#the theme tune fucking rips too

[fuzzyghost]

Finders Keepers (1983)

[bro-atz]

prelude in e minor

in which: your brain tells you to focus on your education, but your heart tells you to focus on professor choi.

pair: professor!san/afab!reader

word count: 4.7k

content: angst, smut, teacher x student relationship (college level, so it's completely legal mind you), san is a cellist, themes of infidelity, soft and sensual, completely consensual!

rated: R | nsfw — minors do not interact

author's note: ...yes, i know, i write a lot of san angst/smut let's move on... also, i don't recommend listening to the song that inspired the title if you don't wanna cry but if you do, listen to the cello ver

network: @cromernet

taglist: @k-hotchoisan @eyeryis @sinnarols @aaasia111 @sunshineangel-reads @hwallazia @dazzlingstarrs @dutchessskarma @yourlocaljonghoe apply for the permanent taglist here! professor!series: yunho pt. 1, yunho pt. 2, san pt. 1, san pt. 2, yeosang, seonghwa

He seemed too young to be a professor. It could’ve been because he aged beautifully or something along those lines, but he looked too young to be a professor. That was the only logical explanation you could come with as you gazed fondly at the professor you had come to appreciate greatly.

“Good morning, Y/N,” he greeted.

“Good morning, S— I mean Professor Choi,” you caught yourself before you could address him in the professional manner that he hated.

“Still waking up there?” he asked with a chuckle.

“Yeah…”

“That’s alright. I am too.”

He gave you a small smile that made you want to rip your heart out and hand it to him on a silver platter. You had to slap your cheeks to get it together, making the man laugh at your actions— he thought you were trying to wake up, but in reality, you were trying to slap the improper thoughts in your mind.

The thing was Professor Choi San was more than a music teacher— he was an artist. He created beautiful melodies that entranced you. At first, you thought it was the melodies you were falling in love with, but as you paid close attention to him— you had to because how else were you going to learn?— you started to note the little things like the way his well manicured fingers nimbly glided along the strings, the way his hands danced as he drew the bow across, and the way he was so focused on the gorgeous piece of wood between his legs.

Those little things piled on. During your one-on-one lessons with him, you couldn’t help but admire the way a couple strands of his hair would fall over his forehead. You wanted so badly to trace your finger over the constellation of moles on his cheek and neck, and God, you’d do anything to feel his fingers press into you as they explored the exposed parts of your body.

You slapped your face again, startling the man who was busy tuning his cello.

“D-do you need coffee or something, Y/N?” he asked with a look of shock on his face.

“Ah! No, I’m fine. I’m good now,” you declined.

“Alright. Let’s begin.”

The second you laid your eyes on your sheet music, all the dirty thoughts you had swarming your brain about Professor Choi vanished, and you were focused. Your heart may have wanted the professor, but your brain always made you fixate on your degree. Work first, love second.

“Okay, that was a solid run,” he said with a proud beam on his face. “There’s some sections we could clean up… Can you start at the fermata and end at cut time?”

You nodded and did as he asked, your fingers working effortlessly during the first couple of measures, then you struggled slightly when you got to the run. It was only the run that got you, honestly, because the section after was solid, but after fucking up the run, you messed up the rest of it.

“That gliss is not fun,” your professor noted after you muddled through the rest of that section. “Start slowly. Get the fingerings down for it first.”

That was the issue. You weren’t used to the key signature of the piece, and you had marked up the notes that were in the run, but that simply wasn’t enough. You worked through the notes slowly, but you still kept messing up here and there. Sighing deeply after messing up the run for the nth times, you lowered your bow and cracked your neck, hoping that making yourself less stiff would help.

“Here,” Professor Choi finally spoke up after watching you struggle for what felt like an eternity. He set his cello in its stand and walked over to you, your breath hitching at the sight of him approaching you. “Let’s go over the notes together.” 

Your mind was scrambling and your heart was racing when you felt San’s arms wrap around you, one hand over yours on your bow and the other one matching the placement of your fingers. You thought you were going to lose your damn mind especially when you got a good whiff of his cologne, but when you focused on the pages in front of you, your mind returned to work mode.

He ran through the notes painfully slowly with you, his warm touch turning hot and starting to burn a hole through your skin, but you were so hyper-fixated on the run that you didn’t realize how your body was reacting to him. Finally, Professor Choi let go of you, but he stood right behind you as you went through the run all on your own, this time acing it.

“Oh my God,” you turned around and looked at him happily, your eyes sparkling. “I thought it was going to take longer for me to get that!”

“You’re a fast learner, Y/N. Be more confident in yourself,” the professor responded, his body still right behind you.

You gave him a quick nod and turned back in your seat so you could play the run over and over again, your fingers dancing on the strings as you mastered something new today.

Professor Choi returned to his seat, his cello immediately going between his legs before he could even sit properly. He sat and watched as you went through the entire section perfectly. He was in trance until you called his name and asked for the next section.

Those moments when the professor physically helped you learn the sections you were messing up were the moments you lived for. Sometimes, you considered intentionally failing a section just so you could have him near you because you knew that you could never be with him. He was your professor, and that’s all he was ever going to be. And the other thing was that he had that gold band wrapped around his ring finger. It was never going to happen. You just had to settle for these small, stolen moments.

Usually, you were good. Hell, you were fucking amazing and talented; after all, if you weren’t, you never would’ve been accepted into your esteemed college of music. However, you were all sorts of off during this solo lesson.

Why? Because of that man. He always wore a three piece suit that always reminded you of dark academia fashion— he apparently had no idea what that was— but today, he took the jacket and the vest off. The sleeves to his button up were rolled up, exposing his thick, sturdy forearms, and his biceps bulged as he held his cello in place. God dammit, how on earth was his suit jacket able to hide Professor Choi’s insane build?

And so, you were distracted as fuck, and you kept messing up— well, it was a combination of him and the sheet music you were sight reading when you were supposed to have practiced it before the lesson.

“Again,” your professor said, his low voice interrupting the pathetic, quivering notes of your cello.

Professor Choi was a patient man, but you had messed up so many times that you could see the frustration on his face, his eyebrows getting more furrowed by the second.

You took a deep breath and started again, your eyes fixated on the notes on the sheet. You were doing a solid job until you looked up at Professor Choi during one of the rests and saw him standing with his arms crossed over his chest. Your rest went on for too long, and you fumbled trying to get back into the song, only for the notes to come out wrong and really wrong.

“Stop,” he said, startling you so much that you nearly dropped your bow. He took his glasses off— fuck, he looked so good even with his glasses off— and rubbed his temples before sighing and putting them back on.

His eyes met yours, and the second you made eye contact, you noticed the tiny little mole above his eye, your gaze softening as you admired it. “Hey,” he snapped you out of your trance. “Look at me.”

You did as he asked, and your heart skipped several beats. You had never seen this look on his face before, this look of concern with his lips nearly pouting, his eyebrows furrowed, his eyes sharp. You could barely breathe normally as he approached you and knelt by your chair.

“Is something wrong?” he asked, his voice a lot softer from the strict tone it was at earlier, making your heart pound faster than the vivace tempo on your sheet music.

Yes. I need you to wear your goddamn jacket before I lose my fucking mind.

“No, Mr. Choi, I’m fine” you replied, your voice nearly cracking and exposing your lie because you were not fine. However, you didn’t have to lie as you continued, “I just didn’t prepare for the piece today. I’m sight-reading it right now.”

“It’s not the piece, Y/N. You’re excellent at sight-reading.” Professor Choi clearly didn’t buy it, a knowing glint shining in his narrowed eyes. “You seem to be distracted. What’s going on?”

“It’s nothing. I’m fine. I’m just tired, is all.”

“These early morning lessons must be getting to you,” he mumbled, finally letting you off the hook. “We’ll switch your timings to the evening, is that okay?”

“Yes, thank you.”

Truth be told, you liked the early morning lessons because it allowed you to have the rest of the day to yourself. But, you also didn’t mind the evening lessons, because that meant your lesson could go over time if needed.

“You know,” Professor Choi spoke softly, nearly making you jump as you didn’t realize he was still by your chair. He placed his hand on your knee and said, “You can always come to me if something is troubling you.”

“I know…”

“Good. Okay, let’s just stop here for today. Next week, we’ll meet in the evenings, okay?”

“Okay,” you felt like you could finally breathe the second he got up and walked to his chair across from yours, the knot in your stomach untangling.

“And be sure to have that sheet music perfected.”

Fuck.

“Okay.”

Next week had yet to come, and you were all sorts of antsy in the days leading up. It was just your normal lesson with the same professor, but at least with a morning lesson you were so drained from the night before that it made it easier to focus on lessons instead of fawning over Professor Choi.

You were wandering around campus as you waited for your friends to get out of class— your class ended well before theirs, so you always had time to kill. You decided to head to the campus coffee shop and look over the sheet music for your lesson when you spotted him.

Immediately, your heart tightened. You knew about the gold band, you remember staring at the gold band and thinking how nice it would be if you had a matching one, but you completely forgot that there was a person who had the actual matching ring, and she was standing right next to him.

The woman was beautiful with long, dark, flowing hair that cascaded down her shoulders and back, her looks completely complimenting her husband’s. And then, hugging his waist as he supported her, you saw his daughter, a beautiful blend of both him and his wife.

You knew he had a family. You knew it, but that didn’t stop your heart from weeping. Rather than continuing to wait for your friend, you rushed back to your dorm, and you shut yourself in before leaning against the door and sinking to the ground.

You had no reason to cry. You shouldn’t have fallen for the professor in the first place, and this was the price you had to pay. You should’ve listened to logic, listened to your brain over your heart, and none of this would’ve been happening.

You couldn’t focus on anything at all— it was to the point where you literally just sobbed over your sheet music, your tears staining the pages of the perfectly preserved original sheet. So, you spent the rest of that week throwing yourself a pity party. The image of him, his wife, and his child burned into your eyes and brain, and every time you thought about it, it made you cry all over again.

Why did you have to go fall in love with a married man?

Thankfully, your eyes were not red when you met with Professor Choi for your evening lesson, but your heart still hurt, and your brain was all fuzzy. Worst of all, you didn’t perfect the sheet music as he had asked. Perfect.

You played a grand total of six notes before Professor Choi stopped you.

“Stop lying to me. Clearly, something’s up with you,” he sounded irritated, but his tone was soft, as if he was frustrated not by you, but because of lack of understanding. “What’s going on? Are you okay?”

God, you hated when people asked you that. No matter what the circumstance was, the words “Are you okay?” always made you cry. Your eyelashes fluttered as you looked down at your lap in attempt to keep the tears inside without making it clear to him that you were about to start crying just as you had been for the past several days.

But he noticed anyway. He quickly placed his cello on his stand before crossing the room and sitting right next to you. He gently took your cello and bow out of your hands, allowing you to just bury your face in the palms of your hands.

“Hey, talk to me,” he said softly. His hands pulled yours away from your face. He held one of your hands while quickly wiping the tears from the corner of your eye with the other, his eyes filled with worry. “You can trust me.”

“I’m just having trouble coming to terms with some things in my life,” you told him, intentionally being vague to protect your feelings. “I haven’t been able to focus all weekend because of it.”

“Do you want to talk about—”

“No,” you refused before he could even finish his sentence.

“I think talking it through would be help—”

You cut him off again by saying somewhat harshly, “I can’t and won’t talk about it with you.”

You shakily exhaled heavily, tears still filling your vision. You got up and tried to get your things and leave, but Professor Choi wasn’t done with you yet. He got up as well and grabbed your arm, turning you around to face him. He had a firm grip on you, but he made sure not to hurt you— he just didn’t want you to run away.

“What do you mean?” he asked you, his voice full of hurt. “Why can’t you talk to me about it?”

You kept quiet and avoided eye contact. You just wanted to get out of there and get away from him before you completely broke down. Yet, you couldn’t because he had both your arms pinned on either side of you, his firm hold on you making it impossible to get away from him.

“It’s because of me, right?”

You pressed your lips together and gave up. You gave up trying to get away, trying to not cry, and trying to deny your feelings. You responded with a tiny nod. Professor Choi let go of you immediately, a sudden realization dawning on him.

“God, uh, Y/N… I’m so sorry— I shouldn’t have grabbed you like that. You must be so uncomfortable… No wonder you’re acting like this. I— I thought I was careful in hiding my feelings, but you must’ve realized it… Shit, Y/N, seriously, I’m so sorry.”

His feelings? What? Your eyes dried up immediately and flew wide open, and your brain went from crying to just pure confusion. There were about a million questions you wanted to ask him, but there was only one you could squeak out.

“What?”

“You’re uncomfortable because I have feelings for you, right?”

He… He what? He has feelings for you? He has feelings for you?

“I didn’t… I didn’t know…”

“Then… Why…?”

“Because I’m in love with you, Pro— No, San,” you said his name for the first time out loud.

San exhaled and ran his fingers through his hair. He, too, had a million questions on his mind, but before he could utter any of them, you continued.

“But… I shouldn’t be. It’s wrong, and you’re already—”

“Don’t,” San covered your mouth with his hand. “Don’t say it’s wrong. Don’t say what we both feel is wrong.”

And with that, San moved his hand to your cheek, and he guided you to his embrace. He wrapped an arm around your waist and cupped your face as he gave you a tender kiss charged with all of the feelings he had for you right there in the practice room. You clutched the collar of his shirt as you pushed yourself further into his kiss, his embrace reciprocating by pulling you closer to him.

Everything was a blur after that. The two of you packed up your instruments and left campus quickly, only to end up at a hotel, your shoes flying off the second you entered the room. San was impatient the second you got into the room, but he didn’t rush a single thing. His kisses may have been intense, but in the same breath, they were gentle and kind. He hugged you while still kissing you and brought you to the hotel bed so that he could pin you down, his lips unable to get enough of yours.

He kept sighing your name, his husky voice making you yearn for him more, making you lust for him more. You slipped his tie off and tossed it somewhere quickly so you could start to work on his buttons. San groaned as he felt your fingers graze and move down his exposed chest, your hand going further as you continued unbuttoning. When there were no more buttons left for you, your hand cupped his clothed cock, the huge bulge aching to spring forward. You heard a hitch in San’s breath as you stroked him from the outside, and when you worked on his belt, he dropped his head to the nook of your neck and let out a little laugh along with a pleasureful sigh.

“San,” you murmured as he nuzzled his nose into your neck, his lips leaving faint kisses in the process. “God, San… I want you so bad…”

“Is that so?” he responded in the same register.

He raised his head to meet your gaze, the two of you breathing heavily in unison. You gazed at his face and brought your hand to his face as you looked at the moles on his face, the moles you couldn’t help but love, the moles that you wanted to connect. You started with the one near his eye and lightly trailed your nail along his face to trace across the ones on his face then the ones on his neck. Your eyes had been following the path of your finger, so when you stopped and rested your hand on his neck, you looked to see him softly smiling, his eyes exuding affection. He kissed you again, but it was a slow kiss, a long kiss, a kiss that made shivers run from the top of your head to the tips of your toes.

“I don’t think I can wait any longer,” you whispered to him when the kiss ended.

Wordlessly, San sat up, revealing just a sliver of his bare torso. He shed his dress shirt and let it fall to the ground. You stared at him in awe— he had such broad shoulders and a tiny waist, not to mention the thickness of his muscles, his entire being making you want him more and more.

The ethereal view of the stunning man didn’t last long. He moved back towards you and pulled your shirt off, then bra, then pants, then panties. His head remained down by your crotch after he stripped you bare, his finger nearing and teasing your clit while his other hand pushed your thigh upwards, your calf nearly resting on his shoulder.

“You’re even beautiful down here,” you barely heard him say, flushing your entire body with warmth and slight embarrassment.

The second you felt San’s tongue against your clit, your entire body reacted. You gripped the sheets with your fingers and toes, and your back arched, the man’s singular action enough to drive you crazy. He then sucked on your clit as he slid two fingers into your cunt, his fingers spreading inside you the deeper they went. You moaned and sighed loudly the more he catered to you down there, the pleasure starting to build up in your stomach.

As soon as he prepped you enough, San moved away from you, disappointment and slight fear seeping into your brain. He got off the bed and pulled a condom out of his wallet before removing the rest of his clothes. You saw his cock spring up, the thickness and length of it scaring you slightly. You bit your knuckle as you watched him roll it on, his hand stroking his dick slowly as he climbed back onto the bed.

San got back on the bed and knelt between your legs. He continued stroking while placing his other hand flat on your stomach. You watched as he licked his lower lip while rubbing the tip along your folds, and he bit his lower lip when he started pushing into you. He exhaled long and lowly as he fully entered you while you opted for a quiet moan. You could feel his every single movement the deeper his cock drove into you, his girth alone starting a fire in your belly.

His thrust following, however, was not as kind. He had moved his hand from your stomach to your waist, and he was gripping your waist in a way that made you have feelings of desire, a feeling you hadn't felt from another man in a while. He didn’t rut into you with his full force, which made you scared for when he did because the feeling his waist hitting yours already made your thighs sting. Plus, every time he pulled out, you felt like you could feel your walls being ripped out, making your eyes watery. You grabbed the pillow behind your head and tore holes in the pillowcase while you squeezed your teary eyes shut as San started speeding up, short, labored breaths leaving both you and the man.

You felt his hand over yours, making you open your eyes to a tear-blurred sight of San above you. His neatly styled hair was now slightly wet with sweat and shadowing his eyes, and you could see him gritting his teeth as he looked at you with narrowed, lusty eyes. His hands moved to lace his fingers with yours. A tiny bubble of his perspiration rolled down his nose and dropped to your cheek, the heat from the sweat making the blush on your cheeks deepen.

“You…” San sighed as he continued rolling his body into yours. “You’re so beautiful… Exactly how I imagined you would look— Hnngh— under me…”

“San— Ah!” You wanted to respond to him, but he finally used the entirety of his strength to ram his cock deep inside you, the action completely taking you by surprise. You flung your head back and cried his name loudly as he relentlessly thrust into you.

White filled your vision when you felt him hit your cervix, and you could only continue to see white as he leaned further into you, making your back leave the bed and his cock rut into you at a different angle. You came hard, your walls clenching, your fingers squeezing his, your tears escaping your eyes, your arousal squirting out of you.

You thought he would cum, that the experience would be over, but San wasn’t about to let this moment end so fast— he only had the one condom, and he wanted to fuck you longer, harder. He grabbed your waist and lifted you so that he was sitting on the bed and you were sitting on his lap, his cock still inside you and somehow filling you up more than it had when he had you splayed on the bed.

His hands guided you. They went under your ass, and he did most of the heavy lifting for you were still recovering from your first orgasm of the night. You held onto his shoulders and looked down at his face as he looked up at you, the two of you sharing your thoughts wordlessly. You brought your lips to his and let his tongue violate yours. Your hips moved slightly, your body rolling into his as he continued to assist you riding him.

You pushed San’s shoulders back, making him lay on the bed and you on his chest. His hips were still moving, still going, still ramming into yours, and his large hands were holding, groping, squeezing your ass. You, meanwhile, started leaving kisses on his beautiful, olive toned skin. Your hands wandered over his chest, your fingers running over his nipples and making his breath hitch. He groaned deeply and spread your asscheeks as he moved your waist forcefully, his hips continuing to ram his cock into you from below.

“S-San,” you whimpered as you started to see stars cloud your vision. “I’m a-almost—”

San brought one of his hands up to hold the back of your head and bring your face to his so he could kiss you as the two of you came. You moaned and cried softly into his mouth as you felt a deep sigh rumble in his chest. Your pussy and his cock both twitched and throbbed, and when he pulled out, you felt as though you were empty, that you needed him to be inside you to make you whole again.

You wanted to tell him to fuck you again, but before you could, he got off the bed. He helped you to your feet and said quietly, “Go take a shower first.”

There was something ominous about the way he said that, but you listened to him regardless. He showered shortly after you finished yours, and while you were sitting on the bed trying to situate yourself, he emerged fully clothed, a dark look painting his face.

“Y/N,” he said, his tone curt but sorrowful. “We can never do this again.”

“W-What?”

“I made a mistake… I’m sorry. You can stay here tonight since the room is paid for, but make sure you check out in the morning.”

San tried to turn to leave, but you grabbed his arm before he could even take one step towards the door.

“What do you mean? You’re the one who told me not to say this was wrong, so why are you all of a sudden changing your mind?!” you didn’t want to yell at him, but you felt so wronged that you couldn’t help it.

He removed his hand from your arm and looked at you, the affection in his eyes now fully replaced by disappointment and regret.

“I know… I did say that. But, Y/N, I shouldn’t have… It was my mistake, and I don’t want to make it again.”

San turned to leave again, but you hugged him from behind, making him stop in his tracks. You buried your face into his broad back and started crying, your tears staining the fabric of his dress shirt. “I love you, San! I love you, so please don’t do this to me,” you sniffled. 

He remained motionless in your embrace, slightly defeated. But, he managed to wriggle out of your arms as he said. “I love you, too; but I also love my family, and I shouldn’t have done this to them. I’m sorry, Y/N. We never should’ve done this.”

The words rang in your ears long after San had left the room. You buried your face in your hands and bawled your eyes out as regret filled your body.

He was right. You never should’ve done it. At least your heart wouldn’t have completely shattered if you didn’t.

[allisluv]

Finnick reacting to someone slutshaming reader in front of him🤭🤭 (it could be both about about clothes or body count)

-🎸

safe and sound

pairing: finnick o’dair x fem!reader

content warnings: slut shaming, finnick being protective, not edited, suggestive themes

word count: 726

"Here you go, honey," Finnick slides up beside you and hands you a glass of red wine. His hand lands on your lower back and he smooths his fingers over the bare skin that the slit in your dress exposes.

"Thanks," you murmur, pressing a chase kiss to his cheek. Red lipstick smudges onto his face and you lick your thumb, trying to rub it off his sun-kissed skin. Finnick smiles into his flask of champagne and you drop your hands to your hips. "What?"

"Nothing," Finnick mutters, pulling you snug into his side. "I just think you're cute, that's all, baby." He rests his chin on top of your head and leads you over to the food tables that are scattered strategically around the outskirts of the room.

You fall into step with your boyfriend, and he grabs your free hand with his own. He sets his drink down on the table, grabs two paper plates from the stack, and starts piling them high with an array of finger food.

You can feel a pair of eyes watching you, and when you angle your head to the side, you catch sight of two Capitol women staring you down. You shift uncomfortably and offer them a tight-lipped smile that freezes on your face when they start to whisper, making no effort to keep their voices quiet.

"Look at what she's wearing," one of them announces. "She looks like a slut. I bet she'd sleep with anything that has a pulse."

"I don't know how Finnick puts up with having her as a girlfriend," the second say through a laugh. "I mean, he has people queuing up around the block to go out with him and he settles for some... some, what? A common whore?"

The words feel like a slap to the face and suddenly, your dress feels far too revealing for your liking.

Finnick's always been in tune with your emotions, and as if he can sense you clamming up, he abandons his drink and food at the table. "What's wrong, honey?" he murmurs, intertwining his fingers with your own.

"See?" A loud, shrill voice cuts through the air. "She'd jump his bones without caring who's watching. What a tramp."

You can almost see Finnick brimming with anger and you grab hold of his suit-jacket, trying to pull him back and stop him from doing something he regrets, but he's far too strong for his own good.

"Finnick, leave it, please," you beg, tears brimming on your waterline. "It's fine, it doesn't matter."

"It does matter," Finnick insists, breaking free of your hold and charging towards the two women like a man on a mission. The two Capitolites wear smug smiles as he makes a beeline for them. "Hey!"

"Looks like someone finally came to their senses," one of them says.

"I beg your pardon?" Finnick clenches his jaw.

"I mean, you could have your pick of the litter. It's about time you open your eyes and see that you need someone more... classy."

"I wouldn't fuck you if you were the last woman alive," Finnick sneers. You slap a hand over your mouth, stifling a laugh. "And if I hear you talking about my girlfriend like that again, you won't have to worry about sticking around that long, 'cause I'll kill you myself."

"You can't talk to me like that!" she scowls, face as white as printer paper.

"I just did," Finnick grabs you by the hand and leads you through the crowd that have formed to watch the infamous Finnick O'Dair rip a poor woman to shreds. He can see the headlines already, but he has tunnel vision when it comes to you, and he doesn't stop moving until the two of you are safe and sound in the hallway, where the dance music is muffled. "Are you okay?" He reaches up and cups your cheeks in his hands.

"I think that may have been the hottest thing I've ever seen," you blurt out honestly.

Finnick grins. "Hm, is that so?" His hands slide down to grip your hips and he leans forward, lips brushing the shell of your ear. "Why don't you let me show you how hot I think you are?" You tilt your head to the side, a smile playing on your lips. "I like the sound of that."

[sunshine-and-moonshine]

Hail storms

Requested: No

Warnings: Spicy ��, Religious themes (Kyle’s), Oral Sex (Kyle’s) Toxic relationships (Simon’s), Angry Sex (Simon’s), Bondage (Alejandro’s), Spit Kink (Alejandro’s)

Characters: Kyle “Gaz” Garrick, Simon “Ghost” Riley, Alejandro Vargas

Word Count: 1,448

A/N: New layout, woooooo!!!

Gaz - I’m Not An Angel

I wasn't always this way

I used to be the one with the halo

The weight of the gold cross on his clavicle burned as he watched you from across the pub, the sound of Soap’s laughter, of Price’s scolding words, of Ghost’s heavy breathing, it all faded into the background. Like the static of an old radio that you could never tune quite right. But you, you were clarity. The perfect pitch of some singer rising above the other soft noises.

He’d never had a one night stand before. Thought about it, prayed about it, but he could never bring himself to do it. Could never bring himself to let himself taste the sweet fruit of sin that he so often craved. The same one his pastor warned him of when he was but a boy, years before the man that sat in his place now. But he finds himself crossing that threshold now, the devil tugging him closer, a marionette on cursed strings.

“Hi.” He says, as he sits beside you, fingers trembling as he holds onto his mug of cheap beer. “I’m Kyle.”

But that disappeared when I had my first taste

And fell from grace

The taste of you in his mouth was sweeter than anything he had ever had, more than the grapes his mother used to pack in his lunch tin when he was younger, but yet you were also more bitter than the wine that followed communion bread. Innocence turned to pain and fear and blood. But none of it could ever be more holy than. No holy relic would ever be able to bring him to his knees the way flesh between your thighs did.

And when you ran your nails through the stubble of his hair, your eyes piercing and heavy as you stared down at him, he knew the cross he wore meant nothing anymore. A false idol, trying to take your rightful place in his heart. He squirmed impossible closer, tongue out as he panted for air, so desperate to keep tasting you that he was barely a centimeter away.

The chain of his cross broke easy under the grip of his fist, and he heard the soft ting of it hitting the floor, before it was lost to him.

It left me in this place

I'm starting to think, maybe you like it

Kyle woke last the next day, an unusual occurrence considering his line of work. The smell of freshly brewed earl grey curling pleasantly in his nostrils, rousing him from the pleasant warmth of your bed, flaccid cock hanging at his thigh when he slips out from beneath the sheets.

“Love?” He mumbles, feet dragging on the ground, feeling all too much like a newborn lamb, limping after its shepherd after just being born. Like the world was made anew, with you as his guiding light.

And that light led him to the kitchen, where you leaned against the counter, dangling his cross between your pretty fingers.

Meeting his eyes as you let it slip into the trash.

Ghost - I Miss The Misery

When you tell me you'll make it worse

(I'd rather fight all night than watch the TV)

The front door slammed open, your shoulder blades digging painfully into the hardwood as Simon rammed you into it, his hands ripping away at your clothes (clothes he bought you, clothes he loved on you, clothes he always loved to take off), your own tearing away at his skin, nails shredding away at skin like cheap paper, leaving raw bloody lines on his back that were sure to sting .

Some bitter and angry part of you hopes that the next time he tries to have a sleazy fuck with someone else, that they’ll see this. See what you do to him. And know that they’ll always be insufficient by comparison.

Cause no matter how hard you fought, no matter how loud you got. There was a simple truth you needed everyone to know about him.

He was yours. Now. Always. Forever.

I hate that feeling inside

You tell me how hard you'll try

“Promise I’ll get better.” He’s whispered in your ear countless times, curled around you after the latest round of angry sex, clinging to you like a lifeline, like he hadn’t had his hands curled around your throat not even half an hour ago as he told he how much you pissed him off, how much he hated you. “Never do it again. Promise, Love.”

And it was always a lie.

But he promised everytime, even knowing it was futile, fragile, already broken. Floating in the air like the moans you let out in the bedroom, under him with his teeth buried in your shoulder. Fucking you like he wanted to kill you with his dick. Headboard slamming into the wall so hard it cracked, brittle paint chips falling to the floor. And you couldn’t deny how god damn good it felt, everytime you fought your way back towards each other. Like opposing magnets, like heaven and hell.

But when we're at our worst

I miss the misery

The morning after, he was in the front room of the house, grouching and grumbling loudly about how he had to fix the hole the doorknob made again. His side of the bed was still warm from his gargantuan body, making you curl into it, seeking him and his heat out without specifically calling for him, though you knew he would come running with only a word from your sore lips. Eager to flee back to your side and crawl above you once more.

You smiled into the pillows, one full of teeth and mischief.

You couldn’t wait to do it all over again.

Alejandro - Do Not Disturb

Let's take our clothes off

I wanna show you my hidden tattoo

“This is cute.” You chuckled against his lips, back pressed firmly against the cool wall of his apartment, running your fingers over the crow tattoo that arched over his broad hip. The beady eye of the mischievous avian staring right back at you.

“Yes, what every man wants to hear during sex. Cute.” Alejandro laughed in return, darkened hazelnut eyes gaining a hint of amusement as he took your hand and placed it right on the patch of black ink. “Go ahead, touch it. You’re the only one that’ll ever get to see it.”

“Only me, huh?” You cooed in an almost mocking tone of voice, raking your nails along the razor sharp feathers of the ink bird. His skin jiggling pleasantly for you when you reared your hand back to give his ass a playful little slap, the sound of it reverberating in the room along with his grunt. “Well, aren’t I just honored?”

That nobody ever gets to see but you do

Oh baby let me taste ya, shake ya, tie you up and break ya

Hands tied above your head with a silk tie, his silk tie. A brilliant deep blue that stood out against the barebones gray sheets and pillowcases. Blue digging into your wrists in a delicious combination of pain mingling with pleasure. The same as his hips slapping against you with every inward thrust.

“Such a good pretty thing you are.” He huffs, leaning forward and pressing your knees to your chest, constricting your airflow just the smallest bit, white starbursts flashing behind your eyelids. “Letting me tie you up and have my way like this. Gonna let me spit in your mouth next?”

In response, you simply opened your mouth and let your tongue roll out.

'Cause I've been alone, left on my own for too long

Oh damn, too long, too long, too long, I say come on

“Come on.” He huffed, tweaking your nipple, grazing his teeth over the thin skin that stretched over your collarbone, a bruise or two sure to form with how rough he was being. “Come on, come on, come on.”

And come you did, with seizing muscles and flailing legs, a high pitched cry crawling out from your lungs and bursting out your swollen mouth, tears streaming down your cheeks in rivers as you throw your head back in ecstasy. Barely even noticing the way his hips started to stutter before he spilled inside of you, thick white seed covering your insides. Rolling his hips a few more times to really push it all in before he pulls out and collapses beside you, narrowly missing crashing on top of you.

“So….” You start after a few minutes of you both catching a breath, turning to him with sparkling eyes and a mischievous grin. “Round two?”

[waddlewaddlewaddlewaddle]

Jjk drabbles as things my crush has done to me

Characters: Nanami,Geto,Gojo x reader (civilian university au ig)

Fluff!

Themes: SFW.Dancing!!Acts of service, good and cute things in general , I won’t spill too much to not ruin the story.

₊✩‧₊˚౨ৎ˚₊✩‧₊

𖤐Gojo <3

There were 2 things that you hated most in the world, the fact that you always wanted to look cute and stairs.

Both of these things were coming back to bite you in the ass right now. You rubbed your heeled boots on the rough ground as you looked up at the 4 flights of stairs that you need to get up to so you could get to class.

You cursed at your vain self for choosing such foot wear, knowing that you had to be at uni the whole day. And if the day couldn’t get any worst, the imposing sun above you started to burn your skin , shining brighter than before.

It was all a mess , the heat , the heavy backpack ,and your soles aching.

As you started to mindlessly complain about the before mentioned pesky problems to your friend and gojo; the tall standing figure looked down at you with a small smile that decorated his scratched face.

He owed his beaten face to the fact that 6 drunks decided to pick a fight with him on his way to the bus stop, he was generally a peaceful guy unless provoked so he just decided to ignore the ordeal ,but one of the drunks got really annoying and started to throw ripped beer cans at him, naturally he wasn’t just gonna tolerate this disrespect ;so he clocked the guy back with the can to his face with all his might.

Fully prepared to fight Gojo had his guard up , but then he noticed all the 6 guys started to pull out pocket daggers he did what was most wise and manly which was to run for the hills.

So to make a long story short home boy was a bit tired and beaten. As you sighed and decided to push through the pain to head up the stairs, he calls your name.

-“If you want I can give you a piggy back ride.”- He suggests as he starts to stretch his arms.

-“Oh don’t worry about it, I wouldn’t want to bother you in your state.”-You said as you returned a shy smile.

-“Don’t worry about it , I’m not as weak as you think.”-He said as he adorns a concerned look on his face.

You look over to your friend who suggested he could carry Gojos backpack as he carried you as his backpack.

-“My backpacks heavy.”- You commented trying to get him to back out.

-“Ok.”

-“You’re serious?.”

-“Dead serious.”

You gave him an untrusting gaze as he turned his back to you and crouched down so you could jump on him.Your backpack was weighing you down so you grabbed on to dear life to his neck in hopes you wouldn’t slide down with every step he took.

-“You’re choking me.”- He grumbles dryly.

All 3 of you bust out in laughter, but mostly your laughter was powered by embarrassment.

He promptly hops to adjust you higher on his back so you both could be more comfortable ,then continues his way up the stairs while making comments on how you feel like a monkey.

Geto <3

Time passed slowly as you and your friend group wait for the next class.

All of you were at the cafeteria but the only ones awake were Geto and you.

To make time pass by faster you decided to tune in on a soccer game he was watching, promptly you became entertained and as soon as he noticed the smallest bit of interest in your eyes ;he started to explain all the plays in the game.

-“If I’m not mistaken, isn’t that guy lewandowski?”-You called out as you pointed to a player on his phone screen.

-“You’re correct, im surprised a geek like you would know a thing or two about soccer.” - He blurted out in a teasing tone as he passed a hand through his long black hair.He always found a thing to tease you about, today it was your guilty pleasure: watching anime.

-“Fuck off, I don’t sit around and watch anime all day. I do productive things, unlike others”-You retorted as you gave him the side eye.-“I’m not totally ignorant, I know some basics.”

He giggled at you as he placed his hand on his cheek so he could lean on the table while looking at you.

-“I don’t believe a word you’re saying, you probably heard him on blue lock or some shit. Time to touch some grass weirdo. Aren’t you embarrassed?.”- He chuckled out with an accusing tone in his brassed tone.

Tired of his shit, you raised your palm to smack him on the head, knowing there was no way you could exit this conversation with a drop of patience left in you.

To your surprise (not) he nonchalantly grabbed your wrist before you could hit him, getting progressively more annoyed you swung your other hand to smack him which he also swiftly catched.He looked at you through his smug black eyes as he watched you struggle to be set loose under his grasp.

Irritated, you started to push your still captive wrist to him in hopes he looses balance and hopefully cracks his skull on the floor or something.

But before you knew it he resisted your attempts with a cocky grin letting you know that your strength didn’t hold a candle to his and that you two could pass the whole afternoon in this playful exchange.

As soon as you hit him with a death glare ,he shut his eyes and laughed as he let go of your wrist.

-“I’m sorry , i didn’t mean anything I said, I’m not being rude,I’m just playing with ya. You just look so cute while your angry, teasing you is inevitable.”-He concludes as he ruffles your hair.”-

Nanami <3

It was Friday night and your parents were out of town , so inviting your friends and drinking cheap whisky with loud music was inevitable.

You found yourself in the kitchen whipping up a cocktail for your friend so he could pass the whisky down easier, while the quiet nanami in front of you gulped down the whiskey pure as if it was water , his Adam’s apples bobbed as he gulped.You we’re entranced by his jawline as he finishes drinking maintaining the most neutral expression.

Ngl it was doing something to you , there was nothing more attractive than a man who could hold his liquor while maintaining a calm conversation.

Soon came your other friend bursting through the kitchen door to chug down the cocktail you just prepared.

-“Do you guys know how to dance, I really want to dance right now.”- yelled out your friend as he started to tune the music up.

So the two of you got up and danced by yourself respectively to the beat of the different genres of music that played.In the meanwhile Nanami sat down and crossed his thick arms as he watched you two make a fool of yourself.

Soon a romantic Latin slow song started playing, truth be told you loved to dance but none of your ex knew how to so you just resigned and learned how to dance by yourself.

As the liquor discarded any embarrassment you may experience, you only focused on the tempo , careful of the moment you marked a step with your hip, the music inebriated your ears and your hips moved to the careful notes of the song. You hugged yourself so you’d have something to do with your arms as you stepped side to side.

You look over to your friend who’s sitting down while extending your arms to them with the hopes they’d maybe considering dancing with you , they just politely decline stating they don’t know how to dance this type of music.

Your eyes glance over to nanami, jokingly making

a :( face at him to then continue dancing by yourself with closed eyelids.

Soon you were once again lost in the beautiful guitar notes until you felt a breeze pass you.

You opened you eyes to see nanami in front of you with both his hands extended to you as a clear invitation to dance.

You have never seen nanami do anything even remotely close to dancing so this comes as a big shock to you.

As you accept his invitation to dance by holding his big, rough hands , you asume you’ll dance at a holy safe distance but to your surprise he finds a way to sneak his legs between yours as he pulls you close by snaking his hands around your waist, your eyes open in awe, since you now understand he means business by dancing the traditional way.

You decided to follow your instincts by wrapping your hands at the base of his neck ( not in a choking way). You rest your head on his shoulder and you let your senses be hypnotized by his cologne.

You feel his hips move like you would your own and your steps start to sync with his. You nervously look around looking for a sign of discomfort due to the proximity of your bodies, but all he seems to care about is holding you close and dancing the night away..

💿

Context: I think this guy is kinda cute but I’m not invested emotionally to care too much about him and I also think that he’s playing me or he’s just super friendly but I hope you guys enjoy the short stories , I was as truthful as possible except where I describe the guys feelings cause idk what he was think at the moment tbh. But what do you guys think , do you think he may have feelings for me?

A/n: I’ve created these short drabbles in the meanwhile I write the new chapter for the gojo fanfic. Thank u guys so much for your patience love you ♥️ Not spell checked btw I’ll do it tomorrow.

[fiction-is-the-new-reality]

behind the pub.

warnings: gn! but leaning towards fem! Reader. Not smut but very heavy with sexual tension and themes. MDNI. cussing and violence. (Simon might be a little OOC)

word count: 1.8k

The bar was loud.

Simon’s eyes locked on your form. Watching you as you snaked your way through the crowd in an attempt to get a drink. He saw the way you twisted the ring around your fingers and how your fingers grazed your necklace. The tiny ticks screamed that your nerves were amping up.

But it wasn’t the crowd that was making you nervous, but instead, it was Ghost himself.

You feel his intense gaze on you, tracing every inch of you. You couldn’t look back at him. If you met his eyes you’d combust. So you keep your eyes forward and ignore the hole he’s burning into you. Pushing your thighs together you try to ignore the heat of desire that’s making a wet spot between your legs.

A man throwing himself down in the seat beside you, and his friends crowding around the both of you disrupts your thoughts of Ghost.

You glance at them, then look back at the bartender, still waiting for your turn. You notice that the guy is still staring at you.

Great, here we go.

You take in his appearance. His black spiky hair, blue eyes, and somewhat of a muscular build.

You wondered what Ghost looked like under his mask. You wanted to know if his hair matched his brown eyes, what he looked like when he smiled, if he smiled.

The deafening loudness of the bar rushes back to your ears as you notice the guy is talking to you.

“Huh?”

His face shows displeasure at that.

“I’m Josh, by the way.”

“Cool.” He frowns at the lack of your name. His buddies giggle at this.

“Let me buy you a drink?”

“No thanks.” You give him a tight-lipped smile and turn away from him.

You hear him sigh.

“I’m trying to be nice-”

“I don’t need you to be nice, and I don’t want a drink. Take the no and walk away.” You give him the second tight-lipped smile of the night.

His face turns red as his boys laugh and rag on him. His body language shifts and you can see anger building up. He stands up from his chair to leave, but turns around. You meet his eyes.

“You should be fucking happy that I was trying to buy you a drink. Ugly bitch.”

“Go fuck yourself. How about that?”

The guys around you let out “ooohs” and a few whistles.

Josh is visibly livid at this point.

He’s been watching this entire time. He tuned out whatever stupid thing Soap was saying the second that knob-head sat down with you. His anger steadily rising. He’s been waiting for you to spare him a look, letting him know to come save you. How foolish of him to think that you would ask for help.

You’re no longer nervous. You’re pissed, your eyes on fire, he can see that even from across the room. He waits a minute longer, watching for any sign that would be a call for help, but it doesn't come. Not when the guy inches closer to you and not when you stand up, squaring your shoulders with a snarl on your face. But he can’t sit any longer, he’s watched enough.

He’s making quick time across the bar. Long, thick legs making a huge stride. He’s trying to reach you before you start a fight and the 141 is kicked out of yet another bar.

You don’t see Ghost. You’re too focused on Josh, who is now staring above you. His friends went quiet and they all had taken a step back.

“What’s goin’ on here?” You jump slightly at his presence. Your body quickly heats up from how close he is.

“We’re just talking.” Josh tries with a charismatic smile.

You scoff, “Just some guy who can’t take a no.”

Simon grunts in response. His intimidating glare locked on Josh. The dominance radiating from him causes both you and Josh to shiver.

“I didn’t realize she was taken, man. I’m leaving.” Josh tosses his hands up and walks away like a dog with his tail between his legs.

You throw back a shot before looking at Simon.

“Thanks for playing hero and saving me.” You smile at him.

He shakes his head. “I was just making sure you didn’ rip the bloke’s head off. I know betta than to try an play knight in shining armor.”

He lifts his balaclava and takes a sip of whatever’s in his hand. His sleeves tighten around his biceps and you almost begin drooling as his Adam’s apple bops as he swallows.

Simon feels your eyes on him. He enjoys the weight it carries. He looks you over and lets his gaze linger before clearing his throat and taking a sip again.

You’ve decided that you’re done for now. You’re sweating from the heat of the bar and the heat of Ghost’s attention.

“I think I’m going to step outside. It’s way too hot in here.”

Simon hums back in acknowledgment.

He heads out of the bar shortly after, deciding he needs a smoke. As he flicks on the lighter, he notices you leaning against the wall, head tilted back and eyes closed. Putting the cigarette back into the cartridge, he approaches without your notice.

He rests his shoulder on the brick, intensely watching you. You’ve got a pout across your lips and Simon doesn’t think he’s seen such an unjust sight before.

Your eyes open and you turn to face him, now mirroring his pose.

“Do you have anyone special, Lt?” Your eyes peer into his and the question takes Simon by surprise. This felt too vulnerable, too intimate for him, especially since you two were in an alley. He let out a huff of air before deflecting.

“Everyone’s gettin’ ready to head out.”

You stare up at him, your heartbeat getting erratic as you decide to push further.

“Anyone waiting for you back home?”

“Ain’t gotta home.” He stares you down, trying to understand the sudden interest in his personal life.

“Liar.” You squint your eyes at him. He squints right back.

Simon was the first one to crack. He allows himself to move closer to you. On instinct, you push yourself further into the wall. Your mind runs wild with ideas, how his hands would feel all over you and how firm he would be under yours.

“Close your eyes.” Your eyes widened at his command before snapping shut. You hear a slight rustling sound and realize that he’s removing his balaclava.

Simon can’t take not feeling your touch anymore. He’s been craving it for months. It’s burned through his insides, it clouds his thoughts, and you’ve even wormed your way into his dreams. Those are his favorite dreams. They make him wake up breathless. His hand is already wrapped around himself and his hips thrust up without caring about anything else. He can’t take not feeling your hands on him anymore.

The cool air against his face reminds him of how vulnerable this all is. He falters. His mind begins to convince him to back away and ruin any chance he has with you. He’s so close to running until he sees the rise of your chest as you take a staggered breath, waiting for him. He realizes you’re just as touch starved as him. Your obedience to him and the way he’s been affecting you all night without even touching you, gives him all the confidence he needs to continue.

Leaning down, he barely touches your lips. Letting you barely feel the warmth of his lips, but not enough to count as a kiss. You feel arms on either side of your head as Ghost cages you in. You lean your head back, hoping he would be nice enough and kiss you. He takes mercy on you and finally kisses you.

You let him set the pace, which Simon was thankful for.

His lips felt euphoric on yours. They were slightly chapped, but it didn’t bother you any. The smell of gunpowder and something woodsy, clouded your senses . The aroma alone was intoxicating, but added with his gentle kissing made you weak in the knees.

Simon placed one hand at the spot where your jaw and neck met and traced it for a few seconds before letting it drift to the back of your head. He pulled softly, wanting to deepen the kiss. The small moan that left your mouth had him close to spilling in his jeans.

He wanted to take you right here behind the pub where anyone could lay witness to it. He wouldn’t, you deserved better than that, even though a small part of him knew you’d let him.

You needed to taste him, you wanted to feel his tongue on yours, but you knew not to try and push him. You waited for him to give it to you.

Ghost as if hearing your thoughts, licked at your lips. Your lips parted eagerly, letting his tongue dip into your mouth. He tastes like the bourbon he had been sipping on. Your tongues lap at each other and you’re quickly getting overwhelmed. You need air but you’re almost certain that his mouth is what is allowing you to stay alive.

Simon loved that you were letting him take his time and let him do whatever he wanted. You were doing so good at being patient with him.

It made his head spin. All of it. The feeling of your body pressed against his. Your warm wet mouth against his, your hands clinging to his arms, and the little noises that you were making.

Simon finally pays attention to the way his lungs are screaming for air, and he knows that you must be needing air as well. With reluctance he pulls away to allow both of you to get some air.

You chase his lips with a gasp of his call sign. Your voice sounds just as wrecked as you look. Your lips are red and swollen, your hair is slightly frizzy from his hands, and your chest heaving from the lack of oxygen.

He can only assume he looks just as wrecked, if not worse.

Simon commits the image to memory before correcting you.

“You can call me Simon.” He places his balaclava back on his head and immediately misses feeling your lips on his.

You slowly open your eyes. You smile up at him, still reeling from the makeout session.

“Simon.” You say softly, like you’re testing if you like it or not.

You go to say something but freeze as the door of the pub is slung open. Johnny's voice echoes through the entire alley.

“Lads I’ve been looking for ya everywhere! Quit your snoggin, we’re leaving!”

The door slams closed and you can’t help but giggle. Simon softly chuckles with you.

“Simon?” You whisper.

“Yeah?”

“Kiss me again?”

Your eyes shine at him as he places his hand on your waist and pulls you into his chest. He leans down and nips at your neck before coming back and slotting his lips onto yours.

[ghostherlig]

i am very slow with writing atm with being sick and also my wrists are starting to hurt more now that it's getting colder- but here's some silly goofy random headcanons while im recovering!! (for johnny, kenshi, raiden, and kung lao) under the cut bc this really ran away from me- (collected over the course of this entire day as things popped into my brain, i apologize for the mass of words you're about to read :'))

johnny can play piano!! he has a grand piano that he really loves and he plays anything from classical to ost's to his own little tunes whenever he thinks them up- he has a recorder attached to it so he can remember them or maybe post his own song one day

(based off the previous hc) if/when kenshi is over/moves in he'll play at night and let kenshi listen in- but randomly johnny will transition what he's playing into the jaws or michael meyers theme and that's kenshi's cue to start running- because now the house is in hide and seek mode, and as soon as johnny stops playing, he'll be searching

kenshi used to play the violin growing up, but he dropped it once he was old enough and competent enough to commit himself to the yakuza- he can still remember some of the songs he used to love to play. he hums them from time to time and has been caught doing the motions of playing the violin before

kenshi loves animals but has an extra soft spot for cats and bunnies especially- he's a cat magnet in places where strays are common, they always flock to him (he for sure keeps catnip in his pocket when he can)

johnny loves his action and hero films but kenshi enjoys romcoms and horror- romcoms for the stories and drama, and horror films because the sound design usually slaps- he also can tell you what fruit or vegetable was absolutely destroyed based on the sounds alone

lao and raiden are way too good at Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes- raiden is on the manual while lao is on the bomb and they can crack the normal mode in like 45 minutes (they're a little slower when they swap places but they can still do it impressively fast (fastest speedrun time is sub 30mins)

johnny knows how to play mahjong after taking a role and having to play on-screen for five minutes- he wanted it to look authentic and thought "there's no better way than to actually play"- raiden and lao found out and now they're all trying to teach kenshi with specially made tiles with braille in the corners

kenshi is ridiculously good at poker- he brought a deck of cards with braille stamped on them and him and johnny played strip poker for a night- needless to say kenshi was smirking to himself as he switched his button up for johnny's

johnny can do pitch and diction perfect impressions of people he's heard talk for long periods of time- you can bet that a lot of his free time at wu shi was spent scaring his fellow champions by talking to them in liu kang's voice from behind a wall-

(based off the last hc) johnny only does it around people he knows well or as a party trick with different characters from pop culture- most often his power is used for evil though

raiden isn't a morning person and actually is super groggy in the mornings- the first thing he does on early days is take a cold shower to wake himself up

(based off the last hc) lao is a morning person and is usually the one to wake up raiden by ripping his blankets off of him- he's lucky he has survived this long, but he tells everyone that if looks could kill, raiden would have killed him long before he made it to wu shi

we all know kung lao eats for a family of five, but that man also naps like a divorced dad after an all you can eat buffet- he is OUT after he's done absolutely fucking up like five full plates of food

raiden really likes boba!! kenshi took him to get some after an errand run and he fell in love with the taro flavor- he also really enjoys winter melon and the regular thai tea

johnny always gets his boba with coffee- he doesnt really like tea flavors and no matter how many sips of kenshi's tea he has, he will always prefer his coffee

kenshi bought johnny a really nice espresso machine that he uses every morning- johnny didnt buy himself one before that bc he never thought he would enjoy making coffee at home and it was easier to just stop by the local cafe since they always had his order ready early- but he finds it really calming and really nice to slow his mornings down and make a latte before leaving for work

johnny, to return the gesture, bought kenshi a really nice kitchen knife since he knows the man really likes to cook- it sees a lot of use as it's a santoku that he basically uses like a chef's knife (it's his sharpest and most well treated kitchen tool, right next to his 8 inch cast iron)

kung lao owns maybe three articles of clothing with sleeves- all of them are coats for when it rains- oh and one hoodie that he stole from raiden that somehow survived when he went into his wardrobe and cut and hemmed all of the sleeves

when kenshi visits, johnny makes him coffee in the morning too but since kenshi doesnt always like the bitter coffee flavor he'll add some fun home made syrups- he has plain vanilla, but also has seasonal flavors like pumpkin spice, snickerdoodle, sugar cookie, white mocha, peppermint, etc.

kenshi LOVES mint chocolate flavored things- he especially loves the kitkat flavor and the pocky flavor, as well as ice cream- johnny CANNOT stand it, he's never liked mint outside of gum and even then he prefers cinnamon or clove gum (the first time kenshi kissed him he was confused bc he tasted like spices)

johnny keeps a jar of butterscotch candies on his desk for when he needs to brainstorm ideas- he finds he thinks better when his mouth is occupied (oral fixation haver)

(based off the previous hc) kenshi bought him some violet (the flower) flavored candy after he found out johnny always kept a stash- he also will refill the giant glass jar with butterscotch candies when he knows johnny is busy and will forget

(also based off the candy hc) lao and raiden also buy him hard candies- they get him ginger and lemon ones that johnny falls in love with immediately- he has two jars on his desk now, one for butterscotch and one for ginger

raiden really likes sketching and coloring- lao bought him one of those adult coloring books with mandalas and really intricate shapes and raiden finished all of it in like two weeks- he used to sketch in his free time and has an entire sketchbook dedicated to drawings of lao and his features (a lot of his arms, hands, eyes, and smile) it's hidden under his mattress

kung lao shaves his own undercut when it gets too long- normally cant let it grow out for longer than two or three weeks. sometimes, raiden will offer to do it for him so they can spend a bit of time together and just talk and be close <3

johnny definitely really enjoys washing kenshi's hair- johnny has a bit of a curl to some of his hair but he never uses the products he's supposed to or the methods he's supposed to when it dries- so it's pretty straight, but kenshi's is pin straight and doesnt tangle the way his does sometimes, so he really loves running his hands through it and has even convinced kenshi a few times to sit so johnny could put coconut oil in it for him

johnny loves coconut flavored things and purposefully buys ice cream bars that have coconut cream based ice cream- kenshi was unaware of this and was offered one and said yes thinking that it was vanilla- kenshi does not like coconut, so it was a very sudden and unpleasant surprise

kenshi cuts fruits as his way of showing love very often- he washes and cuts fruits for himself when he's stressed but preps it for others out of love and will often take apple slices, peeled oranges, cut melon (of any kind), or strawberries and grapes up to johnny's in-home office while he's working

johnny buys kenshi small gifts year round and goes crazy for the holidays and his birthday- he asked kenshi how he would feel if johnny bought him (technically them) a house back in japan- kenshi drew his line in the sand and capped johnny's gift prices at $2k per holiday/birthday (which he had broken before)

raiden keeps taxidermy bugs!! he always loved butterflies as a kid and his first framed butterfly was a gift from lao

please excuse any typos, it's later in the day now and my eyes are a little strained- i hope this was comprehensible, lol

[imliketheiceifreeze]

Recombinant Miles Quaritch x OC

My Little Scientist- Chapter One

Warnings: Smut themes, Minors DNI

2,182 words

Blue skin glistening with sweat moved over bulging muscles that showed years of dedication, beads of sweat dripping down a long neck before pooling at the clavicle. Gaia's tongue instinctively dipped out of her mouth to lick her lips.

"Quit eye fucking the colonel for once Gaia."

"I was not!"

She spat, tearing her eyes away from his tall form as he commanded his troupes so effortlessly in the heat of the Pandoran sun.

"Oh you so were, you've got it baaad for him."

Her good friend and fellow scientist June smirked.

"Ugh as if, that man is so.."

She trailed off, thankful to be interrupted by Mike.

"What are we talking about here ladies?"

He asked, slapping his food tray down beside them both, taking a seat next to June.

"Oh just Gaia's hopeless crush on Colonel Quaritch."

"Pahahah, oh I would not have expected that."

They both teased, much too loud for her liking as she covered her cheeks in her palms, attempting to hide her heated face.

"I DO NOT HAVE A CRUSH ON THE COLONEL."

She all but screeched, taking an aggressive bite from the bread roll in front of her.

"Oh so you just want to fuck him then, coz honey the way you looked at that man I thought you were about to go into heat,"

June jibed, both her and mike howling with laughter at their own hilarious nature.

"How would it even work? I mean their dicks must be at least 15 inches,"

Mike chipped in, watching intently as Junes eyes crinkled with laughter, small tear droplets forming at the corners of her eyes.

"Now who's the one thinking about their dicks?"

Gaia only mumbled, attempting to ignore them both to steal another glance at the colonel out on the field. She really didn't have a crush on him, as a scientist she just appreciated the technology it took to create such a brilliant warrior's physique- was all she thought as her eyes glazed over his massive forearms, striped like a tigers fur.

"There she goes again, earth to Gaia,"

June snapped her fingers in front of her face making her glower.

"Wow you really need to get laid,"

another man you didn't know too well mused, obviously eavesdropping on your conversation.

"Go away Abe, only me and Mike are allowed to tease Gaia, I'll absolutely destroy you if you upset my baby,"

June giggled, pinching her cheeks and cooing, causing her to swat her hand away and grumble in annoyance.

"Can you and Mike stop flirting in front of me its making me sick,"

she narrowed your eyes at Mike whilst June pretended to dry heave dramatically.

"Oh stop being grumpy because a certain someone hasn't noticed you,"

Mike Laughed halfheartedly, pushing at her forehead.

"Why don't you try and make a move Gai?"

June questioned, for once in sincerity. She were silent in thought for a moment before answering honestly.

"Come on, the Colonel's not gonna go for a girl like me,"

her eyes cast downwards a little as she attempted to hide her disappointment.

"Don't be like that, you're gorgeous trust me,"

June stroked her arm softly to cheer her up.

"You have to say that you're my friend,"

she whined, tipping her head back in frustration.

"Um I certainly do not, I can tell Mike he looks exactly like a sewer rat even though we're friends."

"Hey!"

Mike slapped her arm playfully causing them to fall into another argument as Gaia tuned out, thoughts mainly focused on a certain soldier and how they looked during strenuous physical exercise.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After her lunch, Gaia had settled back into the lab, running through various samples of Pandoran plants, yielding fascinating results about the connection between the planet and every living being. It truly was a wonderful place and how she wished she could inhabit her very own recombinant body.

A firm knock at the door ripped her from her thoughts and her eyes almost popped out of her skull at the sight of the Colonel himself stooping underneath the doorframe to enter her own tucked away laboratory.

"ahem,"

he cleared his throat, seeming a little out of place in such a small room.

"I was told I'd find the Na'vi expert here,"

he gestured to her, keeping a wide stance with one hand resting on his belt loops.

"Um I wouldn't say expert,"

she faltered, causing his gaze to harden.

"But I mean, I'm one of the scientists currently studying the interactions between Pandora and the organisms that inhabit it,"

she babbled nervously, the catlike golden eyes in front of her causing her to stutter as they seemed intent on holding her gaze.

"Gaia Ambros?"

He questioned, raising a brow, seemingly unimpressed at her insecure nature.

"Yep that's me sir."

"Well then.."

His grimace turned into a predatory smile, eyes glowing as they bored into her own intensely,

"They tell me that you're the expert round here darlin', How's about you give me some lessons in this whole Na'vi bullshit?"

He cocked his head to the side, causing her cheeks to heat up further at the nickname as she struggled not to let her eyes drop to admire his impressive form up close.

"uh...lessons?"

She asked incredulously, biting the inside of her cheek nervously.

"That's what I said lil' darlin', I don't like repeating myself,"

he tutted, growing impatient with this drawn out conversation.

"Um, well I guess I can teach you what I know about Pandora if you want sir... when would you like me to?"

She asked, craning her neck from her seated position to meet his eyes once again.

"In the evening at 19:00 sharp, come to my office,"

he commanded, not acknowledging nor thanking her for her offer as he turned to stride away, ducking under the door frame and vanishing as quickly as he had appeared, leaving her head spinning with possibilities as she tried to refocus herself on the samples in front of her that had long since lost their intrigue.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"He did what?"

June screeched in her ear as she tried to hush her on her way to the canteen.

"He just said he wanted lessons about Pandora,"

she attempted to speak calmly, knowing she had her first little meeting in only a few hours.

"Lessons my ass, there's gotta be another reason he wants you all alone in his office at night,"

she wiggled her eyebrows at Gaia.

"Maybe he just wants some relief after his long hard days as a Colonel, it must be so difficult,"

she mused, dropping into a deep register to impersonate his voice,

"Oh Gaia just try to fit it in, just the tip will be enough, yeah that's it, there's a good little scientist."

Gaia practically shoved her into the wall, storming off in front of her, attempting to purge the dirty scenarios out of her mind before she would have to be in a room alone with the man.

"Oh come on I was just teasing,"

June pouted at her, hoping to win her forgiveness.

"Sure,"

she murmured, taking her seat at the usual table beside Mike and a few of the other scientists. June then began a dramatic retelling of her story with the Colonel to the whole table, causing giggles to be heard all round as Gaia hung her head in shame, trying to fill the pit in her stomach with the food in front of you.

"Oh yeah, I set that up,"

Mike stated nonchalantly as he continued to eat the stew and stale bread provided by the RDA.

"You what?"

Gaia finally tuned back in, confusion set in her features as she wondered how on earth he could have.

"Pulled a few strings, got some RDA soldier mates and higher ups you know, just recommended you for one of their special missions, said you were keen to work with the Colonel yada yada... I guess it's not something they hear everyday,"

he snorted, making her eyes widen in shock for the second time that day. Cursing out at the thought that the whole ship now practically thinks she's begging for the Colonel's dick and she wished the ground could swallow her then and there.

"You can thank me later,"

he smirked, patting her back smugly as she sat stunned, still processing the news.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

7pm unfortunately rolled around far too quickly and Gaia trudged her feet towards the huge recombinant Colonel's office, somewhat terrified of what would occur.

"Well there you are goldilocks, you gonna come in or stand there all day?"

Herr mouth ran dry, looking up at the sneering man as he gestured her into his office- equipped with an enormous chair, desk, even a Na'vi sized coffee mug sat on the table. It all made her feel a bit like Alice in wonderland if she was honest.

"Yes sir,"

she mumbled, stepping in tentatively and looking around in bewilderment

"Oh take a seat wherever you want darlin',"

he jutted his chin out, referencing her awkward stance as he calmly lowered himself in the chair behind his desk. So she took the liberty of attempting to drag another large chair to the opposite side of the table in order to face him, failing miserably as she found she was unable to even move the thing an inch, huffing in frustration at the pathetic display.

"Oh right, sorry there,"

a voice rang out from behind her and the chair was lifted from her hands by two much larger blue ones to place it effortlessly in the location she'd been struggling so much to bring it to. Half of her wondered if the colonel had purposefully not moved the chair prior to her arrival to watch her suffer.

"Um thanks,"

she murmured, blushing darkly as she eventually slumped down in the large chair, making an effort not to brush her legs with her superior.

"So what have you got for me today goldilocks?"

The nickname made her squint in annoyance, she'd almost prefer if he'd just come out and call her a dumb blonde.

"I was going to teach you about the connection between Pandora and the Na'vi people,"

she straightened herself out, watching him raise his eyebrows and smirk, his eyes telling her to go ahead.

She continued with her little speech for a while, as the Colonel eventually leaned his head on his hands, eyes studying her face curiously and allowing their legs to lean together comfortably in the tight space.

After an hour had passed she deemed it long enough and decided to end the lesson.

"Well that was... interesting,"

Colonel Quaritch mused, showing his fangs a little when he spoke.

"Hmm I'm glad you thought so,"

she replied attempting to ignore his sarcasm.

"Well I'd better get going,"

she began to push herself up from the chair but a foot knocked her leg out from under her, causing her to fall back down. She glared at the culprit, only causing his smug smile to widen.

"Not so fast sunshine, I have another proposition for you."

She gulped nervously, why did the question sound so suggestive coming from his mouth?

"u-m and what would that be sir?

"Calm down brainiac I'm not gonna force you to... anyway.."

he coughed, laughing to himself.

"I'm going on a mission to the Na'vi forest in the next three days, I would like you to accompany me and my troupes to help us...connect with 'Eywa'."

He seemed disbelieving of her teachings but nevertheless, she'd never pass up the chance to see Pandora up close.

"Absolutely Sir,"

she rocked forward in your chair in sheer excitement.

"Well then, ain't that outstanding"

He clapped a hand down on her shoulder, the force leaving shockwaves ringing through her body, reminding her of how pathetically weak she was in comparison with both the recombinants and any Na'vi people she might stumble upon during the mission.

"Sir,"

she tested the waters before propositioning her question to him. He raised his eyebrows in confusion, before quickly withdrawing his hand as though he may have offended her.

"I have a question for you."

"Well ask away sunshine I haven't got all day."

He crossed his arms over his chest, causing the muscles in his arms to strain against his taut skin, rippling whenever he shifted slightly.

"Well It's just as a human I'm so weak,"

she paused watching a smirk appear on his lips.

"In return for helping you and your soldiers, I'd like to request my own recombinant body."

"Ahh, I see sunshine, I think that can be arranged for you... since you've been so generous."

He looked down at her mockingly, though soon she hoped they would be on equal footings, more or less. She nodded at him, starting to leave, hoping he wouldn't kick her back into her seat again.

"See you in three days cupcake, don't make me wait."

He called after her and she had the slightest feeling his eyes were burning holes into her back as she sauntered away, feeling quite proud of the arrangement she'd come to.

[lightwise]

TBB S3E7 Reactions

Alright, in lieu of an analysis this week, you guys get some extra long reactions from me. Spoilers for Extraction under the cut!

- Of course the operative is still alive after being completely buried by rocks

- You okay there Rexy boy?

- Aww, Crosshair helping him up

- “There’s always another way” feels like foreshadowing

- CX does sound awfully like Tech when he’s grunting. Either that or DBB has only one way of making groaning noises 😂

- The rim lighting in this episode is such a pain for making screenshots but so satisfying for watching

- The modified clone theme when Wolffe lands 😭

- Wolffe was really getting 3PO flashbacks there with that disgusted sigh

- Isn’t Hilo a canon commando?? Or is he from legends?

- I will never get over how realistic light looks in this show

- There’s no way that CX just caught himself with his hands

- “We’re waiting on you” they’re not leaving Crosshair behind this time 🥹

- Lol Batcher. Licking cute clones faces. Always the priority

- How is this CX such a good shot??

- Oh Wolffe definitely has a constant headache. Idk how he’s actually put up with being in the Empire this long.

- This purple atmosphere is so pretty

- “I’m much worse” — SCREAMING. And the little tilt with his helmet to make his point clear? This man can have me however he wants. Anytime, anywhere. Call me, baby (I hope someone laughed at that lol)

- So Hunter does hear the ships. I wonder if his senses are more tuned for mechanical vibrations and animal life than people

- Lol Howzer is this really the time for a heart to heart?

- “Loyalty meant something to me” 🫡

- Lol that TK Trooper sounded like a mid-Atlantic 50s movie star

- How is the operative this nimble? Seems suspicious

- Smoke bombs are CF99s signature

- Interesting that for once the stun bolts are being used ON the Batch instead of by them.

- Wrecker and Batcher are a great team

- Hunter just dropping that TK and then Crosshair taking out their ship. Phew

- Also not suspicious at all that they’ve neutralized all the TKs and left the clone troopers for later.

- How did Crosshair sense the operative coming up behind them?

- RIP Nemec 😓

- “Too bad” 😩😩😩

- Oh Cross, you know you’re not the best at hand to hand combat. This is a very bad idea

- That waterfall is pretty though

- Dear lord why did they have to make these scenes so dark

- Oh fuck. I can’t even tell who threw who off the cliff

- The whole squad going after Crosshair even though he told them to get to the extraction point 😭

- CX obviously knows Crosshair and has beef with him. Again, for the millionth time—WHAT THE HELL DID HEMLOCK DO TO ALL OF THEM

- “You had your chance to be one of us. You chose the wrong side”. Really can’t wait for this to be explained.

- Crosshair’s reflexes are so fast for being all gangly limbs

- Okay I seriously almost had a heart attack here (this is a rewatch so my reactions aren’t immediate but holy cow I almost couldn’t believe what I was seeing watching Crosshair almost drown. Don’t you dare do it Jen!)

- It is v suspicious how fixated on Crosshair CX is even after he’s neutralized him

- Thank GOD for Howzer

- Okay, I can breathe a little again

- That’s…an awfully long fall for someone to survive

- The TBB team took the water scenes from The Crossing in season 2 and said, yeah, how about we just make that a million times better 🤯

- “That’s not Echo”. No, no it is not

- Good to know that Rex is still considered dead by the Empire (although that honestly seems strange that CX in season 2 knew who he was). That’s heartbreaking that Wolffe thought he was dead this whole time though

- Wow. The respect these two men have for each other

- “Oh I did. Lost a lot of good men that day” *cries in TCW season 7*

- Idk how Rex keeps going honestly

- His voice may be gentle but his face means BUSINESS

- Rex 🤝 Omega - believing the power of friendship can save anyone and anything they come across

- Fuck your orders Wolffe

- “I’ll make sure you’re given a fair trial” you really have no idea who you work for Wolffe do you

- Hunter being willing to stand down when Rex asks him to

- “I know you. As your brother, I’m asking you to do the right thing” the brotherly reunions this season are just paralleling all over the place

- Gregor the handsome fellow that you are. I swear his pauldrons get bigger every time we see him

- “Let my people go” the Exodus vibes are strong here too

- Guess we’re gonna be finding out what makes this CX so special. Still can’t believe he survived.

- Rex just lost almost all of his men again 😣😭

- The sheer respect and care that Hunter and Rex have for each other. The hand on the shoulder. The losses that tie them together. The worry and earnestness in Hunter’s face and tone when he tells Rex he can’t win. He doesn’t emote this much to people he doesn’t consider family.

- The ways Hunter still is hesitant to do anything but run and hide, and Rex still can’t give up. Not quite yet.

- How Hunter won’t be able to either until they know what is really going on with Omega.

[squish-o-blair]

So I got bored and decided to compile all the lore revealed in the Sonic Twitter Takeovers.

I've highlighted in Green stuff that could be (or is) canon to the games (AKA stuff that's canon, isn't contradicted in canon, or isn't some meta joke), in red is stuff that definitely isn't canon, and the rest you can make your own decision on.

-This is just regular lore but "Ivo" in "Ivo Robotnik" is pronounced "Evo" it's supposed to sound like "evil"

-Eggman is a PC gamer

-Eggman might not be able to swim

-Eggman is in smash he's just super hard to unlock

-Eggman wants to take over the world because "It's Friday" (in other words it's implied that most Sonic games take place or at least START on a Friday.)

-Eggman can't get any bitches

-Eggman works out

-The Sega Saturn is Eggman's favorite Sega console

-Eggman's a fan of old show tunes and lullabies

-There's an Eggman empire lot in North Hollywood

-Eggman has a cat he calls "Biggy Wiggy"

-Eggman is fan of Tokyo Ghoul and Chainsaw Man

-Eggman is Youtuber Cobanermani456's father

-The Egg Pawns have names (one is named Fred)

-Eggman and Sonic hang out sometimes

-Sonic and Eggman are both streamers

-Roger Craig Smith is a fake alias used by Sonic

-Sonic shares a universe with Assassin's Creed and Sonic and Eggman once kidnapped Ezio

-Sonic's a shitty gamer

-Sega is Sonic's agent

-The Sega Genesis is Sonic's favorite Sega console

-Sonic's a fan of Mongolian throat singing

-Sonic is salty about reviewers who continue to bring up Sonic 06

-Sonic's favorite Sonic games are Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric and Sonic Frontiers

-Sonic's favorite movie is Chao in Space (even though he hasn't seen it)

-Tails hacked Eggman's Twitter account (which eggman stole from Sonic) via a "lonley robots in your area" virus

-Tails is a My Hero Academia fan

-Tails is fucking ripped

-Tails is a pro among us gamer

-All their gloves stay clean because of a special polymer that Tails made

-Tails is an Acapella fan

-it took Shadow until the aftermath of Forces to find the damn 4th Chaos emerald

-Shadow only uses Android phones

-Shadow is a Breaking Bad fan

-Shadow has killed a real life person and plans to kill more

-The Dreamcast is Shadow's favorite Sega Console

-Shadow's a fan of classic rock

-Shadow is a fan of anime (specifically Kill La Kill)

-Shadow eats coffee beans raw with a spoon

-Shadow is good friends with Big and Knuckles (more-so than Sonic)

-Shadow hates Capitalism

-Shadow donates his rings to charity

-Shadow shops at a convenience store named "Maria" and feels like if he can support some Maria out there, then he feels like he's making the world a better place

-Shadow has a soft spot for kittens and wants to open a cat orphanage

-Shadow's favorite movie is Chao in Space 3 (which he features in)

-Shadow is a fan of Infinite's theme

-Shadow writes poetry

-Shadow and Maria ordered pizza on the ARK that came from Earth

-Doom's eye is still alive, him and Shadow occasionally go out for dinner

-Shadow is the living embodiment of drip

-Shadow very heterosexually hypes up Knuckles a lot

-Shadow specifically tried to keep Sonic away from him during the final boss of SA2 because he knew Sonic would've fell to Earth too if he tried to rescue him

-Despite all the issues Shadow has with Sonic's methods and morals, he doesn't hate him

-Shadow is a bad cook

-Shadow is (or will be) legally married to @/RealShadowFan01 on Twitter

EDIT: the wedding's off :(

-Shadow is panromatic/pansexual

-Shadow volunteers at soup kitchens

-The Shadow Dark Chao seen in promo art and the IDW comics does in fact belong to Shadow

-Shadow and Amy are both huge Taylor Swift fans

-Amy's favorite Sonic game is Sonic Heroes

-Amy is a Fruits Basket fan

-Amy still visits Little Planet and makes jewelry out of gems found in Quartz Quadrant

-Knuckles collects rocks that look like animals

-Knuckles is a Lizzo fan

-Knuckles, Cream, and Vanilla are big One Punch Man fans

-Chaos Control is activated by literally just holding the emerald and shouting "chaos control" that's it, anyone can do it.

-On the Planet Wisp, Hide and Seek is called "Don't be seen or perish" and whoever gets found is tossed into the volcano on Planet Wisp

-Yaker died once

-They physically can't take their gloves off

-The Sonic OVA is canon

-Mean Beans are living beings

-Grounder is canon

-Metal Sonic is a series of multiple robots and not just one that gets repaired each time (this probably isn't canon anymore)

-Infinite is still alive

-Infinite occasionally sends Eggman gay Sonadow porn

-Charmy runs a thrift store

-The stone tablet in Frontiers translates to sonic version of the Bee Movie script

-Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Shadow, all work in an unknown office somewhere

Things that exist in Sonic Universe (all of these could be red. You decide man idk):

-Twitter

-All forms of Sonic media (including games, comics, and TV shows) (they're retellings of Sonic's stories)

-Summer of Sonic

-Sonic Stadium

-Sega

-Undertale the game (and specifically Sans as a fictional character) and Toby Fox

-Game Grumps (specifically Jontron era)

-Tootsie pops (big day for tootsie pop Sonic fans)

-The Macarena

-Twitch

-Sonic songs (Escape from the City, Live and Learn, E.G.G.M.A.N., Believe in Myself, Infinite, and Vandelize are mentioned by name or referenced.)

-Cobanermani456

-Hulu

-Tyson Hesse

-Super Smash Bros (both as an event AND an in universe video game)

-SiivaGunner and GilvaSunner

-Hyper Potions

-Crush 40

-San Diego

-Apple

-Sega HARDlight

-Breaking Bad

-Sonadow porn

-Spike Chunsoft

-The Danganronpa Games (or at least V3)

-Etika

-North Hollywood

-Kill la Kill

-regular ass cats (not like Blaze, just normal real life cats) (also regular dogs)

-Alpharad

-Jacksepticeye

-Patreon

-Youtube

-Xbox

-Playstation

-Nintendo Switch

-The Completionist

-Gushers

-The "you know I had to do it to em" meme

-Tokyo Ghoul

-My Hero Academia

-Global Giving

-St. Jude

-Extra Life

-Hot Topic

-What does the Fox say

-Tee Lopes

-Tyler Smyth

-Sam's Procastionation Station

-Elsie Fisher

-Barry Kramer

-RubberNinja

-Sonamy fans

-Caddicarus

-Mario

-Among Us

-Colleen O'Shaughnessy

-Youtube

-Fadel Gamescage

-Lizzo

-Taylor Swift

-Elon Musk (implied)

[7grandmel]

Rip of the Week: 01/07/2024

KNUCKLES (Smaragdwächter)

Season 8 No Album Release (Read More) Carnival Night Zone (Act 2) (Nov 3, 1993 prototype) - Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles

Ripped by Madinstance

I pondered long and hard about this post, of what rip to make it about - I'm sort of back in the groove of things after my break, and I'm happy to see people are enjoying the graudally-increasing trickle of variety posts already, but I also feel as if I'm still regaining my footing in how to pick these rips for the blog. Alas, amidst all the requests and the all-time classics, I do inevitably hold recency bias close to my heart - bias you've already seen with rips like Last Freight-train Night, and that rears its head once again with KNUCKLES (Smaragdwächter). Because no matter what happens to me or the blog, I am but merely a Sonic fan, an Undertale enjoyer, and an absolute CONNOISSEUR for Madinstance's work. The madlad's done it again.

Like, look - I've featured the guy so many times before, I've featured Undertale music on here so many times more than even that, blah blah, blah blah...can you sincerely blame me for picking this one? Madinstance has been featured on here plenty for their incredible arrangements like M-O-O-G City and Thwâmpröck Desert, and I've always sort of taken them as the kind of ripper who puts their heart and soul into rips of games and music that they genuinely just care tons about, most evident with their Minecraft tributes like Fell From a High Place (Reprise). But lately it feels as if that view may have been wrong - or Madinstance is just growing as a ripper to where they're becoming willing to take on any arranging project so long as it sounds cool. Honestly though, I can't blame them with a concept as sick as this - meshing together prototype Carnival music from a Genesis Sonic game with Undertale boss music is the kind of lunatic concept that I don't know how one comes up with but also wouldn't be able to help myself to pursue.

There have been a lot of times where I've worried that I've covered too *much* Undertale music for the blog...but the more I sit on it, the more I realize just how core Undertale's music is to both SiIva's viewers and its rippers. Undertale blew up just a short few months before the SiIvaGunner channel itself did, and its fans have thus grown in almost direct parallel with SiIvaGunner's own fans - and on top of that, Toby Fox is the exact kind of online meme freak that SiIvaGunner itself attracts the most. Is it any surprise that we've had banging Undertale arrangements on SiIva like Hoopache, SUNGORE, and indeed Madinstance's very own Fell From a High Place (Reprise), since the very beginning of the channel, from just about every one of the team's rippers? Undertale is endlessly beloved, and moreover - endlessly versatile for arrangements, its leitmotifs and melodies so well known as to becoming a series of online anthems all in their own rights.

Compared to the more popular tunes like Megalovania and Death By Glamour, it feels as if ASGORE doesn't get as much attention from remixers and rippers. And perhaps that was part of what made me fall head over heels in love with KNUCKLES (Smaragdwächter) right from the moment go - it shows such a profound respect and understanding for not just the original ASGORE theme, but the iconic Bergentrückung prelude that introduces the battle, here weaving the two together damn seamlessly in the rip's intro. It's immensely impressive just how atmospheric and intense the rip still sounds despite, again, it's baseline track being the borderline juvenile carnival music used in Sonic 3's recently-unearthed prototype versions, a series of cheerful clapping samples introducing the track yet never overriding the emotional sincerity of the melody leading the rip. I feel like the emotion in large part also just comes from how fucking cool of a sound Sonic 3's music in general has, a lead synth that sounds unlike anything else on the genesis playing a sort of melodic back-and-fourth with a second synth lead that sounds just as distinct yet far more chipper and bright, almost reminding me of something from Rivals of Aether...? The back-and-fourth feel is an amazing touch either way, is the point!

KNUCKLES (Smaragdwächter)'s final touch, of course, comes toward the finale, the section in which the original ASGORE battle theme takes a step back from its intensity to reflect, a calm in the midst of the storm. Madinstance brilliantly uses this interlude to throw a complete curveball that still fits the arrangement perfectly: using samples and sounds from the *finalized* Carnival Night Zone theme, the one created by Michael Jackson's soundteam, and featuring that distinct glass shattering sample from Jam. I talk about escalation in rips a fair bit on here, but it wasn't as it the rip was in any need of it here anyway given how amazing the arrangement already was. It's just the sort of thing that pushes the rip from great to godlike, the kind of touch you'd mainly expect to see from a Sonic the Hedgehog superfan committed to their rip, akin to what MtH did with Youkoso Twinkle Park e. But again - perhaps, somehow, I've underestimated just how far Madinstance will go once they've landed on a concept they truly click with. Season 8 may well be the silly season in many ways, but it's all too clear that each one of the team's rippers are growing more powerful by the day.

[tooti-fruiti]

FOLLOW THE RULES [CHAPTER TWO]

Ralsei and Lancer

"Sure." You said.

Susie groaned, but decided to stay because she knew she wouldn't get anywhere unless the hooded guy in front of you two gave her directions.

"Very well then.."

"Once upon a time, a legend was whispered among shadows.

It was a legend of hopes

Of dreams

It was a legend of light

And of dark.

This is the legend of Delta Rune.

For millenia, light and dark have lived in balance.

Bringing peace to the world.

But if this harmony were to shatter...

A terrible calamity would occur.

The sky will run black with terror

And the land will crack with fear.

Then, her heart pounding, the earth will draw her final breath.

Only then, shining with hope

Shall appear three heroes at the world's edge.

A human, a monster, and a prince of the darkness.

Only they can seal the fountains and banish the angel's heaven.

Only then will balance be restored and the world will be saved from destruction.

Today, the fountain of darkness is a geyser that gives this land it's form.

It stands tall at the center of the kingdom.

But recently, another fountain has appeared on the horizon.

And with it, the balance of light and dark begins to shift."

"(Y/n). Susie." The hooded figure said. "Thank you for listening to my long tale."

"I truly believe you two are the heroes in the legend. That despite whatever enemies you may face, you two have the courage and strength to save the world."

"Please, Delta Warriors, won't you accept your destiny?"

You were about to say something but Susie beat you to it.

"Nah." She said.

"W-What?"

"Listen Dude." Susie said. "I'm not a hero or a warrior or whatever the fuck you think I am. I'm just here for a piece of chalk."

"But Susie...without you the world will-"

"I know, I heard you. Death and destruction and shit. I don't really care. I'm getting out of here." She said turning around.

"Susie-" You started to say, but you were cut off when someone riding a tricycle ran into the hooded guy.

"Ho ho ho! The heroes are already running away! And they didn't even know I was here, my dad's gonna make me son of the month!"

"Who the hell are you?" Susie said.

"I'm...the bad guy!" The little spade themed guy asked.

"You CLOWNS want to seal our dark fountain huh?! And save the world from eternal darkness?!"

"Not really." Susie muttered.

"Don't deny it! We both know that going to east towards the fountain is your only way out!"

"East huh?" Susie smiled and she turned her back.

"Where do you think you're going?!" The little spade guy yelled as a box formed around you three.

"If you want to leave, you're going to have to fight me, Lancer, first!"

"Oh yeah?" Susie said, growling. "I'll rip you to pieces."

Suddenly, you held a sword in your hand and Susie had a flaming ax.

Lancer was on the other end with one of his tricycle tires on fire.

In front of you were five orange boxes.

Fight, Act, Item, Spare, and Defend.

Susie had those boxes too.

"Are we in some sort of game?!" Susie asked confused.

"I don't know!" You said.

"Oh well! I know what I'm going to do!" Susie growled, bashing her fist into the fight button.

You had no idea what was happening, so you chose to defend.

You grabbed a shield off the floor and held it in front of you.

Susie attacked Lancer.

Then he responded to the attack and tried to run both over.

This repeated about four more times, before Lancer got hungry and left.

"Are both okay?" The hooded figure asked.

"I guess." Susie said. "Alright, I'm out of here."

Susie then put her ax over her back and walked away.

"She's probably going east." The hooded figure said.

"Oh! Let me introduce myself."

He lowered his hood and smiled at you.

"My name is Ralsei." He said, and he turned out to be a cute little goat monster.

"If you accept your destiny, I will happily accompany you on your journey."

You smiled and shrugged.

"It's my way out right? I'll help."

"Wonderful!" Ralsei said. "I'll show you where to go."

(Hope you enjoyed. Stay tuned for more and have a good day.)

<-Chapter One

Chapter Three->

[crashlapine]

so uh, adventure time spoilers even though it's been a good decade i guess

elaborating on the tags on that last reblog, i've been goin in hard on marathoning the original adventure time series. i say 'original' because the fionna and cake thing apparently got made into a full-blown series of its own that takes place quasi-post mainline adventure time or something? who knows. been trying to remain spoiler-free

anyway. what the fuck is this show dude.

like i've always heard people mention it gets heavy, but vague memories of what i remember watching as a kid (back when cable was something i had access to, roughly during just seasons one and two) all made it very hard to put aside the original impression i had that it was just some funny quirky thing i used to watch. some fun little show where "mathmatical!" is a family-friendly exclamation for adventure and all swears and expletives are substituted with random g-rated humor

like, willing to bet everyone at this point is at least sorta familiar with the post-apocalyptic setting/backdrop running underneath it all; i remember back in its airtime when everyone treated it as a big deal, how folks here loved to theorize about it before the explicit confirmation in-show

but... now, actually sitting down to watch this all in order, seeing this silly thing slowly turn into this heavy episodic mess about loss, manipulation, the legacy you're expected to leave behind, identity (and a lack of ties to one's own), and god knows what else... the post-apoc theming's much less a Shocking Reveal, and more just... "yeah, that's just the setting. life goes on. this is how we've dealt with the fallout in trying to rebuild society, fixing our mistakes" since s03/s04.

as funny as it feels to get into a long post about a show aimed at kids and teens, we also have literal episodes like [spoilers] finn getting his own dominant arm completely torn off while trying to chase down his absent father, with the only thing stopping him from bleeding out is a mix of Cursed Artifact and Pool Of Healing fantasy tropes, going on to spend the next episode, and i mean the full fucking runtime of the episode [s06e04, "The Tower"], in a dissociative/depressive state, absentmindedly building a tower to the heavens above in some vain revenge-driven attempt to find his father again just so he can rip /his/ arm off as eye-for-an-eye payback, operating off the vague notion the dude escaped earth's orbit and is just 'up there' somewhere. the only thing that stops him and snaps him out of that state is passing out from a lack of oxygen at the elevations he reaches.

like, imagine tuning into a rerun of a random episode of this show and eleven minutes of /that/ is what you get, devoid of context. there's no adventure there. this isn't fun. but you can't bring yourself to fault the kid, either, seeing the events of the past dozen episodes that built up to that point. this little story arc is hardly the only time this kind of thing happens, and the consequences of each one of these events is never neglected by the writing team. it resonates through the rest of the story, constantly

all taken together, it feels like the main motto of this series season four and on has become some reassurance to the viewer that "life can throw a lot of shit your way, and we don't always know how to handle these things. but for better or worse, life goes on. it has to."

marathoning this series properly has been a trip that resonates close to home too often in too many ways, as weirdly high-fantasy complete nonsense as it can be. feels weird to acknowledge that.

i'm gonna miss this show dearly once i'm through with it

[liquidstar]

5 and 13 for nova stella :D

HIII MY FRIEND IM GOING TO HAVE TO PUT THIS UNDER A CUT AGAIN BC I TYPED SO MUCH <3 BUT TY FOR THE ASK YAAY

5.) pick a theme song for the tv adaptation.

Oh picking just one song is SO hard. Dare I rip off Assassination Classroom and say I like to picture Polaris walking to the tune of Hello Shooting Star by Moumoon as she meets the other characters on her journey? hehe

13.) how long have you been working on this project? what has changed from the outset?

I would say… Around January 2021? That’s when I posted my first drawing of Polaris! And actually the drawing itself has been slightly updated now! Nothing major, just cleaning up some details, adding a few things to better reflect her character now that it’s more figured out and all. Like, now she has a compass on her side and the nautic star symbol on her collar, and her hairclip is a snowflake! Her bow has also been moved lower down her braid. She’s also less thin, to have a more different body type than Bella.

Other characters have gone through some design changes like that too! Some are actually fairly character relevant (like Saiph getting the sleeves and spike cuffs around his wrists) while some are just more practical (Going to have to connected Felis’s cat ears to where her human ears are. Or would be. So she wouldn’t have four sets of ears LOL. Same goes for some other characters). 

And as for story changes, I think I went through a few different concepts for what exactly it would be before I settled on a guild. Stuff like Polaris adventuring the world solo (Which she still does pre-story), or becoming somekind of knight, idk! Throwing ideas around! That’s why despite not being super relevant, the zodiac knights were characters I drew before the rest of the main guild! (I think some of them need a bit of a re-vamp too). 

There were also different archetypes I played around with before settling on what would be the main group! Like for example, at first I wanted Andy to be a main character who was sort of a runaway princess. But I felt like that added a layer of complication I didn’t need. She was actually going to be more like how Bella is now lol. They have similar name themes in a way, with “Ruler of men” (Andromeda) and “Female warrior” (Bellatrix).

The other Nova Stella characters fell into place sort of naturally, I think. I liked to just come up with concepts and see how they’d fit in. And as I added new characters, dynamics changed, which made character’s change! Barnard was always going to be the nerdy smart dude of the guild, but once I added Juno (Who was the last character created for the main guild!) he now had a buddy, which I got to make an entire backstory for that totally added to both characters. Both the pre-existing Barnard and the newly-made Juno lol. Or, like, Lacerta for example was sort of just the Mean Girl at first, but adding a bit of a more complex dynamic with her and Mira (ex. “She’s too nice and I don’t like it/trust it” type thing that makes Lacerta lash out, partly out of insecurity, while Mira continues to be herself which pisses her off more) I think added more to her beyond that too. Like, actual insecurities about being.. The Way She Is. AND ALSO speaking of Mira, really her entire dynamic with Felis and Saiph is a whooole thing that I figured out later on. Boy these three sure can fit a lot of self-destruction and death themes into them! 

As for the other guilds, as soon as I had a concept for them the archetypes sort of fell into place, since, like I said, they tended to be a bit more gimmicky. Not all of them, I had some trouble parsing what I’d do with Pluto’s guild (Tartarus) for a bit!

Eventually I figured… Wouldn’t it be fun to kind of full circle things? Like, okay. The event that really kicks everything off is Polaris meeting Saiph. They meet because Polaris was kind of getting mugged by two Tartarus members, and Saiph steps in to help and kind of fucks it up so now they have to work together… It’s a whole thing! Anyway the epiphany I had the other night was, what if post-timeskip they meet again for the first time in a while because Saiph is getting mugged by THE SAME TWO ASSHOLES and Polaris has to step in to save him lol. (But the reason she was there is a bit different this time!)

Anyway thank Dumb and Dumber for being responsible for the whole story happening. Twice. They’ll be drawn w the rest of the Tartarus guild when it’s time ^_^

[baronaliswritingcorner]

Tales of Symphonia Stray Thoughts #9: Fooji Mountains/Meltokio

-"Dammit! At that moment, facing the decision between Colette and the world... For a split second, I chose the world."

Colloyd right off the bat! 😭

I may've brought this up before, but this idea of an impossible choice is a recurring theme throughout the game and one that instantly strikes through the hearts of players. In putting us in Lloyd's shoes, who wouldn't waver in choosing between the life of one's friend (more than friend?) and the entire world? I'll sing the praises of Lloyd's idealism in future installments, but I think its firmest stepping stone in onboarding us is how the game humanizes his reaction to this life-or-death situation.

...of course, all this is immediately undermined by the following skit.

-"MAN THAT WAS THE FIRST TIME WE'VE FLOWN BETWEEN TWO WORLDS!"

Well, that's certainly exciting, to be sure. But to come off just after that...can't help but wonder if it's a method of cope.

(By the way, this is around the time the "Lloyd Confesses His Love" skit pops up, yes? I remember it had a very particular trigger, but alas, I didn't go for it this time around. Still, highlighted for obvious reasons.)

-"Because they're elves."

I say this to myself now and then.

-Fooji Mountains...that's the game's one other distinct Japanese name for a locale. And the inspiration ain't exactly subtle. Could there be a connection between it and Mizuho...?

-"I would assume he's upset about the crash."

okay, seriously. how did noishe get on the rheairds. was he even in the renegade base at the time. actually, was he even on the dragons for the tower of salvation. how does this all work.

my colloyd day fic may've been one big comedy but dirk still had a great point here

-man when you step out into Tethe'alla and hear those bells ring...anyone got an emoji of that one Pacha meme? You know the one. "These hills sing."

-Speaking of music, I just remembered playing this game as a lad and my brother came in and started pantomiming the Meltokio harpsichord just to piss me off lol. Miss ya, bro.

-"The people of Mizuho were chased from this land. We all live in hiding."

Hmm! What's the story there? Tune in next time as I present a possible link...

-Colette kicking the dog. Poor dog. Wonder if she was conscious for that. Must've been mortified. I hope she and the dog reconcile.

-What kinda name for a hotel is Sancta Cassius

-so how does colette spend nights at the inn when she's soulless

like

does she sleep under the covers or just stand there all night

maybe lloyd snuggles her close

imagine

-Speaking of heartless Colette, did you know she can still cook in that condition? Visualize that for a moment. Fic potential right there!

-The Zelos debut scene is a fan-favorite, but all I can look at now is how small the city looks. Ah, primitive 2003 graphics.

-"No offense, but I'm not interested in talking to guys"

zelloyd shippers rip

(...yeah, right, like that's ever stopped the yaoi juice LOL) -yo they really just had genis say ass. he's twelve. why didn't raine smack him. Localization flub, I suppose, but I don't think he's the type of character of swear.

-Maid outside coliseum: "I will completely devote myself to serving you, but gentlemen with cosplay fetishes are not welcome."

...I never saw this line before. o_o

Well then, sexual fetishes are canon in the Symphoniaverse. Who knew?

-"This gap between rich and poor is one of the characteristics of Meltokio."

yeah well fuck you too lady

-"You there, put on some kind of performance for me."

I made Lloyd run around in circles for this lady for about thirty seconds. Unfortunately, my lack of a recording device means you'll never see this attempt to please the aristocracy. Please understand.

-"The Church of Martel is preparing a prayer ritual to pray for His Majesty’s recovery, so try asking the priests in the church to ensure that he gets well as soon as possible."

OH BOY THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS!! From the very institution poisoning the king, no less! Look, kinks are one thing, but I don't wanna be reminded of political nihilism when playing a childhood favorite. Get outta here, chump.

-"Your shift's up."

This seemingly irrelevant dialogue's meant to show how the new guards don't recognize Lloyd's party. Despite them being right there.

-"This is the Martel cathedral. It's the largest temple in Tethe'alla."

bruh it's barely bigger than the one in palmacosta

if even that

namco you silly

-"That girl he called Presea has an Exsphere too. Is that a standard custom over here?"

Lloooooooyd. Sheena already said that's not the case.

-wtf is vharley's haircut even

-why're they trying to lift the sacred wood when the handle's right there

-Lloyd: "Oh my g-"

Hmm, is "oh my god" an euphemism in Sylvarant?

-"I've lost all confidence as a man."

A classic Lloyd line right here, lol. Can't blame him.

-I'd point out how Tara Strong -- an industry all-timer -- does a fantastic job in conveying Presea's robotic monotony, but after her racist Twitter screeds, that's kinda...yeah. My ability to separate art from the artist varies, but at least I can push that out of mind here.

Shame about all that, really. We all complained about DOTNW replacing most of the cast (and for good reason!), but that's one point in favor for a potential remake's recasting.

(...of course, Tales of Symphonia has its own issues in its core theme of racism, but we'll get to that later.)

-"What do we do the sacred wood?"

"Leave it here."

but who's gonna carry it tho

-"You may not approach the throne!"

don't tell me what to do

-lol lloyd's just running around the castle in half-naked scuba gear and none of you chumps get to see it. it's funny. trust me.

-okay how does lloyd punch the papal knight in the back like that

like

that's not how knocking out people works. especially if they're in full armor like that. stop being silly namco

-IT'S KING JESUS!!! Don't try and tell me that's not intentional. He's a dead-ringer.

-"That means you'll be abandoning Sylvarant." "I don't care."

See? Raine does care! Ah, I just live for those moments when her beating half-elf heart breaks through her hardened cynicism. She's a gem.

-I rag on the localization sometimes, but they do a great job bringing Zelos to life here. Masaya Onosaka is a massively talented seiyuu, but the truth is you'll never channel a 1:1 adaption for any foreign product, so the key is balancing the original's spirit with your respective language's idiosyncrasies and the like.

This isn't always successful, of course -- and given the rigors of translation/localization, I'm willing to give the industry some slack -- but the character's larger-than-life personality remains intact and we're left with perhaps the game's most compelling character: a carefree barrel of laughs complementing the troubled nihilist within.

(And, as we'll discuss next time, saddled with outdated sexism/classism galore. Yikes!)

-Right, so, Presea's Klonoa outfit and Zelos's beach outfit...perfectly goofy. Looking forward to continue thoroughly undermining every serious scene!

[jayextee]

Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (2017)

The original Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap is, without a doubt, the SEGA Master System game ever. It looks, sounds, and plays every bit like the distilled very best of SEGA's 8-bit offerings and is arguably (both by myself and many other fans of the system) the best game available for the console.

Having opened this review with such high praise, I probably don't have to say that if any remake of that game were anything less than absolutely stellar and amazing work, I would not be kind to it. I would hold nothing back, show no quarter, take the gloves off, let rip, and tear it a new one. Luckily, it's absolutely amazing and stellar work.

Essentially that's because this is an emulation of the original Master System ROM with a pretty new skin running over the top of it. Okay, maybe a bit more complex than that, but the game logic running here is basically 1:1 with the SMS version even if, and this includes the game with retro visuals and sounds enabled, there are some changes elsewhere.

Good changes, mind you -- what the kiddies like to call 'quality of life' stuff. Really though, how quality do you need your life if your biggest worries are what creature comforts and conveniences a videogame offers you? But I digress here, there's a whole-ass separate button for special weapon usage and the equipment menu is a much more pleasant-to-navigate affair. And, mercifully, they've got rid of that fucking 'charm point' system that I personally felt was an idea that didn't service this game style as well as it would a more-conventional RPG. And, in essence, all it meant was exiting a shop to remove the Goblin Mail, re-entering, seeing the stuff for sale that should've been for sale anyway. Yeah, that tedium's gone.

There are some small layout changes as well, presumably to even-out the challenge a little. But this is all piecemeal stuff compared to the aesthetic overhaul. Oh, wow, the aesthetic overhaul. Let me, frankly, gush.

Imagine a retro game not just upscaled, not just redrawn, but completely reimagined with the utmost passion, respect, and care for the source material. That's The Dragon's Trap right here.

It. Is. Fucking. Beautiful.

Featureless flat areas with naught but trees are now expansive meadows featuring a memorial to a battle long-since passed, continuing onto a valley with a tower hidden inside a forest by the lake. Standard platform gauntlets across a body of water are now a set of tropical islets in a luxurious ocean that culminates in a shipwreck telling a tale of caution and intrigue before the great offscreen unknown. And there's a little stool outside a hut by a lava lake where the owner has carelessly left some impaled marshmallows to toast in the heat. There is so much attention to detail here, and cute little touches, and visual storytelling, it's tough not to fall in love all over again. The game that was my adventurous escape in childhood, is equally so if not more in adulthood.

Music's amazing, too. Not a single piece feels wrong or updated without the full knowledge of what made the original tunes 'pop'. Particular favourites of mine are the desert and jungle themes, both of which have instrumentation that perfectly encapsulates their host environments and makes the adventure connect on an even deeper level.

I am, however, overlooking some of-its-time "flaws" in this game. I don't care. I even put "flaws" in those scare-quotes because, fuck it, they don't make games like this anymore so there's no reason to change it to be more like games they do make. That one Steam reviewer who says the controls are slippery and the coins bounce over the player's head, you're wrong mate. Couldn't be wronger. Maybe a dragon cursed that guy and he's typing with tiny mouse hands that can barely reach the controller buttons?

Anyway, my recent 2.5 hour afternoon playthrough of this game made me fall in love with it for like the hundredth time. Here's to a hundred more.

5/5