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bloodgulchblog · 3 months

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Alright fuck it, s2e1 liveblog.

I'm watching this with people later so the goal is just to get through it enough to sate my impatience, so I'm back to ye olde standby of watching it at high speed with subtitles on. (...Only I guess I'm gonna be slowed down by making comments, huh?)

Spoilers and uncharitable opinions and unfunny jokes will follow.

Not going to talk about stuff in the episode opener until it comes back bc there's not enough to say anything about.

5 minutes in and we're already doing whatever this is huh?

6:30 - Alright okay, fuck, Vannak took his spine pellet out and gets to have one (1) personality trait and it's animal facts and I kind of don't hate that. TV Chief is very unlikable but characters like Kai and Vannak playing the angle of having very youthful quirks bc having emotions is new is cute.

~10:00 - I have nothing to say yet about spooky shapes in the fog but I think this shot of Chief back to back with a marine is fun. Also I wonder if Corporal Perez (this character) will still matter 5 minutes from now.

Also looks like the foggy sword fight from the trailer is here, too difficult to get any kind of cap that doesn't suck out loud. I'm thinking about how I heard someone making a big deal about how Season 2 feels "less like a video game" (whatever that means), meanwhile "fog full of stealth sword guys trying to kill you" feels very very video game level.

~13:00 - Man, and I really thought that sword fighting stuff in the trailer was a solid indicator they were dragging Thel 'Vadamee into this mess. Hey guys look, Arbiter's in this season. 4,000 of him!

Additionally, if a bunch of people decide this is a ship the fandom owes me twenty dollars.

~15:00 - Congrats to Perez for surviving five minutes. Also, we're still doing whatever this is:

16 minutes in we finally get the show's opener. (It has the Halo in it now, I don't think it was there before but let's be perfectly honest it's not like I cared a lot.)

~17:30 or something, reminded once again that a lot of people are attracted to this actor

Also guess what, Keyes is an Admiral now I guess????

Do we think he still gets to get eaten by the Flood eventually? Do we think the Flood will even be in here? Place ur bets at the counter.

Anyway, they're basically diving into a big timeskip here where a bunch of planets have been glassed since last season (including Madrigal). This whole AU is weird to the bone in terms of how its timeline is shaking out.

Anyway anyway, aww here we go

"I'm not here to replace Dr Halsey, I'm here because I believe in you!"

Ohhhhh he knows all the Spartans' names already, ohhhhh they want the audience to like this mf so bad, they want it to be such a tweest that he sucks shit-

Moving right along, at 22:30 we have the Rubble having a crowd decide whether various refugees should be spaced or taken into indentured servitude, because of course we do.

tl;dw the nebbish redhead knows where Catherine Halsey is and there's a big bounty out for her and he's trying to use it as a bargaining chip to not die and everyone thinks that's very funny, also Soren is here. I guarantee he decides to go after her, but first we have to have a scene cut back to whatever TV Chief is doing.

Man I'm really noticing they haven't shown the weird ridged rubber tech suit yet this episode, I wonder if they decided to replace it.

Anyway here's Perez, I still think they want people to start shipping:

Then Jimmy Rings has a meeting with tv show's new guy they want you to like so bad.

Also he says "The O-N-I" like a complete tool. (This is how you know he sucks.)

And while I'm talking trash about him: Ackerson stop flirting, didn't they tell you nobody's allowed to be gay in Halo? Get your shit together.

Thus ends the dream of the funniest possible universe where we just had Cortana: The Show forever. Someone get the penny whistle. My heart will not go on. 😢

Fuck, I was doing timestamps, right? I'm like half an hour in.

THEY STILL WANT YOU TO THINK ACKERSON CARES, BY THE WAY, IN CASE YOU DID NOT NOTICE

They're laying this on so thick so fast there's no way he's not a shitweasel in this AU, but also that would be the funniest possible thing to me.

(If anyone ships this, the fandom owes me forty dollars and therapy.)

ANYWAY... Action figure time. (Remember to boycott Jazwares!)

Soren's kid is playing with a MASTER CHIEF ACTION FIGURE and being weird, meanwhile Soren's wife is calling him out on shit and reminding him that refugees being turned away is, you know, bad.

Congrats to Soren's wife for continuing to be the most unexpectedly sympathetic supporting character I guess, but they made Soren so unlikable off the 1st season it's hard for me to feel investment of any kind here.

35 minutes in: the Spartans are watching a space TV broadcast. They have Ca-ADMIRAL. Admiral. Admiral Keyes presenting the Colonial Cross to Corporal Perez for blah blah blah you saw the start of the episode. The shape of the ceremony and the hovering tv drone thing are obvious H2 references.

(Does this mean Perez is our Sergeant Johnson now? Vote with your phones.)

Get your face out of here, Ackerson, I know what you are.

Oh god there's another team of Spartans (Cobalt) and having adult Spartan-IIs call each other names like children is fucking weird.

Aaaaand tumblr is capping the number of images I can post here and I'm still only about half way done. Fuck. I am not doing this this way for Episode 2 I can promise you that.

(Also hey look the tech suit is back, I guess Silver Team doesn't use it so much anymore to show you they're more human now or whatever?)

#paramount halo negative #halo tv spoilers #god....

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the-ghost-king · 4 months

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I know ur not gonna watch the show but I would b so into hearing ur takes on it, it's just not hitting for me rn

from what bits and pieces i've seen posted on here i would say that the cinematography seems really nice, most recent disney shows seem to have a very casual "content" style of filming. i don't know how else to explain it other than the current productions even in their filming are designed just to push more media out rather than a love for film and photography as an art form, and i think the pjo tv show from the screencaps and commercials/trailers i have seen seems to balance this nicely. disney is inevitably going to want to push out content as that is how they profit, but the camera angles and the camera details (Percy doing fortnite dances, very funny, but also very well shot! Medusa's veil, very clever and I like the "coy" way the camera plays with the viewer seeing her eyes in those gifs) have an intention and care into them that other recent disney tv shows geared towards the same age group just don't seem to have. i will say that's nice!

the only negative thing i have to say from what i've seen in the gifs and screencaps is that camp looks very... cheap... there are some cool details i seen someone make a post pointing out Percy's seaweed lamp (very cool! i like the fish skeletons I seen hanging too!) but the campers running around in the background do not have the same level of attention given. of course they are background characters and they're definitely not given full styling teams or proper wardrobe, but it is so bad imo to the point where it has become distracting to me in the background a few times on those clips, i can't imagine trying to watch the show and seeing all these background characters running around looking disconnected from the main cast by the lack of attention to their wardrobe. it's not that it's inherently wrong or anything, there are budgets shows have to stick to and cutting background characters is usually one of the first places shows cut, so maybe i should just be thankful all the kids aren't poorly done cgi but at the same time seeing Percy or Annabeth's chb shirts be very well tailored to them as individuals and then seeing the exact opposite in the background characters is just ??? to me. i don't know if it's a problem anyone else has but i tend to just pin point weird details like that.

i know they have changed some of the details of the plot and such, i can't comment much on that as i haven't actually watched any of those episodes. i hope it doesn't have any significant ripple effects down the line in terms of them having to skip entire bits of development in characters or plot because they felt something wasn't important 3 seasons ago and then they have to go "oh shit wait we needed that obscure bit" but who can say we are no where near that point.

my favorite bit of anything and everything to come out of the show though is the god awful horribly incorrect predictions people are having, people crushing on Luke, and people hoping for Percy as if he isn't the main character. if i was a more chaos driven person i would be frothing at the mouth for people's behavior in later seasons where there's a wider cast and stakes are higher and outcomes are more unknown. do i want the 2014 pjo/hoo drama rehashed? no absolutely not that sucked we should never do that again. do i want to sit back with a snack and watch other people rehash the same points and start the same fights 10 years later simply because it would be a mess? someone find me an original persassy post and sign me up. (it's like when you've worked in retail and then you're out in public and another customer is being awful and you're having flashbacks but also your nosey so you keep watching and you only intervene if it gets excessive... someone here has to understand that comparison....)

honestly i can't say too much about the actual show itself i haven't seen it, i've just seen bits and pieces of what (mostly mutuals) have posted or shared. i stand behind the fact i'm not really interested in fandoms with tv shows in the same way i am towards book fandoms and that i won't be watching the show; but i am open to staying neutral on things if people want to reach out just for someone to share thoughts with as if i am not even watching it i won't have strong opinions on most things, if any.

i know there have been more episodes dropped since you sent this so hopefully some of your tv show wants are happening, nonnie <3

#anon #asks #adaptation

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dirtreally · 4 months

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playing through every fuckinggg vvideo game with gay bitches in it to try and salvage the last 2 weeks of my break. effortpost incoming

potionomics:

kind of insane how high effort the presentation is. the past ten years have been leading up to a kind of cultural dominance of Matte 3D (spiderverse, borderlands, arcane, and every work trying to cop the vibe of any of these three things) so even though this is literally the thing that Matte 3D was supposed to be a break from it still feels refreshing to see an incredibly high effort well-arted-out Shiny 3D thing that splits the difference between "looks like anime" and "looks like a western thingy tryna be anime" really well. of course with shit like The Super Dope And Viral Digital Circus becoming skibidi level popular i can only assume that we're gonna get ten years of Shiny 3D coming up and the ouroboros devours its own tail but right now it still feels fresh in the moment

that being said mannnnnnnnnnn fuck all the stupid ass characters in this game. the writing in this game has the unenviable task of like. trying to sound Whoalsome (cuz it has to market itself that way) while being not as annoying as like when cartoons and games and shit do le quirky dialogue (cuz if you do that now people yell at you on twitter) and for the most part it succeeds but it kind of doesnt matter when every single fuckinggggggg social link conversation is about like your adventurer friend telling you how they feel imposter syndrome about being in a fantasy rpg guild before asking you Okay But Really Though How Can I Contribute To Woke Capitalism While Prompting Reform As A Budding Small Business Owner In Dragontown❓ Awful. you can be gay and have one of several epic girlfriends in this but even after all that they only talk about how they are choosing to work with small clients with their marketing firm (not a joke) fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuc kkkkkk. they dont even show up when you win the fucking potionomics tournament so who cares.

half the steam reviews are bitching about the day limit thing which is fucking insane to me. the game is extremely generous with your time and the day limit at least sets your ass on fire a little bit which is the only uncomplicated positive emotion thsi game gave me. you might fuck up the first 10-day cycle once or twice but if you can clear that you can do the whole game. i maxed out all the social links and ccleared everything and It Was Fine. also there's a really scary egyptian stereotype character.

summon night swordcraft story:

i played this shit because i saw hazel talk about it being surprisingly gay ina video then i play it and if you do the personality quiz at the start of the game good your summonable creature is just straight up a woman who wants to fuck you. so then i watch the hazel video again and she didnt even get or mention that character. crazy.

anyway the summonable woman thing is kind of fucking epic especially with how played straight it is b ut also really funny to think about. every single other character summons like a cute stage 1 digimon type creature to help them out in battle and the creatures all fuck off when they're not fighting but your thing is a human woman with her tits out who just walks around with you all the time who wants you to fuck her (ESPECIALLY IF YOURE A WOMAN!!!!!!) all the time. i want to imagine that all the other ccharacters are like either incredibly mad or uncomfortable about this but just choose not to say anything about it.

i played this shit on a gba emulator on my phone while chilling on my bed and straight up if i got a steam deck and could play video games on my bed or while lying down it would bef ucking over for me. i would never get up. i think at this point its kind of essential for me that video games require the suck ass task of sitting on an ikea chair to be able to be played. either way its incredibly mechanically and textually light so its kind of perefect to be played while dicking around On Da Phone. the story is extremely standard jrpg but it is a little sweet that for the protagonist, becoming stronger is directly conflated with becoming kinder to other people and learning more about her world. again not the craziest thing in the world but its sweet

apparently da sequel is also gay but i kind of cannot be bothered to wwant to play it because the protag isn't as sauced up as this fucking girl. complete perfect harmony of artstyle and character design and the gba making all the art crunchy

ITS FUCKING PRATTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i usually do the thing of naming every rpg protag with my name whenever i play these things b ut this bitch has so much personality just thru her portrait and vibes alone that i stuck w the default name. idk i am extremely charmed by her shapes

crymachina

this shit looks soooo fucking good what the fuckkkkkk. i posted before about how it looks like the renders they used to have on the boxes of graphics cards but it really is Like That. most of it is still filtered through the lens of extremely NIS-america/JAST japanese enthusiast B-game jank but still. the prerendered cutscenes in this are straight up my favourite part of the game they are straight up gorgeous. god tier anime girl 3d artism

the aesthetic and story are both kind of insane hi-concept sci-fi bullshit to the point where i kind of have to salute it no matter what just for swinging that hard and high. extremely weird pacing and it feels like it got truncated at some point and a bunch of the stuff that was meant to be in the game got put inside some of the stupid ass nier-weapon-story-type things this game has. for the record i hate when any video game does thiis cuz eevery single weapon story is like. okay i spent 10 minutes looking for it but there's a meme with a nier weapon story screen and its like

Weapon story 1:

Girl:I am having heart surgery

Boy: I know... I love you

Weapon story 2:

After surgery when the girl woke up, with only her father next to her

Weapon Story 3:

Girl: Where is he???

Weapon story 4:

Father: who do you think gave you the heart?????

it's completely fucking insane to me that people will make fun of fallout skeletons and skyrim journals and shit like that as if this isn't on the exact same level

anyway its pretty good and like. blatantly about being a gay bitch on e very thematic level its kind of crazy. really fun game to think about. i don't like one of the artistic decisions made regarding one of the late-game twists but whatever. The way you unlock the final ending is one of the most fun ways to do it ive ever seen and i was incredibly pleased when i figured it out. the gameplay in every other aspect is extremely perfunctory but the way you unlock the final ending is kidn of just incredibly pog-worthy in a way that you can't really feel if you just watch a video or read a description of it, especially if you figure it out yourself.

THATTTTTTTTTTT BEING SAIDDDDDDDDDDDDD i think the ending is just Fine. I think i have a built in brain immunity or something to like. specifically sci fi video games cuz i saw this had the same thing as nier automata where a lot of people were going on about Auuuuuuu Fuckkkk I Cried At The Endddd So Crazyyyy but when i hit the final end i was just like Hruh That's It??? and spent like 10 minutes making sure if that was the final final for realsies ending. idunno man.

but also overall i still really liked this game and i still think it is extremely bold for what it does so if youve read this far and have 60-ish dollars to throw around you should absolutely buy it at its stupid ass japanesegameonsteam price cuz i wanna see more crap in the Cry_____ vein (crymachina was made after crystar which like. shares loose Vibe Associations but as far as i can tell is otherwise completely unrelated) and just more games that make as many crazy ass aesthetic decisions as this one. either way im definitely gonna keep an eye on what furyu puts out after this

ok thats it. im gonna try mary skelter 2 now hopefully i dont die

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kydrogendragon · 21 days

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I saw the writing ask, if you're doing it: 13 or 30

Took me forever to find the post again! My Tumblr did not want to show it to me, lol

13. Rate your worldbuilding skills from 1 to 10.

Hmm . . . I thought on this one for a bit. See, on one hand, there are some authors and writers out there that deserve a true 10 (or higher) that come to mind, like Tolkien with the expansive universe and such he had created. And those seem very "Heavy In Worldbuilding" type stories. But worldbuilding still comes into play for stories set in our normal world as we know it too, of course, not just fantasy settings 😅

So after pondering worldbuilding in general for probably far too long, I'm thinking I'll go to a solid 5. I feel like I'm decent at world building and considering different aspects of the world my stories take place in and how that might affect things, but I know I've a lot of room for improvement in that regard. There's been many cases where people would comment or theorize on different things and how it might affect the story that I hadn't ever even thought of! So, probably at my current skill level, pretty average, I think.

30. Describe a fic that almost happened, but then it didn't

Oh gods, so many. Of which, many are in WIP status because I'll feel bad if I day they're abandoned 🤣 But let's see, what's a good one that I don't think I'll get around to writing . . .

I really wanted to try writing a classic fake-dating, only one bed trope filled fic with Dreamling. Very Hallmark Movie-esque with Hob not wanting to deal with his family and grandparents and everyone asking when he's "going to bring someone home again" and "you deserve to have another chance at happiness" and "Elle would want you to try again" and "I don't want to see you all alone, it's not good for you." And Hob's just . . . Done with it all. He's not sure he can handle another holiday filled with those comments, so when his Ma calls, confirming when he's coming down for Christmas and asks if it's just him, he lies and says no. It's not. He's bringing his partner.

And then freaks out once he hangs up and realizes what he's done.

I had the thought of him meeting Dream on the way there. Both of them waiting at the train station to get out into the countryside. The trains running late. Snow's coming down pretty quickly. Dream's miserable and Hob overhears his argument over the phone with someone (Desire? Death? Night?) before growling out that "he would have a better holiday keeled over in a ditch on the side of the road than if he spent a single minute within any of your company." And aggressively (as aggressive as one can with a smartphone) hangs up. He starts gathering his items, looking ready to head back to London when Hob speaks before his brain can tell him it's a terrible plan.

He asks Dream—without even knowing the man's name—to come spend the holidays with him. Says there's gonna be good food, a cozy fireplace, a cute cat, and that no one should have to spend the season alone, even if their family sucks.

Dream, fresh off his most recent failure of a relationship with Thessaly, feeling more depressed than his usual baseline, and a tad more comfortable than he should with the idea that this man could very well be a serial killer, agrees. He shouldn't. Death's voice rings in his head, telling him this is how true crime podcasts start, this is how horror movies start. But he finds he can't even bring himself to care.

They talk a bit over the train ride, small things. Hob does most of the talking. Then Hob brings up the fact that he may have told his Ma he was bringing a date.

Dream bristles at that, they get into a quietly heated argument on the train but the fight soon leaves him. Perhaps this is the only way someone could "love" him: faked for their sake. Untrue. A lie. But it's better than nothing.

So to that, he also agrees. Hob's shocked through this whole thing and feeling guilty about basically conning this man into being his "boyfriend". But then, in classic rom-com fashion, they start to truly fall in love, though convinced the other isn't. There's probably a good portion of arguments and rubbing each other the wrong way, of course. And intentional embarrassment of each other too.

But it's when Christmas morning comes around and the whole family is having fun and laughing and watching each other open gifts that one of Hob's little cousins hands him a small, flat package with his name in fancy script. He blinks, confused as he sees the "From" field filled in with Dream's name.

"I thought we said we weren't giving each other anything?" Hob asks, brow quirked upward, wondering when the hell this man even had time to get him a gift. (Then a spark of fear, wondering what the hell is in this package. Especially after their fight the night before.)

Dream says nothing, of course, just silently watches with an intensity Hob's begun to grow fond of, hands curled around a warm mug of hot cocoa, still clad in the set of matching PJ'S Hob's mother had bought them both.

Hob peels back the shiny red wrapping paper to find a single sheet of thicker paper. On it, a wonderfully sketched and rendered image of Hob's very own face rests. He's smiling, wrapped up with the beanie and scarf combination he'd worn on their outing to the tree farm earlier. It takes his breath away.

"Turn it over," Dream commands quietly, the sound of joyous laughter and activity nearly drowns his deep voice out.

On the back is that same, neat script. There's a letter addressed to him. His eyes barely get through the first sentence before he tears up.

"I have grown far fonder of you this past week than would be advisable, but as I have found throughout my life, the heart rarely cares for such matters of the mind. You aggravate me, Hob Gadling. You, with your overly cheerful morning greetings and terrible singing. You, with your propensity for listening to the same three Christmas songs on repeat and a ludacris appetite for sweets. You, who would visit the Queen of England in nothing more than coderoy trousers and a secondhand sweater vest. There are countless reasons I should only feel disdain for you. Had we met in any other fashion, I doubt we would have ever wished to speak with one another again.

And yet . . . And yet, I find myself smiling when I hear your voice above the falling water in the bathroom. And yet I find myself humming along to the words to Deck the Halls, a song I had never known the lyrics to before this year. And yet I find myself enjoying the warmth and comfort one finds wrapped in your arms, pressed against those very sweater vests.

You confuse me, Hob Gadling. You are the antithesis of everything I have ever sought in others, but perhaps that is why I now find myself falling for you. You who understand me at a level I find terrifying. You who is unafraid to push me when I need pushing, to guard me when the world is more than I can handle.

I believe I am falling in love with you, Hob. And that terrifies me. But, perhaps, you have started to feel the same?"

Hob, of course, all but falls into Dream's lap and kisses the man, earning a whooping holler from his brother. Be he doesn't care. Because he has Dream, something he thought impossible.

Writing Ask Game

#ky asks #writing game #dreamling #fics that might not ever happen but maybe!#maybe that'll be this year's holiday fic :p

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starlightandetherealshadows · 8 months

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fun fact not anon with another hastily researched fun fact: sleep schedules suck.

this particular fun fact is spurred by the situation I’m in. I’m going from a not doing things to a doing things sleep schedule and the transition isn’t treating me kindly.

Insofar as I can tell and remember, your sleep schedule relies on your internal clock of the 24hr system, AKA

THE CIRCADIAN RYTHM

Which is Latin for something. Not to be confused with the biological clock, apparently. The biological clock is a larger thing that tracks keeps the time a hell of a lot more than the day/night cycle. Plants even use it for seasons.

These biological clocks on the cellular level also affect a hell of a lot more than eepyness. Truthfully, I’m probably the least qualified person to talk about this, and other people have summarized it better. It’s actually decently interesting stuff, though. Medical News Today has a decent article on it. It’s sourced are good, I figure. Anyways, my melatonin is kicking in now, so I’ll close it off with the traditional ask:

Though I doubt anyone’s sleep schedule is good in the apocalypse, who in the group has the worst one? How about a scale from best to worst? And if you want to get really specific, do the alien friends have any differences in sleeping?

Hello my friend!!!

I learned all about the Circadian rhythm while in my bio classes hahaha my own is pretty solid I’m not gonna lie! I’m a morning person rather than a night owl, so I like to be knocked out by 11 at the very latest (ideal is a solid 10:00)

OKAY BEST TO WORST SLEEP SCHEDULE

Best

Cecelia/Chase: like clockwork, C will fall asleep by midnight and be up at 8:00 everyday. Unless they’re preoccupied, of course, then they can stay up later or wake up later. They don’t dream all that often, but they are a very light sleeper. They desperately miss coffee, too.

Delphine: Delphine doesn’t need to sleep 8 hours, but she likes to! Her body only really needs 5 hours to function, but when all the people she’s with need more than that, she’s trained her body to get used to around 7 a night. Succubus aliens don’t dream at all.

Ayana: she’s used to long hours and late nights because of med school and residency. she’s a night owl, and functions best with about 6 hours of sleep.

Veronica/Vincent: V’s sleep patterns are erratic, but they seem to be well rested whether they get 4 hours of sleep or 10.

Xa’eks/Xa’veed; the aliens on Nion 8 need about the same amount of sleep, but their days are longer on Nion 8, so with the time difference, X would actually sleep about 12 hours a day for maximum rest rather than the 8 hours humans would get.

Zero: the night terrors, nightmares, and tendency to sleepwalk keeps him from getting a good nights rest. Sometimes he avoids sleeping at all. Longest he’s made it without sleep is 64 hours. (Almost 3 days)

Worst

Zero when it’s day 3 of being awake and he starts seeing The Hat Man ^

#ask: answered #memento mori

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virtue-and-beneviolence · 1 year

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Now that Tokyo Revengers is coming to a close what will you do? who are some of your favorite peeps you've had great times with here?

I don't plan on hard shifting away from tokrev the second it's over so I'm still gonna be a tokrev blog for a while. I don't know if I'll write for anything else. I have an absurd word count in drafts though so I mean, if I get my shit together to post anything and the people are totally gone, oh well ig lol. I picked a great time to possibly have like a several part fic idea for tokrev (idk not quite multichap bc I suck but y'know).

As for idk the future,,,I read all of csm up to like the start of this arc then fell off a bit. I just have zero urge to write for any of them really (yet?). I love spy x family but have similar feelings ig. I haven't had very much time at all to consume anime/manga this year so, I don't have a lot of concurrent show interests.

But if you haven't been here too long and haven't seen me go a little crazy from time to time,,,this has probably been one of the worst years of my life on the whole in a lot of ways. But I've met some really fun folks here to bullshit with and forget about some of that. I'm very grateful no matter our level of interaction over the course of my time here. @/sanzupassthebutter T.T @crybabylisa @violettierre @catfuyus @vivianette @a-pair-of-socks @mimic-of-hysy @offtaskotaku @the-travelling-witch @delirious-donna

Some I'm gen shocked I ever got to interact with: @tokyo-daaaamn-ji-gang @akicore @/leepoon-06 T.T @benkeibear @sleepy3 @21-06-1996 @demeto-anima @koffeekoko

And some that I don't think will ever be fully rid of me because I don't think I could really ever allow that: @feitania @drakenlvr @stroberrylite @rottingreveries

There's a lot of people i've gotten some level of friendly with over the last, idk 10 months? and im sorry if i didn't put you in here T.T i do appreciate you and our chats and every interaction.

But yeah.

Anyway on this corner of the internet I'll simply be loving shuji and spouting bullshit ad infinitum

#talk to chu #chu gets a lil sappy #i procrastinated on this bc i wanted to include everyone but #i had a scary intense social phase and then saw how many old pals deacted #n got sad #so here we are #im sorry if you're here and we rarely talk its just more like a #nudge hi and thanks moment

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pendraegon · 1 year

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life tips for being well-rounded and/or able to do A Lot of things?

do i give off the impression of being well rounded 😳 bc if so, that’s an incredible compliment!! but here are some of my hacks? philosophies? on the matter:

[1] do a little daily (or as often as you can)! any thing that you want to do or better yourself with, to actually achieve or make strides in the direction you want, you gotta actually do it. it doesn’t matter if it’s 5 minutes or 10 minutes or even just 2 minutes a day — the amount doesn’t matter so much as the intent, and over time as it becomes something more integral to who you are and how your day progresses, the time SHOULD hopefully add up! but of course if you’re super busy or have other commitments, it’s okay to not stress yourself and be like “i HAVE to do X, Y, Z daily”. remember, you aren’t going to build up any skills in one day, it’s a cumulative effect, and you’re not gonna lose it either just bc you take a few days or a week or so off (^:

[2] get back on the saddle when you fall out but don’t beat yourself up about it! i think the two hardest things in starting anything is (1) the first few days as you become accustomed to it and (2) when you inevitably have a break/no longer keep up your daily streak. brush yourself up, don’t be too mad about not being perfect, and try your hand at it again!

[3] kinda leads to three in that you will suck at it at first. especially if it’s something you’ve never done before. may it be learning a language, instrument, language, knitting, how to bake or cook, etc. embrace being an amateur! for me, it’s really lovely to remember the word’s etymology being “one who loves”. you don’t have to be the best, you just have to be enjoying what it is that you’re doing from your heart. even if it does get a little gritty now and again. improvement cannot come without beginning first, and the beginning might be rusty and that’s just where everyone starts.

[4] honestly one of my biggest mindsets is like. i’ll do anything twice, once just to try it out, twice to see if i like it. also keep an open mind, you’ll be surprised where the road takes you! there’s so many hobbies and interests i’ve picked up where i first went into something else with an idea of X and it turns out hey X isn’t really meant for me, but this thing Y that i never would have known existed until i came into contact with X is more my speed. now you’re also learning more about yourself and that’s wonderful! (^:

[5] and most importantly, it’s not about the ends, it’s about the means. it’s not about your destination or starting point, but the journey and i think it’s easier to say to enjoy all the ups and downs, but really that’s what makes it all fun in the end. it’s more satisfying if you have to get your hands a little dirty you know?

OH WAIT ONE LAST THING. this is never going to be a done deal thing where you reach a level and you’re a pro or you reach a point and you’re now Officially A Well Rounded Person. there will always be things to learn, to think about, to fiddle with, and to better yourself in ways that weren’t before. and i honestly think that’s the most fun bit.

#this is so long and i dont know if it's entirely helpful at all but alskdfjalsdfajsdfsadfsa #im always like. i know im not a boring person and that i am relatively well rounded but it always throws me for a loop #when people recognize that in me alsdkjfalksfjasdfasfas #OH maybe one of the most important things to becoming well rounded is: learn how to be social.#not like. going to parties etc if that's not your thing but. learn how to talk to people and how to make connections.#literally so far what i have encountered and seen in life: nothing is meritocratic. connections are everything.#which like. isn't how it should be but. really REALLY important thing to work on for everyone #anon #edit: just some grammar lol

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qvid-pro-qvo · 1 year

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okay but what about sereshace + somebody having to study for some kind of exam + whatever song applies from your shuffle 💜 (pls & thank you)

6. top of my school - katherine lynn-rose. this got long, sorry, but hey, full fic?

And some people know that they're destined to fly I'll go all out Ace every test No doubt Outdo all the rest Don't pout Or settle for second best

Bradley hasn't heard from Jake in a while. And while normally it wouldn't be an issue, there's a nagging feeling in the back of his head that tells him it might be good to check on him.

Of course, he won't admit to anyone that's what he's doing at 10:00 PM on a Friday. As far as most people are concerned, him and Jake are bitter rivals, and Bradley doesn't contradict them. They have been rivals, seated on opposite ends of every class they've shared since the freshman year. While he and Natasha Trace found an alliance in each other (mostly due to their intense love of Red Bull and flight mechanics), he and Jake seemed to only claw at each other's throats, much to Nat's chagrin.

"Boys, you're both pretty," she'd often lament when the inevitable group projects paired them together (never by choice, of course), "and I've got a caffeine headache. Please, please, shut up and pick a variable."

But something changed this year. Maybe it was the level of coursework and the shared realization that any focus on a competition only took away from the fact that their lives were now destined to suck. Maybe it was the group projects, too many nights crashing on each other's couches after arguing about propulsion systems to truly hate each other. Maybe it was Natasha, who despite their constant bickering seemed to like the both of them (and yet would never admit it, even to their faces).

Anyway, Bradley feels the need to check on Jake Seresin. He hasn't gotten a text from him all day (not even one bragging about solving the practice set), and so by 10:00 his worry has built to uncomfortable levels. He texts Natasha, too, to see if she's heard from him, but her response is a quick you're worried, too? and a promise to meet him in the engineering library.

They get there at around 10:30. Backpacks shouldered, food in hand. With a shared look the two of them scale the stairs, moving in sync to the spot that started off at Bradley's and then Nat and Bradley's and then Jake, Nat, and Bradley's.

And of course, as expected, there he is. Jake Seresin. In his spot. In their spot.

Looking... rough.

The grip on his pencil is white knuckled as he mouths out formulas. His punching at the calculator is aggressive, and Bradley winces as he curses and shoves it aside. A few moments later, the two of them watch as he writes down something, erases it furiously, and then shoves the paper aside with... force.

Bradley has an inkling that after class Jake came straight here. Crumpled paper is piled up in the trashcan by their table, and the whiteboards look less than white with the amount of rubbed out dry erase. He recognizes the problem, the one assigned earlier that day. The one they said they'd work on together tomorrow.

"Seresin?" he calls out. No response.

"Jake?" Natasha says, a little louder. Still no answer.

Jake doesn't even look up from the table. His brow is furrowed so intensely that Bradley shares another look with Nat as they listen to the squeak of the Expo marker. Her eyes narrow at him, before walking up and placing the bag of food on the table right over Jake's paper.

"Evening, hotshot," she says, as he's jolted from his concentration. "Food break?"

The sudden movement makes Jake jump, and he looks up with anger at them. "What the fuck, Trace?" he snaps, moving the food off of his paper. "You're gonna get burger grease on my goddamn problem set."

"Our problem set, don't be selfish," Bradley retorts, smirking.

"I got a head start, Bradshaw, all right?" Jake grumbles, and crosses his arms over his chest. "Wanted to look it over. My... head didn't quite wrap around..."

And then he clams up. Mouth slams shut, and he hunkers down. Avoids their gaze. Bradley sees the bags under his eyes, anyway.

"I thought we said we'd get it done tomorrow," Natasha asks him, moving to sit at the table and poking at him. "What happened to teamwork makes the dream work?"

"Yeah, and ignoring the fact that Natasha dreams about us," Bradley jokes, which earns him a sharp kick in the shin, "it seems straightforward, right? If we all put our heads together..."

Immediately Jake seems to deflate, and Bradley realizes just how much his foot has gone in his mouth when Natasha glares at him. "I mean, it's certainly advanced -"

"Whatever," Jake says, shoving back from the table, away from them. His hand tosses his pencil onto it. "Can you guys just leave me alone?"

"We can help," Natasha counters, pushing closer to him. Bradley steps closer to, even as Jake scowls at him. "We can. What part doesn't make sense?"

"Trace -"

"Seresin. Just spill. What don't you understand?"

And then... something cracks. Jake's eyes blink at her, and then Bradley, and he squirms in his seat for a second before biting his lower lip.

"All of it. I don't. I don't get any of it. I... I don't get astrodynamics. It's... it's hard."

It's said with such defeat - like it's the worst thing he could've admitted to them. A shame seems to spread to every part of his body, as he slumps and avoids their gaze, fingers gripping his own sweatshirt with the intensity he held on the pencil.

There's a guilt that lingers in Bradley's gut, as he looks from Jake to Nat to Jake again. How did they not realize how much Jake was struggling? Sure, he always seemed to stay later in class, never seemed satisfied at the end of study sessions, but that was just Jake. Always chasing the goal, always pushing for the top spot. Jake worked and grinded and made it look easy.

And maybe that was the problem - looks can be deceiving.

Finally, Bradley sits down on the other side of Jake. Sighs before nudging the food to him.

"Of course it's hard," he finally tells Jake, whose brow furrows again. "It's a 4000-level course. It's meant to be. It's fucking tough, and Dr. Simpson is an ass. But if you're having trouble, Nat and I can help. You don't have to struggle through it alone. God knows I need all the help I can get... sometimes."

Jake raises a brow at him. "You both hit the top of the curve every time. When have you ever not gotten it by slamming your head into it, Bradshaw?"

Bradley shrugs. "I mean. We both have had struggles. Nat really hated Thermodynamics. Sophomore year was rough."

"And you should've seen how much he pulled out his hair during Solid Mechanics," Natasha says, smirking toward Bradley. "Never shaved because of stress and now we're both stuck with that ridiculous -"

"Hey!" Bradley yelps. Kicks at her, and ends up hitting Jake, who jumps up as Nat chuckles and leans back, satisfied.

But it works. Finally Jake smiles. The tension in his shoulders drops. The furrow between his brows loosens, and Bradley can't help but notice the way that smile lines seem to suit him so much better. "Stuck, huh?" he asks, raising a brow at them. "With both of you?"

"Yup," Nat says, popping the 'p'. "Like glue."

"Both of you are certainly tacky," Jake shoots back, which earns him a pinch from Nat and a snort from Bradley.

"Bad jokes mean you don't get the spicy fries," Natasha tells him, smiling at Bradley as he reaches for Jake's paper, looking over his work. She starts to dig in the bag, passing out the food to all three of them. "Ready to eat?"

"Don't tell me you're staying," Jake says, mouth falling open.

"No more peace and quiet. We're beating astrodynamics into submission," Bradley says firmly. He offers over a fry from his own bag. "Unless you... really want us to go."

And when Jake smiles, it's a full grin. Leans forward and eats the fry straight from Bradley's fingers. "Nope," he says. Popping the 'p'. "You're both stuck with me, too."

"Good," Bradley says. "Now shut up and eat your burger."

#prompt fill #sereshace #jake seresin #natasha trace #bradley bradshaw #bradley bradshaw x jake seresin x natasha trace #my fic #my writing #tgm #top gun: maverick #qvo ships tgm #liv :)#college au #this got long #lol shocking for me #food mention #cw food

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kieuecaprie · 9 months

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KieueCaprie's List of Games Finished in 2023: Entry 10

tfw Tumblr still doesn't have spoiler tags because there's a bunch of games in this entry that I want to talk about in full.

#26: Etrian Odyssey 1 HD

Finished When? 11/7/23

What's Finished? Main Story

Platform? PC

I didn't get into the Etrian Odyssey franchise until the 3DS era with Etrian Odyssey 4, which was pretty good by the way. I enjoyed creating my own party of adventurers and going out into the world to slay monsters and solve the mysteries of Yggdrasil (or whatever World Tree they explore through).

Then I moved onto Etrian Odyssey Untold, which was a remake of EO1 with a more story-focused cast of characters but with an option to play the game in Classic Mode. I also liked the it.

And then I fell off. Not because I hated the series but because other things took my attention and it fell by the wayside.

Then cue Atlus saying they're porting Etrain Odyssey 1, 2, and 3 to PC and now it caught my interest again, especially due to the fact that there's a potential for modding in there! So I picked up the bundle and started playing with EO1HD.

I will say that it was fine, I was treading old ground so nothing was really new to me and while I still like it, I feel like it has parts where it overstays its welcome, especially towards the end, and, of course, the music was just the classic music, not Untold, which kinda sucks but whatever.

It's fine for what it is and I can now say I've completed a version of classic EO1.

Now, I just wish Picnic mode wasn't super heavy-handed in its changes to enemies because taking 20% damage from them seems too much. Atlus REALLY loves making their beginner modes SUPER easy for some reason and I don't know why they do this.

#27: My Friendly Neighborhood

Finished When? 19/7/23

What's Finished? Story

Platform? PC, Steam

This game was on my radar for quite a while ever since that one Steam Next Fest (I think?) had a demo for it, on top of seeing tweets (sorry, X-cretes) of it on my feed of the developer working on bits and pieces of it.

When it finally came out, I went to go pick it up and while the price was a little higher than I initially expected, I'm glad to have paid the price of admission for it! The characters are memorable (I mean, they are when you have to listen to them prattle on about the mail for the entire playthrough), the gameplay feels like I'm playing a Resident Evil (not the super action-packed ones) except with puppets and the fact that there are cheats in a game in 2023 is something that I never thought I'd see.

On top of that, I enjoyed how it essentially deconstructs the whole mascot horror formula and makes its own where the mascots in question aren't out to kill you, at least, it seems that way, and aren't trying to eat your pancreas or whatever.

This game is great and would definitely sit on my list of favorite games this year.

#28: Pikmin 4

Finished When? 22/7/23 (First completion), 24/7/23 (True 100%)

What's Finished? Game complete, True 100%

Pikmin is one of my favorite Nintendo franchises that I wished did not get shot in the head by a game that just feels tedious. Fortunately, Nintendo finally dug up the grave and brought it back to life (Now do it for Chibi-Robo, PLEASE.) for Pikmin 4, something that took 10 years to add a dog.

I played the demo and loved it, even went out of my way to not meet the 1500 sparklium limit just so I could experience all the caves, the controls feel great, Oatchi is baby and I love himb, and the levels you have to go through are quite beautiful to see on the Switch, all of this running on Unreal Engine too.

I have quite a bit more to say about this game so I'm gonna have to say that there's a Read More below that will spoil Pikmin 4 for you if you click on it. (EDIT: lmao nevermind, clicking expand on the post in the feed also expands the read more so now I have to make a separate post)

#29: Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Finished When? 1/8/23

What's Finished? Normal Mode Story

Platform? PC, Steam

When I first heard this game was only coming to PS5, I unanimously decided to just.. not. Just not. This was because I could not get my hands on a PS5 and that it was terribly expensive and getting a console for one singular game these days feels like a waste, so I decided to just not talk about this game so as to avoid the algorithm.

This was so I wouldn't get spoiled on anything beyond what was shown in trailers and also so I wouldn't get an ALL BOSSES & ENDING (NO DAMAGE) video on my Youtube feed by some jerk who decided to plaster the face of the final boss in the middle circle and call it a day. Surprisingly, this actually worked and I never heard about this game again.

Then Sony decided to port it to PC and I jumped on it because now I can actually play it. Of course, I decided to wait until I was done with Pikmin 4 first before I moved on and I'm glad I did.

I'm really glad that I was lucky enough to have a PC that could just power through some of the issues the game had, although it still had a few issues such as geometry not loading in and the occasional time where I would clip through the ground and die for no good reason, but I was able to play through the game from start to finish.

Was it worth not spoiling myself for however many years? Probably. It was a short game but I got my money's worth. Rivet is cute, Ratchet is great as ever, and the fact that the game completely ignores the remaster of the first game is also great, mostly because that game kind of ruins Ratchet's character development that he went through.

Also, on my birthday, I was given a Dualsense controller (Lemme say that I didn't know what I wanted for my birthday, it's hard to do so these days...) and I must say the adaptive triggers did change up the gameplay quite a bit, priming a shot with a half-press and clicking it all the way in to fire. I initially thought it'd be overhyped as all hell but no, it felt pretty good to use, add to the fact that it has touchpads much like the Dualshock 4, which means that it'd be the perfect companion to my Steam Deck as well as enabling a much easier time of gyro gaming on PC (one of my issues with gyro gaming was simply not having an easy way to toggle the gyro on and off and I was not about to give up one of the face buttons for gyro-ratcheting).

All in all, game's great, was worth the wait, and I'm surprised at how well it ran and looked on the Steam Deck running at 30 FPS @ 800p. Perhaps I judged 30 FPS too harshly.

#30: Nerf Arena Blast

Finished When? 5/8/23

What's Finished? Single-player campaign

What prompted me to play this? Why did I choose to play this? Simple. Nostalgia, among other things.

This is probably one of the times where nostalgia really screwed me over.

The feel of the game is great, I loved the 90's aesthetic of there being some sort of nerf arena and playing as an up-and-coming team, the first few levels were pretty nice to play through too, but that's where everything kind of stops.

Also, this game is... well.. it's a game filled with slow-moving projectiles and bots that are dumb as bricks one minute and ultra try-hards the next is not my idea of fun. Not to mention that the game began to feel tedious as I kept pushing through the campaign.

Sure, I'm probably asking for a lot from a licensed kids game from the 90's/00's but Unreal Tournament had a lot more to offer than just deathmatch, ballhoopmatch, and speedrun, I wish they had done more than just those modes.

Speaking of the modes, I've found Ballblast to be extremely tedious to play through. It felt like it'd drag on and on and on and on and on and on until someone FINALLY finds the six dragon balls, shoots them through a hoop, and then collects the seventh one and shoots it through a hoop to FINALLY end the game. I have to ask, who the hell decided it would be a good idea to make it UNTIMED? There's a VERY good reason why objective gamemodes with the ability to disrupt those capturing has a timer, it's so that, at the end, the game can end and the winner be found.

But these games could drag on for ages, compounded by the fact that the bots, despite being masterful gods of leading projectiles, are stupid, somehow even dumber than Unreal Tournament's bots, and will take forever to go to the hoop and shoot balls into a hole.

BUT, I will give credit where credit is due, Pointblast, which is deathmatch but points, is a neat idea where you go around slaying people like normal BUT they drop points that you have to pick up BUT it can also be stolen meaning that you could get 1st place killed and steal the 1000 point drop from someone else. I like this idea, I like how it essentially changes the pace from sitting around camping to a more frantic slugfest, which I appreciate because when I played through Unreal Tournament, most of my problems could be solved with either a Flak Cannon to the face or pulling out the sniper rifle and just headshotting everyone from a safe place.

Speedblast is... interesting. I like the idea of running through the map, shooting others to stop them from capturing checkpoints, and finishing before everyone else. Maybe it's just me, really, because while I do like the idea of it, the execution was often less than stellar and the maps that had ways to disrupt without having to kill people were very few and that kind of makes me sad. Is it a stupid gamemode? Yes but I applaud the devs of the time for trying to make something new for a change.

All in all, this game is very flawed and somewhat poorly aged but it has some decent points to it and I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy my time with it at all. I really did have at least a bit of fun with it, even though I did not appreciate the game quitting on me after I finished the final level and it blasting my ears off with the ultra-loud video that plays.

And it also has a niche cult following that helpfully has a community patch that allows it to be played on modern systems, so clearly it has something going for it that I may not have found for myself. And that's okay, you know?

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#kieuecaprie gaming #kieuecaprie gamer list 2023

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kexing · 1 year

Note

Took a break but we’re back in it! Let’s go Triage eps 10-11:

Gosh Tol is so moved finding Tin’s little time loop notes and glimpsing what he’s been through to try and save everything. What would you even do in the face of such levels of caring? (Well Tol is off to a good start, now he’s the one pulling up Tin’s covers while he’s asleep 🥰)

Can’t believe evil gopher really just went “Professor I have a shift at work so I don’t have time to destroy the organ trafficking evidence”

Wow, Tin seems to already be doing a premature victory lap and has transitioned to at-ease-lovey-dovey mode, with the hugs and the compliments and the adorable hand-kissing pinky promises.

Gap holding firm possession of the braincell: Hey Doi sucks and is a lying evil gopher, let’s maybe not trust him?

I really gotta wonder what Sing’s life has been like that he’s so stunningly chill and clearheaded about both taking down the secret organ trafficking ring and escaping getting tied up to be executed by said organ trafficking ring.

Sing and Gap perfectly silently coordinating to utterly beat evil gopher’s ass is a top 10 moment of the entire show easily.

OH GOD

AAAHH and now all his friends have to operate on Tin to try and save him I was JUST SAYING how Sing seems crazy unflappable and now here he is panicking because his best friend is DYING

NO NOT TIME OF DEATH 10:55 PM

Tol: Death is a lie and time travel is real. I’m not leaving this hospital until I find Jinta the angel man to save my boyfriend

All of Tin’s friends: Hey buddy we got a nice padded room you can investigate

And always when we need him most, Jinta the angel man appears!

This is the most emotionally fraught “Previously on...” there’s been yet.

Jinta just be throwing his boys headfirst into the deep end. He’s gonna help, that’s a given cause he’s the best, but like hell he’s not gonna fuck with them first.

Woah, so the super bad fight Mai had with Heart actually played out as a super bad fight she had with Tol before! Hot dang I love time loop shenanigans.

Eeyyyyy, so THIS is the Tol that came to visit severely sleep deprived Tin!

He’s rewinding all the loops and now he’s in his own loop! God this rules.

I love it. Tol manages to fix ALL his own personal stuff in like 5 minutes (even Lukpair and Win chill out!) and then he’s just like “Now how do I fix whatever the hell is going on with that hospital?”

Awww, Tin came to psychically visit Tol like Tol did for him in the waiting room! (maybe the reason Jinta’s so annoyed is that when he’s not advising here he’s stuck with Tin’s ascended spirit making goo goo eyes as they watch Tol flail about in this loop)

It wouldn’t function as a loop trial if there wasn’t a challenge, especially when Tol wasn’t supposed to have one in the first place, so of course it’s a loop with elements completely different than what came before and he only gets the one try as an exception. And no version of Tol has ever had to face a Tin that didn’t care at least a little bit about him and now he has to face a Tin that barely cares about ANYTHING. This is DELICIOUS.

YES Mai! Transfer your mother! Rub it in their stupid little faces as you get her away from here! (Mai deserves more than anyone to punch evil professor and gopher in the face, but this is an acceptable substitute)

Pfft, Sing is such a sappy needy boyfriend. Makes sense that in moving everything a bit to the left this loop shifted him and Gap together, they were like the barest nudge away from it in all the previous ones.

YAY!! i’m glad you’re back!!! 🥳🥳🥳

right!! tin adores tol so much and tol deserves to know and feel that and it’s sure an overwhelming thing but so good!! 🥹🥹🥹

lmaoooo priorities ig

THE HAND KISS TOOK ME OUT 😩😩😩 so soft!! pls

and gap was right!!!

sing: these manmade horrors are unknown to YOU, i know them all

SINGGAP POWER BATTLE COUPLE AKDKSKDKKS we didn’t know we needed that until we got it

*war flashbacks* don’t even start me on tin’s death. i almost lost my mind lmaoo 💀💀💀

poor tol 😭😭😭😭😭😭 he almost lost his mind too 😭😭😭😭😭😭 but thank GOD jinta is here to help the helpless queers 🥳🥳🥳🥳

yeah, they gotta suffer first lmaoo

i love time loop shenanigans as well!! and it’s so well done in this show!!!

literally!! godddd tin and tol love each other so much they find ways to visit each other even in death and different loops and forgetfulness. like come on, jinta. i know they’re messy men but they’re clearly in love!!!

YASSSSSSS!! i love that tin and tol switch roles at the end. that it’s tol’s turn to save tin after everything. feels more balanced!! it’s not just tin doing everything!! WORK BITCH

i agree. mai should even be allowed to kill them

exactly aldkskdkks all singgap needed was a tiny nudge. they’re such lovely boyfriends 🥹🥹🥹

glad you’re still enjoying the show ❤️💙

#wastedwastelandme #mj got mail!

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bahamutgames · 1 year

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AFTERTHOUGHTS - ROUNDUP ROUND 3

April 2023

Nintendo Switch Online Edition!!

HELLO EVERYONE! Yes, you right that right, NSO Edition. This time I'm gonna split the round up into 2 different posts. In April I spent most of the month moving. It was a particularly hard move but we managed to make it through. And some days I wouldn't have a car so I would just be sitting around with my Switch, and even after the move was done I did a lot of just sitting around cause I injured my feet during the move! So, I found myself playing a TON of Nintendo Switch Online games. I've mentioned before that I can't afford the expansion pass, but I was actually able to get 8 people who could all send me $10 each, so we were able to finally afford the $80 family plan!

As such, I've been finally getting to sink my teeth into those other emulators and try out stuff that isn't just on the default version. So get ready for a lot of N64 and Genesis stuff haha

As always, these aren't reviews just thoughts yadda yadda yadda. If you wanna play any of these play them. They're all easy to emulate (I think? Idk how good N64 emulation is atm). Anyway enjoy.

Kuru Kuru Kururin (March 21, 2001) - Gameboy Advance

Of course, we start with GBA first. I'm obsessed with this console and it's actually insane how few games on this console is available on Switch! But one of them is Kuru Kuru Kururin! Which is a game I've actually wanted to play for YEARS cause it's an assist in Brawl. But it never made its way over here (but I found out the day I played it that it WAS released in the UK so... I could have been playing it the whole time. Oops.)

But yeah now that's I've played it, I think this game is pretty cute! It's short and sweet, only having around 30 levels or something around that range. But it can be TOUGH to make it through! The game is all about patience so if you're like me, it's tough to make it through. And if you're like me, you'll use rewinds a LOT to make it through this cause you suck at waiting. Regardless, yeah, this game is fun! Cute music, cute visuals, and you can customize your ship!

Only real complaints is that some of the levels are like straight up mazes, so they can be really hard to navigate. And also in general the game is a little frustrating but I think generally people will find it very easy. Again I'm just not patient. Glad I finally got to try this one out! Would have loved to see this get a sequel on DS or 3DS or something. Oh well. Look at my custom ship! The red parts blink on and off like a warning light :)

Yoshi's Story (December 21, 1997) - N64

And here we go with some games I replayed! Recently I said in my first attempt to do a podcast (shameless plug) that I don't have a lot of memories with the N64. But getting NSO just totally brought everything back. I never forgot how much I loved Starfox 64, Paper Mario, ect ect. But I completely forgot about just how many games on this console I ADORE! One of which being Yoshi's Story!

I was OBSESSED with this game as a kid, I played every level in the game and this also spawned my love for the Black and White Yoshi! And I'm happy to say that, yeah, this game still holds up. I see SO many people say this game sucks. But honestly, I don't agree. Maybe if you payed $60 for it back in the day it'd be disappointing. And while it is easy there's a lot of levels to play and trying to get the high score can be really really tough in certain stages like the piranha plant level or the level with the big fishes.

Regardless, I still think this game is incredibly charming and fun! Great music, great visuals, i ADORE the characterization of the Baby Yoshis. This game really makes them feel like puppies? They growl and act so much like little dogs and I LOVE it. The story book aesthetic rules. I think the gameplay is great. And honestly, this might still be my favorite Yoshi game if you can believe it! My only major complaint when coming back to it is that the switch version makes a lot of the graphics look REALLY odd. This game gets the 2D stuff messed up more than anything else on the service. Very odd.

Starfox 64 (April 27, 1997) - N64

Here we go! Here is one of my all time favorite games EVER! Honestly... I don't even really think I need to write up my thoughts on it as I'm fairly certain the last time I beat this game and talked about it was just last year aha. Without a doubt, Starfox 64 is one of my all time favorites and is easily the game I have played to completion the most. I ADORE this game. So, yknow a quick run of it again wouldn't hurt right? I have NSO now anyway so I might as well...

And now we're here. Yeah, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. This game still absolutely RULES! It's such an amazing game and shmup (do on rail shooters count as shmups? I think they should... 3D Shmups). Even all this time later and after so many playthroughs the game never fails to scratch that itch. Great music, great levels, great characters, great gameplay. And that ending. Augh, gets me every time.

If anyone is curious my favorite route is

Corneria > Meteor Herd > Starwolf > Solar > Macbeth > Area 6 > Venom. Always my favorite set of levels to run through!

Pokemon Snap (March 21, 1999) - N64

Another all time favorite! I mean... This is basically an on rails shooter, if you think about it. Just with VERY different objectives and the bullets are, yknow, photos. So it's only natural I would love this Shmup classic! For real though, if you know me you know I LOVE taking pictures in game, so I love games all about taking pictures!

I used to play Snap a TON back in the day. And after I was absolutely madly in love with the sequel that took way too long to come out, I was interested in revisit the original for a bit now. I will come out of the gate and say it, New Pokemon Snap is better by leaps and bounds. It's got tons more content and things to do. But this only speaks to how good New Pokemon Snap is, because the original still holds up great! It feels fantastic to play, it's super cute, great music, lots of lovely scenarios to take pictures of. And it's made at that cute time period where the Pokemon brand was still figuring itself out. Honestly I think seeing Pokemon just living in nature is one of my favorite ways to see them and now I REALLY wanna play more NPS!

My only real complaints outside of just, not as much to do as the sequel that came out YEARS later is that the stages are SO short! I forgot how insanely short they are! I would love them to be a little longer with more Pokemon, but again that's what the sequel is for I suppose!

I had a bunch of really nice photos I wanted to show off but I deleted my save data before the final boss so I had to play the game a second time and didn't really feel so intense to take many pictures. eh.

F-ZERO X (July 14, 1998) - N64

I feel like I NEVER get to talk about it but I LOVE FZero! It's a series I totally adore and find super fun to play! And with the small amount of games in the series (crying and dying and coping and seething) it's also not very often I get to play a game in the series I've just NEVER played before! But here we are!

I've wanted to try this game for ages but just never could really get my hands on it for one reason or another. But now I didn't really have any reason not to try it! I'd still say it's not as good as GX, but it's still REALLY good! And it's crazy to me that they were so close to the insanity of GX on the N64. Game feels AMAZING to play and has TONS of characters, alt colors for each of them, and lots of tracks! And of course the OST is SUPER GOOD but that's not surprising for FZERO. I'm not a music guy but the guitars in this game sound really good and cool. And it has the fantastic cover of Rainbow Road if you've never heard that.

Off the top of my head the only issue I really have are kinda nitpicky. it's not amazing looking, but I totally understand that it just kinda can't look crazy good on N64, it's a big game with a lot going on and it's not gonna look as good as GX I'm not stupid. But a larger problem I had is that there are SO MANY KILL PLANES! I was trying to jump around the track and kept dying super high up or the collision for the road wouldn't load in cause I guess I skipped checkpoints. Frustrating. LET ME GO NUTS!!

But yeah, good game. I played as Pico and did every track in the Novice Class cause I suck

Dr. Mario 64 (April 8, 2001) - N64

Another game I've been interested in for a while but never got to play before. This one is very odd. it's Dr. Mario so of course it's good but it actually has a story mode with 2 very slightly different stories between Dr. Mario himself and Wario! Yeah this game actually features TONS of Wario Land 3 characters which is so weird and was a big reason I wanted to check it out.

Not much to say on this one. It's Dr. Mario so it's good. But it's just Dr. Mario. Story is cute. Although I didn't have the energy to play through both stories on higher difficulties so I didn't see the true final bosses. It plays fine, looks cool, has a good amount to do. I think the game is a little brutal though. I've never played VS Dr. Mario believe it or not. And I actually think trash blocks in this game are totally detrimental to you if you're not the best at it (like me) so the enemies had a pretty easy time just filling my board with garbage. Ah well. Still neat. Wouldn't mind a new Dr. Mario with a Story Mode and maybe more stuff like Miracle Cures from Miracle Cure on 3DS.

Kirby's Dreamland 2 (March 21, 1995) - Gameboy

Random Gameboy Jumpscare! Yeah last time I played Dreamland 1 so... Why not run through Dreamland 2? Yeah, this one is a LOT better than Dreamland 1. It's got copy abilities, and a whole game set up more similar to Adventure (or Nightmare in Dreamland if you're like me aha) and it has some animal buddies from Dreamland 3! Who, of course, all have different ways of using the copy abilities so there's LOTS to see and experiment with!

Cute sprites, some really honestly very cute and nice looking environments. Good soundtrack. It's honestly pretty dang good feeling and looking for a Gameboy game! I think something that really surprised me with this one is that there's a LOT of unique and cool boss battles in this that I've never really seen before as a casual kirby fan? Nruff, Sweet Stuff, and Ice Dragon are monsters I've seen before but never as bosses. It was neat and actually surprising to not only fight whispy and stuff. I know a lot of Kirby games have new bosses. But still!

Only complaints are stuff like. Ah not enough copy abilities or animal friends. But it's still gameboy there's only so much you can jam pack into it. No, my biggest issue is easily the final boss. Which, if you've played this game you might see the screenshot and realize I didn't fight! Every game in the Dark Matter saga (DL2, DL3, 64 as far as I'm aware?) all do this annoying thing where you can only challenge the final boss after 100% completing the game. This doesn't bug me all the time as I did this for Super Princess Peach and Demon's Crest, but I wasn't like ecstatic to do it in those even though I adore those games. And while I really like these Kirby games. I'm just not crazy enough about it to sit down and try to do EVERYTHING in them at the moment. But that's just me I'm sure Kirby fans could probably 100% this with their eyes closed. And if I ever do sit down to play the entire franchise, I will make an effort to try and grab everything and finally fight the true final bosses to these games.

Pokemon Stadium (April 30, 1999) - N64

Ah now here's a game I have a lot of nostalgia for! Despite not ever doing a full playthrough of the original RBY until last year, I played Stadium a BUNCH growing up! The minigames of course, everyone did, but I actually played Free Battle with Rental Pokemon a LOT for some reason. I was really into it and I remember really wanting Stadium 2 and whatever the GC and Wii ones were called but I never got them.

And something I tried as a child but never managed to do was beat Gym Leader Castle! And now I'm happy to say I did! Did it all with Rental Pokemon of course because they... dont have RBY on Gameboy Online for some reason which is a HUGE mistake by the way. I'll just come out and say it. With your own team I feel like this game would be REALLY exciting. But looking back, with Rental Pokemon. It's REALLY boring. It feels so slow to get through and I totally understand why I just didnt have the energy without save states as a kid.

BUT this game is still nice in a lot of ways. Very charming little title and I ADORE the animations made for all 150 Pokemon. They all have tons of personality, are fun to watch, and are just plain cute. I know Pokemon Company has said there's no reason to make a game like this now that Pokemon main series games are 3D but I disagree because a game like this really allows them to showcase unique emotions and quirks in the personalities of the different species. If that makes sense. Game looks good, music is nice, and of course the announcer is LEGENDARY.

No I am not unlocking Mewtwo, I thought you got him for clearing Gym Leader castle. You do not. I looked it up, you have to do EVERYTHING. I am not doing that.

Also if you wanna see the team I took on Gym Leader Castle with. All rental Pokemon of course. But still neat! (x)

Pokemon Puzzle League (September 25, 2000) - N64

Gosh now here's a REALLY weird game. For years I've seen people say this game is absolutely awful and... honestly it's not. It's just Panel De Pon so it's good objectively. But it still sucks but like, in other ways? Like. I don't know how to describe it the game is just really weird. It's fully based around the anime, which is rare. It has one or two original animations made just for the game (I think they're made just for it)? Which is neat. And it has covers of music from the anime which is neat! I was particularly blown away by the inclusion of Catch Me If You Can from the first movie which is a song I liked a lot in highschool lol. (no Free Up Your Mind or Brother My Brother though 0/10)

But I'dunno even though it plays fine and it has a lot of stuff to do including making your own boards for people to solve which is neat. The game just feels so lame? It looks like a PowerPoint presentation and while you can pick a Pokemon to bring into battle as far as I can tell it has 0 impact on the actual battles which is a HUGE waste because the blocks have type icons on them so I feel like there's a huge missed opportunity for a Panel De Pon game with like elemental weaknesses? Idk how to describe it but it really feels fake, or maybe like a flash game you would have played on the official Pokemon website back in the day. It's not bad but even playing it for free, I'd rather just play Panel de Pon lmao. Sorry Puzzle League.

THAT BEING SAID, I did randomly beat it twice so I could get the better ending. Which I didn't bother doing for Dr. Mario 64, so that's gotta be worth something.

Pulseman (July 22, 1994) - Genesis

Speaking of Pulseman, here's a game with no Pokemon in it! I'm sure I don't have to tell anyone this at this point but Pulseman was made by Gamefreak and even has a lot of the art done by Ken Sugimori which is very neat! This is a game I've actually enjoyed for a bit as I bought it on Wii Virtual console a loooong time ago. But I could never beat it sadly. Thankfully I finally managed to get through it!

Pulseman is VERY cool! I like the character designs of Pulseman and his sidekick girl a LOT. Pulseman also has a lot of really interesting abilities, I think the ability to run fast and build up static to super charge your moves is SUPER cool! There's even some voice acting which is REALLY neat. The game feels very advanced in a lot of parts. And the game has a lot of impressive visuals and looks very good for the most part!

For the most part though. I honestly can't help but feel a little disappointed in Pulseman now that I've played it? I think a lot of the levels don't play to Pulseman's cool abilities enough, I think a lot of the levels in general kinda suck. A lot of the game looks kinda headache inducing with tons of flashing lights instead of focusing on the REALLY nice sprite art if that makes sense. I don't really remember most of the enemies and bosses. And I don't recall any of the music. Idk I hate to say it cause I love Pulseman's design and a lot about the game. But I can't help but feel like this game didn't bring out the concept's full potential.

PERSONALLY I think Pulseman REALLY could use a sequel and honestly, it's not too late. I know Gamefreak is kinda eh on not doing Pokemon every year or so but I really think Pulseman is a game that could go SO nuts nowadays with some cooler levels and expansions on Pulseman's abilities and giving him new tools he can use and upgrade using the static electricity stuff. Ah well, it's still worth playing as an interesting piece of history!

Street Fighter II - Championship Edition (March 18, 1992) - Genesis

Can you believe I've never beaten this game before? Yeah despite how much I love fighting games I only really got into Street Fighter during covid when I played Street Fighter 4 and really found myself loving Juri Han. And while I've been REALLY wanting to get the Capcom Fighting Collection, which includes this, I've just been kinda strapped for cash so I'll have to go with the NSO for Street Fighter II!

Yeah it's fine. Not mind blowing but it is REALLY interesting to go back and play this and see how much of it is still accurate to modern day fighting games? Either the genre hasn't changed much or this game just hit the nail on the head so well (probably a bit of both) but yeah it's neat that it has a lot of modern day fighting game trappings and while it feels outdated, it doesn't feel as outdated as you would expect such an old console port fighting game to feel? Idk how SF2 feels in general though cause I've barely played it. But yeah it's neat. Looks good, has good music, stuff you would expect for Street Fighter. I played as Blanka cause Cammy isn't in this version. Neat :)

Super Fantasy Zone (January 14, 1992) - Genesis

Ah never a bad time for Shmups! I have a little bit of history with Fantasy Zone as I used to LOVE playing my bootleg NES cartridge of it as a kid! Fantasy Zone is very reminiscent of Twinbee with its cute bullet hell stuff and also having a living ship. I love OpaOpa.

This game pretty good, feels great to play, looks adorable, has great boss fights, nice music. And I especially LOVE how many upgrades you can buy for OpaOpa! I just wish they were all permanent or at least lasted longer? I also appreciate that it had a kind of out of nowhere ending with a really cool and edgy dark matter concept and villain, I guess I need to research more Fantasy Zone lore!

My only problem with this game, and while this may feel stupid, I think it's fair to bring up. This game feels like it would be impossible without rewinding? It's 1 hit and you're dead, and it's a bullet hell where it can be really hard to tell where everything is including your ship (which is REALLY important to tell where that thing is during bullet hells aha). With rewinds it wasn't a problem, but I genuinely don't know if it would be possible without them. Still, it's fun so if you have NSO (or an emulator which is free btw) it's a great time!

Ristar (February 16, 1995) - Genesis

Last, but absolutely NOT least, is Ristar! HEY!! RISTAR ROCKS!? WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME THIS GAME RULES ACTUALLY!?!? I've seen it around a lot but idk the game just never really looked like something I'd enjoy. But I figured, why not? Let's give it a go. And I can safely say I was WRONG! Ristar is a FANTASTIC platformer I'm sad I never sunk my teeth into before (well, I never owned it I dont think. But still)

First off, Ristar is ADORABLE. I didn't like how he looked on the boxart but he looks GREAT in game and has some lovely animations (him making snowmen in the ice world killed me.) The music is also fantastic, the bosses are cool, and the whole game is full of really cool ideas! It's even got a neat albeit small story. But particularly, the visuals. Oh my god. This game is GORGEOUS! Ristar has such AMAZING sprite art I was honestly totally blown away by every part of the game's visuals! A part that really made my jaw drop when I first saw it is when you beat a world, the cutscene that plays when Ristar flies to the next planet looks AMAZING and also has some really beautiful music! Honestly, Ristar looks like an indie game trying to look like a Genesis game, but massively overshooting what the Genesis could actually do. And I mean that in the best way possible!

I have some nitpicks with it, I think the final boss had some attacks that were really stupid to dodge? And there were some stages that just... Weren't hitting. But I think my biggest issue with the game is similar to Pulseman's issue. Ristar has cool abilities. He can stretch his arms out and launch things around by bouncing into them like a sling shot. But, this just kind of never gets used? You use it for the spinny things but that's it? I feel like I should be able to angle enemies when I grab them to sling them into eachother, or just be using these abilities in ANY additional ways. Also the game is SLOOOOW, it's REALLY slow game. I think Ristar is another game that REALLY could use a second go around. Ristar 2 could really add to Ristar's abilities and turn up the speed! I think there's so much you could do with grappling and slinging with this character that hasn't been explored yet. PLEASE GIVE US RISTAR 2!!

#2023 #roundup #thoughts

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morphlingunderscore · 2 years

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7 with rassel and 10?

handwritten / promised

In the middle of a casual bloodletting between friends, palm splayed and pressed to 10's altar as they wait for the channels to fill, Rassel speaks.

"So, how come this one needed my blood, specifically?"

10 doesn't look away from where he's setting out the carved stones for the ritual circle. "For the color," he deadpans, and Rassel rolls their eyes. If 10 wanted blue blood he coulda just killed a squid, and 10 huffs. "The magic. It adds a boost to the ritual so I don't need to kill so many fucking villagers. Or Dec, over and over again."

"But Dec loves dying over and over again, and I don't!" They whine, leaning harder into the pedestal as they begin to get lightheaded. "Just ask the smeltery! It's so hungry for Declan blood yum!"

10 doesn't respond beyond a snort, which is pretty much full on laughter, for him. And, for some reason- maybe it's the blood loss, maybe it's the lingering warnings from Brian still messing with them- Rassel finds themselves genuinely worried. Like, maybe 10 is planning something that's gonna suck for them down the line. Or maybe it's gonna suck for him, and he isn't telling them so they'll go along with it.

"10, serious for a sec?" They call tentatively. 10 turns to face them properly at their tone, the barest hint of a frown. The worry soothes them a little, but they aren't gonna chicken out and stew in their anxiety. "This is gonna sound stupid, but. I gotta ask or else my brain's gonna explode later."

They don't specify if they mean that literally or not. With the knowledge they've gained from Thaum forcing physical symptoms, they aren't really sure which they mean themselves.

"You love us, right?"

10 blinks, and then levels then with the most exasperated glare. "Of fucking course I do," he says with an eyeroll, honest and annoyed. "You don't have to keep asking."

They laugh, chest warming, a soothing balm to their worry. "I know, I know, sorry. It helps to hear it."

"...that all?" 10 asks, turning away, beginning to work again. They worry their teeth, stewing. It hadn't been, of course- "Do you love me/us" is something Rassel asks their friends at least once a week, when the flux in their brain crushes them with hissing, nasty thoughts made tangible. The real question they'd meant to ask had been... Growing louder in their own mind, the past few months. More oppressive.

"...sometimes I- I think we're doing this wrong," they blurt, feeling a little bad at the way 10 freezes. But he hasn't interrupted, so they continue. "Me and you, I-I mean. Lately, Brian-" 10 scoffs derisively, "-has gotten pushier with me to delve deeper. And the deeper I go the more my- the more everything gets. Weird? And sometimes I feel like I'm... Losing bits and pieces of myself, everytime I step too close to the deep shit. But, you know, not really, because I'm not really losing anything. And I love to learn! I love my work, but it still makes me feel. Wrong? That she wants me to do it. Like it makes it feel like I shouldn't."

"Then don't."

"It's not that simple and you know it," they huff without much bite. "I have to keep going just as much as you have to keep bleeding. And- sometimes when you respawn, o-or Dec respawns, it takes you guys so long to stop looking so pale." They fret, free hand worrying at their singed ear. The world is starting to get a little fuzzy around the edges. They'll be out soon. "I'm... I love my magic. You love yours. We aren't going to stop- I don't- think we should stop, I don't want to. But..."

They trail off, losing their train of thought. 10 makes a clicking noise to draw them back, practiced.

"Can... Can we... Together, right now, can we promise that we won't... let it eat us alive?"

10 tenses, like they knew he would. It's why they got all rambly before getting to their point.

"I don't do promises."

"I-I know. Normally I wouldn't ask you to cause I know it's... Yeah. But I'm- I'm not asking just you. Think of it less like a promise and- and more like a mutual goal!" they offer, even though they know it's a weak sentiment. "Our goal is to be so fucking good at magic and not get eaten by it. Isn't- can't you do that?"

10 is quiet. He's quiet for so long, moving stuff around, that Rassel is knelt on the ground, face pressed against the cool pedestal, when he finally speaks. They hadn't noticed when he'd finished, or when he'd gotten so close.

"This is the only one you get," he warns, serious and resigned, like he already regrets it. "I promise."

Rassel raises their head weakly, ignoring the way their head pounds, and grins up at him.

"I promise too."

The last thing they see before the world fades to white and drops them in their bed is 10 baring a rare smile.

It doesn't feel like the win it should, though.

#saucesmp #rassel tag #10 tag #my fics #ask games #thank you crowww #newsflash: neither rassel nor 10 kept this promise bc theyre both fucking idiots AND assgoles

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mon-ancien-amour · 7 months

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haha okay so he talked to me again today (and the best part was he saw me, looked at my outfit, smiled, and said something like "look at you in your pretty dress" LOL) he's been really friendly with me since we became commute buddies (although tbh this whole year he's been very open with me, especially when we're not in the office environment). i love it.

back in undergrad when i was like 21 I used to do these "teacher crush challenges" (disclaimer : i do not condone this IRL) and I'm reading some of my answers from back then and honestly, it's wild how some of the info has changed

yes he has met some of my family, yes I know his birthday/star sign, yes we talk regularly, yes i am his favourite, yes he has called me beautiful (veryyyyy indirectly but i'll take it ;))

i often wonder if he knew i had a hardcore crush on him like-- i used to blush and splutter and now that I've significantly matured, the "crush" is less obvious than it was 10 years ago.

also dw guys, i know this sounds creepy but he is not creepy, he keeps very professional boundaries with his students (and even me. like why are we still vouvoying each other after 10 years.)

On another note. TAing is such an easy job that it's almost offensive. I'm capable of so much more. I feel so defeated after "teaching" bc i basically just administer the exercises the profs suggest week after week. I'm going to start modifying bc this is my 4th year teaching the same class and the design for the course makes no sense. Like we did an activity today and I looked at the instructions and BLAH I should have better prepared it bc it made me look incompetent. but it's not my fault bc I don't get to plan the course material. Also this year is kind of skewed bc I have a massive class (28 instead of the usual 10-15) with very different ability levels. We have international students who have never learned French and this one retiree who REALLY should be in the next level up. She's too advanced and it's making it hard because she asks questions that cause the other younger students to look like deer in headlights lol

oh yeahhh i also decided quit my profession for good after having a full-on mental breakdown last weekend wheeeee except I decided to give THREE months notice which was probably a mistake but it is what it is, I'll suck it up until then and just save money I guess

gonna tell docteur French about my decision later this year, maybe once I get an agent or smthing so he doesn't think i'm an irresponsible millennial who quit my job with no back-up plan

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joytraveler · 1 year

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#62: Metal Warrior

A lot of the viewers were expecting a robot, but your warrior in this game (a female warrior, in fact) isn't mechanical, she's solid metal! You start the game as tin (judging by the "Sn" symbol in the corner) but can upgrade yourself to bronze by collecting enough "Cu" symbols, all the while avoiding baddies that drip acid and corrode away your progress!

"Ooh, what should we call her? Malli, cause she's kind of malleable? Or Moly for molybdenum or Iris for iridium, or hey YOU guys come up with better names, I'm trying not to get melted by this dripping bottle thing!"

aroseahorseboy: Alloyson berd_snurglar: robot hotty with robot body, right! aw yeh

"Yeah, Alloyson sounds good!"

Doesn't seem too bad until she hits the first boss, apparently a sentient cloud of acid rain. She almost loses until she realizes she has to attack the machine itself that makes the cloud.

"You can probably tell but it looks like the more strong I get, the slower I get, I guess its the density"

If the first boss is any indication, then acids are the villains of this game-- the level ends with a bitter battle with a juicer-bot that splashes citric acid and pelts the metal heroine with oranges like a tennis ball server! But perseverance pays off, as victory upgrades 'Alloyson' to a lighter and stronger iron body!

"Fuckin' oranges, ARRRGH now grapefruits! BAM! Hey, what if we called her Ferrous? After this she's gonna take a day off!"

berd_snurglar: bea you suck

"Nothing here looks familiar, I think these are all new graphics, plus the style is a little different from what we've seen before."

This second stage has flying magnetic platforms to circumnavigate, and sometimes magnetic fields that send you flying! This time the boss is another cloud-- not acid rain this time, just a simple storm cloud that can rust Ferrous immobile before treating her like a lightning rod!

"This one's a little harder but I think- And of course I can fall to my death, why wouldn't that be a thing"

She's about to give up when she touches a magnetic field again, getting bounced back up to hit the boss!

"Ohhh, hohohoHOHOHHO, forecast: not a cloud in the sky, because I killed them!"

Her upgrade now, surprisingly, is to mercury! She loses her strong punch but it doesn't look like she'll need it in this level, she's squishing her way through tubes, some of which are heated and some are cooled, causing her to expand and contract to solve puzzles!

"See, this is how you teach kids about metal. Make cool games about robots! Or.. I guess she's not a robot, whatever she is! Liquid metal! Nobody happened to catch the plot of this did they, not that it really matters I guess"

Syrupentine: I have a weird suspicion this is based on an anime we don't get, maybe? Baconnaise: This is actually a reimagining of the steadfast tin soldier berd_snurglar: i don't see the oh. oh there it is. shit you were right

At the end of the tube maze is a chamber with a dancer-like figure trapped in a glass containment chamber. At least it superficially resembles a dancer, but looks to be another metal being!

aroseahorseboy: damn, good eye Baconnaise: I was honestly just joking, lol wow how about that

Now arrives the third boss-- and what do you know, it's a hat! A MAD hat, clearly, judging by its flailing, random attacks, and the big "In This Style, 10/6" tag in its brim. Something is wearing the hat, but what? It's certainly not human... Bea's getting the shivers!

"Eeugh, I don't like this thing, at all, this guy is 100% skeevola" She keeps dodging as it twirls around the room, striking back with a liquid mercury whip! Rather than whittling down his hit points, the idea seems to be to whip the hat and make it spin faster and faster until it comes off! And that's when you see what's in it-- a greasy, hairy black thing with a lot of yellow eyes and a nasty expression!

DueyDecimal: And there's the goblin! That doesn't make this the last boss, does it? GlockRoach: Hey assholes, there I am in person and don't I look good

"God I HOPE so, I don't remember this part from the story?!" Now it throws off eyeballs that explode with, what else, acid! She loses some power, downgrading to tungsten, but now she takes less damage and hits a little harder!

It's shattering! All those legs are coming off, squirming and bouncing on the floor and being hard to dodge-- but the end must be near, right? Your little tin boyfriend is pounding on the glass, seeming to warn you before the hat-gremlin makes another devastating stomp! For such a short game, this is an epic boss battle!

"AAAAAGH I hate this thing, it's so gross! But we've got this, we've got this.." RUMBLE, the next stomp splits the floor open beneath the heroine's feet, and she tumbles off screen as the goblin cackles! "................................................." Bea lets out a string of obscenities under her breath.. but she's not dead, there's a new stage starting in a different part of the sewer, or whatever this place is.

HNV: I thought it seemed like a short game, but... nope, there's a lot more fairy tale to play through. You up for it, Bea?

#jtnuggets #mar 12 #bea #aroseahorseboy #berd #syrupentine #baconnaise #dueydecimal #glockroach #hnv

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blooblooded · 2 years

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MartyKip First Time

“You felt shelter somewhere in me/I find great comfort in you/ And I keep you safe from harm/You hold me in your arms/And I want to go home/But I am home.” - Riches and Wonders, TMG

The buzzing whine of the stun baton was all Marty heard before it connected with his back.

That was it. The human body cannot maintain consciousness when faced with that amount of electricity. It was as if Esther’s Ability had been bottled up inside of a metal tube. He hadn’t seen it coming but he should have. He should have been on high fucking alert. He and Kip Nguyen had been stalking through an abandoned Lower Level warehouse, hunting down yet another person on Kip’s ‘list’. Every person on that list had caused harm to Kip or to someone he cared about. Of course this wasn’t going to be a walk in the park. Marty should have been as attentive as he was on the streets of the wartorn Northern Territories.

Maybe he was out for three minutes. Maybe less. His seizure disorder made him more susceptible to passing out. When he came to, the first sensation was that of his skin being on fire. The electricity that had coursed through his body caused every nerve to burn and his muscles to cramp up. Marty did not have time to process the pain. Because the second sensation was the sound of Kip screaming his head off.

Marty heaved himself up off the floor. His head still reeled and his vision was blurry. His knees shook beneath him. All the air had been knocked out of his lungs when he had been hit and he was wheezing. But that didn’t matter. All that mattered was getting up, getting to Kip.

It wasn’t Kip though. Not completely. The funny, loving boy he had a crush on when he was 16 had changed a long time ago. But Marty cared about whatever was left with an intensity that frightened him.

About 15 feet away, Kip was on his back, held down by the man they had been hunting. Before they started, Kip hadn’t said much about him, other than that he went by the code name ‘October’, he was an Artificial, and had been his ‘Handler’ in Internal Operations for nearly 10 years. The man was in his late 20’s, just like Kip, with an eerily perfect face and rangy frame. He drove his thumbs into his windpipe as Kip’s legs thrashed.

Some Artificials were engineered to be pretty and others were made to be impossibly strong. Marty counted his blessings that Esther and Casey were not as freakish as they could be. There was nothing a normal person could do to physically fight off one of the strong ones. That was why they always got recruited to be dormitory staff for the secret police.

“Fucking Smiles!” said October. His back was to Marty as he straddled Kip’s chest. The stun baton was on the concrete floor beside him. “You think you can just follow me when I leave work and try to jump me? Are you fucking stupid?! You think you’re smart because you got away from us? We’ll see how smart you are when I drag you back, you’re gonna wish that we put that bullet in your head 6 months ago!”

“I’m not going back!” Kip was hysterical, his voice high and frantic. He tried to bring up his knees to knock the other man off him but despite his strength, he could not match the strength of someone who has been made in a lab. Both of his hands were braced against him, desperately pushing. “I’m not going back! I’m not going back!”

“I told you I was going to make you beg one day, huh?” October leaned to press more of his weight down on Kip’s neck. Marty could not see his face, but his tone and posture radiated cruelty, they were that of a man used to having complete control over others. “Yeah, you’ll be begging all right when we get Lady to trap you in a nightmare and make your little squad mates watch you die slow.”

Kip could no longer speak. He made choking sounds as he tried to suck down another mouthful of air. His hands fell from their protective position and flapped against the floor.

Marty was standing fully now. Nothing seemed real. His body hummed with painful electricity. He couldn’t think. Looped into his belt was his piolet, the small ice ax, and he wrapped his right hand around it, his knuckles straining. He exhaled.

No time to think. No time to think. Adrenaline surged through him. It was hot. His heavy jacket felt like it was crushing him.

“You wanna go home, Smiles?” October slammed Kip’s head against the floor so hard that it made a thudding sound but Kip did not stop struggling. He did not stop making horrible choked animal noises that chased everything else out of Marty’s brain. “You don’t know anything else.” Another slam. “You miss it there so much that you came looking for me? Don’t worry, I’m gonna fucking take you back home.”

The piolet ax was in Marty’s grip, with its thin curved handle and its serrated metal head. So small and light, it felt like nothing at all. It was a lethal extension of his own arm.

Marty lurched forward. The triangular blade of the piolet flew down in a shining metal arc. It embedded itself in the back of October’s skull with a sickening crunch. The handle vibrated in Marty’s grip. When October didn’t immediately fall or go limp and only froze, making nauseating open mouthed gurgling sounds, Marty wrenched the tool out with another crunch and brought it down again. And again.

It was only a thin, small blade. It did not immediately cause crushing damage like the swords and axes Marty had seen during the war. He brought it down a fourth time and in his frenzy, he missed and hit the side of the neck. Blood spurted out in a torrent as the main artery was severed and some of it splashed across Marty’s face.

October convulsed, twitching like a hooked fish. The back of his skull looked wet but his black hair prevented Marty from seeing the full extent of what he had done. He let out one last thick gurgle, then collapsed on top of Kip. Hot red blood pulsed from the terrible gash on his neck and he lay still.

“Dumb cunt,” said Marty in his own language, panting and numb. He let the piolet fall to the floor with a clang. It was harder than it looked to kill someone up close, it wasn’t like it was in the movies. He had thought that it would only take one swing, but then, he hadn’t really been thinking. His only thought was of his friend. “Fucker.”

He used his boot to roll the body off of Kip. It lay there on the concrete floor, empty eyes staring up into nothingness. Into the Void. Kip also stared up into nothingness, gasping for air. There was blood all over him, on his face, soaking his shirt and pants. So much blood. His eyes were huge and his mouth was open but he didn’t move. Sometimes Kip just froze like that, it was what had happened when he first came back and saw his sister after all those years. It was like he wasn’t even there.

“Hey, you good?” Marty bent down over Kip. He was a little scared to touch him, he had seen Kip freak out and become aggressive multiple times in the last few weeks. But he wanted to. He always wanted to touch him, he always had. He wanted to know what his skin felt like. It didn’t look like Kip was hurt. “You OK, la? Hey, hey Kip, I got you.”

Kip blinked and wiped the back of his hand across his face, smearing the blood out of his scruffy beard. His chest rose and fell with rapid breaths. His eyes were focused now and stared up at Marty. They were brown like sunlight filtered through midwinter leaves.

Something in his expression softened. Marty couldn’t read it. He had never seen that look before.

There wasn’t anything to say. It was a little bit strange. Kip was so strong and loud and sure of himself. The years had hardened him into a weapon. It wasn’t like before, back when he had been begging a half-frozen Kip to climb out of a window because Lee Harlan was screaming at him about the bombs and trying to break down a door. He was different now. All his vulnerabilities were trapped down beneath a hard shell. Marty had never imagined a situation where he would have to protect Kip now, after everything that had happened to him. In his fantasies, it was always Kip protecting him.

Marty reached out a hand. Kip took it and Marty felt himself shiver. His palm was rough with calluses and much bigger than his. He pulled him up to his feet.

Once Kip was standing up again, he did not remove his hand from Marty’s. They were close. Very close. Almost toe to toe, their noses were a couple inches from each other. Kip was a couple inches taller, but his face was right there. Marty’s heart thudded in his chest. He had never been so close, but then, Kip had never understood the concept of personal space. He could see every pore on his nose. He could see his short, curled eyelashes. The musky smell of sweat was strong but not unpleasantly so. Kip did not break eye contact. He gave his hand a tight squeeze.

For some reason, Marty squeezed back. It just seemed like the right thing to do. What was going on, why was—

Then, still holding his hand, Kip leaned closer and pressed his lips against Marty’s.

It didn’t last long. Maybe three seconds. It wasn’t anything like Esther and Rosaline’s wild kisses, and it definitely wasn’t anything like he had seen on TV or on porn. He had imagined this a hundred different times since Kip returned, in a hundred different ways, and every time he had imagined it being hurried and needy. Lately his fantasies about Kip had been…escalating. But no. Just a quick press of soft, warm skin and Kip pulled back away, looking at him.

His first kiss. At 26 years old, another man had kissed him. Marty hadn’t thought that would ever happen.He thought that he would die before that happened. He felt dizzy. He could feel his blood pounding through his veins. Was he going to pass out? It wasn’t enough. He wanted more. It was like dying of thirst and receiving one drop of water.

“Fuck,” said Kip, still breathless from the scuffle. His face was still very close, close enough for Marty to feel his heat. “Sorry if you didn’t want that– I didn’t mean– You were just looking at me like–”

But the door of possibility had opened and Marty didn’t want to waste it. If he didn’t act now, he felt like it would be all over, he wouldn’t have another chance. And he had wanted Kip to do that since he was 16.

This was so fucked up. He was fucked up. He had just killed someone. He had blood all over him. Kip had blood all over him. But there wasn’t time.

Marty reached out with his free hand and pulled Kip’s head back towards his. He didn’t know what he was doing, the best he could do was follow instinct and what he had seen others do. He kissed Kip with an intensity he didn’t know he was capable of, and smashed his nose into his. Their teeth clicked together in his enthusiasm, which was an accident, he hadn’t meant to part his lips much, it sort of just happened. Every nerve in his body stung and he felt weak, faint, but this was more important. All he knew was that Kip felt very warm pressed up against him. Kip’s beard was scratchy against his skin and his free hand reached around to rest on Marty’s lower back.

It lasted longer. It could have lasted forever.

Again, Kip pulled away first. He laughed but he kept one hand on Marty’s. That had to mean something, right? It couldn’t have been that awkward? It couldn’t have been that bad? Marty felt his face flush.

The air in the abandoned warehouse smelled like blood and death. Kip looked monstrous. His clothes were torn and rumpled and covered in gore. There were bruises forming on his throat from where he had been attacked. He breathed heavily. Marty had never seen someone more attractive.

It was best just to say it. If Marty didn’t say it, he never would. “I want to do that again,” he said awkwardly. Suddenly his hand felt sweaty.

“You wanna murder a guy trying to kill me again?” asked Kip, and laughed. Marty jerked his hand away out of his grip. “Sorry! I mean– yeah. I do too. You know I’m into you, right? Ever since I came back, I mean. I’ve been trying to put out those vibes.” He looked down at his shirt and tried to wipe some of the blood off of it in a gesture that looked uncomfortably natural.

“I can’t pick up on vibes. People have to tell me.”

“No shit.” Kip glanced at the leaking body on the floor. He bent down to pick up the stun baton, then twirled it. “I see the way you’re always staring at my ass. You wanna make this a thing? I haven’t had any action since I was in Internal Operations.”

The casual way he said it made Marty’s heart clench up. He knew that Kip had been with other people. Of course he knew. He had known that Kip was sexually active since the time he almost went down on Lee Harlan at 18. Back then, finding out about Lee had hurt worse than anything. There had to be tons of people in the secret police that Kip had had flings with. Girls, guys, people in between. Did he feel the same way about them? Had that kiss meant something to him or had it been an impulse, just like everything Kip did?

It had meant something to Marty. He hoped that Kip felt the same way.

He felt embarrassed now. He pushed down his hair, which was fluffing up. “Yeah. I’ve never been with anyone though. Don’t get too excited. That was— I mean that was my first kiss.”

Marty half expected Kip to laugh at him or make fun of him. People who didn’t understand always did. Up until a year and a half ago he had been trapped in a place where kissing a boy, for doing what he had just done, could have gotten him beaten or murdered. He had been too scared to tell anyone about his feelings for boys, even as a teenager he had been too scared to tell Ayda. He was always full of shame, he was always upset about it. And now that he felt comfortable enough to be out, he felt even more shame about being a virgin at 26 years old.

Kip didn’t laugh. He looked at him, and again, that soft expression crossed his face. “Hey, that don’t matter. Everyone has a first time. You don’t need to feel embarrassed or nothing, I’ve had a hard time getting it up for years.”

His mouth twitched. “Just don’t laugh at me.”

“Nah, it’s kinda hot, I’m into it,” Kip twirled the stun baton. He pointed it at the corpse of his old Handler. “What I’m not into is getting hot and heavy near a corpse. Whaddya say we go back to the safehouse and eat and shower and shit before we mess around.” He paused. “If you want to.”

That was the second time Kip had asked him if he wanted it. And Marty did want it. He had never wanted something so bad in his life. He had wanted it for 10 years. He felt like dying. The mixture of desire and embarrassment were too much. “Yeah, I want to,” he said. He could not believe this was happening. It felt like a dream, he was waiting to wake up. Was it this easy for other people? He turned to leave. “Let’s go.”

“Whatever you say, boss,” said Kip, and as he followed Marty out of the warehouse, he gave the corpse a hard kick.

####

A terrible thought had occurred to Marty. It had come to him in the shower while he was washing the dried blood off his skin, then intensified to a crescendo while he was combing out his hair. Marty pulled on a clean white t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants and hurried out to the bedroom he shared with Ayda. Kip was waiting for him on one of the beds there, having already showered.

Thankfully everyone else had left the house. Tony lived with Cihad Tariq these days, Rosie and Esther were talking with the twins at the lab, and Casey, Ayda, and Kassidy were researching the Red Church. Thank the gods. If anyone had been in the tiny safehouse, Marty didn’t think he could go through with anything.

“You took a long time in there,” said Kip, who was reclining, his long legs stretched out. He had made less of an effort than Marty and was only in his boxer shorts. No matter what he did, he always appeared scruffy and exhausted. His naked chest was covered in thick body hair that barely concealed the brutal scarring he had received during his days in the secret police. “You know I’m not gonna go all the way with you so fast, right? So if you were in there washing out your ass I–”

“Are you Kip?” Marty asked the terrible question. He walked over to the twin sized mattress to stand in front of his friend. “You are Kip right now? Not the other person?” In fact, Marty had heard that there were three other people. He was unable to wrap his mind around it, even when Ayda had tried to explain it to him. They didn’t have stuff like that in the North.

Kip smiled tightly. He wasn’t upset but there was something dark behind the eyes. “I’m me,” he said. “It’s my turn to keep myself safe.”

“OK. Because I don’t want to do anything with someone who’s not you, la?” Marty wasn’t sure where Kip ended and Smiles began. All the memories and experiences had started to blur together. Kip was his friend. Smiles was…he was a guy who hurt people.

“It’s just me.” Kip kept smiling. “You want me to suck your dick or what?”

Marty did want that. Very much.

Everything was happening so fast that he still half suspected it was a dream. His legs were like jelly. Then he decided to just grab the bull by its horns and go for it.

Standing right in front of the bed, he placed a hand on Kip’s cheek, just barely feeling the prickly half-beard under his touch, and pressed his lips against Kip’s. Kip gave him a moment, not reacting. Then, as Marty barely started to pull away, he responded. It was another short kiss, just enough for Kip to shift a little bit closer to the edge of the mattress. When they broke away, their noses brushed. “See? You’re a natural,” Kip whispered. Marty grinned a little as he grew more comfortable.

It was more dominant the next time around, since there were no more first steps to take. Kip pulled him down onto the bed next to him and pressed against him, over him. Marty lay back and enjoyed the weight of Kip’s body pressed against his own like that. In an odd way, he enjoyed the feeling of not being able to move, of Kip’s broad chest covering his own with his hips pressed against Marty’s. He enjoyed the feeling of Kip’s body. Soon enough he figured he would feel all of Kip.

“You can tell me to stop, OK?” Kip muttered as he pressed kisses to Marty’s jaw, against his throat. He never used his sharp teeth. One of his thighs was pressed to his crotch. A grunt was all that Marty could manage as a response and he pressed his lips to Kip’s again, parting his own. Their tongues met, and Kip’s fingers tangled in Marty’s damp hair as he moved against him. There was a bit of friction against Marty’s cock with Kip’s grinding movement and he felt himself getting hard. He was almost positive that Kip was grinning.

“Just don’t bite me,” Marty panted. He felt hot all over. Was it normal to have a semi from a few minutes of grinding and making out? Kip wasn’t hard at all. He felt anxious despite the pleasurable sensations. He pushed Kip off of him and scrambled off the bed to stand, believing that he might last longer in that position.

Kip pulled himself back up, his tan skin flushed. He got off the bed then dropped to his knees in front of him. For a minute, he stroked him through the fabric of his pants, then he hooked his fingers into the waistband of Marty’s sweatpants and pulled them down.

This was it. Moment of truth. Marty felt like he was going to pass out. Nobody had seen his cock before. Should he have shaved? He was circumcised and Ayda had told him most people didn’t do that in Eden, would Kip laugh at him? He was always comparing himself to what he saw in porn. If Kip laughed at him, he was going to kick him in the face.

“Oh wow,” said Kip, looking up at him. He looked strange down on his knees, so vulnerable. “It’s nice. You’re so thick. I like it.” His words sent a jolt to Marty’s stomach. The idea that anyone could praise his cock was unbelievably arousing. He could feel precum gathering at the tip and willed himself to last.

“J’ai envie de toi,” said Marty, reverting to his native language in his arousal. Hearing him say that sparked something in Kip’s big brown eyes. He wrapped one of his hands around the base of Marty’s cock and pressed the other one lightly against his balls. Marty shuddered beneath his firm touch.

After another stroke or two, Kip leaned close to lick the head of his cock, then licked all the way up and back down. Marty bit his own tongue, painfully aware of how close he already was after barely anything. Not yet, not yet, not yet.

Then, all while making eye contact, Kip took the whole head of his cock in his mouth. Wet. Warm. It felt better than all the times Marty had jerked off combined. Never in his wildest fantasies had he imagined that Kip might get on his knees for him, never imagined he might make himself lower. Never thought that might be his first instinct. Slowly, Kip began to bob his head up and down and Marty let out a stifled groan.

There was nothing else in the world. All time slipped away, there was only pleasure. Only Kip’s mouth. In rhythm, Marty began to slowly thrust into him, accelerating with Kip’s pace.

Kip took his hand off of the base of Marty’s cock and moved it to press against his soft belly. The other hand still squeezed at his balls, and Kip made sounds as if he was getting as much enjoyment out of it as Marty was. Marty felt his orgasm starting deep inside of him. It pulsed through his belly and then into his hips and thighs as the sounds of sucking and slurping filled his ears. Kip was taking him all the way down. He was latching onto Marty as if his cock was a lifeline and Marty knew that he didn’t have any more time.

“Kip, I’m gonna–” Almost panicked, he tried to push Kip away, not wanting to assume that he’d be OK with him shooting a load down his throat. Did people really like that outside of porn? But it was too late and he was too sloppy. His release shuddered through him, unlike any that he had felt before. For a second he was blind to the world. It shocked him with the same intensity as he had been shocked with the stun baton. When he looked back down, he could see Kip inches from his softening cock, face covered with saliva and cum. Kip blinked in surprise. It was even in his eyelashes. “Oh fuck, sorry.”

“It’s fine,” said Kip, as he instinctively reached up to wipe a hand over his face, which just made everything stick to his stubbly beard more. He looked at his sticky hand, then shrugged, bringing it to his mouth and licking it off his fingers. “I probably needed to shave anyway.”

Did getting sucked off mean he wasn’t a virgin anymore? Or only half a virgin? Marty didn’t know the rules. His knees were weak. All the strength had been drained out of him. He pulled up his pants, then sank down on the floor next to Kip, who smiled at him. It was a nice smile, but there was cum all over his face.

No. Scratch that. It was a nice smile because there was cum all over his face. Marty liked seeing Kip like that. He wanted to see it again. He wanted to see him dirtier.

“You taste good,” said Kip, and again, the praise jolted something inside of Marty. It was not something he had ever considered before.

“Was that OK?” asked Marty. “I tried to last as long as I could.” He didn’t have a metric to compare to. He figured that oral was all about the pleasure of the person receiving, not the person giving. But Kip had made it seem like he liked it. Maybe Marty would like giving too. He wanted to know what Kip tasted like.

“Probably better than the first guy I sucked off.” Kip’s voice was a little bitter. He blinked, wiped at his face again. “Probably better than me too, but I don’t remember any of my first times. You know. The brainwashing.”

So he didn’t remember what happened with Lee all those years ago. That was a mercy.

An overwhelming sense of tenderness and love overcame Marty. He realized that something had started between the two of them and maybe it was something special. Was it really love? He wanted to love Kip. He wanted to protect him and make him happy. Both of their lives had been so lonely and painful, they deserved something good.

And there wasn’t much time. With the way things were going in Eden, it was possible that either of them could die any day.

If he was braver or less awkward, he might have initiated another kiss. Instead, he patted Kip on the knee. Kip grinned at him with his sharp teeth.

“So when are we going all the way?” he asked. “You’re going to have to show me how. But I’m a fast learner.” It came off with a little more bravado than he intended. He came off as a little more confident. Maybe he was a little more confident.

And Kip just laughed and laughed, but he wasn’t laughing at him. He would never laugh at him. Marty joined in.

#Writing

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