#and then almost none of that is expressed in actual in-game PLOT

[illicitlimerence-writes]

game on | m. verstappen

pairing: max verstappen x reader word count: 1.5k words request: nope.warnings: this is just porn. i tried to give it a little plot at the end but it's all just smut. 18+ only, minors dni. it's also badly written and not proofread so yeah a/n: i've been reading a lot of hotd smut fics for like a week and i guess this was inspired by them lmao. it's shit i know but it was an itch i had to scratch

my masterlist 

(dear lord, i want him so bad)

the touch of a hand. the discovery of the shape of his lips. learning what makes her tremble. 

none of her previous lovers could ever compare to what max made her feel. their connection was out of this world, something one only read about in books. it was magical, the way only they only had to share one touch, one look, and they knew what the other meant, what they wanted. 

max loved her eyes. they were expressive and as much as she tried to hide her true reactions to the rest of the world, he only had to watch her for a few seconds to know what she was actually thinking. 

he especially loved watching her eyes when they were being intimate. how the tears welled up as she tried to follow his instructions and just resist the urge to snap. how they'd widen in surprise whenever he first entered her, whether with his fingers, tongue or cock. she'd always roll her eyes back when he changed his pace to reach her g spot. 

he always made sure to love every inch of her, starting with her face and cheeks, he loved how he could feel the heat rushing there, blood running fast. then he moved down to her neck, leaving small lovemarks all over.

her chest would heave, moving up and down with every shallow breath she took. the way she curled her fingers on his hair only spurred him on, encouraging to continue his way down her body. 

slowly, he'd raise a finger and play with her nipples, biting his lower lip as he felt them harden beneath his touch. his mouth would follow his hands, wet tongue ready to stimulate as much as she'd allow. 

he'd look up, watching her brows furrowed in a perfect frown. mouth slightly agape as soundless breaths left her lungs. even after years of sex together, she was still as sensitive as the very first time. 

he continued his journey down her body, reaching her warm, wet cunt, he looked up again, seeing her already looking down at him. with a pillow beneath her hips, something max always insisted on having to help with her comfort, it was easier to watch his hungry eyes roam her most intimate spot. 

his mouth watered at the sight, he hadn't even touched her there yet and she was already ready for him. his fingers touched the sensitive skin of her thighs, big, strong hands holding her delicately. she whimpered, so ready for him it was almost torture. the pad of his finger met her clit, carefully drawing circles on her bud. his eyes flew to her face, hair resting all over the white sheets, her chest still carrying the evidence from his previous attack. 

"so beautiful," he whispered, removing his finger to replace it with his tongue. 

he could die between her legs, with his face buried deep between her folds and tongue inside of her. what a heavenly way to die.

but he still had a job to finish, he could think about dying later, first, he had to make her cum in a way she’d never forget. 

fastening the pace of his fingers on her clit, he drank all of her wetness, a sweet nectar that fueled him even more. he moved his mouth and fingers, switching their position so his mouth was on her bundle of nerves and his fingers entered her, slowly at first, two at once, as she was so ready and prepared for him. 

she let out a soundless gasp, closing her eyes as she breathed in sharply. but max curled his fingers in that way only he knew how, making her arch her back and look up at him, the desperate look on her face made a shiver go down his spine. 

"please, i want you," she whispered, voice barely audible, "need you, max," she begged, her voice mixing with the obscene sounds of him worshiping her cunt. 

"hmm, are you sure you're ready for me?" he said as he sat up, fingers still buried inside her clenching walls, so tight, he couldn't wait to feel her around his cock. 

"stop. fucking. teasing." she said, rocking her hips, chasing friction. he smirked, free hand slapping slightly the skin of her inner thighs. 

“you didn’t answer my question,” he said, moving so his face was on top of hers. he moved his fingers in and out, a slow torture that made her shut her eyes, a frown on her face and a whine escaping her lips.

“i want you. i’ve been ready for you since you kissed me after your podium,” she whispered, feeling as he moved her hair away from her face and neck, the sweaty skin causing it to stick there. 

the moments blurred together as she felt him entering, their lips met, foreheads touched as they both moaned and groaned, the electricity between them was almost palpable, the air was thick and they were the only people that existed in that moment. 

her walls around him felt heavenly, clenching every so often as he changed speed or position, which made blood rush to his brain and his cock, getting even harder. it was like a chain reaction, she made a noise or a certain movement, and it caused a reaction from max, which in turn made him roll his hips, grip her thighs or kiss the sweet spot on her neck. 

sex with max was a religious experience. she could never get tired of it, no matter how many nights they spent together. he always managed to make her feel loved, desired, wanted. he knew exactly what she needed, even when she didn’t know it herself. he wasn’t afraid to try new things and explore the limits of her pleasure. everything with her consent, of course, nothing was more important to him that she enjoyed things as much as he did. 

when she thought she couldn’t hold her climax anymore she always closed her eyes, the air couldn’t reach her lungs as she gave sharp breaths, and that’s when max would change his pace or his position. 

and as she closed her eyes, her inner walls impossibly tight around max’s length, max decided not to make her wait any longer.

his lips met hers, one hand over her throat, squeezing lightly as the other rubbed fast circles on her clit. the sum of the overstimulation brought her to a peak that was different from all the others she’d experienced. 

her legs shook around him, she wanted to moan and whine, but nothing came out. she closed her eyes so tight that she saw stars, burying her nails on his skin, pulling him so close she could feel his heaving breaths. everything inside of her tensed and then relaxed as she came, max's fingers slowed down on her clit, hips rolling agonizingly slow as he fucked his cum back into her quivering pussy, prolonging the shocks of ecstasy running through their veins. 

"i love you," max said, kissing all over every inch of skin on her neck. 

"I love you too, my champion," she smiled, lifting a hand to push his hair back, cupping his cheek, her thumb on the dip of his dimple. 

"not yet," he reminded her.

"the third one is coming. and you're so close to breaking a new record, you're on win number nine in a row. but ten? that's something no one's ever done before."

"yeah," he said, resting next to her, his back against the mattress. he was nervous about beating a record set by someone he admired so much. 

"how about a little incentive?" she said, throwing a leg over his hips, gasping as she felt his cock nestled beneath her folds. 

"i'm listening," he said, reaching for her hands, locking her fingers between hers. she started moving, slowly, back and forth, in circles, on top of his hardening cock. "angel-"

"next sunday, after you win your tenth race in a row," she leaned down, lips on top of his, "you get ten orgasms in one day," she looked up at him, shivering at the way his eyes widened.

"that's… a lot," 

"you don't want it?" she raised an eyebrow, leaning back up. max, in his panicked state, grabbed her hips hard and held her in place.

"i don't know if i could survive ten in one day."

"well it's up to you, it could be… you give me ten, i give you ten, or half and half."

"i like that idea better,"

"which one?"

"you getting ten," it was now her turn to shiver at the idea, but the wetness pooling over max's cock let him know she wasn't too much against that idea. 

"we'll have to wait and see then," she kissed his lips, "but right now let's go for one more tonight."

"just one?" max laughed, his hand slithering down her body to touch her clit again.

ten wins.

ten orgasms.

game on.

#f1 imagine #f1 one shot #f1 x reader #f1 fic #f1 fanfic #f1 fanfiction #f1 fandom #f1 #f1 drivers one shot #f1 drivers x reader #f1 fiction #f1 drabble #f1 drivers #formula one x reader #formula 1 imagine #formula one imagine #formula 1 #max verstappen fic #max verstappen smut #max verstappen x you #max verstappen fanfic #max verstappen imagine #max verstappen x reader #f1 smut

[marengogo]

Silver Lining - What If #6: FOR(ever) ↔️ YOU(ng) - Jikook the Musical

Good Morning - by Verbal Jint  [10 Years of Misinterpretation Part I]

[Music is a very big part of my life and I’m MOSTLY INCAPABLE of writing without music, so I just thought I'd share what I am listening to while writing this]

🐺 — 🐺 — 🐺—

Dear Ladies, Gentlemen and Distinguished Enbies, welcome to a one day only “showing” of FOR(ever) ↔️ YOU(ng) - Jikook the Musical. Tonight I shall try my best to narrate a cute little story, which has various songs as centre plot developers; hence a “musical”. Taken individually, all these events may seem absolutely disconnected, and with no relevance to each other. However, as I started to collect them, they turned out to compose quite the neat little story about two boys their love for music and perhaps each other? So grab a snack, and a thin hat everyone, sit, relax and enjoy the show.

SCENE 1: FOR YOU

This story brings us all the way back to almost 8 years ago, to be precise, the year is 2015, the date is August 18 and during BTS’ Japan Official Fan Meeting Undercover Mission in Osaka (this fan meet went on from the 13th to the 20th of August), while playing a game, JM suddenly loses consciousness and falls off stage. He is taken to a hospital immediately and as soon they are explained the situation, Big Hit Entertainment tweets the following:

 TRANSLATION:

The same day, JM himself goes ahead and posts the following

TRANSLATION:

Fans panicked. Obviously VERY LUCKILY FOR ME: I WASN’T AROUND AT THE TIME. As for his members, I am sure they were worried out of their minds, so much so that one particular member would express his relief perhaps at having JM safe and sound back with them, right on their very stage. This member was JK, whom two days later (August 20), on the last day of this event, as they performed "For You", walked right by JM and stopped for a couple of seconds, looking at him while he was singing part of the song’s first verse. For the rest of the song, it would become quite visible how JM couldn’t help but smile (cutely).

SCENE 2: I KNOW

So, even though we do not have an elaborated tale of what all the members must have felt exactly, it is safe to say that JM’s accident had a bit of an effect on JK’s mind. So much so that, a couple of months later, while he was playing around as Romeo & Juliet with JM, on the shoot-set of Season Greetings 2016, JK suddenly “refused” to play with JM because, and I quote:

Let’s fast forward to June 2016, this time we are in Paris, and the boys decide to start a VLIVE just before performing at KCON and, at the beginning of the live, we only have VMIN in sight. They start to talk about RM & JK’s new song “I Know” and, as the two are actually in the room but off camera, Tae asks  bribes JK to sing a bit of the song. We still can’t see JK, but, while Tae looks away JM looks straight into JK’s direction as the latter proceeds to sing

🎶Know you love me, boy

So that I love you🎵

… The expression on JM’s face is priceless the things I’d give to know how JK sang this to JM. ANYWAYS, RM eventually also joins into a funny rendition of the song and when they are done, VMIN resumes talking to ARMY and though we will never know for sure what caused it, perhaps JK’s expression, or the lyrics, or the fact that it was JK or all things together, or none of the above, BUT JM did stumble his way through trying to describe the song, in the words of Tae, JM suddenly seemed to be a bit “nervous” almost as if someone had suddenly serenaded him out of nowhere.

Another example at JM being flustered actually happened a month earlier to the Paris trip, at the ISAC where the Tannies needed to sing a song called Hand in Hand and while they are practising (at minute 0:57) I believe that JK might have change the lyrics to “promise me” but don’t quote me on that!, which made JM react in that way Joon and Hobi on the other hand; LOOOL 😬.

Basically, 10 months had effectively passed since the “For You Incident-Serenade” and it feels as if JK might have caught on to the fact that the easiest way to get a flustered reaction from JM is to sing to him. Perhaps he had to sing at him a couple more times off camera, in order to confirm this theory AS ALWAYS; WE WILL NEVER KNOW but from this moment on, whenever he’d find a chance to, it would seem like JK would take the topic at hand and find a way to romantically sing it at JM.

SCENE 3: A DAY LONG AGO

It is finally February 2017, and love isn’t the only thing in the air, in fact, on paper actually, on February 7, JK graduates high school. He is visibly hella excited, and though he goes to the ceremony alone, all his members show up, and afterwards, on their way to the restaurant, VMINKOOK share a ride.  For the most part jikook are doing most of the talking and at a point in which JM is talking a very eager looking JK suddenly starts singing, at JM, the beginning lyrics from A day Long Ago (오래전 그날) by Yoon Jong Shin.

AND, For the very first time on-camera, JM does his very best not to react. We can still see the slight hint of a smile, but for the most part, he’s successfully brushed it off and he is very quick at keeping the topic of discussion on track.

This might have thrown off someone like your-truly, but JK? No, the boy likes a good challenge. JK nor was discouraged, nor did he try to force JM to listen to him, he just went along with JM. We are talking about an almost 20 year old boy who, for the greater part of 2016 (that is when he turned 19, which is the age you become an adult in Korea) has been trying his mighty best to have his hyungs, and JM in particular, understand that he is now an adult and that he has been for quite some time. But hyungs gonna hyung, immaright? Sorry JK…

SCENE 4: BEST OF ME

Now, I don’t know what happened in the months between JK’s graduation and the 1st of October (2017), but there seems to be no on-camera attempt of JK even attempting to sing at JM, in fact, if anything, JK has been trying to appeal in different ways. For example, JM-Encyclopedia JK makes an appearance, or I’d rather not call you hyung makes a strong comeback. Regardless, for the first time, at the Fan Meet in Goyang (1st October, 2017)  JM is singing at JK lyrics from the “Best of Me” where he substitutes the word heaven (cheonkook) with Jungkook (he would do it again on episode 28 of RUN BTS, which would be broadcasted on November 7, 2017, but telling from the hairstyles it was probably filmed around the same period as the Goyang Fan Meet).

We are now halfway through the movie, and though our heroes have gone through a series of back-and-forths, they haven’t really encountered any “conflicts” per say; namean? Sure, JM is the one doing the singing now, because maybe he is trying to get JK’s attention. Had he lost said attention? Had something happened between the two of them? Or had their relationship evolved to a point in which he was just trying to return some of the musical energy he’d received thus far? WE WILL NEVER KNOW unless they tell us that is. But what we know is that a good 30 days after this, JK would take JM on what we now know to be, thanks to Beyond The Story, a healing trip to Tokyo, which would give birth to the first and most famous gcf: GCF in TOKYO. 

SCENE 5: BOY WITH LUV

Upon returning from Japan the two of them feel closer. It looks like they had the time of their life and they can’t seem to be able to talk about anything else. Basically they appear to be quite smitten with this shared experience, and perhaps, with each other? In addition, while still being the maknae, JK is sort of shifting into being more of a protective entity for JM and though JM tries his best to keep him in that designated maknae-slot, he also can’t help but indulge in the “offered protection”. 

They are now spending a lot more time together and this fact is not lost on some people in their environment, regardless of whether said people want to admit it or not. Particularly in 2018 (where, before even getting to the infamous Nampyeon-Namchin December )

we are in Hamilton, September 22nd, on their Love Yourself Tour. As they perform Attack on Titan, during the song’s break, JK pulls a For You Serenade-typa thing, but this is not 2015 and JK is no longer 17. This time, he focuses on JM for the whole part, hair pushed back and all, and for the first time in a while JM is visibly flustered, he silently giggles, turns towards ARMY, and also pushes his hair back. JK’s satisfied expression as he got JM’s attention says it all.

Yeah, this is not the same JK. He is not a boy who is relieved to see his bandmate's being well and alive, or trying to use the situation to his advantage in an awkwards manner. NO. This is a 21 year old, who’s just come back from the trip of a lifetime, this right here, seems to me, to be a boy with luv. 

Speaking of which, fast-forward a couple of months, May 21, 2019, they are in California, and as they are getting ready to perform on The Voice, Memories 2019 will show us how, for the first time JK substitutes words of a song while singing at JM. He substitutes the word “Love is” with “Jimin” while singing Boy With Luv at JM, who acts like he is ignoring him completely but actually proceeds to sing along. Who knew there was an art in serenading and beginning serenaded? Jikook circa 2015 🤡

Indeed, there is nothing stronger than a boy with luv, let’s not forget that a couple of weeks prior to this (May 5th to be exact) Rose Bowl-gate did happen. Well, up to this point, all seems very flowery and very peachy; what could go wrong, right?.

SCENE 6: THE TRUTH UNTOLD

AND, here we are, the part right before the end of the “musical”. We all know some sort of “big conflict is coming” and at this point some might just turn off the movie and leave it at a happy place but the majority will probably just brave it through to this day I start watching Baz Luhrman’s Romeo + Juliet and stop the movie right before the part whenthey take the fake poison, nobody dies in my Romeo + Juliet, thank you, bye! . Let’s brave it through.

Things are going quite well in Jikook world. The Tannies were given a break for the first time ever and thought JM left to go explore the world, he made sure to travel all the way back to Seoul to spend JK’s birthday with him, just to then travel off again; dedication. BTS then takes off to go and shoot Bon Voyage 4, and amongst the many things JK goes up a mountain and comes down with snow for JM; devotion. The two of them are living life, all while diligently performing touring as well.

Thus comes the end of the Speak Yourself tour, Seoul, October 26, 2019. The vocal line performs The Truth Untold and it happens, not only do JK and JM turn to face each other as they sing the last part of the song, but they also change “And” to “But”.

Jikookers who notice are left speechless, but jikookers weren’t the only people who noticed. That and a series of “jikook moments” throughout 26th-29th of October, made October 30, 2019 quickly roll by and the following happens:

I can’t even imagine what it must have felt to have experienced THAT. To be honest I don’t even want to think about it, but then actually is more like “I can’t believe they actually fucking did that…”. BUT, guess who won the IDGAF war?:

JIKOOK

I bet many thought jikook would perhaps “tone it down”, but they kept being themselves. They kept being as affectionate, annoying, close and “flirty” as per usual, I mean some time in 2020 we got 👇🏾

So yeah, I suppose, love will always win.

SCENE 7: GOOD MORNING

It’s now 2023. All the boys are getting ready to go to MS, as a result, they are giving it their all working on solo projects. Jikook has finally managed to become a bit more private, and this isn’t as a consequence to what happened in 2019 (if not we wouldn’t have had that hickey-incident). A lot has happened since then, but I believe that, perhaps, as things got more serious, and as they got older, their relationship naturally progressed into something more mature, personal and deeper in significance. For example JM associating JK with the song Young Forever

*The writing in the shoe where JM is sticking his tongue out says Jeon Jungkook.

a song that holds a very special place in JM’s heart; tattoo-worthy special. 

There is that, the adult side … Aaaand then there is also JK & JM quietly spending 4 days together in NYC/CT, in the midst of JK’s debut (perhaps getting content ready?) and there is also JK half naked in bed trying to bait JM into doing a live with him and starting off the bat with singing at JM the initial lyrics from Good Morning by Verbal Jint.

🎶Good morning – that’s what I texted you

I think I’m into you, it’s dangerous 🎵

… I suppose old habits die hard.

THE END

Always respectfully yours 💜🫰🏾

Marengo.

DELETED SCENES:

THROUGH THE NIGHT by IU

MAKE IT RIGHT by BTS

DAY vers.

NIGHT vers.

ROLLIN’ by BRAVE GIRLS:

#Spotify #Youtube #SoundCloud #Marengo's Silver World #jikook #jikook the Musical

[nackrosor]

"Lady Strange"

Part 2/?

pairing: Eddie Munson x metalhead!Reader warnings: none yet series' general plot: heavy metal is one of your biggest passions and you like to express yourself by wearing heavy makeup and mostly black clothes, chains and spikes. Your parents however force you to hide your personality because they care about keeping up pretenses and don’t want people to label you as a freak. Something or someone unexpected might come in your life and shake things up. ;) episode synapsis: Eddie starts 'annoying' you at school. word count: 1,6 k.

-PART 1-

“Oof, wha-”

You wobble on your feet for a moment, staggering backward before regaining your balance and throwing a stink-eye behind your shoulder; the guy who has just bumped hard into you is walking away as casually as possible, as if he didn’t almost knock you over. He didn't even acknowledge your presence. What an asshole.

You let out an exasperated sigh while re-adjusting the shoulder pad of your backpack and moving forward in the corridor toward your locker. 

It’s a new shitty day and you're at your shitty school, surrounded by shitty people; a day in the life of a girl forced to pretend to be just another walking corpse and actually succeeding in being invisible, so invisible that others walk downright over you as if you’re not even occupying space. What a marvelous life.

The tight collar of your white shirt makes your skin itch and you unceremoniously pop it open, mentally cursing your parents for the millionth time for forcing you to wear such crappy clothes. “We can’t have you looking like a devil worshiper, can we darling?” Yeah well, people would definitely think twice before getting within 10 feet of the devil worshiper, let alone crushing into them. The sole advantage of looking exactly like everyone else is the anonymity that comes with it, but it gets old after a while, especially when you start feeling lonely, and you will get lonely at some point, there's no way around it.

You come to a halt as you round the corner, your stomach doing a somersault.

Eddie is beaming at you as he leans against your locker, arms folded across his chest. 

Hundreds of questions start to buzz in your head and as many stupid butterflies wreak havoc in your belly as you mindlessly resume walking, albeit at a slower pace than before.

You haven’t seen him in a couple of days, since Robin introduced you to her new group of friends last weekend and you had that weird anti-posers battle-thingy at the mall with him. But why is he now laying so nonchalantly against your locker as if it’s the most natural thing in the world for him to do? Have you made it to the friend-zone overnight?

As soon as you’re within earshot, you glance up at him with a quizzical look upon your face.

“What are you doing here?”

Somehow his grin widens as he looks you up and down, “well, hello to you too, stranger.” 

He taps on the name tag on the locker, your locker, and purses his lips. "I'm looking for Y/L/N; have you seen her anywhere?"

You sigh and shake your head, casting a quick glance at your schoolmates passing by before returning your gaze to him.

“ No , wrong locker. That’s mine”, you take a step forward, urging him to back up as you reach for the lock, “I’d appreciate it if you’d let me take my lunch now.”

“Mmh, I don’t think so.” 

Instead of stepping away from it, he puts himself between you and the locker, blocking your way, arms moving to fold over his chest once more.

You snort incredulously at his antics as you stare up at him.

“I’m Y/L/N’s locker guardian. I need to hear the magic word to let anyone pass.”

“Eddie c’mon! I don’t have time for this.”

“If it’s your locker, you should know the password. It should only take a second.”

Even as you roll your eyes at him, you can feel a smile tug at your lips. Apparently everything turns into a game with Eddie and you can’t help but feel the thrill of it.

You humm, squinting your eyes at him as you mentally dip into the arcane knowledge you’ve hoarded from your favorite books and games, trying to think of something that could surprise Eddie, and why not, maybe even woo him a little.

“Mellon!”

His eyebrows shoot up to his hairline, his mouth agape.

He staggers back, grasping the lockers behind him as he slips away in a rather dramatic fashion. His wide-open eyes, however, never leave you, not even for a second. 

You chuckle lightly and shake your head as you finally reach up for the lock and drop the book you were carrying. 

"Sauron got your tongue all of a sudden?" 

You pick a sandwich from your lunch box then push the locker door closed. Your smug look meets Eddie’s astonished gaze.

"You-you're telling me, you know The Lord of the Rings?!" 

" Know the Lord of the Rings?" you scoff mockingly, feeling a rush of confidence wash over you at the utter incredulity that seems to have taken hold of him. "That's the understatement of the century. I adore it! I worship it! Tolkien is my favorite author and The Silmarillion is basically my bible."

You can literally see his jaw drop to the ground and you can't suppress the snort-laugh that escapes you. 

"Are you fucking kidding me???"

His raised voice makes some passers-by turn to look at the two of you but he doesn't notice or doesn't seem to care.  You, on the other hand, recoil at your classmates' questioning glances and immediately hush Eddie, grabbing him by the vest and pushing him down the corridor. 

He wobbles a little on his feet as he tries to keep up with your hurried step. 

You cast one final glance behind your back before you admonish the longhaired boy with a pointed look. You then peel the napkin off your sandwich and give it a good bite, all the while keeping a swift pace to get as far away from the crowd as possible. You can’t let people talk about you and Eddie, you can’t risk your parents finding out about your new devil worshiper… acquaintance, friend, whatever he is. 

"Wait, wait, wait!", he pulls on your sleeve, trying to slow you down. "You listen to metal, you like Tolkien… Just tell me you also play the guitar and I'm done! I'm a goner!"

You eye him amusedly, noticing how his still wide eyes roam over your face, how he's literally pending from your lips. You can’t lie to yourself, the attention he’s giving you makes you feel rather giddy and you like the feeling.

As you take another bite of your sandwich you mutter nonchalantly, " bass ."

"What?" 

You swallow the mouthful and briefly clear your throat. "I play the bass guitar." 

He comes to an abrupt halt, causing you to stop in your tracks as well. He keeps blinking at you, a deadpan expression on his face. You don't have time to process what's going on before he clutches his chest with his palm and violently jolts backward, as if he's just been taken down by a sniper. 

"Eddie, what the hell! " 

He pushed himself backwards so forcefully that if you hadn't caught him, he'd have fallen on the floor and possibly hit the back of his head real hard. His entire weight is on your arms and your grip turns white, your muscles trembling, fingers slipping… You consider letting him go but fortunately, he comes back to his senses and helps himself up by holding onto the lockers by his side, getting dangerously close to you in the process. Your breath catches and your stomach does a flip as his gaze briefly flickers down to your lips before meeting your doe-eyed look. You can feel your heart thumping hard in your ears, from the save or his sudden closeness, you can’t really tell.

“Great catch, princess…”

Perhaps it’s only your perception but he sways closer, leaning in as if he’s about to…

You step back in a panic, heat rising in your cheeks, mouth dry.

Eddie looks dazed for a moment, then an infuriating smirk takes form on his lips, which makes it easier for you to snap out of it, too.

"Y-you're crazy!" 

" You’re crazy! Murdering me like that!”

You shake your head with a sigh, throwing your hands up in the air. A mushed pulp on the floor catches your attention and you immediately look up to glare daggers at Eddie. “You owe me a sandwich now!” 

“Forget about the sandwich!”

His hands grab you by the shoulders, causing you to yelp, and start pushing you toward the end of the hall. “You must meet the others! They’ll go mental over this! They didn’t believe me when I told them you listen to Def Leppard, they said I was full of shit, that I got tricked by a girl, those stupid bastards -”

“Hey, hey! Wait, stop-”

You press your feet hard against the floor to slow him down but to no avail. The odd looks thrown your way make you fold on yourself and you let Eddie drag you toward the cafeteria without any more resistance.

“Don’t worry, princess, they’re gonna like you! Well, they’re gonna grill you a bit first, I can’t lie. We’re all a bunch of losers with trust issues. You gotta be patient with us… but I’m sure you’ll get used to it pretty quickly and-”

He’s interrupted by the loud sound of the school bell signaling the end of the lunch break and you let out a deep sigh of relief you didn’t know you were holding. Taking advantage of his temporary stupor, you slip out of his grasp and take a few steps backward to put some distance between you two.

He looks rather disappointed and he doesn’t hide it as he moves his gaze on you.

“I’m sorry but I have to run to class…”

“ But -”

You give him a quick salute with your hand, your heart in your throat, and turn on your heels, hurrying down the corridor before he can do anything to stop you. You can hear his booming voice calling after you:

“You won’t elude me next time princess !”

MORE STORIES 🥀

[Also consider leaving a tip here on Tumblr or BUYING ME A ☕, if you particularly like what you read. Thank you! 🥀]

#eddie munson x reader #eddie munson #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x y/n #eddie munson x metalhead!reader #stranger things #eddie munson fanfic #stranger things x you #stranger things x reader #stranger things imagine #eddie munson imagine #stranger things fanfiction #my writing

[maxwell-grant]

Street Fighter 6: Issue #2 thoughts

Not at all a fan of this new art style especially for the women characters but I must say, I never thought Street Fighter of all franchises would make their geriatric Russian terrorist wizard villain look cute and not as an ironic thing.

Seriously though he looks WAY different than he does in-game, but I’m not complaining. I actually really like how Johann is drawn here, one of the highlights of this issue for me. The way he’s drawn here actually succeeds in making him look like he’s not a villain. He looks way more like someone you could buy as a deceiver, someone who’d trick you into giving your savings away to help poor starving children.

They scale him down hardcore from his game design in a way that would suck if this was meant to be in-game, but here? It works great. He has this breath of expression that you just don’t see in the usual villains of the series, because he is putting a lot of effort into pretending not to be one and actually succeeding! He gets sad and worried over hearing about the opposition, he reacts with convincing shock over the broadcast, he looks scared and distressed over the news reporters closing in, he even displays enough moments of genuine concern over his assistant without anyone looking. I know none of this is that groundbreaking but we never actually see fighting game villains in storylines putting in effort when it comes to this stuff, even the ones we’re supposed to buy as great deceivers or upstanding public figures. The art style really does a lot for him here.

In fact, JP in-game doesn’t act like this, he quite clearly embraces his villainy more openly in it, which means this is pointing to a neat little arc of sorts where we’re seeing Johann on the backfoot working the long game in terms of attaining power, versus in-game where he’s clearly not afraid of openly skewering and poisoning his opponents with Psycho Power and then making a point out of not crushing their heads beneath his heel when he’s through because they are that insignificant to him, and I really want to see that mask-off transition as it plays out.

Okay so for those viewers at home trying to keep track of the score so far: After last issue where Ken was almost assassinated with a car bomb in the midst of a political riot, this issue kicks off with him being framed by a terrorist hacker group of anti-capitalists dressed like plague doctors (a BANGER of a fitting design choice the more I think about it) who wish to “expose the agents of chaos to the world”, who seem to be using A.I deepfakes to frame Ken and claim he was both working with the Nayshall establishment as well as funding terrorists to manipulate the cryptocurrency market, and that they have seized these funds to be “an iron hammer, swung down upon the head of all capitalist exploiters”.

And this is part of a master plot to increase viral searches for Nayshall and the tournament, thus driving the crypto value up as well as bets related to it, which we know has to with a N.G.O oligarch and policy advisor’s personal project to secure military power and political stability for his nation through, among other things, viral popularity and weaponization of content and successfully scamming a billionaire into thoughtlessly tanking his country’s economy so he may rebuild it better than before.

...

I feel like I should clarify that Street Fighter and pretty much all fighting game have never really so much as acknowledged the word “capitalism” before, let alone made a plotline focused on it. And yeah the “anti-capitalist terrorist” is a loaded archetype to say the minimum in it’s own right, I’m certainly trying to keep expectations measured, but look, it is insane that this is happening at all, this is the franchise putting on big boy pants in regards to a storyline in a way it never really has before.

Street Fighter’s been dark enough allright, even too much, and it individually brushed past or even handled mature storylines from time and time, but it’s never remotely been this topical or even tried to be, it’s never made a conscious effort to go hard on being political, that’s just not what fighting games tend to do. Maybe they’ll botch it, maybe it’ll just be window dressing, but I’ve not been dissappointed so far and I think it’s very commendable that they’re actually giving it an effort here.

(Also calling it right now that Amnesia’s leader is JP’s assistant)

How long was this before the game? In this, Chun-Li’s still with Interpol and got promoted apparently, but in-game she’s clarified as an ex-agent. So how much time passed?

Chun-Li’s fairly boring in here visually and character-wise, I’m not happy to see her as a cop ever. I like them putting her in work clothes and putting the characters in different outfits in general, but I don’t like how generic she looks. I like her scene with Li-Fen though.

Completely forgot Li-Fen was put in SFV as a hacker prodigy because I forget most things about SFV on the regular, but I dig her being Chun’s “guy in the chair”. Some people got confused by it but I dig that Li-Fen calls Chun her older sister, that’s kind of a role Chun-Li’s played before with other characters and I like that it makes their dynamic more casual than if it was a mom - daughter kind of thing, gives them more room to bicker a little and I think it gives Li-Fen a little more independence in their dynamic.

I do like that Chun-Li clarifies she isn’t fooled one bit by the video and that she’s keeping Ken in custody for his own safety, because Ken turned into a worldwide-hunted criminal overnight and it’s the safest place for him to be on. I also like that they’re clearly not close and barely even recall meeting each other and so they don’t really talk things through, I like it because it acknowledges that these characters don’t all know or even like each other just because they’re on the same sides. Small thing I know, but the more recent games really homogenized the cast dynamics so I like anything that corrects that.

Oh man now THIS is great, Ken is so fucked. I need to talk about this guy.

This is deepfake A.I Ken, and if anything he looks way too convincing to be an A.I thing (but then again Street Fighter has enough sci-fi tech, I mean Seth was a thing years before this and so were the Illuminati shape-shifters), but putting all that aside, damn, this was kind of a revelation to me. I finally figured out why I just never liked Violent Ken as a concept and this is why: because he quite clearly should have always been THIS guy.

Violent Ken was designed as a counterpart to Evil Ryu, a Ryu who’s overtaken by the Satsui no Hadou and fully given in to his worst self, but because Ken doesn’t have the Dark Hadou, instead he’s based on the SF II film concept of Ken having been fully brainwashed by Bison’s Psycho Power. He’s not that terrible a concept or design, I think the SVC Chaos artwork is pretty cool, but he was never really worth much, not that much more interesting than if they did like, Evil Dan or Sakura (...well I guess they did do both at some point).

See, Evil Ryu as a character is not the best idea in the series by a long shot, but he works mainly because he’s Ryu designed around Akuma, which is not just cool but also works meaningfully, since Akuma was already designed to be Ryu’s darker opposite and ultimate enemy. Besides the fact that “hero becomes like their own worst enemy” is a time-tested cool idea with a lot of storytelling power and Akuma being an incredible all-timer design that is very clearly worth ripping off, Evil Ryu takes the shared traits they have, powerful martial artists who wander the world in pursuit of strong opponents to challenge them and to prove themselves the greatest among warriors, and twists Ryu into the fascimile of Akuma that he always dreaded becoming and was always in danger of becoming with or without supernatural bloodlust, changing very little about his motivation.

I’d argue Evil Ryu only really reached his potential as a character when brought back for IV, when they made him look like a monstrous and savage endgame for Ryu instead of just Ryu with a tan, and showed more thoroughly what would happen if Ryu was consumed by the Satsui. His already tattered gi is shredded beyond repair, he burns with overflowing uncontrolled power, and he is more animalistic and brutal than even Akuma because he has no control whatsoever over this power. Like Ryu, he lives for battle, he wanders the world with nothing on his back to seek out and fight the strongest warriors, but he has fully devolved into a fighting beast who fights and maims and kills wantonly, who finds no answer in the heart of battle because the heart isn’t there anymore and there’s only a volcanic gaping necrotic mark of shame and tragedy where it should have been.

Twisting Ryu to make him more like Akuma works because Akuma is Ryu’s nemesis, and because they have enough in common to have a middleground, something that Ryu cannot concede ground on (because the one time he did, he nearly killed the world’s strongest fighter with a cheap shot attack, over a fight he clearly lost). But twisting the other shotos to be more like Akuma always felt more tacked on than anything, because they just don’t have the same dynamic and motivation that Ryu has, and that’s kinda the major problem I have with Violent Ken: he’s an evil version of Ken who actually has nothing to do with Ken’s character, he’s just an imitation of Evil Ryu in Ken cosplay, and he doesn’t even get to fall in the dark side of his own accord since it’s Bison’s doing.

And so this is why I think this, this thing that shows up for like a couple of pages? This is what Evil/Violent Ken should have always looked like. A Ken who becomes the worst version of himself, who maintains his basic character and motivations but is wholly and completely stripped of humanity, isn’t going to be a fighting hobo in torn clothing and an obsession with pursuing strength, because that’s not what Ken is.

Ken is the upper class rival who has everything his rival does not, the champ who flaunts his strength and privilege and fights with flash and style, the “arrogant steward of globalized capitalism” as he’s called in the comic. Evil Ken isn’t going to be a battle berserker caked in blood and dirt, he’s going to be Dio Brando squeezed into an immaculate yuppie shitbag suit. He’s going to be the picture-perfect image of selfishness

I frankly really hope this design shows up again even past whatever else they have planned for this cover-up. I love this split-second idea of Evil Ken too much to never see it again. I really want Terrorist A.I Ken to be a thing they bring back.

#street fighter #sf6 #street fighter 6 #capcom #ken #ken masters #jp #johann petrovich #chun-li #li-fen #videogames #sf6 comic

[bossbutch]

indie video game i liked and have thoughts on cool wow

friend of mine was streaming Cartomancer Anthology the other day, (a grab bag of indie games a la haunted demo discs and such, themed after the major arcana) and one of the games included really clicked w me. in a way i wanted to talk about

it's the game themed after the high priestess card. the tldr plot is you're The Seer and you have to help people think through their problems. you do this with the main gameplay, a puzzler sorta like lights out, where you rotate and then place a shape, all the tiles in that area flip states, and your goal is to make enough of them black.

i think splatoon 3 (released after cartomancer) has a pvp game kinda like this? it's not difficult to understand, and the puzzles are pretty comfortably "not brain melty but not trivial" which is a nice place to be. what really struck me was how well it fits the story. each character you help has puzzles that fit them and their trouble. the first I noticed was a novice alchemist, who is frustrated over how much they still have to learn- their puzzles are all broken versions of the shapes on your cards, slightly too small for them to fit properly. the librarian who is worried about time management and organization has mini-puzzles in cramped spaces. etc

the character Problems are all low-stakes my little pony style things like that- one character wants to pick a different career than their mom wants them to, one is worried about whether their job will have made a difference after they die, one is passive and conflict-averse. I'm not necessarily a fan of like, fiction-as-therapy (this is not charitable at all lol i cant think of the proper term) but it fits the fairy tale aesthetics of the whole thing, and its not offensive or anything, the underlying philosophy is fine, its just a bit twee. and sometimes you're in the mood for something twee! or at least i am. a specific philosophy thing i really liked isn't said directly, but almost none of the puzzles have a "perfect" solution that will turn all the tiles black, and sometimes progress requires getting "farther away" from your goal. woah hmmmm how do those relate to what the characters are doing. i like it a lot okay. the actual puzzle gameplay couldve been anything at all- hidden objects, or match 3, or nonograms, etc- and a worse game would have it be arbitrary, but it's not. ..you see the connection you see why it's cool and why it works

the aesthetics and style- also good. between puzzles there's an overworld that does that delightful 2d-characters 3d-environment thing seen in like "paradise killer" and "smile for me" (and "sewer rave", which shares a developer!). and that's always great, the character designs are all great, it's lovely. they have multiple expressions and do the squash-stretches, and they all have unique nameplates with little designs (which i dont have a screenshot of, gah). theres just a lot of care put in. its nice.

i was struck ok? i fell in love. it happens. shoutout to weird little indie games. shoutout to @slitherpunk

#video games #long post #does anyone still use long post tag since xkit handles them

[crystallizedkingdoms]

Talk about eleventh hour gn Johann!!!!!!

Oh boy you’re opening fucking Floodgates.

For this post I’m not gonna go too into into the exact details of how Johann’s been neglected by the graphic novel and how that if they don’t rectify this it will extremely flatten the finale as a whole (but I can make that a separate post if it’s wanted), but I Will mention a few things: in the past four books, Johann’s had a total of 15 panels where he makes a prominent appearance— of which he has no deeper characterization other than being… just kind of grumpy? Not cynical with the capacity for goofs like our podcast Johann, with a unique and layered dynamic with the Voidfish; just a musician with an attitude problem with none of the character building, plot important scenes.

This changes with the 11th Hour. We get about 15 new panels with his face in it, and the most amount of lines he’s gotten thus far, and it’s plot important! Finally, we get one of the core tenets of Johann’s character: what happens to his beloved music when he feeds it to the Voidfish, and his fear of dying and being forgotten. Hell, I’d even make the argument that the above panels portray his actual fear and urgency over it better than the podcast. So… problem solved, crisis averted, shut up and be happy Sie, right?

(More under the cut, but tl;dr: graphic novel is severely undercutting Johann’s character by diminishing his relationship with the Voidfish and it’s KILLING ME)

Except, quite frankly, this condensed rectification is seriously not enough. Although it brings up the core concepts of Johann’s strong feelings towards dead members being erased, it very quickly glosses over Johann’s feelings on his music being erased into a simple “…Yes.” Look at how Johann expressed himself in the podcast, in the elevator scene that introduced his character efficiently!

And really, most importantly… we haven’t seen any of his connection with the Voidfish. We don’t get Johann being the one introducing the boys to the Voidfish and the fact he’s the best violinist basically ever. We don’t get scene of Johann and Lucas arguing over who should keep the Voidfish. We get the below scene, of Johann seeing the Voidfish erasing Boyland’s big family, but it neglects a cute little comment he makes when the Boys worry that the process tires the Voidfish out!

And of course, the infamous scene. The scene that doesn’t happen in the graphic novel (in the podcast it happens in the Lunar Interlude before Crystal Kingdom), and arguably one of Johann’s most important scenes outside of the novel. The Voidfish Duet, while providing an invaluable plot clue with EGG BABE, was also a moment of deep connection with Johann and the Voidfish. (Just look at how it’s described guys. this scene is INSANE)

We even get a piece of dialogue where Johann has almost an adverse reaction to the information that the Voidfish does this friendly gesture to Magnus, someone who (in his eyes) is new and has never taken care of the Voidfish in the way he’s done for over a year. Johann clearly has a very strong bond with the Voidfish to have a reaction like this!

This is such an important scene that we haven’t seen yet, and we’re almost at the end! And there is not a lot of space for it to be squeezed into the Suffering Game’s interludes— what with Magnus needing to be alone to communicate with the Voidfish (unless they just. stick Johann in there), and then he fucking Dies in the Reunion Tour interlude (and by then it would be no use to include it, because Magnus already knows EGG BABE by then).

And quite honestly, I have a little less faith that this scene is going to happen. Because we know the Voidfish has already sung to Johann in some capacity— in the little note made on whiteboard back in Rockport. The first two notes of EGG BABE.

This could be retconned, or it could fit into a flashback, or it can still pack a punch if they manage to slip in the Duet somewhere else. But part of the wonder and the shock Johann felt when he connected with the Voidfish in that scene was because it had never been done before, immediately after Magnus had garnered a physical reaction from the animal he’s been caring for for over a year. I don’t think the Duet would pack the same punch as it did because of the separation of these two scenes.

Anyway. Moral of the story, I love Johann Adventurezone with all my heart. Pains me to see his character and his relationship with the Voidfish get sidelined like this, even if it’s for the sake of streamlining the novels. Cant imagine how it might affect the finale (except yes I can and I’m biting fucking METAL thinking abt it). Thanks for coming to my tedtalk.

#asks #achamocha #taz gn spoilers #taz balance #taz johann #im main tagging this bc everyone needs to see. the Truth the agonizing truth cuz I haven’t seen anything abt it

[vraieame]

Astrology Observations (Fixed Rising Sign Edition)

Below are my observations based on personal encounters with people who are a/an xyz rising.

This Taurus rising person I'm about to describe is someone very passionate and possessive. I've known this person since forever and she has always been known for being so materialistic and caring. Stereotypical but it's true! It's also very obvious when she likes something, especially when it's her aesthetic. She's professional at gardening too. There was this time someone close to her almost damaged one of her expensive vases and her expression was like a shedevil plotting something sinister lmao. She was very protective about almost everything. So when someone she deeply cares about goes to her for company, advice or whatever the case may be, she will always be there to provide any kind of warmth and attention. However, when you touch something she does not consent at all or worse--damage her things, she will make you feel really guilty and embarrassed. She knows how to put others in their place. I don't see her anymore though.

A friend of mine is a Leo rising and wherever she goes, the spotlight is always there. It's like she's the spotlight herself, considering she carries that charismatic effect that pulls you in. She's effortlessly flirty too. She's also immensely gorgeous. Her hair is always changing too. Whatever state her hair is in, they always look good. She's had various things done in her hair and they still look healthy and golden-like. In terms of having fun, she's very good at that. She knows how to lighten up any type of room. She's had many people fallen for her but she always end up dating the worst guys ever. I die everytime it happens lmao. She's so sweet, generous, and sincere, I wouldn't want any men to take that flame from her. They do not deserve her. I often notice how people think she's gullible and not 'all of that' too but I think they're just jealous and are projecting their insecurities on her. So lame. In terms of fashion, she's very good at it.

My ex bff is a Scorpio rising and she's known for writing free-verse poems in her notebook. She used to bring it to school everyday. She's had many hair color transformation too. She's had bob hair countless times as well. One time she said that her ex loved her hair long so she decided to cut it short. I could say it was her late emo phase. She's also very hot and charismatic. She knows everyone's motives and decides to whether take part in their game or not give a damn at all. She's always two steps ahead of everyone. She's very vocal about what's needed to be said too and doesn't like being bossed around. She only does things for you when you're really their person. When you do or say shit to her, she reciprocates it. She's also very emotionally intelligent, genuine, obsessive, and hot. People either hate or love her. Sometimes in-between or none of it at all. She's very adventurous. She loves cats. Sings very well. She also has very dark physical features too. God she's so pretty. She gets prettier every second.

I know someone whose ascendant is in Aquarius and she has been known for being so unapologetically creative! She has a fine taste in music as well. My first impression of her was that I thought she was going to be quiet and would rather sit in the corner than socialize but she's actually a social butterfly while simultaneously having that chill energy around her. She has that pleasant aura that makes you feel at ease. She's an introvert at first sight but when you get to know her better, she's actually very bubbly and welcoming. I also noticed how many people say she's like a chameleon, she just knows how to blend in. Despite having many people knowing her, no one really seems to get that raw and unconventional part of her.

#astrology #astrology observations #fixed signs #taurus #leo #scorpio #aquarius

[lunas-otome-blog]

Luna's Review: Café Enchanté

Official Summary:

When Kotone inherits her grandfather’s Tokyo café, she discovers the shop holds more secrets than anyone could imagine.

The café is a meeting spot for beings from multiple, mystical worlds. You’ll meet the king of demons, a humanoid beast, a fallen angel, and more.

And when government agents monitoring non-human activities show up at your door, your new café is about to become a lot more colorful.

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(Spoiler Free) Luna's Thoughts:

(Just as a reminder, I'm writing this for myself to keep track of my thoughts and leave a record of the games I've played. Others are welcome to read and feel free to provide your own thoughts, but please, no hate! They're just my opinions, nothing more.)

I was excited for this game. The premise sounded amazing: a cute cafe full of magical beings from other worlds? Sign me up! I love the colorful cast of characters, and the art is undoubtedly gorgeous.

But, while I enjoyed elements of this game, the setting falls apart almost immediately, and has very little to do with any of the routes, with the exception of the true end. The whole game is actually incredibly dark, complete with bloodshed and death in every route, which is normally not a bad thing, but it feels a bit misleading here.

You're told almost at once that the cafe is somehow sustained on payments from only a handful of romanceable characters, none of which use human currency or seem to have jobs that would involve payment, with the exception of the one human bachelor Rindo. This is nitpicky, I know, but I found it frustrating because it would have been so easy to write a way around this.

Let me be clear that I don't necessarily mind a game with a ridiculous premise. I love Mystic Messenger, and the entire game hinges on the fact that you have moved into a stranger's apartment and have somehow remotely taken on party planning for a charity group of people you haven't met. But the thing about Mystic Messenger is that the ridiculousness is upfront, right at the beginning, and once you get past it and accept the game for what it is, you can enjoy it.

This is not so with Cafe Enchante. There are many times in this game where just a little more thought could have made things make more sense. To me, the whole game was plagued with sloppy writing and baffling plot details that could have easily been avoided or explained in a different way — not to mention the litany of literal editing errors. It's also not translated very well in places — or maybe it is, and just written poorly in its original Japanese. Either way, it reads awkwardly a lot of the time

Overall, I was not impressed with this game. It just goes to show that pretty artwork and a fun initial premise do not necessarily make a good product.

Below are my thoughts on each route in the order I played them.

.

(SPOILERS BEGIN HERE)

Ignis Carbunculus Route

This is the route I got first, without trying. I actually did not want to get Ignis first, because I figured he was the tsundere character in this game, and I like to do those a bit later. He's actually not particularly tsundere at all, just hypermasculine and therefore not great at expressing emotions other than rage.

This is one of the darkest and, in my opinion, one of the laziest-written routes in the game. You're expected to believe that Ignis went on a rage, literally killed and ate many of his own people, including his family, forgot about it and then just continues on with his life, only to be conveniently reminded of his dark past at the right moment to advance the game. And the rest of his clan has been tolerating him because they're afraid of him, and for whatever reason, Ignis has never noticed everyone hates or fears him??

Ignis is also the only member of his species who can eat. The rest don't need to because they're born with all the calories they need for the rest of their lives apparently, meaning the beasts of the literal beast world don't kill each other for food, just sport. And oh, yeah, that's somehow also Ignis' fault.

I felt like this route could have been simplified in a way that made more sense. Instead, the writers had a vision and manipulated many small details to make the rest of the game work within that vision, resulting in a lot of strange decisions.

I'm aware this game isn't meant to be realistic, but Ignis' whole plotline seemed very contrived. It's like they had something written already but realized certain elements weren't congruent with other aspects of the game, so they just...manipulated elements of Ignis' route until it kind of fit.

Overall, I think Ignis' route was my least favorite. It felt the most rushed, the least polished, and assumed a lot of things conveniently went unnoticed for years in Ignis' life. There was just too much coincidence in this route for me.

.

(SPOILERS)

Il Fado de Rie Route

This was the second route I played, and overall my favorite route. It felt the most cohesive out of all the characters, and it was the longest aside from the true end.

That doesn't mean I don't have my gripes with it. My biggest one is that Il, who has apparently based his entire personality, including his name, on an otome game character, makes the baffling decision to tell Kotone about the game and literally recommend she try that character's route first, only to immediately regret it when he realizes she's going to notice something is off.

Like, I could understand it if the personalities were just similar, but he took the name, too. I cannot believe he would be so stupid as to forget the game that he stole his persona and name from and then just freely give away that information. What pisses me off so much is that Kotone could have so easily encountered this information on her own. Have her buy the game independently to surprise Il, and then discover the overlap herself. Why on earth would he just give her that information? It's lazy writing.

I did really enjoy how angels are basically human androids and god is a supercomputer. That was rad as hell and is a brilliant explanation for why angel magic is math based. I'd say this route has the best worldbuilding, including the gorgeous pretty-boy side characters.

I don't feel completely satisfied with how Il's route was resolved, as there's still some question to how much of his personality is his own, but ultimately it was the most solid route in the game. I didn't think I would like Il as I don't particularly enjoy his character archetype, but in the end I was pretty attached to him. His characterization in the true end route was adorable as well, and I adore his friendship with Misyr.

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(SPOILERS)

Kaoru Rindo Route

Rindo was my second favorite route in the game. I think it's super funny that Kotone keeps talking about their age gap even though he's the second youngest character in the game at 42 years old.

His route is also (to my knowledge) the only route that lets you just straight up kill the person you're trying to romance, although it does dead end the game if you make the choice not to save him when you can.

The worst part of this route for me what the treatment of Rindo's sister, Shizuku. She doesn't get a proper sprite in her human form, so you have no idea what she looked like, and it makes it kind of hard to feel anything for her. I did like the utter horror of watching Mikado feed her with his blood with no explanation.

This is one of the darkest routes and the only one where a side character with a sprite actually dies. And when he does, you feel bad for him because he was just trying to protect the woman he loves.

It did feel a little predictable to have Rindo become non-human after oodles of conversations about whether or not humans and non-humans can have relationships. Honestly the game writers are cowards for not making Rindo look more extreme as a non-human. Make him a freak!!

I do appreciate that he remains non-human at the end, though. I feel like forcing him to become human again would have eliminated any of the growth he made during the route.

Personality-wise, Rindo is one of the cuter characters IMO. He's flirty but as soon as things get serious he backs off. Super adorable!

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(SPOILERS)

Canus Espada Route

This route was...ok. Just ok.

Honestly, I was bored through most of it. I can't really say why. It just didn't appeal to me that much.

Right at the beginning it annoyed me by assigning a gender to Vennia. Like, he could have just been left nonbinary. It's canon in this game that fairies don't have genders anyway, so it would have been fine to continue using they/them pronouns. I guess otome games haven't gone that way yet but it would have been nice.

I did like Vennia's relationship with Titania, and in the end, when he betrays Kotone, it felt natural. You can't hate him because you know he just wants to protect his sister.

I thought maybe his headlessness would be plot relevant but on the contrary, we get literally no explanation for why he's headless and nobody else is. I get that they wanted to make him an interesting character, but we know his ancestor was not headless, so why is he? Aren't there other dullahans in Medio?

I do think it's hilarious that we don't ever get to see his face. The implication is that he does in fact have one, so I had predicted it would be revealed as part of his route, but they stuck to their guns and kept him headless throughout the entire route.

Idk why I wasn't impressed with this route. Worldbuilding-wise it was one of the more solid storylines. It just wasn't particularly shocking or interesting to me, so I didn't love it, but I suppose I didn't hate it either.

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(SPOILERS)

Misyr Rex Route

This route was, quite frankly, absolutely ridiculous. This was the most obvious case of having an overall idea and not having the skills to execute it well.

So many things happened just because Misyr willed it to. For example, he gains magic powers and a semi-human form simply because he wanted to visit a four-year-old on earth? How does that even happen? This is already ignoring the fact that he transformed into an ash monster through forced evolution or whatever, which is already a stretch, mind you.

And if that's not ridiculous enough, we then get introduced to Noah, who is somehow an entire world. I actually found him to be more interesting of a character than Misyr, now that we know that Misyr's entire life consists of going to one cafe and doing nothing all day.

The most disappointing part of this route was Asmodeus, who was largely not relevant at all other than the initial shock of realizing Misyr wasn't the demon king. Why bother making such an annoying character for a brief gag? He could have been so much more but instead he's reduced to an unlikable flirt who kidnaps Kotone in order to provide an excuse for a cute CG, and then we barely see him ever again.

This whole route stinks of worldbuilding with no consideration for how certain elements would affect the rest of the world. You know how sometimes worlds in fictional programs (ie: Black Mirror) build their entire concepts around one aspect of society and don't bother fleshing out everything else? That's basically this whole route in a nutshell. It falls apart under the tiniest bit of scrutiny.

To top it off, the good ending of this route, and therefore the whole game, involves Kotone becoming the world herself, largely losing her human form, now cursed to live for eternity as a realm that turns people to ash????? Who decided this would be a satisfying ending for an otome game?

The one element I did like was the explanation for why non-humans look so much like humans. I think it's super cool that humans used to have superior technology and lost it and everything else grew from that. I like the biblical references as well.

Ultimately, though, this was a disappointing way to end the game for me.

#otome game #cafe enchante #review #otome review #this is largely self indulgent #feel free to ignore this #thank you

[altruistic-meme]

intrigued by time travel au and laurent stabs damen (ofc he does) 👀👀👀

>:) oh you chose two of the best ones

Time Travel AU

this is pretty heavily inspired by a wip im reading now, though only as far as the setup for the plot. which is, essentially, that a modern day Laurent somehow finds himself transported to ancient Akielos, where he comes across Prince Damianos 👀

i have so many plans for this as far as like... what is the story saying, what themes and meanings the story is telling. and there are two main things: 1. no matter how much you want to, you can never change history and 2. history is written by the victors.

it's also going to be my first attempt at really writing a tragedy! it's going to have an unhappy ending! i should not be sounding so excited about that. but i kinda am. i almost never read unhappy endings. i think it will be a fun experience.

i also get to write part of the history of Akielos for it, twice, and it's such an exciting prospect to me

laurent stabs damen

>:)

>:)))))

so this is the fic that i went "oh this will be easy to turn into a silly little oneshot" and am now at 4k words and am currently expecting the story to hit around 40k-50k :')

all because i went "what would happen if Laurent showed up on the battlefield at Marlas, found Damen and Auguste's fight, and stabbed Damen to protect Auguste?" i have now looked into armistices, ceasefires, peace treaties, and friendship treaties, what they are, how long they take, as well as a few examples from history. just so i could have a timeline for a fic that i meant to make like 7k max.

BUT as i have some written, you get an excerpt of my favorite moment so far!!

“I’m trying to save his life.” Again, it was not what Laurent had expected to hear. Clearly it wasn’t what Auguste had expected either, because his jaw slackened before he covered it again with a glare. The Akielon continued, “He’s, what?  Twelve?” “Thirteen,” Auguste replied, his eyes flickering over to Laurent.  “Thirteen,” the Akielon repeated. “And how many battles has he been in?” “None.” A hesitation. “One, now, I guess.” “He doesn’t know the rules of engagement, then.” Auguste shook his head. That wasn’t strictly true, Laurent did know them. Mostly. But he had never actually been in a duel before. And he knew that Akielos had different rules than they had in Vere. They were all about fairness and honor.  “I don’t think he would have attacked me, had he known,” the Akielon said, and he sounded so sure. “I would have,” Laurent said from his position behind a sword. The soldier tightened his grip but didn’t press any harder into Laurent’s neck to make him be quiet, as he might have had Laurent been a soldier himself. The prince turned to look at him, his expression curious. Laurent continued, “You would have killed him.” A hum. “I would have,” he agreed. Laurent glared at him, but the prince had turned his attention back to Auguste. “Lack of awareness doesn’t matter in Akielos, though. He still broke the rules of engagement, whether or not he knew what he was doing or the consequences.” “So why is he still alive?” Auguste asked, the words sounding like they were being ripped out of him, rough and frustrated.

[ WIP FILE GAME ]

#neither of these have names yet #im trying to NOT name them so early. for once. we'll see how it goes #im also still debating how im gonna post the stabbing fic.... bc i kinda want to do one big oneshot but also #the way it's planned it could be broken down into 4 chapters #either way i think i want to try finishing it before posting (if i do make it multi-chap) #and the time travel au is just. ugh. i love rotating it in my head but i have a lot of planning to do before i write #since i have to figure out two different versions of the same events #which im excited about but i also know they'll be work #also also; the exchange of 'i would have' makes me insane like i know i wrote it but aaaaaaaaaaa #ask game #wip game #askers #daylightsimon #captive prince #shh ac #wip: laurent stabs damen #wip: time travel #now i need to try and sleep 🫡🫡🫡

[blanketempress]

One final night

Plot : I got a little carried away and wrote something for Mariella. A conversation with Cecilio right after she died. Set in 1962.

Warnings : a bit of gore here and there. Reflection on parental abuse.

Length : 2600 words give or take

Setting : Vampire the Masquerade - our Los Angeles campaign

this is backstory for backstory characters who never show up in the campaign itself

Her breath escapes as white smoke from her lips. If only it was cigarette smoke.

The mausoleum was never her favorite place. Understatement. Cecilio’s weird lab is, always has been, fucking creepy. Now though, there’s something strangely comforting about it. A familiarity, the whispers that used to usher her away now murmuring welcome home, welcome home. The air clings to her form, wrapping around her, thick, like a coat. Dragging her.. elsewhere.

It’s always been cold. Not that she can really feel it anymore. Everywhere is cold. Everything. Everyone. 

Her eyes drift back to Cecilio. He’s humming to himself. Or to her? She’s lying in front of him, unmoving, she can see herself from where she’s sitting, on the edge of the table. Funny how that works. His hands are gentle on her skin, she can see it. Cleaning away the gore, mending what still can be mended. He’s not looking at her, not really. Neither the corpse, nor the ghost. There’s only the task at hand, preparations he must have done a hundred times.

It’s almost touching, really. Like a parent tending to their child’s bath. One last time. Something stirs at the thought. The gentle twirl of air seems to heat up. It’s not relief, it’s anger. Burning.

“Where’s Livia ?”

The question escapes translucent lips, along with a wisp of smoke. From the corner of her eye she can see that he’s stopped, only for a second. He heard. He takes his time, cleaning up a sponge, wetting it with hot water to try to erase the traces of the fight from her face. Hah. Nothing much he can do there. The nose is broken, skin caked in brown dried blood, teeth missing, more than she cares to remember losing.

“Your mother is busy, Mariella.”

Not the right words. She heard them before. Times and times and times again. From her, from tutors, from strangers. On the phone, on letters, scribbled notes left on the kitchen’s counter. 

She’s busy, Mariella.

A meeting. An important affair. A business trip. 

An empty chair at a recital. A birthday with no messages. 

She learned not to expect any. Not from Livia.

She turns again and suddenly forgets the words, the cutting expression.

Not from Livia, no.

“You came for me.”

There were times. Warm embraces. Actual chats. Sure it was boring most of the time. How is school. How did the rehearsal go. When she got into the secrets of the family she realized that none of it had ever been genuine. Still. At least he tried. Even if it had just been some game to him, there had never been a word louder than the other, never an angry glare. Never a hit. Just that unnerving smile. Satisfied, patient.

The same one he is wearing now as he cleans up what was left of her.

“Well, I have come to reclaim every single one of my descendants.” 

He nods to the wall, to the hundred alcoves lining it. Some are closed, some are open, some have names. One, she knows is for her. He’s even brought lilies to that one. White ones.

“Why?”

This time, he looks at her. At the ghost sitting on the operation table. The smile is still there, though hesitant. As if he’s wondering if he’ll tell her. Wondering what he’ll tell her.

“Why, because you are mine. You are all my blood. I would never let anyone else get their hands on any of you.”

Possessive. At least that makes sense. At least he doesn’t do her the offense of talking about love and care. His hand is frozen, and he looks down on it. On her face. He did a rather good job actually. Without a heartbeat the blood doesn’t gush out that much, maybe with a bit of makeup and some work the right side might look decent in the end. Unlike the left. Nothing to salvage there. Skull caved right in. At least it had been quick. Not even vampire vitae can heal half a brain. A mercy, compared to what it felt like when her lungs started to fill up with her own blood. Burning, drowning.

She looks away.

“You know-” the voice is Cecilio’s. He’s still staring at his hand. “-your grandmother was a ghoul as well. Not the one you know, no. Anzola. My first wife. You are hers, as well as mine.”

Through the apathy, through the weariness, she still takes the bait.

“What happened to her?”

“Same as you. She died.”

For a moment they both stay quiet. He’s never been one to overshare. She knew, of course. She’d been in the mausoleum more than once. She saw the names on the alcoves. Now there’s a hint of genuine curiosity. As it turns out, she doesn’t need to push him at all to get the rest of the story.

“Her master let her die at my feet. I never got to find her. He was a busy man, you see. Maybe dawn was closing in on him, I cannot say that I remember. He saw that his blood was not enough, so he took me instead, and we left her there.”

It sounds like such a distant memory, like a man describing a painting he has stared at for hours rather than a retelling of a moment filled with grief and anger. Well. He did have centuries to get over it.

He continues.

“When our oldest son died, ah- I was a ghoul still. His master wanted him for himself. So, well… I killed him.” The laugh is genuinely fond. A fondness that strangely doesn’t sound so out of place. And he waves his finger, like a grandfather who let out a family secret. “Don’t you go tell on me. His Sire is still sore about that, you know? Pitiful old man. Anyway- I took my son, and brought him here. It wasn’t much, back then. More of an alchemist’s lair than anything. And that night, I killed my master as well. The funny thing about having a servant who hates you is- no matter how much blood you feed them, if someone comes with more blood, and the promise of your head on a spike, my, my. I still remember his face when he realized how lazy he had grown, and for how long his blood had been replaced in my veins with his enemy’s.”

“And you still were embraced after that?”

“Oh my darling, of course! Granted, it was a gamble. Since I was able to kill a former master, you are very right, my Sire could have feared that I would turn against him as well… But he liked me, and he liked my work. He helped me give my son a decent funeral, and we worked together for the next couple decades. It is a shame that he was killed. Though I can swear I had no part in it, I was rather fond of him… I still have his wraith in my pocket watch!”

That last bit sounds so cheery, the way he grabs the watch to show off is so genuinely excited, Mariella cannot hold back the laugh that escapes her. Only in this fucking family… He places the watch back in his pocket, dark eyes lingering for a second on her translucent shape before turning away again. Back to work. Cosmetics, preservation products. She cannot smell but the memory is vivid enough, mundane enough that she can imagine the chemical and floral scents filling the air.

It takes hours until he’s satisfied. Candles are burning, and weird symbols are traced all around her, all over her white skin. Everything ends, eventually.

The anger is back, burning in her chest. Somehow this time she can feel the edge of the table when she grasps it. Is that really all she can hope for? The care of a half senile, controlling old man, not a single friend, not a single familiar face to say goodbye to. Only the disdain of those who survived, the continued indifference of her mother. Living or dying, it all happens the same, doesn’t it.

Cecilio clears his throat, and there’s the rattle of metal. Tools clattering as they drop back down.

“My, my… Quite powerful already, are you not? I would appreciate it, however, if you left my instruments alone for the time being. You will need some guidance until you can make something out of that energy of yours.”

One blink. The room looks the same. She doesn’t feel the same, though. When she gets up, the stone has chipped under her fingers.

“What if I don’t want to become anything? What if I just want to fade?”

The smile doesn’t wither, but he doesn’t laugh, doesn’t scold her for the outburst. “My darling, you have already made your choice. You want more. Now the real question should be… what is it? It takes a lot of work to bring back something of a person once they are dead, you know? A violent death helps, sure. But you, my dear, you did most of the job all by yourself, I have to say, I am impressed. You will be so beautiful…”

“Oh, shut up Cecilio.”

For a second there’s an old instinct, an old, deep fear ingrained in her surfacing. But it’s not Livia in front of her. It’s an old man, smiling patiently, as if he had dealt with hundreds of petulant children before.

Maybe he will be the last person she ever sees, or talks to. The idea is revulsing. And yet as soon as the first words get out of her mouth, she knows she’ll get them all out. “I’m dead.” Frustration, anger, years and years of shattered hopes, of folding in half for someone else’s plans. Trampled dreams and swallowed bile. “I’m fucking dead, because of her. She knew this mission was compromised, she knew we wouldn’t make it out. She didn’t care to give me a warning. And all she has to say is that she’s busy?” The air trembles again, turning to ice, turning to fire. “You know what? Actually I’m fucking glad she’s not there, she’d only come to let me know how disappointed she is that I failed that mission.”

“Come now, I do not think that she knew.” There’s the smile. Not a trace of worry. Oh, he’s prodding, she knows he’s trying to nudge something, trying to get a reaction out of her. Right now she doesn’t care enough to stop. Too many times tasting blood from biting her tongue, and this time might be the last.

“And that's supposed to make it better? Either she knew and she didn’t care, or she straight up didn’t bother to check anything before sending me in.” There’s a crackling sound, rain on a powerline, and the candles flicker. For all her rage, she still finds it in her to be surprised that her voice hasn’t cracked yet. Instead it booms, bouncing on the walls, reaching sleeping things in the drawers and the alcoves. One tries to rise and she shuts it down with one wave of her hand. “She’s never been there. She was waiting for me to kick it from the day I was born, but she was too proud to off me herself, too much of a coward to face the family if she gave up on me. I was hers. But now I’m not, that must be quite a relief. You want to know what’s fueling me? You want to know why I’m still here? I want her dead. I want to tear her apart and watch her bleed. I want to see her crawl and hear her plead, beg, apologize, anything.”

The last echo fades, the light slowly grows back to normal, candles now half consumed. And all is still again. Quiet.

Cecilio keeps staring, focused, mouth slightly open in a hungry smile, with an intensity that makes him look insane. Drinking her words, admiring her form.

“So what’s with all that?” she asks, eventually, gesturing at the table “You’re going to bind me, but what do you want me to do? Because here it is. You want another watchdog, I want to kill my mother. I don’t see how that’s compatible.”

A laugh, a chuckle really. “Oh my darling. You are already bound. All I did was make sure that it would be stable, and on some fertile soil.” He extends a hand to touch her cheek, and somehow she can feel it. Solid. He catches her tear with a soft brush of his thumb. “Mariella, my heart. I cannot let you achieve your goal. You are very right, I am in the business of making watchers, protectors. I cannot let you harm one of my children, you are my bond to this world, all of you. But yours is this anger. What will become of you once it is gone? I cannot let this happen.”

He turns back to the table and slowly starts snuffing out the candles. One by one. So the ritual is already done, then. Done and over.

Anger is still there, but coiled, dormant for now. Only waiting for a spark to ignite it again.

“You had a very eventful night, my dear.” The voice is soft, exactly that of a parent gently coaxing a child to bed. “Sleep for now. I will make sure that nobody comes to disturb you until you feel rested.”

He put the shroud over her broken body, like a cover, leaving her face visible only for one last kiss on her forehead, a masquerade of affection before he covers it. There’s a finality to it when he turns back.

“Now… Before you go, would it be rude of me to ask you for a little help? I would be able to figure it out with some work, but it will be day soon. May I know what your anchor is? I will take good care of it, I promise…”

She can feel apathy growing again, as if the world started dissolving around her. Or maybe she’s the one slowly fading. She shrugs and points at the other side of the room, at the low table on which her clothes are piled. “My jacket.”

“Ah! Brilliant.”

A pointed look, as if he wants to ask more. Well. She did want to tell someone. She thought she’d get to tell a friend one day. As a funny story maybe.

Beggars aren’t choosers. 

“It’s the first thing I bought with my money. Without her breathing down my neck. I hid it for weeks from her. She didn’t care when she saw me wearing it though. Didn’t notice.”

Maybe it’s only fitting to end up as a ghost.

Cecilio nods, folding the jacket with a certain reverence. For a moment Mariella takes the time to really look at him, an old man, a shadow of someone who couldn’t let go of his loved ones. Vampire, ghost. Not much of a difference, is there. Maybe he really could only ever see reflections of his lost love in all of his children. But that was so much more than anyone else gave her. He was there. Fake or not, it was still a comfort. Someone to talk to, someone who cared, no matter why he did.

She holds up her hand, and he seems surprised, almost startled when she puts it to rest over his cheek. Not quite material. Not quite gone yet.

“Hey, gramps?”

“My heart?”

“Thank you.”

Welcome home, the mausoleum says, embracing her.

#how much of Cecilio's attitude is genuine and how much is manipulation is a mystery even to Cecilio #Mariella was 25 when she died btw she was only a ghoul for a few months #the giovamilly late night show #mariella vtm #cecilio vtm

[superthatguy62]

FFIII Fun Facts of the Whenever: Dark Heritage edition

Despite it eternally living in the back of my mind ever since I found out about it, I have somehow never made a post on here describing the whole “Ingus was born in Falgabard” plot hook.

Time to recertify that.

In the Final Fantasy III remake, a “major” plot point is that Cid and the Warriors of the Light are actually from the surface world rather than being native to the Floating Continent. I say “major” because after that point, the story only ever touches upon it by having some engineers speak of a “genius inventor” who is all but outright said to have been Cid.

There’s some interesting aspects of the unused text which seem to imply that that reveal was later in the game (Luneth’s deja vu feelins that I’ve covered prior), but only one of the four orphans has their heritage touched upon.

The first mention, strangely, is from Doga. During one of the scrapped conversations, Doga is explaining the issue with Xande to the party while Ingus remains suspicious of Doga’s intentions, believing him to be allied with Xande. After reminding Ingus that they are Xande’s enemy, not him, Doga says:

ほほう…　いい目じゃ　その暗黒剣士　

のような鋭さ　ホレボレするわい…」

Which roughly translates to:

Your eyes are as sharp as a dark swordsman's, I admire them..."

(NOTE: The term used for the Dark Knight job was almost changed for the remake. Thus, when the Dark Knight job is brought up, it uses “ 暗黒剣士 “, which would be used in 4 Heroes of Light for its Dark Knight job, rather than the original terminology, which the final game would keep).

Later, after getting the Invincible, the party goes to the village of Falgabard, a mountainous village where Dark Knights practice their craft in solitude.

And it is here that Ingus mentions that he feels that the scenery of the village is familiar. Refia initially asks if it’s deja vu, but Ingus remains unsure. Arc offers up the possibility that Ingus visited the village before, but Ingus shoots down that assertion by mentioning that he has served the king of Sasune since he was four and while he has left the castle since then, he has never gone beyond the floating continent. Lastly, Luneth points out that since Ingus has served Sasune since he was four, he couldn’t possibly have been here first. Ingus agrees, but somewhat hesitantly...

Later (It’s unclear if this is part of the same scene or a different one), Ingus expresses a desire to visit the village again after his duties as a Warrior of the Light are finished. Additionally, he expresses a desire to learn to wield Dark Blades, initially saying that he wants to before retracting that and saying that he feels he must. Arc points out that Ingus could just use the Dark Knight job, but Ingus explains that he feels that Falgabard was his original home and therefore wants to return and train with a pure heart. Refia is happy for Ingus, but also feels envious that he knows the path he wants to take and feels she could learn from him, prompting Luneth and Arc to make a little joke.

The Cave of Shadows scenes serve as a capstone of sorts. After the Dark Knight at the beginning gives up his sword, Luneth, Arc and Refia notice Ingus shaking. Refia wonders if Ingus was nervous about whether the party was qualified for the Koetsu, but Ingus admits that he felt unsettled even prior to that. Arc feels it’s related to the fang, but Luneth picks up on the fact that Ingus also finds the mountain range leading to the Cave of Shadows familiar, prompting them to talk about it.

For those uninitiated, the Cave of Shadows is where Dark Knights go to further their training. It’s said that none return, as punctuated by how the group finds a Dark Knight who dies after giving them his sword.

Given that both Luneth and Ingus remember that mountain range, there’s some Implications there, especially for the latter who was born in Falgabard to begin with.

#Final Fantasy #Final Fantasy III #Final Fantasy 3 #FFIII #FF3 #Doga #Ingus #Luneth #Arc #Refia #Dark Knight #Hellblade

[merryfortune]

The Pop-Up Book Game

Written for the Sakura Exchange on Dreamwidth

Ship: Katarina/Sophia

Fandom: My Next Life as a Villainess All Routes Lead to Doom

Rating: G

Word Count: 1,851

Tags: Fluff & Angst, Bittersweet, Not Canon Compliant, Pre-Identity Reveal, Developing Relationship, Mutual Pining

   Once a nerd, always a nerd, Katarina lamented to herself as she woke up and yawned. She tried hard to bat away the last dredges of sleep with her eyelashes as she pulled herself from her covers and the last remnants of her dream. A dream that had been full of joy for another world which turned into homesickness of a peculiar sense in this world.

   It was a dream, she was fairly certain. The elements of it were all scattered and mixed up, a dream borne of multiple memories, turned into a hearty and hodgepodge stew that left her hungry in the heart, not the stomach. Katarina sighed to herself as she got up and let some light into her room. Anne would likely be down any minute to let her know that breakfast was available in the dining hall with all the other students.

   Honestly, she just wanted to be alone as she savoured these feelings that might be better ignored or relinquished. Katarina was a fool, in this life and her previous one, surrounded by luxuries that she never knew how to work, like electricity, for one. Where it came from, what it was, how they stored all those pictures and texts in zeroes and ones in cartridges for gaming consoles to play. She missed it.

   She wanted to play games again so bad! Fire Emblem, Pokemon, Animal Crossing, she missed it all, not just Fortune Lover! Her waking life had become the plot of Fortune Lover but she wanted a taste and replay of her other, old favourites, too. Other games and light novels and things like that. She had dreamt of some amalgamation of every video game that she had ever played and she dreamt so viscerally that she had held the console or controls in her hands. The sensation of plastic keys on a keyboard just at her fingertips, even now. A tingle that turned into a spark of what she could never have again.

   It was a Saturday morning and oh how she missed it. Katarina wanted it again, just like she wanted to taste Japanese foods again and other little things like that. She could want for nothing as a noblewoman but even so, she wanted things that she could never dare express, even to her closest friends.

   Yet, express this longing she did, over breakfast with one of her friends, no less. 

   “How bizarre,” Sophia marvelled as Katarina regaled an embellished tale of her dream, “a little box that you can watch live theatre in? Amazing but how?”

   “I have no idea.” Katarina shook her head. “But what an amazing invention it would be but it would take more than magic to make it work, I think.”

   “Yes, it would bring culture to the masses, wouldn’t it?” Sophia agreed. “And possibly more opportunity for actors and other troops such as. Perhaps one day your dream might come true. It sounds like a net good, in my opinion.”

   “Thank you, Sophia.” Katarina replied.

   Katarina smiled a nostalgic smile and Sophia caught it. She smiled back and Katarina blushed. She hadn’t meant to let her musings on television and video games slip out dream conversation but ever a romantic, Sophia loved to catch up on what dreams people had been having lately. She didn’t consider herself an interpreter of them, merely a listener as she enjoyed stories and there were none quite so whimsical as the ones that came to people in their sleep. So, Katarina was helpless to do nothing but mention it, especially when Sophia looked up with such caring, ruby eyes. Almost knowing, ruby eyes, actually…

   “Hm… but this invention,” Sophia murmured, “it reminds me a lot of those pop-up books that children sometimes read.. There could be different slides to unveil different pictures, pages that burst open to emphasise a narrative beat. Perhaps we could even find a way to make a character’s expressions change based on if you hold the book this way or that way.”

   Katarina blinked. She hadn’t even made the connection herself between the idea of a book and a game but it made immediate sense to her now that Sophia had spoken it aloud. She recalled the ones that she had read in her childhood and began to beam as she imagined all the fun she could have with an interactive story in paper format.

   “You have a wonderful mind, Sophia.” Katarina gasped.

   “If we changed the proportions, we could make a book of sorts that tells the story visually or with pictures, we could fold in little titbits and surprises. I have the most brilliant idea, Katarina, let’s make your dream a reality!”

   “That sounds like a very fun project we could do together today then.” Katarina replied excitedly, she banged her hands on the table.

   “Let’s begin immediately.” Sophia exclaimed, energy matching and fizzling like fireworks.

   They abandoned their breakfast altogether wanting to get to work immediately. It would be morning tea time soon, anyway, and snacks were going to abound regardless of when or how they started this project together. So they dashed out of the dining room, hand in hand, and went on a hunt for a good, quiet place for them to work and construct a nest of artistic materials they would need. They found a nook in the library and got to work. Mostly in the form of making a huge mess amongst the bookshelves and the desks.  

   Despite full intentions of being respectful to other students around them, the pair were raucous and loud, giggling amongst those actually studying as they tried to make the pop-up book game a material reality. They cut up cardboard and paper, they scribbled down every idea that they had and in the process somehow managed to make a story out of everything they thought of. Whether or not it was a coherent story was irrelevant as they were having fun, picking each other’s brains for ideas and drawing them into pictures, coming up with novel ways to even convey these stories.

   Now neither Katarina nor Sophia were artists but the end result was as good as either of them could have imagined. They worked through snack breaks and lunch and got crumbs everywhere but wiping them off, trying not to smear the watercolours and the like, they were proud of their pop-up book game. Katarina actually felt her heart pound as she held the finished product in her hands.

   Another memory was shaken loose in her mind. When she and Atsuko-chan had gotten in trouble for bringing their devices to school, they did the exact same thing. They holed up in the library, just like they did now, but not before raiding the art classroom’s supplies. They made paper games to play and pretend to play. Their teacher was dismayed that their creativity was funneled into such an anti-productive end such as replicating the video games just banned but the fun that both she and Atsuko-chan had was better than any high score. 

   Katarina’s eyes began to well up with warm, unshed tears. That memory hadn’t been in her dream but she wished that it had been. She thought of how they had beat up monsters in their make believe dungeon crawler. The sound of Atsuko’s laughter rang in Katarina’s ear as she recalled more of those precious moments. 

   Sophia looked up at her curiously, “Is our little invention really worth crying over?” she asked in a small but gentle voice.

   “Oh, um, yes, I’m very proud of it.” Katarina lied.

   Those memories were all shaded a hue of grey in her mind but she was certain she was not recalling a dream. It was too mundane to be a dream, surely, and yet her heart pounded. Right here and right now, for doing the exact same thing and for it to be such a circus of excitement both for her and Sophia. Oh how Katarina wished Atsuko-chan and Sophia could meet, they would be fast friends, she had not a doubt in her mind. 

   Not to mention, if Katarina recalled correctly, Atsuko-chan’s favourite of the minor characters was Sophia after all. Katarina let out a soapy hiccup at the notion of her Sophia and her Atsuko-chan being friends. She dabbed her eyes, embarrassed that she was having such difficult to parse feelings in front of Sophia.

    “Let’s have a read, shall we.” Katarina smiled through her drying tears.

   “New game start!” Sophia joyfully cheered and she did a fist bump, both her long locks of white and her dress bounced with her in her mirth.

   Katarina blinked. That was, in her cloudy opinion, a rather modern and nerdy thing for Sophia to say but she blinked again. She supposed that it was possible she had mentioned it earlier and forgot or that Sophia had come up with it just now on the fly but it made Katarina oddly happy. Her heart skipped a beat.

   “Yeah!” she agreed. “New game start!”

   They plopped down beside each other in their chairs, dresses flouncing around, and almost hitting their heads on one another as they got in close. Katarina held the not quite a book and not quite a gaming console paper cut out in her hands and was wracked with nostalgia. It was just like that time with Atsuko-chan during recess. Her heart raced.

   She pretended to mash buttons as Sophia regaled their story back to them. It was a raucous mishmash and hodgepodge of fairy tales and whatever sounded good at the time. She orchestrated all the scene changes and the like for Katarina’s full and total enjoyment. Their story was a three arc narrative with level ups and strangers becoming the most powerfully bonded people in the world, beyond the romantic or the platonic, but it still ended in a kiss against a sunset. A well deserved happy ending after all the magic and fighting, both Katarina and Sophia agreed when they had penned that element of the story.

   Katarina looked up and Sophia met her gaze, Katarina’s mouth was wide open as she said, “Thank you, thank you for making my dream a reality.”

   “It means a lot to me as well.” Sophia shyly assured her as she tucked a curl of her snow white hair behind her ear.

   “I-I’m glad.” Katarina replied but she wasn’t quite sure what she was glad for.

   She glanced at Sophia whose eyes were very… wanting. Waiting. Katarina licked her lips and for a moment, her impulse was to kiss Sophia. Just like the protagonists of their shared story but Katarina stamped down on that thought. She was getting carried away, swept up in the moment, there was something else to the glimmer of Sophia’s eyes which she couldn’t quite parse. Something familiar but she couldn’t quite place, something regrettably unsaid and bittersweet. Even though they should both be proud and joyful at the fruition of their hard work.

   And so, Katarina put on a big grin and thanked Sophia again for helping with making the pop-up book game from her dreams real. Again.

#femslash #katasofi #katarina claes #sophia ascart #hamefura #my next life as a villainess #writing tag #katasophia

[adamwatchesmovies]

Baby Geniuses (1999)

While I didn't enjoy this film, that doesn't mean you won't. No matter what I say, the people involved in this project did it: they actually made a movie. That's something to be applauded. With that established...

I've said many times that there are no bad premises, only bad executions. Baby Geniuses has taken that thought behind the shed and blasted it with a double-barrelled shotgun. This is one of the worst films I’ve ever seen.

To prove that her method of education is the best, Dr. Elena Kinder (Kathleen Turner) and her associate, Dr. Heep (Christopher Lloyd) separate twins Sylvester and Whit (played by Leo, Gerry & Myles Fitzgerald and voiced by Miko Hughes) at birth. One twin is raised in a laboratory and the other by a kind couple (Kim Cattrall as Robin and Peter MacNicol as her husband Dan). What the scientists at BabyCo don’t realize is that babies are naturally capable of speaking in a language only they understand - until they grow out of it once they learn to converse with adults. When the brothers meet and are accidentally switched, the other babies under the scientists' care make it their mission to return them to their rightful homes.

This film’s story sounds even stupider as I’m trying to summarize it. None of it makes any sense, whatsoever. If babies are intelligent, why do they poop in their diapers? Why do they get fooled by simple peek-a-boo games? How is it they can’t figure out a way to communicate with the rest of us? Oh, because adults are too stupid to realize that the random notes they smash onto a keyboard actually translates into a beautiful symphony and that their random scribbles on a page are identical to ancient languages? Please.

It doesn’t get any easier to swallow when we see a baby jump up in the air and perform karate kicks or use tools to escape from secure locations. Their skulls haven’t even solidified and yet they’re able to incapacitate full-grown men, and not just random men, but armed guards? Movie. I don’t mind if YOU’RE an idiot, but don’t assume I’m an idiot.

Moving past that load of diaper gravy and we find this catastrophe that is a plot. It’s so brainless and idiotic that at first, you can have fun at its expense. The unconvincing CGI used to create a baby in a three-piece suit dancing to Puttin’ on the Ritz had me in stitches. Then, the film kept going and going and going. It grinds away your sanity and will to survive until you’re begging for it to end. You think you’ve seen lousy performances before. This picture takes it to a level of hell so deep it was deemed unfit for Satan himself. First, we have child actors on-screen. Not only are they children, but they’re babies so they have no idea what is happening around them. They’re basically looking off-screen at jingling toys with this stupid expression on their face. Then, they’re dubbed over by voice actors who are devoid of talent. We're talking dual-levels of awful. They’re almost enough to make you overlook the adults, who must have had nothing but regrets once they got on set because they bring no enthusiasm to their roles whatsoever.

There is no shortage of criticisms to be directed at Baby Geniuses. It features a terrifying animatronic baby (played by a man in a suit) who is sure to turn up again in your nightmares. The plot follows no logic. Writers Bob Clark (who also directs) and Greg Michael frequently run out of comedic ideas and instead start referencing other movies - even when it makes no sense. None of these criticisms accurately convey how agonizing it is to sit through Baby Geniuses. The picture relies heavily on you either finding any scene with a baby doing something it isn’t supposed to do hilarious or having an emotional meltdown at the sight of any diaper wearer. At no point is it more obvious than in the film’s overly manipulative conclusion, during which a montage of children is set to Gift of Love by Randy Travis. Thinking back to it makes me throw up a bit. And there’s a sequel to this? And it’s supposed to be EVEN worse? Diving into a crocodile pit is looking like a better option at this point. (On VHS, May 9, 2018)

#Baby Geniuses #movies #films #movie reviews #film reviews #Bob Clark #Greg Michael #Kathleen Turner #Christopher Lloyd #Kim Cattrall #Peter MacNicol #Ruby Dee #1999 movies #1999 films

[pepsiwriteswords]

ヾ(￣▽￣) ~ Hi!

My turn to break containment for the ask game! (Also 30!?! wips, holy shit)

15, 👀? 8, 👷? 30, 🏷️? 1, ✍️?

（＾∀＾●）ﾉｼ Hiya!

(XD I know, but like I told you - most of them are just vibes & maybe 2 characters right now lol.)

Now, somehow you managed to land on none of the WIPs you expressed interest in, which is incredible lol.

So!

👀 Can you give us any sneak peaks?

WIP 15 is Backyard Promises, & I have almost 900 words in that doc, so sure! xP

Larsen Suarez testing after eleven o'clock at night is concerning on its own, no extenuating circumstances required. Larsen Suarez texting after eleven asking about places to stay the night is more than concerning. Alice wastes precious moments looking between her phone screen and the world outside her window. Like she's actually considering not going out to talk face to face. Shaking her head at herself, she grabs her sneakers and shoots off a reply before shoving her phone in her pocket and creeping out of her bedroom. Park. 10 mins. It's the first place that comes to mind that they'll still be able to get into, aside from the singular shitty convenience store a couple blocks away. Sneaking out of her house isn't an art, or actually all that difficult. Anna will be pissed if she gets woken up, of course, and that's never great, but after three years she's more into threatening to call Alice's social worker for a new placement than anything else. She waits until she's closed the back door behind herself to put her shoes on, tucking the trailing hems of her pajama pants into them to keep them from getting wet in all the puddles she's sure she's going to step in.

👷 How has the creation of the story gone so far? Stressful or fun?

WIP 8 is Brimstone Butterflies (working title). xP This is one of those 'no words/plot, just vibes' WIPs, so. xD I don't know that I'd call it stressful, but I'm not sure I can really call it fun, either lol. It's more of a 'I figured out names of the characters & then put it on the backburner for a time' thing. (Apparently that 'time' was almost 2 years, whoops!) ...Okay, this was a short answer, so if I'd done my WIP count based on my WIP page, you would've gotten Ebb and Flow, and like. This one is also pretty 'just characters & vibes' but. I love the characters & at least 2 of them have gone & gotten married while my back was turned so it's a lot of fun! (Since my brain is being ... my brain, maybe there'll be some Ebb & Flow snippets during NaNo lol.)

🏷️ Does it have a title yet? If so, where did it come from?

WIP 30 is Ember(/Flame/Ash)! Another 'no words/plot, just vibes. XP So, yes, there is a title - potentially 3, if it turns into a series! & those titles came from the NaNo 'adopt a title' forums. Because it seemed cool & so far as I have thought of, there's some kind of rebellion & I like it. >.>

✍️ How far have you got with it?

& WIP 1 is Masquerade! & . . . how far I've gotten is hard to say. xD I get a few thousand words into a draft & take a break & then completely revamp the story & have to restart. So, right now I am ... not far. The last notes I have are about aging down the antagonist some, so she's not like, a middle-aged lady still extremely fixated on a thing that happened when she was like, 16 & harassing an 18-year-old about it, so. This may not even be a superhero story anymore! & which characters play which roles may be swapped around! I dunno! This WIP has become a mess! XD

Thank you for the ask! ♪(´▽｀)

#pepsi talks #ask game #Backyard Promises #Ebb and Flow #Masquerade #Ember #you gave me such a wide range of numbers! #& even then at most you only landed on 1 of the 4 WIPs you specifically pointed out #it's just very funny to me #as a halloween treat you can have some E&F lol #my slowly buddy! #okay hitting post before I go on some kind of totally unrelated tag ramble lol

[therubyreader]

My Thoughts on The Hunger Games as an Adult

While this isn't technically a book review I'm still going to count it and link the rest of my reviews here.

I have rejoined The Hunger Games hype with the new prequel movie based on the prequel book, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, coming out this year. I was a huge fan of the Hunger Games books back when I was in middle school when the first movie came out and I forced my family (and then eventually my friends) into watching the movies with me. I know I read the first book in the series a couple of times since I owned a copy of it but I don't remember if I read the rest of the series multiple times since I didn't get the rest of the books until literally this week since I now have adult money. That all to say that I haven't read the books or watched the movies, in almost a decade, so here's just a quick compilation of thoughts I had while reading the first book that are different from my original perception of it as a kid:

Katniss is an unreliable narrator

I know full well this sentiment has been expressed by multiple people across multiple platforms but hearing it and experiencing it are two very different things. Though I learned about unreliable narrators as a kid, I was still like, eleven, the first time I read the book so I was young and naive and trusting of everyone. I genuinely didn't get the whole star crossed lovers thing because I trusted Katniss and because she was telling me that Peeta was also pretending for the sake of the game I believed it. Now, as an adult with more life experience but the same amount of romantic experience as child me (none), it is so glaringly obvious that Peeta was genuinely in love with Katniss the whole time! Everything makes so much more sense now.

The writing is... strange

Ok, hear me out before you come for me, the writing isn't bad per se but it does feel strange now rereading after an added decade of consuming more literature across different genres and time periods, and getting a degree in writing (kind of), it just reads weird now. Again, strange isn't bad, and I realize that I'm reading YA literature which is a far cry from the classics in terms of technique, which is fine because classics make my head hurt, but there were certain choices that were for sure made. For starters, there would be multiple scenes where Katniss would pass out and it would just go from one paragraph to another with no breaks to let us know time has passed, or multiple days would be covered in a sentence. Though I do get the stream of consciousness way of writing adds to the story and Katniss as a character, it just felt clunky to me.

Why is everything so fast?

This might be a combination of the movies skewing my perception of the book, the fact we have to cover a month in a limited amount of pages, and just run of the mill forgetfulness (because, again, it's been years) but everything happened so damn fast. I could've sworn that Katniss and Rue spent multiple days together before Rue died but it was only one which was bonkers. The training sessions lasted only like two pages, which again could be because of the things I said earlier, but for some reason I thought they were in there for longer. Same thing with the train to the Capitol and back, and I do get that we're supposed to spend the majority of the plot in the actual games but everything just happened so fast. Maybe it was a deliberate choice to make everything before and after the games so hazy and the games themselves very real and present, but again, it was just not at all how I remembered.

Gale is more irrelevant than I remember

Again, this is probably because the movies played up the whole love triangle thing, but Gale is only really there for a bit and most of the mentions of him are either memories or Katniss just thinking about him in passing. I know he's a bigger part of the other two books, and much more present, but he is just a footnote in the first book which I completely forgot about.

The violence?!?!

Now, I know what you all are saying "but Val, this is The Hunger Games, it's about kids killing each other, it's going to be violent" and I know that, but it just hits different as an adult. I mean, remember, when I first started reading the books I was eleven, to me it was just a silly little YA novel with a fun adventure and a romantic subplot, because again, I was a child. Now, over a decade later, as an adult reading how literal children are being forced to fight each other to the death for entertainment, the messaging of the story is very clear to me. I think this also made me appreciate it more in terms of world building and the morality of it which for me made the book more enjoyable. And I know that's strange, understanding the violence of it and getting rid of my childhood naivety and innocence, made my childhood favorite, better, when usually it's the opposite.

I think those are all my thoughts for now (haha), I have read the second book in between when I first started writing this post and when I'm finishing it but my thoughts on it are more or less the same. But! I can do another post of this nature in the future if you all want for Catching Fire or for Mockingjay which I'm about to start as soon as I post this.

#the hunger games #suzanne collins #val's book reviews #(but not really on that last one)

[mi6021emiliamcgee]

Idea 3: Dogs playing D&D

Dogs playing D&D:

A parody of the Dogs playing poker paintings but instead replacing their game  with dungeons and dragons

Has a very light hearted tone as all the characters learn to let their creativity flow and share their creations with one another

Could almost be set up like an advertisement for the game

A big focus on how important it is to be able to express yourself and be accepted

Moodboard: (might modify to include gravity falls)

Plot steps:

In the corner of a bar a group of dogs are playing poker in relative silence.

A new dog suddenly approaches the table showing off what appears to be a board game called Dungeons and Bones (a dungeons and dragons parody).

Some of the dogs seem interested while others are a bit of edge about it.

New dogs hands out character sheets which the other dogs look at in confusion so she shows off hers as an example. It finally clicks and the other dogs begin scribbling stuff down.

Soon everyone is ready to show off their creations.

We see the dogs show off their characters which are very dramatic. The characters are all extremely different with one player having one that is a different gender.

The last dog (big dog) seems a bit hesitant to show his off but eventually gains enough confidence and shows his off too.

Everyone is clearly happy complementing each others creations and are ready to start the game.

Ends with a shot of the characters leaping into an adventure.

Concept images:

Further expansion: Avatars: When looking at this project naturally the subject of avatars got involved so I tried to do some research on why we use avatars. I tried to find videos on the subject but none of the points really matched what people who actually use avatars would say. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJhqNgtIqHE Definitions: “An image that represents you in online games, chat rooms, etc. and that you can move around the screen��� “A character or creature that you create to represent yourself in a computer game, on the internet, etc”

Looking at videos that explain the possibilities of the game dungeons and dragons and how the avatars you make to play allow for a sense of freedom and an escape from reality. I would like this idea to be talking about the positives that a game that relies on creativity and communication can create. It is a game for everyone and it allows people to express themselves in ways they would not be able to, which would mean that character would be the main point of this idea. Dungeons and Dragons and what it is capable of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gUcx45ryT0