#i mean she's still a monster and was definitely a hell of a boss to him

[fullsunrise]

Playing With Fire (M)

Word count: 1.8k

Pairing: Johnny x Original female character

Genre: Office AU, some angst, light smut

Warnings: Mentions of alcohol, Johnny is a bully, heavy sexual themes, non-explicit smut (don't hookup with your coworkers!), uh semi-public sex

A/N: Uhhh I don't know what this is, but it's pretty much self-indulgent lmao

There was nothing quite like early winter in the city, with the twinkling lights tangled in the bare trees and a to-go coffee that was almost too hot. This early in the morning, there was no one around. It was calming, and Nari wanted to appreciate the silence before all hell broke loose. She sat on the unoccupied bench outside of her building, savoring the last five minutes she had until she had to face her worst nightmare. That nightmare happened to have a name: Johnny.

Johnny Suh from Sales. Even thinking about him made Nari’s eye twitch. Ever since she was forced to work with him on her latest project, he made it his sole mission to make her life a living hell. Never once in Nari’s career has she had to work with someone so egotistical, cunning, and above all else: annoyingly attractive.

Although she had been working at her company for the last two years, she had never heard of him. Not until she saw an unfamiliar name CC’d on an email from her boss. Confused, she made her way to her boss’s office.

“He's been here almost as long as you have, I believe,” her boss told her. “Great guy, it should be a breeze working with him.”

It was hilarious how wrong he was. Nari’s reality was most definitely not a breeze, but more like a hurricane. Whatever higher being set this up was surely laughing at her now as she struggled against the powerful storm.

To stand any chance, Nari knew she needed any advice she could get. And who else was more equipped than Jaehyun? After years of working at law firms across the city, Nari was sure he was the only person who could understand how to deal with egotistical monsters.

“I'm just saying, maybe try to avoid any interactions with the guy. I mean he's clearly a prick,” Jaehyun said, then took a sip of his beer.

“Trust me, I've been trying to avoid him but it's impossible when we have to work directly together,” Nari replied.

It was hopeless. Johnny was too smart. Careful not to push it too far, he was only condescending to her face. He made sure his actions spoke for him, though. Like last week when he went out to lunch with their project team, he accidentally forgot to invite her. And just a day ago, she swore he was whispering about her to another coworker in the kitchen. Then he laughed loud enough for Nari to hear, only confirming her suspicions. It was subtle, but enough to make her go insane.

“Don't let him get to you,” Jaehyun offered. “You know he's only doing this because he feels threatened by you.”

Threatened? Why would Johnny be threatened by her? Nothing about her was particularly threatening. Sure, Nari was good at her job but she never did anything that would cause someone to dislike her. And certainly she would never step on anyone just to get a promotion. In her corporate life, Nari made sure to remain honest, social, and professional. Unlike Johnny, who couldn't have a more opposite approach.

“I’ll try,” she replied. “But enough about me. How's it going in your world?”

“Same ol’ bullshit as always,” he chuckled.

They spoke about their jobs for a while longer, laughing at random anecdotes from the week. Nari didn't speak about Johnny again, and shortly the thought of him was washed down along with her Gin and tonic. Somewhere between her first and third drinks, Jaehyun asked her how her dating life had been. It caught her off guard only for a moment as she reached for an answer in her muddled brain. With her thoughts slowed, the best she managed to pull was a horrific yet comical dating story. Jaehyun laughed along with her and shared his own. It was always weird talking about her love life with Jaehyun but it was still nice nonetheless. But she would never get used to it, even though there were no lingering feelings left between them.

Nari came back to her apartment feeling a bit lighter after seeing Jaehyun. While he helped her forget about Johnny momentarily, Nari dreaded tomorrow. It was the day of the company holiday party. Normally Nari looked forward to it every year, but the idea of running into Johnny made her stomach churn. Sure, there were going to be a lot of employees and plus ones but the chance of seeing him wasn't zero.

The next day quickly flew by, with little to no urgent work that needed to get done. Nari always appreciated slow work days, but today she wished the day lasted a bit longer. Because as the moon rose in the sky, she knew could no longer hide.

The rooftop lounge was packed with her coworkers spread out across fancy bar top tables. Nari and a few of her team members claimed a spot close to the bar. While she was promised it would limit any unwanted interactions, the idea of walking up with all eyes on her made her mouth dry.

“I’m gonna get another drink,” Nari shouted on top of the loud music.

Much to her relief, Nari didn't recognize the people she passed on her way to the bar. No Johnny in sight, her shoulders relaxed instantly.

“One Old Fashioned, thanks,” the guy with slicked back hair in front of her ordered. Ugh, what kind of person would order that?

The guy with the slicked back hair turned around, and the moment Nari locked eyes with him she was frozen in place. The worst scenario Nair conjured in her mind was happening right now, in real life.

Johnny looked at her for a second before turning away to talk to his friend. That didn't bother Nari, but the fact that he decided to brush past her like she was invisible set her off.

Chasing after Johnny wasn't how Nari expected to spend her night, but there she was pushing through the crowd. Johnny moved fast, but she was able to catch up in the bathroom hallway.

“Why?” The liquor coursed through her veins, giving her the courage to speak up.

“I don't know what you're talking about,” Johnny deadpanned, as he turned around to look straight through her. It was clear he was avoiding her question, which in turn only made her angrier.

“Don't play dumb, you know what you're doing,” she accused, her voice raising.

“You're going to be a bit more specific than that, sweetheart,” he said, crossing his arms across his chest.

“So you're just going to pretend like you haven't made my life a living hell the last few months?”

“I think that's too harsh,” he answered, his expression softening. That look could've worked on other women, but Nari wasn't going to give in.

“It's the truth, you've hated me ever since that day.”

“When did I say I hated you?”

Jaehyun’s words echoed in her mind. “Admit it, you’re threatened by me.”

Bingo. Her words seemed to strike a nerve with Johnny, because the next thing she knew he grabbed her arm and pulled her into the bathroom. Warning signs went off in her head immediately, but it happened so quickly that she couldn't break away.

“You don't know what you're talking about,” he seethed, taking a step closer to her.

Was he always standing this close? The temperature was rising, and Nari could feel the blood rush into her cheeks.

“I think I do,” Nari breathed, trying to sound confident. But her quivering voice didn't fool him.

His kisses were feverish against her skin he left bites along the curve of her neck. As he made his way down to her collarbone, Nari’s eyebrows scrunched together. With her lips slightly parted in pleasure, Johnny took the opportunity to steal the air from her lungs in one swift motion. His lips were rough and chapped from the cold, but the way they molded to her own left her utterly breathless. When he abruptly bit her lower lip and gazed at her, she knew she was done for. Deep desire pooled in his eyes and her body craved more of the pleasure he brought. Nari knew right then and there that she had no plans of stopping him.

“No, you don't,” he asserted, breaking the kiss for only a second before diving back in.

Her back was flush against the wall now, the cool tile contrasting against the heat of her skin. Johnny held the side of her jaw forcefully, with his other hand tracing the contour of her waistband. Out the window was her moral compass along with her dignity, her judgment clouded with pure desire.

The sensation of his hand dipping lower only added to her bubbling lust. Without warning, he snaked his hand out of her waistband. Nari whined at the loss and Johnny chuckled in amusement.

“Oh?” he mused, his grin never leaving his face. “You don't like that?”

Nari could only shake her head in response, her brain too muddled to think clearly. Satisfied with her frazzled state, Johnny resumed his motions. Her gasps bounced off the bathroom walls as she chased the high, no longer caring who could hear. With each moan that escaped her lips, she began to fall apart. Strands of hair came loose and tears of pleasure pooled. Her release was imminent, but before she could reach the climax Johnny suddenly stopped.

“I'm sorry, did you want more?” he asked, forehead pressed to her own.

Falling from her high, the reality of the situation came back into focus. What the hell was she doing? Not too long ago Nari couldn't even fathom being in the same room as Johnny, let alone letting herself unravel in front of him. It almost sickened her how quickly she folded under his spell. He knew exactly what he was doing and Nari was willingly falling right into his trap.

“Please,” she replied as she tried to catch her breath.

That was all Johnny needed to continue. With her pleasure still heightened, it took Nari only a few minutes to fully come undone. If Johnny wanted, she would let him take her right then and there. All the sirens in her head told her it was wrong, but why did it feel so right?

“See you tomorrow,” he snickered as he pulled away from her. Giving her a quick once over, he left the bathroom without another word.

Left alone with nothing but her reeling thoughts, Nari glanced at her reflection in the mirror. Disheveled hair and smudged mascara. Nari could barely recognize herself. As she attempted to fix her unruly state, Johnny’s words mocked her. Their little affair was going to cost her. She wasn't going to get fired over it, no, but her impulses were going to cost her the little bit of sanity she had left. Johnny was going to take it all and ruin her beyond recognition.

#nct 127 #nct fanfic #nct #nct 127 fanfic #johnny nct #johnny suh #suh youngho #johnny nct smut #johnny suh smut #nct smut #nct 127 smut

[gengarartblog]

Not really phases of the incident but more like different concepts of what could have happened? These are mostly scrapped now but I figured I could post them since they were technically almost done. This is again leaning into the "what if Dalv was the Integrity SOUL's final boss fight" idea I had. Maybe if I figure this out I'll make a doodle page or something.

Ramblings below the cut for my thought process atm when it comes to me trying to figure out the timeline of events with the Snowdin Incident. Because I am fucking STRUGGLING with this one.

Enjoy the scrapped concepts and, if you read it, the rambling below the cut.

All I know that I have to work with is:

-Kanako was unharmed -Dalv was injured, bad enough to be traumatized by it. He's also aware of the integrity human dying. (He mentions that day just repeating for him, which is probably flashbacks.) -Chujin knows that Dalv was injured, and instead of comforting his daughter or helping Dalv, he sends Axis after the human only to arrive to an absolute mess of a scene when he finds Axis and the remains of the human.

So the first issue:

Did Chujin and Axis show up before the human ran? Chujin was told by the other Snowdin residents about the human and he definitely found Kanako and Dalv at least. I'm actually starting to lean towards him having not arrived before the human ran since Chujin mentions that Kanako had no one to protect her (technically incorrect, as Dalv was 100% there and likely would have been protecting her. BUT if he had died then she would have been next with no one to save her). This would mean that for Kanako to be unharmed and for Dalv to be still alive, one of three things had to have happened:

a. The human decided to spare Dalv. Maybe because they didn't want to kill in front of another child or because they just decided to spare Dalv after beating him up. They then ran to waterfall because that was the next area they needed to go to get to the castle, and had no idea that Axis would be following soon.

b. Dalv managed to deal enough damage that the human decided to flee. He does mention holding back against Clover, and he's one of few monsters that live long enough to speak a few sentences after a fatal hit (like Starlo, Ceroba, Papyrus, and Undyne to name a few examples, who are all stronger regular monsters). And as we've seen from Undyne, even regular monsters can hold their own against a human if they're protecting someone or something. Hell, with Undyne we even have to run from her to be able to spare her in UT. The problem with this is that Dalv mentions that he won't run away this time ("All I know is that somehow... you found me. Sorry to make things difficult but I'm not cowering away this time"). But I'm not sure if he means the snowdin incident or if he means when he ran away twice from Clover in the dark ruins. Because while he's mistaking Clover for the integrity human here, he did run away from them in the dark ruins. However the pillar fun value event has Dalv running away???

c. Dalv and Kanako ran when they had the chance. But then why did the human run to waterfall instead of just wiping out snowdin? Sure Dalv and Kanako could have been the last monsters the human encountered before waterfall, but then Chujin would have likely encountered the human before Dalv and Kanako did. Not only that but from the sounds of it, Dalv stuck around for a bit probably due to injuries since Chujin mentions that he should have stayed to help calm Kanako down and to help Dalv with his injuries.

So what the hell is the timeline of events here? Like. Was the human already past Snowdin and went backwards for some reason at some point? Maybe they found out what happened to some of the other humans and that upset them to the point where they started violently defending themselves? I dunno.

The second issue:

Who the hell is the "friend" that Dalv mentions in his journal that apparently "doesn't exist"? I'm guessing it's whoever was leaving the corn right? Maybe Kanako since he said it's been a year?

I have no idea. I'm gonna go back to trying to figure out more stuff and put a timeline together for this. See ya.

#steven art #undertale yellow #dalv uty #dalv #feel free to ignore my ramblings i'm just trying to figure out what happened with dalv and the snowdin incident hsdkjghkdfgfh

[jurassic-amber]

Prepare thyself mortal. For I have questions to bestow upon thee.

1. Do you have anything resembling a story / route planned for Abigail? Supporting characters, ect?

2. Ever drawn a metal guitar before?

3. Regarding your Digimon artwork, what inspires you to create digimon? Do you have a favourite digimon you’ve designed? Is there anything in particular that inspired their design?

4. I *know* you’ve got a character who transforms into a monster somewhere in that brain of yours. Tell us about them. All of them.

5. What is your favourite Iterator OC? Why? Is there anything that particularly inspired their design (both art and character wise)?

6. How are you so fucking good at art?

7. Do you have any Pokémon OC’s? Or hell, OCs from existing works you haven’t talked about?

Love you and your art, please share more :happyhugs:

1: I’m very vague on Abigail’s story overall, but I know how it ends, specifically. If they were in a game it’d be a very short game compared to base game Undertale, only going up to Waterfall before encountering the “final boss” they couldn’t beat. (Hint: it’s not undyne) Gonna leave it mostly in the dark besides that for the time being (because it’d take too long to draw)

2: Nope, but here’s a quick sketch of an electric guitar

3: Ohhhhh well, in the beginning I just drew a bunch of rookie level digimon to practice and do a sort of “attribute swap” where I draw stuff like plant digimon as dragon digimon or dragon digimon as birds, etc etc. But a lot of more recent work is actually modern designs for pen and marker drawings from when I was like 7! Some have changed names, some have improved colors, all of them have improved designs. Here’s an example!

When I get around to drawing their champion and ultimate levels it’ll probably diverge even more as I get different ideas as to where I want the lines to go. I also just love making digimon cause I often draw to fill empty niches in works I notice, and digimon basically has infinite of those cause you can partner a digimon up with any character and then try to think of a special line for them! As for my current favorite… it’s a strange choice, but definitely CryoGreymon! Most of the body is traced from official art of the normal Greymon, but I liked the modifications I made. I redrew an entire leg to give him a wider stance, added more spikes and stripes!!

It’s a champion form of Snow Agumon cause they never gave him a digivolution despite being the coolest variant (Hehehe cool and snow, get it?)

4: At first I was gonna do Aria for this, but then I remembered Cloe and fuck yeah let’s do her.

CLOE, pronounced Chloe is a character for a sci-fi mystery game, and when I say sci-fi, I mean space travel and aliens sci-fi. She’s an early game red herring meant to be reasonably suspicious to the characters, but obviously innocent to us, along with being a parody of every horror movie alien. She’s from a species that grows to disguise itself as other creatures and infiltrate their society. Her species needs a very high protein count. However being a species means they don’t all think the same. Some eat the creatures they disguise amongst, others steal prey, some intimidate others into satisfying their hunger. Cloe herself is an orphan and only survivor of an alien ship that crashed into a human controlled planet, and isn’t a species allowed on human controlled planets. Fortunately the agency that ends up handling the case where she’s exposed also was established in the first place to handle these type of situations. She follows one of the protagonists around after it’s obvious she’s innocent, and post game she goes under his care for the foreseeable future. As an alien she’s not allowed in normal school, so she spends her time at his house both studying and finding hobbies, like speedrunning in video games.

5: Not sure if you meant my favorite one I’ve made? I’m still trying to come up with all their designs tbh. But my favorite concepts ever were the vague one of Gifted Order and I also really like Two Bloodstained Hands. Gifted Order basically makes a part of themselves into a Slugcat, but gives themself rot in the process. They don’t quite see it as themselves, but are satisfied to give part of themselves freedom. This is inspired by a plot point in a game I like, leaving it vague which. I also like Two Bloodstained Hands’ concept of being feared just because they associate with violence in their work even though they aren’t a violent iterator

6: A lot of it is really just doing it over and over again, but aside from that I might have a couple tips? Most objects are made up of basic shapes, then you smooth them over. Depending on your art style, you don’t have to use every shape either, just a circle for the head is fine if you’re drawing something simple. Hair can be done with just wavy lines usually. And one thing I learned recently is practicing line weight!! Balancing thin lines and thick lines can give more direction to artwork or help highlight the silhouette if the outside is made thick.

7: god, I have so many… but in terms of Pokémon, I do have a bunch of fakemon designs! Remind me later and I’ll put up I’ll the fan-eeveelution designs I made

#my art #art #drawing #original character #digimon #original digimon #iterator OCs #fakemon #sci fi #god it feels weird putting such a variety of tags here even though they’re all applicable #imposter syndrome but it’s just me worrying about spam tagging

[0poole]

Twitter keeps wanting to shove this all in my face so I’m gonna put it somewhere

I seriously can’t believe all the criticism towards Beelzebub in the new (old?) Helluva Boss episode. It genuinely boggles my mind that people looked at a Vivziepop character, saw a Vivziepop character, and for some reason wanted something that wasn’t a Vivziepop character? Like, I get what people mean on the surface when they say they didn’t expect the leader of Gluttony to be that kind of character, but so many people seem so devoted to the idea that it’s somehow an objectively “bad” idea to ever deviate from the most expected norm of what Beelzebub as a concept can be.

Believe it or not, Vivziepop’s Hell was never meant to be the most generic take of Hell. Shocking, I know. You really couldn’t have guessed, considering the art style and character designs are so by-the-books. I mean, we all know Satan as a concept was always meant to basically be a smug twink by design.

Genuinely the worst take I saw on it was one guy who made a post like “EVEN HELLTAKER OF ALL THINGS HAS A BETTER BEELZEBUB DESIGN THAN HELLUVA BOSS” which is, for one, a terrible take because Helltaker designs are actually good despite being kind of repetitive in terms of the main girls (hopefully they were just saying that Helltaker generally aimed for more sexualized designs, which is still a stupid take because holy shit you have no idea what actual sexualized designs look like if you genuinely think Helltaker characters are over-sexualized. That shit is insanely tame compared to the things I’ve seen.)

But the main reason is because of a sentiment I saw in two memes that are honestly only hilarious when they’re put side by side (and hilarious at the meme maker’s expense). The first one went like “Robots in Western media:” and it showed like some goofy nonsense robot and then went “Robots in Japanese media:” and showed either like some Gundum-type of robot or some hot anime girl (but in a way that suggested that was better, at least) and then the second meme was literally the exact inverse of that, made completely separately (probably), where the Japanese robot was basically an anime sex toy and the Western robot was actually cool, or something. Basically has the same vibe as those weirdos who use the meme of “Women western game developers think we want” and “Women gamers actually want” where of course the first one is a normal looking woman and the second is a scantily clad woman with massive tits, hips, and a perfectly smooth face.

Basically, these people are just completely lost on the fact that good character design doesn’t exist agnostic of the medium the character is in. Gundam-style mechas are designed to be athletic, dynamic, and action-oriented, because that’s what mecha shows are going for. Anime sex toy robots are made to be, you know, sex toys, because they’re in porn, basically. Goofy robots are made to be goofy because they’re in casual comedies. Cool western robots are made to be dynamic and action-oriented because they’re ALSO in a show that wants mecha sensibilities.

Vivziepop wanted a sexy-cute cheetah-bee hybrid because that’s the vibe her content goes for. Helltaker wanted a disgusting mess of a monster because that’s what they wanted (and tbh I didn’t even remember seeing Beelzebub in the game so clearly the character wasn’t important lol)

And I don’t even like Beelzebub THAT much, honestly. She’s definitely cute and fun to watch in action tho (the Spindlehorse animation team is fucking insane and amazing). The fact that she’s voiced by Ke$ha is also seriously a success story for the ages.

Oh yeah and anyone saying she doesn’t fit as the leader of Gluttony cuz she’s skinny, if you actually watched the episode you’d see that she can literally spawn food from her stomach. Idk something about that makes me think she’d be pretty popular there, just a hunch

EDIT: dammit she already dropped an infinitely more concise and nice rebuttal like an hour before I finished this post

#beelzebub #helluva boss #rant #ramble #etc

[tartrazeen]

Oh my God.

I think I just figured out DELTARUNE and the "Angel's Heaven."

Okay - work with me here.

Spamton keeps talking about going to heaven and such, right? And he calls Noelle an angel, right?

There is more than one angel.

I just realized that - I'm watching MatPat's theory and I'm like halfway through and it clicked.

Noelle has snow powers. She's the snow angel.

Onion-san keeps talking about hearing a song and there are lots of references to the ocean. Shyren's in this game too, right? Shyren's gonna be an angel fish.

What other kind of angels are there? Obvious puns that can get tied back to a possible world in Deltarune?

Well, immediately, my mind goes to angel investor. If there was ever a bank-related world, or a political world, that could come into play. Noelle's mom is a mayor and even the TV world could be all about funding the way Hollywood is. A stretch? Sure! But one of many possibilities now.

There's also guardian angel. I could see that being some sort of final boss, and maybe even Kris themselves since no 'angel' appears in the first chapter. That could be a grand reveal at the end of the story. But it could also be Undyne or Toriel or Asgore, given their roles in this story.

Fallen angel (or dark angel) could take on a whole host of meanings, especially when the prophecy is trying to "banish the angel's heaven." Maybe it'll be someone working against us, or someone who helps us more than anybody else. Who knows? Let's get crazy: maybe it's Sans! Maybe it's Papyrus!

I know about angels of mercy (or death), which would be very interesting given the focus so far on the hospital and the prominence of the church in this town.

It's not a term I personally hear used too often, but an "angel's advocate" exists. I don't know if that'd fit the theme though, since it doesn't necessitate having the advocate be an angel as well. There's also a "destroying angel" (aka "death angel") - which is a mushroom, and what could be a very clever nod to that dancing mushroom in Temmyville, along with that meme of "You cannot destroy me in a way that matters." That might be a bit too obscure, though. Just saying these two for the sake of it. I'm pretty sure there'd need to be seven types of angel to go along with the number of flowers/souls, which is why I want to leave those options there.

If we were to get real trippy about it, we could say no angel is an option. Like the phrase "you're no angel"? It could link to Kris not seeing their hand in the shadow crystal and their choices not mattering, or just as a quirky, meta way to get a seventh type for Kris to play. Hell, the fact that there's no angel in the first chapter could be the whole point: Kris is no angel. Whether that's heroic or even worse than ever, I'm not sure. It could definitely go either way.

The most fascinating connections, though, is with terms, like angel dust. Do I think Toby's gonna through drugs randomly into this? Probably not! But I do see the obvious fit between that term and the dust that monsters are supposed to crumble into, and how 'angel dust' could be used as a weapon somehow. Used a little less often but still with clear links that can be made is angel's tears, which is a type of flower. Then there's angel cake, which is something Ralsei has already cooked up out of pot! So, y'know, more connections there.

Yes, I know archangel is another term, but that doesn't quite fit the pattern of it being an [attribute] angel. I could see that as a boss name, maybe, but not one of several types in the story.

Anyway! :D That just struck me and I love the thought of it. Maybe "Angel's Heaven" refers to some sort of last-angel-standing battle royale? 🤔 Not sure. I don't think the grammar's wrong. But I think it's meant to be misleading.

#deltarune #undertale #angel's heaven #my stuff #good job tartra

[mishkakagehishka]

anyway. followup. rank the resi games from ur faves (for whatever reason, could be story, the characters, the game making u want to curl up in a ball and cry, ur metric is whatever u want it to be) to ur least faves..... i've never played any of them and only have minor knowledge of a few so like. im fascinated.

I'm soooooo biased anyway

1. Resident Evil 4 - my introduction to the series, which was good bc i was such a scaredy-cat as a kid, the whole "let's make it less survival and more action" was nice. Playing RE2make, i missed the freedom of being allowed to "clean up" an area. I love RE4 i love RE4 Leon, my first fictional crush, i love Ashley, i love Luis, i love the putas, and i love the lake monster named Lake from the lake named Lake. Mwah. Chef's kiss. Perfect game, in my esteemed opinion. The remake should have given us even gorier death scenes instead of cleaner, but I appreciate the fact that they made Luis and Leon's dynamic (even) gayer. So many iconic lines, I don't even know which one to quote. I didn't know your right hand is going to bingo.

2. Resident Evil 1 (this is actually n1 spot but RE4 is there bc you gave me that freedom). Like. I mean. Listen. We gotta respect our elders. And RE1 fucks so hard. She was the blueprint for everything. The dog corridor. The mansion level of all mansion levels. Jill sandwich. What more could you want from a video game. There is multiple endings though and I forgot how they went about that, but I assume there's a "true" ending for the lore. Also in 2002 they remastered it and put Jill on the cover of their "you can choose to play as a girl or a boy" game that revolutionised gaming and media in general? And some companies in 2018 acted as nobody wants to buy a game where the girl protag is the one primarily marketed and/or where you play as a girl. Looks at ubisoft.

3. Resident Evil 2. This might be bias, but it might not be. Because RE3 is more action-y and while I did say I appreciated that as a kid in RE4, i feel like it worked in RE4, but not so much in 3? I think i'm biased. Anyway RE2 was cool because heellooooooo Mr X? Iconic. The soundtrack? Divine. The way you had A and B sides ?!?!?!?!? Four different scenarios because depending on who you chose in A, you'd have a totally different story????? Iconic. 10/10 in my esteemed opinion. I love Resident Evil 2. Can Claire and Leon please just ba----

4. Code Veronica. I still have no idea what the fuck happened in this game. 8/10 at this point I went "what the hell is this lore" (/pos). Like i'm trying to come up with an example to give you but i can't. Love the gothic setting tho

5. Resident Evil 3. Lipbite. Clockwork level. Nemesis.

Horror game girl swag. I dunno, I don't have much to say. She was iconic, but by this point we're in "i'm not exactly a shooter for these games" territory.

Now. Much as I love RE4 it definitely was a sign of things to come. Scratches the back of my neck. I kinda don't care for RE5 and 6. I know Chris punches a boulder in one of them. I do appreciate that they turned it back to survival horror with 7 and Village, buuuut. They lost me. As I said, I don't care for the lore that much, it spans too long, there's a lotta new characters (and I'm not one for "legacy" characters anyway, ik you can only do so much with the originals, but :( i just prefer the smaller cast and our classics. But i get that Capcom wants to have the games set in the years they're releasing, so they kinda haaave to, but </3). 7 and Village definitely were cool, but they somehow felt~~~ a bit less Resident Evil-ly... if that makes sense. 7 was great, but Village's bosses... I dunno. I wasn't much of a fan of how it fit into the sci-fi world of RE.

Listen. I think RE was best when it had the static camera and the horrible dread and when it made you wonder if you should shoot or not. The camera in the original was good because it was part of the horror. No you may NOT have the freedom to see what's around you. Fuck you. The first person in 7 and Village are actually fine for it but😢 i'm a grandma as it goes. RE0 also sounds super cool, but I haven't played it nor seen anyone play it. Will have to get on that tbh

#um um um. hey did you guys know i really loved this series as a kid #asks

[baronvonriktenstein]

INCHERESTING...... so wait, tell us more about Juniper and Nanami as characters, like.... their races and all that jazz???

DISCLAIMER: Not to be the worst worldbuilder and character creator ever, but I don't know. That means right here I'm gonna try to build them up right now!

And I'm being transparent here (You might say "Hey, if you didn't say this opening bit, I wouldn't know") because ... right now they're not solid characters... so if I change them completely somewhere down the line, you know why. [For example: in her earliest incarnation, Jocelyn had brown hair and green eyes. That is no longer the case. And these characters still aren't solid because I think of them in terms of random episodes and also I've basically abandoned them lol but I'm trying not to do the same with Nanami and Juniper, if that's not clear. I also wanna ... divorce them from their ‘actors’ but it's kind of hard, especially in regards to Jun lol]

. [character info below]

As far as race goes, on the Actor level, they're both played by my in-universe Japanese-American actors. So the characters are East-Asian coded but they would live in a Fantasy World, most likely, that isn't specifically our Earth, probably. (Nanami's hard to tell but that's because Anime style is like that lol) In-universe, Juniper's human or at least humanoid. Nanami is a shapeshifting sea monster of some kind. Legend has it, she eats humans. Whether or not that's true? Who knows. She takes the form of a rather busty, pretty woman, you know, cuz that means it's easy for her to get around and con people. Even her own people might not know what she is... well at least some of them.

The way I treat the story so far, Nanami might as well be a stock villain, but...

I think she might have some loyalties among her crew/team/hell even servants. Like so long as they're devoted to the group and/or her, she'll look out for them. On the other hand, she's hard in punishment and perceived betrayals. And in narratives where she's not a metaphorical monster, if one of her crew crosses a line with her. Killing is generally ok, torture is not always. She's prone to lashing out and violence. She enjoys at the very least fighting and drinking and thieving, even in universes where she's not outright evil.

She's impressed by some level of defiance sometimes. Really depends lol. Definitely impressed by people surviving overwhelming odds.

I wouldn't say she's a romantic, but she can be the kind of person who ... if she fell in love with someone, she would kill for them, she would absolutely do the worst of the worst for them. If they didn't want her to, but they loved her too, and she realized that, and in a more sympathetic narrative, she would ... try her best for them lol.

She's the kind of woman who's perceived as ruthless and fearless (and sometimes is) but can potentially also be ... awkwardly gentle... like she's lived a kind of life where she doesn't know how to be gentle. Perhaps, as a monster, she was raised to be a certain way and in more sympathetic narratives about her, she doesn't want to be... at least not all the time. She still genuinely likes fighting, after all.

No matter what, unless a long term story goes a certain positive way... if her most cherished person was killed.... well... no good will come to who was responsible.

Alternatively, If she'd had her heart broken by, say, Juniper, she'd probably turn cold and crueler than before :) No going back. And of course other negative narratives... Well she can't feel genuine love... And any loyalties among her crew come from ... well convenience. It’s smart to have people loyal to her for reasons beyond fear, so she will look out for them in a way.

.

The way I treat the story so far, Juniper might as well be a set piece, buuuuuuuuut...

I think he's a gentle, smart boi uwu

Not too gentle.

He's certainly in love with someone he doesn't think he should be in love with (his best friend, his best friend's dad lol, his boss. I don't know who it is. [It's not for gay reasons that he's nervous about it btw, it's because of like... class] (alternatively instead of a maybe one-sided crush, it could also be like... an affair ooooooo *wiggles fingers*)

His emotional attachment to that man, deserved or not, is what will land him in Nanami's uhhh care. Maybe she attacked their carriage to rob them, maybe she was specifically going after a wealthy person/person's son, and uhhh Jun would lay down is life for him, likely by tricking her into thinking he's who she's looking for, or just in a desperate pleading kind of way "take me not him" and she's feeling generous.) My friend @momopeachchild also threw in a possibility that she's looking for a treasure and thinks he either is the physical embodiment of what she's searching for, or he knows where it is, which I do enjoy. In this case he'd definitely be like "I'll go with you if you let them [people he's with] go free." -The point is ... he's either a kind, loving person, or he's just really devoted to someone a little too much.

... less likely the last circumstance because i think if he's held prisoner, being questioned, whatever... He'd like not talk. For as long as possible. Initially he'd avoid eating and drinking for a few days but would come to the conclusion that if there's poison in the food/drink, it'll kill him. If not, he'll die a much slower more miserable death. If it's other drugs... well if he doesn't eat or drink, he'll be too weak to fight anyway, so he will concede to eating and drinking before Nanami expects him to "give up" but he will pointedly avoid eating any meat because yeah he's worried it's like... people lol (not that he knows she's a literal fish monsters, just... there are rumors about these people as the worst of the worst). At least for as long as he can manage.

Whenever he gets a chance to escape he will take it (I don't know what that is).

Any romance would start after this point. Because let's say this is a positive storyline because if it's not, this is just a point where Jun ultimately becomes a tired man who's trying to hold onto his sanity as long as possible but he's just a man. I mean it could take more escape efforts, but it's... But for a happier story: He's given freedoms because Nanami's just kinda impressed and maybe a little surprised no one's showed up for him yet... depends. And I mean maybe she didn't wanna imprison him all that long but she's realized he's not who he said he was so held him imprisoned longer while she was tryna figure out what to do. and now she's like "I like his spirit so"... Also if he got injured by one of her people, she's mad at that person for uhhh being a little too brutal for her taste. and if he's injured by accident trying to escape her, she realized "Oh I ... I think I was too bad of ... a host." Anyway

Given freedoms to walk the grounds and the castle, given new clothes, having been taken care of, he's... confused and still on edge. He can't trust her like that y'know. He'll be the one to have to ... put out an olive branch essentially after he observes her as a reasonable person.

If they bond, it's over stories, books, they'd sword fight (she'd train him but he wouldn't be bad at it... he'd have learned to protect his friend/master). It's cute.

The majority of the time, I think even after finding out she's a literal monster, that is not what bothers him about her. He'll maybe be startled but uhhh I don't think he'd fully reject her for that reason.

Ultimately, whether or not I conveyed it here... I want him to be kind and smart and resourceful, but also a scared man who's trying so hard not to be, and luckily looks like he’s more annoyed than anything. I want him to be heartbroken in some way about his 1st love interest (not reciprocated as far as he knows, thinking he's being abandoned by him (whether or not that's true) or ... something.

Ah, there are possible storylines where she never turns good but she's not all that bad, and in those he'd kinda just maybe eventually join her side and he'll be more diplomatic for her sake. Like he can reel her in at her worst for their benefit y'know?

I don't know what else to say, this is going too long.

#ask #askbox #partyinthemysterymachine #thank you #Juniper and Nanami #Juniper #Nanami #OCs

[myths-too-tall]

Myths Too Tall Info Post

This contains both basic info and rules.

This blog has far less rules than Tales Too Tall (NOT RELEASED YET), as it is dedicated to non-canon interactions, roleplays, scenarios, or even alternate versions of these already alternate characters.

My main blog is @beepsparks , the canon blog Tales Too Tall is not out yet (I don’t have the motivation and am unable to work on it right now because of how ambitious it is and because of school, sorry)

This blog is also 13+, sorry, but while everything here isn’t canon, gruesome and violent moments will still happen. Whether through scenarios or roleplays. This isn’t a nice and friendly au based on Jack and the Beanstalk. It can get pretty brutal at times. Especially since it’s based on Ice Hell’s Padlock.

Absolutely nothing NSFW! This au and blog is not meant to be sexual in any way, shape, or form.

Feel free to send asks about any scenario ideas you have, this blog is meant for not only roleplays and scenarios I come up with, I’d love to see your ideas! Or even fanart or your own writing if you feel like it lol

PLEASE read the triggers section in the rest of this info post, if you ask things here before reading it, you might get triggered by something you didn’t know would be in here! And I don’t want that to happen.

Available Characters to interact with

The characters you’re able to interact with currently are as follows:

Manny (Yellow Guy), Robin (Duck Guy), and Harry (Red Guy)

Paige and Tony (Everyone’s favorite giant cannibals)

The rest of these characters are not fully developed yet, but some are very close! You’ll still be able to interact with them.

Bentley Briefcase (The boss of a local shop)

Shrignold Butterfly (The local cult leader)

Colin and Electracey (usually a duo in heroic monster hunting)

Charlie Coffin (The man that lives in the woods alone, likes the nice, quiet, and isolated life. Knew Paige and Tony closely from before… Roy happened.)

Lesley (There isn’t much you can do with her, all she does is tell the story)

Extra Info

The characters actually aren’t using digital devices to interact with users. Every ask comes in a form of a letter to them. Their responses, whether written back or spoken, are “mailed away” to them. If you ask them anything mentioning the internet, they will probably be confused. (Also, Colin and Electracey are more like rustic robots because of the time period this au takes place in.)

Paige and Tony are definitely on the more… deranged side. Despite how much they might seem elegant, they’ve gone slightly more insane due to how long they’ve been living in the sky. They don’t even believe they were ever “human” in the first place anymore.

I have character roleplay icons for Manny, Paige, and Tony specifically currently. If I can’t find a good icon to use to react, I wont use them.

Paige and Tony have a giant black Persian cat named Muffin. I don’t know why I made him, but he exists.

Please specify which character you’re sending an ask to to avoid confusion! Also, you can ask characters at any time period, specifically in the beginning, before the beanstalk is grown, the middle, where Manny has either met or stolen from Paige and Tony at least once, or the end, when Paige and Tony have basically kidnapped the trio.

If you want to say which character you’re asking or what time period you want the question to be asked in without actually saying it in your ask, you can simply put it in parentheses.

Example: “[insert ask here]” (Manny, after he’s stolen from Paige and Tony)

My own triggers and minor triggers

This is here to note anything I WILL NOT answer, write, or draw, as such things will make me uncomfortable.

My Major Triggers

Do NOT by any means make or put Paige and Tony in scenarios where they are in danger of something I fear, I have a very high attachment to them, so them at risk of something I fear myself does in fact make me extremely uncomfortable, if not kinda sick. (Please avoid putting them in dangerous situations regarding earthquakes, and any scenario of them being human sized, interacting with another giant (Despite my interest, I did previously have a rough phobia of them unfortunately, and I still am not ENTIRELY over it, as I might get uncomfy from time to time. So yes, unfortunately you cannot ask anything about “role reversed MatB”, despite it would be an interesting concept, I simply can’t deal with it at the moment.)

Please don’t mention or send any clips or photos of the introduction scene with Choo Choo in Transport, that includes my previously mentioned trigger of Tony in scenarios involving him in danger of things I fear, and that scene not only included that, but other things that make me highly uncomfortable. (On another note, though, cropped photos Tony looking kinda goofy after that scene are somewhat okay as long as I don’t think about the scene too much.)

My Minor Triggers

This is stuff that just makes me kinda uncomfy, some things may slide under specific conditions.

I do have a problem where since I have a high attachment to Tony, extremely angsty (specifically, sad angst) situations with him might make me upset (it depends though, so you may ask anyway, I will simply delete the ask if its too bad for me, though.)

Writing of breaking/broken clocks is perfectly fine, any video or GIF of breaking clocks however is not. Apologies, but I believe some of Tony’s traits have rubbed off on me, meaning I also don’t like the act of breaking timepieces in general. Please do not send any videos or GIFs of such actions.

Trigger/Content Warnings for common themes in this AU and blog

A lot of cannibalism will be mentioned or possibly even done, Paige and Tony have always been cannibals, even when they used to be “human”. They will even threaten others.

As previously mentioned, Paige and Tony (and sometimes other characters) threaten people sometimes! Paige and Tony especially don’t tend to play nice.

Since the villains, Paige and Tony, are giants, theres a LOT of things that could count as megalophobia in this au. So if you have that phobia, please be careful when reading.

There will be a lot of descriptions of gore here, violence is kinda common in the MatB au.

This is based on Ice Hell’s Padlock! If you’re not a fan of 2014’s Classic Padlock too much, I wouldn’t exactly recommend this au.

A healthy reminder that everything in here isn’t real! This was all made for fun and to mix my interests, even if Paige or Tony threaten you, remember it isn’t real.

That’s all of the info post! Have fun! And remember! Don’t steal.

#myths too tall info post #pinned post

[eclectic-mania]

she's a killer queen

2. turn and face the strange (ch-ch-changes)

(part 1) | (read it on ao3)

Point Place, WI

July 16, 1977

12:57 AM

A pair of mismatched eyes flew open. 

Jacqueline Burkhart was no stranger to waking up in the middle of the night, but the circumstances surrounding her lack of sleep this time around were definitely... weird. 

The sheets stuck to her sweaty—alright, not sweaty, Jackie Burkhart didn’t sweat—skin thanks to the sweltering heat of a Wisconsin July, and she pulled them off of her as she tried to take stock of what actually woke her up. 

She hadn’t dreamt, not that she could remember, and thank god for that. Her dreams nowadays were downright freaky. In them, she saw other people, people she’d never seen before, people from all sorts of backgrounds. There was a running joke between her and their friends that she hated foreigners—a sentiment her parents seriously believed, even if Jackie herself could never treat it as more than a joke, but even that joke died at the sheer love and kinship she felt for these women that she only ever met in her sleep. In some dreams she is these women, and as them, she fights monsters with deformed faces and giant fangs. Those are more like nightmares, even if she, acting as those women, always wins. 

Jackie shared one such nightmare with Michael once, when he was supposed to spend the night at hers. He huffed and accused her of trying to kill the mood, complete with his trademark “Damn, Jackie,” and she never shared her dreams with him again, monster-ridden or not.

She shuddered, snuggling deeper into her bed. It’s not the first time she’s seen that... hideous creature in her brain, but tonight, now, it doesn’t bring up the same fear. No, for some reason, tonight the vision makes her... anxious. Not in a running way either; in a fighting way. 

Anyway, it wasn’t the dreaming that woke her up this time. Nor was it her usual fear of sleeping alone in a big house, although it was in the back of her mind to check the locks again when she woke up in the morning. Her eyes moved across the room and, finding nothing amiss, she shook her head and relaxed again. I better not wake up again, she grumbled to herself as her eyelids drooped. I need my beauty sleep, damn it. 

She remained oblivious, as her sleep went on undisturbed, of the new power thrumming in her veins. 

The summer days were long and lonely when her friends were busy. Sure, Jackie could have hung out with other cheerleaders, but the girls on the team made her feel terrible, not just about herself but about everyone. She was her worst self when she tried to fit in with them, but damn it, she loved cheering. It was the one thing she did that brought her joy to her days, aside from spending time with (okay, bossing around) Michael. 

She frowned. Come to think of it, she hadn’t spent much time with Michael lately, even though she went to the basement almost every day. Half the time, he wasn’t even there! Still, she was able to get closer with the rest of the basement gang, so it wasn’t a total loss. Fez loved her, Eric and Steven tolerated her, and Donna... Donna was her best friend, and she was a much better friend than anyone on the cheer team, that was damn sure. Hell, even the Formans were wonderful to be around! They were great company, better than her high school social circle and her perpetually absent parents, but that didn’t mean she didn’t miss her man.

Well, then, it was decided. Jackie would be spending the day at the Formans. 

It was a normal day, just as bright and warm as the other summer days, but something was off. Come to think of it, something had been off since the night before when she’d woken up abruptly. She’d been feeling... powerful, she decided, but in the most subtle way possible. She felt an understated strength and damn it, try as she might, she just couldn’t explain it. It didn’t help that she nearly snapped her eyeliner pencil in two just by grabbing it, nor that she seemed to anticipate a car running a stop sign before it even approached the crossing.

You’re just overthinking it, she said to herself as walked over to the Forman residence, though she swore she never used to walk this fast before. Nothing’s wrong, nothing’s different, it’s all in your head.

She said it to herself enough that she believed it. And then she nearly tore the basement door right off its hinges. 

Oops.

Luckily, the only person in the basement was Steven, and he barely paid attention to her on a regular day. But what about today had been regular so far? She saw his eyes widen behind his glasses as she closed the basement door, ten times gentler now after the slam she opened it with. Jackie could practically see the gears turning in his head, and she braced herself for the insults and name-calling to begin. She could hear it already: Jackie Burkhart, cheerleader freak. 

Thankfully, what he actually said was nothing of the sort. “Look, whatever Kelso did, don’t take it out on the damn door, okay?” 

“The door’s just falling apart,” she said, trying to hide her relief, “it wasn’t my fault, and besides, nothing happened to it. It probably just blew open with the wind. Mr. Forman should really fix that door sometime soon.” 

Hyde opened his mouth to respond, but blessedly, he was interrupted by the presence of Michael Kelso himself. 

Perfect, a worthy target of her frustration. “Michael, where have you been lately? I feel like you’re not around a lot nowadays.” 

Michael stammered, looking between Steven and Donna and Eric, who had just come down the stairs from the kitchen. “I’ve been walking the dog. Yeah, yeah, that dog is crazy, Jackie, he needs to pee all the time.” 

“Michael,” she huffed, eyes narrowing, “you don’t have a dog.” 

Lies. He’s lying to you. 

“Yeah, Jackie, I don’t, but, but I gotta walk it anyway because... because I got a job! Yeah, my dad won’t give me any more money for our dates and stuff, so I’m walking dogs now. Yup.”

And really, Jackie shouldn’t have let it slide that she was suspicious, but the implication that he was doing it for her was just too sweet. He was doing what her dad did, trying to provide for her, even if he disappeared from her life in the process. She couldn’t fault him for that, could she? Besides, she’d look like a total bitch if she confronted him after that.

Sure, she’d appreciate some attention sometimes, too, but... wait, was that something she wanted from Michael, or her dad?

“Well,” she sighed, smiling as she plopped onto his lap, “how about we use that date money now?” 

The others in the room were watching with amusement, and their snickering as Michael stammered through some question or another did not go unnoticed by Jackie. They’re just laughing because Michael’s an idiot. That’s all. They’re not laughing at you.

This belief was cemented by the fact that Donna threw a newspaper at him, trying to hide her laughter. “Go ahead, Kelso, plan a date for Jackie.” 

He still looked lost, so Jackie threw him a bone. “Michael, I want to go to the movies today.” 

Eyes brightening, he looked for the movie timings in the paper. 

Throughout the ensuing discussion about Smokey and the Bandit and girl movies, Jackie couldn’t fully move away from the fact that Michael was definitely lying to her. He didn’t have the scent of dog anywhere on him, unlike Mr. Wilkerson when she walked by his yard on the way here. The Wilkerson dog was sickly and not too active, but Jackie could still smell it clear as day on Mr. Wilkerson, and the closest she’d gotten to him was walking past him as he sat on his porch. So there had been no dog-walking or Jackie would’ve smelled it, like how she could smell Donna’s dollar store shampoo and the detergent Mrs. Forman used on Eric’s clothes. 

When had she gotten so good at picking out scents? 

The movie was a great distraction, totally uncomplicated. The Goodbye Girl was great aside from its direct parallels to Jackie’s life, but she could overlook that for Richard Dreyfuss’s insane Richard III performance. She was still giggling at the absurdity of it when Fez reached over and kissed her, with tongue.

Well, so much for uncomplicated.

It didn’t help that Michael punched Fez in the face, which meant they were all sent home. The kiss was great, maybe the best Jackie had ever had, but even that couldn’t distract from the pure fury in Jackie’s heart when she realized what exactly had happened, once she finally had the chance to reflect on it in private. 

Who gave him the right to touch me? 

She suddenly longed to rip Fez limb from limb, to tear his tongue out with her bare hands. A part of her suspected that she actually could do so, too, if she chose. She had that power now. 

That power. 

Where had it come from? Why did it manifest in her? Of course Jackie Burkhart was special, she’d be the first to tell you that, but she didn’t want to be a freak. Her mismatched eyes already made her one; because of them, she’d endured taunts of “freak” and “mutant” for the bulk of her childhood, half of them coming from her own mother. Jackie hated her eyes, and she was quickly growing to hate her newfound abilities in a similar fashion. They didn’t make her special, they made her a freak. And she refused to let anyone call her a freak any longer. 

Not only that, but powers like these were dangerous. Jackie may not have been a comic book dweeb like Eric or a conspiracy nut like Steven but even she knew that people with abilities like hers were at risk of being locked up and experimented on. 

Jackie didn’t want to be locked up! How would she be head cheerleader by her senior year if she was stuck in a secret government facility, being dissected? 

No, she couldn’t let that happen. So Jackie did what any intelligent, rational teenage girl would do: she scribbled about it in her super-secret diary (as opposed to the regular diary she knew her parents and Michael tried to snoop in) and resolved to hide her powers from the public forever, or for however long they lasted. No superhero business for her, no sirree! 

Besides, this was Point Place. Even if she wanted to use her powers for good, when would she get an opportunity to do that around here?

--

Across town, a couple stumbled into an alley next to a bar. The blond man pushed the woman into the brick wall of the bar, relishing in the delighted groan that ripped from her throat. 

“Randy,” she mewled, half-laughing, “yeah, baby, just like that, just—”

The next thing to rip from her throat was her blood, and he happily guzzled it, letting her collapse against the wall once she was drained. 

Randy gazed down at her, sated. It would’ve been smarter to turn her, but he was hungry, and who wanted to change the world on an empty stomach? No matter, he’d turn the next one, maybe one of the other barflies in the pub he’d just walked out of. This town seemed better than any to enact his plan, after all. Yeah, he grinned to himself, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand, Point Place’ll be just fine.

#mine #my fics #she's a killer/queen #killer/queen #that 70s show #t7s #jackie burkhart #jackie x hyde #that 70's show fanfiction #btvs universe #buffy the vampire slayer #vampire #fanfiction #fanfic

[sofiiel]

There & Back Again | Chapter 14

Monsters, Cops, and Sleepovers

↰ ᴘʀᴇᴠɪᴏᴜꜱ | ᴛᴀʙʟᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴄᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛꜱ | ɴᴇxᴛ ↱

Deborah reached the firearms locker and shut herself in, the monster dogs slamming against the sturdy metal door like rain pelting a window. Resting against the door, Deborah caught her breath, her eyes lighting up at the various weapons before her. "Made it, now I can give those things a taste of their own medicine." she thought, collecting a few guns and loading them up.

Meanwhile, in the Medical Lab, Amy sat huddled together glaring at Eddie, who would not stop staring at her. Myrtle looked between them nervously. "You guys ok?" she whispered. "No, I want to know why Rughead keeps staring at me." She said.

Eddie's eyes thinned in annoyance, "can you not call me that?" He asked dryly. "No, it's your new name, deal with it." Amy shot. Myrtle sighed, "I guess he probably wants answers.... that's all." she said. "Yes, he does, but that's not why I'm staring." Eddie stated simply. "Then what's your problem?" Amy asked. "Outside, you poofed out of thin air, I know I've had some shit tonight....but I definitely saw that." Eddie spoke with critical caution.

"So what are you?" He asked.

"A magician!" Amy cheered quietly with jazz hands as she gave a grin of fake cheer. Eddie's brows lifted, unimpressed with her sarcasm, and Amy fixed her expression to match. "It's none of your business." she shot.

"I'm stuck in a small room, hiding in the corner in the dark from the most metal dogs in the history of ever," Eddie said holding up a single finger "which would be some hellaciously boss shit - if they weren't trying to eat us." he added in struggling to contain his frustration. "I think it's my business." Eddie finished.

Amy shook her head, "Nobody asked you to show up." Amy grumbled. "Well, I'm glad he did... I was almost monster food." Myrtle whispered, "but," she added hesitantly, "I get what Amy is trying to say...the wrong way mind you but still. It's best if you don't get too involved. We've found ourselves heading down the rabbit hole, and it doesn't look very nice." Myrtle murmured.

Eddie looked between the two, "So call me the mad hatter, I've got a march hare plus Tweedle Dee and Dum too." Eddie said. Myrtle nearly laughed as a faint smile came to her face. "No." Amy stated. "Believe it or not, I'm actually trying to help you." she said. "This is our business, you are not a part of it." Amy said pointedly.

Eddie looked at Myrtle and frowned while she tried to offer a smile. Eddie's eyes fell to his watch, "it's been nearly fifteen minutes." he said, looking up towards the door. "How much longer should we wait?" Amy asked, listening to the gunfire down the hall. "She said if it gets quiet to run. We hear gunshots...that must be a good thing." said Myrtle.

"It also means those things aren't dead yet, which is pretty bad - If you ask me." Eddie chimed in. "So do we break for it?" Amy asked, "but what if Officer Sinclair needs help?" Myrtle asked. "She's a cop, she'll be fine -" Amy said, her words drowned out by a booming sound that shook the building. "What the hell was that?" Eddie asked quickly.

"And why'd it sound like a hand grenade...." Amy said, looking between them.

Eddie hopped to his feet, and pulled the girls up with him, "alright, no. time to leave." He said. Amy crept to the door and peeked out of the small window, outside a thin layer of smoke hovered. "We've actually got a good bit of cover, that smoke should mess with their sense of smell." Amy said, slowly opening the door. With just enough space to slip through, Amy took the lead, Myrtle and Eddie following after.

"You know, it would have been a wise idea to see if they had any sleeping drugs," Eddie whispered, following behind the girls. "It's a police station, not a hospital, I doubt they would have." Myrtle said. "You need to pacify perps sometimes, right? I'm not saying it would have been strong...." said Eddie. Amy gave a hard roll of her eyes, "Yeah, you wanna be the one to get those things to take it?" she asked.

Eddie paused in his step and gave a nod of his head, "point taken." he hummed.

As the three teens rushed out of the police station, they noticed a man getting out of a tan Chevrolet Blazer. "Whoa nice stash." Amy chimed as he looked at the frantic teens bewildered. "Hands up where I can see them," The man's voice called, Myrtle's hands quickly shot into the air, while Amy and Eddie gave synchronized eye rolls, each lazily raising their hands. 

"What are you three up to at the station at this time of night..." The man asked carefully, his eyes narrowed as they fell on Eddie, "Don't I know you?" he asked. Eddie titled his head to one side, dryly looking the cop up and down, "You might probably not so much me as the company I kept." Eddie grumbled. 

Myrtle stole a glance at him curiously, "Officer Sinclair needs help" Myrtle said, turning her attention to the cop. "She had us try and call the police chief, but he isn't picking up, there are things in there," Amy added in quickly.

"Things?" The cop asked slowly, Myrtle studied the look in his eyes and slowly lowered her hands. "Monsters." she said. "Monster dogs really, we think... um -" Eddie lulled glancing back nervously towards the station, "their heads kinda...Shwuush..." He said,  mimicking the opening motion with his hands, "fly open." Eddie said.

"And they haven't got a face...." Myrtle added.

"And they really like this one here." Eddie said, pointing a finger down at Myrtle above her head. "Although, I-I don't really blame them." Eddie said with a shrug. Amy and Myrtle turned to look at him and in return, Eddie began to fiddle with the ends of his hair. "I mean, not to eat or anything - that would be, weird or-" Eddie mentally kicked himself as he continued to fumble with his words.

"Just shut up!" his mind shouted at him. 

"...you know t-taken, um" Eddie cleared his throat and lightly kicked at the asphalt, "wrong." He said. Myrtle felt the blood rush to her cheeks and drew in a deep breath, turning to look at the cop. "Um so... Officer Sinclair, monsters...you'll help her, right?" Myrtle asked, her voice higher than it should be.

The cop looked at the three teens somewhat fed up, the annoyance slipped away from his face as he peered at the station, gunshots fired, and it was enough to cause him to draw his own gun. "Stay out here." He said simply, heading for the shattered doors.

The three of them turned and watched the cop go, "like hell." Eddie murmured, jogging towards his van, opening the back doors he started to dig beneath the folded-down seat. "What are you doing?" Myrtle asked. "Getting a rope, I'll tether my van to your car, and you can pull my tire out of the monster mush - then we're getting out of here." Eddie said.

"Rughead finally has a good plan" Amy said, going to help out. "But....we can't leave them!" Myrtle called, flinging her arms towards the station. "If two cops can't handle those things, what good are we going to do?" Eddie asked. Myrtle frowned, "it's not right." she said, looking between her friends and the station.

Eddie stopped and sighed, turning to face Myrtle, "We'll only hold them back, ok?" he reasoned, rope in hand. "Plus, those things are after you, right. Maybe knowing you're gone will... I dunno-"

Amy snapped her fingers and grinned, "distract them!" she cheered, cutting Eddie off. "Yes" Eddie said with a nod. "You think so?" asked Myrtle. "Only one way to find out, let's get this rope tied on." Amy said, taking one end of the rope. "Myrtle, back your car up." she said.

Inside the station, Deborah growled at herself as she gave the dead creature before her a hard kick, "son of a bitch." she vented briefly before turning her eyes to the remaining two. Raising her gun, she pulled the trigger and it clicked emptily. Deborah looked down at the gun in her hands with wide eyes, "I did not go through all my ammo already." she exhaled.

Deborah's eyes started to scan the room for a potential weapon, a stapler, the water jug, the radio, and a pair of steel scissors were the only decent make-shift weapons about. "I don't like my odds with any of them." Deborah thought, backing up slowly against the wall. "Why'd you run your ignorant ass into the coffee room?" she scolded herself.

Two loud shots fired as the monsters closed in, and Deborah's legs almost gave from under her. "How'd you manage that?" She asked, looking at the whimpering hounds. They were alive, but they seemed not to be able to move. "Shoot any living thing in its spine, and it's not going anywhere," Hopper said, his eyes focused on the dogs.

Kneeling with caution, he examined one, turning it to look towards him. The creature opened its mouth, and before it knew what happened, Hopper fired his gun and went to repeat the process with the remaining creature.

"Chief...what are these things?" Deborah asked. Hopper shook his head, breathing a long, troubled sigh. "They look like..." Hopper thought, giving the corpse a shove with the tip of his foot, "But they're smaller..." he thought.

"Chief?" Deborah asked, she watched Hopper gaze at the creatures. "You've seen it before," she said quietly. Hopper shook his head, "no," he said, voice distant. Clearing his throat, he looked up at Deborah. "No, of course not, I'm just...freaked out." Hopper said with a faltering smile. "I mean...shit..." He sighed.

"I know..." Deborah said, shaking her head as she looked at the monsters. Hopper watched her while her attention was elsewhere, "did she buy it?" He thought to himself.

Deborah pointed to the creature, "you think the Nuclear plant has anything to do with this? Maybe some strays got caught in some of the waste, or...the waste is leaking into the water supply?" Deborah asked, turning her attention to Hopper.

"I think...for now, we get these things into my truck, I'll have someone do an autopsy on them, get down to the bottom of this." Hopper said. "Sounds like a good idea, We can get the kids to help." Deborah said with a smile. Hopper gave a nod and let Deborah led the way out of the Coffee room.

However, when the two made it outside the station, the parking lot was empty, save a few mashed monsters.

"W-where'd they go?" Deborah asked. "Would you stay?" Hopper asked right back. 

Several blocks away, Myrtle pulled her car to a stop and hopped out, Amy doing the same, they met Eddie halfway to his van. "So now what?" Eddie asked, "we all go home." Myrtle exhaled, looking around, it seemed like more of the creatures would pop out at any moment. "Go home? Your serious?" Eddie asked.

Myrtle shrugged her shoulders and hugged herself, "Yeah, that had to be the last of those things." she said, "there can't be more than that, it's impossible - not with only us having seen them." Myrtle reasoned.

"And even if they are, they clearly want me. You don't have to worry about leading them back to your place or your uncle," she added. "My uncle likes a good hunt, actually," Eddie murmured. He looked Myrtle over carefully, she looked as if her legs were hardly supporting her and her clothes had wrinkled like wet laundry after being left in a heap to dry.

"But, going home sounds good, you look beat." said Eddie, "Sleep probably sounds real nice right now." he added. Myrtle side glanced, "I won't get that at home even if I didn't have to run damage control with Dad." she thought.

"Dumbass, she can't sleep." Amy scoffed as a reminder. "Oh, that's right." He murmured, a concern crossing his face. Myrtle reached around and lightly touched the back of her neck, "It's ok, I don't feel so strange anymore." she said, feeling slightly relieved. "I can't say more odd events won't happen back home, but for now I feel fine." Myrtle thought.

Eddie and Amy glanced at each other skeptically, "I think you better crash with me." Amy said. Myrtle grimaced, she felt bad enough that Amy had to hide out in that dusty old basement, and she couldn't imagine spending a night there herself. Childhood fascination with the old home, or otherwise.

Amy laughed, "don't look at me like that, I've cleaned the place up nice. It's awesome now." she said. "I can make sure you don't poof away in the night," Amy added.

"I think you should listen to Weird Girl, if you're sleepwalking, a sleepover is probably a good idea." Eddie said. "Hello, name - Amy." Amy grumbled with a dry wave. Eddie's gaze slipped over to her as a smirked "it's not all that nice is it." he shot, eyes thinning into a halfhearted glare, "If I have to be Rughead, your name is Weird Girl." He added.

Amy rolled her eyes and Myrtle laughed quietly, "really I'll be ok, I've got three people in my household." she said. Neither Eddie nor Amy seemed convinced, "and?" Amy shot, "they aren't worth a damn." she said. "Nobody expected what happened the first time, and it's not like I told them exactly what happened. But my dad likes to run a tight ship, so I'm sure he will be watchful. Even if he just thinks I'm sneaking out the house." Myrtle explained, she then heaved a heavy sigh, "especially if he thinks I'm sneaking out the house." 

"You're just asking for trouble, aren't you?" Amy said, her brows knitting together as she shook her head hopelessly at Myrtle. "No, I'm just....trying to get things to feel normal. You can will things into being, I have to believe that. So if I put this behind me, maybe it will be over and a nice, simple summer can get underway." Myrtle said with a strained smile.

Eddie stood quietly with a frown etched on his face, he released a dissatisfied sigh, his arms dropping to his side. "I can't kill her optimism." He thought to himself. Lazily reaching out an arm, he walked towards Myrtle, pulling her into a one-armed hug. "Fine, but I could use a break from being superman for a night." Eddie said with a wink. Myrtle blushed, "you play too much." she murmured shyly. 

Eddie gave a small grin, "just make sure we see you tomorrow." he said, heading for his van.  Myrtle and Amy returned to the car and got inside, the ride back to the Creel Mansion was a quiet one as both girls were drained beyond imagination. Sometime along the way, Amy fell asleep.

Back at her house, Myrtle crept through the front door as quietly as she could, her parents would be furious and there was no real way she could begin to explain what had happened that night. The house was dark except for the blue light coming from the downstairs television.

Myrtle's heart sank, she gave up her hopes of sneaking and trudged into the living room.

"They aren't home yet, Dad dragged mom to a dinner party," Patrick muttered dryly from his seat on the sofa. Myrtle exhaled in relief. "You'll still be in trouble," He snickered, tossing her an amused smirk. "You don't have to tell him anything. For all he knows, I got back home at a good hour." Myrtle pleaded.

"Not a chance, I take my licks from Dad when I mess up - you should too," Patrick said with a scowl. Myrtle's gaze wavered to the side, "I get in trouble too. Just not in the same way as you do." she whispered. Maybe if she stood there long enough he would notice the terrible state she was in, or maybe he hardly saw her enough to care.

Myrtle waited, hopeful, no she didn't want to have to explain things. But she just wanted to be seen. "Could you go? You're ruining the movie." Patrick muttered, kicking his feet up on the sofa. "Sorry, I'm gone." Myrtle spoke quietly, heading for the stairs, she bit her lip. It wasn't his fault, it was their father that had created the divide between them. "I miss when he was my little Patty.... I miss when he used to come to me advise," Myrtle thought. Weariness made the aches of her body much more prominent as she climbed the stairs,  "I miss the little boy who'd bring me bandaids just because I stubbed my toe - I miss being sissy." a bittersweet smile came to her face as childhood memories came back.

Myrtle stood before her bedroom door, "I also very much miss not being afraid of my room." she whispered. Closing her eyes again, Myrtle willed the idea that everything was fine, completely normal, and walked inside, closing the door behind her.

Myrtle went through the motions of feeding Shelob, she released the live cricket she had been saving for her fuzzy friend. A small smile was brought to Myrtle's face as she watched Shelob eagerly stalking her prey. "I should find you more live prey, you really seem to like it." Myrtle yawned.

Trudging to the bed, Myrtle kicked off her shoes and flopped down, rolling onto her side. Curling up as small as she could, she lifted her wrist to look at the leather bracelet. "It's got dark patches from the monster blood now." Myrtle thought with a frown. Her eyes lids started to feel heavy, "maybe, I can get it cleaned. It's leather, after all. I can't let it get ruined." Myrtles thoughts slowly faded as sleep took her, one hope lingering in the back of her mind, "don't let it happen again."

Amy chomped away at a plum she'd lifted from the grocery store a few days ago, and listened to the local news from her little radio. She lay on her stomach in the little fort tent she had built for herself, blankets and pillows piled high. "Nobody is talking about it yet, so Officer Sinclair and that other guy haven't gone public with it yet..." Amy murmured. "It is pretty early, but who cares, mutant monsters terrorizing townspeople." Amy sighed, tossing the pit of the plum across the basement, landing it in a dusty unopened box.

A few hours passed and the last remnants of night would soon be fading, a figure snuck down the sidewalk of a quiet upper-middle suburban block. Crickets still chirped, a dog bayed off in the distance, and the air smelled of summer breeze kissed grass.  The figure shadowed by the night hopped the back fence into the McKinney's backyard.

Eddie stood up and examined the large backyard, "Hello pool." He said in a whisper of a whistle, but being impressed did nothing for the disappointment on his face, "three people she said, the cars not in the driveway." Eddie thought, walking closer to the house. His eyes scanned the windows carefully, there were three of them upstairs.

"Which one is yours." Eddie thought.

Glancing over the rest of the house, Eddie spotted a soft light in what looked like the back door to the living room. Being as careful as he could, Eddie snuck over, peering into the glass. "Patrick," Eddie murmured, watching his fellow student kick back while watching a movie. It was only the back of his head, but it was hard to mistake the slightly lopsided high top fade.

Backing away, Eddie cast his eyes back up, only one room had a light on. "Must be it," he said, reaching into the pocket of his leather jacket and pulled out a small, worn drawstring bag. Reaching into it, he pulled out two small dice, the numbers fading away from them. Looking up at the windows, Eddie drew back his hand and chucked one of the dice away from him, up towards the glass.

After several attempts, Eddie paused, "Only two dice left" He thought. Eddie stole a glance towards the back door window, it seemed Patrick was still very much into his movie, or sleep, He couldn't tell.

"Come on, I need a crit." Eddie whispered to the die in his hand before tossing it up towards the glass.

A faint thud against the wall and the soft but relentless skittering of legs up and down Myrtle's arms coaxed her heavy eyelids awake, she let out a soft groan. "Guys let me sleep." she murmured gently brushing at the tiny spiders, they were quick to return to whoever it was they'd come from as Myrtle slipped her feet out of the bed and wandered over to the window.

Eddie smiled as he could hear the window raise and a groggy face poked her head out, rubbing her eyes. "Pssst," Eddie called up with a wave.

"Eddie?" Myrtle called quietly, glancing around in panic while he smiled and held out his arms, "only one guy in this world with my unfortunate face." He teased. "J-just hold on." Myrtle stammered, darting back into her room and ducking down before the window. 

Myrtle lifted a wicker laundry basket to reveal a rope ladder with one end nailed to the floor. Quietly, she tossed the free end out the window. "Hurry, before someone sees you." she called down to him, her words hushed. Eddie looked at the rope for a moment, stunned, before laughing quietly to himself as he started to climb.

Myrtle stood at the window as he reached the top, he tilted his head and flashed her a grin as with the space of the window between them, they almost stood nose to nose. "What are you doing, don't just stay there, get in!" Myrtle said in a clear panic, her eyes looking past him to the houses beyond her backyard.

"Sweet little Myrtle McKinney has a rope ladder out her window." Eddie sang teasingly before climbing inside. Once he's stepped in and away, Myrtle quickly shut her window and closed the curtains.

Eddie's eyes casually glazed over Myrtle's room, but he found himself trying to take in as much information as he could. It was surprisingly sparse item-wise. "I-It's in case of a fire!" Myrtle protested. Eddie tore his eyes away from a trio of dance trophies on a shelf on her wall, she turned to look over his shoulder with a smile.

"Of course, I'm just teasing. It had to be something like that." He hummed.

Myrtle quietly rushed past him, snatching her night scarf off of her dresser, she went to her bedroom door.  Eddie watched with curiosity as she tied it to the doorknob and the other end to the leg of her TV stand, securing the door shut.

"Why are you here?!" Myrtle asked him in a fretful whisper, she eyed him up and down, and Eddie couldn't help but smirk as he stood up tall. "I-In your pajamas?" asked Myrtle. She hadn't noticed when he was on the ground, He sported a faded band T under his jacket, but his pants were your average-striped pajamas. 

Eddie chuckled at himself this time, "after what you said back in the station, did you really think at least one of us wouldn't come to check on you?" He asked. Myrtle glanced away from him. "I'm fine." she said. "In fact, I was sleeping, not so much as a dream either," Myrtle added. 

Eddie's smile faded into a look of slight concern, "You said there'd be three people here with you. Patrick's downstairs sleep or way into his movie and you folks are gone." Eddie stated. "They're coming back, a late-night dinner party. My mom usually likes to overstay her welcome, so...." Myrtle murmured. Eddie heaved a sigh, "great, well, I'm crashing here - until they come back." He said, walking to her bed, he sat down on the floor.

Myrtle blinked several times, "um..." she hummed. "What?" the question came out in a squeak that caused Eddie to laugh, he tried to quiet himself. "Shhhhh" Myrtle hushed. Eddie gave a nod, "sorry" he whispered, removing his jacket and balling it up, laying it down on the floor. 

"Y-your serious?" Myrtle asked blushing. "So serious, I can't let you vanish for another week, come hell or high water, you're coming to our show this Tuesday," Eddie said playfully.

Myrtle's blush deepened, "he really wants me there then." she thought.

"I'm not going to let you sleep on the floor, we've got a sleeping bag in the hall closet." Myrtle sighed. "Yeah, but if Patrick's not sleeping he'll hear you rummaging around in their right? And it's going to be a pain in the ass rigging that lock again." Eddie reasoned. "I'm good, I used to sleep on the floor all the time at Scott's sad sleepovers." He laughed.

Myrtle quietly walked over to Eddie and sat down on the floor across from him, folding her legs like a butterfly. "Sad sleepovers?" Myrtle questioned. "Yeah," Eddie said in a fond chuckle. "Scott's an only kid, we've been friends since elementary school. He was picked on a lot. But he's always been a cool dude. Can draw like something out of this world and is the best backup vocalist, learns any instrument you throw at him." Eddie said.

Myrtle couldn't help but smile at how much pride Eddie seemed to take in his friends. "But he didn't have lots of friends back then, it got worse in middle school. I started making friends and Scott...just didn't. So I brought him to Jeff who I'd started the band with, and Jeff had a friend - that was Gareth.  Scott's house was the biggest at the time and had this big basement." Eddie said, his voice falling into a comforting lull as he recounted his memories.

"We figured if we all crashed at Scott's house on the weekends, the three of them would become friends eventually. Only Scott had never hosted a sleepover. We tried to tell him it's no big thing. But he wanted to 'do it right', heh, it was terrible." Eddie said. "He had all the corniest board games and movies, eventually, we found out we all liked DnD and that made them a lot less bad." He said.

Myrtle smiled faintly, "that doesn't sound so terrible, a new corny board games." Myrtle said. Eddie raised a brow, "yeah, but you didn't have to play them. I mean, He had the girliest games. Most ideas he got about sleepovers came from summer chick flicks." Eddie mused.

"I'm sure even sleepovers you've had with robin have been better." He said.

Myrtle sucked in her lips and side glanced. "It's already late, we should get to bed." Myrtle said quickly. Eddie watched her confused, he was having fun just talking, and now he could feel a wall forming around her.

Myrtle walked to a trunk in her room to retrieve a throw blanket, Eddie got to his feet and carefully walked to her. "Um...did I do something?" he asked cautiously. "No, no, it's just late." Myrtle peeped awkwardly, clearing her throat.

Turning around to return to him, she gave herself a fright as she found him standing there peering down at her. "Jesus Christ, Eddie..." she sighed, her heart thumping hard in her chest. He laughed softly, "sorry." he said, taking the blanket from her hands.

Myrtle looked down at their feet, the tips of her socks lined with the tips of his black and white converse. "I've never...." Myrtle sighed, closing her eyes, she gripped at the sides of her shirt. "I um...well, even with Robin...." Myrtle felt silly, it wasn't such an odd thing, was it? Then again, it's what all girls were expected to have done once, a real proper sleepover.

Eddie watched her intently, and then it dawned on him.  "Oh" he mouthed to himself before a wicked smile spread across his face. He gently flicked Myrtle's nose, "You've never had a sleepover." He said. Myrtle shook her head, "No one is allowed to stay here, Dad doesn't want things ruined, and he says kids and teens are little wrecking balls." said Myrtle.

"And..." she hummed, titled her head, "I guess...he's protective. I can't go to anyone's place for a night if he hasn't met and approved of their family. Dad doesn't like Robin....says he doesn't care for the way she looks." Myrtle added.

Eddie's eyes shimmered, "then he'd blow several gaskets if he knew about this." He said. Myrtle looked up at Eddie, her brows knitting together, "I don't want to think about that. You need to be gone before they come back." she said.

"But I only just got here." He teased, "and I get to be Myrtle Sweet Turtle's first." he whispered playfully. Myrtle's whole face blushed a violent shade of red. "Don't say it like that!" Myrtle nearly screamed. Eddie rushed in and hugged her while trying to hold in his laughed "shhhh, Myrtle." he said in a whisper, between quiet laughs. 

"It's your fault!" Myrtle hissed quietly, glaring. Eddie let her go and walked back to his place on the floor with the throw blanket. "It's not wrong, just a totally different context than your dirty little mind." Eddie said.

Myrtle watched him, face still burning as she tried to hold her glare. Eddie flashed her an overly sweet smile and batted his eyelashes rapidly, "tell me I'm still your favorite freak?" He asked in a voice that sounded a lot like Olive Oyl.

Myrtle ambled to her bed and gathered the blanket from it into her arms before walking around to the other side where Eddie sat on the floor. She looked down at him with a flat expression. "You're not my favorite freak." she said, laying out her blanket a few feet away from him. "Ow...that's not nice. I was just playing." Eddie sulked.

Myrtle laid down on a portion of her blanket and wrapped the rest of it over herself. "You're not a freak." Myrtle stated, "Freaks don't have friends who care so much about them, Eddie." She said. Eddie smiled, He could read her eyes, and he knew the look in them, it was so self-deprecating that it almost hurt to watch. "You don't understand, I'm proud of the title." Eddie said slowly. "It's the world that made the word freak bad. But at the root of it all, it's just being different from what is expected, that's not always bad. In fact, it can be something pretty damned amazing." Eddie explained.

Myrtle wouldn't look at him as her fingers fiddled with her bracelet under the covers. Eddie laid down onto the carpet and pulled his blanket over himself. "Think about it, as a thing Freak is just a thing that's not like the rest...that could be having a third eye, four ears, or no lungs." Eddie said. 

"That all sounds awful." Myrtle muttered, Eddie simply smiled. "Yeah, but it could also mean being the fastest swimmer on record, being the youngest person to go to college, seeing sound in the form of colors," Eddie paused and tapped the corner of his eye, "or having gray eyes with a single blue patch in one of them," He said.

Myrtle looked up at him in mild shock, "that's not a bad thing, that's just beautiful and kinda freakish." He hummed with a warm smile. "It's also something unusual, hard to explain, mind-boggling...that's not always bad." Eddie said, resting his head on his jacket.

Myrtle used her arm as a pillow and looked at Eddie with heavy eyelids. His voice was oddly calming. She gave a sleepy smile, "I freaked out when I saw how beautiful she was. That concert was freakin' amazing." Eddie said, contently amused with the hazy smile in her eyes.

Myrtle gave a weak nod, "then you're not only my favorite freak...." Myrtle said her eyes starting to closed on her. "You...." and sleep took her. Eddie sat up quickly, "what?" Eddie asked, but Myrtle simply responded with a quiet breathy snore. He deflated and nestled back down.

Laying his head down he chuckled quietly to himself, reaching out a hand he rested it as close to her as he could without moving. "Good night," He whispered as he continued to lay and watch over her. Myrtle's sleeping face kept him entranced until his body gave in and started to drift to sleep.

↰ ᴘʀᴇᴠɪᴏᴜꜱ | ᴛᴀʙʟᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴄᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛꜱ | ɴᴇxᴛ ↱

#eddie munson x original character #eddie munson fic #eddie munson x oc #This story is not Arachnophobia friendly #longfic #EpicLength #Eddie Munson/Original Female Character(s) #eddie munson x black!oc #eddie munson x fem!oc #eddie munson tolkien fanfic #eddie munson fanfic #stranger things fanfiction #18+ minors dni #stranger things 010

[donutloverxo]

How big do you think Steve is....? 👀☕

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I've got like a lot of feelings and thots about this but I'll just summarize them with this... smut, Steve has bde and a big🍆🍆, cumplay, this is like really filthy.

"Yes... um, Captain," Stacey bit her lip, she couldn't help herself. She knew she shouldn't be checking out her friends man but she was sure you'd forgive her. This was Captain freaking America. It would be an injustice to not appreciate his beauty. "What brings you to our little corner today?"

"Um... I'm here to see L/N," blushing a deep shade of pink and rubbing the back of his neck. The bouquet of lillies in his hand, and one of chocolates in another only making him stand out more so.

Stacy chuckled at his misery. "You call her by her last name? Hm... I actually think she'd like it better if it was the other way around."

Steve quirked a brow because he didn't understand what she meant by that. Smiling when he saw you return to your seat. "What're you doing here?" with a sweet smile on your face. Leaning up on your tippy toes to give him a small peck on his lips. "It's a nice surprise."

"Just wanted to give you these," he said as he handed the flowers and the chocolates over to you, "And to ask you to maybe have dinner at my place tonight?"

You giggled as you opened the lid of the box, mouth watering at the variety of sweets to select from, "Stevie, we're in a relationship now. You don't have to ask me out every single time." As you plopped a mint one in your mouth.

"It still feels nice to," He said before kissing you goodbye to return to his floor.

You offered some of your chocolates to Stacey, who seemed to be giving you the side eye for some reason.

"Is it true?" She asked.

"Is what true?"

"Does he have a fifteen inch long cock?"

Which made you choke on the coconut that was in your third chocolate. "What the hell?!"

"You gotta tell me. I promise I'll cover any of your shifts for you while you go on getaways with him to like Europe or something. I'll do your boring paper work. Alright, I understand you wanna keep his privacy," she nodded, bringing her hands together, "Just say when," She said as her palms started drifting apart.

"Stop that!" you swatted at her palms. "I don't know how big he is. We're taking it slow." You huffed. Going slow was his idea. He was old school in that way. You had no idea how you had resisted from climbing him like a tree for so many months.

"Listen, girl, it's just that he has major BDE. When he gives those speeches, and those clips of him fighting bad guys, you just know he has a big dick."

You did believe he had big dick energy as well. At a low moment you told him your supervisor was being an ass to you, even calling you a slut once for dating Captain America. You didn't want to burden him with your problems, which seemed to insignificant in front of his, and you didn't want him to do anything brash.

The very next day he paid your boss a visit. He didn't flaunt the fact that he was Captain America or a very powerful man. He didn't need to. He naturally had a very commanding presence. He just gave a long lecture to your boss on how to respect women, after which they never bothered you again.

You'd never admit this to Steve but you literally wanted to jump his bones them. He looked so fucking hot defending your honor like that. He was your knight in shining armor and you'd let him to anything to you.

Not to mention, you could see the outline of his probably long and thick dick in his jogging pants. That one unfortunate morning you agreed to go running with him. The only good thing that came out of it was that you got to oggle his ass and his dick.

You could feel his hands squeezing your breasts over your dress, you broke the kiss to take a look at him. Glassy eyes and cheeks flushed red, his chest heaving because you took his breath away.

"I wanna go all the way, Stevie." You demanded. "I've waited long enough for you."

"You know I could never say no to you, doll. I promise I'll make it worth your while."

Which he most definitely did. He must've spent like an hour between your legs, using his mouth and his fingers, worshipping evey inch of your body. You felt him rutting against the mattress but chose not to say anything.

"Wait, stop..." you pushed his head away, your pussy too sensitive after the third orgasm to be touch again as he pouted up at you. You sat up on your butt, "I wanna suck your cock," you said, making grabby hands for it.

"Um... you sure, doll? You don't have to," he was too shy to be naked in front of you. He still had his pants and underwear on. You were going to insist that he take it all off but you could barely handle a shirtless Steve, a completely naked one would probably turn your brain to mush.

"Yes I want it! Do you not want me?" your voice quivering just a little. You knew he wanted you, of course he did. But why can't he be vulnerable with you like you are with him?

"No no," he cupped your face, kissing your forehead, "Of course I want you. I want you more than anything else in the world. It's just that... I'm big. Before the serum it was pretty average and now... women get surprised a little."

"How big?" you sniffled.

"I guess you'll see," he said, pulling his briefs and his pants down at the same time.

You let out a loud gasp when you saw it. A literal monster cock. "Oh my god...." you breathed out, "I don't think that's gonna fit in me, Stevie.."

It was the biggest you've ever seen. Pink, long and thick, you could even make out a few veins on it, standing tall and proud against his hard abs, some blonde hair at the base of it. Pearly pre ejaculate oozing out of him, which made you salivate.

"Don't you worry your pretty little head about that, angel," he stroked your hair, "That's for me to figure out. You just have to sit there and make good on your promise. Now come on, open up," he tapped his tip on your lips and you opened as wide as you could.

He wasn't even halfway in when he hit the back of your throat, making you gag around him. He softly fucked into your mouth, which some sucking and help from you. Holding onto your head lovingly as he spoke about how good you made him feel.

"You gonna swallow it for me?" he asked, to which you eagerly nodded.

'I wouldn't let a drop escape.' You wanted to say but it came out all jumbled since your mouth was stuffed full.

Finally you felt ropes of his spend hit the back of your throat. You were naive to think you'd swallow it all. You could barely get half of it no matter how hard you tried, most of it spilled out of your mouth and onto your chest.

He finally pulled out, looking at his girl so proudly, so eager to please him.

"I'm sorry," you said, as you tried to gather as much of his cummies off your body as you could. It tasted salty, the aftertaste being just a little bit sweet. You wondered if that was because of the serum too. "I promise I'll get it all next time. I'll be more prepared."

"'is not your fault, doll. There's... a lot of it."

"I like that though," you whined up at him as you licked your fingers, "I like it. It means you love me so much you made like tons of goodies for me."

He chuckled at that, pecking your lips, "I do love you a lot."

He made you lie back to make sure you were comfortable, wrapping your legs around his hips, "You tell me if it hurts okay, baby?" he asked to which you gave him a meek nod.

Bracing yourself for the pain. Despite how wet and ready and relaxed you were, it still hurt initially. But you asked him to keep going because you wanted to make him feel good and take all of him.

After a few moments you asked him to move.

"Your dick is so beautiful, Stevie." You beamed up at him.

"Not as beautiful as you, doll." He groaned as he pulled his hips back before rutting back into you.

"Nooo," you whined. This man needed to learn how to take a compliment! "No, your dick is so pretty. It's yours, and I'm in love with it."

"I'll promise you one thing, honey. You'll be the only one who gets to see it again from now on. It's for your eyes only now."

"Forever?" you pouted.

"Yes, forever."

You looked down at where both your sexes were joined together, "Looks like we'll be seeing a lot of each other from now on, Captain," you said as you clenched around him, making him bite the crook of your neck.

"Did you just give my dick a petname?"

"Yes, do you like it?" you asked, hopefully.

Steve would rather have you call him Captain. But you seemed so excited, "Yes, of course. You can call it whatever you like, baby."

He was trying to pull out of you to come, of course you wouldn't have that so you pulled him closer to you by wrapping your legs around him.

"I'm good..." you rasped, "got an implant and everything." Which would protect you from having any super soldier babies. "Please come in me."

"How can I say no that," his thrusts became a little more rushed and erratic. You could feel his warm cum fill you up and then ooze out of you as he pulled out.

He tched as he looked at your swollen pussy, "That won't do..." he said as he tried to push his cum inside of you but it was too much for your small cute pussy.

"I've got plugs at my home we can use to keep it in..." you moaned, extra sensitive to his touch then. "Can I have some more of it, please?"

You asked as he scoped your combined juices up with his fingers before feeding it to you.

"Just for now, doll. Next time we'll try that plug idea of yours," he said as he made sure you thoroughly sucked his fingers clean.

#steve rogers x reader #chris evans x reader #steve x reader #captain america x reader #steve rogers x you #marvel x reader #avengers x reader #chris evans x y/n #chris evans x you

[fullsunrise]

Playing With Fire - Preview

Pairing: Johnny x Original female character

Genre: Office AU, Romance, Angst

Warnings: Alcohol consumption, Johnny is a bully

There was nothing quite like early winter in the city, with the twinkling lights tangled in the bare trees and a to-go coffee that was almost too hot. This early in the morning, there was no one around. It was calming, and Nari wanted to appreciate the silence before all hell broke loose. She sat on the unoccupied bench outside of her building, savoring the last five minutes she had until she had to face her worst nightmare. That nightmare happened to have a name: Johnny.

Johnny Suh from Sales. Even thinking about him made Nari’s eye twitch. Ever since she was forced to work with him on her latest project, he made it his sole mission to make her life a living hell. Never once in Nari’s career has she had to work with someone so egotistical, cunning, and above all else: annoyingly attractive.

Although she had been working at her company for the last two years, she had never heard of him. Not until she saw an unfamiliar name CC’d on an email from her boss. Confused, she made her way to her boss’s office.

“He's been here almost as long as you have, I believe,” her boss told her. “Great guy, it should be a breeze working with him.”

It was hilarious how wrong he was. Nari’s reality was most definitely not a breeze, but more like a hurricane. Whatever higher being set this up was surely laughing at her now as she struggled against the powerful storm.

To stand any chance, Nari knew she needed any advice she could get. And who else was more equipped than Jaehyun? After years of working at law firms across the city, Nari was sure he was the only person who could understand how to deal with egotistical monsters.

“I'm just saying, maybe try to avoid any interactions with the guy. I mean he's clearly a prick,” Jaehyun said, then took a sip of his beer.

“Trust me, I've been trying to avoid him but it's impossible when we have to work directly together,” Nari replied.

It was hopeless. Johnny was too smart. Careful not to push it too far, he was only condescending to her face. He made sure his actions spoke for him, though. Like last week when he went out to lunch with their project team, he accidentally forgot to invite her. And just a day ago, she swore he was whispering about her to another coworker in the kitchen. Then he laughed loud enough for Nari to hear, only confirming her suspicions. It was subtle, but enough to make her go insane.

“Don't let him get to you,” Jaehyun offered. “You know he's only doing this because he feels threatened by you.”

Threatened? Why would Johnny be threatened by her? Nothing about her was particularly threatening. Sure, Nari was good at her job but she never did anything that would cause someone to dislike her. And certainly she would never step on anyone just to get a promotion. In her corporate life, Nari made sure to remain honest, social, and professional. Unlike Johnny, who couldn't have a more opposite approach.

“I’ll try,” she replied. “But enough about me. How's it going in your world?”

“Same ol’ bullshit as always,” he chuckled.

They spoke about their jobs for a while longer, laughing at random anecdotes from the week. Nari didn't speak about Johnny again, and shortly the thought of him was washed down along with her Gin and tonic. Somewhere between her first and third drinks, Jaehyun asked her how her dating life had been. It caught her off guard only for a moment as she reached for an answer in her muddled brain. With her thoughts slowed, the best she managed to pull was a horrific yet comical dating story. Jaehyun laughed along with her and shared his own. It was always weird talking about her love life with Jaehyun but it was still nice nonetheless. But she would never get used to it, even though there were no lingering feelings left between them.

Nari came back to her apartment feeling a bit lighter after seeing Jaehyun. While he helped her forget about Johnny momentarily, Nari dreaded tomorrow. It was the day of the company holiday party. Normally Nari looked forward to it every year, but the idea of running into Johnny made her stomach churn. Sure, there were going to be a lot of employees and plus ones but the chance of seeing him wasn't zero.

#nct 127 #nct fanfic #nct #nct 127 fanfic #johnny suh #johnny nct #johnny smut #nct smut

[lemonlurkrr]

@aureateart​ ok. My favourite parts of twilight princess  (and some other random thoughts about TP sprinkled in there) taken from my monster TP word vomit google doc :

Link lmao

Ok but for real, I like this incarnation of Link :)

I love Ordon (it just seems like such a chill and cozy village)

ALSO love how easy it is to interpret Link as being a sort of older brother figure to the Ordon kiddos. It’s just,, super cute? AND GHHH nice nice good thanks nintendo for giving me characters to care about/characters that I can imagine Link caring about

He didn’t sign up for any of this (tbh, none of the Links really signed up for this jshdjsd). But I mean like, dude was just going to take a trip to castle town, drop a gift off for the royal family, and come back. But haHA oopsies he did get to castle town eventually but definitely not the way he expected hsjdhsd

He’s just a little dude?

AND FUCK. HE REALLY HAD NEVER BEEN OUTSIDE OF ORDON UNTIL ALL OF THAT

everything is new for the player AND Link

Midna

She’s cool :)

she really just

*teleports into your jail cell* hello whore.

I am no master at writing but AYYYY she do got a character arc!!!

She was actually pretty helpful sometimes, I ALWAYS checked in with her before turning to a game guide

Other NPCs

NICE

Love all of the TP character designs (ASHEI’S ARMOUR??? AOWOAOAOOAO)

Saving Zelda and all of Hyrule was important yea but thinking back maybe it was more like, the Ordonians and the kids were what was pushing Link to keep on going

I like the Resistance members :) Very video gamey of them to have one NPC assigned to each dungeon but hey!!! Kinda cool getting to see a little glimpse of each of em

Idk, it’s just fun to imagine Link popping into Telma’s bar after each dungeon and taking a little rest :) (or to celebrate? maybe just chat, idk, give this man some downtime!!)

Honestly it was just kind of nice that Link wasn’t entirely alone. I mean, I know Midna was there the whole time, but I am always for giving Link a big group of friends (see my love for hyrule warriors, age of calamity, and LU LMAO)

Hero’s shade, very very cool, kinda sad he died with regrets but HEY. He got to pass on his knowledge eventually

AND the connection to OoT?? AND assumed to be related by blood too????? GOOD SHIT

Ilia, I REALLY really wanted to like her (er, it’s not like I dislike her, she’s just,,, kinda there for me).

It definitely seems like Nintendo was pushing to make her the romantic interest, but GHHHHH they really threw that out of the window for me by having her lose her memories

I saw a text post a while ago that said it would have been interesting if Ilia was Link’s sister instead and YES!! That would have been cool too :0

Wish we got to know Zelda a little more

I feel like we barely know anything about her

Idk man, like I said earlier, I never really had any sort of drive to save Zelda during my playthroughs

She obviously knows Midna, so maybe if they gave us just a little bit more of that relationship I’d be more interested in her?

TP WORLD BUILDINGGGG

Botw has good world building too, but each race felt kinda,,, isolated? I absolutely love the different architecture and vibe each town has (and all the the weapons too) but ghhh yea everyone felt so separated. As far as I can remember, we don’t see tooo much of the races interacting with each other? Now that I’m typing that out maybe that’s to be expected because of the calamity but KLSJDKJFD ANYWAYS THIS IS ABOUT TP

The world feels nice and alive, love how populated everything is

Castle town I like castle town a lot, it feels dense and busy and I really like how you can’t talk to every NPC you see

Very cool very fun that we got to see the Gorons hanging out in multiple spots

kinda wish we got to see the Zoras a little more (I guess they are a bit limited since they need water but GHHHH the tp zoras are so prebby,,)

BUT HEY, I do remember seeing a zora or two hanging out in the hot springs around death mountain after beating the lakebed temple (I think, might have been a different dungeon) 

but aaaa would have been nice to see them in at least a couple of other places. I think it would have really added to the “congrats Link!! You’re restoring peace to Hyrule” feeling you get from seeing the Gorons hanging out in Kakariko and Castle Town

ORDON

Love how chill it is and how it’s kind of separate from Hyrule proper

They really do seem to be doing their own thing apart from the rest of Hyrule

Just kinda adds onto the “he’s just a regular dude minding his own business” kind of vibes I get from TP Link

Also I like Ordona :)

THE LIGHT SPIRITS,,

Love their design

And love how they’re not exactly like a pure white?

Different spirit representing each aspect of the triforce my beloved

But yes hi I think Ordona is very cool

Who are you, how did you get here, which goddess do you represent? Do you even represent one of the three golden goddesses? Do the Ordonians know about you? Have any of them ever SEEN you??? Do they worship you? Does anybody even know about the existence of the light spirits?? FUCK so many questions but ghhh I like how they broke the status quo a bit by throwing in a fourth spirit :)

I feel like this one is kinda weird but I like that voice sample they used in the light spirit music. It’s spooky and pretty at the same time :)  

cutscenes mmmmm

Ok ok, the spooky lanayru cutscene is very good

BUT THE “Link, Chosen Hero! Lend us the last of your power!” CUTSCENE MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM LOVE IT SO MUCH

IT just

Idk man

It just hit different

I like the music

And seeing the light spirits swimming around in the light juice water whatever it is

Summoning the light arrows?

AND HHHHH “Lend us the last of your power!” THIS IS IT. This is the final battle.

Seeing Zelda bow down, and then Link putting his hand out 👌👌👌

Link: ok bud, let’s do this together :)

Connection to OoT (did I already mention this? Maybe., Whatever)

Very cool nintendo :)

I love seeing connections between all the diff zelda games.

Because like, on one hand, they’re all separate from each other because of yknow, individual hero stuff. BUT ALSO, they’re all connected because of the reincarnation stuff

Grrrr walking through the sacred grove and going “The Hero of Time walked around here a long time ago” FUCK THATS SO COOL

Is the Hero’s Shade watching me? What does he think of me? DIsappointed? Proud? The Hero of Time went through HELL so this timeline didn’t have to deal with any of the shit Ganon was gonna pull with the triforce, better not fuck this UP Link!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Midlink is cute

Kinda hurts that she smashed the mirror but that was probably so Nintendo didn’t have to worry about people going “but what about the twili??????” for any of the other games LMAO

BUT ALSO LIKE SKJDKLJFJ There are some pretty massive plot holes in TP anyway so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ whatever it’s fine we’ll just use this for angst because GOD do y’all like angst

So is Shadlink

Honestly don’t know where this ship came from but it’s cute so whatever

THE MUSIC??

Love Midna’s theme and how they referenced the dark world theme from ALttP (I remember trying to learn the dark world theme on the piano and doing the Leonardo DiCaprio point meme at the little jingle I recognized from Midna’s theme)

Hyrule field theme SLAPS.

Apparently references a couple of the other over-world themes from the previous zelda games (I got this from 8-bit Music theory’s video on the over-world zelda themes, he talks about TP at around 11:40 but def recommend watching the whole video if you’re into music analysis stuff)

So there’s this bit of the Hyrule Field theme, I don’t know the official name for it but I remember seeing somewhere it being called the “at an advantage theme” since yeah, you hear it during the boss music whenever you expose their weak points. FUCKINGGG LOVE THAT. Didn’t notice it during my first playthrough, but hearing it during my second was like a little easter egg for my ears every time :)

Midna’s lament is very pretty (and fun to play on the piano)

COURAGE THEME.

I didn’t care for it too much when I started playing the game but hearing it in ZREO’s arrangement of the Hyrule Field theme literally makes me turn into a puddle of emotions. Also hearing it around and of the Ordon kids (I think it plays after Link saves Colin) AAAAAAAAAAAAA

Orchestra piece #1 and #2 HOLY SHIT???????????????? 

Literally, the first time I listened to those I just,,,, plugged in my headphones, volume 100, layed on the floor/against my desk and silently vibed. I don’t know what the hell it is, but those two just fit so well with TP?? I still avoid listening to them nowadays cause if I DO I definitely will get overwhelmed with the “god I love this game so FUCKING MUCH” kind of feels.

Wolf link sucks at singing

the first time I heard him howling Zelda’s Lullaby I lost my shit because LKSJLDKSGLKJFSKG god that was.,, Bad. Anyways, hearing him howl some of the songs from OoT was cute :)

TP STAFF ROLL??? 

VERY GOOD. IT’s like 10 minutes long and GOD do I love every single second of it. It doesn’t have the same energy as the skyward sword staff roll or the orchestra pieces but GOD does it hit good??

Nice and calm after that big exciting adventure. Maybe it would have been more fun or emotional to have a higher energy piece but it was really nice getting to sit back and watch the camera fly around Hyrule. Seeing like, the Gorons and the Zoras having a good time, the kids returning to Ordon? GOOD SHIT.

and AAAAA that end, when you hear the main Zelda theme and see Link riding off out of Faron woods on Epona… good shit. It gets you thinking, where the hell is he going? What is he doing? Off ot do more adventuring? Going to help out the resistance or something? Going to help Zelda? Or maybe he’s trying to figure out a way to restore the mirror of twilight? Whoooo knows.

hhHHHHhhh it’s just that final reminder that YES!!! YOU JUST PLAYED A ZELDA GAME. JUST ANOTHER STORY APART OF THE WHOLE EPIC OF THE ZELDA SERIES AS A WHOLE

I also want to acknowledge the instrument/samples they used for all the twili stuff.

They’re all just so unique and contrast SO well with the rest of the TP OST. LIKE FUCK!! Anytime I hear the screech from the Twilit Kargarok? Sends a shiver down my spine. I associate those sounds SO strongly with the twili realm. (Like, the same way you associate the BSHEWW VVWWMMM sounds with light sabers)

I love it so god damn much

literally any time there’s a certain sound or motif associated with something I lose my shit

Sacred grove sacred grove sacred gro-

lovely lovely lovely so much fun playing that on the piano. AND again, I did the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme when I heard the theme from the lost woods come in GHHHHHHHH

shoutout to TP Faron Woods for helping me study and get through all of my schoolwork

BLEGUUHHH can you tell that I really love music?

and also yea I guess TP is kinda cool too :\

IF YOU READ ALL OF THAT THANKS I GUESS

#lemonspeakrr #LEMON SPEAKS 2K WORDS ABOUT TWILIGHT PRINCESS BECAUSE THEY ARE INSANE.

[chasingfictions]

i do think it's interesting that in willow's ritual to resurrect buffy it's specifically a snake that she coughs up. like there aren't that many snakes in the series it's pretty much the giant snake monster in "reptile boy," the mayor in "graduation day" and the snake glory uses in "shadow" and it feels interesting that all of those snakes are about the pursuit of something for selfish reasons — "reptile boy" is literally about sacrificing the lives of girls so that rich, powerful men can get and stay rich and powerful; the mayor's ascension in "graduation day" similarly is about power, is about consolidating power, and also involves the sacrificing of a young girl, faith. and like, buffy is the one who stabbed faith, but in terms of the violence done, the mayor was the one using faith to further his goals. he loved her in his way, but still at the end of the day her strength and ability coupled with her destabilized sense of self were fodder for his political ambitions, and he sent her to kill angel knowing full well the danger she could be in. "shadow" is about glory trying to find the key so she can destroy everything in existence just to go home, and even though she doesn't know it's dawn at that point, it's still once again a young, vulnerable girl being implicated, losing her life.

and then you have "bargaining," willow coughing up a snake, in this sort of reversal of "reptile boy" and "shadow," where the snake is this external thing you're feeding to attain a goal. it's much closer to "graduation day," where the snake erupts from within the mayor and consumes him.

and that's interesting when you consider the role of faith for the mayor, the role of buffy for willow. that's the chink in the mayor's snakeskin. the other cases of young girls in snake episodes are very straightforward attempted sacrifices for power. but there's something curious about the fact that for willow and the mayor, the young girls they care about really were stabbed, really did die, and that it wasn't an intentional sacrifice to a snake. rather, it contributed to the swell of desire for power and protection and invulnerability that makes willow's snake and the mayor's snake live inside them, rather than an outer force that they feed.

for the mayor, faith is at the heart of why he wants that power to begin with. the mayor is "a family man" without a family. he's the sort of guy who would say he does what he does "for the children," and faith is that. faith is his adoptive child. he had this plan before her, but it means more now, it's more vulnerable now, he wants to protect her. he genuinely thinks, as you can see in "this year's girl," that without him there is nothing for her. you can hear the emotion and ache in his voice when he says "some people who should be here today aren't." wanting faith's safety is a massive contributor to his feelings towards the ascension and amassing as the season progresses, and yet he is the one who sacrifices her. he sends her on the mission to kill angel which ultimately leads to her coma. the way him becoming the snake is linked to this sacrifice of an innocent life.

and willow is so similar. she didn't cause buffy's death. but her snake arises in this undeath, her snake appears when she traumatically rips buffy from death, in a sense sacrificing buffy in reverse. sacrificing buffy's peace in heaven so buffy can continue to fight against evil, because willow needs her. while willow's stated goal isn't greater power and influence, that's definitely a part of it. i read willow in "bargaining" and beyond as being in deep denial — she really thinks she's not a bad guy, not a bad person, that her aims are pure. and i do think she really Believes buffy is in a hell dimension. but, at the same time, she's been anointed the boss of the group in buffy's stead. she's living buffy's role, by being the programmer of the buffybot, the bot becomes this extension of willow. and there's this curious dichotomy where resurrecting buffy is both this event that gives her tremendous power — she's one of the most powerful witches in the world at this point — and also this attempt to get rid of that power. she doesn't want to be the leader of the group. she's off-kilter. she desperately wants buffy back, so that buffy can take her rightful place as the glue of the scoobies. but buffy comes back fragmented and traumatized and not in a place to be anyone's hero, she's just trying to remember how to be a person again, and the fact that willow's power play to fix everything didn't work if anything only fuels her power spiral. she keeps trying to fix things with magic and intimidation and forcing her will, over and over again, for the rest of the season, so that she can be so powerful that she doesn't have to feel this way, this destabilization, ever again.

and you can honestly read those other snake moments as about destabilization and vulnerability as well. the frat bros in "reptile boy" live and die by hierarchy — they sacrifice people at the bottom of that hierarchy so they can stay at the top, and their position on the top is so fragile, however it might appear. the mayor is deeply afraid of being vulnerable as well — literally he taunts others about how he is "invulnerable," verbatim. he's immortal and unchanging and represents old guard values that are crumbling. the world is trying to eat the things that he holds dear — patriarchy, order, law — so he needs to eat them first. and glory too, is so vulnerable, is in this human form that can be killed at any moment when she used to be the most power being in the world. she doesn't know who she is on earth, she is constantly being destabilized by the shame and desire and feeling that creeps in when you have physical human form, and she wants to go home so she can be bigger than those feelings, squash them like bugs.

i find it so interesting with willow's snake that it's coming from within her, and she's vomiting it up. the desire for power, the fear of vulnerability, the willingness to sacrifice the lives of young girls specifically, that's within her, and she is trying to eject it, compared to the other cases, where they are literally feeding or trying to fully embody that snake. but vomiting the snake doesn't save her from it, because it came from within her. she never acknowledges her link to the snake, and so it keeps pursuing her. it doesn't feel like coincidence that the effigy of proserpexa is wrapped in a snake, and has a snake tongue:

willow's desire for power, for specifically invulnerability — to have protective snakeskin wrapped around her, to have the power to swallow things whole, a power you need when you are so aware of your own vulnerability because you are constantly slithering on the ground — follows her. she can't protect herself from the world, no matter how powerful she gets, and so she decides the only way is to destroy the world.

there's something haunting about that, about the fact that willow is in the world. willow in "grave" is making a suicide attempt, this dark mirror of buffy's self-sacrifice in "the gift". which can also be read as a suicide, as buffy's death wish and depression catching up to her. there's something about willow, buffy's spirit, as per "primeval" feeling SO destabilized without her best friend. wanting someone back from oblivion. she thinks buffy is in hell because she is in hell, and willow's spirit is buffy's spirit, so how can they not be in the same place? willow starting the season trying to make everything better by reversing a suicide, but it doesn't make everything better, from willow's black-and-white perspective, it doesn't necessarily make anything better, the world isn't worth saving. and she ends up right back here. with the snake she didn't accept she had. trying to destroy the world and herself.

it's the fact that in the end, the young vulnerable girl willow is trying to give up to attain power is herself. she's sacrificing herself to the snake. proserpexa both has the power of the snake, and is totally bound by it. and so is willow.

it's the fact that what saves her is vulernability. there's sort of a transitive property you could read into "primeval"'s model of the scoobies-as-buffy. willow is buffy's spirit. xander is buffy's heart. so, transitively, isn't xander also willow's heart?

and willow's heart comes to save her. totally vulnerable. knowing he could very well die. says he loves her. no matter how afraid and vulnerable, and alone willow is, her heart, her spirit's heart, still loves her. and now im crying bye!!! except not bye because this is literally jsut me watching the fucking previously-on of "bargaining part ii" and i have the rest of the episode to watch and did i MENTION season 6 is gonna destroy me

#btvs rewatch #btvs meta #long post. #tw suicide #NOT proofreading this bon appetit

[wolves-in-the-world]

Miscellaneous vampire au thoughts, with the standard ‘Moreau being an abusive jackass’ content warning:

- While Eliot was still working for Moreau, he got captured by someone who fully intended to turn him into a vampire and use him against his employer. It was a bad plan - no supernatural bond could stop Eliot Spencer from killing you if he set his mind to it - but Eliot was terrified. If he was turned, on some basic level he would no longer be so useful to Moreau.

He broke free before it happened, and he killed the people responsible, and worked even more on becoming better and sharper and stronger so Moreau would never think of discarding him.

- Chapman is a vampire - older than Quinn, maybe seventy or so. He's lower down on the ladder than Eliot and pissed about it, but at least he can pretend it's because Eliot's offering the boss something else. He calls Eliot dog, calls him Moreau's pet and always slightly means it, and tries not to keep resenting when he finally takes the job opening.

- Vampires always recognise their own kind. "Ms Devereaux," he greets her, acknowledgement and assurance in one. "Mr Quinn," she replies. They don't address it beyond that for years.

In many ways it's barely a part of her life anymore. Live as long as Sophie has, shed as many old names and faces, and it becomes easy as anything to slip into a new shell and make it your own. This one she's worked to make her home. This one she's settling in, around people who know - at least a little - what she is.

What she does to stay alive is another matter. The makeup she orders specially and the hats and gloves she finds excuses for when her skin needs to recover. The tricks she uses on marks, though not audiences - she wants too much to be recognised for herself there, a weakness she thought she’d lost centuries ago - are put down to skill and charisma, and that's true enough. She doesn't really lie to her team. She doesn't kill. And it never once seems to bother them that they don't know what kinds of lives she's left behind.

(She finds Quinn so strange to watch - so young and so open. It makes her feel ancient at first. It makes her feel like she might as well be that young herself.)

- Vampires don't, in fact, live forever, and they age at something closer to normal when they feed too infrequently or rely on blood packs for too long. Quinn relies on them sometimes for work.

Moreau, stuck in his cell, won’t outlive any standard human by long.

- At some point, just like wondering why Nate didn't ask Sophie for money when his son was dying, you have to wonder if he ever considered finding a vampire to help him. Thing is, Nate had some sort of faith right until the end. Oh, he still believes in God and Hell afterwards, but he loses some fundamental faith in the world's goodness, and it's a lot easier to betray your principles when you know nothing else is going to save you. On some level, though he'll work with vampires and doesn't think any less of Sophie once she strategically shows him enough for him to piece it together, he does think they're... something. Monsters, or damned, or just not quite people anymore. He isn’t even sure.

It took his son dying for him to realise he'd rather have his son be a monster than dead. Even years later, he can't quite get to grips with the selfishness of that.

- I haven't actually decided on how Quinn was turned, or how turning humans into vampires would work. He's definitely young, and definitely didn't have a traditional vampire ‘upbringing’.

Let's go the accidental route for now: he bit a vampire as a distraction during a very close fight, got hit in the head so hard he shouldn't have survived it, and woke up on the floor three hours later thinking huh. He tidied up, sent his best excuses to his employer, and took two months to get to grips with his new situation. Then he calmly went back to work. A year later Eliot found him in a warehouse in Kyiv to offer him a job.

- Vampire bites don't normally scar. The ones Quinn makes on jobs (these days, at least, it took a little practice) close up so quickly they're sometimes only a tender spot by the time the person wakes; generally, people are too embarrassed to report it as anything but ‘knocked out on patrol.’

They don't normally scar, but they can if they're too deep, too soon after each other, or if the vampire takes something to affect their venom. It isn't unusual for hitters to have messy bite scars obtained during fights or captivity, just like messy scars from anything else. Eliot flies under the radar. Not many people know what his was meant to mean.

Once Moreau is locked away, once the others float the idea, he briefly considers getting it removed. In truth, though, it's not the only scar that reminds him of those days. Not the only scar that reminds him what he did or who he belonged to. Some part of him doesn't want that excised - too like pretending none of it happened. He doesn’t get to do that.

Quinn bites him wherever Eliot asks him to, but he won't leave any scars. That's not something either of them wants. Eliot keeps the results of his x-rays to himself: the rib that healed fine, really, just a little misaligned. From the first time they met.

He’s felt the slight notch on Quinn’s rib, too.

#*gestures helplessly* #I have a normal amount of feelings about punchy people breaking each other's ribs dammit #leverage angst #vampire quinn au #it's the VIBES of the eliot/moreau fuckery. the class difference and the power differential and the loyalty. #it's so awful so quickly and I can kind of only focus on aftermath #YOU KNOW I think parker might be so chill around vampires because she's worked with some before. maybe even archie. #who is also a well-mannered monster thank you. he'll teach a homeless kid to be a thief but he won't be any worse than that. #(I am secretly Okay with archie but I recognise my views in that area are not the most well-adjusted. anyway. don't worry about him.) #I'd like to have more vampire au fic in me but like all my writing is a happy accident these days #(because that is the Writing That Happens and thus preferable to the writing that doesn't) #so no plans and no promises though it would be nice

[lazzledazzler]

Lazzle's Rune Factory 5 Review

Alright so here are my thoughts and experiences with RF5! This is a big boy so buckle in earthmates...

Obviously this review will contain spoilers, read at your own risk.

Initial thoughts upon playing...

Great opening! I enjoyed the jazz music~ I did feel like it leaned a bit more towards the male player though. It definitely feels like a rune factory game. It's familiar, and controls are easy to get accustomed to for the most part. The mold is there and rf5 doesn't stray too far from its predecessors which is comforting for veterans. That being said, I'm not going to pull any punches and will critique this game harshly. Keep in mind as updates for the game are released not all things discussed in this review will be as relevant overtime!

Let's hear some thoughts on...

The story/plot. The plot is enjoyable overall. I'm not crazy about the whole Seed organization thing but it was a neat idea. They address the Sechs Territory and it is confirmed that the game takes place some decades after RF4. But by the end of it, I didn't feel like I really accomplished anything because it felt like I barely did anything really. Also they left a lot of stuff unanswered. I'm not even sure I understood the message they were sending, if they were trying to send a message at all. The main story is too short, and it doesn't involve enough of the townsfolk. You're basically doing everything yourself in secret the whole time and the townsfolk barely know what's actually going on. Out of the love interests, Lucas plays the largest part in the story, followed by Priscilla and Scarlett. The story feels targeted at male audiences--at least that's how I felt. You, the player, have a larger role in the game, much like in RF3 and I was glad to see this. As of right now there are only two arcs. Praying for DLC 3rd arc...!

Protagonists. The latest protagonists to join the crew of Earthmates are...decent. Their designs are nothing special unfortunately, though I appreciate Alice's more than Ares's. Appearance-wise they lack personality and creativity. Personality wise I am pleasantly surprised with how sociable they are. They're not exactly quick witted and sassy like Lest/Frey were in rf4, or as endearing as Micah in rf3, but they have a certain realness to them that makes their reactions to things believable. I'm certain Xseed will see to making them a bit more sarcastic in their localizing efforts, so let's all look forward to that. Overall though, while I appreciate their mannerisms, they don't really measure up to all the previous amnesiacs we've grown to love over the decades.

Characters. Overall I enjoy all the characters introduced in Rune Factory 5! I feel like there is someone for everyone in this game on some level. The voice acting was pretty good for every character. The designs are very much Rune factory. Like OG runefa, compared to rf4 ( 4 kind of strayed from their usual style) which I like. Characters still have their own signature quirks that you find endearing. Although I would have liked to see more variety? Like we've had mermaids, univir, half monsters, vampires, etc in previous titles but rf5 only gives us the usual (half) elf, dwarf, and then a succubus (physically she doesn't have unique features aside from the ears and heart eyes), and some were-people. I was hoping for something more unique to really give that classic runefa vibe.

Dungeons/Battles. I'm pretty split on this one. On the one hand, the dungeons have more depth due to the 3D aspects. They've included more contraptions that are very fun to see even if they aren't executed that well. So I'm grateful for that. On the other hand, the dungeons are insanely short imo. It doesn't take long at all to get to the boss. The puzzles are also pretty subpar and few compared to RF4. Fighting monsters is similar to the other games. You can lock on now but I only use it when I'm trying to use my Seed Circle. The lock on feature is actually counter-intuitive and makes it harder to dodge. Weapon mechanics have shifted a bit. There’s a feature that makes you invincible to damage if you time the R button dash correctly. Axes and Hammers are significantly slower than in older games? Like. I thought I was in slow motion it was so slow. Lances are also harder to use as well? I'm questioning my sanity here. I don't know if it's a bug or intentional either.

Farming. Not much has changed from previous games mechanics wise. They added new types of special crops which is neat. The camera view changes to overhead when you go near your fields though, and it can make you dizzy/uncomfortable. It actually makes it a bit difficult to see at times so I wish there was a way to adjust the angle. If you are tilling corn or dried weeds to improve the soil, you need to place them separately if you don't want to use the entire stack. Otherwise, it will till the entire stack on the land if you place them all down at once. The flower shop is unlocked late in the story. Weird thing to do considering you need flowers to make medicine. Not to mention the fact that you wont have access to the fertilizer that increases defense against typhoons? During typhoon season? Thinking emoji...

The town. I have to say Rigbarth's design is poor compared to Sharance, Selphia, etc. It's too big and it takes too long to get around. Everything is too spaced out and there aren't enough warp points to make it easier on players. I don't want to walk an entire mile up a hill to talk to one person and then walk all the way down to the beach to speak to another. It doesn’t really feel like a ‘town’.

OST/BGM. Music was good, though nothing really stood out to me where I'd go "damn this slaps" or something. I think they might've had some old soundtracks from rf2 or something because it felt really nostalgic at times.

We need an exterminator. (Bugs Bugs Bugs)

Marvelous, I don't know how to tell you this buuut...your customers are NOT your testers. When you release a game, you need to make sure it's not littered with glitches because customers don't enjoy dealing with them and will drop the game!

Here are some of the types of glitches I encountered:

Crashing. Game would randomly crash or freeze and close at any moment. Sooooo frustrating! Sometimes you get lucky with the autosave feature, but the autosave only activates every morning at 6am in your room and then when you warp to a dungeon level/floor. So when you're in the middle of your daily tasks in town and it crashes, you have to start all over. Marveloussss no one enjoys losing their progress in a game I promise you that much.

Lag. The dialogue bar is seriously slow, especially after loading your file. Crafting/Cooking screen lags. When you press the Y button to skip through dialogue it lags like hell. Pretty much after every time you load the game will lag, the audio will lag if you're in a battle, everything is just. so. slow.

Repeating dialogue. So if you close your game entirely (or if it crashes) naturally you'll reload your file to continue where you left off. There's a bug that will cause all NPCs to repeat the last dialogue that occurred from whatever plot related thing you did last. So for example, if the last thing you did in the story was unlock Ludmilla, everyone in town will naturally have some dialogue about her. But even after seeing all this dialogue and even saving, if the game is closed and reloaded you'll have to read all that dialogue again from townsfolk. It got really annoying after a while.

Monster taming. One time I tamed a monster but once I named it and hit 'ok' the monster never showed up in my barns? Just. gone. Okaaaay then...? Additionally, I expanded one of my monster barns but all of the monsters I tamed wouldn't appear in the added room. You get 4 monsters for each room but the monsters I tamed would show up in the original room. Meaning I had like 7 monsters in one room! I tried to bring them into the newly added room but they would just warp back to the other room. Sad.

Pond Glitch. I fished in the pond located in Sasayaki Forest and left the fish I caught but didn't want laying around the water's edge. If you leave fish around the pond's edge and go to sleep, the next morning you will be teleported to the pond and trigger the fairy dialogue as if you had thrown all of the fish into the pond??? So the dialogue of her telling you she wants 'X item, not this!' will trigger over and over for all of the fish you left at the water's edge. RIP.

Party member Bug. I had Martin in my party and I made him leave. Then when I went into my monster barns to get a monster pal to join me instead it showed me Martin's portrait???? Also I've encountered a bug where I can no longer ask anyone to join my party for some unknown reason. The R &L button prompt was just gone when I reloaded.

Errors. When cooking or crafting, the dialogue box shows up sometimes...

Typos. Random average typo here and there. Not a real biggie but there is one instance where the heroine will use the japanese male pronoun "boku" instead of "watashi" which really convinced me that this game was completely intended for men lol.

Let's talk about Pros

The good stuff. The stuff that makes you all warm and fuzzy inside.

Plot Advancing. Now I'm gonna put this as a pro because I'm certain the average player will enjoy this even though I do not. There are now markers on the map to show you where to go to advance the plot. This is all well and dandy, but it also made the story less appealing for me because you don't need to go around town and speak to residents for clues or assistance to advance anything in the story.

3D Graphics The 3D models are all amazing. The interior designs of the houses/buildings are also incredibly detailed and realistic.

Collecting items. Now there's a feature that will allow you to collect items into your inventory just by walking over them. This is pretty neat and welcome for the most part. Once the item is sparkling, you can walk over it and it'll go into your rucksack automatically. This also makes lumbering and mining go much faster. Yay!

The miraculous L pocket. Now you can customize the categories that appear in your L pocket by going to the rucksack tab in the menu. This is a super neat feature that makes things easier on players who want to manage their items in a format that suits them.

Weapon/Tool Toggling. You can now toggle between your equipped weapon and tool by pressing the left or right buttons on the trackpad.

Collecting lumber/material stone. Oh lord this is probably the most welcome improvement moving forward from the previous game. You can now put all of the lumber and material stone from your inventory into its storage at once. This also applies to fodder for tamed monsters. Well done Hakama.

Autosave. This feature is a welcome addition to the series. The game will save your data every morning and every time you enter a dungeon. Autosave has really saved my ass a few times when I made a huge error in judgement so I'm incredibly grateful for this feature. And it doesn't save over your actual save file--there's a separate autosave file at the very top. So if you messed up something but already saved on your main file, you can still salvage your mistake by reloading the autosave! I just wish it activated a bit more often sometimes.

Warping. Now we can warp to each level in a dungeon as well as certain places on the map in town. It's pretty convenient for the most part.

Increased party members. Now you can have up to 3 members in your party! Hooray! Party members act more intelligently than in older games. Scarlett can use the Seed circle to assist you in fights. I think she also tosses healing potions at you occasionally. So far, no one has tossed a dish at me if I haven't eaten like Kiel and Clorica did in rf4. But I have been hit by a failed dish (from reinhardt?) and a healing potion (from scarlett). Scarlett, Priscilla, and Reinhardt are the most helpful when dungeon crawling in my experience. Some of them however, (looking at you Doug) don't shut the hell up with their one line of dialogue they have and repeat it constantly.

Seed Circle. This neat feature allows you to capture monsters. By charging it and releasing you can capture monsters for the bounty system or add them to your party temporarily. If you throw it without charging it, you can stun monsters in place momentarily or grab things from far away. When stunning monsters, it can also give you the monster's drop item occasionally. Unfortunately it uses a lot of RP so it can be difficult at times.

Combo attacks. This is a neat feature that I appreciate and use often for boss fights. They do some serious damage so it's good to save them for the bosses. The actual cutscenes aren't that impressive, and feel kind of subpar when you get down to it but I think it's a start in the right direction.

Farm Dragons. I'm listing this as a pro although I really just see it as a new feature. Farm dragons have fields on their backs that you can place monster barns on and farm on. Giving them certain crystals will give your fields boosts in certain criteria, like length of growth, soil quality, you get it. I personally don't use the crystals because I couldn't give a shit lmao I have men and women to woo here. But if you're into this kinda thing then it's a pro.

Storage. When opening your storage box, fridge, etc. you can actually hit the R & L buttons to switch between ALL of your other storages. Looooove thissss. Great addition. So much faster to put items away in their respective places.

Crafting/Forging. Now we can also use the R & L buttons to alternate between the different weapon types/accessory/gear types instead of having to exit the menu and going back in each time you want to make something different.

Cooking. More recipes have been added. Yay!

Days are longer now. More time to get shit doneeeee ayyyy

Fishing. They've added many more fish to the game! Now the player will shout something when you get a bite, making it easier for you to hit B at the right moment. Nice. Also if you fail or press B too early, the fish doesn't vanish most of the time. Also nice. There is now a feature to fish with another person's assistance. Once a day you can investigate the sign near the fishing station and someone might offer to lend you a hand. Press the B button at the right moments on the slider and you can get a rare fish that can't be caught normally.

Monsters. New types of monsters! Love the designs. Even the monsters that are the same but just have different skins are really neat. They look great in the 3D format too. You can even ride with up to two people on certain monsters! Some bosses had awesome designs while others...were bad.

New Types of Furniture. The carpenter store has a wide arrange of furniture you can buy for your home. It also has wallpapers and stuff which is really neat. Though unfortunately you can't even sit on some of the furniture so that's a shame.

Events. Now there is a system where events are triggered by approaching an icon on the map. This is probably an improvement to RF4's randomized system, though personally I found it annoying because it meant that I had to see the events before I could just enter a building normally. Sometimes I just wanted to get shit done and not have to read through walls of text for someone's love event when I just want to buy something.

Voiced Lines. The protagonist seems to have more voiced lines, as do other characters. Good!

Let's talk about Cons

Not including glitches. Oh boy. So many cons. Where do I start?

Dialogue. Probably the most notable con in the entire game. The dialogue is drastically minimal in comparison to previous games, especially rf4. There is probably a quarter of the amount of dialogue compared to rf4's insane amount of content if not less. Townsfolk repeat themselves. Often. Too often. Am I playing Harvest Moon? Originally I thought it was because the dialogue is randomized, but I think it's actually because more dialogue is unlocked as you raise townspeople's FP. Despite this, there's no linear build up where you start off as acquaintances and eventually become very close like in rf4 because of how sporadic the LP/FP is. Townsfolk don't even talk to each other. One of the greatest perks about runefa is the conversations townsfolk can have with one another. Residents randomly gathering in small groups to talk about anything. Previously you could add someone to your party and sometimes a dialogue will occur if you speak to the right person at the right time with that person in your party. This is nonexistent now. The only time they do this in rf5 is during the festivals. But, it will only trigger if you have unlocked all the characters in each marriageable lineup and they can't be in your party. The residents will talk about one another but that's pretty much it outside of town events. They got rid of all the minor dialogue that occurs too. Trying to sleep in someone's bed while they're right there? They wont comment. Inspecting objects in stores while the shopkeeper is present? Wont say anything. Take a character with you to a dungeon/boss fight? Their lips are sealed. Where's my sense of community? :(

FP/LP This ties into the dialogue issue. The rate at which LP/FP increases is sporadic as hell. You can go from 1FP/LP to 4FP/LP just by giving a gift sometimes. I wouldn't even speak to people and their affinity increased by like triple for no reason. Then it increases by like 2% for the longest time. Argh!!!

Graphics. I don't consider myself very picky when it comes to graphics. I don't really mind that the foliage and scenery are at the level of a ps2 game at best. I tried playing on my television initially, but the lag and camera operability was too much so I fully switched (haha puns) to handheld. One thing that sucked is that I literally cannot tell the difference between medicinal herbs, antidote grasses, and green grasses without the captions because the graphics are so indistinguishable. So when you're trying to pick up multiples of those items by holding the A button, you're just randomly walking over anything green in the hopes that you'll get the right ones...

Lack of Sound Effects. Something I noticed is they got rid of the sound effects that will play when you complete a puzzle or add someone to your party. When you try to brush a monster there's no sound for the '♪' they make when you successfully brush them. So it was hard for me to tell if I had actually brushed them or not. I was a bit saddened by the lack of cute sounds.

Too much free range. From the very beginning of the game, you're allowed to go pretty much wherever you want when leaving town. It was too easy to stumble into high enemy level territory without knowing, so when I was like level 5 so I got KO'd immediately.

Artwork. The portraits seem to be lower in quality somehow. Runefa has always had shitty portrait art imo but this time it's even worse. Many character's eyes looked fucked up. Though the 3D models are insanely good for mostly every character except Terry. Terry's 3D model looks Terryfying and I prefer his portrait.

Festivals. They've added some new festivals. Some I enjoy. Some not so much. They changed the format of the eating contest. It's horrible. Good luck with that one.

L pocket + R button? They got rid of the feature that lets you skip to the other end of your items when opening the L pocket by pressing R button. I really liked that feature because it made it faster to reach my items so I was bummed that they got rid of it.

Gotta go fast. Now when you speak to someone, it doesn't 'stop time' as you might say it did in previous games. So people are still moving about as you speak to someone, making it harder to catch up to people! Annoying!!!

Catch and release? Not in my farming simulator! Say goodbye to being able to toss a fish you caught back into the water. In fact, say goodbye to tossing anything you don't want anymore into the water. Now you just have an army of fish flopping on the ground around you. And with the auto pick up feature, they're probably going to end up in your inventory anyways once you try to move. There are still certain ponds with fairies that you can toss stuff into, but you'll have to deal with the fairy harping at you for giving her something she doesn't want.

Shop Hours. Oh god. The shop owners don't even open their stores at the correct hours? It says open at 9am. If you speak to them they won't open their store until like 9:07??? But Priscilla and Lucy will show up to work their part-time jobs at around 8:30am and you can buy stuff through them before 9am. So the actual shop owners (for the bread shop and general store) are pointless usually. Additionally, if the store is empty (but open) you can no longer add a shopkeeper into your party and then enter their store with them to buy things from them. Why. Just why. When you want to buy something that only a specific person sells (Only Hina sells fish, only Heinz sells misc items) you have to wait for them to finally decide to work in their own store. Wonderful.

Monster Item drops. Maybe I'm crazy but the monster drops are seriously a lot harder to get than in previous games. Especially boss drops. It's almost impossible to get the rare drops now. I don't even want to try anymore. And as far as I know, the only place to buy monster items is through Heinz, but his items are actually misc. items, not specifically monster drops. So you'll be lucky to check his store (whenever tf he decides to actually work) for any monster items you might want instead of farming for the drops. Sighs.

Difficulty. This game is too easy. There is little to no challenge whatsoever. I had to increase the difficulty setting to hard mode and it was still too easy. I beat it at level 139, never once did I need to grind or level. In fact, your character levels up way too quickly for the pace of the story. I had zero trouble with any of the bosses and even the final boss was a breeze. Quite sad. Though because I am not new to the franchise, it's likely that newcomers would have some trouble in the later parts of the story.

Fishing cons. Idk how you fck up fishing but they sure did. You have to stand further back now because the pole is so long that you'll miss the fish you're aiming for. In fact, it's seriously hard to aim period. You'll end up recasting more often than not. Fish come in the various sizes but they don't seem to have the darker or faded characteristics that can indicate whether it's a rare fish or not. The graphics make it hard to tell. The pros that i've already mentioned are welcomed but it doesn't negate the fact that I do not enjoy fishing like I did in previous games.

Mining/Lumbering Cons. You can no longer strike three times consecutively when mining/lumbering. This sucks lol. Even when you upgrade your axe or hammer, powering up the tool does nothing for getting wood and material stone--it only expands the area of your strike. So it takes longer to get wood/stone from stumps and rocks now since you have to strike the full 9 times but it's not too bad. It's also harder to aim now as well so that's also unfortunate.

Seasonal Fields? Kiss them goodbye! That's right, there are no seasonal fields in rf5 because devs are insane! You instead have the farm dragons that seem to look seasonal based on the fact that they are designed after elements like earth, water, and fire. But no, these dragons are simply extra fields for you to use. Here's a spoiler: you're not going to use those fields. You're just not. They're kinda useless unless you're obsessed with farming. Now you have to grow your crops out of season like the sad farmer that you are.

Farming cons. Seeds no longer tell you how long it takes to grow the crop. Why. As of June 29th, they fixed this with an update. But I still had to play the whole game without it so fuck you marvelous. The joystick is really sensitive? So when you're trying to use a fertilizer or something on your field you're likely to place it on the wrong 4x4 tile, wasting your fertilizer. So it’s best to hold down the R button when farming. Also the crops look uglie as hell.

Sleeping and warping cutscenes. Just like in rf4 there's a cutscene when you go to sleep that can be skipped easily by pressing A. In rf5, there's a cutscene to sleep and a cutscene when waking up. It takes a bit more than a second to skip these scenes so it gets annoying after a while. Warping is this new feature that replaces our beloved escape spell. Overall I appreciate the feature but I hate it for two reasons. One: there's an annoying ass cutscene for it each time you use it that could be much shorter. And Two: townsfolk now use warp even when inside the town. In previous games, someone exiting your party in town would just manually run to wherever they need to be. So you could easily chase after them if you need to talk to them or give them something. Now, party members use warp regardless of where you are at the time. So say you have someone at 7 hearts and you want to try confessing to them. You would have them join your party, save your game, and then have them leave your party and immediately speak to them and confess before they can run off. If it doesn't work you reload until it does. In RF5 this wouldn't work anymore because they will warp. Now you would have to save, run around town trying to find this person and hope they accept the confession. Otherwise you'll have to play hide and seek again because reloading your file will randomize the resident's locations (if they are not working in a shop)!!!! I often just waited until a festival day because then they will be at the plaza for most of the day and it has a warp point there.

Crafting/Forging/Cooking. They've removed the feature where you can press Y on the ingredients in the menu to add more of that particular item. I miss this feature :'(

Lacks incentive. There is no trophy room from my knowledge. The final dungeon that is meant to be like the sharance maze/rune prana isn't that hard to beat for skilled players and is only 20 floors. After you beat the main story and this dungeon there's not much else to do really.

Request Board. Unlike in rf4, you need to make sure you have accepted requests before you complete them or else it will not count. Previously, you could complete all sorts of tasks and Eliza would still recognize your work even if you accept their request after the fact. ie, shipping goods, harvesting crops, etc. So make sure you don't harvest your special crops before accepting the request it's for!

Return of the "Loli" Dragons... Yeah you read that right. We got more dragons in children's(???) bodies with skimpy clothes. I don't know anymore????¿¿¿

Can't marry the Milfs or Dilfs. Tragic.

Still no homo. Grow up Marvelous.

Reverse Proposal? Reverse Uno card-- Laid low by the patriarchy. You now have to buy the double bed and craft an engagement ring to propose to your man if you're playing as Alice. Marvelous this isn't what we meant when we said we wanted equal rightsssssss This can be seen as a pro if you're a softhearted babey who doesn't like rejecting bachelors' proposals because you feel bad :'( But this is a con for me because I don't want to spend money and materials on a double bed dammit!!!

Misc. Still can't stack dishes or fish. There's no green elemental fairy???All the other elemental ones are there except the green one? why??? Still can't tame the giant Wooly. Some bosses that have insanely awesome designs cannot be tamed and makes me wanna eat glass.

Let's talk about Love~

Relationships. We want them. And half of us only play these games for them. I've only played as the female heroine so far but I'll be updating this review as soon as I finish with the bachelorettes as the male hero.

Confessions

As usual, we must raise the love points of our beloved to 7 hearts before we can attempt to date them. However unlike in rf4, if you fail at a confession once, you will need to raise the LP up an entire level before you can try again with any chance of success. It's imperative you save before attempting a confession now.

Love Events

Each love interest has two love events that must be seen before you can date them. They're reminiscent of older game's style but I felt they could have been a biiiit more interactive or so? Or involved the town a bit more for some of them.

Dating

Once you get your honey to be your bf/gf, you get to choose the nicknames as usual. Then you can go on dates. The first three (non-festival) dates are actually events. You need to see all three events to get married.

Marriage Event

The final event you need to clear before you can marry your sweetie. In my honest opinion, so far for the boys, these events were rather disappointing. They lacked the drama and angst that sort of 'test' the love between the two when compared to rf4. Also this is a huge con for me personally and a minor spoiler but there are no special cutscenes at the end of the marriage event like in rf4. Instead, the cutscene takes place during your actual wedding. I was saddened by this because it took away the depth from the marriage events and the actual character? As it is just a cut and paste type of thing instead of an original cutscene for each person. They lack individualism this way. Also it kinda felt like a way for devs to avoid gay relationships and cut corners :^/....sus.

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes...

Children!!!!!! This is actually one of the coolest additions in the game. Just like in rf3, you can have up to 3 children again! Your first child will resemble you, and you will have the option to choose its gender as well as its personality. There are 6 different children, (3 boys and 3 girls), all with different hairstyles, mannerisms, and seiyuus. Your answers will determine which child you get. A year after your first child is born, you will get the option to have a second child. You'll end up with twins, both resembling your partner. You won't get to choose the genders (it will be a boy and girl) but you will get to choose the personalities once more. The children all have canon names too and each kid is incredibly cute. And of course, you're still able to take your kid with you in your party~ ...Though you can only take one kid with you at a time.

So is RF5 good?

Yeah it's a fun game! My theory is that Marvelous forced the devs to release the game earlier than they were ready for, and that's why it's so lacking. But that doesn't mean it's not worth playing! I'd rate it 3.5/5 stars hehe. Not nearly as good as RF4 (full stop 5/5), or RF3 (4/5) but enjoyable nonetheless. I wouldn't recommend it as a first game to play from the series for newcomers though, I feel it's best for vets who can overlook all the cons thanks to loyalty and nostalgia. By the time it’s released in the West, the bugs should all be dealt with too.

So! Definitely buy this game! We want the series to continue and we want RF6 to be better than this--and hopefully Marvelous will make sure of that next time. If you're not a picky person I think you'll enjoy rf5 a lot. If you're like me and have high standards then, well, still pick it up and let it run its course. Then dust off rf4sp and cleanse your gaming palette >;^)

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