#while lasting 4x longer

[exitrowiron]

Day 9: Vic Sau to Platja Daro

77.1 miles, 6:02, 5,748' ascent

At last night's dinner and breakfast this morning, everyone was focused on just one thing - this is the day we see the ocean and ride ends!

The route includes two significant climbs, but again nearly half the day's ascent is provided by the 'rollers'. The weather was cloud free but this meant that we were broiled by the hot Catalan sun and drank copiously to stay hydrated.

The dramatic views while descending are largely behind us, except for the last big descent when we finally saw the deep blue of the Mediterranean Ocean. This was a thrilling site to be sure but we still had 10 miles of riding and 1K' ascent before we arrived at the beachfront hotel.

After racking bikes and doffing our cleats, the riders and guides headed to the beach for a well-earned celebratory photo in the warm water.

My sister asked if this trip was harder than the US cross country trip and I think it is. The US trip is 4x longer and requires more stamina, but this is certainly the most challenging 8 days I've ridden. Part of the challenge is the novelty of the off-the-bike experience: unfamiliar foods, minimal air conditioning, eating dinner until 10:30 pm etc.

Despite all this, it was a great experience, topped off by Beth joining me the next day for more adventures in Europe.

Thanks for your support and encouragement.

[borahaerhy]

Can you do jk fic where jk and oc are bff and roomates too obviously! ... they likkeee loovee each other but cant express it and then jk fake date to make sure that oc lovess him.. But oc didn't confess her feeling coz she think he's happy with her and then it frustrates jk and then confesses and they make out....( smutty..fluff )

Hope you can write it will wait for it..

By the way have a good day

YES-

You Make Me Happy

Genre: Friends to lovers, mutual pining, Fluff, Angst, Smut

Warnings: Jungkook lies without technically lying, they're both idiots tbh, smut, unprotected sex (stop), slight dirty talk, multiple orgasms, fluffy ending.

Word count: 1.9k

SORRY IT TOOK ME SO LONG I'M SO BEHIND ON REQUESTS-

“Hey,” You pull your eyes away from your phone, where they’ve been glued for the past hour while you sat on your couch when you see Jungkook walk past you; his smile toothy and exaggerated as he rushed toward the door. 

“Hey, where are you off to?” You stood up, letting your phone fall onto the couch as you started following him. He was dressed in what he would consider nice clothes, tight jeans with a t-shirt that was actually his size, rather than the 4X he usually wears, and a leather jacket. 

“Uh, remember that girl I was telling you about” He stopped and turned to face you as you reached the door, him half bent over as he pulled his shoes on. You furrowed your eyebrows slightly as you tried to remember everything he had said about her, that you definitely hadn’t been thinking about obsessively since the last time you’d spoken about her. 

“Yeah, the one you met at the gaming convention?” He nodded quickly as he straightened himself out, pushing his still damp hair out of his face. 

“That’s the one; we’re going out to dinner,” You stood still for a moment, waiting for his words to sink in. 

“Like on a date?” 

“I hope so,” He gave another exaggerated smile, eyes wide as he opened the door and stepped out of it, leaving you alone in the entryway of your shared apartment. 

Jungkook, of course, wasn’t actually going on a date with her. Sure, he was going out to dinner with her, and her wife, but you didn’t need to know that. 

She was someone he could talk to about you: the woman that he’d been in love with for far too long to be living together in separate bedrooms. He’d met her a few months ago and they’d talk about you, and her wife, and gush about how much they’d loved you respectively until he let her know that you weren’t exactly his girlfriend. 

That’s when she convinced him to actually do something. He was a little iffy on the whole thing, seeing as you’d been friends for so long that starting to date now just seemed like it would create more problems than solve. But, now that someone else knew his feelings for you, and had convinced him that he’d be happier if he was actually with you, he couldn’t stop thinking about what it would be like if he could actually come home and kiss your soft lips before falling asleep next to you every day.

So, when the two of you were having a conversation and a girl he knew and you didn’t came up… he got a little carried away testing the waters. 

He mentioned that they talked a lot, and they had a lot in common and that he thought she was very pretty, something you happened to agree with him on, even though it stung quite a bit.

Then, he wasn’t exactly planning on telling you he was going out on a date, but he did dress up nice intentionally, and when you asked him if he was a date, he couldn’t help but agree with you. He wasn’t the one to bring it up, after all. And he didn’t technically lie. 

So while you sit at home alone panicking about Jungkook being on a date with another woman, he was panicking thinking about your reaction, and what you might be doing since he’d left. 

The dinner with his friends ran a little longer than he’d expected as they caught each other up on the things they’d missed since the last time they saw each other in person; so Jungkook didn’t return home until a little later that night, where, from the conversation he’d had with his friend, he’d assumed you would’ve been up waiting for him. 

But you weren’t. 

He told them everything; the expression on your face and demeanor different than they normally would’ve been, and the sudden interest when he’d gotten dressed up. They told him that you definitely liked him, that there’s no way you would care that much unless you were interested in him. 

You’d no doubt be waiting up for him to hear how it went, to see if he had fun on his ‘date’. 

But you were in your room, lights out and door closed. 

Two days later, he went on another ‘date’, and you had little to no reaction. Internally, you were screaming, but on the outside, you kept up a cool image. 

Several weeks passed and Jungkook kept going on these fake dates, which were really just him hanging out with friends or running errands. 

Each time you seemed less and less interested, and on the off occasion that you’d be up and ask him how his dates went, you seemed genuinely happy for him to be happy with someone else. 

But you thought he was happy with someone else. How were you supposed to be anything but happy for him, your best friend, finding someone great that makes him happy? You couldn’t be jealous, or try to drag her, or magically get the courage to make out with him because he wasn’t even available anymore. He was happy, so you needed to be happy for him. 

“How was your girlfriend?” You asked as he walked in from one of his dates. He stopped before he could make it to his room and turned back to you, leaning against the counter. 

“Girlfriend?” He asked, brow furrowed and arms crossed. You straightened yourself out as you looked up at him, before shrugging and looking back down at the vegetables you were cutting. 

“You’ve been going out for weeks now, I just assumed,” There was a still silence, the only sound in the room was the gentle chopping of your knife that you desperately tried to make fill up the awkward space. 

“And you’d just be okay with that?” You looked up at him, confusion was written all over your face. 

“Why wouldn’t I be? If she makes you happy-” 

“She’s not who makes me happy,” Jungkooks heart was in his throat, but he didn’t care. He couldn’t do this anymore, he couldn’t take living with you and being in love with you and you just being so indifferent. He knew you liked him, so why were you acting like this? 

At this point, you had no idea what to say, what to think as nothing Jungkook said seemed to be making sense. You put the knife down and turned to face him, leaning slightly against the counter behind you. 

“What are you-” He didn’t let you finish your sentence before his lips were on yours, one of his hands on the counter behind you and the other on your cheek, gently holding you as you melted into the best kiss you’ve ever had, though it didn’t last long before you pushed him off of you. “Wait, Jungkook, what about-” 

“She’s just a friend,” You were still looking at him confused, begging him to explain more because things just kept making less and less sense. “Always has been; you’re the one that makes me happy, Y/n. I just wanted to see if you felt the same way-” This time you cut him off, pulling him into you, your hands on his face as he balanced himself on the counter and your waist. 

You’d both wasted far too much time being in love with one another and doing nothing about it, and you weren’t going to waste another second. 

Jungkook seemed to feel the same way as he pulled you tightly against him and deepened the kiss. 

His hands were all over you as his tongue explored your mouth, breathing deeply as you desperately clung to each other. It wasn’t long before your legs were wrapped around his waist and he was pushing you back onto the counter, pushing the cutting board filled with food to the side and into the sink, completely ruining what you’d planned to make for dinner, not that you cared at all at this point. 

Your clothes were discarded in a rush, as were his as his lips sucked and nipped at every available patch of skin he laid his eyes on, his hot breath sending countless shivers down your spine as your arousal began to pool in your panties, the hem of which Jungkook was rolling between his fingers. 

“Fuck, Jungkook,” His lips swiftly left your ribs below your breasts as he straightened himself out and pulled you into him. 

“What baby, what do you want me to do?” His voice low and rough as your eyes darted between his eyes and his swollen wet lips, his hands now under the hem of your underwear and gripping your bare hips as he gently and slowly moved his hips against yours. You groaned softly, gripping onto his shoulders as he nudged against your regrettably clothed clit. 

“I want you to fuck me, Jungkook,” You managed to whisper in his ear before you wrapped your arms around his neck to keep yourself stead as he wasted no time in ripping off both your panties and his boxers. 

Before you can even see his length he’s slipping into you as slowly as he can manage as you both moan out in pleasure. You kiss again, moaning into each other's mouths desperately as he begins to move, rocking his hips delicately against you. Small short thrusts followed narrowly by longer harsher ones, each even more delicious than the last. 

“Why the fuck didn’t we do this sooner?” his hands clung to your hips as if his life depended on it as your faces never got more than a few centimeters away from one another. 

“Because you were too busy pretending to have a girlfri- FUCK,” Jungkook snapped his hips into you roughly and his hand found your clit, effectively shutting you up as your forehead buried in the crook of his neck. 

His rough pace and skilled fingers didn’t take long to bring you to your climax, gripping onto him so hard to make sure you didn’t accidentally float away with how high your orgasm made you feel. 

Jungkook hooked his hands under your thighs and lifted you off the counter, your legs instinctively wrapping around his waist as he moved back the hall and into his bedroom. Your orgasm wasn’t even finished before he laid you down on the edge of his bed, his feet still on the floor as he pushed into you again, thrusting softly. 

Jungkook pulled his feet off the floor and pushed you further onto the bed, his fingers intertwining with yours on either side of your head as he kissed you softly. His movements slowed down considerably from the kitchen to the bed, his hands and mouth roaming over your chest and body as his hips moved into you sensually, trying to stay in this position with you for as long as possible. 

“I love you,” Jungkook whispers as his lips find yours again, your hand cupping his face softly as his thrusts sped up. 

“I love you,” Your whisper almost came out as a moan, as you finished for the second time, your walls clenching down on him roughly pushing him over the edge. 

You hold onto each other tightly as he spills into you, leaving kisses on your face softly as you both come down from your highs. You stay like this for a while, holding each other as you share sweet words with one another.

[spotlightlowlife]

Where the hell is everyone?

Not my usual post but something stood out to me, the views on these shows.

Figures declining is normal, only the drop seems quite a lot and I can't help but think that the characters ( so obviously the writing) deserve the blame.

Oops and Mammon's mid season at this moment both have approximately 26 million views, however, the mammon episode has 13k more comments dispite Oops not only being almost 2 months older, but

it being an episode we saw Fizz, Ozzie who we hadn't seen for a while

we saw Striker and Crimson again

most of all, this is the one where Fizz and Blitzø made up AND we learned what happened

there's no Stolitz in either of these or IMP

no IMP or Stolas at all in the Mammon episode

Now take into account that these two episodes are VERY episodic, following straight on from the event of the other with the setup of Mammon special only being possible because of the outcome of Oops. This gave Oops excellent rewatch value, I know I rewatched it (and found hypocrisy and possible retcon)

So though both are Fizz x Ozzie episodes and both let us return to the plot, the Mammon episode definitely did the Oops episode a massive service. Since this was the third Fizz x Ozzie episode and they existed in attached at the hip each time, we have only seen Fizz without Ozzie's presence in flashbacks childhood or as a robot, Ozzir without Fizz hasn't really been a thing.

It would be interesting to see them outside their ship but then again, Fizz no longer has his other job and isn't Blitzø's adversary anymore, there appears to be a crush element in this relationship too and Ozzie has been neutered as a businessman and the embodiment of lust itself, the two of them currently have the looming threat of Mammon and whatever he's planning over them. All this is fine, they're side characters but it really shows how much they're carried.

Now, fast forward and the next two episodes have half the view count, even though we have

the main cast back

Loona's voice actor is back

Stolitz drama

the return of angels, D.H.O.R.K, Verosika and some sinners we know

most of all, a curveball with the Stolitz transactionship ending and Blitzø having another option to run business

To add to this, the shorts become a thing around the same time as these episodes, they offer freedom to show the characters working and feature extras, so why are the first and second 12M and 13M views? Why aren't these 5 minute shorts surpassing episodes that take 4x the amount of time to watch?

Furthermore, the last episode to do as well as the Mammon special that made Oops episodic was the episode where we met Crimson and Millie and Moxxie's somehow shared (yet how was this relevant) ex Chaz, which gave us some of Moxxie's background, his meeting with Blitzø, a mobster theme and some action for Millie to flex her skills again with no dialogue needed up against characters who don't matter. This episode also has approximately 26M views, released 6 months prior to Oops, yet sat in between these two episodes are three more

the one were Striker would return, abducted and injured Stolas, in addition Millie and Moxxie would get their freedom to work without Blitzø and Blitzø would face a frustrating social issue of taking his daughter to a long overdue medical appointment, but at 22M views

Unhappy campers, the announced 'Millie episode' which also allowed us to also meet Barbie in the last 5 minutes at the end with no build up, it took us to Earth, give us no human designs for the main cast and give Millie an opportunity to flex without dialogue to no names who don't matter

the LONG AWAITED season one finale that got blocked, featuring Kesha! Playing on of the princes of hell! Featuring one of the most catchy songs to date. How did this get caught up in the plateau at just 23M? Surely it bought a number of dwindling viewers back to what we all missed out on? Surely it has a high chance of rewatch value because a lot had happened since?

Is it that the main cast and 'nice' villains aren't holding attention?

The second episode of season two had Octavia, who we hadn't seen in a while, run away. We got to see Earth, we got to see Stolas's human design, Stolas's interactions with his estranged wife and daughter, there were unnecessary and odd because of how the episode started and where they left off last time we saw them Stolitz moment and we got to hear Octavia and Loona speak.

This has just 2M more views than (episodic) Oops but is 11 months older.

At just 5M more views and 3 months older is the season premiere (so expected to do well) where we get a shared backstory for Stolas and Blitzø,

their cute childhood selves, some of Stella's story, we meet Blitzø's dad, we meet Stolas's dad, we see their transactionship start and a massive step in neutering Stolas.

I'm quite sure people liked him when he was the creepy, easily dangerous rich guy who held the operation of Blitzø business and maybe even his life in his hands and I'm quite sure 'humanising' him by having him realise he doesn't really know his daughter was a fine addition to his character, villains don't need to be in the wrong every time we see them.

In other news, Stolas' song 'Just look my way' may have 19M views (well done I hope they're genuine) but the song Clown Bitch from two extra we may never see again has more views than 2 minute notice, which is from the much loved Fizz,

it even has more views than Poison from parent series Hazbin Hotel, the song of an actual lead character Angeldust and this track has a remix.

There's reason I bring up Hazbin. Is it a coincidence that between the Mammon special and the next episode of Helluva, the long awaited Hazbin hotel that made it big and streamed on Amazon aired in its entirety, in that we would meet further neutered down characters who hold hire rank than those in Helluva?

The fact that we meet the leader and owner of hell, Lucifer the devil himself and he's a fun, sarcastic sad boy authors pet who did nothing wrong, let's blame another (breeder) wife and mother who's absent from the story for whatever reason yet to make matters worse, he isn't even a lead, his totally underwhelming 'nice girl' daughter is along with her friends.

Here's how watering down the powerful along with making them 'nice' comes into play and harms the plots.

Charlie ranks higher than Ozzie and gets to rub shoulders with sinners and call them her people without issue

sinners are higher than imps but imps as good as make sinners, Blitzø's whole business is to kill humans, many of which become sinners who are then seen as vermin who need to be wiped out, yet sinners are above imps, so are imps punching up?

Charlie is above Ozzie, Bee is equal to Ozzie and her relationship with a hellhound is just fine, we totally miss out in an overlord in an inappropriate power balance relationship with someone who could have been in one of the dog pounds she signs off on

where's the controversy in 'Blitzø and Stolas done better' Fizz x Ozzie, where Ozzie is loving and affectionate, doesn't like love potions and now doesn't like coersion and lusting after his mans image? There is none, no scandal or consequence, their drama is all personal issues, who is Ozzie, the leader we have spent the most time with to answer to? Not Lucifer who's welcome to hang out with his daughters sinner friends dispite condemning sinners as a waste of time the last time we saw him. Who cares, everyone is 'nice'

When we met Mammon he was met with a load of hatred and this was clearly the desired effect, there was so much that people could lazily project his way, and look how well his episode did. We actually got an excellent representation of ruthless and adaptive business and leadership with a lack of morals and genuine interest. I'm guessing this character was essential in seeing hell thrive.

King Paimon's introduction should have been a much bigger deal, it's bad enough that he went from from shapeshifting and manifesting in a mirror, not remembering this particular child, spending the day with Stolas through the mirror to stood beside him with no introduction, but we learn that he has many children and that he sets Stolas up with an arranged marriage.

So there is a hierarchy, there are people doing business with one another, there are those to answer to, there are numerous high ranking families. Why was the heir (Octavia) important? Business merger? Prophecy? We can only assume he set Stolas to work at a young age, encouraged his (unfortunately now lost) classism by giving him his own place, no family closeness and servants to toss about and we can only assume it's the same story for all the other children. King Paimon is not one of Lucifer's circle of seven but where does he rank next to him?

Both seem to be great candidates for a devil in charge. I'm sure there are numberours people who would discuss this but would be drowned out by those who will only give these characters the time of day blame them for 'being the reason Fizz and Stolas were sad' in the same note as dumped upon Stella and "supremacist" Striker another two who just happen to actively move the story forward.

Chances are plenty of people are too nervous to admit amongst the drowning out to liking any of these characters for fear of being ganged up on, but it seems that the 'good' characters, the fun and nice characters with power and the leads who we are to follow and just 'like' aren't cutting it really. Their stories are lacking.

There's a good chance that noisy fanbase fanning out, crying all over Twitter, attacking people full time and wanting to see hookups and representations are getting their fill amongs themselves. They make the shows seem more popular than they are because these people are chronically online and engaged in the discourse of attack and defend, rather than really following and discussing the story, coming back to it and taking interest where it is needed. As much as writers are online a lot and get to see the love and hide behind and encourage attack dogs, fandoms are contained and not good to write for, fandoms do their own thing. Any reasonable person, a critic who likes, one who doesn't care for and one who truly hates a story can do what a blind loyal person and one who's more invested in fanbase can't, which is offer feedback.

Looks like there's a silent majority of people who are here for the story, don't care for the digressions too much and are falling out of interest in the main characters. No doubt the silent majority are still waiting on things to improve, first of all by returning to the standard set in season one.

[hananoami]

[07/28] Deepspace Trials Prog

[07/22 to 07/28] WEEKLY KEYS USED

☆ XAVIER : 9/9 keys ; going on Stage 139on Monday. ☆ ZAYNE : 9/9 keys ; going on Stage 139 on Tuesday. ☆ RAFAYEL : 9/9 keys ; going on stage Stage 139 on Wednesday. ☆ SYLUS : 9/9 keys ; going to stage 19 on Tuesday. ☆ OPEN ORBIT : currently stuck on Stage 150.

𝚇𝙰𝚅𝙸𝙴𝚁

My post clear write up + VOD for Xavier's Directional Orbit: Light - Stage 130 will be written soon. A link to that post will be included [here] at a later time.

My runs with Xavier this week weren't too difficult. If anything I messed up a few times due to poor timing, like un Stage 133. The final wanderer locked it's hp bar, but Xavier managed to finish it off with his support skill.

Things I did different -- in Stage 135, the protofield stellactrum was 4 emerald, 2 sapphire, however, rather than use Lightseeker Companion, I opted to use Lumiere to defeat those group of 3 wanderers. Personally I like Lumiere's support kit as a Moonchaser a lot better than offensive kit as a Lightseeker.

Also don't forget to check your memories to make sure you have protocores equipped. If you're like me and have to swap between protocores because you share them with all of the guys it's hard to keep track of who has what... so yeah, just double check before going into a battle mode.

I was struggling to clear Stage 136 and had no idea why considering it should have been an easy stage. So when got out of the fight to see went wrong I realized I didn't have anything on, hahaha. Don't pull an oopsie moment like I did-- OTL

Directional Orbit: Light Protofield Stellactrum

130: 5 emerald, 1 pearl (team 01) + 5 amber, 1 ruby (team 02) -- rewards: 4k gold + 40 💎+ 1x Empyrean Wish

131: 4 emerald, 2 ruby -- rewards: 2k gold + 20 💎

132: 4 emerald, 2 ruby -- rewards: 2k gold + 20 💎

133: 4 emerald, 2 ruby (boss absorb) -- rewards: 2k gold + 20 💎

134: none -- rewards: 2k gold + 20 💎

135: 4 emerald, 2 sapphire -- rewards: 4k gold + 40 💎 + 4x bottle of wishes: sr

136: 4 emerald, 2 sapphire -- rewards: 2k gold + 20 💎

137: none -- rewards: 2k gold + 20 💎

138: 4 amber, 2 pearl (clusters) -- rewards: 2k gold + 20 💎

𝚉𝙰𝚈𝙽𝙴

My post clear write up + VOD for Zayne's Directional Orbit: Ice - Stage 130 will be written soon. A link to that post will be included [here] at a later time.

Hmm.. I had a very sus run during Stage 133. I missed defeating the frenzy wanderer before the ATK buff dissipated. However, I still managed to received the buff from the first and third wave going into the final boss. I got the boss down to less than 1HP bar, but it locked... then it came down to the last few seconds where I didn't know if I cleared the fight or not because I was lagging so hard. Being stunned from the electric puddles and having my screen freeze completely... @_@ Heckie, it was a really close fight. Bless Zayne for doing the final blow while I was stunned.

Stage 134 was also a really close fight. I really, really, really hate those cat like wanderers that jump and stun you with its tail. Because there's no protofield stellactrum for this stage it took even longer to break their protofield shields. After I managed to defeat the cats Zayne's decides to body block me while I was getting the last two mobs before the timer ran out... I managed to get my active skill off, but he istg the man almost screwed me over (in the worst way).

Directional Orbit: Ice Protofield Stellactrum

130: 5 sapphire, 1 amber (team 01) + 5 ruby, 1 pearl (team 2) -- rewards: 4k gold + 40 💎+ 1x Empyrean Wish

131: 4 sapphire, 2 pearl -- rewards: 2k gold + 20 💎

132: 4 sapphire, 2 pearl -- rewards: 2k gold + 20 💎

133: 5 sapphire, 2 pearl (frenzy) -- rewards: 2k gold + 20 💎

134: none -- rewards: 2k gold + 20 💎

135: 4 sapphire, 2 violet -- rewards: 4k gold + 40 💎 + 4x bottle of wishes: sr

136: 4 sapphire, 2 violet -- rewards: 2k gold + 20 💎

137: none -- rewards: 2k gold + 20 💎

138: 4 ruby, 2 amber (boss absorb mobs) -- rewards: 2k gold + 20 💎

𝚁𝙰𝙵𝙰𝚈𝙴𝙻

My post clear write up + VOD for Rafayel's Directional Orbit: Fire - Stage 130 will be written soon. A link to that post will be included [here] at a later time.

Holy heck his Stage 134 gave me such a headache. This stage doesn't have a protofield stellactrum so it took me even longer to shatter those protofield shields. I was missing a bit of damage cause those god damn cat wanderers were jumping around like heck. So it was hard to group them together to do AOE damage. Like.. I had to do a bunch of perfect dodges to get some free dmg through God of the Tides' support skill to make up for the lack of cleave damage. Thankfully that worked.

During Stage 135, I had to reset the fight a few times to get those beyblades grouped together. For some reason they didn't like staying in one corner together... -_-

Directional Orbit: Fire Protofield Stellactrum

130: 5 violet, 1 ruby (team 01) + 5 pearl, 1 amber (team 02) -- rewards: 4k gold + 40 💎+ 1x Empyrean Wish

131: 4 violet, 2 amber -- rewards: 2k gold + 20 💎

132: 4 violet, 2 amber -- rewards: 2k gold + 20 💎

133: 4 violet, 2 amber (clusters) -- rewards: 2k gold + 20 💎

134: none -- rewards: 2k gold + 20 💎

135: 4 violet, 2 emerald -- rewards: 4k gold + 40 💎 + 4x bottle of wishes: sr

136: 4 violet, 2 emerald -- rewards: 2k gold + 20 💎

137: none -- rewards: 2k gold + 20 💎

138: 4 pearl, 2 ruby -- rewards: 2k gold + 20 💎

𝚂𝚈𝙻𝚄𝚂

To be honest, I don't think I have screenshots of my team set up with stat attributes or a vod for Sylus's Directional Orbit: Energy - Stage 10 since the fight was so quick due to being over leveled. I'll do better next time for when we challenge his Stage 20.

Considering all of my memories used are level 50+ doing these low leveled orbits are a breeze. None of them gave me any trouble, which is nice because that means it requires less time out of my busy schedule to complete whenever his orbit is up.

I'm curious about his other solar myth pair. I know for certain that his upcoming solar myth pair will be an Emerald stellactrum. There's a date of 9/21 to 10/07, but I'm taking that with a grain of salt. His stage 10 only required 1 team, but that's going to change once we reach stage 30, as that's when they force you use 2 teams.

Directional Orbit: Energy Protofield Stellactrum

10: 1 pearl, 1 emerald (team 01) -- rewards: 4k gold + 40 💎+ 1x Empyrean Wish

11: 2 pearl -- rewards: 2k gold + 20 💎

12: 2 pearl -- rewards: 2k gold + 20 💎

13: 2 pearl (frenzy) -- rewards: 2k gold + 20 💎

14: none -- rewards: 2k gold + 20 💎

15: 2 pearl, 1 emerald -- rewards: 4k gold + 40 💎 + 4x bottle of wishes: sr

16: 2 pearl, 1 emerald -- rewards: 2k gold + 20 💎

17: none -- rewards: 2k gold + 20 💎

18: 1 emerald, 1 sapphire -- rewards: 2k gold + 20 💎

𝙾𝙿𝙴𝙽 𝙾𝚁𝙱𝙸𝚃

I didn't really do much prog with open orbit since I didn't have that much time. I ran one attempt run by swapping team 2 with Sylus for an all Pearl team... and needless to say mistakes were made, AHAHA. Poor Sylus was tickling the golem, barely doing any damage, compared to Rafayel's God of the Tides. Oh well, it was worth testing.

[kawaiiblue18]

Click for better quality Erm so I’ve seen a lot of making spidersonas for the turtles but I haven’t seen this done before

What if the rottmnt turtles were actually mutant spiders instead of turtles?

Individual refs and lore under the cut

⚠️Arachnophobia warning!⚠️

Alrighty so I have a bunch of extra stuff on these guys I wanna share. It’s gonna be a long one so um prepare for a lot. First off, design wise, I kept their builds and heights pretty much the same as canon with the lower 2 pairs of arms just slightly smaller than their main pair of arms. Also like canon, I assigned them different species of spider that I thought best correlated to their species of turtle.

Raph is a Goliath Birdeater Tarantula which is the largest species of spider in the world. Although he isn’t blind, he still has the poorest eyesight out of his siblings (which is like average human eyesight really with a larger field of vision). However, his fur is hyper sensitive his surroundings. Another defense mechanism he has is the fur on his spider abdomen is barbed and can be flung at opponents, but this ability should only be used as a last resort. Raph can produce webs with his spinnerets, but he only uses them to make a web burrow to which he sleeps in. I also made Raph transmasc here simply because female Goliath Birdeaters are larger and have 4x longer of a lifespan than males

Donnie is a Rabid Wolf Spider. While running on foot, Donnie is the fastest of their siblings. They also have the sharpest eyesight, being able to spot things from really far away. Donnie has fur, it’s just very thin. Unlike their siblings, Donnie does not have spinnerets and thus cannot produce natural webs. None the matter for Donnie as they have their own formula to make synthetic webs. Donnie took massive inspiration from Spiderman, making synthetic web shooters for their wrists. The gang starts using Donnie’s synthetic web more when they start going on missions since it’s much stronger and versatile than natural webs plus it dissolves after a couple hours. Another thing to note is that like Raph and Leo, Donnie has burrowing instincts so they will often sleep in a burrow of pillows/blankets or go sleep in Raph’s or Leo’s web burrows. Also the decision to make Donnie non-binary was simply because I read a fic recently where they were aha

Leo is a Peacock Jumping Spider, specifically species Maratus Speciosus (I’m including this because there are A LOT of different species of Peacock Jumping Spiders). Like his species suggests, Leo is able to do something he calls “super jumps” where he can jump like 20ft in the air. While he doesn’t have the sharpest vision, he does have the widest field of vision with literally a pair of eyes on the back of his head. Leo does produce webs (his spinnerets are just usually hidden under his fan) and like Raph, Leo uses them to make a web burrow that he sleeps in. Leo also uses his webs as a safety line when he does a super jump or attempts a risky skateboard trick. Leo is a cis male here simply because only male jumping spiders are brightly colored and have the abdominal fan. He’s still fruity though lol. His fan will typically puff up whenever he trying to show off or when he looks at someone he finds attractive (especially around a certain rabbit)

Mikey is a Marbled Orb Weaver Spider. Unlike his siblings, Mikey isn’t a terrestrial species of spider. This means xe is the only one of their siblings to weave traditional spider webs, one of which she sleeps on. Mikey also likes to use their webs to make web art to which he initially got inspired into doing from watching Charlotte’s Web. Mikey’s vision is slightly better than Raph’s, but not by much. Mikey does not have fur like xer siblings do. Mikey is gender-fluid here and uses any pronouns. Though she is amab since male Marbled Orb Weavers have a less bulbous abdomen and their own abdominal pattern

More notes to add is that since they are spiders, all of them have the ability to stick to walls. They also all have hollow fangs and venom, though none of their venom is lethal. (Might make you really sick depending on how much venom was injected.) Spiders don’t have digestive systems and eat by injecting digestive venom into prey, practically melting it into soup before consuming it. Raph, Donnie, Leo, and Mikey all tend to do this with any food item that is larger than their mouth instinctually, Mikey sometimes wrapping food items with her webs. They have to drain their fangs of venom monthly or their venom glands will start to feel uncontrollable due to venom build up.

When threatened, the four of them do hiss and will bare their fangs. Donnie and Raph are more prone to bite on reflex. They are also all immune to spider venom because wouldn’t that be an inconvenience if they weren’t.

I know spiders don’t technically have very long life expectancies other than maybe tarantulas so I’m gonna say that the mutagen made their life spans similar to that of a human.

I included the ninpo activated versions mainly because I wanted to show that the color coded markings on them are what I’m calling ninpo markings. These are markings that they specifically have because of their Hamato Clan blood, not because of their spider species, thus it is the only markings that glow when ninpo is is use.

If I didn’t make it clear before, they all still have their canon personalities and ninpo powers. The only thing that changed is now they are spiders instead of turtles

[shuttershocky]

hey shutters! i hope this isn't a heavy ask, but i've fallen off hard from arknights the last few months. i want to get back into it, but trying to clear events feels like a chore because i think even now my skills are still lacking. i brute force things too much for sure, but i feel i lack the creativity to try new comps/always end up needing to look at walkthroughs. how should i go about getting over this stagnation? sorry for the trouble and thank you!

Whenever you work on a clear, if all you're looking for is a mission accomplished screen (which is admittedly most of the playerbase, they're just here for the character collecting and aren't really here for the gameplay), you're always going to naturally default to brute force. This also has the side effect of forcing you to feel like you always need to keep up with the current "meta" (apart from the general FOMO content created by so many AK youtubers which I despise, running Thorns on 90% of general content still works and is still as simple as ever) because the meta is ever increasing brute force to finish stages faster and faster (see: comparisons between Thorns and Typhon, which is such a disingenuous comparison imo when they're not only members of different classes, but they don't even occupy the same tiles)

The thing about working on your strategy / creativity is that you shouldn't be afraid of failure. It's very rare that you're ever going to get an idea completely right the first time (or even the second and third). You have to think about something fun you want to try, run it in practice mode, fail, and then identify the problems your run had and make modifications to solve those problems (either changing operator skills, placements, or operators entirely), iterating this process until you have a clear you're satisfied with.

For example, after I finished upgrading Hellagur's module to level 3, I wanted to have a clear where he beats the strongest possible 1v1 boss that he can actually take on as the main DPS with S1M3. Patriot wasn't feasible due to his 4x hit and 2000 DEF on Phase 1 making it impossible for Hellagur to hurt him (although Phase 2 Hellagur can beat), so instead I went with Deathless Black Snake in JT8-3.

The first time I tried it, Hellagur lost. The true damage over time effect from the boss countered his regen from attacks while the boss' attacks eventually overwhelmed him. The second time, I tried it with Skadi Alter and Perfumer helping him with regen, but Skadi would blow up before her S2 could activate even with medics healing her, and Hellagur would still lose. The third time, I tried activating Perfumer's skill 2 instead, and the increased regen actually countered enough of the damage over time effect that Hellagur could win, but he died to the fireballs right after. Another iteration with Nightingale's cages blocking the fireballs, and Hellagur could survive to fight Phase 2, etc etc.

If this sounds like fun, then there's a ton of depth to the game for you to mine for and the experience can feel extremely rewarding.

If this doesn't sound like fun, then don't force yourself! If you're feeling like you're simply not having fun anymore, it's much better for you to walk away than to keep pushing it because of the time you've already invested and just growing resentful of the game overall. The only reason to play a video game is because you're having fun. The time to walk away is when you're no longer having any fun, don't let any external pressures keep you playing something you no longer enjoy.

[kosmicdream]

Well, Chapter 6 of Nasty red Dogs is finally complete. This chapter took about a year to make and it was one of the hardest chapters to make. A lot of factors played into this, but probably the hardest one was my day job making the whole process much slower. This meant that there was a lot more time for me to sit and think, sometimes this was a benefit, but in general I am a massive over-thinker, so that dragged down a lot of my enjoyment of the process as I kept over analyzing all my choices. 

But, it wasn’t just chapter 6 that was tough. For a while, i have been struggling with Nasty Red Dogs. This isn’t a surprise, its something i face with every long-term project and it makes sense that I would hit that moment at some point. NRD is 5 years old now and while its getting closer to being complete, we still have a few more chapters to go. My process for it is much slower, so a single chapter can end up taking a long time. Still, this past chapter was both the longest in length for a NRD chapter and also took the longest to make, so it was a very tedious process.

I have dont a lot more writing and rewriting than I normally would do, and while I don’t consider myself much of a perfectionist, it was really starting to creep back in my mind in a way I haven’t experienced in years, but more so targeting my writing than anything. I also got very critical over my drawings, but I have felt that way outside of NRD too. I am still very proud of the end result of this chapter, but I don’t think im out of the storm yet. It took years for me to refind my footing with FFAK and Eggshells, but I eventually got there and both projects, and I, got stronger for it. I expect that to happen here too, its just pretty draining and difficult. Regardless of the struggle, I am glad that it’s bringing deep feelings like that out of me because I feel like that’s the whole point of trying to make something that takes so many years to finish, cuz it really creates a situation where you are having to challenge your own personal demons on a mundane, daily level and sorting through those feelings. I don’t really know if the story is going to end up “good” or even how i want it to, but I know I’ve changed from it as an artist, and that already makes it invaluable to my journey to make great stories, which has always been my deepest dream to do on this planet.

That being said, I need a break from NRD to rebuild my stamina again. As I said, we’re nearing the end of the story.. But not quite there. I do expect there to be at least 3 more chapters, but considering how I originally planned for Chapter 5 & Chapter 6 to be a single chapter, that could change. It is still all written though, and has been, but pacing the scenes often changes as I’m actually “on the set” and “directing” the moments. While NRD is on hiatus, I will be returning to FFAK, which I have been pretty desperate to return to as I’ve been looking forward to ARC2 for literally years. I also know ARC2 of FFAK is tremendously long, possibly 4x longer in length than all of NRD (my expected length of ARC2 is around 4k or 5k pages).. So Of course, i get anxious when I’m not drawing it for too long. As I mentioned before, I already kinda got through a really huge block with FFAK that took years to address & heal from and I’m very happy to say that I’m in a great place with the project again, in a way that i haven’t felt in years (even if it still feels very different and new.) So returning to it makes me tremendously happy, which I will need to be in high spirits to feel like I can tackle the next NRD chapter. Anyway, I just wanted to share some of my thoughts on this past chapter and as always- thanks for reading my comics. Every day, Its the first thing i check are comments on them and it is always the last thing i do before sleeping. They are always on my mind, but also so are the readers, and I want to deliver my story to those who are willing to listen to them. -kosmic

[uncleasad]

for that fic ask meme - 14, 26, 50, 53, 55

14. what’s your worst writing habit?

Oof! My entire writing process is one giant bad habit, so it’s hard to pick the worst part 😂

I know I just reblogged that post about ignoring the tyranny of the daily word count, but I’m going to say not trying to write a few words every day, or a sentence a week, or something like that…I let myself get into writing droughts that go on and on and on (and, yes, I’m busier than I was in 2020 and 2021, but I love writing and doing so always makes me feel good), so trying to stop those pauses before they become droughts is something I need to do to break a bad habit.

26. do you like to write one-shots or series, and why?

Both? I write what the idea I have calls for, I guess? (Almost all of my series are collections of one-shots; I have never thought of writing a series consisting of multi-chapter fics, but one kinda sneaked in there 😳)

I enjoy—and sometimes specifically choose an idea because it fits—writing one-shots because they’re a good way for me to get back into writing when I’ve been too busy with life or bogged down in one of my long WIPs. Last Christmas’s Mischief and Mistletoe is a great example of this: short, self-contained, and seasonally relevant 😏 I liken these sorts of fics to artists doing a doodle or quick sketch as a warm-up.

Sometimes while writing a one-shot I’ll think of something that will open the door to a sequel, sometimes there’ll be nothing specific but nothing to rule out more in the same vein (e.g. the Tales from the Salvatore Kitchen series), and sometimes readers will have a suggestion I hadn’t thought of that I love that will turn a one-shot into a series of one-shots.

It’s nice to have a series or two where you enjoy the world/setup, because it’s fun and easy to dip back in and write some more (so all the benefits of a one-shot) and you (I!) can develop ideas, characters, and events without feeling guilty about not updating (vs a single multi-chapter fic where readers have started reading and want more 😏); there’s less expectation.

(My true favorite things to write are the big, expansive, complex stories, but they’re simultaneously my least favorite for all those reasons 😂)

50. do you plan or do you write whatever comes to your mind? 53. when writing, do you have an outline? and do you stick to it?

These two are related, so I’ll tackle them together. I’ve linked to and written about George RR Martin’s post about gardening before, so there’s good background there and I’ll (try! to) make this the short version.

I mostly have a lightweight plan for what I write: a collection of scenes, or some important character beats or plot points, and often, but not always, an idea of what the ending is (sometimes my idea for the fic is “I want to write this scene that is probably somewhere in the middle of an actual fic 😂 but more often it instead is “this would be a fun situation to throw them into; let’s see what happens!”). That’s as close as I’ll get to an outline 😳

I’ll often also make a series of notes as I’m writing, again of the same types of things as in the “plan,” plus dialogue and details, as a sort of “living outline” for what’s next/coming up. But nothing formal or well-structured (which does make it harder to do those bigger stories, naturally). I have hated outlines since elementary school, so…

I’ll diverge from what I have “planned” any time I have an idea I really like or think will improve the story, although to my recollection it rarely happens, and when it does it’s more small changes. I’m much more likely to split “planned” chapters and make a fic 4x longer than I originally thought it would be 😂

So, needless to say, I mostly write what comes to mind. Sometimes that’s filling in the big blank spaces between things I know I want to include, and sometimes that’s deciding where the whole story itself will go. (My mind is wont to come up with crazy twists and tangents #this is the way my mind works 😂)

55. do you have any abandoned WIP’s? What made you abandon them?

I don’t think I have any WIPs that I’ve started writing that I never intend to come back to/finish. I have an entire laundry list of WIPs that I have not written on in months or years, though.

My story as a current fanfic author goes like this:

Started writing Have At Least One Totally Epic Love in spring 2020, ran out of steam/got stuck near the pivotal moments.

Had an idea for After Ten Long Years and started writing it to try to work through that block, but got stuck on it.

Had an idea for Old West Hosie; started writing it to work around that block, then got stuck on it, too.

Had an idea for Hosie Alternate Realities; started writing it to work around that block, then got stuck there, also 😳

[Cue Hope Mikaelson: “Love, Lose, Grieve, repeat”]

At some point in there, I wrote the first one-shot in the Tales from the Salvatore Kitchen series, You Complete Me, to break the cycle and publish something, which turned into 3 more seasonal one-shots (initially), and then I finally finished Have At Least One Totally Epic Love, almost exactly 1 year after I had left off. 2021 I think was a pretty good year, lots of shorter works finished, but also several more big works started where I once again ran out of steam/got stuck/got distracted by the shiny new idea 😂

(Also, after the experience with Have At Least One Totally Epic Love, I rarely actually write and publish things serially unless I have a really, really good idea of the scope of the fic and also know I’ll have decent amounts of writing time—so there’s nothing out there that readers would perceive of as abandoned. The biggest example of a fic I’ve written and published serially since HALOTEL is And I Will Always Love You, 8 chapters, 32K words, written from February to May.)

So approaching 200K words of incomplete WIPs now, but nothing I intend never to finish.

Thanks for asking! Lots of great choices 😀 Hopefully I didn’t bore you to sleep with the answers!

[after-witch]

Bright Lights [Chapter 3] [Small Spaces Sequel]

Title: Bright Lights [Chapter 3] [Small Spaces Sequel]

Synopsis: Sam goes home after school to have a serious, life-changing sit-down conversation with her mom about going to the circus, only to find the Battersby's car is in the driveway... on a Thursday. Unexpectedly.

notes: This chapter is about 4000 words so oof almost 4x longer than the previous chapters. Still trying to figure out the sweet spot for chapter length with these.

CHAPTER A03 LINK

I’m going to get home just in time for dinner, Sam thought. 

The streets were lined with autumn-tinged trees, all golds, oranges and reds, mingled with the lingering green of summer. The street-lights weren’t on, and the sidewalks held scattered signs of life. Parents taking a walk with fussy children in strollers; an old man with his dog that looked just as ancient as he did. 

And a teenager, walking home from school, hands stuffed in her pockets and worries settled deep in her gut. 

It wasn’t dark out yet, but that would start to change in a few weeks. And it was usually around that time that her mom insisted on picking Sam up from school on days she stayed late; because of the weather, or so she said. 

But for now, she could walk home, and it was better this way. Especially after this morning–and especially because of what she wanted to ask when she got home. 

She usually stayed after school in the fall to help out with prep for the upcoming school play. This year, they were doing a modern retelling of Alice in Wonderland. Sam thought it was too bad that Owen was too shy to audition; he would’ve made a great Mad Hatter.

But right now, Sam was thinking less about Owen’s stage fright and more about what she was going to say to her mom. She rounded the last corner to her street, and didn’t have much more time to think about it.

What was she going to say? It was hard to come up with a plan when she’d spent the last few years being given stricter rules. While her friends were getting later curfews and more freedom, Sam’s mom was treating her like a little kid.

Don’t go out after dark in the fall. You could get lost.

You can’t go to a bonfire party in the summer. Something could happen. 

If you’re not skiing at the Battersby’s, you’re not skiing anywhere. 

No, I don’t care that your friend’s houseboat has life jackets. If there aren’t parents and there isn’t a curfew, it’s not happening.

It was totally nonsensical. It wasn’t like Sam was a bad kid. She never got detention, did her homework. She wasn’t even sneaking out and drinking like some kids her age.. Well–Owen had let her and Elisa taste some whiskey that his dad left in an unlocked cabinet once, but it tasted nasty and she had no desire to try it again)

So what on Earth could she say to her mom that might change her mind? 

The gray clouds blanketing the sky didn’t help with her increasingly gloomy thoughts; if anything, it felt like the world was reflecting her mood. Sour. Frustrated. And above all, anxious.

Because she was going to take Owen up on his advice. She was going to go home, sit down with her mom, and plead her case for the circus field trip. 

Did she know what she was going to say? No. Was she confident that it would work? Also no.

But if she could just convince her mom to let her go on the trip, maybe she could convince her mom to loosen the reins in other ways. She could stay out later, do fun things with friends that didn’t require exchanging parental contact information and a million check-ins.

And maybe she’d start to feel like a real teenager and not some picture perfect wallflower; someone who acted more like a goody-two-shoes little kid than a teen who was going to be an adult in a few years.

One step at a time, Sam, one step at a time.

Speaking of one step–Sam stopped just before the steps leading up to the Egg. Parked behind her mom’s shiny SUV and her grandpa’s beat-up car that he didn’t drive anymore was a familiar blue van. On the back of it were bumper stickers in varying shades of disrepair, including a prominent sticker that said I’D RATHER BE PLAYING CHESS.

Sam’s stomach felt like it was getting pulled in a million directions.

Aunt Coco and uncle Brian were visiting for dinner. On a weekday. Unexpectedly. 

Would that help or hurt her case? Could she even try to sit down with her mom with them here? Maybe she should just give up on the plan, accept she wasn’t going to the circus next week, and get on with her life.

What life? You never get to do anything.

The thought came almost unbidden to Sam’s mind. 

But the thought was on the right track. If she didn’t at least try to convince her mom, she’d probably be mad at herself forever. 

And maybe aunt Coco and uncle Brian would stick up for her. They weren’t as strict as her mom with their kids, and the twins were way younger than Sam. And her mom was a lot more likely to let Sam do things if Coco and Brian were involved; she seemed to trust them more than anyone else. 

Their appearance at dinner could be a good thing, after all. At least, Sam hoped it would be. 

Taking a breath, she gripped the straps of her backpack, shifted its weight on her shoulders, and walked inside the house–

Where she was immediately tackle-hugged by her two highly energetic cousins, excitedly chanting her name on repeat. They always acted like they hadn’t seen her for ages, even though she saw them at least once a week at Sunday family dinners. 

James and Charlotte Battersby were 8 years old. If you were to ask them, they would say that they loved being twins, but hated being the same. Which is probably why their parents never forced them into matching outfits and even let them have birthday parties on different days. James liked painting and had an entire wall dedicated to his growing murals. Charlotte was, despite her young age, a rather terrifying force during elementary school field hockey matches.

“Hey, hey,” said Sam, smiling as she gave the twins a squeeze. “Don’t knock me over. I’m so tired from school that I might not get back up again.” She put her hand on her forehead and pretended to feel faint. 

The twins backed up and gave Sam some space. But before she could leave the entryway to drop her backpack off in front of the stairs, the twins planted their feet firmly in front of her. They didn’t move, even when Sam tried to sidestep them.

“Excuse me,” she said with a laugh in her voice. “I’d like to get into my own house now. Preferably sometime before spring.”

But James and Charlotte only looked at one another in the special way they sometimes did. Coco once told Sam that she thought they might actually be able to talk telepathically, but Sam couldn’t tell if she was joking or not. 

“Are you in trouble?” asked Charlotte after a moment. She was studying Sam’s face too seriously for her age. 

Sam’s heartbeat skidded inside her chest.

“Um, no.” She swallowed hard. “I mean, I don’t think so. Why would you say that?”

The twins looked at one another again, and then Charlotte nodded at her brother. He cleared his throat and leaned in, whispering. 

“I heard your mom call our mom, and your mom asked if my mom and dad would come over for dinner tonight even though it’s not the weekend, because she was worried about you.” James frowned. “Or did she say she was worried about something happening to you?” He sighed, and his eyebrows furrowed together.. “And she said something about a man…” He looked at Charlotte. “I can’t remember the rest. It was super weird though, right?” 

Charlotte shrugged, but Sam thought inexplicably that maybe Charlotte did remember what her mom said on the phone and just didn’t want to say. What did James mean, “a man”? 

Was her mom talking to Coco and Brian about her dad? Was this about the divorce? Or–was there something else? Something her mom wasn’t telling her, and Coco and Brian knew about it? It wouldn’t be the first time she felt like they were keeping secrets. Most adults did. 

Then she shook her head, feeling stupid. What a strange thing to think. Her mom had probably called aunt Coco because she and Sam had really been butting heads lately. The circus field trip stunt this morning was just the last straw.  

“Sammers!” 

Despite the knot in her stomach, Sam couldn’t help but grin when she turned to face the doorway leading into the dining room and kitchen. Even though she saw them at least once a week, her uncle Brian and aunt Coco always had that effect on her. Especially Coco. Heck, Coco had that effect on most people. She was like a ray of sunshine personified. If you weren’t feeling great, you could always count on Coco to make you feel better. 

Ollie hovered behind the pair as they gave Sam warm hugs and herded her and the twins into the dining room, where dinner was being dished out by grandpa Roger. Sam was glad to see him up and about. He had a stroke a few years ago, before they moved back to Evansburg. That was why they lived with him now. He’d come a long way since then, but there were still days where he had trouble walking or remembering things. Small things, usually. But sometimes big ones, too. 

Today, though, he was all grins as heaped spaghetti into everyone’s bowls and set down plates of bread. Sam took a sniff. It was fresh bread–warm, inviting. It smelled like the Egg ought to smell, she thought. He’d been in the kitchen that afternoon, for sure. Probably insisted on baking it once he heard Coco, Brian and the twins were coming over. 

No one wasted time digging in–his food was simply that good. 

“I wanted to make a roast,” Roger said suddenly. “But I didn’t have time to defrost one with such short notice. What’s the special occasion, anyway?”

He looked at Ollie, but she didn’t answer. 

Coco quickly twirled spaghetti around her fork and took a grateful bite. 

“That’s okay, dad, your spaghetti is my favorite. It was mom’s favorite, too.” 

Roger got a soft look on his face all of the sudden, looking at Coco with an expression Sam couldn’t quite place. Then he wiped his eyes, and Sam’s heart clenched. 

Sam didn’t remember much about Coco’s mom–Sam’s grandma Zelda. She died when Sam was only 5. But she remembered how much her grandpa loved her. Loves her still–and loves Ollie, and Brian, and his grandkids. Sometimes she wondered if he still loved her dad, but it wasn’t something she really wanted to ask him. 

The conversation around dinner was pleasant, but Sam felt like there was a conversation waiting in the wings, stretched tighter and tighter as the meal went on. Everyone here knew something was up–even the twins. It was just a matter of waiting for the thin ice to break. 

“So,” Coco suddenly said in a clear voice, turning towards Sam. “Your mom tells me you want to go to a circus?”

Brian choked on his drink, and the twins looked at one another with a knowing glance. Ollie finally looked up from her spaghetti–first at Coco, and then at Sam. 

Sam tucked a loose curl that had escaped her ponytail behind her ear, and nodded.

“Um.” She twirled spaghetti around her fork, but didn’t take a bite. “Yeah. It’s a field trip next week. We even get extra credit for it.” She paused. “But I honestly don’t care about the extra credit. I just think it’d be neat to go for once, you know?.” 

She shoved her fork in her mouth, and talked through her bite. Though had the quick decency to cover her mouth with her hand, but only because Coco gave her a familiar look that meant “I’m trying to teach my feral twins tableside manners, please don’t blow it.” 

“It’s called Mr. Elim’s circus, and they’ve got like, everything. Acrobats and animals and fire breathers. It says so on the poster.” 

“Can we see the poster?” asked Brian.

Sam’s heart soared. “Of course!” She dashed away from the table–sorry, aunt Coco, table manners have to be set aside sometimes–and came back with the slightly crinkled advertisement. 

Brian took it and held it out for Coco and Ollie to see. They studied it for what felt like forever. Even the twins leaned up in their seats to get a look at it. 

“Animals,” James mouthed, while Charlotte stared at the figure of the ringmaster.

Finally, Brian set the poster down and nodded at Coco, who smiled kindly in a way that made Sam’s shoulders start to relax. 

“Can I ask you a few questions about the field trip?”

Sam nodded. This was a good start, she thought. A rational discussion. Not spur-of-the-moment rejection.

“Where’s it being held?” 

“The old fairgrounds.” 

Both Coco and Brian glanced at Ollie, who suddenly had a strange, pinched expression on her face. 

“You don’t like carnivals, Ollie-pop,” said Roger, quietly. 

Olile looked at her dad with an almost startled expression, which she quickly smoothed over into a tight smile. 

“Nah, not anymore. I’m so old the tilt-a-whirl just makes me puke, you know?”

Charlotte and James simultaneously said ewww but Sam only thought, strangely but strongly, that her mom wasn’t telling the truth. 

But she didn’t dwell on it long, because Coco looked back at Sam, and continued her line of questioning.

“Do you know how your school heard about it?”

What a weird question, Sam thought. But at least her aunt was listening to her, not dismissing her outright like her mom usually did when it came to things like this. 

“The school got a flier or something like that,” she answered. “My teacher said one of our rival high schools went to the same circus last year, but this circus hasn't been to Evansburg in a while.” 

“Do they have a website?” Ollie asked suddenly, with a quiet and almost serious urgency. It made Sam’s stomach start to feel queasy again, which was especially unfortunate, given that grandpa Roger had made one of her favorite dishes.

“No,” Sam said slowly, after a moment. She wished that they did have a website. She looked it up earlier, hoping to gain some intel that she could use in her conversation with her mom. But they didn’t even have a Facebook page, much less a real website or any other social media. 

“But,” she said, seeing the way her answer made her mom’s frown pinch tighter, “My teacher said it was a really old-school circus that mainly goes to small towns. They probably don’t have to bother with websites since they’re not some big fancy company.”

The answer didn’t seem to satisfy her mom, but Coco smiled at Sam, which made the pit in her stomach recede again. 

“That would make sense, if they tend to stick to small towns. How long would you be at the circus? Is it an all-day thing?”

Sam shook her head. “Nope, just until the afternoon. We’d be getting on the bus in the morning, going to see the morning show, then coming back in time for lunch at school.” 

Coco nodded. Sam wished she knew what answers her aunt–or rather, her mom–wanted. Instead, there was a feeling like she was in limbo, wondering if she was going to end up in the red or green with each answer she gave. 

“And will there be a teacher or chaperone with you the whole time? Or are they letting you sit by yourselves?”

“We’re all staying together–” 

“That doesn’t matter,” Ollie interrupted. “You know that doesn’t matter, Coco.” 

Coco pressed her lips together and, for a moment, looked uncharacteristically serious. Like she was remembering something unpleasant. 

“True. But it’s better than wandering on their own, don’t you think? Just a little safer?”

Ollie sighed, while Coco just leaned back a little in her chair. 

“So,” she said, using a voice that Sam liked to call her teacher voice, “let’s sum up. The field trip is to a circus that sticks to small towns. You’ll be leaving in the morning and coming back by lunch. Everyone is staying with the teacher the whole time.” 

Sam shoved a nervous bite of spaghetti into her mouth. The taste was good but overpowered by her rattled nerves. She nodded, and mumbled mm-hmm as she chewed the noodles. 

“Well…” Coco turned towards Sam’s mom, and her expression went from prim teacher to soft and concerned. “What do you think, Ollie?” 

Ollie sighed and put her face in her hand for a few long moments. Even the twins had stopped their side-chatter with grandpa Roger, who started to reach out towards Ollie, but stopped when she looked up and leaned over to stare again at the poster.

“I know you want to go to the circus, Sam,” she said, and Sam knew what answer was coming before Ollie even said it. How many times had she heard her mom talk in that tone of voice?

“But you won’t let me,” Sam finished for her. 

Ollie swallowed, and reached her hand out across the table towards Sam’s own. Sam didn’t move to meet her mother’s touch. 

“It’s not that simple,” Ollie said. “I know you’re disappointed.”

Anger began to bubble inside Sam’s gut. Her shoulders tensed until they actually hurt. 

“What’s not simple? It’s a circus. What could happen at a circus?”

Ollie, Brian and Coco looked at each other at the same time, and Sam felt like she wanted to shout. There it was again, some unspoken bond between them, something they didn’t share with Sam or anyone else. 

Coco reached out and touched Ollie’s arm, and Ollie’s expression changed.

“There are… reasons I can’t let you go,” Ollie said softly.

“What reasons?” Sam and the twins all said at the same time. Sam, frustrated. The twins, curious and curiouser. 

Ollie gave Coco a look and Coco gave Brian a look and Brian gave the twins a look. They grabbed their half-finished plates of spaghetti and headed into what had once been a fancy parlor, but was now a sort of playroom-spareroom. Roger told the twins to wait for him, and they scampered back to help him up. 

“Remember,” he said, slowly but steadily making his way with the twins out of the dining room, “We don’t go to bed angry in this house, okay?”

“I know, dad,” Ollie said, her voice and face softer as she watched her dad carefully make his way out of the dining room.

“What reasons?” Sam repeated. The anger was gone now, replaced by the tired injustice she’d been feeling all day. 

Coco opened her mouth, and then shut it. She looked at Ollie, but Ollie only stared ahead at Sam. She looked so tired, Sam thought. She knew her mom was tired. Weren’t all moms tired? Even the ones who weren’t raising teens in their childhood towns and taking care of their dads and working at a job they weren’t eager to do. 

Ollie kept her hand in the middle of the table. It looked silly, Sam thought. She was probably wanting to see if Sam would take her hand. Stubbornness kept her hands pressed down in her lap.

“I…” Ollie began. But she shook her head. “I can’t tell you. Not now. Maybe when you’re older. Just know that they’re good reasons. I’m not trying to be some crazy strict mom, Sam. Really.”

Sam’s fingers dug into her thigh. “You’re not trying very hard,” she mumbled.

“Sam,” Brian said. Sam got the impression that Brian would throw himself in front of a car if one were barreling right for her mom. Or her aunt Coco. And they’d do the same for each other. 

Sam was used to her mom rebuking her, but not her uncle Brian. Her cheeks got heated and she stared down at her partially eaten dinner plate.

“I never get to do anything. I never get to go anywhere.”  She didn’t care that she sounded whiny. It was justified whining, in her opinion. More than justified. 

“You went to the movies with your friends last week,” her mom said. 

“Yeah,” Sam replied. “Because I wasn’t allowed to go to the campout that Elisa’s sister was throwing and they felt bad. And my friends got dropped off at Elisa’s house after, while I had to go home right away.”

Ollie’s back straightened up defensively. “There weren’t going to be any adults at the campout. You know my rule on that.”

Sam slapped her hands on the table. It sounded less dramatic than she hoped it would.

“It was just camping behind her house.”

“Way behind her house. In the woods,” said Ollie.

“Hey,” Brian interrupted. “Why don’t we focus on the field trip–”

“I’m just trying to explain myself.” Ollie said. 

And that’s what broke the bubble that had been building in Sam’s gut all day, whether she knew it or not. Later, she would blush at the memory of snapping at her mom in front of her aunt and uncle, sounding like a whiny little kid. But in the moment, all she felt was righteously angry.

“You’re not explaining anything! Why are you so paranoid all the time? Why can’t you let me do stupid things like go on field trips/? Guess what, mom, everyone still remembers the most embarrassing day of my life! Aka, when you freaked out about Misty Valley Farm.” 

Her mom’s face seemed to drain of something essential. So did Coco and Brian’s. They looked like they’d seen a ghost. 

That was what alarmed Sam the most. She’d never seen them look like that, except maybe when they first showed up at the hospital after grandpa’s stroke. 

A million questions wanted to fly out of Sam’s mouth. Mom, what’s wrong? Did something bad happen? Is that why you act so weird sometimes? But she couldn’t ask them. They were stuck, like a a warty toad in her throat. 

Something stubborn and awful kept her from reaching her hand out towards her mother’s and squeezing, even though she knew she could; knew she should.

“Is everything okay?” Roger called out from the spare room. The sound of the twins scampering halted for the moment. The Egg was quiet; a rare circumstance. In this case, not a pleasant one. 

It was Coco who broke the spell.

“Yeah, dad. Just taking a moment to think about things!” 

Sam’s fingers fidgeted with her shirt and wound around a stray bit of hair. She watched her mom regain her senses, watched Coco and Brian rub her mom’s back and glance at Sam. Waiting for her to say something. Or do something.

But Ollie spoke before Sam could think of what that ought to be.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “There are things I have to do as a parent to keep you safe, even when you don’t like it. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Sam’s lips quivered. Her heart lurched. 

“You don’t want me to live my life,” she muttered, taking a step away from the dinner table. “I’m going to do my homework and go to bed. Goodnight.” She didn’t look up, didn’t respond to all three adults saying her name. She didn’t even say anything when she heard the twins' thudding feet run back into the dining room or when they asked why she was going to bed early. 

But guilt is a heavy thing. When she reached the staircase, she paused. 

“Goodnight!” She didn’t turn around, unable to hide the way her jaw shook or the tears that started to come down. “Love you aunt Coco, love you uncle Brian. Love you James and Charlotte. See you guys Sunday. Love you grandpa.”

Even though she didn’t turn around, Sam felt she knew that her mom was still sitting there with her hand in the middle of the table, reaching out for the Sam who was no longer there.

She didn’t say anything more.

Instead, she grabbed her backpack and bounded up the stairs, then went straight into her room. She flipped on the overhead light and sat at her desk. She knew what she was going to do. Maybe she’d made the decision earlier in the day and just didn’t realize it.

Sam Alder pulled out the wrinkly permission slip, set it on her desk, and forged her mom’s familiar scrawling signature. 

She stared at the paper for a while. It seemed like such a silly thing to be anxious about. Lots of kids forged their parent’s signature, right? She was just one of them now. Just a normal teenager, doing normal teenage things. 

When she pulled out her phone, her face was briefly reflected in the black screen. Tears made her cheeks look all shiny. Her hair was a mess. Her eyes were puffy. 

And she was going to that damn circus.

She quickly snapped a photo of the permission slip before she shoved it deep into the safety of her backpack. Her mom didn’t dig through her things–that she knew of–and besides, all she had to do was get it to school tomorrow and there was no chance of her mom finding it. 

Sam’s breath was shaky when she stood up and threw herself on the bed, grabbing her favorite pillow with a vintage floral pillowcase that aunt Coco had given her a few years ago. She grabbed her phone and brought up the group text with Owen and Elisa.

Her fingers tapped the letters quickly, as her shaking jaw calmed, as a nervous smile began to creep onto her face.

She sent the photo of the permission slip, and then the text: You guys still up for the circus thing?

A few moments, and then, Owen: um yes

Elisa was next: YES!! 

YES!

YESSSSS

Sam’s heartbeat felt so loud that she swore it drowned out the sound of everything else. There was no going back now, was there? 

She wiped at the remnants of her tears, and sent another text: Then let’s do it!

[catgirltoofies]

related to previous reblog. the most important thing i have found about playing video games with too much free time is that they have to earn my time. i have a thousand games i can be playing, if yours happens to be the one i picked, then at least for a moment, if only for the novelty, I'm having fun with it. the moment the novelty wears off, or when i stop having fun, i stop playing and find something else. sometimes I'll keep playing for a bit every day and kinda wean off it, but when that happens it doesn't look good.

so, how do you retain my interest? there's a few ways.

first. novelty. i love new things. i love playing around with stuff i don't understand and figuring out how it works. that's important, however; i like figuring out how it works. once i understand it, it becomes a lot less interesting, and unfortunately my brain doesn't work in a way that lets me just allow things to go un-understood, i need to figure out why things work the way they do, unless the complexity is out of scope of my interest; eg i wouldn't bother trying to catalogue every planet in starfield, I'm not that interested in the game.

second. fun. if the game is fun i will play it. if the game is not fun i will not play it. obviously fun is subjective, and everyone has different amounts of fun with every activity. but fun is the reason i will play picross for hours, it's why I'll play tons of games that give me checklists to fill out (recent examples: pokemon legends arceus and power wash simulator) because i greatly enjoy filling out checklists. it's why i tend to lose interest in a lot of turn based games; the mechanics are simple enough that i grasp them quickly and the execution isn't very interesting once i know what's going on under the hood. little things that break up the mechanics and make them work a little differently, such as most of pokemon's gimmicks, are extremely interesting - for a time. once i find a meta, i stick with it. why would i do something worse for no benefit? the obvious exception to this would be challenge runs, which i tend to not be very interested in doing, because they're usually just "do the worse thing for the whole game". in the case of action and shooter games, i need to have weapon variety and enemy variety. there's a longer post i could make about the types of games, but out of scope for this one; in general, i need to have options and i need to have different potential challenges. if I'm just given a sword and basic attack, it doesn't matter how many enemies you put in front of me, they all die to my sword or are invulnerable. if I'm given a million different and unique guns, it doesn't matter when there's only three enemy types, my interest will only last as long as i keep trying new and mechanically unique weapons; that is to say, all full auto guns are functionally the same, they just differ in attack speed and damage output. give me a machine pistol at the start and an lmg at the end, they're used the same way. just changing the stats isn't mechanically unique.

third. story. obviously, a good story will hook me, as it would hook most people. and obviously, different people like different stories. once i get hooked on a story, i need to see it through, and that will keep me playing a game - it's why i finished starfield, it's why i finished horizon. at the same time, a mediocre story that doesn't hook me but gets in the way of me having more fun - such is the case with disgaea - tends to turn me off, because i don't particularly want to do the story i don't care about, especially - as is the case with disgaea - when I'm far more powerful than the story expects me to be.

fourth. replayability. this one is really complicated for me, as a lot of infinitely replayable games don't interest me, such as the entire roguelite genre, while a lot of infinitely replayable games do interest me, such as a large portion of the roguelike genre and most 4X games. i think, for me, the replayability comes from starting from nothing and building up to something great based on what's currently available on that run. this is the draw of the rogue derivatives, but roguelites tack on meta progression, so i can unlock items or characters or mechanics or whatever, but i really really really hate it when things are arbitrarily locked away from me. if I'm playing cataclysm and i see a gun store with a really cool rifle in the window, i know i probably can't get it just yet, until i find a hacksaw to break through the window, or a jackhammer or pickaxe to break through the wall, or a lockpick to get in through the back door, or some heavy bashing thing like a sledgehammer to break through the doors, and so on so forth. the important thing at that point i see it is that i know that i can get it, i just need to get some other key item first. with roguelites, i don't get that experience - unlockables are silhouetted behind arbitrary challenges, and then added to the random pool of items. that's not interesting. i don't want to kill fifty enemies with a certain damage type to unlock something i don't know the effect of. it's a checklist with no clear reward - it's a weapon, or an item, but what does it do? why would i want it over my current weapon which I've been using for the whole game so far? if i end up wasting my time doing the challenge to get something worse - which then reduces the odds I'll get a weapon i like more - that feels awful. it's a similar but different thing with 4X games; in those games, i have immediate access to a small pool of resources, and as i explore and expand, i gradually get more, and the resources i get in abundance inform how I'll grow my empire; this is especially noticeable in games such as the endless series, where unique resources tend to have two opposite paths, and you decide which path to follow depending on which resources you have greater access to. and, of course, it's different with every game, so i can't plan ahead knowing I'll have access to a particular material, or i need to specifically seek out that material if i really really want it and expand to them (or conquer over them) when they are revealed.

fifth. graphics. personally, i don't care about fancy graphics. i need to know what I'm looking at, i need to be able to reasonably interact with the world, and ideally i don't hate what I'm seeing. i tend to play roguelikes with tilesets so i can more easily understand what's what, and i don't much like the appearance of ascii, as pretty as it can be when done right. i like stylized graphics a lot - borderlands, team fortress 2, disgaea up to 5, pokemon up to gen 5 - they have particular styles that stand out and make me like them a lot. it's especially noticeable once those styles are uprooted - as in disgaea 6 and pokemon gen 6 - and the artists have to figure out how to emulate the old style with a new medium that just can't match the old style. i think so far pokemon still hasn't recovered from the switch to 3D models, but from what I've seen, they are actually starting to improve. a lot of gen 9 models look a lot better than the models in gen 6. one game series which i think has fully recovered - or, indeed, never failed - from the switch from 2D sprites to 3D models is dragon quest. dragon quest 11 looks fantastic, and the 3D models look incredible and just as stylised as the 2D sprites. even in dragon quest 9, on the DS, the models look incredible. according to a bit of research, the 2D->3D change happened in dragon quest 7, and even in that game the models looked great. the point I'm making here is, stylization and some intangible Thing makes graphics great, not realism; i refer to that intangible thing as soul, but it's what makes a particular game's appearance read as that game's. for example, you can look at the models of link in the 3D Zelda games, and as long as you have a bit of familiarity, you can instantly recognize which game he's from based solely on his model. the main exceptions are the sequel games which use a very similar model and the same stylization. when we get the next Zelda game, i bet it's going to be an entirely different style from all the prior 3D zeldas.

what's my point with all this? i dunno. there's a lot of potential in a lot of games, and there's always so much done so right, and most often the reason a game fails is because they did so many things so wrong. i predict the avatar game is going to flop because a lot of people are starting to get bored of the ubisoft formula, i expect it won't be mechanically interesting enough for me, and it's seventy fucking dollars. I'm probably gonna enjoy it once i get it on sale for like twenty bucks in a few months, because i still tend to like the ubisoft formula (checklist of towers to unlock and outposts to clear!) but it's gonna otherwise be pretty underwhelming. and I'll probably get bored before i finish it and play something more entertaining.

[crystalelemental]

I have finished all of the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters. That was pretty fun! Honest to god my initial reaction is to replay some of them immediately but I should probably put some distance on that. No promises. The last time I played most of these was...the GBA/DS remakes. So a while ago. Thoughts on each below.

Final Fantasy 1 Easily my favorite iteration of the game. I'm going to be honest with you, FF1 doesn't have a ton in its favor, but the game is simplified enough that, with the new mechanics, I can turn off all encounters, hit 4x EXP, just do boss fights, trapped chests, and forced encounters, and be done with the game in like 3 hours. If I'm ever just craving a quick thing, this is as quick as it gets, with none of the frustration.

Yeah, I'm gonna be honest, this is a common theme so to avoid repeating myself I'll say it once here: random encounters suck. It's why FF12 has been my favorite since it came out; I can just see where enemies are and explore how I wish, without getting bombarded by bullshit and back attacks and whatever else is going on. Turning those off as needed is divine. The tradeoff is that for some games, you then lose sense of progression and what level you are "supposed" to be at for what you're doing, and in those situations the 4x EXP is nice for quick grinding to catch you up. I will admit, however, that this can completely break the flow of the game, so I did try to keep encounters on at all times for most games, but I am more than satisfied going "fuck I'm lost again" and just turning off encounters for a minute while I get my bearings. This game just doesn't broadly appeal beyond its quick nature, so I'm more than satisfied just doing the boss run.

Final Fantasy 2 To avoid talking about the random chance level ups, I'm instead going to talk about two other things that make this my least favorite in the set: dungeon layout, and why you can't let me have things.

Dungeon layout is the fair criticism. Dungeons are overly complex and a pain in my ass to navigate. This is another I eventually broke and just turned off encounters while exploring, just because it was too many of them. Get the fuck out of my face, man, I'm trying to backtrack seven different staircases. Also the rooms. Almost all of them are empty, but you gotta check in case there's treasure, but if it is empty enjoy higher encounter rates for no real reason other than punishing your curiosity, you fool. It's just an overall frustrating experience with the randomness of stat boosts, and the pitifully slow grind of leveling spells.

The other is my own fault. Yeah, if there's one thing I remembered about this game from the Dawn of Souls era, it was the post-game heaven dungeon where you start as Minwu, and really want to be prepared. Early Mysidia felt like a must, and I decided fuck it, I remember how to do this, and prepared myself accordingly. Long story short, don't do this. You'll set yourself up for a position of being wildly overpowered the entire game, especially if you're an idiot, break after directions were given, forget where you're going and wind up going north to another high level area that gets you even more powerful, and now the whole thing is shot to shit. I like sequence breaking games, but I feel like this one is way more severe with any understanding of what you can get away with. And I will always optimize the fun out of my experience. Never let me do things.

Final Fantasy 3 This was my favorite experience. I played damn near the entire game without even touching the toggle for encounters. FF3 is a ton of fun. I enjoy getting to mess with customization options like the classes, and the lack of JP (ABP, whatever) makes it a lot more fluid. Sure, there's job level, but job level amounts to nothing. It's minor increases for the longer you work as that class, and it's nice but insubstantial. Which means it's fluid and engaging, because I can fun around and never find out anything too bad. Which is what I want; free flowing experimentation. I understand the original had some kind of penalty for job switching too often? Glad they got rid of that garbage.

If there's any strikes against it, it's class balance and the final dungeon. Crystal Tower into World of Darkness is like a 2+ hour affair, without save points, and Autosave doesn't carry over if you turn the game off. Do not do as I did and go in like an hour and a half before your usual winding down before bed time. You will not make it. Class balance is a bit of a mixed bag.

On the one hand, compared to 5, 3's classes tend to overlap a lot. The Earth Crystal is literally nothing but pure upgrades on early classes. Black/White Mage become Wizards gaining better offensive stats and more spell slots for higher tier spells, while Summoner is just Evoker with competence. Knight is just Fighter but better. Black Belt is just Monk but better. As a result, it distills into only a handful of meaningful distinctions anyway, with a couple offshoot classes that...suck. They suck. Ranger has no good weapons for late-game, Geomancer is a great mage alternative until endgame when everything's single-target, I have no idea what the point of Scholar is but I don't agree with it. I don't consider this a truly hideous detriment, but it lacks the same level of shenanigans 5 gets up to.

Final Fantasy 4 Fun fact: before 12 came out, this was my favorite, because I found it easy enough to be engaging, including the GBA superdungeon which was the only one I could beat, and Rydia was my baby child favorite. That last part is still true. The thing I didn't seem to remember is how...weird the story actually was. Like it's not particularly great. I don't think it's terrible, but it's not great. Mostly Kain's whole deal irritates me now.

But it is still fun! I think it's a much different experience. The moon still took forever to explore, but thanks to save points actually existing, you can break between things. Boss fights feel appropriately more difficult than most random encounters, with a decent number of gimmick bosses that require a bit more know-how to handle, and a few dungeons you can do out of sequence in the underground if you're ambitious. I think it's a very simple game to understand, with a pretty clear-cut approach to success. That said, there's like no customization. Characters are as they are, there's really nothing to consider aside from level. And your party is set, so there's no variation on what you can do.

Final Fantasy 5 5 was another really fun experience, though I cushion that with a major caveat. 5 was fun because of the toggle for 4x ABP, which made leveling jobs to find out what they did actually tolerable. Without this, job levels are unbearably hard to level up, with no indication of what you actually learn per level, that you may as well be shooting in the dark.

See, the fun of 5 is that you have your class, and you have one extra ability slot, taken from other class skills unlocked by leveling them up. For magic classes, that's "Magic Type Lv X," up to 6, where you can cast everything in that category. For physical classes, this is usually some form of "Equip my weapon type," alongside generalist skills. Some are better than others, and some are action commands that are much, much stronger, and are the basis for making really strong outcomes.

This is why I don't love the system as much as 3. To find out what you even have access to, you're made to slog through the physical classes to find out what other skills they're offering. Which takes somewhere around literally forever. Bosses will hand you like 5BP, for classes that need like 700 to max. If you don't know in advance where the good stuff is, there's a chance you've walked into options you don't need.

Granted, 5 is lax enough broadly that you can still make use of classes. Unlike 3's direct upgrades over time, 5 gives you almost all classes early, and all of them have interesting options for utility. So you can make use of anything. I think for my completionist ass, I'm looking at Omega and Shinryu and going fuck dude, how are you supposed to beat that without foreknowledge of some of the skills available? Wildly over-leveling? In a game with fairly poor EXP yields where I think I ended at around level 40? Not happening. Otherwise, the class imbalance isn't too bad, and is in some cases hysterical. You know there's a setting to toggle 4x gil received? Zeninagi on Samurai was already an instant-kill button half the time, and now you've made it a free action. Meanwhile summon magic late game feels kinda garbage. Flare and Holy outdamaged Bahamut no problem. It is really funny to see this reversal from 4. From Rydia's summons being bad all game because they're just overpriced spells on your Black Mage but endgame Bahamut being defining, to excellent low-cost AoE spells with good damage early and mid-game into kinda useless by endgame. It's just funny to see systems like these change over time, and how they try to adjust for balance.

I do think this was a surprisingly strong story and cast, too. I only remembered it being kinda goofy compared to the others as a kid, but having re-visited, I think it's a lot more earnest and impactful than I gave it credit for.

Final Fantasy 6 I'll be honest, it's very good, but depending on my mood, I'd say I like 3 and 5 better. I like being able to customize, and I think I actually like FF5's cast and story better than 6.

6 succeeds on being competent at everything, even if it's not the strongest in everything. Its story is well told and it sticks to its general themes of love and loss, and finding meaning in a bleak world. But I also think 5 did the "Defeat Nihilism through the Power of Connection" thing with a more diverse cast and emphasis on friendships and general human spirit, while 6 seems to focus more on romance and family in a way that makes a lot of character histories sound very same-y, in that a big chunk is "and then they died." There's a bit of customization, as far as selecting which members to bring along and how you distribute magicite for learning magic, but nowhere near the level of complexity you can find in 5. I'd also say the AP system in 6 is wildly slow, but at least there it's more concentrated to "just learn the spells you need" and you actually know exactly what you're signing up for. Though I personally don't care for making decisions between good spells or good stats early on, my min-maxing ass is bad with these kinds of things. I know it's a problem.

I do think it has an inverse problem to 5, where the random encounters feel devastating in several locations, but only one boss ever gave me any difficulty, and it was because I was suffering from success (It was the tunnel digger in Locke's route early game; turns out if you have the Hermes Sandals on him or Celes the Runic timing gets thrown off and it cooks you, but without that it's super easily won; my bad but for stupid reasons, I feel). Almost every game over was due to back attacks, which are damn near constant in this game. Some areas I counted and literally had more sneak attacks on me than regular encounters. Meanwhile, bosses go down like sacks of shit, because magic is hysterically overpowered. Yeah yeah, Kefka's god now or whatever, but can he survive Relm Dualcasting Flare for max damage twice per round? No, he's just going to eat shit from this level 40 ten-year-old? Radical. This may be personal preference, but if FF1's blurb wasn't an indication, I much prefer "easy encounters, difficult bosses." Ideally, no encounters. Just ping-pong me from boss to boss. I feel like I could actually do that in 6 if it wasn't for AP needed to learn spells.

Future Plans I'm thinking of getting 7 and 9 if they ever go on sale again. I really don't want to play 8. I remember playing 8, my wife had commented on it being a formative game for her so I played it long, long ago before we were even dating, but it was so bad I can't do it again. 10 I'm on the fence about, because I do like the gameplay for 10, but we tried watching a playthrough of 10 and she couldn't stand it so maybe not. My laptop is dying, and so is my wife's, so we've tossed around finally getting a proper PC that can like...play games and shit. So who knows, maybe I'll finally play past 12 in this series. Miracles do happen.

[torreshalstead]

You make the miles worth it - Epilogue

Summary - The Chicago Marathon had always been a dream for Hailey. And when she meets a stranger in pink running shoes whilst training, she realises maybe she had been dreaming for more.

Chapters - 24/24

Notes - I can’t believe this story has come to an end! I’ve learnt so much writing this, it’s the longest thing I’ve ever written, 4x longer than my dissertation! But thank you for all your support, it’s meant the world to me. I hope you enjoy just this little epilogue to close it off ❤️ AO3 Link

One year later

‘Jay!’ Hailey called loudly from the front door, ‘we are going to be late’. She already had her shoes on, her gear bag and Jay’s thrown over her shoulder and was tapping her foot impatiently, the sound echoing down the hallway.

‘I wasn’t late last year and look how well that turned out,’ he said with a smirk as he walked out of their bedroom and gave her a quick peck on the lips as he grabbed his shoes.

Their bedroom. Hailey had only just got used to thinking of it as such as they had finally taken the plunge 3 weeks ago and moved in together. They had been spending every night at either his or her place for the last 6 months. And as Vanessa had so kindly pointed out, there was no point in paying two rents if they weren’t using both of them. Hailey had debated on it for a while as she didn’t want to abandon Vanessa, the two had been roommates for years. Vanessa reminded her that she wasn’t abandoning her and they had never planned on living together forever. Just as Hailey had started to argue the point, Vanessa had added quickly that she and Kevin had been talking about moving in together too so it made perfect sense.

On the day of the move, everyone had shown up to help them. Hailey had smiled and thought to herself how lucky they were to have such a group of friends who were always there for them. That was until Adam almost dropped the box with all her mugs and he was banished to only being allowed to carry pillows and clothes.

It hadn’t taken them long to settle in, they had been pretty much living together already but every time she walked through the door it felt more like home than anywhere else ever had. He was her home.

However, today he needed to hurry up. They had to be there in 30 minutes and it was a 15-minute walk. And being late was not something Hailey enjoyed doing.

‘Okay, I’m ready,’ said Jay as he finished tying his laces and stood up. ‘Let’s go run that marathon’.

It was the day after the race that Hailey had realised she wanted to run the marathon again, despite the blisters on her feet, her painfully tight muscles and the fact it had taken over her life for the last 6 months. She wanted to feel that high again when she crossed the finish line, it was like nothing she had ever experienced before. Jay was immediately on board, not needing an ounce of persuasion, she got the feeling if she hadn’t suggested it to him that he would have.

So here they were, one year on from the day of their long awaited first kiss, living together and heading to the start line of their second marathon. This time they walked hand in hand to the start area as there was no urgent case in New York that Jay had been pulled to. She felt calmer than last year somehow, happier, and overall incredibly excited to run 26.2 through the city she loved side by side with the person that she loved.

When they crossed the finish line this time and she turned to kiss him, he was getting down on one knee and was pulling a ring out of his pocket. She didn’t hear anything he was saying, she was too busy nodding wildly and saying yes. Yes. Of course she said yes.

The marathon was special. It had been special to Hailey for years, even before she made it to the start line the year before. But now it was something else. Something more. It had given her so much, so much hope, so much love. It had given her Jay. And now as he slid the ring onto her left hand, stood up and spun her around, she realised it had given her the world.

[ho3sferatu]

15 questions for 15 mutuals

I was tagged by @suratan-zir (㇏(•̀ᵥᵥ•́)ノ) Thank you!

1. are you named after anyone?

I don’t think so!

2. when was the last time you cried?

Hmm... Probably while watching a movie or something. When I have actual problems I stare blankly into space, but show me a video of a sad anime girl and I get instant waterworks.

3. do you have kids?

No, and don’t ever intend to.

4. do you use sarcasm a lot?

Maybe. Possibly. (㇏(>ᵥᵥ•́)ノ)

5. what sports do you play/have you played?

I do endurance training on a jump rope. 20min 4x a week. After a month there’s been a noticable difference in how long I could jump, but so far it did not result in any weight loss. 。゜゜(´Ｏ`) ゜゜。 I was hoping to lose some because the pandemic weight gain forced me to quit wearing lolita fashion, as I can no longer fit most of my dresses.

6. what’s the first thing you notice about other people?

Their sense of style, hair, makeup, piercings/tattoos... I only notice women, and I’m almost completely face-blind when it comes to men for... some reason 🏳️‍🌈

7. scary movies or happy endings?

Happy endings.

8. any special talents?

I remember the location of every single item in Soulsbore games, and what that specific items are. I have photographic memory when it comes to specific topics that interest me, but can’t remember what I ate for dinner 3 days ago.

9. where were you born?

Warsaw, Poland. Born and raised!

10. what are your hobbies?

I like vidya geams! I used to wear lolita fashion, but stopped recently. I also draw in my cringe little sketchbook and collect figurines (Nendoroid and Figma).

11. do you have any pets?

I have 4 pet rats. They’re horrible little goblins, I love them!

12. how tall are you?

165cm

13. fave subject in school?

English and Art (㇏(•̀u•́)ノ)

14. dream job?

If I could I’d just... not work at all, but sadly we Live in the Society™. Can I be a 24/7 professional plushie quality tester? I’ll just lay in a pile of IKEA BLÅHAJ and comment on their softness.

15. eye colour?

One is blue, one is green. I have heterochromia (㇏( ò ᵥᵥ ● )ノ)

I’m tagging @funderberkersims @elisabeth-carrion @whaleinwhite @ein-ungeheures-ungeziefer @jenrenfield @hazelpuff

[maximuswolf]

I don't really finish games anymore and it makes me sad.

I don't really finish games anymore and it makes me sad. Lately, I've been struggling to finish games. I prefer games that are longer with more content, like RPGs or 4X games you can play for hundreds of hours. However, nowdays I work a bunch on weekdays, then barely have to play before going to bed. On weekends I always plan to play like 8 hours, but then I just end up doing somehting else and play maybe 3-4 hours. Overall, I play maybe 30 hours of a game over two weeks, then I get bored and play something else for a while, then again and again. I noticed that my retention for a game is about two to three weeks, always has been, but back then it used to mean 60 hours of playing the same game, while now it means about 30. I have probably 20 or 30 really good games that I genuinely want to finish but I never do. Since it takes maybe half a year or even more for me to get back to the same game, I usually need to start over since I don't really remember the story or the strategies, so I just end up playing the first 30 hours or so before stopping. Just now I stoppped playing Persona 4, I played it over the last 10 or so days but today I just don't feel like it. I know it will just sit there for a couple months then I will uninstall to keep my Steam app clean. I am sad because I want to know how the story ends, and it was a fun adventure, but I don't feel like playing for now. I think it is due to me getting older. The structure of my days and weeks is different, so even when U have time to play I'm tired and rather just watch something instead. And I have a lot more money which means a lot more games which means it is all too easy to jump to the next thing. The last game I properly finished was Baldur's Gate 3 I think (and Act 3 was a slog, I couldn't wait to finish and do something else), and now I'm looking forward to Metaphor-ReFantasio. Hope I can finish it properly. Submitted September 22, 2024 at 11:04AM by Wasted_46 https://ift.tt/nYWb4D0 via /r/gaming

[bsl-golf-cart-lithium-battery]

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[isleofdragon]

So the final trilogy addition to the Raptor Attack #2 Saga is here.

Where was that other raptor, which was gorgeous red and a higher level?

Nearby!

After I kept Potato in a safe place for it to level up some, I decided we'd jog down to the beach for a supply drop. SUPER worth it. Got some armor that was 4x as strong as my old one.

Aaaaand we found the raptor. And it almost killed Potato! So I hopped off. Last time I tried to hop off and help fight, I accidentally killed my first Iguanadon, Harvest (which is why I haven't named the second one yet).

But this time, the attacking raptor focused on me, so I tried to dodge it while Potato kicked its ass from behind! And it worked!! She had like, 1/6 of her HP left and didn't fully heal until we'd walked all the way back home, eating dodos and trilobites along the way.

So--the other raptor is no longer lurking around! Saga complete!

Just in time for TWO MORE RAPTORS to wander onto the far side of the cliff! (We ran. They did not follow. It is nighttime now and I managed to put Potato on the roof by the Iguanadon and now I am hiding indoors, breeding my dilfs in preparation to take one to the raptors and try fighting them)