really but i should head home and as much fun this Halloween-night surprisingly was i better not push my luck too much." "That's a pity but i totally understand. Good night Dr. Ramsey." "Good night Rookie, see you on Monday." “Oh and think about a good question you want to ask me.” She winked at him.

Ethan watched her and her friends go and when they were out the door he heard someone clear his throat he turned his gaze back to the counter. Reggie slid a book to Ethan and nodded knowing. It was the first part of "a song of ice and fire". A faint smile crossed his lips and with an rueful look he thanked Reggie.

Monday morning Casey was standing at the nurse station signing files when Ethan appeared, "hello Dr. Valentine would you please order these test results for a patient?" "Of course, i go get them immediately", she said with a smile. "Thank you,…  Khaleesi", Ethan said smiling mischievous at her stunned and surprised expression. She finally smiled shaking her head.

Author’s notes, part 2: Raf chose Landry’s costume as Joffrey. A nod to chapter 16(?) of book 1, where he tells Casey that he never trusted him. I also considered Littlefinger but I thought he was to clever for Landry.

Thanks for reading, i hope you enjoyed it.

@openheartfanfics @choicesficwriterscreations

Here are some really bad pictures of the characters in their costumes (i have only the free versions of some photo-apps so i was not able to make the skin of the faces the same color of the rest of the bodies). But i hope they'll make you laugh. I had to visualize especially Bryce and Jackie (and of course Bryce wears nothing than a nude thong under his dress)!

[worldwright]

Good evening !

We have snow here today ! I hate that thing with passion, it's too white for my poor poor eyes ;-; speaking of my eyes, I need to change my glasses asap, it'd help a bit with my hellish headaches

Gonna make some tea after writing today's ask, I've been running on it every winter since I moved to where I live now, because it's way too cold for someone from the sea like me (not that I want to get back to the places I used to live in, too many tourists)

I went to a bookshop today, to retrieve a book my friend ordered last week, and the cashier said how she loved the pins' on my jacket. Normally, I get people saying that about my pokeball-themed wallet. So it's been hours I'm wondering which pins' she liked. Was it the One Piece one ? My JJK ones ? My Pokémon ones ? Or my Trigun one ???? I wished she'd told me, but alas she didn't say anything more than a "have a great afternoon"

I started an anime someone recommended to me before it got an adaptation, and sometimes a slice of life's nice (especially after JJk s2). Mr. Villain’s Day Off is like, idk how to explain other than fucking perfect after the fuck that happened in JJK

Have a wonderful morning my friend !

good morning!!

yay teas!! I actually just got myself a plain white tea and a plain green tea, as bases for the blending ingredients that my friend got me :3 actually, I can't remember if I showed you that????? look they're so pretty

and a batch of tea I made with them!!

ugh I wish I could show you my favorite tea shop, they just have so many fun things!! they have series of tea blends themed after books and games and shows, a set for all the zodiac signs, ones for Greek gods, I REALLY want to try the ghibli set but I don't have SPACE

the green tea i got is named "gunpowder" LMFAO (it's rolled up into really little particles like gunpowder, and it has a slightly metallic flavor lmao)

lol yeah whenever someone comments on the pins on my bag I'm like TELL MEEEE WHAT COMMON INTEREST WE HAVE PLEASE

I finally filled out a tattoo application form!!!! waitlists are long around here, but now im waiting on someone else instead of my damn self!!!

I think watching shows as they air is a great strategy, I'm so excited for Tuesday and also Wednesday and also Thursday lmfao. and also Saturday but not as much (im keeping my expectations low for that show lol)

hope you have delicious tea and a lovely evening!!

[fruitsofhell]

My dedicated take on FNAF as a series, is that if you only count the main games from 1 to UCN, you have an absolutely batshit insane and incoherent but satisfying enough story for the series. From that you get the story of William Afton and his wacky murder spree that blows up in his and his family's face, Henry the good-natured business partner and bystander to the chaos, and the legacy of the Freddy's franchise permanently haunted by its inability to let go of greed in the face of tragedy.

Even though I think the series long ago wrote itself into oblivion with a lack of direction or substance to its nightmare of a story, there is one core theme to it that I think is executed very well - that being to leave the demons to their demons and let sleeping dogs lie. Which is so ironic for this series it's almost a Shakespearan, but I digress.

I feel like I rarely see the anti-buisness aspect of the series talked about, which is like it's most strongly written feature both comedically and thematically. The games fucking loathe whoever the hell is ever running the locations at any point in time, with jokes about non-chalant health and safety violations and lackadaisical regard for the rights and lives of others. Which ends up paralleling Afton himself if he's not straight up running the joint. Afton and the In-Universe franchise are parallels to eachother, both unable to give up selfish and destructive pursuits in the face of complete backfire and tragedy, and they both come out of it haunted af and haunting eachother. Even though I said fuck everything but the game canon (meaning remnant from the books), I do think the pursuit if immortality is a good motive for Afton just cause it makes it similar to the Fazbear Franchise's constant need to stay relevant no matter what.

This then makes Henry a great foil to both the Franchise and Afton, being just an honest fucking guy who doesn't seem interested in abusing the legacy of his creations nor mf child murder. And Michael as well being like his father physically, but being someone who can tell when he's fucked up and hurt those around him and repent for it. Even going through hell and similar consequences as his father, but still staying on track to redeeming himself. If you squint and ignore a bunch of bullshit and focus on some reoccurring motifs, you can almost slap together a compelling tragedy about a mix of personal and corporate greed suffering supernatural wrath.

The animatronics too only ever seemed to become worse the more I learned about supplementary material. Just stopping at, "most of them are normal and got haunted, and sometimes Afton made wacky terrible monstrosities with haywire AI", is good for me. And it's insane it took till like?? Sister Location for their animosity towards the night guard (Mikey Afton) to be explained, but it works for what I was saying about Mike's character. That he's literally going through twice as much hell as his dad did over a fifth of the sins and holds true through the whole series. I appreciate the interplay between the animatronics as children's mascots and haunted abominations landing on them having a well-meaning but bloodthirsty hatred towards their murderer. And for the toys, it was probably just that their facial recognition software was seeing Mike as William, and they were doing their job to protect the kids perfectly fine lmao.

Even past UCN as the lore and what plot there is continues to be shot full of holes and repaired with scotch tape, that theme of misfortune from greed is atleast still there in Glitchtrap. But then once again, HOW ARE WE WRITING THIS AND YOU HAVENT STOPPED YET?

[fzzr]

Monogatari Read-Along Re-Watch — Suruga Monkey

Previously

Novel

As Monogatari arcs go, Suruga Monkey is relatively straightforward. Every arc in Bakemonogatari (Crab through Cat) is on some level about not being with the people you love, and Suruga Monkey is the first one where that's romantic love. It's too short to have deep-laid foreshadowing, but there is some stuff early on that turns out to have payoff later.

This arc starts with conversations with Mayoi, Suruga, and Hitagi. Here we get to see in close proximity how NISOISIN can maintain a common voice for the series while making the banter of each character distinct. Mayoi has less of an edge of forced hostility now, and her conversation is full of wordplay and deliberate misunderstanding. Suruga plays absurdist games, treating trivial things with exaggerated pomp and the serious as mundane. Her whimsy lets her control the conversation by keeping it off balance. Hitagi's tongue is as sharp as ever, and still somehow affectionate.

The fight with the Rainy Devil was interesting to me, because in Koyomi's internal recollection it has a lot more of him blaming himself than the anime can depict. It weaves the conversation before the fight, explaining how he got there even as he gets various organs damaged. This somehow makes the fight more desperate, as we're in Koyomi's head as he struggles and realized how doomed he is. It also means the specifics of the problem — they need to solve the problem by making the wish impossible to fulfill — is the most present thing in mind when Hitagi shows up and delivers the answer.

Small notes for self later: Koyomi describes Suruga as dunking in her play - this contradicts what I recall from the anime of Suruga Devil. Oshino's reference to the remaining parts of the devil was presumably more of laying the groundwork for some future chapter rather than having it worked out years in advance. Araragi is described as good at math, was this knowing foreshadowing, or just something that got used later as well?

Anime

So far, Suruga is the character who has benefited the most from the adaptation. Her voice actor did a stupendous job, and the editing, sound effects, and music all do great work too. The scene where Koyomi is cleaning up her room depicted as him throwing her books backed by Bakalolite is entirely original imagery to the anime, and it helps set up the friendly rapport between the two of them as a bonus.

One of the jokes I thought had to be anime-original is actually straight from the novels. Koyomi refers to Hitagi as the most difficult character in the dating game, and it cuts immediately to them studying in her house with her saying she thinks someone said something bad about her. The novel does the exact same thing with a chapter boundary, glad they made the timing work in animation too.

Compared to the novel, the big fight is more spectacle. This is probably mostly because intercutting the fight with bits of the previous scene as the novel does would screw up the pacing and choreography. They make the important artistic choice not to make the whole fight take place in shades of red and black. This serves to make the violence feel less gratuitous, as unlike the combat in Kizumonogatari the details aren't that important. The key points that he's losing and Suruga is still trying to kill him along with the Rainy Devil come through very clearly, and Hitagi's arrival still interrupts in a perfectly timed way.

Conclusion

Suruga Monkey is what you might call the "standard" Monogatari arc. Check in/banter with one or two characters, introduce the mystery, banter, incomplete or misleading progress on the mystery, setup for the solution, confrontation, resolution, punchline. There's nothing wrong with that, of course. It's clean and efficient, funny and clever, and does a great job introducing Suruga to the cast. It's not exactly the most subtle arc, but it damn well gets the job done.

[jimmycarterghostland]

The Lorien Legacies book series was at its best when The Rise of Nine came out. The overall bad writing of the series aside, TRO9 was the best book in the series. In retrospect, I know that now.

The Fall of Five was when the LL book series jumped the shark. The out of character moments started there. And Five being a brown-haired BOY instead of the blonde girl that Adam seen in The Fallen Legacies was such a frustrating plot hole. Also, the Mogadorians became quite cliché, cartoon villains starting with TFOF. If I remember correctly, that book is the first one out of the main books where the Mogs actually speak to the hero characters. It made them less scary. Plus, the stuff they did say in that book was cliché. Sigh.

Oh, and the Ella being a fake Number was a terrible plot twist that made no sense. Henri's letter said there was a Ten! This plot twist was so bad. And it added nothing to the series, besides making Ella sad for a few pages.

The Lorien Legacies series post-The Rise of Nine is the equivalent of season 8 of Game of Thrones. Seriously. The later books are noticeably terrible. In The Fate of Ten, Six and Marina even spare a Mogadorian enemy's life(Phiri) and refuse to torture her. Yet Marina was okay with wanting to take out Five's remaining eyeball. Adam of all people, a Mog himself, decided to torture Phiri. Sadly, he didn't kill her either. It made no sense for these people to let Phiri live. She even tried to kill them before that. And in the book previous to TFOT, she tried to kill them as well.

Man, I can't believe I liked these books when I was younger. The LL books give YA a bad name. This is the badly written crap that becomes popular?

The A Song of Ice and Fire books by George RR Martin have spoiled me, and helped showed me what good writing looks like. The LL series has none of that. The prose is bad. The characters' narrations sound the same. When writing multiple POVs, your characters should have distinct voices in their chapters. George RR Martin does a great job of distinguishing different POVs. Like, an Arya chapter won't read like a Cersei chapter. There's different vocabulary and other things that set them apart. For example, you will see the word stupid in Arya's chapters a lot, not just in her dialogue, but in the narration itself as well. The LL series lacks distinct character voices.

I genuinely wish GRRM had written the Lorien Legacies books. I would want them to stay YA, though. But have them be a YA series with amazing writing, not the poorly written crap that us LL fans got.

The LL series is infested with bad writing. It is ruined by plot holes, inconsistencies, out of character moments, characters being uncharacteristically stupid to keep the plot going, things that are never brought up again, such a the Devdan thing, plot twists that make no sense, etc.

Even in The Power of Six, book two, bad writing was present. Like, why did Marina let Adelina fight a Mogadorian by herself when Marina has telekinesis and Adelina doesn't? Someone explain this Mickey Mouse nonsense.

The LL books are terrible, simply put. I want to believe that there are young adult novels out there that have genuinely good writing. Not the kind of bad writing found in badly written YA novels such as Twilight. But with YA books like the LL series being in existence, it makes it difficult to believe that good YA novels exist. YA novels that have amazing writing, the kind you might find in a George RR Martin book.

[ursbearhug]

Imagine being 40 something and needing someone to explain to you how certain experiences are self contained.

Because being serial complainer and professional hater is my favourite past time, I'll do the thing: to comment on something I saw that upset me, whilst never name dropping, just before I go to sleep.

Games can be self contained experiences. I remember similar 'scandal' happening when Elden Ring was just released and people were appalled that after a month or two the interest/buy/play rates have dropped. Of course they did. Players who considered getting the game resolved their interest, players who played the game did everything they wanted and there was nothing else for them to buy. Now, I haven't played Elden Ring myself, but, going off my impeccable gamer's instinct, and common sense, I glean that as with other souls games; you're with nothing else to do after your 3rd play through. I remember my fascination with Nioh; my first play through cheesing all of the bosses (exept Hino Emna and Giant Toad. Fuck these hoes), second when I tonfa my way through and third where I wanted to be a great magician. But what else am I supposed to do after all of that? I've tested all of the weapons, I tackled almost all of the content, I know the game in and out. That's 200something hours and finite things to do. It's impossible to came up with a game with infinite stuff to do. Even games like Minecraft or Terraria, Sims, or whatever have you, where you make your own fun with given tools, are finite. There is only so much to do. And that's fine.

Games are about fun and interactive experience. After the fun ends, it's time for some other media or a break.

So it makes it hard for me to put myself in a mindset of somebody almost 20 years older than me, incapable of grasping such simple concept. Do you grab a book and get upset after you finish it that the story reached it's conclusion? There is only so much paper for one book, there is only so much words somebody could put on a word document. Things start and things end, that's only natural.

As with the release of pokemon S/S, I was of the impression the game was rushed. Which was all but confirmed when it launched with bug list and 'features' list so long, it got it's own post on reddit. Pokemon SwSh, scarlet and violet and probably Arceus could use some extra time in development oven. A lot of games could. Sometimes they release games and the problems become more apparent because of foresight. These days they still have it better because they can fix it with simple patch notes. But sometimes, some problems, are not as readily visable and obvious.

I am a long fan of Tomb Raider series. But even I eventually out grew my fascination period and realised that last releases have close to nothing to do with tomb raiding and that's disappointing. Tomb Raider 2013, while not perfect, made a perfect set up for future games. And they did not deliver. From puzzle solving, platforming exercise, with tomb raiding and big tiddy lidy vignette to a pseudo survival game question mark. Tomb Raider 2013 (survival in Japan). Rise of the Tomb Raider; still not tomb raiding, survival but this time in Sybir. Shadow of the Tomb Raider, still no tomb raiding, survival but in America, ohh uuu so exotic. Might as well rename the trilogy to 'Daddy Issues' Raider: Survival in (throws the dart at the board) random place on the earth.

But these are not thoughts or feelings I had immediately after playing the game. This comes from some amount of time to mull over how I really feel about these. These are also not thoughts of a hater. Beside atrocious optimisation of Rise of the Tomb Raider, I really liked the games. I enjoyed playing them at the face value. But again, with experience or time, come new perspectives. And games, movies, books and all sorts of media deserve a little grace period. I'm sure even medias that do deserve critism (like Antisemitism The Game: Transphobia Crowdfunded or whatever Colleen Hover did), have gotten their somehow graced period only to inevitably flop.

So maybe don't pretend that drop of interest within 2 months of existance of a game is some loud statement. Not everyone has the pleasure of playing games 12 hours daily. Some players have to speed run the content to get the most of it in their busy days. Some will do the stark opposite. Some played and had to drop it. Some play little by little. Some got bored. Some got disappointed. Everyone is quick to judge too. 2 months is not that long. Think of it this way; Aristophanes had more than 2000 years to get better and have nicely established career as a funny man and his comedies are still dog shit.

Anyway, garlic bread and gay sex. Tell your friends you love them and drink your water.