#like the maps are repetitive and annoying

[onewingedangels]

idk why some ppl complain about ff7 rebirth being an open world when it was expected to be.........an "open world"? in og game we leave midgar and we get into the open world and as soon as we progress through the story we access other places later in the world including different types of vehicles to traverse such as underwater, mountains and some special caves. like weren't y'all complaining about remake being too linear???

#personal #ok i do understand ppl complain about remake bc some of the chapters were basically long repetitive corridors with enemies in them #and they felt like a grind and to stretch the game to make it longer which was so annoying #I'm honestly excited how they did the open world in rebrith #bc you are not a little giant running around on an empty tiny map like in og game lol #the only thing that worries me is the story since again its not really a remake of the og anymore #and the whole ''''zack's timeline'''' thing but that a whole different topic

[luveline]

jade if I’m not too late and requests are still open, can you write bombshell!reader and spence’s first kiss? secretly I think it would be funny if the team saw a hickey on her neck or something that she didn’t expect but oh how I love how soft she is for spence

ty for your request ♡ fem, 1.2k

"It's classic, comfortable anger-excitation," you say, hitting the flat of your ballpoint pen against your fingertip, a repetitive tap. "But his geographical profile is everywhere. No one place is untouched, but if he's as practised as we think he is, he'd kill away from home." 

"Then he's not practised, he's an expert," Hotch says in the seat beside you. "He knows to divert our attention." 

Your tapping increases. Spencer takes a few steps back and puts his hand over yours. You glance up at him. He mimes a deep breath for you to copy. You do it without complaint. 

You're so focused on being perfect that sometimes you forget to breathe. You're very good at being perfect, in Spencer's opinion, perfect hair, perfect face, perfect frenetic hands. And you're doubly perfect at whatever this is, smiling at him with an unquantifiable emotion in what's probably the prettiest set of eyes on planet Earth. 

Spencer puts your pen on your notebook and goes back to his board. The locations of each murder are tacked into a map. You weren't kidding when you said everywhere. 

You're in one of the poorest places in America, and the police station reflects that. There's no conference room for you guys to work undisturbed, and the beat cops and deputy alike can hear and see everything you're doing. Most have the manners to leave you alone, but you're you; you tend to draw attention. 

You've taken up the pen again, clicking and unclicking incessantly. It's an annoying sound but you're not aware that you're doing it, too determined on cracking the case before anything worse happens. Your team knows to ignore you, or even to disarm you. Emily snags the pen from your hand with a friendly laugh. "Jesus, you're tightly wound today." 

"Mm," you murmur, struggling to pull yourself from your notes. A few more seconds and you look up with a blinding smile, "That's because Spencer skimped on my neck massage last night." 

"Come on, pretty boy," Morgan says, though his heart isn't truly in it, "I thought you knew better." 

Spencer shakes his head. You and Spencer had very separate hotel rooms and no sensual touching occurred, but he loves how happy this running joke makes you, so he stays quiet. 

"He knows everything," you say, backtracking, "That's why he's gonna make me a cup of coffee. He knows exactly how I like it." 

He leaves to make you a cup of coffee, but he was heading that way anyway for his own. He's thinking to himself that coffee is a bad idea and that he wishes he was better at saying no to you when you follow him in, your arms already open as you close the two or three steps to his chest and hug him over the shoulders. 

"You didn't say anything when you left," you worry, your embrace overwhelming, sweet and soft and with a loving squeeze to round it off. "I wasn't being bossy, was I?" 

You can be, but not this time. "Shut up, you know I'll make you a cup of coffee whenever you want it." 

"That so?" you ask. 

There's an excess energy you haven't managed to kick today racing through you. He can see the restlessness in your smile, no matter how glitzy. 

"Are you okay?" he asks. 

Spencer's poorly kept secret is that he's obsessed with you. You dote on him, you tease him, you torture him, but Spencer wants all of it and more. He likes being the centre of your attention, loves how your fond flirtation has changed to plain affection, and he would do anything you asked him to if it meant you were gonna kiss his cheek at the end. He thinks you're beautiful and electric and a thousand yards out of his league, and he thinks you're the nicest woman they ever made under all your bravado because not once have you encouraged that line of thought —you like him for him. You don't want him to change. You don't need anything from him he can't give to you. 

His simple question transforms you, your glossy lips perking immediately into a smile. "Why wouldn't I be okay?" 

"You seem tense. I've never given a massage before, but I can actually try," he offers. 

Your hand cups his cheek, your voice aglow with a saccharine quality, "You're lovely, that's why. Maybe I'll take you up on it later–" 

"It's not like–" 

You'd been attempting a sweet thank you, and Spencer was brushing it off, but somewhere in the middle of it you'd gone up on tiptoes to kiss his cheek. Spencer —idiot, uncoordinated, inexperienced, is going to hate himself later Spencer— turned away from your touch to argue with you, directing your lips against his. 

Soft, sticky, pretty lips pressed to his. 

You set back on your heels quickly. Your eyes are wide, beautiful but flared in shock, a sheepishness tugging your brows together as you say, "I'm so sorry." 

"It's my fault," he says quickly, braceleting your wrist in his hand, "I'm sorry–" 

You both lean back in for a second kiss at the same time. Spencer's head angled down and your chin tipped ever so slightly upward, you close your eyes as he closes his, completely silent. It's not often you're quiet. Spencer doesn't mean to, but he kisses too hard, too much, forcing your hand from his cheek as he grabs you either side of the head to keep you in his reach. 

Your breath comes out in a huff that lights his nerve endings on fire, the barest hint of your voice tacked to it like a sigh of relief, like you're taking the edge off in the circle of his arms. Spencer's hand slides behind your head to hook you in, your lips parting at the seam from the pressure. You feel the heat of him and respond with vigour, your hand a nagging demand at the small of his back, pulling him closer, closer, as his other hand trails down your arm. 

Your elbow bumps the coffee mugs, it really is his fault, and you spring away from him like you think you've been caught. Smiling, a kid with her hand in the cookie jar, you throw your gaze around the room to check you're still alone before stepping forward to laugh against his mouth. 

That's a good sound. A great reaction. You have more patience than Spencer, dotting kisses thick with lip gloss up into his top lip, your mouth just open enough for him to feel faint. 

"It was really an accident," he says between shorter, kinder kisses. 

"I know," you murmur, words smushed. You steal a last rather frantic one before you stop, breathing funny, hands smoothing down the hair you'd mussed initially with sorry tenderness. "Was that okay?" 

He puts his hand on your hip, refusing to gratify what feels like a silly question with a response when you can't not know he's been wanting to kiss you for weeks. Maybe months. "Are you sure you're fine?" 

You smile at him like you know something he doesn't. "I'm sure, Spence. I think I just needed to do that." 

#spencer reid #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid x you #spencer reid x y/n #spencer reid x fem!reader #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid fluff #spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid oneshot #spencer reid scenario #spencer reid drabble #spencer reid fic #spencer reid fanfiction #criminal minds fanfiction #criminal minds #criminal minds fic #criminal minds x reader

[raineydays411]

My fathers daughter pt 12

It all comes out sometime

"Jay?" You ask.

"Yeah its me. How the fuck did you get access to the coms?" He asks amused at your actions.

"Trust me hacking this isn't any harder than hydra files" You say passively, " Anyways that's not important, I think I can help with this Joker thing."

"Wait? Really?" He ask seriously, "Y/n, listen carefully, I need you to go into Bruce's office and find the big ass clock --"

"Yeah I already found the secret hide out" You say annoyed, "Mommy dearest kicked me out before I could tell her how I could help."

Jason sighed, knowing that his mother probably tried to use her mom voice on you. " Yeah, she told us she didn't want you to be in the whole vigilante think."

The anger that was simmering under your skin came back, but before you let it get the best of you, you continued. Knowing that this information was more important than whatever mommy issues you had.

"Right, well that's not important." You say," Listen to me now."

"I'm listening." Jason grunted, sounding like was punching someone,

"Whatever chemical agent Jackass put in his venom is the exact same stuff that was used to brainwash the Winter Soldier" You say quickly.

"Kid, I wanna believe you but how do you know that? Tim was just able to get a sample and process it."

"Because, I was told that every antidote you use only makes the effects stronger right?"

"Right" He says strained

"In order to make sure that the Winter Soldier stayed the Winter Soldier and not Bucky, Hydra had to make sure his brain produced a certain amount of hormones. And that whatever anybody used, the effects couldn't reverse. Hence chemical X."

"Chemical X?"

"The name is to long for me to attempt to pronounce, anyways, lucky for us, my daddy just so happened to create a serum that undoes Chemical X. And if I check," You pause, taking over the computer downstairs, and checking the sample Tim had sent in, " The component is there."

"Well I'll be damned"

"Exactly. Now, I need you to find a lab or something. This serum was made with the intention of being made on the fly. So everything you need should be there." You say pulling up a map of Gotham general.

"Wait, I need to tell Bruce." Jason said, " Joker said he had the only antidote and he's fighting him right now"

"No thats not possible. The only ones who know about it is my father and I." You said worridly.

Meanwhile while you were upstair lending a helping hand, downstairs Christine and Alfred were panicking because they lost control of Jason's com and the main computer.

'Alfred I can't find him" Christinen cried, " How did he just disappear like that?

"I don't know miss, there's no possible way he could've."

"Wait." Christine says looking up to the screen, " Bruce and Tim are gone"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"How did you get con-"

"It's not important" You say cutting Batman off, " Listen to me, Joker doesn't have the cure."

"How do you know that?" The dark knight asks skeptically

"Because, until my dad figured it out, there was no cure." You say impatiently, " This chemical wasn't intended to have a cure."

"But you figured it out?"

"YES" You shout frustrated at the constant repetition, " DO you want the step by step or do you want to save lives?"

"hm" Bruce grunted, " And you know how to make it?"

"I do." You say earnestly

There was a pause, you heard grunting and what sounded like fighting in the background.

On Bruce's side, he managed to get the Joker disarmed and tied up.

He searched him for what he claimed was the vial containing the cure. But upon finding it, the Joker decided to throw his head back connecting with Batman's face. The sudden impact caused him to drop the vial, shattering it on the linoleum floor. The liquid oozing out and burning a hole into the floor.

"Ooops" the Joker cackled, " Aww poor Batsy, I guess I may have told a little white lie"

As Bruce rose from the floor, Robin ran in holding another vial

"Batman, the antidote." He says with a stern look on his face.

The smug smile fell from the Jokers face as he looked at the preteen.

"Thats...that's not possible!" Joker cried out, " There is no cure. There was never a cure."

Batman looked Joker straight in the eye, " No Joker, it looks like you miscalculated."

And with that, a swift punch to the face knocked the Joker out. A breath of relief flowed from the Batfamily. Now they can focus on what really mattered, helping the infected.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back in your room you paced, after explaining how to make the cure, you hadn't hear back from the family. The anxiety you had building up in you made your heart feel as of it was going to explode.

"Y/n" Jasons voice came from your computer, " It worked."

You felt like crying, " Really? Are you for real?'

"No I'm lying and everyone died" Jason said sarcastically, " Yes I'm for real."

"Thank god" You said wetly

"Oh god are you crying?" Jason said uncomfortably

"No." and with that you disconnected, allowing access back to the main computer downstairs. After doing that you sat on your be, taking a couple deep breaths to calm yourself. But the tears kept flowing. You were so worried that you didn't get the information to Bruce on time. You were worried about the people that were exposed for too long. The ones that the antidote may not have worked on.

You may have been able to help a few but how many more could you have saved if you were listened to right away. The anger simmered back in your body.

You hated that Christine treated you as if you were a child. She completely disregarded what you had to say and took a shot at your father. At least he was smart enough to know that you were capable of more than just sitting and twiddle your thumbs.

You had half a mind to go down there and give her a piece of you mind. But before you could, a chime came from your phone

"Hey Starky! guess who's on the neighborhood <3"

Wade?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the time the Batman co. finally made it back to the cave they all were exhausted. Every single one of them wanted to get home and take a shower. Dick and Jason would be staying at the manor simply because they couldn't muster up the energy to make their respective journeys back home. Damian and Cass were knocked out in the back of the batmobile and even Bruce was having a hard time staying awake while driving.

Honestly, ever since his family was created, Bruce/Batman became less about vengeance and more about protecting the city that he and his family live and care about. And maybe, if there was anyway that he can help mend the relationship between your family and his, perhaps you can be a part of his team as well, as sad at it was to say your hacking skills were way above his and Tims.

Lost in thought, Bruce didn't realized that when he pulled in Christine was in borderline hysterics and Alfred looked a little more frazzled than usual.

"Oh! Bruce!", Christine cried throwing herself into the confused bat, " What happened?! Is everyone one okay?"

"Christine, darling what are you-" Bruce was puzzled, Christine always had somewhat of a flair for the dramatics but there should be no reason for her to be this worried, especially because she's able to see everything .

"I thought we lost you! All of you!" Christine cried, eyes welling up with tears," The coms cut our for what felt like hours and then the main computer crashed! Me and Alfred both were barely able to get it rebooted before you got here!"

"Wait, if the main computer crashed then how was Y/n able to talk to us through the coms?" Tim asked tiredly, only jolting awake when Jason harshly elbowed him, signaling him to shut up about your participation.

"What do you mean? Y/n has been in her room this whole time." Christine says with a look of confusion on her face.

The batfamily all looked at each other, silently daring each other to step up and tell the truth, and face the wrath of their mother. Even Bruce didn't want to rat you out, knowing where Christine stood on her thoughts of you being involved.

Now don't get the wrong idea, Christine is by definition an overprotective mother. Theres no doubt about that. But there is a reason as to why she wants you out of the hero life and spot life in general.

Firstly, you are Tony Stark's daughter. There is no getting around that. And being Tony Stark's daughter also means you're Iron Mans daughter. And that is the whole reason you are there in Gotham in the first place. Amidst all the familial drama, everybody seemed to forget that you are still being hunted by an anonymous group. But Christine hasn't. Every night she lies awake worried to death that that was the night they found you. That they would come for you.

Secondly, the villians that her husband and family deal with are...for lack of words psychoic. If they figured out that you, Iron mans daughter, was helping their enemy Batman there would be more people after you. And from what Christine has witnessed these people do, the horrors and atrocities they casually commit. That frightens her even more.

So, with that being said, the look on her families face and the circumstances that had just occurred, it wasn't hard for her to figure out the cause of their technical malfunctions. And what a coincidence that these malfunctions only happened after you were sent to your room.

"Bruce.", Christine said in a clam even tone, " What are you not telling me." She didn't ask she demanded.

"Darling." Bruce said in a pleading tone, " It was a long night for everybody, why don't we just discuss it in the morning"

"Discuss it in the morning?" Christine asked incredulously, " Discuss it in the morning?! Do you know how worried I was? How worried WE were" She gestures to herself and Alfred who looked mildly uncomfortable to be put in the argument, " We thought you were injured or worse DEAD!"

The kids tried to slowly back out, inching towards the elevator that you totally didn't know was there.

"Don't even think about it" Christine said without looking at them, " How dare you all? How dare you? I asked ALL of you for one simple thing. Just one. To keep her OUT of it."

"Christine that's hardly fair-" Bruce started to say before getting cut off.

"No! It is totally fair! There are PEOPLE after her. People who are still out there by the way! Tony and his team haven't been able to find them! They keep slipping away whenever they get close! They are out there, trying to get MY daughter, for god knows what!"

Bruce glances towards the staircase entrance but before he can say anything Christine goes on, " DO you understand how hard it has been to keep anything from this world from her!"

"Ma she grew up in this world, it's not fair to just cut her out" Jason cuts in, " She feels left out because we're all pretending like we aren't who we are and pretending as of we don't have The Tony Starks daughter in our house. She's not a civilian, she's in it."

"She is not just Tonys daughter she's mine too!" Christine shouts before tears start to drop from her eyes, " Shes MINE, she can't be taken from me."

In the batmobile, Cass buries her face into a sleeping Damians chest.

"Mom, do you think any of us would let that happen?" Dick finally speaks up, " I mean, come on have a little faith"

" I just wanted her to stay out of it, to get out for good."

" Darling, that girl was not made to stay out of things, look at whp her parents are," Bruce chuckled, " Besides, she's never going to come around if we don't fully open ourselves up to her as well."

"You have to admit Ma, fighting is the only way any of us bonded" Jason says, " Except me, she likes me."

"I don't know why " Dick says with a frown, still bitter at the fact that you had bonded with Jason before him.

Christine sniffled before saying, " I still need to go talk to her, the way she cut us off was unacceptable."

"But-" Tim finally spoke out but it was too late, Christine was already marching to the elevator, mind made up about scolding you for what she thought was a practical joke.

The rest of the team was left in the Bat cave shaking their heads at their mothers stubbornness.

Bruce's sighed and started to put things away, " There's going to be fight and I don't want to be in the middle of that."

The three awake boys nodded.

" Someone wake up Damian and Cass, they need to go to bed."

Jason and Dick pushed Tim forward, if there was one other thing they didn't want to get in the middle of, was those two and their sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back upstairs you were filled to the brim with anger. You had gone downstairs to greet the returning heroes and rub your success in Christines face, only to overhear what you had already confirmed.

Christine had been purposefully keeping things from you. Not only about Bruce being Batman ( Which you already knew), but about your situation.

See, when you had first moved to Gotham, you knew that there would be almost little to no contact with your family. The few times you were able to talk to someone from back home it wasn't even your parents. Something about phone lines being traceable and unreliable.

The only line of communication was given to you by Natasha before you left, a single flip burner phone that was only to be used for emergencies.

But Christine apparently was getting updates directly from your father. Updates you were sure were meant to be given to you. So not only had she had a hand in the intentional isolation of you from her family, she was trying to isolate you from yours as well.

It made you so angry! You already have sacrificed so much just to be here and you didn't even want to be there in the first place. You ripped open your laptop and went to do a little digging. Upon doing that, you found about a dozen of lengthy emails from your father describing in great lengths about your situation and details about life back home. These emails were obviously meant to be read by you and they all were marked as read and filed away. How they got to the Batcomputer was unknown to you but as you scanned each word tears welled up into your eyes, you father had not forgot about you.

You sat on the bed, taking deep breaths trying to calm down. You managed to restrain yourself and not blow up at that woman in front of her whole family and you really were trying to calm down so you can have a mature conversation about it.

You were trying.

but then, "Y/n Stark how dare you disobey your mother!"

What?

"What?" You say eyes ripping open and anger finally bubbling over

"How dare you! I asked you for one thing! All I wanted was to make sure my family would have been okay!"

"And are they dead?" You ask bluntly, " Is everyone who was infected dead?"

Christine turned red, " That is not the point young lady and I don't appreciate you talking about your family like that."

"They are NOT my family!" You shout, " You are not my family"

'Y/n" Christine start but now you were the one to cut her off

"NO, and since we are on the topic of not appreciating things lets talk about how I don't appreciate how you have been deliberately LYING to me."

"Excuse me?" Christine asks angrily, " I will have you know that I do not have to disclose every single piece of information I have to yo."

" Not even when it's about my own father." You said with an even tone, " Or do you not have to disclose that piece of information to me."

Christine lifts her chine, " Y/n I have no idea what you are talking about?"

"Oh you don't?" You ask," So you and your husband aren't hiding emails from my father to me in that big ass computer?"

Eyes widen, " How do you -"

"How do I know about that?" You mock, " So it's true?"

"Y/n that's not the point" Christine started, " Your practical joke could have seriously put the lives of your siblings in danger."

" My siblings?" You ask, " They are not my siblings! I don't even know those people!"

Christine stays quiet, then shakes her head, " If you would just come out of the room and get to know them other than Jason-"

"Why so they could tell me how great you are?' You say, " So they can tell me memories they have of you being a good mother to them?"

Christine's eyes well up with tears, " Y/n that's not fair"

"Oh that not fair to you, mom?" you shout, " And it was so fair to me when you left me to raise another kid?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the hallway Dick and Jason are paused half way up the staircase.

Dicks heart falls into his stomach at your comment, knowing that that kid you were talking about was him.

Jason on the other hand had a grim look on his face. He knew that this conversation needed to happen in order for anything to move on.He knew the years of resentment you were holding on to. It wasn't fair to you that everyone in this house had this subconscious expectation that you should just put those years behind you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"That is not what happened" Christine says wetly, " It was just hard, Y/n you don't understand."

"Hard?!" You shout angerliy, " It was hard? Hard for you to visit your daughter once every three fucking months? Was it hard for you to lead my dad on then crush his heart every time you left?"

"NO Y/N thats not true" Christine shouted but before she could continue you went on

"No???" you mocked, " Then what was it mom?"

" Everytime I went to see you, you had grown." Christine sniffs, " You had grown and had new adventures and stories and milestones that i was not a part of. I-"

"OH bullshit!" You shout

"Y/n." Christine says sadly

"NO, no you don't get to play that card! You left by choice!" You cry, " You left me by choice, you hid me away by choice! You chose this life for us."

" I loved you so much. I LOVE you so much Y/n!"

"You have a funny way of showing it." You say dryly, " You have this perfect life here. Perfect husband, a shit load of kids who adore you. I adored you. Why wasn't I enough?"

Christine's heartbroke and she couldn't answer you because truthfully, she didn't have an answer.

"And the one parent I was enough for I had to leave. I had to leave him and my mother behind for my other one who didn't want me. And I'm stuck in a house full of these kids who adore you and didn't know that I adored you well before them. And yet even though I'm here I'm alone. And that still isn't enough for you."

Christine wanted to say you weren't alone. You weren't because you have her. She's here for you, but that wasn't true. She hadn't been there. She wasn't there even when she was.

"You had to make me think my father forgot about me the way you did for what? So I can like you again? So I could forget all the times you promised you were going to come see me and you didn't? Why?"

"I..I just wanted to keep you safe.." Christine spouted pathetically.

"Safe?" You said, herding her towards your door, " No, everything you've done is because you want to look better. You're selfish. That's what you've always been"

And with that you slam the door in her face, startling the boys on the stairs and Christine as she didn't even realize that she was in the hallway.

Staring at your door she wept. For once, truly feeling the regret that she said she had been feeling. She did truly love you, she had not lied about that. To hear you finally say how you weren't enough for her broke her heart.

"Ma..are you okay?" Jason softly asked as Dick went to knock at your door, a bit angry at the way you spoke to his mother,

"Leave her be." A soft voice demanded from the hallway, " Dick, leave her be. Your mother was not the only one hurt in that conversation."

Bruce walked to Christine, and gently lead her to their room.

Upon the commotion outside, no one heard you open your window and slip out.

"It's about time, I almost died waiting for you."

"You can't die, that's your whole thing." You reply, wiping tears from your face.

"You're crying." Wade says in an unnaturally serious voice, " Do I have to kill your hot mom?"

You cringe, " No, just get me out of here."

"I could do that, actually I have a surprise for you~" He sings as he leads you to his taxi...

You heard what sounds like banging coming from the trunk and you're slightly scared to open it.

"Wade.."

"Oh don't be a pussy" He says opening the trunk.

Popping out with a gasp is

"Peter?" You say with a sigh, eyes welling up with tears again. You truly have missed your friends.

"That was not cool Wade!" He shouts, not grasping where he was, " The trunk smelled like nachos and vomit! I couldn't nngh-"

He grunts as you throw yourself into his arms, " Y/n.."

His arms wrap around you tightly, " Y/n what are you.. Where am I?"

"Gotham, now get me the hell out of here."

And with that, you're loaded into the car, taking the backseat with Peter and Wade in the front with an Indian man.

"Y/n this is Dopiender"

"Hello ms. Stark, I promise I will defend you with my life."

"Oh...well, thank you."

"This was surprisingly easy." Wade said as they pulled out of the long driveway, " Bruce Wayne should update his security."

What they didn't know, was that a pair of bright green eyes watched your reunion through the security camera in the Batcave. Squinting as they saw the tears flow freely through your face and noting the license plate and the men you were with.

#marvel x reader #avengers x teen!reader #marvel #reader insert #dc comics x reader #tony stark x daughter!reader #bruce wayne x daughter!reader #dick grayson x reader #jason todd x reader #x reader

[samkerrworshipper]

massage therapy | mapi leon x reader

mapi gets injured… reader tries to resolve some of the tension in her body

warnings: injury, hurt/comfort, smut, cunnilingus, fingering

“Maps, baby, I swear to dios just let me massage your knee, I have to, hermosa.”

María just glares at you from her position sitting on the couch.

She’s been next to unbearable ever since her meniscus injury, rightfully so, you would be two if you had no choice but to stop playing the sport that you loved for months.

But the whining, the wayward glares, the constant anger and tension is beginning to get to you, beyond it making you annoyed at your lover, you were worried about her more than anything.

Mapí had her fair share of mental health problems in the past, the two of you had gotten through them together, but whenever something like an injury arose it always seemed to signify the start of a rougher patch in her mental health.

So that had been your main focus, making sure that María’s mental health stayed intact, you thought you’d done a fairly good job, mentally she was doing well, but attitude wise she was acting like a little bitch.

Always snappy and critical, always annoyed about her lack of mobility, always refusing your help.

Alexia had attempted multiple times to reign her in on your behalf, the Catalan woman had practically moved in as soon as the news of the injury had come in, insistent on being a support system for her best friend, but it worked to no prevail, Mapí was angry with the world, with her knee, with everything that moved or breathed.

“Estoy bien.” I’m fine

Her words are forced out, gruff and croaky from her spot on the couch.

You’re pretty sure there is a half permanent Mapí shaped dent in the pillows that your girlfriend had been living in the last week or so, ever since her surgery.

“María, when are you going to stop being so stubborn and just accept my help?”

For a person who had some fairly serious surgery just over a week ago, Mapi was a menace, trying to do everything on her own, which was fairly hard when you were hopped up on pain meds and hardly mobile.

“Estoy bien, ni siquiera estoy adolorida.” I’m fine, I’m not even sore.

It’s a complete lie, Mapí’s been moaning and groaning for the last half hour as she tried to find a comfortable position amongst the pillows and blankets.

She’s practically crafted a nest on the couch, a big pile of blankets absorbing her completely.

“María, por favor.” Maria, please

Your use of Spanish seems to draw her attention, it’s not your first, or second language, you don’t speak it very often.

Both you and María understand each other's languages, just find it harder to speak them, so it just works that you normally speak in English and she normally speaks in Spanish, it saves either of you from having to awkwardly translate all of your words every time you want to talk with your girlfriend.

“Pequeña, estoy bien.” little one, I’m fine

Estoy bien seems to be at the forefront of Mapí’s vocabulary recently, it’s always I’m fine, even when she’s lying through gritted teeth and teary eyes.

You stand up from your spot sitting at the kitchen table, tiptoeing towards Mapí slowly, a deep frown set on your face.

Mapí’s watching some Spanish soap opera, something you're unfamiliar with, which makes it seem like it's more background noise for her than anything of interest.

You walk around the couch, until you’re standing in front of her, blocking her view of the tv so she’s forced to look at you.

“You can’t tell me your knee isn’t killing, the physio said it needed to be stimulated daily, let me help you, love.”

Mapí bites down on her lip, there is so much frustration playing across her face, so much anguish.

“Estoy bien.” i’m fine

It’s like being repetitively punched in the face, hearing the same two words fall from her lips, it’s incredibly aggravating, all consuming.

“María, you aren’t fine, hate me all you want, push me away, but give me the respect of not lying blatantly to my face over and over again.”

Mapi’s whole body tenses, her face scrunching up at your brutally honest words.

“Princesa, no es así.” princess, it’s not like that

You don’t give up, not when you know that this might just be your opportunity to get something back, anything at all.

“Maps, just a massage, we’ll go at your pace, your muscles need to be strengthened and that starts with loosening them up, por favor.”

María’s face is stubborn, unmoving.

She’s fairly good about recovery, doesn’t need any reminders to do her exercises or move her knee as often as it needs to, the massaging is the only thing she can’t do by herself, and because its Mapí that you’re talking about, she’d never ask you to help her with it, or accept a offer from you to help her.

You take her recovery seriously though, and you’ll be damned if she misses out on a crucial part of her recovery just because she is too bullheaded to ask for some goddamn help.

“No necesito ayuda.” I don’t need help

You scoff, it’s the biggest lie ever, Mapí can’t walk without crutches, can’t stand for much longer than a minute, she needs help with almost everything.

“Maps, I love you so much, no matter what, but this whole independence thing is just getting annoying. I’ll make you prawn paella for dinner if you let me give you a massage, how’s that for a deal?”

It’s Mapí’s weakness, you know it, it’s one of her mothers oldest recipes that she taught you when she was still alive, whenever Mapí’s having a particularly hard day it’s always your go to, it’s her comfort food.

“Promesa?” promise?

You nod your head, smiling to yourself as you realise that you’ve managed to somehow convince Mapí.

“I promise, I’m going to go and get the massage oil, can you try and take off your sweatpants for me, please, love?”

Mapí nods at you, a little smile teasing at the corners of her lips as she watches you walk off into the direction of the cupboard where the both of you keep all of your recovery related items.

You were quick to find the oil and creams that you required, returning back to Mapí to find her sitting on the couch, her sweatpants pushed to the side leaving her in just her boxer shorts.

Her knee was the only part of her legs that weren’t visible to you, hidden by a brace and plethora of bandages and gauze.

You perched yourself down on the pillows beside her knee, ditching the items in your hands and gently reaching for Mapí’s brace.

She flinched away from the contact, her knee jerking at the feeling.

“Maps, baby, just relax for me, yeah?”

She nodded, her teeth gritted, her eyes watching your every move around her knee, trying to gulp down her worries and discomfort that originated from places beyond her knee.

Once she’d relaxed a little bit more, you reached for her brace again, she still flinched, but it wasn’t as major, and you decided to continue, reaching for the velcro, exaggerating your movements so Mapí had a clear view of everything you were doing.

Once you’d managed to undo the velcro straps you gently un tightened it and then slid it down her leg, leaving gauze and bandages as the only thing covering it.

“Deep breaths Maps, if anything hurts or feels uncomfortable just tell me, sí?”

Mapi nodded at you, she looked like a woman who had just run a marathon, her face all scrunched up and red.

“Sí, gentil, por favor.” Yes, gentle, please

You smiled at her, nodding, like you’d ever be anything else.

“Sí, I’ll be gentle, how about I tell you what I’m going to do before I do it, just so you have some warning, would that make you feel a bit better, love?”

Mapi nods like your words are her saving grace.

“Okay, I’m just going to unwrap the bandages now, just let me know if anything hurts.”

Mapí nods her head, so you continue on, finding the tucked in part of the bandages and beginning to unwrap them, your touch and movements feather soft.

You flex her knee a little bit and notice how her face crunches up a little bit, you hate that she’s in pain, that something that should be so simple and basic for her has become a struggle.

She doesn’t tell you to stop though, so you continue, slowly unravelling the gauze and bandages until you are met with the sight of her bruised and swollen knee.

The stitches had been removed two days ago, so the scar is risen and red, but luckily, not infected.

You notice how Mapí’s eyes suddenly drift from her knee, you know she’s been struggling to come to terms with her injury, that she’s been denying it as much as one could.

“Maps, I’m going to apply some oil, I’m just going to start with your lower leg, nothing near your incision, just tell me if anything is uncomfortable, okay?”

Mapí nods, so you reach for the oil bottle and a towel, gently lifting her knee to slide the towel under her near and then dripping some of the oil onto your hands and then gently pressing them to Mapi’s shin, snaking your hands behind to her calf and working your fingers into her muscles.

The only thing you know is that she’s extremely tight, her calf and achilles practically pushing against you as you lightly apply pressure to the skin.

It takes a generous amount of time working up her calf, working out all the kinks and knots, María is lenient enough though, she looks like she’s in a different place, normally you’d probe her, check if she was okay, but you know that you’re winning right now by having her allow your to do this, so you count your wins and not your losses.

“Maps, baby, I’m working up to your knee and incision now, I know it's going to be uncomfy but the muscles need to be jostled, tell me if anything hurts, okay.”

María’s eyes are glossed over, but she nods absentmindedly.

So, you daintily and carefully begin the trek up to Maria’s knee, your fingers dancing around her non incision side, gently giving the tissue and muscle a rub before moving your fingers to the other side.

You start by just hovering your fingers over her scar, something that seems to capture her attention, and has her throat bobbing as she looks down at you with wide eyes.

“Maps, honey, talk to me.”

It’s clear there are words waiting on the tip of her tongue, and if you can get her to voice them that you will.

“Por favor.” please

It breaks your heart how vulnerable Mapí sounds, it truly does.

“Please, what, love? I’m going to need more than that.”

Mapí pushes her tongue out against her front lip, a fairly clear tell that something is turning the cogs in her head.

“Por favor, no me hagas daño.” Please, don’t hurt me

Your heart clenches at her words, your fingers removing themselves from the scar and gently resting down on her thigh, your palm flat and open against Mapí’s skin.

“María, I’m not going to hurt you, and definitely not on purpose, I’m trying to help you. I know it might not seem that way, but if you relax for me it’s definitely going to feel better.”

Mapí scoffs, sarcasm seemingly ready on the top of her tongue.

“Maps, you need to relax honey.”

Mapí’s face scrunches up, her nose and eyebrows furrowing together.

“No puedo.” I can’t

You don’t doubt Mapí, which makes it so much harder for you to reply to her, because she genuinely looks like she’s struggling, and somehow frustrated.

“Maps, honey, why so tense?”

There’s an inkling of an idea beginning to form in your head, but you don’t want to read this wrong, and a part of you wants to hear what Mapí has to say.

“Tus manos están en mi muslo.” Your hands on my thigh

You snort a little bit, but then reign yourself in when you see the unfamiliar hopelessness on María’s face.

“Yes it is, what’s your point?”

You're toying with her a little bit, for your own fun and genuine curiosity.

“No puedes poner tu mano ahí.” You can’t put your hand there.

If Mapi wasn’t whining at you, you would remove your hand, but there’s neediness hiding behind her tone, that leaves your hand exactly where it is.

“Why not?”

You cock your head at her, pushing down into her thigh a bit and choking on air when an almost breathy moan leaves her mouth.

“No cuando no puedes terminar lo que estás empezando.” Not when you can’t finish what you are starting.

You smirked up at her from your spot hovering between her sore knee resting on the couch and her good leg which is resting off the couch.

“Why can’t I finish it?”

This is uncharted waters with injured María, ever since her knee injury all bedroom activities had been abruptly stopped, you were terrified of hurting your lover and Mapí was always tired or grumpy so it hadn’t really been an issues.

It was clear though, that the both of you were apparently desperate, and as fearful you were of hurting Mapi, you also knew she had given a lot of herself to be this vulnerable with you, so she probably deserved some kind of reward.

“Princesa.”

Mapi’s whining again and all you can do is smile up at her.

“Usted no quieres?” You do not want?

Mapi shook her head, her deep brown eyes sparkling down at you.

“Por favor.” please

You knew that was permission enough, but you were enjoying seeing her slightly vulnerable.

“Please, what?”

María’s almost glaring, a little twinkle in the corner of her eye.

“Por favor, ayúdame.” Please, help me

You would have probed further, if her eyes hadn't fallen down to the centre of her boxers, her hand resting on her hip gently tugging at the waistband of her boyshorts.

“You want this?”

Mapí nodded frantically, making you giddy on the inside.

“Pull your boxers down for me baby, I think it’s time I massage more than your leg.”

Mapi moaned again, her hands falling directly to the waistband and tugging it off with as much force a crippled individual could.

“So eager baby girl, how long have you been needing me?”

Mapí doesn’t reply to you, just continues to tug her black boxer shorts down her ass and carefully over her knee and ankle before tossing them somewhere.

When you look up, you're rewarded with the view of María’s dripping sex, her clit poking out of it’s good and her hole clenching around nothing, her hips canting up to you desperately.

“Look at that, you're all wet for me and I haven’t even touched you where it matters.”

The noises that leave Mapí’s mouth are completely sinful, her head leaning back against the couch, little pleas leaving her mouth.

You trail your fingers up from her thigh, gently grazing against the inside of her thigh until they finally make it to her lips.

You do the same with her lips, trailing wet and sloppy kisses up the inside of her knee and thigh, until your lips come into contact with her dripping and throbbing clit.

You don’t waste any time, trailing a single finger down to Mapí’s hole and swiping up some of the wetness before gently beginning to push it into her eager hole.

Mapí’s pussy practically sucked your finger in, you fell into a fairly easy pace, your mouth suckling gently on her clit whilst your singular finger worked in and out of Maria.

When there was absolutely zero resistance or stretch you began to ease a second finger in, slowly increasing your pace and your pressure on her nub.

Normally, in situations like these, when you and Mapí hadn’t been with each other intimately for so long you’d take your time, show her just how much you loved and appreciated her, but this wasn’t the moment for that.

Mapí needed love, she needed to be worshipped, but in this moment you were acting as nothing more than a relaxant for her, a tension reliever, which you were completely fine with, if it made her feel better than you would do anything for her.

You found her sweet spot, the little pad inside of her and began to target it directly, simultaneously sucking on her clit and caressing her g-spot.

It was a combination that never failed to work during a quickie, sending her directly over the edge in a matter of minutes.

This time was no different, you could feel Mapí tightening around you, her hands finding home in your roots and tugging you up eagerly into her.

Her moans all of a sudden stopped and her hands relaxed, not a second after that she tightened around your fingers and her thighs spasmed on both sides of your head.

You gently worked her through her aftershocks, only removing your fingers when all of the post orgasm shakes had left her body you moved you reached your hand up to her mouth, allowing her to suck her own taste off of your dexterous fingers whilst you lapped up any of her leftover juices and cum that was dripping out of her.

Once Mapí had sucked every last drop off your fingers and you’d salvaged every last bit of her pussy juices you lifted your head out of the apex between her legs, to be rewarded with the sight of a far less tense looking María León.

“Feeling a little bit more relaxed now, bebé?”

Mapu just gave you a little post orgasm grin, her eyes glassy in a completely different way as how she had been a few minutes ago.

“Si, muy relajada.” Yes, very relaxed.

#woso #woso community #mapi leon x reader #mapi leon #mapi león #mapi leon imagine #barca femeni #injury #on my knees for mapi #woso imagines #woso imagine #woso smut #woso one shot #woso fanfics #woso soccer

[astroboots]

Can we just think about somno/cock warming with Steven for a quick sec? Like imagine getting sweet doe eyed Steven semi hard to sink down onto him just to sleep. Waking up to the poor man whimpering and begging for you. Lord take my soul now.

Summary: Steven is preoccupied by a research task for Marc that keeps him away from bed with you. You decide to keep him warm until he's done in the most distracting way possible.

Word Count: 2,850

Content: somnophilia, cockwarming, overstimulation.

ASTROBOOT’S MASTERLIST | MOON KNIGHT MASTERLIST

It's dark in his flat, the only light is coming from the small desk lamp in the corner and the blue aquarium lighting from the fish tank that bathes everything in a shade of pale neon blue.

The rain is pitter-pattering against the large windows. There is a faint scraping sound of pages being turned every so often.

You're lying in bed, head propped up against your pillow, as you try to keep your eyes open and observe Steven where he's hunched over his desk that's filled with piles and piles of books that he's completely consumed by. He's drowning in the books. Face practically pressing up against the ink that you're convinced will leave smudges on his soft cheeks. His outdated librarian glasses are slipping down the arch of his nose.

"Steven," you murmur sleepily, asking him for the third (or is it the fourth time tonight?) to come join you in bed.

But you get the same reply you got last time. A gentle hum, followed by, "in just a minute, almost finished love."

You give it another minute, then two-- until a good half hour must have passed before you call out for him again.

"Steven."

The only response you get from his is a distracted hum. He doesn't look up.

"Come to bed," you try again, but it's a lost cause.

Ordinarily, you barely have to finish the second syllable of his name before Steven's head pops up like a meerkat, with his alert and undivided attention focused all on you.

In the rare times he didn't, you'd certainly get his attention by the time you finished the first repetition of his name.

Tonight though?

This is probably the fourth or fifth time for the evening you've asked for him.

You're… annoyed to say the least.

With a heavy sigh, you raise yourself into a sitting position in the bed.

"What is so important it can't wait until morning?"

It comes out just a tad sharper than you had meant it to.

That seems to finally snap Steven out of his trance.

He looks up from his book, turning in your direction as his eyes flicker over to you with a wide-eyed expression of surprise. Like someone's just stirred him from a spell.

"Oh! Sorry sorry," he closes the book in front of him and holds it up to you.

"Marc needed me to decode the location of some ancient map, and it's a bit more complicated than we thought. It's a bit like a treasure hunt, quite fun actually. We're trying to retrace the steps of Hargrave Marks, he's an archaeologist from the 60s, who had this detailed journal of his treks. But I also have to cross-reference it with several history books cause the accounts aren't exactly contemporaneous or accurate even for the time it was written. Hargrave had a tendency to opt for good storytelling instead of accuracy and--"

His excited ramble pewters out as you cross your arms across your chest. It's rather hostile, you realise when you see him bite his lip in worry at the sight and follow up with a much quieter: "Sorry, love.. am I being too loud? Am I keeping you up?"

There's an apologetic smile on his lip, and normally that would be enough to make any traces of irritation thaw and melt into dew. You're soft for Steven that way.

But this time, his cluelessness at the source of your irritation only serves to make you more irritated.

"No, that's hardly the issue. I want you to come to bed with me."

You can admit that you're acting spoiled.

Because you are spoiled. Used to being spoiled rotten by Steven's profuse adoration. The way he constantly showers you with his affection and full attention at all times. It's probably why it feels like something that is rightfully yours (him) has now been unfairly ripped from you by someone else (Marc), and you're not happy about it, childish and unreasonable as it may be.

And poor Steven, he looks genuinely torn, eyes flittering between you and the book pages. Hesitation etched over the line between his brows, his eyes lingering at the reflection of the TV screen for a few conspicuous seconds too long (Marc).

Whatever Marc is saying to Steven, has him sheepishly ducking his head back down towards the books.

"It might take a while longer," he murmurs, eyes not meeting yours. "Maybe half an hour? Or an hour? If you're sleepy you shouldn't stay awake for me. I'll make it up to you tomorrow. I promise."

You lie back down on the mattress with a huff as you turn away from him. Trying to shut out the white noise of his pen scribbling away as the pages continue to turn.

Mad as you may be. It's cosy and warm underneath the sheets. And you had a long day at work. It doesn't take you long to fall asleep. The odds were against you. You don't know how long you are out for, but you wake to the weight of the bed shifting.

Blinking your bleary eyes open, you see Steven with one knee clambering into bed, books strewn all across the mattress, and another half dozen huddled up in his arms, and a pen tucked behind each ear.

"I'm sorry, love. This was taking longer than I thought, and I hate being away from you. I didn't mean to wake you up."

God, this sweet adorable man. All at once, guilt washes over you for having been so harsh to him earlier.

Stretching out your arms, you wrap them around his back and curl one hand around the back of his neck as you pull him down to you, relishing the small "oof" sound he makes as he plops down on top of you with a soft thud against the mattress, books landing somewhere besides you both.

"You finished?" you ask.

He shakes his head, apologetically. "Not quite yet, sorry. But I thought I could maybe do the rest in bed? That way I can at least be close to you. If you don't mind? I'll try to be very quiet."

You hum, pressing your face into the warm crook of his neck. He's so soft and warm. Comforting and steady. You draw in your breath and you're not sure if you're imagining it, but he has that familiarly pleasant smell that reminds you of a bookshop. Notes of coffee and a freshly turned page. Drawing up your lips, you mouth a small path along the line of his neck, and relish the keen little sound that he makes. A quiet little whine as his hips hitch up and press up against your legs.

"Lo-love that's-- oh god that feels--wait, I still--" he's babbling, the way he always does when your lips are on him.

You nip at the soft skin with your teeth, not enough to hurt, just with enough strength that you know will have his toes tingling as he tries to curl them against the sheets for reprieve.

"Wait," he murmurs, even though he's the one who's bearing down his weight down against you, the outline of his cock pressed up against the softness of your stomach, separated only by the comforter. "I--I need," he licks his lips, trying to find his words. Eyes glazed in a way that tells you the blood in his head has travelled south, and his capacity for speech is quickly going with it.

You hum softly, one hand travelling between your torsos as he hisses sharply at the touch of your hand when it brushes up against his clothes then underneath, your knuckles dragging against the bare skin of his soft belly. "Hmm? Need what Steven?"

Reaching for his waistband, you slip your hand into his boxers. He's already half-hard, and still rising as if to meet your fingers as you wrap them around the girth of his cock, and he gasps brokenly with a half-strangled noise.

"Tell me what you need," you remind him.

His pupils are blown wide as he swallows, Adam's apple constricting against that graceful throat. He's trying to find his words again.

"I need to finish my reading. I promised Marc."

"So finish, I'm not going to stop you."

Steven's gaze darts downwards between your body, to where your hand is still wrapped around him under his sleeping pants, with a pointed look in an unspoken accusation that you are in fact: stopping him.

His cock twitches in your grip. You can feel the slick wetness of precum leaking down from the blunt tip, trickling down your knuckles even as Steven is trying very hard not to react.

You can't help the smile that spreads on your lips as you tilt your head up, until they're brushing against his sensitive ear, letting your breath fan against the shell of it as you speak.

"Don't let me distract you, keep going, keep reading. Finish your work." You're still holding him in one hand, as the other moves to the waistband clinging to his backside and drag it down.

You let your nails gently graze along his spine, round hips and thick thighs as you do, enjoying the way he shivers defenselessly under your touch.

"Uhm, love-- you're--"

It doesn't take much encouragement or strength on your part. You grab hold of his hips as you roll him onto his back, and he lets you. No resistance on his part, as you straddle his hips, palms braced on his chest to steady yourself.

"I'm what Steven?"

The tip of his tongue, pink and glistening darts out in a nervous habit against his lower lip.

"No-nothing, nothing..." he manages. Words slurred and clumsy in his mouth as his hands grip onto your thigh as if he never wants to let you go.

It's all you can do, not to laugh. Whatever promises he had made Marc, it seems to have flown out of the cuckoo's nest.

You really should let him finish his work for Marc though, it won't do to make Mr. Grouchy even grouchier. Problem is you're not quite ready to let go of Steven or to relinquish his attention that you've finally earned from him this evening.

Dragging your hand, you let it caress the soft cotton of his shirt from his chest to his stomach then further down as you grip his cock again.

"Don't worry, let's make a compromise" you say as you stroke his cock up and down the fully hardened length as it twitches and jumps in your grip.

Steven is already nodding forcefully before he's even heard what he's agreeing to. You grip his cock angling it between your thighs and you can hear the soft gasp erupting from his mouth as the tip catches against your slick entrance.

"Keep reading, and when you finish--" you tilt your hips, sliding down in a slow and steady pace. The pleasure is sweet and heady as it skitters through your spine.

Steven's fingers grip the flesh of your thighs, trying to drag you down deeper onto his cock. But you refuse to let yourself be rushed, taking your time to prolong the sweet stretch of the thickness of his cock splitting you open as you sink down on him inch by slow, gorgeous inch, until he's buried to the hilt of you.

His eyes are on you, wild and frenzied, like you're the only thing he can see, his whole world: sky, ocean, and every atom in between are composed of you.

Leaning down, you lie flush down on his firm torso, until your breast are pressed up against his chest, you tilt your head up just enough to press a much too chaste kiss on his lips.

"Keep reading" you tell him again and he whines.

"Love, I can't--"

"Finish the work" you interrupt. "You've promised Marc and I'm not going to move an inch until you finish."

His eyes widen impossibly large at your words, as he starts to realize what he's signed himself up for. Then his bottom lip pushes forward. He's actually sulking, and god, he has no right to make pouty look so gorgeous.

Without any words, his right arm reaches out along the mattress, patting it down until he finds one of the books and brings it to his chest. He lets out a slight testy murmur, in a grouchy tone that is much more characteristic of Marc than it ever would be for Steven.

Once the book is settled in his hand and he starts to read, you nestle your face into his chest. It's the best solution to prevent yourself from bursting out into laughter when you hear Steven mumble discontentedly about how: he's never going to do Marc any more favours again.

He still smells of books and coffee, of warmth and happiness that makes you feel weightless against him. The rhythmic rise and fall of his chest as he reads, hypnotic, like being rocked to sleep, and before you know it you drift to sleep.

You wake to pitch blackness. A sweet syrupy pleasure that flutters somewhere deep in you, but you can't tell where it comes from, and you can't grasp it in your hold. It skitters to your stomach and down to your thighs, warm and soft that makes you clench down to chase the sensation.

A keen gasp fills the room. Too low to be your own voice.

You blink your eyes against the darkness, mind still fussy and drunk with sleep, as you shift your body and are rewarded with that sweet-honeyed pleasure swirling through your stomach, except brighter this time, sharper, and you can't help but clench down again, hoping you can catch it this time and make it stay.

The sound comes again, a sweet gorgeous gasp, except this time, it breaks off in the middle with a quiet whimper.

"Love, please..." the voice pleads with you.

It's such a pretty voice, soft-spoken and gentle, but it sounds almost pained.

Steven...

You dart up, elbow anchored against his firm and solid chest as you look down on him, the small patch of drool on his white shirt, shit...

Trying to raise yourself further, the warm pleasure drags against your insides, and you can't help the moan slipping past your lips. Thick and heavy, his cock is still inside of you jerking from the movement in protest.

You fell asleep on him.

"I finished all my work now." He says it like an announcement.

You look down until your eyes meet. They're sharp. Mouth in a firm line of concentration. Then his hands grip down on the outside of your thighs, hard enough that you think he might leave permanent dents.

Patient, sweet, polite Steven is at the end of his ropes it seems. He pushes you down flush against him until you're pressed down as far as you can take him. It's white and electric, no longer the slow and lazied pleasure you've dreamt of in your half-awake state.

"Been having a nice restful nap, you have," he says, and you don't miss the sarcastic tone in his voice even as he groans, low in his throat, while he continues to reprimand you.

"Did you know that you've been shifting and squeezing down on my cock the whole time? No, I don't imagine you did, love."

The firm weight underneath you shifts, and you barely have a second to breathe and regain your composure before Steven raises his hips, thrusting up and into you as far as he goes.

"Felt like I was going mad."

He lifts you up, hands beneath the underside of your thighs, as he drags his cock alongside you, slowly. Maddening.

It feels like payback. The sweetest lesson you've ever earned.

"Said you weren't going to move until I've finished," Steven reminds you, as he holds you still. "But I've been done for quite a while, and you've been moving quite a lot before then actually. Writhing, hot and wet around me. I can actually feel it dripping out of you."

He pulls out of you until only the fat tip is resting inside you, his hips flush back down against the mattress. One hand draws down between your legs, his thumb sliding wetly against your folds, infuriatingly slow, until he's reached your clit but doesn't press down. He holds it there, without any pressure as if he's waiting for something.

"You ready love?" he asks, holding you poised against him, his hips canting up in preparation

Steven searches for your eyes, and the look in his eyes, focused and honed, has your heart beat fast and excitedly with no logical rhythm against your ribs.

"Yes, Steven."

It's all he needs, he thrusts up as his hands pull you down on him in a devastating stroke that incinerates the air in your lungs.

You're in for a long night, and whatever shortlived sleep you managed to catch earlier won't be enough for what Steven has in mind for you two. Not when you've gotten him riled up like this.

But that's alright.

You look down at Steven, eyes glassy with a feverish sheen. All of his attention pinned on you.

It's not so bad is it? To get to have all of Steven's devoted attention for yourself like this.

Dedication: To @thirstworldproblemss who was indispensable as always, for the brainstorming, the coming up with the hottest Steven dialogue (jesus fucking christ her lines are fucking fire) and for the beta-ing and putting up with my atrocious run-on sentence, tenuous grasp of grammar and wilful typos. I love you.

Also to the secret nonny. You don't know what your ask did to me (and TWP) we went into a horny frenzy and I couldn't sleep haunted by the horny images that were flashing behind my eyes because of your ask. I adore you! thank you for sending this in.

a/n: to be notified of new writing updates follow @astroboots-writes and turn on notifs 🤡💖🤡

#oscar isaac #moon knight #marvel #mcu #marvel mcu #steven grant #steven grant x you #steven grant x reader #moon knight fanfic #moon knight fanfiction #moon knight fic #moon knight x you #moon knight x reader #💌 asks

[goldenempyrean]

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❥ Valentines Drabbles: Day 9

❥ Pairing: WandaNat + R (Sick Nat + R)

❥ Wordcount: 690

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✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ:

It was 2pm in the afternoon and you were in bed. Considering it was Valentine’s Day, this not have been an unusual as it was but you weren’t in bed for the reason that most of the populations couples were... Nope.

You weren’t alone though. You were joined by both your wives. A few days ago, Nat had complained of not feeling great a couple of days ago to Wanda when she had come home from work, and you could imagine both of their surprise when you finally came yourself only to flop of the sofa, your head feeling like it was about to explode.

In true Wanda fashion, she had forced both of you to go to bed immediately, a last desperate attempt at shaking off whatever cold you’d both seemed to be coming down with. She loved Valentine’s Day, she’d mapped out the entire day’s plans in her head but none of them could go ahead if neither of you were feeling good.

But alas, when the two of you had woken up, it was obvious you both felt horrible. So, Wanda had ordered you both to stay in bed and that’s where you were now, laying down as you cuddled up to Wanda, your head resting on her chest as you sniffled repetitively.  

“Can you please stop sniffling.” Natasha whined, pulling her pillow over her head for dramatic effect, “you’re making my headache like ten times worst.”

“I can't help it.” You mumbled, curling further into Wanda, “My nose keeps running, I can't do anything about that.”

“You know Y/N isn’t doing it on purpose Nat,” Wanda chided lightly before turning back to you, “it would help if you did blow your nose though.”

“I know they aren’t but it’s still annoying.” Nat muttered as you reached over to grab a tissue to blow your nose with.

“You didn’t hear Y/N complaining when you were all sniffly earlier though so keep that in mind please. I can go and get you some medicine for that headache of yours though if you’d like.” Wanda offered, standing up when she saw Nat give a small nod. She shook her head to herself as she left the room, you’d both been getting a little snappy with each other all day for some reason or other.

Neither of you meant to be rude to the other but this always happened whenever the two of you got sick together, it seemed that putting two miserably sick and slightly grumpy people together didn’t always have the best outcomes.

All Wanda wanted to do was to be with her wives and read her book in peace but the endless small comments made that nearly impossible.

Without Wanda to hold, your body shivered impulsively, small goosebumps running down your arms. So instead, you shuffled along the bed over and nervously slipped into the position where she had previously been, next to Nat. You stayed there for a moment, trying to soak in any leftover heat before you felt Nat move up against you, resting her head against your shoulder.

“Sorry for snapping, I know you can’t help it,” She apologised in a small whisper, prompting you to cuddle into her, “I get so moody when I'm sick.”

“It's okay, if you feel as crappy as I do then I don't blame you for being grumpy,” You whispered back, as Nat mumbled something and wrapped her arms around you, “love you” you added before leaning over to press a small kiss to her lips - it wasn’t like you had to worry about getting her sick.

“Love you too.”

By the time Wanda had returned with the medicine both yourself and Natasha were asleep, comfortably holding each other in your arms and she smiled as she watched over you. Not wanting to disturb either of you, Wanda put down the medicine down on the Nat’s beside table and grabbed her book as she perched herself down in the armchair which sat in the corner of the room, content to finally read in peace while her wives slept off their colds.

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[shkika]

Weird little fact about life on the surface: outskirts' development name was suburban! it's still called that in the files, hence the acronym SU

looking closely at the map, the region is also arranged into a few separate buildings, rather than a single complex like industrial

...there aren't many windows, though. I guess the ancients had weird architectural priorities, such as making machines that look kind of like funny faces or walls of AC units

Sorry this took so long to answer!! I wanted to do my own research too (wiki reading hours), because I LOVE LOVE ASKS LIKE THESE YES DISCUSS LORE AND TRIVIA WITH ME!! <3

In fact you're absolutely correct! I always wondered why some acronyms don't match. How fascinating this is common for probably more regions than I'll mention.

That's the case for our dear Industrial which had two names! At very early stages it was referred to as Dense Urban, later being renamed Heavy industrial, before finally circling to our dear Industrial Complex we know today! It is implied to have been a mask factory aside probably offering places to live(?) yummy.

Shaded Citadel used to be called Shadow Urban too apparently. (I see why they changed these. That's a lot of repetition and I can see it being annoying or unclear at first)

Farm Arrays used to be called Linear Farms.

Rubicon was just Hell region.. help?? yeah it's interesting how the void offers a dreamscape for everyone, but Saint (and pups ofc). It very much is hell!

As for your points about windows I think that's hard to see, but I'd love examples for sure. The place is kind of in ruins like everything else. At least to me it's possible we aren't shown the proper perspective to see windows. BUT the lack of windows is very logical I'd say and probably the case. Glass wouldn't survive the rain Moon and later on Pebbles as well produce (unless they have a different material for it idk). The structure is meant to require as little upkeep as possible and to be safe for the few residents that might be still around. (I assume there were some just like Shaded Citadel remained an inhabited place.)

I further argue that they in fact do think about windows, because the Iterator cities have them!! Plenty of them!! mmm stars... and the sight of fellow colonies rising in the distance above the clouds. Pretty cool stuff!

#as always take everything i say with ur own judgement #i am a nerd #but also i learned what a waterfront building is like 12 hours ago #had other theories in my head. #anyway!! #thank u for this wonderful prompt for me to look up lore! #ask #dragonpropaganda #rainworld #rain world

[ericaportfolio]

My Friendly Neighborhood Review

Hey Kids! Do you want a mascot horror game that's actually good? Do you want to shoot and watch puppets fly across the room in funny ways? Or do you want to play a game that breaks you to the point of ugly crying due to the messages about selfishness versus selflessness, the trauma of war, grief, depression, death, and depending on which ending you decide, make you feel miserable or hopeful? (Boy, what I wrote there got dark!) Then you should play My Friendly Neighborhood!!!

July 8, 1993, in a very unfriendly city where the citizens that were emotionally affected by the war that lasted for twenty years by watching it from their TV sets (An in-universe version of the Vietnam War in this game), an old studio's antenna starts up playing a canceled kids show that's the in-universe version of Sesame Street, My Friendly Neighborhood, over the news. You play as repair crewman Gordon O'Brian was forcibly sent by his employer, Sprocket Palm Property Management, and their clients, City Network Broadcasting Group, to shut down the antenna at the top of the abandoned studio's hotel. Failure to do so, Gordon, due to his terrible, mean, and rude behavior, would result in getting fired. Upon getting there, SURPRISE, The Puppets Are Alive That A Lot Of Them Want To Hug You To Death!!! Along the way, Ricky the Sock Puppet guides Gordon throughout the studio trying to convince him not to disconnect the antenna. Can Gordon survive the night at the studio as he tries to find a way up to the antenna? Or will Gordon be trapped in the studio forever?

Pros... There's a lot! I can list them all day! The game is a love letter to tv shows and movies made by the Jim Henson Company over the years. The shows and movies had different names to prevent copyright claims in the game's universe. The cute factor is that you'll get attached to Ricky the Sock Puppet. He's like if Scout Prime from Hello Puppets was similar to Kermit the Frog and doesn't curse. If you're thinking, wait Hello Puppets already did possess murder puppets, that seems repetitive! Actually, the puppets aren't possessed. I'm wondering if the creators are saving a twist for another game. (Please let it be Gordon, Ricky, and the Neighborhood characters versus the villains from the in-universe The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth movies after they fell for a trap they thought was a movie deal!) I won't dive into details in this review. Let's say you have to think on your own about what's really happening here. I think for a horror game to do that was refreshing. What you might have fun with in this game is the clever ideas and designs of the weapons you find, the Rolodex and the Novelist being two of them, and the puzzles you come across along the way. However, the best part of the game has to be the writing since it takes a survival horror game and turns it into a dark comedy that would make Mel Brooks proud. If you're a completionist and you finish the game, don't leave! There's More! There are 'secret tapes' scattered around the studio, and once you finish the game, they will unlock cheats and mods to create some interesting experiences the next time you play.

There aren't many cons to this game. Something was happening with the maps, but that was fixed, thankfully. If I have some things I have to nitpick, first, this game has a lot of backtracking to other levels that many would find annoying. However, you'll make discoveries along the way. Just get ready if the previous levels you have been through get harder as more puppets appear. Second, you need to be ready to conserve your ammunition. Once it's gone and used, it's GONE, and your left with the wrench. So plan ahead, or you're dead in the finale! For beginners, this game may take hours or days to beat unless you got the patience to win. As the game continues, some of the puzzles will get harder and leave you scratching your head for a while. There have also been some complaints that the game should be considered a horror game at times, even though there are terrifying moments. Especially in the climax and ending that would leave you shaking unless you wished for more from that. So the cute factor in the game may turn off some who want something darker than this. Yet, if you read carefully the files you collect, you'll discover where the true darkness lurks in this game.

I may need to warn you of potential spoilers to some trigger warnings of war, depression, and references to taking away your own life. In a game about fighting murder puppets, the game does a shockingly good job tackling war trauma not just for the victims and soldiers but also for the citizens back on the homefront, where many viewed the soldiers as villains and getting exposed to the war on their home televisions. Because of that, the citizens in the city were traumatized and depressed by it. Even one worker at the studio wrote about "going into the light". I got a theory as to what happened to them. Something I noticed at the beginning makes sense now when reading those notes.

So there are multiple endings in the game. One is the true ending. Whichever ending you get, get your tissues ready. You might cry ugly tears of joy. Overall, spending money on this game is worth it! Even if you don't have the money, watch your favorite Gaming YouTubers and watch the game as a movie experience. It's not perfect, but it's rightfully up there, along with that antenna. This game may not be for everyone, but if you're a fan of Resident Evil (which I should start watching more gameplay of the game series if able, to be honest), you grew up with Sesame Street and the Muppets, you're a big Jim Henson Company nerd, you like puppets, you're a fan of Hello Puppets and Welcome Home, and you love film noir, this game is for you. So get it while it's still on sale, grab a buddy or two, and get learning in your favorite friendly neighborhood!

I would give this game a 9/10 for Ricky being adorable and Gordon getting some needed sleep.

#my friendly neighborhood #mfn #my friendly neighborhood gordon #mfn gordon #my friendly neighborhood ricky #mfn ricky #my friendly neighborhood norman #mfn norman #mfn junebug

[bluebudgie]

Lou is currently witnessing me losing my goddamn mind over pringle strategy (someone's phone autocorrected it like that on reddit and i'm stealing it) in real time. Disclaimer this is like 15 minutes in and I recognize that you can probably get used to some of these things but nonetheless i'm continously mclosing it.

I need to talk to whoever was responsible for the visuals of this game. Like. All of the visual decisions.

1) This has to be one of worst readable maps I've ever seen. Why is it all the colours of the rainbow.

2) Same fucking issue as the Octo game all over again. No dialogue portraits. In a sprite based game. That has (pretty good looking!) artwork for all characters available. My son put their goddamn faces on the textbox.

3) Why is everything (that isnt the UI) so goddamn blurry. I dont know why the sprites have a weird black dropshadow aura surrounding them. Bloom eveywhere. Just blurry overall. And you know whats even worse?

When you zoom out to ger a better overview it just gets more blurry. This is with depth of field turned OFF in the options. In general this is with all two graphics options turned off. Of the two the DoF is somehow the lesser evil since the other one is a weird crusty burned vignette that covers about a third of the screen and makes you feel like you were struck with migraine tunnel vision. On top of everything being blurry.

This game is such a goddamn visual clusterfuck. I known they were trying to immitate the (helpful) Fire Emblem coloured grids that show you enemy movement / attack range etc. but with so much stuff overlapping and having animated glow and god knows what else it's just. A fucking disaster.

Visual clarity who. Never heard of her.

Also for some reason menuing feels extremely clunky and slow. Might be a Switch issue.

Also also the prologue map song is super repetitive and annoying. But I'll go on and see if I can't get used to at least some of these things. The character sprite blurriness might honestly be a gamebreaker though. Don't want to keep staring at something that makes me feel like I need glasses.

I'M REALLY TRYING TO GIVE THIS THING A CHANCE I PROMISE

#apologies for the 100 typos i wrote this on the phone earlier

[angeltannis]

I’ve p much had nothing but praise for it so far but honestly F0rspoken should not have been a $70 game. The enemy animations are lazy (and the AI is pretty bad, the fact enemies will just bump right into you and not attack until their Designated Attack Time is so hfjfjg). The dungeons are the same thing copy-pasted over and over just with different bosses, and that goes for pretty much every Point of Interest on the World Map tbh. As an autistic person I like the repetition, and I’m here for the lore anyway, not the gameplay, so it doesn’t bother me - but I could see people getting annoyed with how repetitive these parts are. The bits of banter when you scan the environment and such get old after the thousandth time, too. There are times it feels more like a tech demo than a finished game.

The strongest part by far is the mobility, the shockingly deep world lore, and Frey as a character. Corny English dubbing aside, you can tell the people who created Frey really loved her. There are so many loving little touches that don’t technically “matter”, like the way she always turns her head to look when a cat’s nearby, the little missions that don’t really matter like her going dancing, the way they make it clear how intelligent she is, despite the fact that the New York foster system tossed her out like trash once she aged out, so her future on earth was pretty grim. I’m sorry the world wasn’t ready for you as a protagonist, bb

Right along I’ve been thinking that this game feels like something that would have come out in the PS3 era, the last generation before game development became too expensive to convince big devs to take any risks. This is a weird, quirky game. It’s fun characters and a fun mobility gimmick in a lore-rich open world that feels low-budget and kinda repetitive in execution. I read a review saying that in 10 years it will be considered a hidden gem that people pay good money for copies of. I’m honestly shocked that a game like this came out in 2023 in the first place.

#been meaning to write this out for a while #for $20? it’s an incredible game #id even say up to like. $40 it would be worth it #but $70…they set themselves up to fail with that one

[kiefbowl]

Omg tell me about your totk grievances. I like playing the game a lot but it just doesn’t feel as good as botw and I can’t articulate why (other than botw being the first Zelda game Like That)

Yeah, I don't know how articulate this will be from me either but I'll try:

Tedium - I'm not going to kid myself that tedium wasn't also part of BOTW, but it felt different I think because it was in service of exploring a world you didn't know, and there were times where the game was quiet and you were just in the space appreciating that you could go where ever you wanted. In TOTK it feels like there are so many tasks constantly and so much happening every moment of the game. Which, I get because they're using the same map. still, it can feel like I'm doing an endless list of chores and some of the chores are, well...dumb.

Exploring - I love the depths, but once you get about ~50% of the lightroots, the allure lessens steeply imo. It's less "scary", and the more powerful you are, it's way easier to traverse - meaning the light and your power makes it basically a walking stimulator with some battle elements. granted, I haven't actually done the labyrinths yet in the depths, and I don't think it's full of nothing, I like fighting the Yiga, it's just really repetitive and the thing that makes it novel diminishes quickly as you fill it with light.

The Sages - they are fucking in the way. They aren't completely useless, but I need them so infrequently and sometimes they fuck up what I wanted to do because (A) is used for everything. I know I could toggle them off, but that's going in and out of the menu which is annoying in a game I already have to do that a ton for. It's such a breath of fresh air to be on your glider and just have your bird buddy. 3.(A) Battle - The Sages fuck up battle. Yeah it's cool and funny sometimes to let them take care of some beasties when I don't really want to do it, but they don't do that much damage, and when I'm trying to fight beasties, they fuck up the timing. I feel like I can't land any of my side jumps and flurry rushes etc. because they will hit the monster. Then I don't have practice and so when I do have the opportunity, I fuck it up. I felt like in BOTW I was hitting flurry rushes and parries and back flips all the time, now I can't get it down and I think it's bc of the sages. 3.(B) Mineru - I don't fucking get this. Once you're on her, the controls change. And then she doesn't really do a whole lot of extra damage. Also you seem to take a lot more damage when you're riding her? It's nice to be able to give her frost emitters etc. but I don't want to ride her except to go over lava/gloom (which just makes exploring easier...which is boring...). And she's in the way more, because unlike the other sages, if I accidentally press (A) around her I'm suddenly in a different location with different controls and it takes two different buttons to get off her. It's annoyyyying. 3.(B)(ii) The quest to get her sucked it was not fun.

Koroks - the backpacks koroks were fun for the meme, but it just seems bc they give you two, there are far less hidden koroks, which means I'm finding less if I don't want to stop what I'm doing to do a tedious un-puzzle. They need far less backpack koroks, they needed the backpack koroks to be more puzzle like, and/or they needed the korok seeds to do something else in this game than inventory expansion. The beauty of BOTW exploration was that no matter what, you were going to be rewarded with exploring no matter how inane or bonkers it was, because more often than not there would be a fun little puzzle for you to get a little seed. Now you can't find them bc they've been exported to backpack koroks. I do appreciate that in early game they were a good way to practice your building ability, but now that I'm entering late game I'm frustrated.

I think that's all I have atm, there are probably other issues I have but again overall they're minor quibbles I like the game a lot (plus I like tedium in games lol)

[minthe-lover]

Chapter 221 Anaylsis

I'd admit that most of my problems with this chapter are art related, so I'm gonna just skip over like 80% of my critics of that so It doesn't get repetitive. It's mainly just creepy hades faces, and awkward proportions that make him look like a lego figure in stop motion. Like look at this guy... he looks so awkward and... god his ass is really tiny.

Now the big art thing that I am going to talk about is how the simplified one colour and one note backgrounds has caused rs to basically shoot herself in the foot. Cause in the first few chapters the backgrounds where detailed enough that we could really visuals all the important areas. Artemis's house, Hades house and the underworld corp while we aren't given like maps of them but we have a good idea of the layout and space...

with persephone new apartment.. we don't get that. It's all this dark blue, we get one shot of the outside and then a few undetailed shots of the inside. How many rooms does this have, is it big or small? hades says it looks rundown... but why aren't we shown that? They leave the apartment to eat on the roof almost immediately, is that cause persephone doesn't have a dining space in her apartment.. it just reallys annoy me.

Then the next shot in what I thought was the apartment... was actually hades, I think this chapter would really really benefit from a few shot focusing on persephones apartment. If needed remove the whole 'joke' of the billboard and instead show up persephone apartment and have them eat inside to better show Persephones kitchen. Side note with how last chapter went... how is she gonna treat her neighbors...

Now I've said this before that I'll say it again I do like persephone getting her own apartment. It's a good idea not to have hades and persephone immediately be a married couple.. but I really wish rs did more with this. Persephone has missed out on far more then just owning her own apartment.. she only did at most a month of collage it would really help to show more that persephone is trying to be independent.

Now I just want to draw attention to this line.. and just the massive amount of disrespect it levels at hecate, while yes she was not technically queen.. but like come on hades. She's been helping you since you stared at king, she did most of the research and work in the last few chapters. She may not have shared the title but it's clear she was doing a fuck ton of work.

Lets talk about the most annoying line in this whole chapter! Just to make one thing clear persephone you where not coddled, you where a CHILD. Demeter was making sure you had an education and a safe place to grow up first before making you work! that is a completely understandable thing.. and the moment you were over 18 demeter let you go... she was worried for your safety in a world that has repeatedly abuse her and you've proven yourself in the past that you put your trust in the wrong individualizes.

You then had one conversation in ten years where demter outwardly praised out about how great you were doing… You didn't even talk about what you could do in the mortal realm. Before then you didn't have any experience and again were a collage student .. not exactly someone fit to step up to a important job like that… Like from the few flashback to the punishment.. it's clear you were struggling.

Also this line and how much it annoys me in relationship to demeter, because it's constantly brought up terrible demeter is for hiding stuff like the fertility goddess power from persephone as how she is bad and irredeemable... and when I was first read it I thought that is what it was referring to. I read it as people hid stuff from persephone to protect her... but persephone admiting that she understands it's a struggle, and that hades isn't a bad guy for hiding shit from her but you know her own mother doing stuff to protect her is a terrible person.

Now I want to get these analysis out before the next chapter does... so yeah this isn't as detailed or longer but.. eh.

#so yeah prepare for future analysis to take longer to come out #..... grandmother has cancer and it's difficult to deal with- #anyway hope you enjoyed this one! #anti lo #lo critical #lore olympus critical #anti lore olympus

[notstinky]

TIMING: Recent LOCATION: Wicked's Rest State Park PARTIES: Thea (@notstinky) & Jerry (@park-ranger-is-my-comfort-animal) SUMMARY: Thea is searching for a safe spot in the forest, Jerry is trying to protect his.

Thea called them ‘wolf spots’. Of course, she had no one to talk to and about half a friend so she called them that just to herself, but that importance of their classification still meant a lot to her. A good wolf spot was many things: remote, populated by sturdy trees, easily memorized, close enough to good bushes to pee in. Thea was sure Wicked’s Rest state park would have a lot of potential wolf spots for her. She’d even been proactive in bringing a map (that she couldn’t read) and a compass (that she didn’t really understand how to use). She was positive and hopeful that she’d find a good wolf spot for her next full moon. If anyone was asking, not that anyone was asking, she’d explain that it was important to scope them out early so she could bury extra supplies and memorize the trail to the spot and the area nearby in case her chains broke, and they did break most of the time. 

Branches broke under her feet as she wandered aimlessly under the trees. Crunch, snap. Thea stopped moving to stare at her swinging compass needle. Crunch, snap. Thea whipped around, narrowing her gaze at the empty space that lived between the vegetation. Her head snapped onto the air and her nostrils twitched. It smelled like dirt and leaves and bark and spring moisture. Crunch, snap. Thea whipped her attention around the other way. Again, she narrowed on the empty spaces; nothing stirred there but her own wobbling vision. “Um, hello?” Her heart thumped hard in her chest, throwing itself against her ribs. “Is anyone there?” 

—

From the deepest shadows between the trees, it watched, silently following her progress. Hunkered low to the ground, the beast moved with a lightness that belied its size. Powerful muscles bunched and tensed beneath pale fur as it crept forward, slowly drawing its bulk through the brush with fearsome claws dug into the fragrant layers of plant matter and moist earth.

The woman seemed to move without purpose or destination, as though she were searching for something but wasn’t sure where it would be. The figure stumbled as dry limbs broke under her boots with a sudden CRACK, but the sound was deadened by the surrounding forest as if absorbed by the trees themselves. The beast grunted to itself at the careless noise, before taking the sound and throwing it back at her. It reverberated along the edges of the trail, as if several pairs of feet all snapped branches at the same time, in mocking repetition of her own clumsy movements.

Lifting its snout higher into the air, the shroud-coloured creature sniffed the air. It was still too far away to hear her racing heart, but it could smell her fear in the breeze. Good, it thought, the unfamiliar human words feeling slow and heavy in the beast’s ursine brain. This clueless hiker didn’t know the danger she was in, as she continued to ignorantly wander closer to the clearing… The beast’s chosen place.

A low growl rumbled in its throat as the creature considered what could happen if this woman found the things it had hidden there. Without conscious thought, the beast cast more illusions into the hiker’s path - deepening the shadows, summoning eyes that stared unblinking from the darkness, and calling up the memory of a wolf pack’s cacophonous howling - all to change her direction and drive her away from its own resting place.

—

Thea had always been full of fear; as a child she feared punishment, disappointment, hatred and ostracization. When she spoke, she feared she was too annoying. When she existed, she feared she was a burden. In college, someone was able to diagnose it as an anxiety disorder but Thea always knew it as fear. She had learned to live with it, make a house in its pounding domain and heavy breathing winds. She was familiar with the thump thump of her heart and the sweat that pooled and poured across her skin. She knew the tightening in her throat. She was friends with the churning of her stomach and the feeling of constricted lungs. In the worst cases, her vision darkened and lost its color; her brain seemed uninterested in oxygen. Her home was here, in the sweaty palms and dry mouth. “H-hello?” The shadows twisted and blinked at her. Wolves bayed. Thea shrieked. 

She tore off in one direction, tripping over a branch and catching herself on the ground with her palms. She looked up into the darkness again; it blinked, it howled. But underneath it all, she thought she smelled something else. Not a wolf, not a tree or leaf or patch of mud or frog sitting in tall grass. A little bit human, a little bit animal and not at all safe against a pack of wolves. Thea was fearful more times than she was ever brave. She faked illnesses to avoid group presentations and pretended to be getting phone calls when social interactions felt like too much. It was that fear she lived inside of that spurred an odd, defiant sort of compassion; she knew what it was like to be scared and never wished it on another soul. If there was someone there out there, she would sooner piss her pants than let them get chewed on by werewolves. “Is someone there?” She called out, rushing into the thickest patch of the darkness, sniffing the air wildly like the dog she was only some of the time. “Where are you? Call out to me!” 

—

What was the woman doing?!

The beast knew that she was afraid. It could taste her fear in the air that blew between them, and yet she was choosing to run into the illusionary shadows… towards the howling of spectral wolves! 

Uttering a quiet grunt of irritation, the creature narrowed its small eyes and watched as the figure stumbled blindly through a darkness only they could see, shouting out as if trying to find someone. It was sure that she’d come here alone, there was no recent scent of another person on them that the beast had been able to detect, and they searched anyway.

Chewing the inside of its cheek in an oddly human fashion, the creature lumbered forward, shouldering saplings and wild flora aside as it advanced towards the woman. If the illusions were enough to keep her away from its private place, then perhaps a more immediate threat would yield better results.

It started slowly, cautiously placing one fearsomely beclawed paw in front of  another, eyes fixed on the figure’s slight frame and groping movements. One step at a time, the beast gathered pace, moving faster through the trees and starting to be less cautious about making noise as it did so. Weaving more illusions around itself, the creature became a ghost animal with burning coal-like eyes, its translucent fur shining like a warning through the shadows as it approached.

All it had to do was get in front of her, turn the woman around and drive her away from the tree where its backpack was hidden in the branches. This was usually a good transitional spot to come and change. There weren’t any attractions or sights hereabouts and none of the trails wound this way… It was supposed to be his safe space, dammit!

Amidst the trees and wildlife, the bear-like creature that sometimes wore the form of a man added its own frustrated bellow to the choir of wolves voices it had summoned, and lowered its massive head as it charged to intercept the fearful woman.

—

Thea quivered, fear shot through her like the fluttering of hummingbird wings; her heart hammered and her throat tightened. She’d fallen over a while ago, clawing her way through the darkness and the chorus of barking and howling. The ground suddenly felt wet, clinging to her skin and infesting her nails with heavy globs of mud. It begged for her to join the ground and merge her body into dirt. Thea wept and under the wheezing of her breath, she muttered prayers she knew would never be answered. She prayed to find whoever was beyond the haze of darkness; she prayed they would be safe; she prayed the wolves would go away forever and that she’d wake up tomorrow in her parent’s home, eight years old, learning that everything that had ever happened to her was a terrible dream. When she looked up to find a creature charging at her, its thick paws sending plumes of debris into the darkness, she had accepted her death with a strange, hopeful finality. 

The night Thea was bit, what she truly remembered were the eyes: round, glowing, with pupils dilated to an impossibly small dot. There were teeth, gnarled and yellow. There was saliva, pooling from the wide maw like syrup. There was matted fur lit up by the street lights of Toronto and the unforgiving full moon above. It was the eyes that haunted every bright light and dark corner. There wasn’t any emotion there, nothing animal or human. When she was admitted to the hospital, she described two orbs flying towards her. When her friends took her out, they laughed about how silly it was that circles could be scary. She wondered if the last thing they saw was something round, glowing, with unnaturally small pupils. 

Whatever part of Thea still wanted to bite and snarl was lost to the fear. Thea closed her eyes and held up her hands. She thought about every full moon that she’d endured and every stain on her skin she woke up with the next day. She thought about the bits of skin and hair she was always picking out from between her teeth. She thought about how nice it would be if the next full moon was met with silence. 

And then, she waited. 

—

What was the woman doing now?!

The monstrous bear could taste the terror radiating from her like ambrosia on its tongue. Every staccato beat of her rabbit-like heart sent waves of delicious, beautiful, intoxicating fear out into the world, but the creature had already gorged itself and couldn’t feed anymore. What a waste.

And now she’d stopped running.

Her hands were held aloft. Not shielding herself or hiding her face, but it almost seemed like a motion of acceptance. It was charging towards her and, after everything this woman had endured, she accepted her fate. In her terror, she welcomed the end.

Your Papa will be so disappointed.

The voice rose unexpectedly out of memory. Its tone was tired and exasperated, and he could picture his mother wiping blood from his nose as a small boy, shaking her head as she spoke. He’d been eight years old, still wasn’t talking, still learning what it was to live with humans. The boy that he had been was hungry and had scared another child to eat their fear, the way he had seen others do it. That child had wet himself in front of their friends, who’d immediately turned on them and started teasing him mercilessly, as only a gang of kids can do. Every hurtful remark, every name he was called, every shove and poke that the child had endured, it was all on him.

Just wait until Papa gets home.

The child that he’d once been thought he understood what that meant, and knew his own fear at what came next. 

Burying its giant paws into the mud, the monster slid to a stop several feet from the cowering woman. Slowly, it dropped the illusions it had cast around her; quieting the wolves and lifting the ominous shadows from her eyes. Though dirty, the fur that encased its huge frame still looked mostly white even through the mud. It padded slowly forward and snorted, its heavy brows furrowed in a very human-like expression of irritation.

Brushing past her, the huge beast lumbered up to a tree that stood behind her and, standing almost 7ft on its hind legs, it carefully took the strap of a khaki colored backpack into its mouth from where it had been hanging, partially disguised by the sparse foliage.

Folks are scared all the time, Jer, he heard his father’s spectral voice as he dropped back to all fours. You don’t gotta be scaring them, just to get yourself a snack, son. I thought you knew better than that.

With another snort and a deep, low rumbling growl, Jerry padded sadly towards the deeper woods to find himself a new spot and maybe be alone where he couldn’t hurt anyone. 

—

The end didn’t come for Thea. She waited for it, trying to still her frantic heart and urge her desperate lungs to relax. Panic remained stuck in her throat, reminding her of life and how much she didn’t want to lose it. When she finally opened her eyes, it wasn’t to the creature that had stolen her normalcy. The bear, as best as she could describe it, didn’t carry the same blind hunger. At least, when it reached over her, when she expected to be crushed between its paws, it pulled something from the branches instead. The wolves had stopped hollowing and the scent of animal and human vanished along with the strange, white bear. Thea remained, unsure of where fear was meant to go. She thought she should have been grateful, but she didn’t feel particularly thankful for anything. She figured some curiosity was needed, but as she turned and stared between the trees where the bear had disappeared, she couldn’t summon a single question about it. Calm came to her with a deadness; horror remained swirling under her skin, shifting her insides. On the outside, there was only the occasional hiccup, carrying the murky weight of what she held below. Thea was a still, dark ocean, watching the shadows and waiting. Each sound made her gasp, each flutter of wind had her jaw clenched—ripples. 

When she stood finally—a fish breaking the water—with the sky dark and the air turned crisp, she marched along with her swallowed terror and did her best not to drown. When she left the forest, she thought about what she would make for dinner. When she reached her bed, she decided she’d watch YouTube videos of snow monkeys sitting in Japanese hot springs instead of sleeping. When she dressed herself for work in the morning, she didn’t think about wolves or trees or howling. 

But when she stepped into the sun, watching parents load their children into cars with their swinging lunch boxes decorated by the likes of Spider-man, Elsa and Pikachu, she thought about the white bear and how neatly she would have fit into its mouth and how quickly her bones would have snapped under its paws. She wondered, for the first time, why it ever bothered to stop. 

#s1 #bugbears and werewolves oh my #c: jerry #writing #//this was so fun to write! #paul's last reply made me cry no one LOOK AT ME

[sourmonsterworms]

The END (2009) - The Black Eyed Peas

8.5/10

This album has a Very Mixed reputation but there’s a goddamn reason I can still sing every single word of the first 5 tracks. The album is very frontloaded, all of the charting singles are shoved front and center in the album. I know this album’s singles get a lot of shit but I could make a case for all 5 of these singles, even I Gotta Feeling, which I don’t even like that much comparatively (despite the fact that I think this is the song most people feel the most positively toward).

Boom Boom Pow is tight, earwormy, futuristic (for the time) sounding, I haven’t listened to this song in years and I remembered Every. Fucking. Word. Not too overly repetitive, the verses are good, it doesn’t feel like any part of the song is carrying or lagging behind, the epitome of a cohesive song where something interesting is always happening. 

Rock That Body my beloved. I don’t give a fuck what you think about this song its fucking twerkable, this song used to make me go fucking apeshit when I was a kid, this song is a hill I will fucking die on. I genuinely enjoy the chipmunk Fergie vocals and respect them as an artistic choice, I’m Not Fucking Kidding.

Meet Me Halfway is a guilty pleasure, I know by all rights I should say it's bad, that its sampling of The Yeah Yeah Yeahs iconic song about longing Maps is baffling, but in the moment? You know what? This song DOES hit. This is probably the best vocal performance Fergie has or ever will give. 

Imma Be- Ok please stay with me here, I know this is probably most people’s least favorite of the singles. It's repetitive, it's probably the ugliest sounding production wise, its pioneering annoying “ay”s as an instrument, the ever present “Imma Be”s. But when the bridge hits I feel like it's all worth it. I fucking love the back half of this song so much. It's like the musical equivalent of eating your vegetables to get dessert.

I Gotta Feeling is my least favorite of the charting singles, I dunno, I just think it's like, ok. Most people would say this is the best song on the album I feel, its not even in my top 5, but I know every fucking word like its burned into my brain so, what’ll you do.

The album doesn't stop with its commercial singles though, the next two songs were non charting promotional singles (one of which was only released in France). Alive is, surprisingly, kind of reminiscent of a RAM era Daft Punk song but if The Black Eyed Peas were there (4 years predating RAM). I think this song honestly deserves to be remembered as well as the preceding 5 songs.

Missing You, the aforementioned France Only Promo Single, at first feels a bit heavy handed, opening with Fergie doing her most Fergie. However, I actually really like the production on this one. The transition from the first chorus to the first verse immediately changed my expectations for the song, and the second verse, with Fergie’s interjections of “Missing you” is the high point of the song, immaculate. I could easily imagine this song having been a successful radio single 2009-2010 (Yes, I am saying this album should have had 7 charting singles Actually, it’s my review I get to say whatever words I want)

Unfortunately this is actually the point where the album falls off. Ring-A-Ling, a song about bootycalls, is the most straight up offensive to my ears, which is a shame because Missing You leads into it so beautifully that it leaves you completely unprepared for what is about to happen to you. The chorus proudly proclaims that “the girls want ding-a-ling” how brave of will.i.am to say that like it doesn’t sound goofy as fuck. The vocal effects on Fergie do not sound like a Respectable Artistic Choice on this one. The production is very “annoying song from the late 2000s-2010s”, unfortunately I could also imagine a world where this charted in 2010, so it's good that we mercifully dodged that timeline. Also this song ends on a sample that used the R slur, reminding you that the Peas love that word so much that one of their most famous songs is unlistenable without the censored edit (ugh).

The songs after this aren’t too terribly notable, Party All The Time feels like a less good retread of I Gotta Feeling, Out Of My Head is actually pretty decent but feels like a rejected leftover from The Duchess rather than a Black Eyed Peas song (it basically is just a Fergie song), and Electric City just, isn’t very good. Showdown feels like it could have had something with the counting in the pre chorus, but the rest of the song is just, eh.

Now Generation opens with a narrator talking about how The Youth can destroy the Economy by Not Buying things, before tiptoeing into an absolutely baffling song about how cool technology and the internet is and Money and Stuff. I feel like this is supposed to sound rebellious or something but it’s just? What the fuck is this? One Tribe feels like an attempt to return to their roots, or at the very least Where Is The Love? But it's just an empty song about Love and Peace and Unity. Also it sucks.

After 7 tracks of mid, here we are at the closing track. So you know how I said Alive sounded like Daft Punk? Lightning striketh twice because Rockin To The Beat sounds even more like Will.i.am really wanted to make a Daft Punk song. I don’t know if this would clear on an actual Daft Punk album, but on this album? It's a pleasant surprise. Genuinely nice way to close out the album.

Despite this album cycle’s insane success at the time and the album’s commercial success, this album feels bloated. With 15 tracks, the shortest of which clocking in at 3:45, most being over 4 minutes, this album could have been 5 tracks shorter and it would have benefitted the listening experience greatly. Personally I think Ring-A-Ling, Electric City, Showdown, Now Generation and One Tribe could have seen the chopping block and little of value would have been lost. That being said, the good songs here? Pretty good. Would absolutely suggest listening to Alive, Missing You and Rockin To The Beat at least once if you’ve never heard them.

1 Rock That Body

2 Alive

3 Missing You

#ray's cd reviews #cds of 2023 #not a twitter repost this time #more words for the slop pit #the black eyed peas #the end

[queen-thick-dick]

Dude I love Dragon Age Origins so much it's so miserably repetitive and boring to play. Every second I'm like "God I just need to slog through this last boring part of the boring quest" and then I do it and I say "Yay! Now I have to pick which annoying fucking map location to go to next to start a different sequence of annoying quests!" And then for like two hours before the final battle its kinda fun and fresh and a bunch of interesting things happen one after the other and then the final battle starts and it's repetitive and boring right away and then you reach the final boss and it sucks so bad that it's literally standing off to one side and pressing "Interact" 1,000 times and then a cutscene that could not give less of a shit what your character build is plays and then its over.

And it's amazing. Best game in the series, wouldn't have it any other way.

#dragon age #da:o #dragon age: origins #bioware #video games

[scrunkore]

Scunkore Media "Thread" 2023: Part 4

welcome back to the scrunko core

38) Miitopia (Switch, 2021)

Mii games are a dying breed, and honestly I'm not sure why they put this game on Switch when they did, but that's whatever really. It definitely has its fair share of improvements from the 3DS original, with a bit more content and an absolutely fantastic custom makeup tool that lets you make every Mii that much more unique, being put to great use by a whole bunch of creators. The game itself, though... it's still not anything special aside from that, and also its cute story bits and Mii interactions, but those get old well before you actually finish the game. And the game takes a while to get through, too, feeling very repetitive and grindy even while you constantly make progress. Basically, the game does some fun things, but it's not nearly enough to make the whole experience remain interesting throughout. It's just painfully average as an actual game, and I'd really rather have a new Tomodachi Life game, but that seems unlikely at this point. [2.5★]

39) The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Movie, 2023)

I'll never get over the reaction to the casting announcement for this movie, that was the funniest shit to come from that one Nintendo Direct presentation and unfortunately it might be more memorable than the actual movie itself. Chris Pratt Mario is the least of its issues (actually the voice acting is fine) - the plot and indeed most of the characters are pretty half-baked and it feels like they rushed the story through basic plot points between various action pieces, but at the very least that does mean it's never boring. Trouble is, that does mean I can't say the movie is good, despite the really nice-looking visuals and great soundtrack (when it's not using corporate-mandated licensed songs), both clearly made with a lot of love for the series. Sure, it was an entertaining movie, with some fun elements like Jack Black Bowser banging out the tunes, but realistically I think it's pretty average when I'm not giggling at the references - the critics were in fact correct, who knew. Still, does give me some hope for future Nintendo movies, because it was well-made. [3★]

40) The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch, 2023)

Breath of the Wild, one of the biggest and most popular games Nintendo has ever put out, finally got its sequel, and it somehow makes that game look like a demo. Everything new that they added results in Tears of the Kingdom blowing Breath of the Wild out of the water - the world map is about three times the size due to the added cave systems and whole new areas above and below Hyrule, the abilities Link gets to use are so much more complex and fun to use (especially the building mechanics), the enemies/bosses and side quests are more interesting, the list really does go on. It even has an excellent story that, while still unfortunately leaning back into "rescue the princess", delivers a really enjoyable narrative only marred by the fact that you can kind of ruin it by viewing it outside of the intended order, but I guess for an open-world game that's fine. I held off on writing this bit because I didn't really know what to say other than "game good", and now I don't want it to go on too long because I'll start rambling. The game is just really fucking good, man. Sometimes things in it are annoying, but I say that about every game, including Breath of the Wild - it may not be a particularly interesting opinion, but I think this game has just about perfected what it wants to be, and I have no idea what the Zelda team is going to do next. [5★]

41) Sonic Adventure (Dreamcast/PC, 1999/2011)

Next time someone tries to tell me that Sonic "had a rough transition to 3D" and it's clear they're talking about this game specifically, I think I might push them out of the nearest window, because that lie has gone on for far too long, though admittedly the ports of this thing have a couple unique issues and that's kinda why I modded the Steam port to be more in line with the Dreamcast version. But regardless, yes, this game is really good fun. It's a pretty unique 3D platformer with an excellent hub world and several different gameplay styles that each offer something fresh - from speeding through levels to fishing for a kind of annoying frog, I do rather like them all to varying degrees. The general vibes of the game as a whole (mainly down to the locales but also things like the incredible music) are pretty cool too, and the solidly enjoyable story - especially the parts with Gamma - is told in cutscenes that may look a bit awkward now but still have a lot of charm to them. Everything culminates in the classic final fight against Chaos, and that will always be really cool despite the actual gameplay of that fight being a bit of a pain. If you haven't played a "good" 3D Sonic game, open your heart up to this one - but do grab the mod loader if you're playing the Steam release. [4★]

42) Sonic Adventure 2 (Dreamcast/PC, 2001/2012)

The sequel to Sonic Adventure is kind of a few steps forward and a few steps back, and production-wise we know it was a bit rushed, which does explain some issues, but thankfully the subsequent ports ended up having less issues than the prior game's. Adventure 2 takes a hit in not having a cool hub world to explore and instead opting for typical menus separating the two routes that include most of the different level types introduced in the first game, and one of those level types (the emerald hunts) is designed so much worse this time around for god knows what reason. In fact, the game can be a bit more annoying to play in a lot of areas, although plenty of the time it's just because it's deliberately more challenging and not actual bad design. But it makes up for anything that might be worse than in the first game by having even cooler presentation, with a stronger storyline featuring everyone's favourite grumpy hedgehog Shadow and better cutscenes, more banger music, and going right up into space for the supersonic finale. So generally it's both better and worse than the first game, but hey, you live and learn. [4★]

43) Sonic Triple Trouble 16-bit (PC, 2022)

With the upcoming Sonic Superstars set to feature Fang for the first time since the original Triple Trouple, now's as good a time as any to check out the stellar fan remake that turns it into an awesome 16-bit style game mechanically rather similar to Sonic 3, like the more traditional Sonic 4 that we never got. It's a lovingly crafted game that perfectly re-imagines the zones from the original with much cleaner graphics and refreshed music accurate to the hardware it's trying to replicate, and more spectacular setpieces that give it a whole new burst of character, plus it's full of its own fun original gimmicks and surprises too. A full run of the game getting all Chaos Emeralds and defeating the incredibly cool true final boss won't take you very long, but if you're a fan of the classic games you're bound to enjoy the ride and want to replay it with the unlockable characters too. Definitely a really cool fangame that's worth checking out. [4.5★]

44) Pokémon Infinite Fusion V5.X (PC, 2022)

It's the Pokémon fangame that got all the content creators posting YouTube shorts of the funny things they made in it, and of course, it's easy to see why a game with a fusion gimmick would have so much mass appeal - it's a massive undertaking from the people working on the thousands of different sprites required, and the idea of fusing Pokémon together has been popular for over a decade at this point. And that's a gimmick that the game handles really well, every battle presents you with some new cute combination or hybrid abomination and you never know what's coming up next, plus you'll always be mixing and matching with your own stuff to see what happens and if you can make something completely overpowered (I recommend Shedinja + Absol for maximum cheese). Though, I'm not that big on the core adventure itself, because it's just Kanto again with some Johto and the Sevii Islands tacked onto it, along with more Pokémon of course, and the new story elements are just kind of whatever unfortunately. It's also an RPG Maker game, so there's some jank to be seen, but I'm used to that considering the other things I've played. So all in all, it's hard carried by the fusion mechanic, but at least it manages to nail that, and it's still being updated constantly with new sprites to check out. [3.5★]

45) Puzzle Bobble Everybubble! (Switch, 2023)

I don't feel much for this game, so I'll keep it short. I've only really dabbled in Puzzle Bobble once or twice, and so I figured I'd give this one a whirl, but it wasn't that good all things considered. Sure, it gets the core gameplay right, as it should, and the online multiplayer works pretty well, but what I found pretty annoying was the story mode - a lot of the levels are just stupid and a pain in the ass, at least for me, so maybe I'm not a hardcore Bobble-head after all. The characters are rather annoying too, but maybe that's just in this entry, who knows? If there are better iterations of this series then I'd be down to play those as well, I just didn't like this one that much outside of dicking around with non-story mode content, which was decent enough. [2.5★]

46) Nimona (Movie, 2023)

The once-cancelled Blue Sky adaptation of a comic from ND Stevenson, showrunner of that very queer She-Ra series, actually got rescued by Annapurna and actually came out this year, and boy am I glad it did, not least because of how poorly animation tends to get treated by so many of the large corporations. The movie is an incredibly fun and deeply heartfelt story of people society was all too keen to paint as monsters because of an authoritarian regime, and it's definitely pretty clear about its messages in a way that pretty much anyone can understand. It's also quite well-animated and put together really nicely, and although I have heard that it goes for a more family-friendly angle than the original comic did, it still manages to get everything across effectively and hit the right emotional beats, and it uses its runtime as well as one could expect from it. Also, I gotta say, this one's also very queer - the two most important male characters in the story are gay and get to kiss on-screen which is awesome, and I definitely get gender vibes from the titular Nimona, the awesome transforming girl who gets the most action in the movie. Maybe it's a good thing someone other than Disney released it, because I'm not sure how keen they are about gay people and anti-establishment messaging (this isn't even really a joke unfortunately). But anyway, this movie was awesome, and I hope we do see more projects like it. [4.5★]

47) Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (Switch, 2023)

Ghost Trick has always been one of those really cool and unique DS puzzle games that people have been demanding everyone play for years, and in this case it's easy to see why that's all they were saying about it (in a good way). The story of this game is frankly too good to spoil, with some pretty great twists and turns that it takes, and I highly doubt anyone will be able to predict quite how it ends because that truly blindsided me and I loved it. The excellent cast of characters kind of helped with that too, especially the best boy of all time Missile; it's just very well-written as a whole. Now in terms of gameplay it's no slouch either, delivering some honestly genius puzzles revolving around setting up Rube Goldberg-esque series of movements with various objects that you, a ghost, can take control to prevent people from dying. Some of these puzzles are real head-scratchers, but I think anyone can get through them with enough trial and error, and it is immensely satisfying when you do, so it's a damn good puzzle game. Also worth mentioning, though it goes without saying if you've seen the game before, is that it has a really slick visual style with character designs that pop, and an excellent soundtrack that is very much welcome. Genuinely an incredible game, and I think they should let Shu Takumi do more original projects if this is what he can cook up. [5★]

48-49) Azure Striker Gunvolt: Striker Pack (Switch, 2017)

Had to check out some of Inti Creates' flagship titles when I saw they were doing a Love Live game in a similar style, and yeah, this is a fun type of game that feels inspired by certain Mega Man spinoffs. Both games in this pack have cool run-and-gun gameplay where you can "tag" enemies do deal more damage to them, and of course you kind of have to balance that with avoiding taking damage yourself. Not a problem in the levels themselves, but taking on bosses is where it can get super tricky, especially towards the end of the first game which is just way harder than the rest for some reason (so the first game does seem to require grinding for levels and equipment). So the core gamplay is something I quite like, but I'm not a fan of how it often presents the story as text boxes appearing during the action where you're not going to be paying attention to them because you're busy, and honestly I don't much care for the story and characters anyway (and honestly why are there so many little girls in these games, they even turn characters into them in the second one). I do also enjoy the little gimmick of having straight-up idol music playing at certain times when you're powered up, and the music is just kinda good in general, so there is that. Decently fun games overall, there's not that much left to say about them. [3.5★]

Finally, I'm done catching up on this, future entries will just have their own posts. Hope you enjoy these poorly-made stream-of-consciousness mini-reviews!

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#scrunkore media 2023 #miitopia #super mario #zelda #sonic #pokemon infinite fusion #puzzle bobble #nimona #ghost trick #azure striker gunvolt