#yeah we're going to the final frontier

[tablefourtyone]

Thought over it for a bit and after rewatching episodes, the FuKi almost (almost!) have the most Mad About You romcom energy because:

1. Kiana could be the emotional basket case with self-involved tendencies, whines and procrastinates when she has obligations around the house, romances and says the rightest and sweetest things to her lover, esp when she's upset, and make her feel good about herself

2. Fu Hua could be the take-charge personality that bends over backwards to please and take care of people, a professional in life and work, is uptight and tends to give people the impression she's a jerk and can be a jerk, dotes on and is emotionally supportive of her lover in everything she says and does

Gotta love the bickering and nagging they'd do together too. 😂

[dr-spectre]

I just watched the Shadow Dark Beginnings animation preview and bro.... where do I even begin?

Now listen, I talk about Splatoon 99% of the time here, but you gotta understand something, Sonic was my first love in gaming. Ever since I played the classic games, Unleashed, Heroes, Rush and Rush Adventure. And watching clips from Adventure 1 and 2. I've always been a humongous fan of this franchise. I grew up in the crowd that watched those "I FEEL LIKE A MONSTER" amvs of Sonic the Werehog for f sake. I had a printed out poster of a render from Sonic and the Black Knight on my wall as a kid because I thought it was the coolest thing ever.

So, seeing this series FINALLY go back to actually telling more serious stories while being sincere about it too... man... it makes me so. Damn. HAPPY!!!! Frontiers wasn't a one time thing, the darker and more serious stories are actually gonna stick around now. I think we're finally free from the 2010s where we were stuck with "BALDY NOSEHAIR! THAT'S THE BEST THING IVE HEARD ALL DAY!" For a literal decade.

Us Sonic fans had to go through the 2010s where the series made fun of itself and was all "comedy" and stopped doing the cool serious shit they used to do... it makes me so happy that they are FINALLY diving into things they haven't talked about in over a decade. They aren't scared anymore to show a fucking human in this god damn franchise because a bunch of gaming journalists who dont give a fuck about the series said "humans in sonic are BAD!" They aren't scared to show Maria and something like Emerl. EMERL?!?! FROM SONIC BATTLE?!?!?! THAT'S SO COOL!!! I BARELY PLAYED BATTLE BUT STILL! THATS AWESOME!

Now.... was some of the stuff in the 2000s going way too far? Like Shadow saying "you're going straight to hell" and murdering Dr Eggman in non canon endings. And a human kissing a dead Hedgehog to bring him back? Yeah that's way too far. DOESNT MEAN YOU SHOULD THROW THE BABY OUT WITH THE BATHWATER!!!! Lost World and Forces man. My God. Ugh.

Anyways, yeah I'm so excited and so hopeful for this franchise again. Before Frontiers came out I was so nervous if the game was gonna be good or not and what you may say about the game itself, it did appeal to tons of people and became the highest selling 3D Sonic game of all time, beating out Heroes. I am now actually fully confident and excited for Frontiers 2 or whatever the next game shall be.

People cheering and crying over the stuff that happens in that game AS WELL AS A PREVIEW FOR A SHADOW ANIMATION makes me so.... HGIWIDIDIS WAHHH IM SO HAPPY!!! IM HAPPY!!! SONIC IS BACK!!! SONIC IS FINALLY BACK!!! SHADOW IS BACK!!! BOW YOUR HEADS LOW ALL HAIL SHADOW!!!!

[indigosabyss]

Part 2 of my DCST Time Travel Snippets

"Lemme get this straight. To stop this impending doom, you want us to build a spaceship that will take a small crew just past the Moon. Where they will then negotiate with parasitic alien robots and convince them that humanity is stupid and not worth being frozen into stone." Markus, one of the oldest scientists at NASA, surmised. He sounded incredibly tired.

Everything the people from the future told them was tiring.

"Pretty much." Dr Xeno from the future said, "It's a big ask, I realize. And a lot of lives depend on it."

"Who would we trust with such a mission, though?" Another NASA scientist asked, "There's a lot of factors to take into account. Personality, and training, and there's not enough time to conduct proper astronaut qualification exams for the wider public."

"Good point." Dr Xeno allowed.

"Ah, how about you get your version of the Five Wise Generals to go?" Brody, the future's top mechanic laughed, "They'll all be little babies now, so we'll knock off a couple hundred kilograms from the weight limit."

"I don't think we can have infants piloting a rocket and saving humanity." One of their current day scientists sighed. It was weird to think that a group of people called the Five Wise Generals were currently babies.

"No, no, you misunderstand. They should be fifteen at the youngest. Twenty four at the oldest." Xeno clarified, "And one of them won't exist until thirty seven hundred years, so right now, it's more like the Four Wise Generals. But I agree with Dr. Brody, except for my Stan, there's no one I'd recommend more. Byakuya Ishigami's an option, but I also don't trust him enough to not launch into a passionate speech about all the good humanity has done."

Byakuya Ishigami. He was a newbie astronaut, just inducted into the program. Normally, such love for humankind was admirable but...

"Brief us on these Generals." He decided. Just to have that option.

----

First was Senku Ishigami, the man who had made the first phonecall to the past. The son of Byakuya Ishigami. So far, they had avoided looking up the kid in the modern world.

Currently, he was fifteen years old, and a high school student. With a criminal record of setting off bombs in public parks.

"Oh, yeah. He likes making rockets." Xeno from current day confirmed blandly, "I had no idea he was setting them off in parks."

He was definitely lying.

"But you'll let me go to space without me having to build my own rocket, right?" A high-pitched voice asked. A boy with the wildest hair was suddenly standing in the control room.

"How'd you get in here?!"

"Xeno and my dad kept me updated on the situation here." He picked at his ear, "I couldn't care a millimeter less about the situation here now that we've figured out the secret behind the stone swallows. I just want to go to space. As soon as possible."

He vibrated slightly as he spoke, clearly excited, but hiding it well.

---

Second on the list, Asagiri Gen.

Nineteen years old, and a... moderately famous stage magician.

"Doesn't look like he has the muscle for a space trip."

"What good's a mentalist? We can drill anyone into saying things."

And so, Asagiri Gen was overlooked.

Somewhere in the world, a magician with two-toned hair was very offended.

---

Next was Ryusui Nanami, one of the Nanami Conglomerate's CEO's brood. A bit of a disgraced one, because of a dramatic love affair, but given the same allowance that any of the others got.

At 20 years of age, he had the biggest and most diverse collection of sailboats in the world. The kid was a dedicated adventurer, with all the health that came from it.

They could use that.

"Ryusui Nanami." An escort of suited officials approached him on a beach.

He looked up over the frame of his sunglasses, taking them in. He grinned, "Aw, man, they're really going to assassinate me this time, huh?"

"No, we're from NASA. How would you like to visit the final frontier?"

He snapped his fingers, laughing, "Name your price!"

-----

And lastly...

"Saionji Ukyo, you've been transferred last minute."

"Eh???" He looked at his CO in confusion.

"It's a matter of international security."

Did they think he'd overheard something? Oh God, he'd known his crazy hearing would get him killed one day.

"You'll be working with an American strike team. Full debriefing back at the base. For now, prepare yourself to meet Commander Stanley Snyder."

What was going on???

[put together an avengers intiative recruitment scene lol. i love gen i swear, they just dont understand him yettt TTATT]

[tohisprettyc00l]

Escapism Hunter x reader

A/n: yet another reader who used to be in the emperor's coven, I don't know why I like this idea so much.

It was nice to finally relax, despite the circumstances. It wasn't great to be trapped in the human realm. But Belos wasn't there to torment you and Hunter. Which felt like enough. You could just be yourself, with no fear of punishment for messing up. 

You had recently gotten into a new book series. Anytime you could read it, you did. And recently you had finished it. The book had a super satisfying ending. So of course you had to share it with Hunter. You skipped down the stairs. "Hey, Hunter I have a book for you to read!" You said happily. Hunter smiled, "I do too!" He held up a book in his hands, "it's called cosmic frontier!" "Oh do tell!" You sat beside him.

"Okay, so it's set in space! There's Captain Avery, Security Officer Quando," A smile spread across his face, "and my personal favorite Chief Engineer O'Bailey!" You listened closely to everything he said. While you didn't understand half of it, it was clear he was happy. And you could get the gist of things you didn't understand via context clues.

"I'm going to stop before I explain the whole story. So what was your story about?" You inhaled slightly, "Okay the book is about two twins. One's a slacker the other one is super smart. They get sucked into a book." You explained, "They meet a frog dude. In order to get back home they need ingredients... Like a fairy tear. Kind of like us huh." There was a pause between both of you. Hunter spoke up, "How weird is it that we both found a book that relates to going back home?" You chuckled, "Yeah. But I find it weirder that it was the two people who are the least enthusiastic to get back." 

Hunter seemed to get weirdly nervous. "What do you mean? I want to get back as soon as possible!" You leaned into him, "You can't lie to me, neither of us were that happy while we were in the Demon Realm. By the time we got out of the coven the Day of Unity was in like a week." Hunter looked down, "But I feel like I should feel bad. Everyone else lost their home." "Is it really such a bad thing that we're happier? We could feel bad for them but happy for ourselves." Hunter gave a slight smile. "Yeah... Yeah! We don't need to feel sad. It's good to finally be happy."

A/n: If you know what book I was referring to I love you.

[rayslittlekitten]

Distraction

A/N: So a while back in a discord discussion, the idea of Benny nailing someone shorter than him and literally having them on their tip toes somehow got brought up and I took the challenge. This went a bit in a different direction that I had initially thought it would, but I'm happy with how this came out. This takes place after Triple Frontier. Thank you @lovebarefootblonde for taking a look at this for me!

Rating: E (18+ ONLY)

Pairing: Benny Miller x F! Reader

Word Count: ~1.2k

Plot: A hot quickie turns into a vulnerable moment for Benny.

Contains: sex (P in V), bathroom sex, size kink, angst, comfort, allusions to canon events

One of the disadvantages of being shorter than Benny is that sometimes it can get tricky when you're both in a spontaneous mood and in an inconvenient place to get frisky.

"Can you like, tip toe up a bit--"

"Benny, if I tried, I'd literally be on my toes like a fucking ballerina," you whisper loudly, trying to look back at him. "And I ain't no ballerina."

You and Benny are over at Will's place for a small get-together. It would be the first time you're meeting some of his friends. Up until this point, you've only heard about them so it was nice to finally put some faces to their names. 

Benny's been sending you sexy texts throughout the gathering and the exchange got a little too hot so he pulled you into the bathroom for a quickie. You're bent over the bathroom counter, with your dress hiked up to your waist and your panties pushed to the side and your boyfriend is squatting down lower to try to penetrate you. 

"I can't fucking do this," Benny mumbles. "My thighs are giving out."

You figured with all the squats and burpees he does all the time, this would be one of the reasons they would pay off.

"What the hell, Ben?" you huff. 

"I've got an idea."

Benny grabs the back of one of your knees and hoists it up so half your body is on the counter and you're spread out on the edge. Your other leg is practically dangling and you're balancing yourself on the tip of your shoe to prevent yourself from falling. There's only so much counter space you can hold on to. Benny tries again and you stifle a moan when you feel him successfully slip himself inside you to the hilt.

"Shh, we gotta be quiet. Will's going to lose it if he finds out we're fucking in his bathroom," Benny reminds you.

He grips your hips and holds you in place on the counter before carefully moving in and out of you, testing the sturdiness of the position. You bite your bottom lip, feeling him fill you up over and over again, but you need more. It's been a month since you've seen your boyfriend and missed him. The details were vague, but he took a trip with his brother and some friends. It was supposed to only be a few days, but he told you that whatever he was doing was going to take a little more time before he could come home. You were worried, but knew that if he was with Will, he would be okay. His big brother always looks out for him. 

It's clear he missed you too because when he came home, all he wanted to do was fuck you. You've only been dating for about a few months and are still very much in the honeymoon phase so that's not surprising. You very much enjoy sex with him, but there was something different since he got back. He seems a bit distant and distracted. 

In fact, at the party, there were times where the ambience in the room seemed to be a bit somber. You heard the name "Tom" quietly thrown around a few times but don't know much about him except that he's a friend of the group and Benny looked up to him, but anytime you tried to ask Benny about it, he said everything was fine or would change the subject. 

Benny punches his hips into you, causing the edge of the counter to dig into the top of your leg.  You yelp when your head bangs against the vanity mirror.

"Fuck! I'm so sorry," Benny apologizes quietly and eases up on the thrust. "Are you okay?" 

"Yeah," you nod and put a hand against the mirror to gain some control.

Benny starts moving again, gentler this time. You can sense him struggling to hold back. You don't always have rough sex and understand you can get carried away in the moment, but he's been favoring it much more these days. You try to push back in your limited position, but it's just throwing off his rhythm. You happen to glance up at the mirror and see Benny's reflection. His eyes are closed with knitted brows and he's concentrating. On what, you're not exactly sure. Controlling his strokes? On holding off his orgasm? Imagining someone else? 

"Benny," you call out for him. "Look at me.”

His eyes spring open and make eye contact with your reflection.  

“You’re with me, right?” You ask.

“Yeah, of course,” he answers.

”Sorry, I’m just trying to get you off first,” he admits. “But I promise I’m here, with you.”

He leans in and leaves a quick kiss on your cheek before going back to fucking you, watching your face in the mirror as he moves in and out of you.

“Fuck…” you pant. “Fuck me, Benny.”

You see his eyes go dark and he starts drilling into you. You squeal but quickly catch yourself. Benny pulls your hips back a little to change the angle and you feel the edge of the counter rubbing against your clit through your underwear as he thrusts into you.

You press your hips against the counter to get better stimulation. Benny finds your spot and starts poking it with the head of his cock. You’re getting dizzy from all this, as your orgasm is quickly building.

“Harder,” you tell him.

“You sure?” He asks, still looking at you through the mirror.

You nod. “I’m so close.”

“Remember you gotta keep quiet,” he reminds you. 

You nod.

He plants both of his hands on the counter on either side of you and starts pounding you hard. Pounding that’s going to leave bruises on your hip bones. You swear the thin bathroom wall is rattling along with the cup and toothbrush sitting on the counter every time Benny shoves himself into you. You hope no one outside can hear anything.

The tension in your gut is tightening and without warning, snaps. Your jaw drops open and you let out a silent scream as your orgasm floods your body. Benny’s own release follows shortly as he grunts into your ear. As you both ride out the tail end of your climax, Benny relaxes his body over yours while catching his breath with his face in the crook of your neck. 

You reach up and run your hand through his sweaty hair. He pulls away from his hiding spot and glances over at you in the mirror, looking over your shoulder with a chunk of hair draping over his eye.

“You okay?” You ask him.

He nods and he almost subtly nudges your ear with the tip of his nose before kissing your shoulder. He pulls out of you and you both clean yourselves up. When it sounds like the coast is clear outside the door, you reach for the doorknob but Benny pulls you in for a hug. He holds you close and tight against his body. You sense him quietly crying against your shoulder, hunched over. You don’t say anything and simply reach up to stroke the back of his head, massaging your fingertips into his scalp and letting him release whatever has been eating up inside of himself.

[mountmortar]

the highly specific version of kogamoshipping that lives in my head where it's the alola era and kris is the leader of johto's battle tower (because this is me we're talking about. get sinnoh's stupid battle frontier out of johto and give us back the original battle tower etc etc) and leaf is currently just chilling & being a wandering trainer who mainly spends her time getting up to random bullshit. i like to think she was going nuts with dynamaxing in galar or something before meandering back to kanto. anyway she's like "hm i'm gonna go visit red and blue soon so maybe i'll practice for their new battle tree by finally getting around to challenging that battle tower in johto." so she shows up and makes it all the way up to kris and kris promptly kicks her ass because unfortunately it's the fate of the kanto trio to constantly lose to the johto quartet and that night leaf is just furiously texting red and blue like "do you guys know anything about the leader of the battle tower please please please please" and blue's like "kris? yeah she's one of the ones who won the championship after us back when we were kids before she gave up the title. the one after gold but before lyra. oh, did you want her number for battling or something?"

and needless to say the next day kris is getting a very enthusiastic introductory text and a request for battling outside of the battle tower. she stares at it like "???" for a second before opening the johto group chat and going "Alright which one of you is giving out my number to weirdos" and eventually lyra manages to pry the events of the previous day out of her and tells kris who she is. and of course kris' brain jumps straight to battling like blue's did (pokémon crystal-exclusive goldenrod city mall roof flavor text i love you) so she agrees to meet up with leaf outside of the battle tower sometimes and it just devolves into looney tunes-level of leaf desperately trying to flirt in her own way and kris being insanely oblivious. eventually lyra figures out what's going on and strong-arms gold and silver into helping to properly set them up (it's not working) and she's texting red & blue about it too (which is also not helping) and no reminders about her champion duties are stopping her from getting involved in this situation. leaf would desperately love for her to not get involved in this situation. lyra is Getting Involved in this situation. kris is not aware there's a situation but she's definitely having more fun than she thought battling leaf so she's having a good time at least

[captainimprobable]

Huntlow: "I've got my suit, we have a full tank of gas, and you look beautiful."

(Hope things get easier soon.)

Willow could tell that something was very wrong, because Hunter had been quiet for at least three minutes straight. She loved her boyfriend with everything she had, but, more importantly, she knew him. And after three years of dating, she was quite aware of the fact that Hunter liked to talk. The topic of conversation varied greatly; depending on the hour it could be anything from a one sided debate on the mechanics of the Cosmic Frontier ships to a rant about how gorgeous his girlfriend was. (Willow was rather partial to the second, but she was happy to listen to anything he had to say, really.) So when Hunter went quiet in the living room, she exited the bathroom mildly concerned that he'd passed out at the computer where she'd left him. "Hunter?" she asked as she walked across the room. Hunter didn't respond, but he did turn his chair around to slowly face her with a look of great shame on his face. "I'm so sorry Willow," he said, nervously biting his thumbnail, "I, uh, I kind of fucked up." Willow smiled reassuringly and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure it's not as bad as you're making it seem, babe."

In addition to being a certified yapper, Hunter also happened to be extremely hard on himself. Hunter flinched. "No, it's actually bad this time," he assured her. "You know those plane tickets we got? The ones for Tuesday?" "The tickets to get to Connecticut?" "Yeah..." Willow started to feel a great sense of unease in the pit of her stomach. "What happened?"

Hunter took a deep breath and then finally blurted it out: "We don't actually have tickets for Tuesday. I'm so sorry." Willow blinked at him, not quite certain she was hearing this right. "What...what do you mean?" "I mean, I just got an email confirming our tickets to Connecticut....for Friday. And yes, before you ask, I looked up literally every single airline in existence for seats on any plane for Tuesday. Or Wednesday, or Thursday, or even Monday." Willow closed her eyes and backed up a few feet until she was sitting on the couch. "Shit. How...?"

Hunter stood up, dawdling in the middle of the room like he wasn't sure whether he was allowed to join Willow on the couch or not. "It's my fault. I was distracted when I bought the tickets back in May, and I must have clicked the wrong day, and now-" "-And now we're going to miss our best friends' wedding," Willow finished.

"I'm so sorry, I feel awful, I didn't do it on purpose, I-"

"I know," Willow said gently, "I don't blame you. It's just...what are we gonna do? Not being there is not an option." "Yeah, I know, which is why I got a kind of....crazy idea." There was suddenly a mischievous glint in Hunter's eye, and in spite of herself and in spite of the situation, Willow found herself smiling. Whatever Hunter was going to say next was sure to be at best helpful and at least entertaining. Hunter smiled back at her, and Willow was not surprised to feel the butterflies in her stomach. Even after all these years, she still felt them all the time. "What if we drove there?" Willow let that sit in the air for a second before saying "As in, road trip across the country? In four days?" "I mean, we've done crazier things, and besides, this is Luz and Amity. I know you'd do anything for them, and I sure as hell would too. So..."

"Hmmm. When would we leave?" Hunter's grin got even bigger. "I was thinking...maybe now?" "Now???" Hunter shrugged. "Why not? I've got my suit, we have a full tank of gas, and you look beautiful." Willow giggled. "What does me looking beautiful have to do with anything?" "Nothing, really, but I've only told you like two times today, which definitely wasn't enough." God, Willow loved this man. "Okay." "Okay?" Willow stood up and stretched before walking over to her boyfriend and giving him a kiss. "Let's do this," she said, "Think you can handle being stuck in a car with me for four days?" Hunter snorted. "As if being stuck with you for four days isn't, like, the best thing that could ever possibly happen to me? Come on, Willow, you know me better than that." Willow laughed again and got on her tiptoes to ruffle Hunter's hair. "I love you," she said, as if he didn't know, as if she could ever, in any universe, pretend she was anything other than deeply in love with him. "I love you too," he said, "Now let's get our butts to Connecticut." ~ (I CANNOT THANK YOU FOR THIS ENOUGH ANON! This is the first time I've been able to write in MONTHS, ty ty ty!!! <3)

[polyhexian]

despite Jasper telling Raine not to call him for CATTs business after the finale, I feel like Raine would, indeed, end up calling him. a lot. because, like. there's an entire oppressive government to mop up, and as former Golden Guards both Jasper and Hunter would be a wealth of information.

it's a 50-50 chance whether Jasper will just hang up or whether he'll demand some ridiculous price for his help, but Raine has a dangerous castle full of an evil emperor's secrets to clean up, and the former Golden Guards are RIGHT THERE.

so like…

~

"Whispers, I told you not to call me."

"I know, don't worry, I'll be quick. Is there a backup key to the treasury?"

"I'm sorry, what?"

"We can't find the treasury secretary and the key is gone and we KIND OF need the relief funds - "

"Ohoho you guys are screwed, if you try going in there without the key you're gonna get vaporized by the security system."

"I AM AWARE. Do you know of some other way to get in?"

"Mmm theoretically."

"…What's it gonna cost to get you to help?"

"I've been considering getting my own wifi plan. Could you get the fees waived for, like, forever?"

~

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW TO GET UPPER-LEVEL ACCESS TO THE CASTLE'S CRYSTAL BALL NETWORK?"

"Hello to you too, Whispers."

"YES, HI, WE'RE KIND OF ON A TIME LIMIT HERE, NO TIME TO EXPLAIN BUT LILITH'S ACCESS WAS REVOKED SO - "

"Pfft wait, they actually locked her out? Oh, wait, she was alive when she defected, that makes sense…"

"JASPER PLEASE I KNOW THIS IS A LONGSHOT BUT IF YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS - "

"Here I'll just text you my username and password."

"…WHAT???"

"Yeah they never changed it, pretty stupid of them. There you go, sent, feel free to use it as much as you like, it's not like I need it anymore. Also stop calling me."

~

"Listen I know you said you don't care to participate in government BUT I'm just putting out feelers so I wanted to know if you had any ideas on how to de-militarize the Emperor's Coven?"

"What makes you think I understand the first thing about political theory?"

"You were the Emperor's RIGHT HAND MAN."

"Haha yeah, doesn't mean I understood anything."

~

"Did Belos actually acquire the XYZ artifact?"

"Oh, yeah, I got that for him like 20 years ago."

"Great! Do you know where he stored it?"

"Not a clue."

~

"Whispers I am marathoning Cosmic Frontier with my kid, this had better be important."

"Sorry, just - quick question, we're trying to clear Belos's wing of the castle and we need to know, how many secret passages are there in this hallway?"

"Well in the hallway there's five, but there's another two in his chambers and one in his study."

"For the love of - "

"Hm? One sec. …Okay, Hunter says there's actually three in the study and seven in the hallway - wait, but Hunter, you never knew about the grimwalker lab? Huh. Okay so between me and Hunter there are eight in the hallway. That we know of."

"Great. Fantastic."

"Also watch out for the booby traps. And now that I think about it, one of the passages in the bedchamber is probably keyed so that only a human can enter, so you might want to recruit Luz for that."

"Is there anything I can do to get you to come help us clear this place?"

"Absolutely not. Wait, let me check - hey, Hunter, want to go back to the site of our torment to help Whispers and Mason do their jobs? Yeah, didn't think so."

"Alright, alright, sorry for asking."

"Oh, but I do claim anything you find pertaining to grimwalkers as, like, reparations or whatever. At the very least there should be a shelf full of journals in the lab. You can give what's left of Caleb back to the Clawthornes, though, he's their graverobbed great-great-whatever-granddad."

"Oh dear titan."

"Going back to our marathon now, if you have an emergency in the next thirteen hours I am NOT answering my scroll. Byyyyyyye."

SO fucking funny. "here's my password have fun kids" and that's how Raine finds out how jasper has known everything always all the time jehshdhdja. THAT SON OF A-

Don't forget jasper loves being bribed. When hunter is busy or at school jasper can be convinced to do stuff. Mostly with food. Food is a great motivator the man is hungry.

Raine: hey... Can you come and break down the wards in Belos's chambers?

Jasper: no

Raine: you want a house

Jasper: what

Raine: a house. White picket fence. Bay windows. Kitchen nook. You want one

Jasper: wh

Raine: mason will make you a house if you will come deactivate these wards

Jasper: why would I need a house. I have a house.

Raine: you live in a cave.

Jasper: I like my cave.

Raine: I bet hunter would like a house.

Jasper: I'll be right there

[beevean]

I think thats my problem with Frontiers, yes it's an improvement over the 2010s games writing and I'm happy we're finally away from whatever Forces tried to do. But it feels so cynical but to me the final straw was the constant references. It felt too unnatural. After over 10 years of abysmal writing its just ughh

Imma be real with you chief: I think Frontiers' story is worse than all the Pontaff games.

Oh, those have their issues too, but they're issues that honestly never bothered me beyond "eh, wish they did something more with it". Like, I wish they packed more cute meta references in Generations, since that one was actually meant to be a blast from the past. Or I wish Forces didn't miss outright chunks when it came to showing Eggman conquering the world. Or I wish Amy and Knuckles were more than the comic relief in Lost World. Or I wish that the majority of Colors' story wasn't Sonic talking to mute robots, and was more about him and Tails having a fun romp. Yeah, those games have a strong cheesy tone and were either rather fluffy or didn't elaborate much on their concepts, I don't deny it.

But I don't even know what to praise in Frontiers' story. I guess Sonic and Knuckles' homoerotic dynamic? That was funny lol. But the game is just so full of itself I can hardly see through its blatant arrogance. The story does so little and still pretends to fix everything that was wrong with Sonic in the '10s, when in some regards it regresses things.

It's still "Sonic does everything while his friends cheer on the side" which was a big complaint in the "Solo Sonica" era, but now I have to ooh and aah as Amy, Knuckles and Tails go through the same arcs they went through in 1998 which is what passes as "development". Yes, "development" is apparently Amy chewing Sonic out because he's more concerned about his friends' safety and wellbeing than making some random critters happy, or Tails moping around because he's "wildly inconsistent" - tell me how this is better than him actually doing shit in Forces to stop Eggman and his Death Egg, after the infamous "Sonic help me" scene?

Eggman sits on his ass for the majority of the game like in Sonic Heroes because we're back to the era where shitty gods without a personality steal the final boss role (at least Dark Gaia didn't talk :V), but I'm meant to aww because now he's human, now he's fleshed out, see he created a cute daughter for himself! He cares! He's sad for her death/he holds her hand like a cute papa! He's a better character now! Because being a papa was what he always needed! What do you mean that in the Pontaff games he was actually the sole, genuine threat? Something fans used to cheer for when Colors came out?

At least Zor and Infinite are endearing in their own tryhard way (and Infinite was voiced by my dear Liam O'Brien lmao), which is more I can say for The End and especially Sage, the laziest Rei Ayanami ripoff I've ever seen but without a smidge of her tragic personality.

But anyway, thank you for giving me another word to define Frontiers' story with: cynical. Yeah, in a way, it is cynical, in how it was only written to be considered better than the older stupid games, and better in the same way a fanfiction written by a disgruntled fan would be considered. That's what it tried to do, and I can't consider it better than what Forces tried to do, which was simply to appeal to multiple types of fans.

[shiraki-yurara]

On-Screen Lovers Part 2 Story Event - Jace - Chapter 3 - Sweet End

Disclaimer: Morganatic Idol belongs to CYBIRD & ABC Frontier, Inc.

My Notes: Translation is for entertainment purpose only. Translation may or may not be correct. Please ignore any grammar mistakes.

The acting practice with Jace-san went smoothly.

Everything would surely be okay----- That was what I thought, but I still felt a pain in my chest.

---

Rina: Haa……

The next day, I sighed for the umpteenth time while eating dinner.

(Jace-san will kiss someone else……)

(Even though I knew it was an act, I didn't think I would be this shocked.)

The fact that I actually practiced with him made me feel even more jealous.

(No, this is not good. I have to change my attitude or Jace-san will notice.)

The moment I stood up quickly to return to my room.

Jace: Rina-chan.

Rina: ! Jace-san.

Jace: Can you come to my room for a minute? I need to talk to you.

Rina: Ah, yes.

I nodded, hiding my nervousness, and Jace-san immediately took my hand and we started walking.

(……I have to keep it a secret until the very end.)

I held Jace-san's hand back, secretly bracing myself.

---

Rina: What do you want to talk about?

Jace: About that……

Jace-san seemed to hesitate for a moment, then looked at me quietly.

Jace: Sorry if I misunderstood. But I've been a bit concerned since yesterday's practice.

Jace: Are you jealous that I'm going to kiss an actress?

Rina: Eh?

My shoulders jumped as the thing I had been trying to hide was pointed out to me.

(Jace-san, you noticed……)

Rina: Did it show on my face by any chance?

Jace: I wasn't sure, but I had a feeling when I looked at you.

Jace: Our eyes didn’t really meet and you looked like you were worried……

Jace: I mean, if I was in your position, I wouldn't like it at all.

Jace: I might yell at you not to go to the filming.

As I looked at Jace-san who frowned as he said that, my honest feelings came out.

Rina: …… As you said, Jace-san, I can’t let go of the feeling of unease since we kissed in our acting.

Rina: Even though I didn't want to get in the way of your work…… I’m sorry.

Jace: Eh!? No, don’t apologize.

Jace: I was happy that you were jealous.

Rina: Eh?

Jace: Because that's how much you love me, right?

Jace: Honestly, my girlfriend is really cute.

Jace-san said as he gave me a gentle hug.

(Aah, I love him……)

Wrapped in his warm arms, I felt my love for Jace-san grow stronger.

I put my arms around Jace-san and his face slowly came closer-----

Jace: Close your eyes.

Rina: Nn……

A gentle, soothing kiss.

After repeating that several times, Jace put his forehead on mine and smiled.

Jace: You tried to hide your jealousy, which I think is cool and responsible.

Jace: But I want you to be more honest with me because we're lovers.

Jace: Because I want to fully accept your feelings……

He patted my back reassuringly, and I gave a small nod.

Rina: Thank you. Just hearing that made me feel a lot better.

Rina: Yesterday's kiss was more intense than usual, and I was desperately trying to keep up, so I could not say anything.

Rina: But…… I still feel a little uneasy when I think about you kissing someone else.

Jace: Yeah, of course. Sorry.

Jace: But don't forget this, my heart belongs to you.

Jace: You're the only one I will give kisses filled with love to.

Saying that, Jace-san kissed me many times.

Rina: Hehe, that tickles.

Jace: Ah, you finally laughed.

Jace: I'll kiss you as many times as I have to if it makes you feel less anxious, Rina-chan.

Jace-san's bright smile made me feel lighter in my heart.

Jace: Oh, and this is just a suggestion……

Jace: After filming is over, why don't we take some time off and just spend some time together?

Rina: ! Is that even possible?

I couldn't help but be surprised, knowing how busy his schedule was.

Jace: To be honest, I think it's going to be tough. But, if it's for Rina-chan's sake, I'll try my best to negotiate.

Jace: More than anything, when I think about not being able to see you for a long time because of filming, I feel like I can't bear it……

The way he sighed was adorable and filled my heart with joy.

Rina: I'm so happy…… If it's possible, I'd like to spend time with you.

Jace: Really? Then it's settled.

Jace: This has motivated me even more. What should we do during my off time?

Jace: Of course, the first is to embrace you as much as I want……

Rina: You don't have to say it out loud. It's embarrassing……

Jace: Really? When you say that, it makes me want to say it even more~.

Jace-san grinned, then suddenly his smile disappeared.

Then, his expression turned seductive as he brought his lips close to my ear-----

Jace: ……By the way, I tied you up during practice, right? Do you want to try tying me up next time?

Jace: You can do whatever you want with my body.

Rina: !

The seductive whispers were so sweet that they paralyzed my thoughts……

I couldn't help but gasp.

Jace: Did you just imagine it? Your face is turning red.

Rina: ……, that’s…

Jace: There's no need to deny it.

Jace: I don't mind being tied up and having kiss marks left on me.

Jace: I'm happy with everything you give me.

Rina: But I can't do that to your precious body, Jace-san.

I shook my head in a panic and Jace-san smiled.

Jace: Fufu, I knew you would say that.

Jace: But that's how much I'm prepared to love you.

Jace: I want to give you everything, body and soul……

For the umpteenth time today, our kiss felt more loving than ever, and I could feel my anxiety fading away.

Rina: Jace-san……, more.

Jace: Yeah, I'll do it as many times as you want.

Jace-san hugged me tightly as I asked for a kiss.

Every sigh I let out was swallowed up, and I drowned in the sweet stimulation.

(I love you, Jace-san……)

(Don't let me go until this anxiety is completely gone.)

Wishing so, I reached out to him again.

[crystalelemental]

Unit Viability Speculation - October 2023

Is it Caitlin? No.

Is it Lusamine/Nihilego?  No.

Is it Roxanne?  YES, APPARENTLY, WHAT?

Akari Fuck yeah, Hisui!  Love this region.  A bit peeved that Akari got Samurott but I can flex with it.  Akari is very, very good.  Dark Damage Field is set on Ceaseless Edge, and her Buddy move is equivalent to a Tech Nuke, spammable, gains 20% more damage each use up to 60% but resets if any other action is taken, and is a Field pair with the coveted Strike role.  If anything holds her back, it's 376 attack.  Which I don't think is bad enough to really stop her.

Akari effectively has +90% move damage for free, extension on her damage field which already lasts halfway through forever, and 150% sync damage, on top of summoning Field.  Akari is, in my personal opinion, the first true test of a Field pair.  Variety Giovanni is there, but most skipped him with good reason.  Akari is a lot more relevant to people, and we're going to actually finalize perspectives on this move type with her.  I am anticipating positive response.  As I had predicted, the measure of a good Field is going to be good DPS, and Akari actually lives up to this spectacularly.  I would say her DPS is more significant than her sync, though sync is obviously fantastic as well.  Her main issue is going to be competition.  Dark is absolutely stacked.  NC Marnie dominates, SC Zinnia dominates, Akari won't really upstage them.  Both have comparable damage and high flinch rates.  Akari is meant as supplement to, providing the Zone, but in exchange takes first sync.  I think she'll work beautifully in the NC Calem/SC Zinnia comp, but Marnie may have less use for her.  Personally, I'm well satisfied.

Rei Rei is bullshit.  I'm sorry, this is nutty.  478 base attack, almost a full 100 over Akari.  And you get a once-per-sync buddy move...that is as strong as a Strike sync...and has sure flinch AoE with no penalty.  That also always crits and hits -2 defense.  Am I reading that right?  His trainer move even gives him +6 speed, there is no flaw here.  As a Sprint pair, he's even got a pretty natural -2 sync cooldown on his base kit, any Head Start 1 from, say, Aura Cynthia's grid, is a fast-ramp to first sync, which he then gets a -3 off of the next, and an AoE sure flinch, while dishing out obscene damage.  Do I have all that right?  And there are four sync damage nodes.  Only 50% sync multipliers, but like...god, does he need it?  This is the first time I've seen an aggravation tile and thought it was unnecessary.  But even without Buddy move, he can still have 60% flinch and a guaranteed -1 defense per hit.  All of this, on a rare Fighting typing, with a Strike role.  EX and Role'd, his attack stat is on par with SS Hilda.

I mean...I'll say it, I think if it weren't for Zone, he'd be better than NC Hop.  I say this with absolute confidence.  I know, his damage won't measure up to Hop's.  But I greatly value the bullshit he provides.  Two fast-ramps with sure flinch AoE is just magnificent.  I will say his limitation is specializing a bit too much into sync.  His damage output relies on defense drops, which are easy enough to supply, but he personally does not facilitate well.  I'm personally on the fence with him.  Mostly because I'm trying to be more judicious about my gems.  I really like this kit, but I struggle to say SC Diantha wasn't getting a job done, and he's not exactly the ideal partner she's been waiting for.  He does well with the Master Fairs, and his speed facilitates dual strike more reliably for a type that plays well to that approach.  I actually couldn't articulate why I'm not more hyped by him.  Is it just the male protagonist thing?  It might just be the male protagonist thing.

Variety Noland I...I'm sorry, Noland and Ninjask?  Is Noland a Bug guy?  I thought he was a Frontier Brain with a more varied team?  Anyway, Bug damage.  The upside of Noland is that he's a -3 sync cooldown instantly on trainer move, and his buddy move is a 4-bar move's damage in a 1-bar move, that confuses, never misses, and debuffs accuracy.  The bad news of Noland is that he feels like someone without a cause.

Usually, these Variety scouts are really good at Gauntlet, at the expense of 3v3 fights.  He gives hints of that with the Overwhelm focus, the boosting of evasion, debuffing of accuracy, and slow pace to set up max speed for his buddy move.  But, his buddy move also cuts his defenses by 3.  Which is sure death when things connect.  And Gauntlet has Sure Hit.  Like, routinely.  He has no means of fixing the debuffs, no Endurance effect, and his only means of healing is Sync Regen.  Personally?  I think he's damned.  I think this is a bad set for Gauntlet with too little to excel like many others in the Variety pool, and with way too slow and awkward a kit for CS.  Easy skip, get fucked Bug types.

Variety Thorton Finally, someone to challenge Marnie's Steel Zone monopoly.  Thorton...is interesting.  He functions by applying Restrain on a target, which is a damned nice effect, and then powering up the attacks of all allies when foe is restrained.  He gets 100% guaranteed free moves next and SEUN whenever he attacks a restrained opponent, and has both Steel and Electric type moves, making him fairly useful across two kinds of stages as an easy slot-in third. Or, if you Support role him, as the tank.  His Trainer move does provide +2 Atk/Sp Atk, +3 crit, and Endure to a target ally, so he can offload that to someone else if needed.  And with Metal Sound, he's got a nice debuff as well.  Add in 100% sync multipliers, Staggering 4 broadly (which means Discharge hits all foes for flinch at a set 50% rate), and Satisfied Snarl for potential survival, Thorton...actually looks competent.

I think what slightly bothers me about Thorton, stupid as it is, is his demands.  Sync is Power Hold 5, which is easily set up, but Static Shock 5 is...rough.  Even with HE2 on grid, which is hard to pick up, Thorton can't ensure paralysis on a target.  He needs support.  And his self-buffing of offsenses is similarly impacted, requiring at least special attack, and likely speed given his stats and propensity for dual strike.  I think Thorton is competent.  I actually like this kit more than I expected.  I think he'll do well.  I just also...don't entirely care?  As a replacement to P!Marnie, he's okay, but not exactly doing as much, given he has to take sync and is special, which conflicts with the mostly physical type.  He'll do well with Raihan and S!Tate, but Tate really didn't need the help, so it's kinda just Raihan.  It's hard to justify a pull for a single sync pair.

Halloween Phoebe There's the required Ghost trainer.  I'm kinda stunned it's all Hoenn again?  Anyway, Phoebe comes in with Cofagrigus, which feels like it belongs to Shauntal so I'm at least a bit salty about this.  More critically...she's kinda bad.

Vigilance is nice, Potion with double MPR is nice, and her base defenses work well.  But every other aspect hurts her.  Ignoring the opponent's boosts to offenses is nowhere near as valuable as debuffing them, because those boosted offenses are going to obliterate you and your friends on sync.  Her trainer move may give +4 to both defenses, but that's just Evelyn, who is known to be underwhelming and is largely considered worse than BP Morty because it's 1MP.  Phantom Force into evasion boosting and Group Gloat is cute, but impractical outside of Gauntlet.  Boosting both offenses of the team by 1 each time she attacks is incredibly slow acting, especially since it denies any progress when she has to heal or use her trainer move, or on the first turn of Phantom Force.  Tech is a bad role for someone who can't buff their own crit rate.  She's slow as shit, so this does nothing for her own type, thus doing nothing for High Score.  And her grid.  Despite built-in Vigilance and Status Immunity and Endurance, her grid is spread in such a way that getting all three effects restricts what else she's able to pick up, with Potion being a major casualty.  I...don't really love this one.  I kinda don't respect it at all actually.

Halloween Roxanne This is the greatest sync pair all year.  For me.

Ground Tech, who got the coveted Strike role.  Roxanne is coming in swinging.  And swing she did, for this is...actually pretty good.  Sand Tomb applies immediate Trap on all foes when she hits once.  She powers up team moves against trapped opponents by 20%, which is a universal benefit.  She removes all stat bonuses, and turns them into debuffs, on sync.  Every sync.  And even has a grid node for No Stat Increases effect on foe.  With 150% sync damage, 50% move damage, and a Buddy move that debuffs Def/Spd of foes by 1 each hit then boosts her team's Def/Spd the same amount?  Roxanne is excellent.

But with problems.  Buddy move is fairly weak, and suffers AoE penalty.  Her buddy move is a nice +3 self crit and +2 team accuracy, but her ability to boost attack needs supplemented (you know what's coming).  Her debuffing is very slow acting.  Fortunately, Roxanne is competent.  Slo-pponent Sync 5 and Sync Power Flux are godsends on a pair that could easily have been slapped with Cakewalk, allowing her to easily set it up in one rotation.  Lack of any gauge on her Buddy move more than offsets the lower BP.  And Halloween Caitlin exists, providing Roxanne with, quite literally, everything she needs.  And given the atrociously slow type she's in, being able to actually boost team speed?  This is a godsend for High Score.  Roxanne is incredibly well poised across game modes.  Her Tech nuke does what she needs, and Strike role obliterates 3v3.  Her inversion of buffs and persistent debuffing makes her excellent in Gauntlet.  She is, to be perfectly frank, my favorite of the month.  I recognize the Hisui duo are better overall.  But this is my girl.

Lenora Okay guys, hear me out.  What if Cheren...but good? But also! What if Lucian...but terrible?

Lenora's trainer move is incredibly reminiscent of Cheren, trading gradual healing for a 20% HP recovery on all pairs, and otherwise charging gauge.  With Special Damage Reduction on entry and X Sp Def All, she skews specially defensive.  This is all she buffs.  As a support.  Not so good, girl.  She does get +1 Atk or Sp Atk depending on grid, and has Team Sharp Entry, but...it's slow and generally insufficient, and notably does not work with Leer which is a major conflict of interest.  Leer is her bigger draw, debuffing both defense and special defense thanks to her passive. This is incredibly useful, but would align better with a Tech than a Support, who otherwise wants to be doing like a million things at once.

Lenora feels like a response to Lucian, who was so well optimized he remains the greatest general pool pair by a mile.  I think Lenora is the power scale they want to push Lucian back to.  It's the only way to make sense of the difference between them.  To be honest, lack of First Aid 4 and only having Safety Tether implies she's not doing well with staying power, given the low self-healing of her trainer move.  She's just...not optimized for much success in the meta.

Lodge Giovanni This is the only thing I'm legitimately pissed about.  Did you know Giovanni has 5 alts?  Yeah.  This fuck clown has more alts than Leaf now.  You couldn't even give her a month to be a protagonist considered as popular as the antagonist?  Just jumped straight to the Kanto men, huh?  No, I get it, it's fine.

Poison Support with Nidorino.  Should've been Nidorina, but Kanto (the Pokemon region) is sexist, so can't have him with a girl Pokemon.  His trainer move boosts Defense +2 and crit +1.  So shades of Lodge Blue.  Unlike Blue, Giovanni does nothing of value.  Potion is cute, but no Endurance on a Lodge unit that has heavily lopsided defenses never goes so well.  Hostile Environment 4 does not make him a reliable Poison user; that's the same rate as Janine with the weaker Poison.  Team Sharp Entry is cute, but unlike Janine, he's not getting anything from it since his TM already buffs crit.

This is a pretty bad support.  I struggle to find any reason to use him, at all, over Lodge Blue.  Even in situations where you need Poison, you have Lodge Janine, who, by all accounts, has comparable defensive merit with the evasion, but way more relevant buffing kit.  I do not respect Giovanni, now more than ever.  I feel like every time he shows up it's to demonstrate the depth of his failure, yet somehow people still think he's cool.

Clemont Grid expansion.  It's uh...hmm.  Grand Entry 2 is so not enough.  Obscuring Power 3 is hilarious, his move damage is irrelevant.  Speedster Sync 5 is cute, I guess, but does nothing to help with his bigger Cakewalk multiplier.  Critical Eye would be amazing if it weren't 1 and only on trainer move.  I can't complain about Caitlin getting Crit Eye 2 when no one else does, but I can say it's strange.  I feel like Clemont isn't going very far.  This does very, very little to help him.  I guess the intent was slightly stronger sync, but adding more multipliers to move damage in hopes it matters this time?  I don't think it does.

Steven Allegedly, he got another grid expansion.  It's not up.  I feel like a mistake has been made somewhere.

Shauntal I can't believe they gave Shauntal the EX, but in hindsight, this tracks with recent decisions.  At the risk of making Aera depressed, Shauntal's EX is completely and totally irrelevant.  Oh, I know, four sync nodes and a 50% multiplier, surely this is something.  It's not.  Her sync damage calculation is still bottom of the Ghost type, and unimpressive in general.  Shauntal is a common that thrives off of frankly spectacular DPS.  The sync was not her approach, so this feels...extraneous?  Nice to have, but there were options that I think much more desperately needed it.

[tkw92]

While I think it's cool we're getting more playable characters in a mainline 3D Sonic game(that isn't classic Sonic or a mute NPC) after so many years, I find the way they're going about it; having them available only when the player reaches the last island underwhelming and not worth my time.

Granted they have their hands tied with Frontiers making Tails, Knuckles and Amy damsels that need to be saved by Sonic again, but I prefer to have them available as you progress through the main story and not be held off until the final hours of the game. It's also why I didn't care for Episode Shadow in Forces, his brief campaign compared to Sonic A, Sonic B and the custom character was upappealing to me.

Yeah I understand the DLC comes at no extra cost but why does it have to be DLC at all when you could've made them available to use from the start. It feels like SEGA's still afraid of the Solo Sonic crowd.

For now, all I can ask for is that Tails, Knuckles and Amy kick ass in Frontiers so for the next mainline 3D Sonic game, SEGA has non-Sonic characters available from the start.

[thevoidstaredback]

Tonight's movie is gonna be Venom.

Mostly because I found something out about Eddie that I can guarantee I could've lived without, but what's done is done.

....I'm never gonna be able to watch any movie with Venom in it the same....

Apparently, Eddie is aroused by Venom.

I could've lived without that knowledge (I've never read the comics)

You all probably could've lived without that knowledge

Anyway, I'll be back to share my thoughts on the movie once I get it up and playing after dinner.

Space. The final frontier. These are the-

Wrong movie.

Spaceship crashed in East Malaysia.

At least it wasn't New York

Let's go inside it!

Venom's so dramatic! I love him.

He's like s husky.

The movie score only adds to this point.

Eddie's a mood.

"Meeting? Oh, shot, yeah. My meeting."

Eddie and Peter would get on like a house on fucking Fire.

Eddie would hate Tony, no matter the fact that he no longer makes weapons.

Oooooo! He snoopin'!

Kitty!🖤🖤

He snoopin'!

Eddie's gone off script. He's revealed info he's not supposed to be privy to.

Oops

There goes his job.

There goes his girl

Poor Annie.

Poor Eddie.

Subtle, Venom. Very subtle.

Eddie's sloched.

Homeless lady is absolutely awesome. What a deal she ran.

The store clerk is also a queen. She doesn't deserve the gun to the face.

Eddie's a good guy.

Poor Eddie. Can't even hear his own scream of frustration at his shitty neighbor.

Also, Drake is giving Supervillain vibes.

"No need to be frightened," my ass.

Starting human trials the minute a single animal trial is successful.

And now he's twisting the Christian Bible to suit his needs. Just like Christans

Poor Issac was not prepared to be possessed by a symbiote.

Ope, now he's dead.

Doris! She's cool.

Eddie won't even give her the time of day.

It's kinda funny. If we ignore the context of why she's approached Eddie.

I love Eddie.

Doris is having none of his shit.

It's funny.

Maria!🙀🙀😿

Hi Venom.

Eddie is suddenly a lot stronger than he remembers and is very confused.

He's also very thirsty and very hungry.

I wonder how much fun Tom Hardy had with this role.

Venom: "Eddie."

Eddie: "Wtf?!!"

Basically their first meeting: Venom: Oogily Boogily Bitch!!

I mistook the other symbiote as Venom. Forgive me. Either way, I maintain that Venom is a dramatic bitch.

Poor Eddie did not sign up for this.

Dan is chill.

Poor Venom does not like the MRI.

Poor Eddie.

I love Venom. He's a little murder puppy.

Don't do it, Doris! Don't trust him!

Damn it.

I told ya not to.

I know Eddie's from NYC, living in LA, but he's such a Midwesterner

Is being restrained to a wall, I foot in the air: "You have a brain tumor, Eddie."

I love him so much.

I also love his bike.

Look at Venom keeping Eddie alive!

Venom!!! Look who's come out to play!

Venom has no lips. Hos smile is literally all teeth

Also, him threatening Eddie to cooperate or die as if they don't become best friends (friends with benefits in the comics.....kinda) is based.

I'm literally Eddie, dude!! 🤣🤣

"Jump." doesn't jump. "Pussy."

Also, Eddie and Venom working in tandem after only knowing each other for two hours at most is amazing. I wish I had a friend like that.

DC reference!!

Venom is an anti hero.

I'm sending a pattern with some of my favorite characters. Deadpool, Red Hood, Venom.... they're all anti heros.

I love Venom and Eddie. They're besties already.

Drake just got a symbiote.

Venom doesn't like Dan. He likes Anne, though.

"What happened to 'we'?" "We're done."

Eddie, you sound like you just broke up with him.

Venom, do nOT-! And he's possessed the dog.

Smh.

Comic Book Eddie is a monster fucker!!🤣🤣

Drake, stfu.

Your symbiote said "I" before you corrected him to "We". You are expendable to him, Drake.

Anne as Venom!!

Venom made Anne and Eddie kiss!

.........I can see how similar comic and movie Eddie are.........whether on purpose or on accident.

"What made you change your mind?"

"You did, Eddie."

They are in love, your honor!

Or they could just be besties to the end. Either way, they have a great relationship and I love them.

Eddie!🙀

Venom, hurry and save him!!

Yay!!!!

I think he's angy...

You can't just save the world and peace out like that, Venom!! That's not how that works.

I can't wait for Along Came A Spider to come out.

Venom's playing wingman for Eddie. He's failing, but he's trying and it's based.

Stan Lee Cameo!!!

Eddie setting ground rules?

Venom following them?

Eddie allowing Venom to eat bad people?

Amazing.

"Bad guy?"

"Yep."

Venom threatening Bad Guy™ by calling him a turd and then eating him is so funny.

"We are Venom."

I love it.

[joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh]

Okay we're stopping playing Sonic for now because it's nearly 1am, but some thoughts woo, completely unstructured because yeah. Important context but I'm not actually finished with all the stuff yet either soooo

I think this update is fucking awesome! Like so much so that I don't even know where to start. I guess the most obvious part is playable Tails, Knuckles and Amy - all of them are fucking fantastic. I'm not without my nitpicks for them - Tails not having a homing attack really sucks and Knuckles' gliding is clunky, Amy though actually perfect lol - but I think in terms of general feel as well as how multiple playable characters should be handled in 3D Sonic, they're great. Cause the thing is they're all fundamentally still Sonic, even down to having the boost and shit, so before you've even gotten the chance to play them you already know most of what to expect - the surprises just come in the form of their other mobility and combat options, but obviously everything controls the same and nobody's like ungodly slow or locked out of the spindash or anything like that, it's genuinely awesome. Honestly there's a degree to which they leave Sonic himself in the dust with their absolutely ridiculous aerial mobility, especially Tails who gets a certain upgrade that is like, actually fucking gamebreaking (and btw I'm completely about it lmao). But yeah no they're incredible, and it still feels downright unreal playing as them in a new 3D title. Would be more than happy for this to be the template going forward in terms of multiple characters.

That's very much the main new thing and core appeal of the update, so I'll have less to say going forward, but I'm still really enjoying everything else on the table. One of the main things is just that the story additions and various optional character conversations do a shockingly huge amount to flesh out the Ancients and the Starfall Islands - in a way that makes this entire aspect of what is now part of series lore and canon feel so much more rich and alive. All of a sudden we have some answers to "what's up with those ruins over there?", and it feels nice! Although one huge narrative L is that they clarify that Big's presence is an illusion crafted from Sonic's memories, which I think is significantly more boring than Big just comedically being here for whatever reason. That aside though I think the steps taken here to flesh out the world and these backstories and the Ancients themselves who play such a key role in the story anyway is a really good call.

Guardians and specifically island mystery whatever thing M120 aside as detailed in my last post, I also really enjoy the general difficulty increase within this update's content. The island puzzles are generally a lot more involved, and will take multiple steps to complete and/or operate on significantly stricter time limits - it's a nice level of challenge for the final major area of the game. Doubly so for the various platforming challenges - which are about on par with the "new koko" challenges from update 2, i.e. really quite long and involved and precarious and it's awesome and many of them make great use of Tails/Amy/Knuckles' different mobility from Sonic. On Sonic's platforming though, holy fuck am I glad they added more tower climbs. Not even kidding the Rhea Island tower climbing was one of my favourite things about base Frontiers, it's an extremely tense and enjoyable platforming challenge that takes full advantage of Sonic's capabilities and expects a lot out of you, the player, and your knowledge of how to use said capabilities to their fullest. And dog they added more of them? Shit got me hype as fuck dude, greatly enjoyed the challenge, and the feeling of getting better and better at specific sections over time as well as learning the layouts such that I knew where to aim for if I fell so I could lose the least progress and shit, they're just so kino man. I fucking adore them.

One thing I haven't really engaged with surprisingly, is the new Cyberspace levels - I've done 2 of them and I mainly went for just beating the levels as opposed to spending time working on the misc objectives, but the ones I did do were kinda sick as hell and the objectives are all new compared to just red rings and x amount of normal rings and clearing in x time, fuck some of them even have different goals amongst themselves. I think cyberspace levels really grew on me after a couple more stabs at each level so I'm excited to give more of these new ones a shot - I think I'm kinda just mentally prioritising them less than the story content and character upgrades lol. These do seem really awesome though, and again are a pretty great level of challenge, at the very least the two I did were like, Unleashed DLC level of challenge or something, albeit shorter obviously. The S-Rank times seem pretty damn tough this time around too, going through a cyberspace level once and having cleared all the missions without even trying this is not. And I'm super about that lmao.

Must say I find the tower trials I've done so far are, kinda bizarrely balanced. First one is defeat a few normal Soldier enemies in a more than generous time window, third one is defeat those circling dog things that you just parry in a very generous time window, fourth one was defeat a Ninja or Shinobi or Kunoichi or you know that family of enemy with ten entire minutes on the clock, and the second one is you've got 2 minutes to defeat 4 of the enemies that you need to cyloop their shell, which I beat with less than 5 seconds left because they set a certain stat level for Sonic so all I could do was cyloop, homing attack, stomp, repeat - with fairly little room for error else I'd run out of time. If I'm missing something obvious that makes that trial way easier then woe is me but I did find it very funny that it's the only one that took me more than one attempt.

I'm running out of things that come to mind immediately, so just gonna leave off by saying the new music fucks hard. Fun update, looking forward to completing it, and further ahead than that I'm looking forward to doing a playthrough of like, the complete Sonic Frontiers experience, updates 1 and 2 already did a lot of work to make the game just feel more like a complete product, so I'm excited to kind of holistically look at it now that it's done. Good stuff.

[baguetteswag]

A Sorrowful Farewell at the Curtain Call | Chapter 3

PHOENIX WONDERLAND | WONDER STAGE

Tsukasa: The two androids, me and Asahi... Does that mean it will be a double starring?

Rui: Yeah, that's what’'s going to be.

Well, strictly speaking, the center of this story is Alfred though.

After all, the main plot is about a heartless android who gradually gains a soul.

However, Bartlett also has a final highlight. So I think it's fair to say that it's practically a double starring performance.

Asahi: Great! It sounds interesting! What an honour to play the lead role with Myles.

Tsukasa: …Yeah! Acting with Asahi seems also to be a great learning experience for me.

So… which one of us is going to act as which android?

Rui: About who to assign the roles to, I'm still undecided.

Asahi: Huh?

Rui: I still don't know much about Asahi's acting.

So I'm going to switch between them while practicing alternately and decide for the one that fits better.

Tsukasa: I see, I’d have expected that from you, Rui. I have no objection!

Asahi: Yeah! That kind of stuff is really exciting!

Rui: Thank you very much. As for the other roles, I will bring the script home today and think about them. Will that be okay with everyone?

Emu: Yes!!

ARKLAND member A: I can't wait to see you read the script!

Rui: (Yes. First of all, we're starting in a good mood)

(However, this is where the hard part starts. Since we’re working with the ARKLAND cast, there are a lot of challenges in terms of acting and directing)

( In any case… we'll be ourselves and do the best we can)

SEVERAL DAYS LATER

Rui: Now that everyone's roles have been decided, we'll start the readings today. Ladies and gentlemen, I look forward to working with you.

Tsukasa: I look forward to working with you!!

Asahi: Me too, I look forward to working with you!

Emu: Everyone is full of energy this morning!♪

Nene: T-There are two people with loud voices now…

Asahi: Oh, by the way, Rui-kun.

What are you going to do about the roles of me and Tsukasa-kun for the time being? You'll decide which android to play later, won't you?

Rui: This time, I'd like Asahi to temporarily play the android Alfred from Country A, and Tsukasa to play the android Bartlett from Country B.

And then, depending on the scene and situation, we'll take it in turns

You will both have to learn the script for two roles, though…

Asahi - Tsukasa: “Leave it to me! ” | “Leave it to me! ”

Rui: FuFu, I must say you're reliable.

The others are still the same: Emu is the frontier girl who picks up Alfred. Nene is Bartlett's education sergeant.

Emu: Yes!

Rui: Well then, let's start the reading now.

Tsukasa: “Good morning, Alfred. How are you feeling? "

Rui: One more time.

Tsukasa: …Rui, weren’t youv going to check the flow this time?

Rui: I apologize for saying that, but... It just doesn't feel like an android. I just need you to step into the role a little bit more.

Tsukasa: Hmmm... like an android...

Nene: Acting as an android seems difficult. I wonder how I would do it…

Emu: Hmmm... "Good Morning! Alfred! ” 

Nene: Is that an android...?

Asahi: Hmm…

Hey, Rui-kun, can I have a chance to have a dialogue with Tsukasa-kun at the beginning?

Rui: yes, certainly.

Asahi: Let's do it then, Tsukasa-kun! I'll do my best to look as android-like as possible!

Tsukasa: Oh, thank you very much… Okay, so…

“...Good morning, Alfred. How are you feeling? "

Asahi: “Good morning, Bartlett. I’m fine”

Tsukasa: (W-what? This feeling…)

(It's like if you're talking to someone else. Even though Asahi-san only said one line...)

Asahi:”t's a beautiful sunny day and the temperature is just right. I'm sure even the professor feels comfortable spending time here”

Tsukasa: ( ...! I see. I thought it would be more like an android if I didn't add too much intonation, but…)

(it’s the opposite. If you are intended to be an android that communicates with people, you should speak in a way that is easy for people to understand and with a certain degree of intonation)

“...Since it's so sunny, it would be good if the professor was able to get out of the lab once in a while

Asahi: “That's not going to happen. He's like a mole in the dirt, he likes to stay in his lab”

Tsukasa: “That's right.. Is there something we can do about that isolating habit? ”

Rui: “How irritating to be called a mole. Even tho I’m your creator”

Asahi - Tsukasa: “professor”

Rui: Yup. I think we’re good for now. I think we need to work a little bit more on getting the two of you in tune with each other.

Tsukasa: Really…!

Thank you, Asahi.

Asahi: Haha, actually I didn't do anything.

Tsukasa: No, no. Thanks to you, I think I've got a bit of a better idea of how to be more android-like.

Asahi: Well then, good for you! … And, ah right

What kind of thoughts did the professor in this play have, and for what purpose did he created an android? ... If you think about that and play it out, it might help you to act better.

Tsukasa: …!

(...I see. I thought that if I was thinking about acting as an android, I would act like an android, but…)

(Thinking about that the two androids should be based on the intentions of the doctor in the play... huh?)

(Even though there are so many things to think about, such as what kind of tasks do you want them to do, how humanised do you want them to be...)

Asahi: …Tsukasa-kun?

Tsukasa: Oh, oh! It's nothing!

Emu: You two looked like real androids!

Nene: I was surprised by Asahi-san's performance. But I'm glad Tsukasa was able to adapt too.

Rui: (...As I thought, Asahi-san is going to be a good influence on Tsukasa-kun)

Well then, let's carry on with the reading.

Nene: What do you mean? Are you saying that someone else broke into this lab at the same time as us?

ARKlAND member A: “Stay alert, Sergeant Willis! Think of this as a battlefield! “

Nene: “R-Roger! “

(Wow, what an amazing voice...! My ears are ringing...!)

(But... that's right. If you actually rush in with a gun and something irregular happens, it should give much tension...)

Emu: “Ah? Mom, someone's fallen over there! ”

ARKlAND member B: Oh, Emu-chan. Maybe you should lower your voice a little more in this scene.

This is a frontier area, so the setting doesn't have a lot of military people, but you might be expecting that the person who's fallen could be a soldier.

Emu: Oh, I see! I'll try!

Rui: (...I can see they are the cast of ARKLAND. Even though it's only been a few days since the program was decided, they've done a lot of reading and acting)

(Asahi, in particular, seems to have almost mastered the rather difficult role of Alfred)

(And… apparently it seems that he still has a lot of energy left. Wel…)

(I wonder how Tsukasa will feel upon seeing this)

Tsukasa: (...I didn't expect to see such a difference in ability just from reading together…)

(And it's not just Asahi. All of them had only been given their scripts a few days ago, but they had already read this and gotten into their roles)

(No, that's not all. They think a lot about other roles so that the whole work will be better... Yet I'm so busy with my own role...)

(...No! No! Stars doesn’t have such vulnerable behavior!)

(If you think you don't have enough power, you just need to build it up!)

(...We need to think more and more like i did with Torpe. We need to get closer to the stars of the world...!)

Rui: Now then, let's read through to the end!

Emu: Wow… That was a good story…

ARKlAND member A: I really liked the final scene where they meet on the battlefield…

Nene: Yeah. I'm glad we' re both getting to know each other properly.

Rui: FuFu, I'm glad you all liked it.

(Yes. It's quite a nice atmosphere. Just…a bit uncertain from here on)

(They… I wonder how far they'll be willing to follow my directions)

Well, now that the reading is over, I think I'll start directing the opening scene right away.

Tsukasa: When you say the opening scene, you mean the one where the… laboratory is attacked?

Asahi: The androids’ daily life is suddenly destroyed. I'm looking forward to it because it's a tense scene.

Rui: Yes. Give that sense of tension…

I really want to recreate that attack scene.

END

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[just-absolutely-super]

Pokemon crack

Mega takes out the Yanmega with a combo of will-o-wisp and hex and a good old shadow ball. Yanmega was fast, but not fast enough

Bird keeper: nooooo! My plan

Lan: 2 more battles and we can finally face the frontier brain

Mega: "Lan, I need you to behave the rest of the time we're here"

Lan: I am behaving! It's the trainers here that are just incredibly weird. And usually we're the weird ones

Mega: "that's no excuse, and you know it"

Ref: let's spin the wheel

Ref: Aaaand your opponent‘s Pokémon will be paralyzed!

Lan: Good!

Mega: Please behave…

Lan: I will, and this will be a quick battle for sure

A preschooler comes out

Lan: …What parents allowed their toddler to battle??

Mega: Oh my gosh, Lan…

Lan: Don’t you agree though?

Mega: …Actually yeah I do agree

Ref: Battle begin!

Preschooler: Go! Machamp!

Lan: Oh my gosh it’s the opposite of the biker…