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alexissara · 5 months

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Alexis Sara's Top 10 Most Anticipated Games Of 2024

We're about to enter 2024 and with that we have all the lists, lists I am not immune to making because I slowly build them up all year. Last year I played a fuck load of games and so this year I wanted to talk about 10 games I think look really fucking cool that are coming out in the next year or two. Some of these games are likely to release in 2025 instead but it'll be fun to see if they remain on the list next year then. I mostly just wanted to spotlight some art that looks cool to me outside of the context of a Sapphic Games Guide or a Review and maybe get others on the hype train with me. This list is not in order and just 10 games I think look like they could have an impact on me, I may not even buy every game on this list but there the 10 that look like I am most likely to check out.

Gales Of Nayeli

So this is one of two games on the list I've already purchased. I backed the kickstarter of the game a while back and I thought "it looks alright and when I asked if there was gonna be any sapphic content the creator told me in depth what content he had already made so sure I'll back it. What was more if a thank you for being so kind and responsive so fast has turned into my most hype game of the year. Blindcoco and me have become friends over time so I am biased but I was actually sold on the game before me and him became buddy buddy when I played the demo and saw the amazing work that went into it. Then the extremally positive response from him and the community towards my desire to focus in on women and sapphic women only added to my excitement for the game.

The game genuinely seems to be raising the bar for SRPGs and really feels like it is a step above Fire Emblem and not an emulation of Fire Emblem. I loved the demo and the concepts in the game so much it inspired me to start working on my own SRPG studios game knowing what is possible at the high end of investment in the system can really be something special and really cool. I love that there is a focus on trying to cast voice actors who match ethnicity to the diverse cast, I love that there is a wide range of diversity in the revealed cast, I love the amount of queer women I am aware of in the game, I love the animations and sprite work, I love the gameplay, I am really really excited about this game and I think this game has a high shot at being one of my favorite games.

Fields Of Mistria

I make fun of farming sims a little on my lists and stuff but only because I actually love farming sims especially in concept. This game probably has my favorite art style of the whole lot of games today. It's lovely 90s anime style sprite work is just AHHHHHHHHHH so good. I do in fact want to kiss the women in this game very badly and I would enjoy playing the game for the sake of dating them alone.

Rune Factory: Dragon

Let's bang out the second farming sim while we're at it. We don't know a bunch about this game but it really just has to do two things for me to be into it. One, let you be gay like the newest RF and Story of Season games already let you do and Two, keep up the art direction and bam, I'm in. My biggest problem with the last Rune Factory game was that the art style made every woman look like a 12 year old and not in the like chibi story of seasons way like they just looked like they were kids. This however, has a much better set of art direction and it makes me think there might actually be women I'd want to gay marry.

Mahou Senshi Cosplay Club

I really love Behold's previous game Chroma Squad but when I got this demo I had no idea they were the Chroma Squad people. The mix of dress up and RPG gameplay is a dream come true kind of game and the outfit customization is leagues beyond a game like Fashion Dreamer despite likely being made on a much smaller budget. The PSX style graphics actually work here with them evoking nostalgic graphics while also not actually being restrained by a Playstation One's issues. I just really loved the process of making the outfit and character in this game and honestly that alone is a potential game seller. The gameplay element was solid and I really want to play more of this.

Beastieball

BeastieBall seems to be a really fun take on the Monster Taming genre. Having the monster friends play a sport and naturally be inclined to play the sport makes for a very cute and wholesome premise to which you become more a coach than an owner to these little cuties. It's a pretty simple concept in the demo but it's promising and cute and I do like that the monsters you collect build relationships with each other, I think that is something really special and neat and something I'd like to see more monster tamers do.

Love In A Bottle

There is a lot of nice looking visual novels coming out but Love In A Bottle is dating sim that is really capturing my eye. You play as a demon girl, bam okay I am sold. You date other monster girls okay I'm sold. And it's got more then the basic one outfit you expect from a standard visual novel dating sim type deal for characters that is yet another sold factor. It seems really cute, seems fun and I hope I can smooch all the women at once.

Fantasy Life I

While I said we were done with farming sims, I didn't say we were done with sims as we have Level-5's Life Sim, Fantasy Life. I won't be buying the game if I can't be gay in it but I really loved the first Fantasy Life on the 3DS and I think if it can keep up the charm and fun of the original game and add a homosexual seasoning on top it'll be a perfect cute and fun time. I love the wide array of jobs and how these all build into each other, it's a very one of a kind experience and really fun.

Princess Peach Showtime

This is the true triple A game of the list and the only one that has captivated me in all the shows of all the consoles and developers I've seen of late. Peach is barbie now and I am here for it, let her have a million jobs and have a game based around her doing these different roles and being an icon in each of them, sounds good, I'm in, it's a really cute and fun concept. It looks really fun and the art style looks great.

Our Life Now and Forever

There is no other games like the Our Life games and getting to be sapphic in this one means I finally get to go ahead and experience the series I have been curious about for a while now. This game will let you be polyamarous which is the only game on this list I can say for sure will allow you to do that and that alone is something that would keep me engaged. However, getting to grow up with characters, change your pronouns, your name, anything about yourself as you do and having the characters change with you is amazing. I love the concept of this game and the wild reactivity the games demo has always provided just to a simple thing like me choosing to be trans in the childhood phase is amazing, it is truly such a considered and thoughtful game with such masterful crafting that the act one demo alone is probably worth money. So I did back this one on kickstarter as well so this is my other pick up.

Unlike other games on this list I am fairly confident this is a 2025 game and not a 2024 game but I want to talk about it now because people on the Patreon will be getting to play updated versions of the game over the course of the year akin to early access. I think the game is for sure worth a look.

Izrand Allure

After playing the previous game in the series I am totally sold on wanting to experience Izrand Allure. Luxaren Allure was a really special experience I had this year finally checking out the game after I think years of putting it off and beating it I really want to play this follow up. This game seems far more in depth and far more artistically masterful then Luxaren as well so I really want to see everything this game has to offer. I love a good job system and this game boasts one. I really want to see this lesbian RPG and I hope I get a chance to play it very soon but obviously Unity the dev should take her time to make it. Regardless, I am just gushing every time I see the game and I think this has potential to be a massive game of the year type hit for me.

If you enjoyed this post, I got a lot more end of the year lists coming up when it's actually next year so I can tell people what I enjoyed in December. You can also support me in making cool queer art by checking out my Patreon and Ko-fi.

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riddlerosehearts · 4 months

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okay, the other day i watched a playthrough of the emperor's new groove video game for playstation 1. a game which, for various reasons, i have never actually played myself. but i wrote down a lot of things about it that i'd now like to share. this is basically a combination of my own thoughts on the game and a summary of all the insane things that happened in it:

the game begins after kuzco has already been turned into a llama and pacha is saying he can't help unless he builds kuzcotopia somewhere else. in the movie this is the scene which leads into kuzco going off into the jungle by himself, but the game has you start by exploring the general area of the village around pacha's hut, where his kids hang out and teach you the mechanics. kuzco also knows from the beginning that yzma is trying to kill him and encounters her as a boss multiple times in the story.

it's fully voice acted, and this is the first time that j.p. manoux had voiced kuzco. he would go on to voice kuzco in the emperor's new school and in various other projects, and while it would've been nice if they could've gotten david spade for these, i think he does a good job. pacha's voice actor is different from either the movie or the show--it's john goodman in the movie + season 2 of the show, fred tatasciore in s1 of the show, and brian cummings here--but he's not too bad either.

pacha: "don't take the villagers' coins!" kuzco: "the villagers are MY people, so those are MY coins."

tipo: "by pressing your action button, you can smash these red pots" kuzco: "good, i feel like smashing something!"

i'm kind of obsessed with the fact that these sort of standard mechanics that you don't normally think about, like keeping money you found on the ground and destroying people's belongings in order to steal their money and items, are explained in this game by the protagonist being an entitled asshole. also obsessed with tipo encouraging kuzco's destructive behavior.

chaca: "this pad raises the columns to form steps! once they're triggered, you better be quick before they lower again." kuzco: "uh, ever thought of making them stay up for good when you press the pad?" chaca: "uhh... no." kuzco: "don't tell me, you got the brains in the family."

KUZCO DON'T BULLY A CHILD AKJDSFHHDJSKGSG

there's a mechanic where you can continue playing from your last checkpoint after dying as long as you've collected a wampy. what's a wampy? it's the name of the funky looking plushie that kuzco has as a baby in the first movie and then again in kronk's new groove:

the above screenshots are from the emperor's new groove, kronk's new groove, and the video game respectively. this is a bit of a tangent, but something i find interesting is that in the emperor's new school kuzco secretly carries a plushie named wampy around everywhere for comfort and that plushie has the same basic design but completely different colors:

and the purple wampy is never seen in the show, so i can only conclude that kuzco keeps multiple of these plushies that all share the same name. maybe he leaves the purple one at home so it doesn't have to endure the horrors of high school.

anyway, back to the game--every time you collect a wampy kuzco hugs it and says things like "awww, it's my wampyyyy" in a cute little baby talk voice. fucking dork <3

there are several little scenes during the village section of the game where chaca and tipo keep showing up to give tutorials and he just keeps making snarky comments at them and asking why they're there and if they don't have anything better to do.

in one of these scenes, tipo shows up to teach kuzco how to open doors and kuzco just goes "how did you get here so fast?". to which tipo replies that this is a game. another time, when chaca explains to kuzco how the wampy mechanic works, he asks how she knows all this and she goes "i don't know! beats me!"

there's a part where some random villager tells llama kuzco to stay away from his statues and kuzco goes "i'm the emperor! open the door or i'll smash your statue to pieces!"

the guy runs off screaming "DEMON LLAMAAAAA!!" and then tipo suddenly shows up to teach you how to smash the statues. i think chicha may need to keep a closer eye on tipo in the future.

SPEAKING OF CHICHA. SHE'S NOT IN THIS FUCKING GAME. if i were actually playing the game and doing a proper review of it i would automatically have to dock points for the lack of chicha.

at the beginning kuzco breaks some kid's llama bike and then the kid keeps showing up in every single chapter with a new bike and challenging kuzco to races. he somehow manages to show up everywhere from the top of a waterfall to the middle of yzma's roller coaster and never once questions why this llama is such a jerk or why he can even talk. also, toward the end of the game you race him one last time and his bike breaks for the millionth time and he says he learned a valuable lesson. that lesson? that these llama bikes suck and he needs to stop buying them.

kuzco hates being touched so much that anytime a guard, bug, bird, etc touches him he says "no touchy" and then loses health.

at one point kuzco gets turned into a turtle and kronk shows up and asks if he's there to enter the annual village race. he refuses at first but then it turns out kronk has an item that kuzco needs to progress, sooooo you have to have turtle kuzco slide on his back down the hill and try to beat kronk in the race.

kronk is voiced by patrick warburton again btw. eartha kitt also returned as yzma for the game. they both returned for each season of the emperor's new school as well, and i believe eartha kitt in particular loved voicing yzma so much that every time they needed her, right up until her death, she showed up.

kuzco cries if you lose the race against kronk, which is understandable considering that losing means he has to climb up to the top of the hill as a turtle again.

at the end of the village section you have to run from yzma as she throws bombs at kuzco and once you manage to get away, kuzco says "you call yourself an end of level boss, yzma? you're rubbish! toodles!"

after this, kuzco ends up going into the jungle despite pacha's repeated warnings that it's too dangerous. and now instead of chaca and tipo, a talking bug trapped in a spiderweb appears to teach him additional mechanics.

when the jaguars from the movie show up kuzco says "time out" and then the frame freezes while he explains to YOU, the player, what you'll have to do to save him.

during the waterfall section chaca is somehow there AGAIN, at the top of the waterfall in a pink llama pool floatie, and is like "oh wow, another llama tied to a log!" (apparently one showed up the previous week) but does not react at all to her dad also being tied to a log. she just explains to them how this level is gonna work and then leaves.

she pops back up again a little later (still on the waterfall. they stretched this part of the movie out a lot) and calls kuzco "kinda short for a llama".

speaking of the game stretching things out a lot, pacha literally says during the waterfall levels: "this scene was much shorter in the film".

there's a whole other jungle section where kuzco spends an extensive amount of time having been turned into a frog. tipo randomly appears to help again during this section.

there's another race with kronk in an icy area that shows kronk to be an excellent ice skater. i would probably be terrible at this if i played the game.

when they finally get into the city kuzco tells pacha he knows the streets like the back of his hand and pacha replies, "but kuzco, you're a llama, you don't have any hands!"

when they separate and kuzco sneaks on his own into the palace, he gets confronted by a naked guy who's conveniently being covered up by a peacock and says the peacocks stole his clothes. he's blocking a path we need to go through so we are forced to find his underwear for him. this guy also does not question wtf is up with the talking llama.

when you get him his underwear back he, uh. well. he uses his magic sparkly underwear to fly away:

what is this guy, the incan version of captain underpants? kuzco then says in a deadpan voice, "this has gotta be the weirdest day of my entire life". can't argue with that!

i've gone way too long without mentioning that this game is primarily a platformer, which is a genre i kind of suck at and don't play often, but appears to have a lot of variety in its gameplay that makes it look pretty fun! the races with kronk, the part where you guide pacha and kuzco down the river, the part where you have to run from the jaguars, the stealth sections, and the various parts where kuzco is transformed into non-llama animals all have different types of gameplay to switch it up. the city is also huge and full of puzzle sections.

when kuzco defeats yzma in his throne room and then meets back up with pacha, they have to take the roller coaster down to yzma's lab and there's a level based on this as well. you have to control the roller coaster and turn it at just the right time to collect coins and avoid falling to your death. this looks like it could be a lot of fun to me.

tipo somehow shows up on the roller coaster to give another tutorial and kuzco tells this 6 year old to make him a sandwich and then insults his haircut 😭 kuzco i love you but why are you like this

before the final battle against yzma she says she's gonna drink a potion to turn herself into a hideous monster and rule the empire forever. and kuzco says "are you sure you didn't drink it already, you old bag of bones?"

there's this huge dramatic buildup to her drinking the potion. and then. it turns her into a cat like in the movie. and that's the final boss battle. you have to race against cat yzma to get the last potion to turn back into a human.

just from the video i watched, this race seemed very short and easy and therefore anticlimactic? but idk, maybe the person playing was just really good at it.

the final scene of the game immediately following this is kuzco visiting the village as a human again and we see scenes like kronk playing jump rope with chaca and tipo, the incan captain underpants guy flying around the roof of a house, bucky the squirrel chasing cat yzma, and kuzco + pacha's family all having a dance party while fireworks go off.

again i must reiterate that this game is missing chicha's legendary and iconic presence. my assumption is that since the characters seem to know they're in a video game, she didn't wanna have to help give kuzco tutorials because it would put too much stress on her while pregnant. still, though, it would've been nice to see her in at least the opening or ending sequences.

in conclusion: as i mentioned, i've never played this game, and the main reason for this is that i didn't know it existed when i was a kid--but even if i had i still most likely wouldn't have played it because i didn't care much about the emperor's new groove back then. the only reason i looked up a playthrough of it was because my autism brain suddenly told me i needed to learn about all of the official emperor's new groove media in existence. however, it really does look like fun and the playthrough i watched wasn't even 5 hours long, so now i kind of wanna give it a try someday? the writing is hilarious. not as hilarious as the actual movie, of course, but it was just so bizarre in such a great way and was very faithful to the movie's complete lack of a fourth wall.

also: this game has the best "game over" screen of all time. whenever kuzco dies it literally just plays a clip of the funeral scene from the movie, all the way through the "he ain't getting any deader, back to work!" bit.

#OKAY. here is my way too long post about the emperor's new groove video game for playstation 1 #which i found out is also available on PC. neat!#the emperor's new groove #disney

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wolfverse-stories · 6 months

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Falling In Reverse

(Reverse robins)

Chapter 4

"Hello, Father" Damian called getting out of his car. Wally jumped out of the passenger side.

"Why is he here"? Bruce asked pointing to the red-headed speedster.

"To make sure Damian doesn't lose his temper" Wally smiled.

"Ok, Jason's in the library" Wally and Damian both walked to the library, while Bruce went back to his study.

"Greetings Todd," Damian said in his usual cold voice.

"A tad bit frosty there big bird" Wally playfully jabbed him.

"If you don't stop calling me that I'll break your leg" Damian glared.

"That's the spirit"Wally rolled his eyes "Hey Jason I'm Wally"

"I know you're, Kid Flash," Jason said not looking up from his book.

"Do you people not believe in privacy?" Wally said turning to Damian.

"Come on we're going to play ball" Damian dragged Jason outside by his hoodie.

"That's not how you handle kids" Wally chased after him.

Timeskip The three of them played catch silently for about an hour until Jason purposely hit it over the fence making Damian go get it.

"Todd that's rude" Damian grunted earning a chuckle from Wally. "And what may I ask is so funny?"

"You are literally the rudest person I know" Wally laughed "You made Superman cry"

"He was asking for it," Damian said picking up the ball.

"He just said he liked your drawing" Wally grinned.

"Did I ask him to look at my drawing?" Damian threw the ball in the air.

"It was on the fridge for goodness sake" Wally hit the ball over to Jason "And that was no reason to chase him with a Kryptonite sword"

"He was fine I was very careful not to kill him" Damian caught the ball.

"You were such a hateful kid" Walley smirked "Actually you're still hateful" he quickly dodged as Damian tossed the ball at his head. The ball went right through the brick wall and knocked down a large tree.

"And people say I have anger issues," Jason said looking through the hole.

"How about some video games" Wally suggested nervously.

"Sounds good to me" Damian agreed "I need to blow off some steam"

"How much steam could you have after knocking down a wall?" Jason said raising an eyebrow.

Time skip Wally sat on the couch watching Damian and Jason play the PlayStation. Jason used a cheat code to get to the top causing Damian to lose.

"Hey, you little twerp" Damian started to tickle Jason causing the kid to bust out laughing. Wally smiled watching them as a faint memory played in his mind.

Flashback

Tim, Wally, and Damian were all sitting on the floor in front of the TV playing video games.

"Here," Tim tossed Damian one of the PlayStation controllers. Damian started to play when he noticed that all the buttons had been switched.

"Hey, you little twerp!" Damian tackled Tim. He started to tickle Tim "Say it"

"No fair" Tim started to laugh so hard he was about to cry. Suddenly the ending sound came on.

"I WON!!!" Wally shouted jumping on the couch, as his character appeared on the Victory screen. "In your face!" While Wally was busy gloating Damian and Tim grinned at each other. Suddenly they pulled Wally off the couch and started tickling him.

"Hey cut that out!"Wally started laughing it tickled too much for him to be able to get away.

Damian looked over to see Wally looking distracted he turned to Jason who understood the signal and nodded.

"You never learn do you West?" Damian and Jason pulled Wally off the couch.

"Hey stop that!" Wally tried to pull away but it was no use "Help!" Alfred peered through the doorway to make sure no one was being killed. He smiled when he saw the three boys getting along maybe this wouldn't be so bad.

Prev. / Next

#fanfic #batfam #tim drake #damian wayne #jason todd #reverse robins #reverse batfam #ao3 #batman

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sweetbillwriting · 10 months

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Love Just Happens

A New Chapter - Part 3

Characters: The future's Bill Skarsgård and others close to him. The rest is my own characters.

Setting: This story is set in the future but because it's hard to say how the world is then (and it isn't that important for the story) the future is similar to our time now, even with fashion and so on.

Warnings: 18+, age difference, smut, ageism, all kinds of talk about pregnancy, serious fluff, jealousy, violence, mention about weight, bullying, gossiping.

Notes: This chapter can be triggering!

Bill sat on the bed, watching Aurora by the vanity table braiding her long hair before going to bed. The clock was just 9 PM so he wouldn't go to bed yet but Aurora had been more tired the last week probably because of hormones but it could also be from annoyance. They were home in Sweden again with his daughters, his youngest sleeping in her room while the older ones were playing Playstation in the game room in the basement. Everything would have been cozy and calm if it wasn't for Aurora's bad mood. He wasn't really used to this dragged out bad mood and attitude and how she ignored him. They haven't even kissed for a week and Bill missed her even if she was so close.

"The clock is just 9 PM…" said Bill with a sigh while dragging his palms over his sweatpants. Aurora gave him a quick look in the mirror but then continued to braid her hair without giving him an answer.

"I get that you're tired… Is it because of the baby? Can I help in any way?" said he with a low voice so if one of his children would be close they wouldn't hear the "B word". He could see on Aurora's reflection that his question just made her more irritated and she twisted a hair tie around the end of the braid aggressively.

"Sure you can…" she said sarcastically and shook her head.

"What do you mean by that?" Bill asked but sounded more offended than he wanted to. Aurora turned around and gave him a pointed look.

"Oh, because you were sooo nice to Derwin."

Bill looked away and poked his cheek with his tongue.

"Derwin…" he said and laughed unamused. Now it was he who was annoyed.

"He will be here tomorrow and I am actually worried you will not be able to act like a grown up! I don't know what you're capable of doing!" She said with a louder voice and Bill hushed her softly, afraid his kids would hear. Aurora rolled her eyes. They were quiet and Aurora got into bed annoyed while Bill tried to come up with something to say.

"He's such a wimp…" said he with a low voice and rolled his eyes. As soon as he had said it he knew it wasn't the right thing to say. Aurora gave him a look.

"God, you're unbelievable! I never thought you would be like this! You said when we started to date you weren't the jealous type but Bill…" she gave him a pointed look. "You're extreme. I don't recognize you!"

Bill didn't want to give her the right, even if she was, but the whole thing with Derwin was freaky. She had paid him to come to Sweden and he had been there twice that week to do some weird tantric pregnancy yoga with her and he had seen him drag his dry hands over her bare waist and stood behind her while she stood on all four. Bill wasn't the shallow person but his whole look made it creep inside of him. That ragged beard and sly smirk.

"It's not every day you see Rasputin pressing his hard on against your wife…"

"Who the fuck is Rasputin?" Aurora furrowed her brows and could just hear some Boney M song in her head. Bill rolled his eyes. In reality he was annoyed at himself and the situation but now he got irritated she didn't know who Rasputin was instead.

"I just don't want to hear you moaning by that gross dude's hands when I come home."

"I've actually asked you to be a part of it. But maybe you will hit him too just like you did on Halloween!"

He had hit his friend. He had no idea where the action came from; it was just something about someone sexualizing his wife's pregnancy. His Lou. But he was also irritated that the dude seemed to believe he would tolerate him talking like that. It was enough when he said a more or less sexual comment about her breastfeeding. Bill wasn't at all the violent type but that was just too much. It had just been a punch over his brow, it didn't become more than that but it had made a scene at the party and Aurora went from being proud over him to needing to excuse his behavior. She wasn't pleased at all but relieved it hadn't leaked out to the press. Some of their fans just searched for a reason to spread out how awful they were as a couple.

"Can you just stop with those… I don't know what you call it, with Derwin?" He said with annoyance but also desperation. Aurora looked at his desperate eyes and sighed.

"Fine, but I do it for our baby, you know."

Bill nodded but it got slower and slower while he took in what she said.

"Do you… Want it?"

Aurora smiled irritated but amused at him. He was so stupid sometimes.

"If it's father stops acting like an asshole."

Bill lit up like he hadn't heard the comment about him being an asshole.

He kissed her hard even if she still was annoyed at him. She sighed with a smile and let his hands crawl down under the cover to feel the bump. Bill forgot about his friend and Derwin while crawling down next to Aurora under the cover. Maybe he believed the worst was over now but a pregnancy with Aurora wouldn't be easy, even if he believed he had the experience to handle it calmly.

×××

Bill had been out running in the snow believing it would be fine but he had slipped on some ice. He succeeded in catching himself but instead hurt his wrist and was now pissed. He thought he would be able to come home with new energy and in a sunny winter mood and wake up Aurora with kisses on her neck. The kids were probably still sleeping so he would have Aurora all to himself but now he just felt sorry for himself and hoped he could find something comforting in the fridge.

When he walked in he heard Aurora moan from the living room and his first thought was that he would surprise her just when she pleasured herself and he felt a stir in his running pants.

"Thaaaat's right Lou… That's right… Looou… Good girl…" he heard a familiar voice saying with low voice. Derwin. That fucking perv. Bill, who already was in a bad mood stomped into the living room with his wet sneakers on. Lou sat almost in a split, leaning forward while Derwin stood behind her pressing her back. It wasn't really anything intimate and Bill felt a bit stupid for coming in with such force. Aurora moaned again when Derwin succeeded to push her even further down, closer to the floor.

"Hey?" Said Derwin with that slimy smile towards Bill and released Aurora from his grip. She looked up at Bill but continued to breathe loudly. Breathing exercises for labor. Bill sighed. He really was an asshole. No one said anything so Derwin sat down behind Aurora, with one leg on each side of her and started to massage her back and hips. Bill looked at them for a while then he walked to the bathroom with heavy steps. He hated the guy even if he helped Aurora with her pregnancy. Even if she had actually asked him at first to help her. If it had been normal pregnancy yoga he would have done it but the thing with Derwin was that he practiced yoga by some cult-like group. Bodya Closer Tantric pregnancy yoga or whatever they called it. He was surprised Aurora had fallen for it. Just like himself she had been really skeptical to all such things but after the contact with Derwin online she had been hooked. Hollywood shit, he thought to himself while standing in the shower. A new trendy concept for people with too much money.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door while Bill was deep in his annoyance and self pity over his wrist. He turned the water off and listened for a few seconds.

"Aa?" He said in Swedish, a sound of questioning. His oldest opened the door a bit without looking at her dad in the shower.

"Who is the creepy dude in the kitchen?"

Bill sighed loudly.

"Aurora's yoga guru or something. Keep away from him."

His oldest looked towards the kitchen where Aurora stood in shorts and a tight sports bra. It seemed like she had gotten a boob job but she didn't dare asking either her or her father. The creepy guy leaned against the counter while Aurora made tea for them. For Bill's daughter it was obvious the dude watched Aurora a bit too closely but Aurora just continued to talk and even swayed her back and threw around her hair. She stretched but it looked more as if she was showing off her ass.

"Dad… You should really come out. I don't like this…" said his daughter and Bill didn't hesitate to listen to her. He put on a robe and walked out of the bathroom and saw Aurora holding on to the counter with her back curved while the man held a hand on the small of her back. The man smirked to himself and was pleased that Aurora's size made it possible for him to shift between looking at her bouncing tits and her ass.

"The work out session is over. My wife needs to rest," said Bill, determined as he walked up to them. Aurora stood up from her position and gave Bill an annoyed look.

"Oh, okay. It would be awesome if you could give her thighs a loving touch, we haven't done…"

"Loving touch?" Bill said angrily. His daughter stood in the door opening and also wondered who this creep actually was and why Aurora even wanted him close.

"It's just a name for the exercise."

The guy smirked at Bill but gave Aurora's thighs a look while she continued with the tea in embarrassment. Once again Bill was rude and jealous and Aurora couldn't see why. Bill looked at the guy pissed. He was so annoyed that Aurora couldn't see what the guy was actually doing. She just believed he was some sort of harmless hippie but he acted like a predator.

"Time to go," said Bill just to him and Aurora turned around. Her ponytail and breasts moved with the motion and both the men looked at her with heavy eyes.

When Bill realized that there was an audience to Aurora's too small top he pulled her close to his side, covering her with his long arms. He gave Derwin a challenging look who smirked back. He probably didn't know he would be fired soon.

"Namaste," he said as a goodbye with a deep bow and gave Bill a final smug look.

Aurora pushed Bill away when Derwin had left and gave his daughter a look. She knew what it meant and she walked up the stairs. She had learned now that her father actually could do some stupid things, the same things she had seen her own boyfriend do.

Aurora crossed her arms and looked up at Bill pissed. Even if she was much smaller than him in every way he always got nervous when she looked at him like that. He didn't want to disappoint her, he wanted to be the perfect husband but it was hard when people like Derwin were close to Aurora.

"You said you would stop… The yoga thing with him," muttered Bill as he messed with the coffee machine to have something to do.

"Yes, but it felt really rude to do it the same day as our booking," said Aurora and looked at Bill's broad back in the dark gray robe. He didn't say anything but when Aurora continued to fix her tea he turned to her.

"He actually looked at you really… Scary."

Aurora looked up at Bill with a serious expression but then looked at him with sympathy.

"Just because you think I'm… Attractive doesn't mean everyone thinks the same. You must stop believing every guy looks at me 'inappropriately'."

Bill didn't like how she spoke to him. Like he was just paranoid. There were too many men that looked at her, especially now with the boobs but he didn't want to comment on her chest because it would just make her insecure.

"You aren't just attractive Lou…" he said defiantly and leaned his head back with a sigh.

"Neither are you! But I don't treat all the women close to you badly because of it."

Bill sighed. He knew they wouldn't get anywhere with this, instead he leaned down so much he could put his chin on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry, okay?"

Aurora looked at his big eyes and dragged her finger along the crease under one of them.

"Yeah, yeah. But you must stop being so jealous. It's not good for any of us. Not this girly either." She laid his hand on her lower stomach and it made Bill smile. He moved so he could stand behind her and drag both his hands over her belly.

"Girly?" He said with amusement. He hoped for a son for obvious reasons.

"You can only make girls. All your sperm are girls, that's why you're such a kind, soft man."

Bill made a sound, a mixed sound between a laugh and a grunt but then started to kiss Aurora's neck and dragged his hands up to her chest. They hadn't slept with each other for so long so even if they knew his daughter was up they took the risk and moved to the laundry room to connect.

×××

Aurora was in a bad mood again. This time because of hormones. To make herself calm and happy she watched the most girly comedies she could find but instead of laughing she cried during every cute scene, every happy ending. Bill's daughters looked at her strangely while she ate peanut butter from the jar and drank the awful tea she had gotten from Derwin. Bill tried to occupy his girls with baking and Christmas card making but all of them were a bit too interested in Aurora. She had never acted like that before.

"Is she sick?" Asked his youngest. They made bread for Christmas and she stood on a chair next to him by the counter. His middle daughter stood on the side mixing the dough and his oldest sat by the table making Christmas candy. Bill didn't know how to answer his youngest so he stood for a long time looking out the window.

"It's the operation, right? Tuva's sister got all weird after," said his oldest without looking up from her work.

"Operation?" Bill looked at his oldest daughter confused.

"Mm? The boobs?"

"The boobs?" Asked his youngest and looked down at her own flat chest like the answer would be written there.

"What are you talking about?" Bill said with feigned confusion. He knew what she believed but felt it was best to act like he didn't understand.

"The boob job? Her tits are much bigger! Like, on her it's so obvious because of how petite she is but also because of all her tight clothes. And the video? Her tits were the only thing you're looking at!"

He dragged his hands over his face and could feel his younger daughters' worried eyes on him.

"Aurora has just put on some weight. And her weight was placed at her chest. Okay? And don't ask her about it. It's… sensitive." He said at first annoyed but it turned to pedagogic. He knew it was a better way to reach them than annoyance. His oldest looked at him with a smirk, like she didn't believe him but continued with the candy in silence. His youngest continued to look at her chest.

"When will I get boobs?" She asked her dad. Hopefully never, thought Bill to himself.

"When you're older. Much older," he just said and turned to his middle daughter's baking. He really needed a guy in his family.

While the bread was in the oven, Bill walked out to Aurora who sat and watched the movie Never Been Kissed and had moved the piano keyboard to stand in front of her. Her cheeks were wet with tears and her braids were all messy. The sport bra sat tight over her chest and Bill looked at her chest discreetly before saying hello to her. It actually looked like she had gotten a boob job. By a really great surgeon.

"Hey…" said Aurora and moved the piano keyboard away to make room for him.

"Are you okay?" He sat down next to her and let her put her feet in his lap.

"Yeah, it was just that scene where they're throwing eggs at her… In that awful dress you know?"

Bill smiled a little. He would never have known a few years ago but thanks to Aurora he knew the plot for many high school movies.

"It made you sad?" He asked carefully. He knew he shouldn't make fun of her, then she would be even more hormonal. Aurora nodded and scooted closer to him.

"You know… I really want this baby. Because it's yours. Because obviously it's made with love and not like planned and unromantic. This is a love child."

She dragged her hand over the bump and Bill looked at her with love and hugged her closer.

"So maybe we should do a reveal? I am invited to a late show, maybe I could wear a crop top set and just show off my belly? Like just a bustier kind of thing and a little skirt?"

It was not what Bill expected to hear. This was their pregnancy, no one else's.

"Pink, of course. I think Versace had something in their spring collection…" continued Aurora and took her phone to show him. Bill sat quietly and looked out over the room. Everyone would sexualize her pregnancy. Their pregnancy.

"Look! This is cute, right!" She showed him a pink two piece set with the stomach bare from under the breasts down to the hips. Glittery pink with bare shoulders and long sleeves. White silver sandals with chunky heels. It was a Barbie look, as usual.

"It's not meant for someone pregnant," said Bill with a bored tone.

"They can fix that! I can just call Donatella!" She said more happy than she had sounded all week. Bill didn't want to destroy that so he continued to look at catwalk pictures with her. His ex had started to look at the interior of a baby room at this time in the pregnancy, Aurora was looking at glitter mini skirts and sky high heels. He really tried to not compare because they had just decided to keep the baby but it was hard when he had done this three times before. He dragged his hand over the bump and it made Aurora giggle.

"It tickles!" She said and pushed his hand away while giggling. Bill smirked. He should really not compare because Aurora was Aurora. The sunshine girl, pregnant with their love child. They were just like how she sang in her new song "just as perfect for each other like two cherries on the same stem." It was about them, everyone could listen to how much she loved him but he didn't want everyone to also be a part of them having a baby.

"Can't we just….Try to have it private?" He said softly when Aurora had calmed down from the tickling and sat pressed against his side. Aurora continued to look at the Versace outfit then smiled a little sadly.

"You know we can't…"

"It's easier than you think. We kept the wedding private."

"Yes but that was a day, this is months. And I have press, talk shows and public attendances."

Bill sighed and leaned forward. This was a thing they would always have problems with. Aurora feeling the pressure to be so public. She didn't post much on social media but she just jumped into the press bubble as soon as someone asked. After their wedding she had talked about them and even mentioned his kids on a radio interview. He knew she had more nosy fans and sometimes she needed to say something to just calm the rumors down but it was hard for him, he had decided early in his career to try to keep the spotlight on his performances.

"You know I must. I haven't released any new material for a long time. And I want to. I miss it."

Bill himself wasn't a fan of any of the things she had mentioned but he wasn't as trained as her. She was natural and sweet in the spotlight. Funny and sexy in the talk show chair. He still could get nervous. He actually became more nervous after getting together with a young woman that did everything so graciously. His ex wasn't better than him with press and also got nervous and uptight while Aurora walked into the talk shows with the highest heels and played silly games with the host. Of course she missed it.

"You know, the girls think you have gotten a boob job," said he with fake amusement. He knew it was low. He didn't know why he said it, or he did know, he knew he said it to maybe make her feel put off from the spotlight but he felt bad at once. Fuck, he really needed to work at this pocessiveness.

"But it's probably just them. They're kids," he said, trying to smooth it over. Aurora was quiet and Bill hugged her to his side again, afraid he had hurt her.

"No. I put up a silly video of my yoga yesterday and like a million people asked if I've gotten a boob job. But that's what I mean! I can't hide this!" She motioned to her chest and belly. "I should just be open with it." She turned her gaze down to her phone again and continued to look at more pictures of the Versace look. It wasn't what Bill had expected to hear at all but she was right. They would never be able to do this privately even if he wanted to. Maybe if she was on a break but she was releasing a new song on Friday. A new song, pictures and the concept for her new album. In four weeks she would go to L.A. and do press for it. Everyone would see how her body had changed.

×××

Two weeks later they sat opposite Bill's ex in her kitchen. Her and Bill's old kitchen. Aurora didn't like being there because even if she was Bill's wife it felt like walking into something that wasn't completely ended. His ex has pictures of all five of them together and also a collage their oldest daughter made when she was younger of a picture of her and Bill embracing. His ex had given her a tour once, showing her their daughters' room but also pointing out nostalgic stuff in the apartment. Aurora had looked at the bed and wondered if it was the same as when Bill lived there. It had been six years ago now since they separated so she hoped, for his ex's sake, she had bought a new one.

Now they were here in secret while the kids were at school. Bill still tried to be less intimate with Aurora when they met with his ex, just out of respect so he didn't even have his hand on her thigh. Aurora had been annoyed in the beginning that he couldn't just touch her, hold her but she could now see how it would be a bit much. There was no reason for them to shove their happiness in her face, especially not now when she was single again and they were married with a baby on the way.

"We must tell the kids before they hear it from another source. But of course, we want to have your opinion on this," said Bill to his ex. Aurora sat quiet and looked at his ex with big brown eyes. Bill's ex had accepted her but there were many things that annoyed her; the giggle, the fame, everyone's interested in her, the cute outfits, her height, the perfect manicured nails but maybe mostly the doe eyed look. She shook her head of annoyance when Aurora looked at Bill and he gave her a calming, loving look.

"Fine but… I heard about Halloween. Bill, I don't know what's affecting you so negatively but you can't be in fights. The kids don't need that."

"They don't know any…"

"What do you mean by that? 'What's affecting him negatively'? If you mean that I affect him negatively you can say it!" Aurora was upset. Bill looked at her shocked. She wasn't a confrontational person at all but maybe the person inside of her was. His ex looked just as shocked at Aurora and laughed nervously.

"It was a stupid jealous thing. Bill is the same as he has always been, just protective," continued Aurora with an attitude and leaned back in the chair with crossed arms like a teenager. Bill smiled a bit uncomfortably and looked between his wife and his ex-girlfriend who looked at Aurora with raised brows and at Bill like she expected him to react the same.

"It's just that. Bill isn't jealous. Right? You are not jealous?" Said his ex.

Bill sat quietly because he knew the answer to the question but didn't know how to say it.

"I'm not the jealous type but it's… Different with Aurora…" he heard himself, how it sounded but looked at his wife who he couldn't see a flaw on and knew he couldn't say it another way.

"It's not just me that thinks she's perfect…" he said with a low voice, his thoughts running out his mouth like liquid. Aurora turned her eyes towards Bill and smiled at him with love. Her eyes were shiny and he understood it was more difficult than he had understood to control her hormones while together with his ex. His ex looked at them with disgust but in reality it was hurt feelings. He had never fought for her, never seen other men as a threat but with Aurora he acted like a knight in shining armor.

"So when will you tell them?" She asked so Bill and Aurora would stop looking at each other with sugar sweet lovey dovey eyes. Bill turned to her but took Aurora's hand in his so she would calm down.

"I guess tomorrow night, at dinner. We have a doctor's appointment today we want to go to before. You know, ultra sound and such things," said he and tried to hide the smile that wanted to burst in his face. His ex knew how much he loved that part but wondered how much he would love it with Aurora then. She sighed but smiled. She had accepted Aurora. Even if she was just a kid compared to Bill but she was good with their kids and was sweet and kind. Except now.

"Okay, okay… But, no more fights. And remember that they can't keep a secret," She said about the kids, she believed Bill would smile knowingly at her, an inside joke, instead he just sat and watched his wife like she was made of gold and diamonds.

Bill and Aurora walked hand in hand directly from his ex to the woman’s clinic. Bill smirked to himself and rubbed his eye over and over and Aurora looked at him with a questioning smile. Bill thought about something, something that made him smirk but also looked a bit embarrassed.

"What is it?" Aurora asked with a silly whiny voice and played with his hand between both of hers. Bill exhaled deeply with a smile and then looked down at Aurora. He rubbed his eye again and with his thumb and forefinger he wiped the corners of his mouth.

"It's just… It's silly really," said Bill but stopped talking to watch the blue sky. "How in love I am with you. I didn't believe I could be like this. No one believed that, probably. And…" He shifted between smiling and furrowed his brows in confusion. "And, fuck. I should really check myself so it doesn't spill out in front of others."

Aurora gave him a warm smile but with a hint of disappointment.

"I want you to be messingly in love with me in front of others too. I know you have been all private and collected with your love life before… " she thought back to his ex's face while she watched Bill be dopy in love. "But we have more than that. Our love is too big to be that sort of love. I know your love for me spills over just like my love for you spills over. My love for you is my fuel. I can't hide it."

They had stopped outside the women's clinic and Aurora pressed her body against Bill's. Everything she said was true, for her it was so easy to always let love guide her and Bill felt he might have started to do the same. He bent down and took a passionate grip of her face with both hands and gave her a knee weakening kiss. It was silly, all of it, for him still confusing and overwhelming. And now they had a baby on its way.

Aurora sat in the examination chair with her shirt pulled up and her high waisted pants unbuttoned. Bill sat next to her and together they waited on the doctor. Bill dragged his hand over the little bump on Aurora's belly, that was bigger and rounder, while they waited.

"It's nice to see you again," said the same doctor they had met when they thought about having an abortion. Aurora smiled a little but felt shame when she thought back at that moment. Now it felt so natural to keep the baby even if she had never been able to see herself as a mother before.

"So week 19, the time goes fast. I understand it has been a lot for you these past weeks but it's good you're here for a check up now," said the doctor as they fixed the monitor.

"Yeah, hopefully in a few weeks the both of us can go into a slower pace," said Bill and took Aurora's hand instead of having it on her belly.

"That sounds good," said the doctor with a broad smile. Aurora smiled too but it didn't seem completely genuine and it wasn't. She didn't want to go at a slower pace. She wanted to meet people, dance and have passionate hard sex. She didn't want to lean back and be a baby machine, she wanted to show off her belly but also make use of her last moments childless well.

The doctor dragged the ultrasound wand over Aurora's stomach and Aurora looked at her husband instead of the screen. His eyes were big and round while watching the movement on the screen. She smiled a little because of his excitement. She couldn't really see what was so special with an ultrasound but it was special to see him like that. He was so childlike even as he tried to see his fourth child on the screen.

"And there… There it is…" said the doctor. Aurora continued to look at Bill. She could see his pupils move fast but focused on the screen and how the white of his eyes got shiny. He smiled with an open mouth in wonder and moved closer to the screen while playing with her hand in his. Aurora smiled amused at him but didn't look at the screen, she wasn't that interested. All ultrasounds look the same, while her husband's face changed every day and had hundreds of different expressions. Bill turned towards his wife and met her eyes. She giggled a little and shook her head.

"What?" He said and smiled but his eyes were still glossy.

"You're so sensitive," she joked and continued to giggle. Bill smiled amused but turned his eyes towards the screen again. He was mesmerized and just wanted to see the baby's movement. He heard Aurora giggle and after a while he turned to her. She still watched him.

"Are you looking at the screen?" He said with a confused smile. Aurora shrugged her shoulders and gave the screen just a quick glance.

"Isn't it amazing?" Said Bill and smiled carefully. He felt the worry in his belly because of her behavior. Didn't she want this?

Aurora looked at the screen and shrugged her shoulders. She looked at the screen uninterested until she saw the baby actually move and a foot looked like it came kicking towards the screen. Aurora got goosebumps and shook her head with a smile. Tears had started to run down her cheeks and now Bill looked at her in fascination instead. He got it now. She still believed she wasn't like other women, like she wouldn't be as emotional. She wasn't a baby person but now she realized that she was a person that had a fascination for her own baby.

"That's…" She cried so much she couldn't talk now and Bill moved closer to her.

"That's our baby…" she cried and continued to look at the screen. That was really a baby. Their child. Maybe she hadn't wanted children before but now she doesn't want anything else than this baby. She wished she could have it in her arms right then and there.

×××

Bill and Aurora stood backstage on the talk show. A makeup artist made her perfectly glowing while her hair laid in long blown out curls and held back with a thick hair band in the same shade as her dress. Bill smiled at her, because she was so gorgeous but also because she had skipped that two piece Versace outfit. Instead she had a short silky dress in baby pink that showed off her bump. Every person backstage had graduated them, Bill was more comfortable with it then Aurora. She didn't really like that people examined her body up close but smiled like it wasn't a problem. Aurora smiled back at Bill who sat on a high chair next to the make up mirror. They had asked if he also wanted to be a part of the interview but he felt it was a little too private to welcome questions to them both, like they were a part of a reality show. Aurora looked Bill up and down. She had a horny period and watched his biceps in his black button up, his big hands on his thick thighs. She had seen how the stylists looked at him, his height, the hypnotic eyes. She understood people hadn't realized how handsome he actually was until he stood in front of them.

"Aurora?" He said with a smirk when he saw her look at him that way. He knew she was in a horny period, it was obvious because she pushed her ass against his crotch as soon as they were alone.

"Hm?" She said distantly.

"Simone is talking to you." He nodded towards the make-up artist who smiled amused. It wasn't often she met a couple that so obviously thought filth about each other with her in the room.

"I asked how Christmas and New Years were."

"Oh," Aurora smiled and dragged a hand over her belly. "Great. Great." She looked at Bill who smiled warmly at her. It had been special because of her big birthday party in London and then Christmas where his daughters had got the best gift ever. A sibling. Because of her pregnancy his two youngest wanted to be close to her all the time and if they couldn't they got angry, while Aurora's mother stressed about the nursing room, baby clothes and girl names. They did New Years without kids and celebrated it with her friends in New York. Rappers and pop girlies. Bill felt a bit uncomfortable in the beginning of their relationship in the crowd but had found his place now, even if he became a bit of a wise dad with the young guys. He didn't mind it, he was older. Aurora talked with Simone about Christmas and New Years while people dragged her from all directions. When Bill did TV performances it never was such a big thing. With Aurora there were several stylists, PR people and a voice coach surrounding her. Bill himself became annoyed at all the people but Aurora just stood in the middle and let stylists preen her hair and body parts, PR people reading the script and her voice coach helping her do voice exercises. Bill just sat on his high chair and hoped it would be over soon.

He got a bit nervous when he sat in front of a screen backstage. The leather couch he sat on was uncomfortable and the coffee he had gotten was more or less just water. He looked at the screen, seeing the host talk about his girl and knew she stood behind the door listening to the audience's cheers. He was rarely nervous like this but he knew what questions Aurora would get. About her pregnancy, about their marriage and then about the new record. He knew what Aurora would say and it was nothing weird at all. The only thing he was nervous for really was the lift. They would talk about her and Bill's height difference and then talk about how she climbed him like a tree and then she would show the host.

Bill looked at Aurora in her cute little outfit, took off her high heels and stood up by the host that said a funny comment about her height then they moved away to the open floor next to the host's desk. She explained how she used to put her feet on Bill's thigh and how he would bend it and then straighten it out so she came up and could put her other leg on his hip. Aurora and the host had practice on it, Bill had even been there to show how easily she climbs him and how he is there at once to catch her.

Aurora and the host stood in profile so it wouldn't be as easy for the crowd to look under Aurora's dress and stiffly they made the lift. Aurora just giggled at it all and Bill smiled to himself. She was a natural. He was proud of her, oh so proud but he was afraid of what would happen now, when everyone knew they were having a baby.

×××

"No… It was not too much. It was fun. And you looked amazing," said Bill with a big smile. They sat close together in the limo, back home to their suite at the luxury hotel. Aurora had taken off her heels and laid up her legs in Bill's lap and he dragged his hand between her waist and the bump. He didn't remember his ex having such a big bump already in week 22 but he guessed it was because of Aurora's size. Sometimes he was nervous that the baby's coming from him would be too big for her body. Maybe it wasn't logical but he still got a little nervous when he saw how fast Aurora's body changed.

Aurora smiled at his words and kissed him. He kissed her right after and just like that they made out passionately. Aurora could hear Bill's heavy breathing and how he started to grow in his slacks. It was all a real turn on and she could feel herself get really wet by his kisses and sounds. She felt a stab in her belly, probably pre period cramps so she didn't think about it. Sex would always solve that. She had felt it a bit before and during filming too but she could get a belly ache when she was excited. She felt how the pain grew and was forced to take a break. Did you really get period cramps when you were pregnant? And did this even feel like period cramps?

Bill looked at Aurora's pained face and tried to catch her eyes.

"Hey hey… What is it?" He asked softly and dragged his hands over her shoulders.

Right then the pain went from something she could handle to something that took over. She made a loud sound of pain and leaned her head back. Bill watched her face in worry and took a fast look down to her belly and then he saw it. On the front of Aurora's baby pink dress was a red stain that grew while he was looking at it.

#bill skarsgård #bill skarsgard #fan fiction #writing #story #bill skarsgård writing #bill skarsgård fanfiction #fiction #lou

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toomuchracket · 10 months

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okay so it’s not quite dad! matty but still fluffy and involving kids. one of my *scenarios* is that bf matty would come help babysit your younger siblings/nieces and nephews one night. he would be a little apprehensive bc he’s not an authority figure to them so you tell him to just try to get them to have fun (very much that “I can see you smiling” video vibes). and he would play video games with them and beat the shit out of them lol. any child in my family would be fascinated by his English accent and they would ask him to say stuff like “bottle of water” and then laugh at him when he dies. anyways I just think it’s such a joy to watch him around kids

yeah like maybe they're at an age where he has genuinely no idea how to interact with them at first - around 7, maybe? and you're like "babe it's cool. i'll handle the authoritative bits, you just make sure they're entertained", and matty's like "but i don't know how!", so you kiss his head and say "just go with the flow". it's kinda funny when you first arrive at their house, because the kids and matty just kind of stare at each other awkwardly for a bit (despite the fact they've met more than once); you stand there trying not to laugh before composing yourself like "would anyone like a drink? we have apple juice or bottles of water". matty's like "can i have a bottle of water, please?" and the kids collapse into giggles - he smiles like "and what are you two giggling at?", to which your nephew's like "we're not!", and matty's like "are you sure? because i can see you smiling" at your niece, who cracks and says "your voice is funny". so then he ends up just saying things for a while to make them laugh at his accent, doing an impression of his dad's voice too to make them laugh even more lol. and the ice is fully broken - within an hour, they're tugging matty every which way trying to show him their toys, or talk about the things they watch on tv (there is a VERY long conversation about disney), or to play the old playstation 2 your brother found on ebay that still works. matty is absolutely DELIGHTED by this; he lulls them into a false sense of security by pretending he has no idea about it, and then proceeds to absolutely thrash them both at spyro. and they're mesmerised! so, naturally, he has to teach them everything he knows - it's a really cute sight, him with a kid on either side of him, their faces so focused on this game. generally, it goes so well that matty's actually upset when it's time for the two of you to go home, and your niece and nephew get so annoyed whenever they see you and he isn't there for whatever reason from that day on lmao <3

#mads answers asks #matty asks #fluff asks #moots <3

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blurryvxntage · 1 year

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okay vintage, please hear me out. dad!sapnap sharing his excitement and interest for pokémon with his kid/kids. maybe opening a pack of cards with them, or showing them his card collection from when he was younger. i think it would be the most precious moment ever :(

i fully believe dad!sapnap would try to get his kids to like everything he liked as a kid so he could relive his childhood.. also i don’t know anything about pokémon or the rarity of cards so i tried my best lmao

Sapnap always tried to include his kids in his interests. There were many times when he let his son sit in his lap while playing valorant or he and his daughter played minecraft on the playstation together. He most recently got his daughter into Pokémon cards. It was no longer a surprise when he randomly showed up at home with a few packs for her to open.

“Love bugs? I brought home gifts!” He called from the doorway.

His daughter, Lila, came running down the stairs. She was just a hair short of four years-old. She was at the age where she started to understand the games that her dad played, which made her all the more interested. She still didn’t fully grasp card games but she was just happy to get presents.

His son slowly made his way down the stairs behind his sister. Peter was a bit over one year-old. Still learning how to catch his balance and putting together small sentences.

Sapnap kept the bag in one arm, scooping Peter up in the other. The little boy tried to peer into the bag to see his gift. “Let’s go in the living room and then you can see what I got you!” Sapnap told them.

The three of them sat on the carpet, Lila impatiently waiting to see what Sapnap pulled out. He set Peter in his lap, opening the bag.

“Okay first thing is…” He drew out the suspense. He quickly pulled his arms out of the bag to reveal two stuffed animals. “Snorlax and Jigglypuff!”

The two kids eyes lit up at the sight of plushes. Peter reached out for Jigglypuff, pulling the character into his arms to hug. Sapnap handed the other one to Lila.

“But I wanted that one!” Lila pointed at the toy in her brothers hands. She was struggling with sharing and not always getting her way, something she was learning how to cope with.

“You got Snorlax, he’s good too! And I got you something else.” Sapnap smiled, pulling out a few pokémon packs.

Lila didn’t understand how pokémon actually worked. She watched the cartoons with her dad so she knew they battled each other. She was only really interested in the cool art and animals on the cards.

She reached forward to tear one open, laying the cards out infront of her. She made sure to give time to every card, fully taking in how the characters looked. She picked up a Mew to show it to Sapnap. In the process the card bended in her hands, causing her dad to cringe at the sight.

They went through the rest of the packs. In one of the packs they found a full art Blastoise. Sapnap gasped, taking the card to inspect it. “You have to be careful with this one, sweetie” He warned her.

When they were done ogling at the cards, Lila put them into a nice stake infront of her. “Can we put these in my binder?”

“Of course, honey.” He picked up Peter and the stuffed animals, following Lila to her room.

When Sapnap first started giving his daughter pokémon cards he made sure to give the girl her own binder with card holders. She had quite a collection, her dad put all of her cards safely in storage.

She started adding the new ones in, Sapnap helping her. When Sapnap saw the rare Blastoise, he quietly slipped it into his hoodie pocket. She couldn’t tell the difference and Sapnap didn’t have this card yet, so what he was taking from his kid.. He bought the cards anyway.

Lila took her time putting every one in the holders. “All done!” She smiled, jumping up to hug Sapnap.

He pulled her into a hug, falling back on the floor for both his kids to pile on top of him. “I love pokémon’s, dad.” She smiled, picking up her plushe to play with on her dads chest.

#dad!sapnap #sapnap #sapnap fluff #sapnap x reader #sapnap x you #sapnap blurb #mcyt #dsmp

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paladin-of-nerd-fandom65 · 5 months

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Got some more :D

1: what apps do they like to use? I can see them using twitter & maybe TikTok; probably do silly videos on there.

2: did Nightwing & starfire, plus mar’i tried to hide their superhero identity from Jake? (Probably did the same before mar’i got her powers too.)

3: how would a starburst duo movie start?

4: besides spider-man, do they like other spider-man stuff like the venom movie?

5: do they play battle royale games? I can see them both playing Fortnite (& doing the dances both in & out of costumes) but Chris likes COD Warzone & Jake like apex legends.

6: silly question, since they are pre-teens almost & have girlfriends, what do they prefer: butts or boobs? or personality XD

Sorry for the wait @gothicghost2000 But Here we are XD

1. They have three primary social apps: YouTube (the first one respectively), Twitter and Tumblr. All three apps have specific tools The Duo can use for their particular hobbies and interests, Tumblr for example being the blog space where they can give their predicts and hypotheses about their favorite ongoing shows and where it can go from there.

YouTube is their video library place, for all sorts including live streams, recaps of favorite shows/games, and yes thank to the Shorts function, TikTok style videos. Chris and Jake thankfully have both Jake’s tech expertise and even Oracle on some occasions to help them make sure they don’t get busted for copyright by the algorithms.

2. Not entirely actually. Even as a toddler, Jake was a relatively smart cookie and everyone knew it so before he was able to piece it altogether by the time he was 3 to 4 in his own way, Dick and Kory came clean to him about everything and even Mar’i pitched in about her training to one day be a great superhero like Momma and Daddy are since she has powers while Jake’s are still not kicking in.

I can just imagine little Jakey looking at his family, taking it all in and then finally breaking the silence saying “Does that mean I blast lasers from my eyes too later?” Akin to when Marky found out his powers at the end did the original Invincible comic

3. Basically I’d have first a colorful and detailed title sequence that through simple comic panels and even some motion comic elements, details the basics of how the Duo were born, Chris’ arrival on Earth and adoption by the Kents, the two first meeting as little kids who look up to their parents as their heroes, Jake’s power first kicking in when fending off a bully at school, the Duo training on their powers together and gaining renown slow but steadily, then once the title scene ends, we open with a bang as we are catching up with the Duo in the middle of a massive superhero battle in Metropolis against all sorts of baddies and villains, something akin to the opening shots of Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith

4. They have a good laugh and thrill at the first and second Venom movies respectively. They also are big time fans of the Spiderverse films; there actually is a strongly passionate debate between Chris and Jake over which Spidey films are better. Chris vouches for the Raimi trilogy while Jake sides firmly with Spiderverse. Other than all that though, both also watch every single Spidey animated series, good or bad, collect what their friends online consider the best runs in both Marvel Prime and the Ultimate Universe (the latter Jake is really into thanks to his Uncle Tim(my) loving Ultimate Spidey) and regularly playing co op on the Playstation games

5. Only once a month really and it’s mainly Fortnite. I can’t really see them playing COD or Apex not just because those two are more FPS centric which even if fictional in universe doesn’t sit that well with them for various reasons, but also for COD especially there egregious money practices from all that miscellaneous DLC, Lootboxes when they are a thing, battle passes, etc. it just doesn’t sit right even if technically Jake can be considered a millionaire’s kid at best

6. Personality. Full stop. Even if they’re aware of the more scandalous and fanservice side of true love, they have the content of a female’s character above physical appearance of any kind. Chris and Jake respect girls and women, plain and simple.

#chris kent #jake grayson #starburst duo #mention #invincible #star wars #peter parker #venom #eddie brock #across the spiderverse #into the spiderverse #sfw

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mysticstarlightduck · 4 months

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Seven Silly Questions!

I was tagged by @clairelsonao3 a few days ago for this one! Thanks for the funny tag!

First messaging app:

The messaging app (I think it was SMS) on the sparkly flip phone I got when I was four - which was an app I promptly never used because I was too fascinated by that one snake game on the phone. And then WhatsApp some years later and ever since.

Pickles yes or no:

Hell Nah, thank you very much (:

Favorite mythical creature:

Vampires, Elves, and Faeries when it comes to humanoid sentient creatures. For actual magic beasts/animals - phoenixes, dragons, and Krakens!

Longest book series you've read:

I'm not sure - maybe Game of Thrones or the Trials of Apollo

Playstation, Xbox, or Nintendo controller layout:

I'm more of a PC gamer myself, but if I had to choose, Playstation all the way! I still have the PS2 I got when I was a kid - and it is still in working order! - and might buy a PS5 someday, though I still prefer playing on my computer.

Best time to get out of bed:

On vacation/weekends, 8 to 9AM (sometimes even 10AM, rsrs) because I'm a night owl that can't function like a normal human being in the mornings. On normal days, 6:30AM / 7:00AM, and I just power through it with the power of sheer will and black tea.

Did you ever have a tamagotchi:

No, but I did like those early online games where you take care of a virtual pet, which is similar. I had a giant collection of the Littlest Pet Shop dolls and Hot Wheels, which I built up over the years like a little gremlin's hoard.

Tagging Gently - @doublegoblin, @gummybugg, @tabswrites, @hrmkingizzy, @unstablewifiaccess, @crowandmoonwriting and @writernopal

#fun tag games #silly little questions #not writing #writeblr friends

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threadbaresweater · 4 months

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On the flip side of that one ask,

As also a 2000s kid, we are very diverse, imo. Our parents are usually 70s/80s kids and with the way they all had different views on parenting not only because of the way their parents most likely treated them but also because of the rise of technology and the internet.

Mine, for example, parented with a lot of the things they had when they were growing up. I wasn’t really allowed with the at-the-time modern technology. My butt got beat as “discipline” and the game consoles I had were the Sega (I rarely touched anything other than sonic. Sonic was always the best) and the DS.

I watched scooby doo and Tom & Jerry. I ran around my room singing along to Annie and Mary Poppins songs as if I was in them. The Rugrats and CatDog were my favorite cartoons to watch while getting ready for school in the morning.

I never had an Xbox or PlayStation to play the more popular and modern games. The most experience I had with that before this year was Minecraft when it first came out on my cousins Xbox 360. I never had a touch screen phone til I was 13 before that I was told to go outside and play. That there was “no excuse” to be inside when we lived in a neighborhood full of kids.

We played house/home, four square, and raced our bikes down big hills. We got hurt all because we “wondered what it would feel like” and got stuck places because we wanted to know if we’d fit.

But on the other side of this, my friend (a 2003 kid) always had a PlayStation. She got a phone at a young age, and stayed inside most of the time. It’s not that she didn’t have friends, it’s that their moms never cared to tell them to go outside and actually experience things. She instead gave them a gaming console and a way to communicate.

We have so many different experiences because of the way our parents thought and this causes so many different views and opinions on things which in turn either causes the best relationship you’ve had or the worst experience you’ve had. It’s weird to think about.

This is so interesting to consider, and it made me think of how even my own children have been raised in different ways. Part of that was due to a divorce, but definitely my older two (2005 and 2008) were raised much the same as you- minus the spanking. We had a family computer that we would all play together, and it wasn't very often. They played outside more than they played inside. I think we had an Xbox 360, but it was for my ex-husband mainly. I hardly ever played and I know the kids didn't.

My younger two (2014 and 2016) have had electronics from a young age. I don't set limits on screen time, and it's super controversial among other parents (a different conversation for a different day) but for the most part, they're good about taking breaks when they need to. I do have limits on what they can watch and play. But aside from that, I'm also a different parent than I was when my older kids were younger and I always thought it was due to the divorce and subsequent remarriage, but your ask made me realize that maybe that isn't the only reason. The 21st century so far has brought us so many changes, it's no wonder that kids born in the last 18-20 years and after are such a diverse group! There's much more awareness (read: different schools of thought) about parenting, about what kids should/shouldn't be exposed to, about safety in public, about how people behave behind closed doors, etc etc etc that to be quite frank with you, it's HARD raising decent human beings. I love my kids so much, but I will earnestly say that if you are on the fence about having kids, it's okay, and you shouldn't have them if you don't want to.

This got out of hand, but you really made me think.

#tw children

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ellenchain · 1 year

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If you don't mind me asking,what got you first interested in cod?

Honestly: the graphics 😶

cod used to be such a typical dudebro multiplayer game for me, which sounded interesting (because pewpew), but since I'm absolutely not a fan of multiplayer games, it was rather uninteresting for me.

And then mw1 came out (reboot), but it passed me by because I had other interests at the time. But now with mw2 I saw a few trailers and thought: holy shit that looks really good! I like games that give me a story! And with such good graphics - it's like watching a movie! Well, then I watched mw1 on YouTube (because I wanted to see if I liked it first) and then mw2 and then… well, then I was in it. And since then I have been more and more surprised at how good the cast is, how much I like the story and how well the characters are written.

But I admit that I still haven't played the game myself. I've seen soooo many YouTube videos that I have the feeling I've played it, but actually I'm a PlayStation kid, but I don't have PlayStation+ (for the above-mentioned reason uninteresting for me), but actually I'd like to take a look. Maybe it would be fun to play with others. However, I do not want to buy a Plus subscription just for this one game...

then I'd have to buy the PC version, but I have two left hands when it comes to playing with a keyboard. I do have a controller, but it's xbox and … i also have two left hands when it comes to xbox controllers and ahhhhhhh

sorry, that wasn't your question at all and I'm oversharing

So to answer your question: the graphics and probably the hype about it (and I'm a sucker for skulls and silly middle aged men)

#i would love to play the game #but if I pay so much money I want to get the most out of it #and that would actually be the multiplayer mode #my internal struggle since november

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bearpillowmonster · 2 years

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Pokémon Colosseum Review

A common complaint about Pokémon is that most of the games seem the same, that it needs a breath of fresh air while also retaining all the past Pokémon. Legends started to remedy that but for me, it was this.

This was my first Pokémon game so it's nice to come back to my roots, a good bit of nostalgia.

You get Umbreon and Espeon at the beginning so I just figured that you buy more Pokémon at the store, I mean the Pokéballs are right there. And since they came in a lot, I expected them to be a surprise. My child mind came up with the gacha system.

Or I guess maybe the capsules…

But those aren't even Pokéballs, I just thought they were. There's a lore reason as to why they don't have any Pokéballs there though…ITS THE DESERT. Apparently there just aren't any Pokémon to catch around there so there's only one place in the game that actually sells them.

The plot revolves around the Snagems, which have the power to steal Pokémon. One of those…is you. So yes, instead of random encounters, you choose to fight trainers and you can steal their Pokemon. You automatically turn Pokéballs into Snagballs.

They used things like FF7 as inspo to create a more edgy protagonist (that doesn't talk) and shake the game since players were getting older (and they weren't experts on Pokemon in general). There's even a Sephiroth looking fellow.

And is that Johnny Test?

But the Snatchers can lock away a Pokémon's heart so they can't feel and are just a fighting machine. These are the ones that you can catch but you can also just choose to take them out the old fashioned way. But I felt the catch rate was absurdly lower than any normal Pokémon game. But the story is really good, better than your average "Team whatever is at it again in the quest to be the best" it has some break aways from the formula.

There's no normal build up like gyms, there are stadiums and colosseums, one is fixed fights that you can gain exp from, you can choose to do those one at a time. And the other is a gauntlet of battles between different trainers, (everything is double battles in this game BTW). You also raid bases though too like your average Team Rocket. This makes it seem like battles more or less happen one right after the other in a straight line, leaving me wanting a little more variety but that may just be Pokémon in general and just be more noticeable here.

I'd mainly play the straight battle mode as a kid because I understood that a little more with both teams getting random Pokémon. Pretty sure the back of the box said 2 players, so I just assumed you plug in another controller and the other player plays as the opposing trainer so I tricked my cousins into thinking they were actually doing something but in reality, it was the AI making all the decisions. I mean they didn't play Pokémon either, they knew what it was but they were Playstation kids. I remember one of them particularly hated Sentret because of how easy he was to beat.

For a 2004 game, it has some pretty good and unique animations like Duskull's light being snuffed out and just the grey sheet falling to the floor. Or Spoink getting all spiral eyed and fainting as the orb rolls from its head. Even some of the trainers. I think that's part of why having Umbreon and Espeon as the main party members was so enjoyable. As a kid, you want to catch them all and don't really get to appreciate it as much but I really felt for Espeon every time she got hit because in my head, these two have personality. Espeon barely got hit but when she did, it just seems to make Umbreon want to hit back more "You can't do that to my girl!" And the way Umbreon's lights flicker, when he gets thrown back, you wonder if his light will come back. It makes you feel for them which I suppose is the lesson here. Also, there's a manga based on it and it uses the exact same idea so I imagine it was deliberate.

Also Espy and Umbry (who I named Noctis and Lunafreya) are both in their 20s level wise at the start so there's no real need to start from scratch but when you catch more Pokémon, they're more or less good until that level cap is surpassed because they don't level up until they're purified. You can stick them in daycare but that's one at a time. Purifying them isn't that bad, I actually find the experience to be enjoyable because you have to get them to listen to you so it's not an immediate trainer and pet relationship so you'll have to rely on Espy and Umbry more than anything. But there are a good variety of ways to get the shadow meter down. Also, the battles more or less always aimed for Espeon over Umbreon which I thought was the level difference but then I got Espeon to surpass Umbreon so I have no clue what the AI was thinking.

There are certain things that slow the game down like walk speed and the time it takes for the animations, especially throwing your Pokémon out to begin but I'm going to chalk that up to age. Also, there's no reason Rui couldn't be the one to carry the second Pokémon in team battles, it'd give her a little more to do than just follow you around but again, an all around great story for a Pokémon game, would really like to see it represented in the anime similar to Chronicles and Origins.

Would you believe me if I said this was the Pokémon Center?

And because of the no random encounters, you don't have to trek from place to place, you just choose on the map as if you had fly, but instead you ride a bike. You don't actually get to control the bike (it had a short development schedule or I'm sure you could have).

#pokemon #colosseum #pokemon colosseum #game #review

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shadowredfeline · 2 years

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Here's a Two in One Drawing.

1st one: Couples in Minecraft

I did a drawing based off of a dream i had a couple of days ago. I got an Invitation to play with @murumokirby360 wanting to play Minecraft with him, and i thought saying, what? My P-Pal doesn't play Minecraft, so i accept the invitation and played with him. So i decided to add Four Couples, Shadow, Lisa, Spot and Vanilla to play Minecraft with each other. Normally i was going to make Lisa's Sonic form in Minecraft, but the problem is i had to remember her Cat Form when anytime she would play Minecraft. Even when she wore those clothes as an anthro Cat form even she still has her Sonic Form for when she's not playing Minecraft. Plus i do enjoy Minecraft since the music just puts me at ease. But i even remember for @bryan360 since he's never played Minecraft either once when we discussed Steve and Alex got to be in Smash Bros.

Shadow R😺🗡: Yeah i have remember seeing them in Smash Bros. But Lisa and i do Enjoy Minecraft a lot together with some friends we know and play them on different systems. Even my brother when he got to play Minecraft on the PlayStation 4.

Lisa😺❤️⚡️: Mmhmm. I do use my Cat form anytime Shadow and i want to be Cats together even when we're not wearing anthro clothes and have our collars and scarves on. But with Minecraft however. It's pretty amazing to explore everything being Blocky and building stuff while mining and surviving at the same time.

Caleb 😺🏀🏈: Yeah since i do play that game too and maybe we can all play Minecraft together.

Shadow R 😺🗡: Great idea guys. ^^

For the 2nd one: Learning Filipino Language Studying

Ever since Lighting, Speedy, Zack and Penny went back to School. Shadow decided to take his Sons Zack and Speedy to go to the Speedsters house to do some of his homework. And afterwards, they might think of wanting to play with Spot, Riya or Cude if they get their work done faster. So Shadow decided to sit down with the boys and Rita decided to help us out on when they need what the two are working on. Zack was working on his Math Problems since he has to learn some Multiplication since it's important to learn different types of math problems besides Addition and Subtraction.

Speedy on the other side is currently working on some Writing and English. Rita decided to help him out on his Writing and discuss what word his has to remember like say he's currently working on Nouns and even Past, Present and Future. Cause with Nouns it has to be like a Person, Place or a thing or sometimes an Idea. While Past saying like you did or were doing something, Present saying like you are or am doing something, and future saying like will do something. Then Rita started Calling Shadow's Kids, "Anaks". Shadow and the Boys were confused when Rita called them that, he asked how she kept calling her family different names like "Asawa" and "Anak". But Rita told them that's Filipino Language. Like Anak is actually a Child and Asawa is what you call a Husband. Like Example Lisa is Shadow's Asawa and Lighting, Speedy, Zack and Penny are their Anaks. Shadow, Zack and Speedy felt intrigued that they learned something a little new. So Shadow, Zack and Speedy would love to learn some Filipino Language with Rita since she's really good at it. Since that's what she knows besides English. And Shadow, Zack and Speedy are learning Spanish, i bet doing Filipino Language can be like their new language they can learn. And Shadow has read some Filipino words from her before, but he is practicing and so should the boys.

Zack 😺💙🗡: Wow, Dad. It sure is nice that Mrs. Rita decided to teach us something a little new. 🙂

Speedy 😺👟: Yeah, it sure is nice to learn something new. Maybe after we some of the Homework assignment my brother and i got assigned to do from school, maybe we should learn some the Language that Mrs. Rita can teach us.

Shadow 😺🗡: That's a great idea, Boys! I'm sure she would love to have us learn something the four of us can do together in the Future. Even your mom and your sisters can try this language too.

Both: Yeah ^^

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emilypemily · 1 year

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i bought a ps2 from my work for the hell of it like a year ago bc we’re not allowed to sell electronics due to not having a PAT tester, so it was either it gets recycled and worth £1 (we get money for recycling) or i just buy it without it ever making the shop floor for, over £1. so i did! and now i have a ps2! cool! it cost me £2 :)

thing is is that it didn’t come with any controllers and i don’t have any games so it’s just been sitting in my assorted electronics shelf ever since, waiting for me to eventually get around to doing something with it

so! i have now, finally, ordered a controller online and a couple of games. i also plugged it all in to my telly just to see if it would actually turn on and like, show up on my screen. which it does! success! and although it didn’t come with any controllers or games, it did come with a memory card, which is useful.

the games i bought were deus ex, bc the only way to play it on a macbook requires more computer knowledge than i have, and a crash bandicoot game that i’m pretty sure i might have owned on gamecube at some point.

it’s funny, because i’ve been looking into original playstations, because me and my brother actually had one when we were little. it was blue and it was i think lent to us by someone my dad worked with. most of the games we had were just demo discs that used to come with magazines. but i think we did also have an actual full crash bandicoot game. so most of my fond memories are of the PS1, and asides from that we were always a nintendo family. one game i’m desperate to play again because of how much i loved the free demo is stuart little 2. that game ruled. or, the first level or two of that game ruled. maybe it all went downhill after that.

also funny is that the blue playstation that was lent to us by my dad’s work friend at some point in the late 90s now goes for between £600-£1000 on ebay. i checked. i thought it wouldn’t be more than, idk, however much a N64 goes for. (another console i am after but costs more than my £2 PS2). (Our dad gave ours away to a neighbour’s kids and we never forgave him). the reason it’s so expensive is bc it’s a something something debugging station that i did read the wikipedia page for and understood not one single bit of.

anyway, i am looking forward to playing my two games. i have never played deus ex but i’ve just watched that three and a half hour video on it’s meh prequel. the crash bandicoot game was just thrown in there for variety. i think both games together cost £11. the controller was £15. and i’m sure i could have just walked into CeX and bought one rather than order it from their online shop with shipping charges, but... i didn’t. i’m not smart.

the benefit of having a ps2 is that, unlike the gamecube, it’s significantly easier to find game for it second hand in shops. it is so incredibly rare to find nintendo games in general second hand, and especially gamecube games. i actually think about this a lot and wonder what analysis could be made here, but i don’t care enough to put any time into it beyond initial observation.

it’s getting harder and harder to type because colin is now lying on my arm, so i’ll leave it here.

#this is not remotely interesting for anyone other than myself #but sometimes i get urges to use this blog as an actual blog #i keeping going back and correcting mistakes that occurred due to being destracted by colin on my arm #*distracted #i got a first for my dissertation i'm actually really good at writing i swear

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duskwingmoth · 2 years

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Sonic the Hedgehog

As I begin my transition to the final stage of grief as a Sonic fan (for the third time) I ruminate on my history in relation to this spiny blue turd

I was born just before there was any potential for “& Knuckles” to become a future meme. On the relative eve of changeover from SNES to PlayStation. I am, thus, one of the final artifacts of a world where Sonic was good, and accelerated 3D games but a pipe dream. May everyone know such innocent times in their future the way US kids did from 1994 to 2001, but I digress.

Sonic Is Eternal, as far as my world begins, and likely as it ends, too. His successes and failures, and by extension SEGAs, are critical points of change in my personal life, whether I like it or not.

But our fraught relationship began inauspiciously. Certainly I played a fair bit of Genesis when I was little, but also Super NIntendo, and PS1, and most especially N64. SEGA, for a time, was a mild fraction of my first experiences with games, and Sonic a fraction of that. His games were just Too Hard for a clueless girl who didn’t know she was a girl, and was terrified of even the thought of a game over screen in Super Mario World.

Literally I spent half my time in those halcyon days watching Mario fall asleep, rather than actually playing Mario 64. I am a certified Gamer Girl now, but I amproof that Gamers are not born, they’re spec’d.

But I guess I thought he was cool and wanted more. Because on my birthday in 2002, I received a tiny little interactive video software minidisc that, idk, you may have heard of, maybe not, don’t blame you either way.

This was my everything. This was video games. This is the flashpoint for all I ever was, and all I ever will be. You can blame me being me on this, unfailingly, forever.

Him especially.

After literal months of playing all 31 levels, rocking out to some sweet music, and (poorly) raising Chao, it was far too late. You cannot save me, there is no hope left.

I am... a Sonic fan.

I’m sorry.

In grade school I teamed up with a couple kids and started drawing Sonic comics. Dozens of them. Infested with one-off OCs with vomit designs and no character. Almost none of these were ever finished and nobody but us really read them, but that didn’t matter. We played and talked about every single game, we watched Sonic X, we read the official comics, I think we might have literally mailed a letter to Sonic Team begging to put our OCs in the series -- with no reference images included, of course; it was just a list of names.

And girl, you KNOW we were hyped for next-generation HD Sonic on XBox 360. You KNOW it.

We disconnected in middle school and haven’t really made any efforts since, so I have no clue what their experiences were with that game. But mine was:

My family dropped several income brackets in the housing market crash and recession of 2007, so I had to make do with what I had for many years. Sonic 06 was the furthest thing from my mind until I started watching Game Grumps in 2012.

Turns out the game was bad. Bullet dodged, amirite?

Pff

I bought that game used and had to see for myself. After all, Arin can’t video game, it may well be actually good?

(src: Vizionsin on Tumblr)

This jarring sequence of events was a window into a popular understanding that Sonic Was Never Good. One with a long list of evidence and receipts that only grew longer with every passing year. Oh Generations is fun, huh? Have you played it on 3DS? You think Lost World on Wii U is frustrating? Welcome back to handheld hell, dumbass!

And frankly, it doesn’t even matter what is said about Sonic Boom. It doesn’t matter that the cartoon was entertaining, it doesn’t matter that Fire and Ice was a perfectly fine experience, and it doesn’t matter how Big Red Button got screwed over at the eleventh hour. Rise of Lyric and Shattered Crystal are the death knell of the entire franchise, ringing out into the void with every Sonic fan desperately covering their ears as the blue hedgehog rots on the noose before our eyes.

B-but I still had hope!! SEGA turned it around once, they can do it again! Right? .......Right???

At some point between the release of those two horror shows and the release of Sonic Mania, I went back and I played Sonic Adventure DX. A game I remembered relatively fondly, despite all the haters.

And

Yeah

Sonic was never good.

And think about the position I’m in, sick to my stomach of nostalgia in general, when Sonic Mania hits, I buy it frame 1, only to discover that the level design has not evolved past 1994 when it really should have, and the entire game is festooned with these surface-level vapid callbacks that don’t add anything to the play experience.

Imagine my defeated sigh when Sonic Forces comes out and it’s the biggest vanilla wafer of nothing ever devised.

No surprise.

No anger.

Nothing.

Think about the last five years of subsequent, relative radio silence from a series that used to -- at the very least -- not let its blunders last long before they had a new one. The conversation at large hasn’t had anything new to evolve from, it has only descended further and further into a tightening downward spiral of self-loathing and resentment. Only hiccuped by the revelation of

Consider how one gross weirdo who Archie Comics employed for a while changed the entire global brand identity of the franchise because SEGA can’t write legal documents to save their life.

Perhaps you may begin to understand a small part of where I’ve been at mentally for ten years. As much as I may want to be excited, engaged, or even interested in Sonic Frontiers, it isn’t even on my radar. As much as I want to believe IDW Sonic is a good comic series, I can’t bring myself to read it. As much as I want to be having fun with and being part of the fan community, where will we be when the next complete fucking disaster of a game comes out? Some of y’all are barely holding on as it is.

This hedgehog is a wreck, and for all their success beyond him, so is his parent company.

But hey. I am too.

(src: TerminalMontage on Youtube)

Maybe this is the turnaround for Sonic, and we’re too battered to see it in the moment. Sonic Movie 2 was apparently pretty entertaining. Sonic Oranges is out, and apart from some weird nerds who care way too much about some mid Michael Jackson cuts, nobody seems to be complaining. I’m also well aware that I’m the odd one out for Mania (and, tangentially, Freedom Planet), and we’re kinda just ignoring that one of the ascended fangame devs is an alt-right shitheel because so much of the stuff you see in the Sonic Amateur Games Expo and Sonic Hacking Contest just. Gets it. And has a high standard of quality, to boot.

Maybe this is just me saying “he wouldn’t hit me again, he loves me”. But that’s a problematic analogy, and not a very good one, at that. Sonic isn’t real, insofar as he has corporeal form as the creature with abilities the series purports him to be and have, and therefore not only can he not hurt me, he doesn’t even know I exist. Neither do any of the developers, or any of the suits in SEGA’s corporate office. This is a parasocial relationship in the extreme.

Maybe SEGA will call me back one of these days and say “Yes! Transgender Tails and Omelette’s West Side Island Adventure is kino AF, big dogecoin material!” I think that one is especially likely, IMO.

I dunno.

Through it all, I have regularly returned to Sonic Adventure 2. The swan song of an all-too-short console lifespan stacked with banger games, and no slouch itself. Only a couple friction points really grate on me with it, nowadays, and that’s saying a lot compared to most people who’ve played it.

It may not be one of my favorite games ever. It may not even be one of my preferred games in the series. But it still has that something, that ephemeral energy at the intersection of SEGA hyperpop and cringe but free cool kids. So does Sonic Heroes, Sonic Riders, Sonic Advance 2, Shadow the Hedgehog, and Shadow the Hedgehog.

Especially Shadow the Hedgehog.

(src: mkf2308 on DeviantArt)

That energy speaks to me on a primal level. And the canvas that is this franchise still makes it remarkably easy to imagine a form that is expansive, and caters to weirdos like me, even when I don’t actually want to.

Shit, look at this blog post. It is filled with post-ironic memery on a level impossible to achieve if people didn’t care about something. We don’t just care about Sonic the Hedgehog because we’re damaged arrested-development losers. We are, but that’s beside the point.

That Sonic still gains and holds new fans even after Sonic 06, even after Rise of Lyric, I think that says something. Most of Mario’s would-be competitors died off, both in 2D and 3D, after one bad game.

Not this mouthy asshole. Millions of years of evolution pass by, meteors crash into the earth, ice ages freeze the entire planet, and just like crocodiles, Sonic endures.

And perhaps it’s because Sonic is just. Good. Turns out we’ve been freaking out over a couple bad games and overblowing their importance. Could the series be more consistent? Frankly at this point, I don’t care. The weird diversity of everything about the hedgehog should be something we embrace, I think.

Alongside a perhaps tempered hope that we’ll get a fun game after all this waiting.

That’s probably what the true final stage of the Sonic Cycle is. Accepting that we have a taste inscrutable to all the people who are just bad at games, and not giving a rat’s ass what IGN or whoever has to say. Ascending above all the bullshit, understanding that we all, for better or worse, love Sonic the Hedgehog.

That we are all Sonicman.

#sonic the hedgehog #actual blog post #this better do numbers it's sonic #shadow the hedgehog #shadow stans where u at #also y'all are wrong shadow's game is GOOD #long post

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