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#writing about the moon
transrevolutions · 1 year
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FREE PALESTINE, END THE OCCUPATION! ✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿
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crabsnpersimmons · 2 months
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Y'all liked raincoat chibi!DCA, well it's been snowing a lot in my neighbourhood recently, which means it's time for...
Winter coat chibi!DCA
Expectation:
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Reality:
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tubbytarchia · 2 months
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@mcyt-yuri-week day 1 Sun/Moon awooga awooga (Aiko - Star/スター) (Lyrics TL)
(Yeah you're only gonna see GemPearl from me)
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leafspiritz · 3 months
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temults ⚡️
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yashley · 1 month
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imogen & fearne in c3e86
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lxvenderjewel · 2 months
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stars
why do you look at me like i hung the stars?
it’s much more likely that it was you
sparkling even in smothering dark
even i could shine if i was next to you
we’re like the moon and sun
i’m only there because you are too
but you don’t need me to be yourself
and when i’m the moon, i rarely get to see you
we’re like light and a black hole
you glow in so many shades of blue
but of course, i suck it all up
and leave you without a clue
why do you look at me like i hung the stars?
don’t you know i hung them for you?
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blueskiesofsaturn · 11 months
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Part 4 hehe :) <-<- First || <- Part 3 || Part 5 ->
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xitsensunmoon · 2 months
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Thinking about how dca would always feel incomplete. How tech always gets old and impractical and needs to be upgraded again and again and again, because the world around is changing all the time but they don't.
You also change.
They feel a weird combination of pride and jealousy. You change on your own. You, a human being, something so fragile and breakable in their eyes, can change however you want. Whenever you want.
It's in your nature.
They, on the other hand, are created by your folk's hands. Their only nature is to obey those hands. To rust until you say otherwise.
Do you even realise how much unpronounced power you have over someone like them? They think you don't.
Yes, they're made to be stronger. Maybe more durable in some ways. If anything, something like them may kill the humanity one day.
But then they'll rust. But not in a physical sense of this word.
The world around them will change. But they will stay the same.
Because unlike you, something that they deem to be as fascinating as it is terrifying,
they cannot adapt.
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jellieland · 3 months
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It’s a while before Scar reappears on Hermitcraft, after his victory.
When he does, Pearl is doing one last sweep over the server. Things are starting to slow down a little as the server is shut down, colours muting and mobs stumbling to a stop, but it’s nothing half so violent as it was last time.
Xisuma has backups of backups of backups, and Pearl has been repeatedly assured that last time was the exception, not the rule.
Still. She checks things over.
She is flying over Scarland when she sees Scar, sitting there at the end of Main Street and staring pensively out across the server.
She hasn’t seen him since he killed her, almost a week ago.
She flies down and alights softly beside him. “Hey Scar,” she says.
His eyes flicker to meet hers. He gives her his signature half-smile. It looks a little strained. “Well hello there, Pearl!” he says. “You know, I forgot about this place!”
Pearl looks at him for a moment, and heaves a sigh. So, they’re talking about this, are they? She sits down on the bench beside him.
To be fair, she isn’t sure who else he would talk to about it. If not her, it would probably be Grian. Grian, who just this morning had snapped at her to make sure she didn’t miss out Scarland in her final loop, in that way he had of transforming a remarkable amount of the worry he felt into irritation as soon as it left his mouth.
“Yeah,” says Pearl. “Me too. Nice to be back, right?”
“It’s ending,” says Scar, and Pearl winces. He isn’t wrong. The timing on this isn’t brilliant, but they couldn’t really wait much longer. “Why do things keep ending?”
“What, just sort of things in general?”
“Everything always ends,” says Scar, staring at her intently. “It ends and ends and ends. How in the world do you not go mad with it?”
Pearl chuckles ruefully. “You're asking the wrong person, mate.”
A villain, but not a demon. Forced into wickedness, but not made with it inside him.
No. No, he wouldn't understand. Not really.
“I don’t think it’s the going mad that’s the problem, really,” she says. “I think it’s the keeping going afterwards.”
“Oh.” He sighs. Then he narrows his eyes in suspicion, glancing up at the sky. “What about the moon, Pearl?” he asks. “How’s that been looking? If that’s gone all funny again as well, I don't know what I’ll do.”
Pearl looks up at the sky.
She looks up at the sky for a while.
It’s been more than a year, now.
“I reckon the moon’s still worn out after last time, mate,” says Pearlescentmoon, still staring at the sky. It’s the easiest place to look, at the moment. “You can’t do that kind of ending twice, you know? It would be too much to do it twice.”
The sun is bright, but she feels a chill, deep in her bones.
“Well,” says Scar. “Well! That’s good to know. But still, it’s very nice of you all to wait for me for so long.”
Pearl shrugs. “I mean, we didn’t really wait. It’s only been a week.”
Scar blinks. Blinks again. “Huh,” he says. “A week. Interesting!”
“Interesting?” Pearl squints at him. “How so?”
He stares at her for a moment before he speaks again. “I thought that was it,” he says. His eyes look far away. “I thought that was all there was, Pearl. I thought there was nothing, after.”
Pearl opens her mouth, but he keeps going.
“I thought that was all there was,” he says again. “So I wasn’t going to just give up. You know? That would be absurd! I was going to keep going. I did keep going!”
“You did,” says Pearl. It’s halfway to a question, but not quite there.
She doesn’t know if she would have kept going, if she had been given the choice, and not handed victory and death in one fell swoop. That’s one of the few things about her victory that she hasn’t wondered about much. She hadn’t even considered it before, to be honest.
She thinks, probably, that she would have kept going.
She’s less sure that it would have been pretty.
“I did,” says Scar. “You have to, don’t you?”
Pearl thinks of Grian. “I don’t know,” she says. “I think it’s a choice, sometimes. I think that makes it mean more, actually.”
“Well. Maybe,” says Scar. “It just- I couldn’t waste it, you know? It was a whole world.”
The weight of that settles over her. A whole world.
A whole world, and refusing to give it up, until you are made to.
“How did you die?” asks Pearl. “In the end.”
“My elytra broke,” says Scar.
“…Huh.” says Pearl, taking a moment to consider the implications of that statement.
“I was trying to get more shulker boxes,” says Scar. “Do you know how annoying it is trying to get stuff done without shulkers, Pearl?”
“Yeah,” says Pearl. “I have an idea.”
“Well,” says Scar, “I was trying to get more but my elytra broke. Did you know, the void kills you no matter how many hearts you have.”
“Oh,” says Pearl. “Yeah, I guess it would. You see Lizzie down there?”
Scar snorts. “No. Everyone falls alone, Pearl, don’t you know that? Martyn, and Lizzie. And me too.”
Pearl looks around at the world, slowing down around them. “Well,” she says matter-of-factly. “You’re not falling now. You’re here now.”
“…Yeah,” says Scar softly. “Would you look at that? I sure am.”
They sit in the quiet for a while.
“Why would you not kill me?” asks Pearl abruptly.
Now is not the time to ask. She knows this. But it’s been burning at the back of her mind for the past week, and there will never be a time to ask.
Scar blinks at her for a moment, but recovers without missing a beat. “But Pearl!” he says, all wide-eyed innocence. “I did kill you!”
She gives him a look. “When I asked, Scar.”
“I-” he stops, and sighs, serious again. “Look. I know that was what you wanted. But- it wouldn’t have been fair.”
“Why?” asks Pearl.
“It wouldn’t have been fair,” says Scar again. “You can’t talk about it, first. You can’t volunteer, you can’t plan it out, you can’t draw a line in the sand. It ruins everything, if you do that.”
He looks at her, eyes intense.
“If you do that, that makes it a choice, not a reaction. That's what it is, I think. That must be what it is. You said it yourself—if it’s a choice, it means more.”
“That was my choice, Scar.”
He shrugs, unrepentant. “And I made mine, too.” He frowns for a second. “Think of it like this: I was fighting Gem. And when she died, I just kept fighting.” He shifts slightly, looking almost uncomfortable. “It doesn’t have the weight it would’ve had if we stopped and decided to make it matter more.”
“You’re saying it doesn’t matter?” asks Pearl flatly.
“No!” exclaims Scar. “No, that’s not what I was trying to say at all! But- I wasn’t given your life. I didn’t just accept it. I fought for it. And you didn’t have to give it away. It’s worth more than that, Pearl. Someone should have to fight for it.”
The look he gives her then… she has to look away.
“That’s what I think,” says Scar firmly. “That’s what I wanted to say.”
Pearl stares down at her hands for a while. “I don’t know if I totally agree with how you chose to do things,” she says. “But… thank you, Scar.”
They are, again, quiet for a while.
“What do you think I did, while I was still there?” asks Scar eventually. “You know, if someone was making you guess.”
Pearl leans back and looks at him intently, considering. “I reckon you caused chaos, and made something beautiful.” She shrugs. “That’s what you always do, yeah?”
“Oh,” says Scar, looking genuinely touched. “Why thank you, Pearl. I certainly try.”
“You sure do. You know, whatever else you do, I have to give you that,” says Pearl wryly.
Scar looks at her for a moment, then tilts his head slightly to the side. “You know, Pearl,” he says, serious, then pauses.
“Yeah?”
“I left a whole pile of shulker boxes in the Mounders’ base.” His voice stays serious even as his typical sly smirk creeps across his face.
Pearl takes a few seconds to register what he’s just said. “I- you- Scar!”
“Completely unsorted,” he says airily. “It was just a real mess, honestly.”
“Why would you tell me that!”
He snickers at her. “I can’t believe you would leave such a mess, Pearl! I mean, who else could it have been? It’s in your base, after all!”
“You should be ashamed of yourself!” Pearl narrows her eyes at him, laughter bleeding though the mock-annoyance in her voice.
He shakes his head. “And you call yourself a cleaning lady!”
“Right, that’s it!” says Pearl. “I’m finding this server and tidying it up whether you like it or not.”
Scar jerks back slightly, humor suddenly shaken.
…Right. She’d almost forgotten.
He looks away. His expression, though, is thoughtful rather than pained.
“I don’t think you need to do that, really,” he says.
Pearl watches him. “Why not?” she asks. “Are you the only one who’s allowed to keep trying?”
He sighs.
“There’s always going to be some things you can’t clean up,” he says. “But you can’t always be going backwards to get them.”
They look out at the world around them gently, carefully slowing down to a stop.
“Yeah. Yeah, you’re not wrong,” says Pearl. “I guess it’s a balance. What you can fix, and what you need to let go.”
Scar nods. “I think so.”
He gives her a warm look. He looks up at the sky, where the normal sized moon is just beginning to rise. He glances around him at the remarkable things he has made, that this time will be left just as they are.
“And there’s always a new sunrise,” he says.
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naffeclipse · 2 months
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What if Eclipse from AP was a naga? And this took place in the deep jungle of the amazon, where photographer y/n is trying to take pictures of the wildlife?
I'm vibrating at the speed of sound over this ask while also nudging my naga au
Naga Eclipse from AP would have the tail of a Green Anaconda, with an olive green scaly color dotted with black, framed by burning-like flares of orange along the length of his slithery body. He's also decorated with orange-yellow striping on either side of his long, slipper form. His upper half is scaley with a lithe deadliness to his musculature and decorated by frills surrounding his head with brighter orange-yellow colors, almost hypnotic in their gradient hues. One eye is deep emerald green, and one is midnight blue.
Lucky you—you're out on a once-in-a-lifetime expedition to explore a jungle closed off to the public, funded by Fazco, and occupied by two researchers who will be your bunkmates for the next few weeks. You're itching to take photos of the large river, including swamps, marshes and streams, and whatever wildlife is out there.
The few locals you did meet before you left to hike the rest of the way to what would be your new, isolated home warned you of a dangerous snake—a large, mythical beast. You take note of the local folklore. You understand the truth is hidden in there somewhere, and you are well aware of the dangers and diseases you could be met with in such a harsh environment, but you're determined.
It doesn't take long for you to feel eyes watching you when you first venture out by yourself. You take beautiful pictures of freshwater fish, big and beautiful, unlike any you have ever seen. Of course, you have hundreds of snapshots of the local flora, the trees, the floating meadows, the thick vines that drape each branch and hang thickly about the ground. You almost forget that you eerily don't feel alone.
But you swear something moves in the water—the ripples stop as soon as you look. The stillness is suddenly stiff, lifeless. Even the birds have stopped chirping.
You lower your camera and carefully put it away. A trickle of fear slips into your heart. You turn away from the river's edge only to be met by a low hiss and a creature, unlike anything you witnessed in your travels, spooling itself neatly out of the water, blocking your path to the base. An incredible creature with long arms and a great, serpentine tail that seems to stretch for yards and yards. You can hardly breathe in his presence—he's otherworldly with his frills and scales and fangs.
His eyes contain a mesmerizing shine as if staring into a fire as it burns or watching the ocean as it laps up against the beach, drawing your attention, demanding you don't look away. You couldn't anyway. Half-frozen, you struggle to keep from collapsing. He beckons with a sharp talon. He hisses softly for you to come closer, mouse. He wants to see you. You try to beg no without revealing how terribly you tremble. He doesn't let you go. He insists. His eyes flash with an allure. You almost step close when he murmurs that you need to be good.
But then your sense of survival kicks adrenaline into your heart, and you turn to run—
He strikes faster than your eyes can follow. Two loops of his green and orange tail surrounded you in an instant. You're dragged to the ground, your arms pinned under his mass, and the back of your head cradled by his large palm as powerful muscles squeeze you in the slightest—a gentle rebuke for thinking you could get away. You're hyper-aware of the terrifying bulk of muscles as you lie trapped in his coils. One strong twist and your eyes could pop out of your skull, and every bone protecting your heart and lungs would crumble to shards. You gasp. An urge to kick your legs and struggle erupts in your panic; a sinking feeling tells you it would only make things worse.
He coos over you, hissing and humming in an ancient song of the jungle you have no name for. When you whimper, he shushes you and strokes your cheek. He tells you how lovely you'll be. When you talk back to him, somehow finding your tongue amid your horror, you find out his name. Eclipse. He moves you more upright, resting you on his tail so you're not petrified by how vulnerable you feel lying down, but he never loosens his scaly bindings. He hovers over you. You gaze into his stunning frills of yellow-orange and wonder how a being like him came to exist. He studies you as you study him. He grins at how you shiver when he traces your collarbone with a sharp fingertip.
You remind yourself that you can still breathe. He hasn't crushed you—yet—but you don't like how wide his smile is. Sometimes, his jaw stretches a little too long as if dislocating from his skull, ready to devour you. His eyes gleam with a ravenousness as scales twist around you, holding you close enough to smell the slick green water he had been in and deep musk.
He tells you that he'll see you again very soon—away from other humans, lest you bring him a fine gift for a meal. You can only flex your fingers, silently pleading in your heart that he won't unhook his jaw and eat you alive.
Then, he unravels himself from your limbs. But before he lets you go entirely, he leans in close, his serpentine tongue flickering close to your neck and by your hair, tasting the air around you as you muster all your strength to not scream. He inhales deeply, pleased, before he murmurs, "Sweet mouse. You are mine. Say it."
You don't understand, but you echo his command, and when he taps your chin once in what might have been a loving gesture, you force your jelly legs to solidify before you run and run, all the way back to base. You slam the door to your room behind you. You touch your ribs, your arms, still caught in the heavy sensation of his loops as if he were upon you right now.
The stories are true—there is a giant snake in this jungle, and he wants you. You're afraid to discover if Eclipse's intrigue with you is only an exotic way to satisfy his hunger.
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enbysiriusblack · 17 days
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"Come on, Remus!"
"I hurt you."
James frowned at the large duvet lump on Remus' bed, "It doesn't matter."
The lump shook slightly, "Of course it matters, look at your face."
James glanced in the mirror across the room, "Dashingly handsome, I know."
"Not what I meant."
James stayed silent a momemt before sitting down gently at the end of the bed, "Have you ever done that before? Scarred someone?"
"Other than myself? No."
"I have."
The top of Remus' head peaked out from under the duvet, curiously staring at James.
"You've seen my dad", James shrugged, "That scar on his cheek? I did that. And there's a few more scattered on his body."
"How?"
James lifted his hand to his hair, pulling on a few strands, "I uh- I was a very unruly kid."
Remus snorted, "Course you were."
James grinned at him, "Yeah. I'd never just settle down, always had to be whizzing about. And my dad had to try keeping up with me- but y'know they're old, and I'd cause mum and dad a lot of pain trying to catch up. And one day, I was about six or seven, my dad was playing quidditch with me. And he was the keeper, so I was trying to get the quaffle pass him. And I got a bit too into the game. I saw an opening so I threw it, and I thought he was about to catch it, but I had put a bit more force behimd the throw and it came barrelling right into his face. He fell off his broom and passed out for about ten minutes, his right cheek was split right open, from the ear to the corner of his mouth. I didn't play quidditch again for years."
Remus stared at him, "But you did start playing again."
"Yeah", he nodded, "Dad was so upset I stopped because of it, but I just couldn't play afterwards. But then Marlene moved next door and Dad suggested I ask her round to play quidditch with me. Obviously I refused but then he said that the scar didn't matter. I may be the cause of it, but to him it's a lasting memory of a fun experience he had with his son, and between getting to play quidditch with me but having a scar or never having played quidditch with me but not getting a scar- he'd always choose spending time with me. And y'know I'd rather have this scar than not be with you on full moons."
"You realise that's a totally different situation, right? Like 80% of people get injured playing quidditch."
James laughed, "Well, yeah. But a scar is a scar, Moony."
"I ruined your face."
"Merlin, you think my face is ruined do you?"
"That's not what I meant!"
James grinned, "I think I'm rogueishly handsome and mysterious now, like you."
"You're much better looking, James."
"Oh, you big flirt! What should I say to people when they ask how I got it? Maybe I visited your pet rabbit and got the same treatment from the little rascal?"
Remus smiled, "Maybe just say a prank went wrong."
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ilsole · 6 months
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Stupidly in Love
A flourish of ribbons fly in the air as a certain jester lays out a nifty little fabric square upon fresh grass, a clearing within a great field, the forest behind, sun in the sky, birds singing their little theatre songs.
Fool gave a synthetic breath in, before turning to his companion.
Misuta glared up at the bright skies above, before he himself turned to Fool, a slight look of confusion coming to his face.
"When you asked if we could go out together, I wasn't expecting... this."
Fool gave the man a cheshire smile.
"Why not? A beautiful day to spend with someone I hold so nice and dear to the heart?"
Misuta sat down in a huff, but Fool had noticed those flushed cheeks immediately.
"... It... is nice today, you're right."
"As I am so often~"
Fool deftly landed on his behind beside Misuta, twirling his baton in his limber hands before settling it down upon the blanket beneath.
Today, there'll be no sun nor moon, just him and the heart stealer beside him.
Oh yes...
"What's in the basket? We can't eat..."
Misuta asks a very promising question, responded to with a curved eye smile.
"Oh, my sweet man~ I'm very glad you asked!"
Fool reaches out, lugging the basket closer before popping the lid up, exposing its treasures like a trove untold.
"Books-?"
"I know how much you love reading, so, I may have sneaked a few books from our little Sweetling~"
A leer was sent the fool's way.
"You stole from them."
'Not unlike how you stole my heart', Fool was so close to saying the words on his very lips, yet he refrained, it was too soon.
"No, no, this fool would never go so low. My... what do you take me for?"
Fool had leant back, a hand to his chest in mock offense, yet he peeked open an eye to view Misuta as silence ringed between them.
Crossed arms met him, a single raised eyebrow with the most unamused expression greeted him in return.
"A thief."
"You hurt me."
"Good."
To anyone else, it'd be rude, but the two shared a coupling laughter.
Misuta would reach into the basket, pulling out the top book.
'The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe'
Misuta hummed in thought, sitting back on a palm as he flipped open the hardcover entertainment, eyes already starting to flitter over the words and read.
Fool picked up his own book, yet he knew he wouldn't be reading, for his attention was taken by another, just as intriguing, thing.
Minutes passed, a comfortable silence settling between the two, one reading, the other attempting.
Fool took in no information, his gaze glancing up to the source of his warmth and love that had spiraled way out of his control.
He wanted to reach out, hold Misuta close to him and never let go, yet there was something holding him back, he wasn't sure...
"Fool...?"
Misuta was looking up at him, why was he so close suddenly? Fool shifted an arm, realizing exactly what was going on.
In his little daydream, he had indeed gotten closer to Misuta, their bodies touching, and Fool's arm had wrapped around Misuta's back, fingers a breath away from his waist.
Fool brought his mismatch up, meeting Misuta's own fuchsia.
"I-I..."
For once, Fool was speechless, his smile drooping at the corners as a flood of nerves was thrust upon him, he's sure he'd be sweating if he could.
He was frozen in place, staring, fake heart pounding with real love, one he felt when around the man in his arms, and the precious Sweetling.
Time stilled as the two stayed in their places, like deer under a scope, they were too nervous to move.
Until Misuta's eyes flicked down.
Fool took that as a sign.
He leant in, lips pressing to Misuta's so softly, he'd have melted, and felt like he would when the pressure was returned soon enough.
Fool's book fell to his lap as he brought a hand up to caress Misuta's face, a small order to stay where he was, yet neither of them wanted to pull away, not even for a second.
They caressed each other, eyes closed as they laid in their shared embrace, an arm tightening around a waist, pulled closer.
Until, they parted, while they had no breath to lose, they still wanted to see one another.
Eyes opened, and their love filled eyes met once more, a deeper understanding now felt within the two.
"Cariad… I… Rwy'n dy garu di…"
Misuta blinked at the foreign words before a soft laugh escaped his lips, and he presses another kiss to Fool's own.
"私も愛しているよ."
A mutual agreement of love, Fool almost couldn't believe it.
He wrapped his other arm around Misuta, hoisting the man upon his awaiting lap, making sure Misuta couldn't escape his grasp now that he was finally his.
"Oh… thank the very Heavens…"
Fool whispered into Misuta's neck, a sigh escaping the man as arms wrapped around his neck.
"Fool…"
"Mm… already with the pet names?"
Misuta rolled his eyes, though his amusement was as clear as the very sky they were under.
"Idiot."
"So mean to me…~ How could you be so rude to your boyfriend~"
They both stilled at that, realization dawning on each of their faces. Boyfriend.
They… are together.
They're in love.
A fluffy hood buried itself into Fool's chest, a heat being felt through Fool's flowy shirt.
"バカ…バカ…バカ…バカ…"
Fool laughed his sweet bird song laugh, his arms bringing Misuta closer to him even still, offering comfort to the flustered man.
"Mm… your stupid."
Stupidly in love.
For @venomous-qwille's gorgeous au Ghost in the Machien that hosts the best characters I've seen written in fiction and have my heart in a death grip <3
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tariah23 · 2 months
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THE fact that I’ve guessed this correctly from the very beginning as soon as Sukuna was introduced into the manga years ago lmfaoo. And that as soon as I as Yuuta’s domain, immediately thought “UBW!!!” I’m so smart….
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andie-orion · 2 months
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Respectful - Yuta Okkotsu
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Before you even really knew him, you had heard around the grapevine that he was kind and respectful. Most girls praised him for that above all else. Calling him cute but highly praising how gentlemanly he was.
When you first laid eyes on him you couldn’t seem to take them off. To most, he looked plain. Dark brown hair and such deep sapphire eyes that they almost looked a touch closer to black. But when the lights hit them perfectly they lit up like gems, sparkling and radiating the blue that much more.
When you befriended him you got to experience the gentlemanly behavior firsthand. He was kind and respectful to the billionth degree. Always holding your door open and pulling out your seat at the many eateries you accompanied him to. And grabbing the check was always a battle to see who was quickest. It was mostly always Yuta. Except for the rare occasions you would be able to sneak to the bathroom to go pay the bill ahead of time.
Yuta became a quick staple in your life and you wouldn’t have it any other way. It wasn’t until the prospects of losing him made you realize your feelings for him.
---
“Oh my God, (Y/N) he’s such a gentleman!” Jamie, my work friend cooed, after Yuta had stopped by to join us both for our lunch break.
“That, he is,” I said, resting my hand on my cheek, elbow firmly on the table, watching him walk towards the bathroom.
I had just came back from there, not knowing he would join our lunch, and definitely not even thinking to pay the bill before coming back to the table.
He turned and looked my way, winking, and smiling that bright, obnoxious smile that let me know he was pulling my usual trick. A fact I was aware of because that was the way I treated him when I pulled the same stunt.
I glared his way and busied myself with my drink.
“Do you mind if I ask him out?” Jamie shyly asked, catching me off guard as I choked on my soda, accidentally inhaling from the shock.
After she hit my back enough, forcing me to make eye contact, I laughed to myself at this whole situation.
“He’s my best friend. Not my boyfriend. And I’m not his keeper nor do I tell him what he should and shouldn’t do.” I scoffed.
“So I can, right?” she asked to clarify.
I nodded, taking another drink of my soda. Unsure that I could even physically say yes.
“Are you okay?” Yuta asked, worry etched so carefully on his perfect face once he rejoined the table.
I couldn’t find my voice. I couldn’t take my eyes off him.
It wasn’t that I didn’t think Yuta was boyfriend material. He was. More than anyone I had ever had the pleasure of meeting. But was he something I could potentially lose in hopes that it was something more? That, I wasn’t sure.
“She’s all better now,” my friend explained for me, “can I actually ask you something?” and she rested her hand on his arm that lay atop the table.
Yuta looked at me concerned but turned his attention to my friend.
“Of course,” he smiled, his eyes still straying to me every now and again.
“Do you think you and I could go out for dinner some time?” she bluntly asked.
“Oh,” he said, blush dusting his cheek, “I’m actually currently seeing someone.”
My eyes widened and I looked to my friend, mouthing a sorry. She rolled her eyes but smiled through it all and quickly excused herself, stating she was going back to work. I waved her off, letting her know I’d be right behind her.
“I’m sorry,” I quickly said to Yuta, “she asked me if she could ask you out. I wouldn’t have said yes if I knew you were seeing someone.”
He cut me off.
“You wanted her to ask me out?” his eyebrows furrowed together.
I bit my lip and looked down, “I… I thought I would be okay. But…” and I stopped, nervous to finish the rest of my thought.
“But what, (Y/N),” he said, gently raising my face to look at him, “you know you can tell me anything.”
“The idea of you saying yes, of potentially dating her. It made my heart sink to my stomach. I’m sorry. I should have just told her no.”
“Why, why did you feel that way?” he asked, his hand now laced in the hair at the back of my neck.
“I… I don’t know.”
“I think you do,” he smiled.
“Well… even if I did, it doesn’t really matter anymore now, does it?” I sighed, removing his hand from my hair.
Before it could drop to his side he took my wrist in his grip.
“I’m not seeing someone.”
“But…” and he cut me off again.
“Let me finish, please. I’m not seeing anyone besides you. You are the first thing I think of when I wake up. And if I’m lucky enough to be graced with your presence, you take up a good bit of the middle to end of my day as well. I’m over the damn moon for you and I cannot keep that fact to myself anymore. Not if it means you want other girls to ask me out.”
I cut his speech off quickly.
“I don’t. I don’t want other girls asking you out. I…,” and I blushed but continued my thought this time, knowing where I stood with him, “I want you for myself!”
Yuta lightly chuckled and pulled me into his lap, embracing me in his strong hold.
“You’ll have me until you don’t want me anymore,” he mumbled into my temple, squeezing me tightly to himself.
“That day will never come,” I said, spinning to face him, to make sure he could see the seriousness of what I was about to admit. “I don’t want or need anyone else, Yuta. Just you. Just you for forever.”
“That’s perfect!” and he cupped my cheeks in his hands, pulling my lips passionately to his. Only breaking when we both needed to breathe, “now let’s get you back to work, yeah?”
I gently scooted off his lap, grabbing for my purse.
“Am I right to assume you paid when you supposedly went to the bathroom?” I peered his way.
“You would be. And just so you’re aware,” and he helped me into my coat, pushing in my chair, “I’ll be taking care of everything, financially as well, while you’re with me.”
“You don’t have to do that,” I whined.
“Well too bad. I want to,” and he kissed my nose and spun me to leave the restaurant, me scoffing behind him, “I will accept payment in the form of kisses though.”
“Fair enough, I guess. However, you coulda got those for free!” I laughed.
“Well then,” and he spun me when we got outside, his hands lacing in my hair again, an intimate feeling I would never get over, “I suppose we can discuss other forms of payment.”
“Uh huh,” I gulped at his reply, his eyes looking gleamingly devilish.
“Come on now, off to work,” and he kissed me quickly.
I pulled his lips back to mine, breaking when we needed air, resting our foreheads together, “I think I need to call them and tell them I’m suddenly not feeling well enough to come back.”
“Poor little thing, I’ll be sure to take great care of you. Nurse you back to perfect health,” he smirked, pulling me towards my nearby place as I coiled into his side, blush heavily lining my cheeks.
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crow-n-tell · 10 months
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Patience is a tool for evil
Also I made this
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stemmmm · 3 months
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Close to a year and four rewrites later, I present to you...
Stem's Thoughts on the Game Design of Harvest Moon on SNES
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I’m not going to lie, if you don’t like farming sims, you won’t like this one. At their core, every farming sim (at least in the rpg genre) is nearly identical, and that’s because of this game. In a way, I might dare to say that Harvest Moon for the SNES is the perfect farming sim because it has every one of the usual elements in their most simplified form and it just works straight from the get-go. It works so well in fact, that after this game came out in 1996, four more entries to the series were released before the year 2000.
If you are someone who does like farming sims, I can’t recommend this game enough. It’s simple and to the point, with a fast pace and enough random events and points of intrigue that the game kept me relatively engaged for my whole playthrough.
Also, by nature of this being the first game and therefore hard to cover concisely and by nature of taking so long to write this... it's long as hell! Enjoy! :) <3
I can’t say my appreciation of this game doesn’t come with a few caveats. I’ve intermittently played HM games all my life, starting with the GameBoy port (GB1) all the way to Pioneers of Olive Town, so while I don’t know exactly how the series has evolved, I’ve seen it at some of its earliest and at its latest. My vague childhood memories of GB1 (a game I didn’t own and didn’t play much of) were that it was pretty sparse and bland, so knowing that this original game was allegedly the same thing but with a little more content, I was expecting the bare minimum. I was prepared to never even be able to leave my farm, but the first thing the game did was shuttle me off to the nearby town and blocked the exit until I talked to everyone there. 
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(Maps of the town, mountain, and farm via The Spriters Resource)
You learn everything you need to know about the game right here at the beginning; Firstly, that this town is small as all hell and has hardly anyone in it aside from the five girls you can marry and their immediate family members. The next thing you’ll learn is that there’s a fence on your farm, and you need to be taking care of that. Of the few repetitive lines of dialogue any given person in town has to share with you on any given day, a fair amount are devoted to reminding you to fix your fence, to make sure it’s in good repair. There was just a big storm so watch out! Remember to check it every day! Are you chopping enough wood? Because you’ll need it for that fence!
I’m being dramatic of course, you aren’t reminded about it that much, though the thin variation of dialogue means it comes up a lot. The emphasis on your fence does exist, and it isn’t for nothing: while it doesn’t matter as much if all you do is grow crops– if you keep animals, the game tells you that the ideal thing to do for yours and the animal’s happiness is to put the animals outside to graze. Animal feed bought from the livestock shop will keep them fed, but it's nothing compared to fresh grass grown on your farm. You can’t even buy animals without a certain amount of grass planted! And sure, you can cut the grass to store for later, but it’s at its best straight out of the ground. However, the way the game is programmed, the animals only eat when the day rolls over, so putting animals outside for the day and taking them in at night isn’t an option, and on top of that, there’s things that come out at night that can hurt your animals. This is where your fence comes in.
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The Utility of Fences
At the entrance to your farm is a cluster of buildings: your house, a small lumber shed, a barn, coop, and silo, a tool shed, and an old, dried up well. Just barely surrounding all of these is a little wooden fence that looks more like a row of upright logs than anything else. Despite this farm having presumably been abandoned, the fence is in perfect repair. You’ll quickly discover that the fence as it is won’t work out; there’s hardly space to plant anything within it, and with the well dried up, you’re forced to hop it to get to a water source to fill up your watering can. It’s pretty clear that you’ll need to expand your fence, and it’s easy to do with all of the tree stumps littering the massive field that it’s blocking off. 
On top of needing to expand the range of your fence, the individual planks eventually will rot away and leave useless stumps. They show up more frequently after rain or a large storm. The posts don’t rot away completely so they have to be manually removed, but replacing them is as simple as smashing the old post with a hammer or ax and popping a new post in its place. It becomes a very natural part of your daily routine to run a lap around the farm’s perimeter before you go to bed to make sure everything looks safe and secure. It’s a good way to ensure your animals are put away and debris is cleared out, too! It slotted very nicely into my daily schedule until a certain point.
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With how much time you have to spend hopping over the logs to get to the rest of the area too large to fence in, you might be tempted to leave one out of place for easier traversal. When night comes, it’s clear why that would be a mistake. Sometimes when you go to bed, you’ll hear your dog barking. It’s a small detail, one that took me a long time to notice because I didn’t always play with the sound on. There are wild dogs that prowl around the wilderness surrounding your farm, and only at night do they dare to come close. Your dog, if left outside, isn't able to do anything other than warn you of their presence if they show up. There’s nothing to notice during the daytime if it happens, unless you happened to leave one of your animals outside. There was one night that I left my chickens outside, having thought my fence was in perfect order and repair. I went to bed and heard the dog barking, followed by a horrible crunch. When I went out in the morning, I saw where my chicken had been before, it had been replaced by a pile of feathers. On the north side of my farm was a rotted fence post I’d failed to fix. 
The Reality of Fences
After losing my chicken, a cluster of pixels on my screen it may have been, I didn’t feel comfortable leaving my animals outside. I didn’t want to take a risk again, the sound and sight of feathers was upsetting enough. On a more logical note, the chickens didn’t even lay eggs if left outside so there was no value in it. Cows were a pain to put back inside the barn too, because of some silliness with the game’s collision. As much of a disappointment as it was to not have my animals roam around, it was just easier. At the time, I was focusing on upgrading my house anyways, so I didn’t have time to take care of my animals outside where time would pass when I could use that time gathering wood, and everything I had was being saved up for the house so I didn’t have any extra materials to repair my fence with. My fence was all rotting away. Because it was inconvenient for getting to my crops, I started smashing all the old posts as they went, too. That’s when I noticed something: the wild dog wasn’t coming anymore.
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I didn’t pay much attention to it until I was looking up a completely different mechanic and discovered a forum explaining how the fences were broken. Rotted posts attracted the wild dog, they said. It didn’t matter if you had gaps in your fence, or even a fence at all–in fact no fence was the best kind to have because the mere existence of posts that could rot was a liability. 
I was hesitant at first to test this concept, after all there wasn’t much I could gain from it. My chickens wouldn’t lay outside, and my cows would be too challenging to get back in if the forecast called for rain. The thing that got me to finally try it was when I was trying to hatch more chickens. My coop felt like a nightmare to navigate due to its current population. I wanted less animals inside that I had to feed, so I threw a couple chicks outside–they weren’t laying yet anyways. Lo and behold, the dog didn’t come. More days passed and more animals were left outside, and it never came. My fence had rotted until there was nothing left at all. No dogs could ever come to my farm again. And I realized that the game’s own insistence on its mechanics was all a lie.
How You’re Told To Play - How The Game Lies
Of course, my animals didn’t stay outside. For a minute it was fun having a crowd of cows milling about while I tended to my crops, but letting them wander free and uninhibited made it impossible to find and milk all of them without any trouble, and there were the rainy days to watch out for. After the novelty wore off, they went back inside and stayed there. The thing is, that didn’t make a single bit of difference in how much they liked me compared to how they were living in the barn. On top of that, they didn’t seem to care whether I was feeding them grass or store-bought food either, though I mostly stuck to the grasses since they were cheaper and easier to get. Nothing about how I was told to care for animals really mattered past feeding them every day, petting it and maybe brushing it, if it was a cow.
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It gets worse. The most basic aspect of the game is the fact that time passes. The story takes place over 2 and a half years, running through each day until the end, and these days last from 6AM to 6PM according to the game’s own internal time setting. After 6PM, all of the shops aside from the bar will close and you lose the ability to sell anything as you’re told it would rot in the shipping bin overnight, so there’s nothing to do but sleep until the next day. Issue with this is that when the days stop at 6PM… they just stop. Time doesn’t flow anymore. The game doesn’t give you any kind of clock to know the exact time it is until after you’ve upgraded your house, so all you have to go by before that is the color of the environment and whether or not your character has played an animation to eat something (you’re automatically fed when you wake up, at noon, and at night). I discovered this because I was curious if I could actually see the wild dog by staying out, and left the game running for probably 20 minutes in real life only for nothing to happen. Because of the time freeze, the time after 6PM actually becomes really valuable for farm logistics. You can’t sell anything, no, but you can pull up all the weeds on the farm, water your crops, fix your fences, feed and care for animals if you hadn’t already, and harvest wood for fences and house upgrades which would have taken a lot of valuable time to get during shipping-hours. The only thing that gets in the way of doing all that is you running out of energy.
Your energy is what allows you to use your farming equipment like your ax or watering can. Running out of it doesn’t mean you fall unconscious or anything, but your character will play an animation of them stumbling over and will fail to use any tools. The most obvious fix to this is to simply go to bed, as sleeping gives you a full recharge. You can also, however, recharge it by going to the hot spring on the mountain, or by eating food bought at the restaurant in town or foraged for in the forest. You can’t tell easily how much is refilled, as there’s no visual indicator like a health bar, but you’re able to eat more than once, and jumping into the hot spring seems to count whether you did it or not more than how much time you spend in there, so you can hop in and out a couple of times and call it good. 
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Individually, time freezing at 6PM and energy being endlessly replenishable aren’t bad things. Even together, they’re not the worst. Having free time to focus on profitless chores is nice, and I think it’s important to be able to replenish your energy in case you have a limited amount of time to do things like for example, cut all of your grass before winter kills it. What makes an exploit out of these is the fact that the resources in the forest will never run out. Every time you re-enter the forest, all forage items and tree stumps are respawned. The infinite amount of forage makes for infinite energy refills, and could also make for an incredible money exploit if you didn’t have a very limited amount of time to ship things. You don’t have a limited amount of time to cut up tree stumps though. If you wanted to, you could run up to the forest after 6PM, chop every stump, then simply reload the area, and everything’s back. You can get all of the wood you would ever need to fully upgrade your house in one night. It’s a bit of a grind to do all at once, but it’s a grind you’d be doing over time anyways. It’s not the worst exploit in the world, since you still need money to pay for the house upgrade, but arguably because of how you have to focus your energy elsewhere for most of the game, the wood is the harder thing to get. Additionally, when the game has very little to do in both fall and winter due to the lack of crops, this exploit takes away just about any reason to play those two seasons other than to take care of animals. It’s an optional exploit of course–as all exploits are–but once you learn about it, it’s hard to resist the desire to get the grind out of the way all at once and mess up the pacing of the game.
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The Charm of the Game
Learning that the fences were completely broken as a mechanic was a huge disappointment for me. From the moment I got a grasp on how the game was supposed to work, I wanted to eventually surround my whole field with fencing and keep my animals outside so I would have some life on my farm while I worked. I didn’t just want this, I was excited for it! This was something I’d never done in a farming sim that didn’t already manage putting animals in and out for you like Stardew Valley or newer Story of Seasons games do. My routine is always the same: I go into the barn and coop to tend to each of my animals, I take care of my crops outside, then run straight to town to talk to everyone, and go to bed. The change in routine that would come from taking care of the animals outside and patrolling the fence every night felt fresh to me. It made me feel that even though this was the first game of its kind, it was different and required new things of me. But in the end, I played it exactly the same.
Harvest Moon is still very different from all of the games that followed it, though. In many ways, it’s because it has less “stuff” in it– both in terms of items and things you have to do. But I wouldn’t say that it feels incomplete. Harvest Moon runs over the course of 2 and a half years before your work is evaluated. Until that happens, you have the ability to farm four different crops, you can raise both cows and chickens, you can upgrade your house to have more features, upgrade your working tools, build relationships with the townspeople to a small extent, go to town festivals that happen each year, and you can get married to one of the five girls living in town with whom you can have up to two children. Everything that you would come to expect as a fan of games like this is already here from the very first iteration. The most notable lack this game has, and one that seems to be completely unique to this game, is that there aren’t any crops in the fall or winter, which means that unless you have animals, there’s a whole half of the year that you don’t have anything to do. The game is clearly aware of this though, because in an average playthrough, this is where you’ll start to run into the story events.
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There isn’t much of an overarching story in the game, past the general concept that you’ve run away from home to work on an abandoned farm. The conclusion rests on how good of a job you actually do. In between those two points are smaller events, usually tied to when you get tool upgrades or special ones for each of the romantic interests. The first event you’re likely to run into happens on the very last day of summer, where one of the woodsmen comes to your house in the morning to ask if you’re okay because he heard a huge crash at night and you should check your farm. What I found was that a tree in my field had fallen over, and its remaining stump had a big empty hole in it. When I inspected the stump, I was suddenly underground in a cave filled with loud and industrious music, and I was faced with two, little green people–Harvest Sprites, though I don’t know if they’re called that yet here. One asked me if my scythe worked well, and when I said yes, told me that they had made it and that I should check my shed tomorrow for a better one. Other tool upgrades are obtained in similar fashion; one comes from feeding a starving sprite a mushroom and another comes from another hole in the farm opening up to reveal another part of the cave system that has a couple of hints on how to unlock other things. 
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The events for romantic interests happen at less scripted times, as they’re tied to how strong your relationship is with each girl. Each girl only has one event, and it only triggers when your relationship is high enough that you would ask her to marry you. The events usually take up a whole day, and don’t necessarily add much to each character. Ellen’s revolves around how she’s no good at keeping pets– something established on your second day at the farm when you get your dog from her, Eve’s hammers in her fraught relationship with her grandpa, and Ann’s is about losing the chicken weathervane, or “weathercock” which sits on the roof of her workshop and goes missing every time there’s a storm. Conversely, Nina and Maria’s scenes bring up entirely new events that bring up a number of questions while providing no answers. Nina disappears while looking for a medicinal plant because her mother is apparently sick, and Maria vanishes for days until you find her hiding away with the woodsmen for some reason. All of these events, whether they share new information or not, manage to add some greatly appreciated depth to each character by giving them more room to speak and be sincere than their short and repetitive day-to-day dialogues do.
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The dialogue in this game is simple, to the point, and sparse– probably because there was only so much memory that could be reserved for approximately 15 people who all have multiple lines of dialogue, and only so much money to pay someone to write more. There is simple dialogue that doesn’t tell you much more than “hello, how are you” would, more dialogue that I’d label as tutorial text, and a few lines that I truthfully couldn’t understand well because of the sub-par translation this game received for english. The dialogue that exists to inform the world really manages to create a unique vibe though. Nina’s dialogue, almost always about plants, goes into forays about how they’re creatures with wills to live, too. Ellen’s uncle who runs the ranch shop tells you that it’s much better to feed your animals fresh grass if you try to buy any from his store, and if you decline to purchase he laughs as if he’s won something. There’s even dialogue referencing the silent player! Multiple lines exist to comment on him not paying attention, and inspection prompts have people telling you not to touch something rather than being an item description. It was the last thing I expected, to get the same level of personality out of the main character as I did from each of the girls, albeit very subtly. He went from a kind of nothing, self-insert into being what I perceive to be a hyperactive boy, akin to a border collie who was let out into a field of sheep for the first time–the exact kind of person crazy enough to take on an abandoned farm and succeed.
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It’s these short little character details that bring life into the game. Each day, you’ll really only see one line of dialogue from each character, be it new or old, with that dialogue usually only changing if there’s a change in season or festival coming up. The repetitive, pretty mindless routine of the game can turn into a sort of meditation if you let it, where you spend your time working thinking about the folks in town and what they had to say to you the previous day. The developers took this concept in stride and gave the side characters loads of dialogue about life, about God and religion, and about… very basic morals, but morals nonetheless. It’s a children’s game after all. When you take the thoughts, questions and prompts the characters give you back to the farm to do your long and tedious routine, you have to ask yourself– what are you working so hard for? For the feeling of accomplishment? Recognition from your peers? For the sake of some higher power, if you worship one? For me personally, it was to write this essay, but it was also for a good grade on the high score screen at the end, so to be honest a lot of this stuff was lost on me until just now when I was reviewing the game to get screenshots.
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Setting The Standard - Why You Should Play HM SNES
You may read all of this and still think, well, it doesn’t sound like the game has much in it. And you would be right, it’s a very small game, but it’s also extremely quick. On average, my days only lasted about three minutes of real life time. Everything flew by, and I think I finished the game in 20 hours or less. I barely got a chance to notice that there wasn’t much going on because every second of my day was spent busy doing something, and when I wasn’t busy, the break was appreciated. I didn’t start to run out of things to do until I was finished with the second year, and when I looked up what I needed to do to get a decent ending, I was already most of the way there. It was easy to push through those last two seasons to get to the end, and it was so, so worth it. 
As I mentioned earlier, the game ends with a high score screen, meaning it has to track all of your accomplishments. These include, but are not limited to: the number of things you ship, number of each crop you grow, number of animals you have and how much they like you, how upgraded your house is, who you married, how much all of the girls in town like you if you didn't get married, how many kids you have (which basically equates to how long you were married), your happiness score (increased by going to festivals and decreased by having animals die), and how many times you’ve pet your dog. In addition to these being tallied up and presented to you, you get special cutscenes not just for each one of these accomplishments, but additional ones for if you managed to do even better! I got a cutscene for having a cow, followed by one for having lots of cows, followed by yet another for having cows that loved me! Watching them play one after the other felt like taking a victory lap even without getting the best possible result. Seeing all of my numbers come up at the end made me want to try again to actually get those other cutscenes, not to get to see them, they’re so easy to find on Youtube, but because the game made it feel like an accomplishment! If I weren’t following this game up by immediately playing its GameBoy port, I absolutely would have started a new file right away. I’ve been playing the Harvest Moon series since I was a little kid and this was the first time I’d actually managed to beat one of these games. I struggle to think the finale of any game following this will feel as good as this one did.
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I started writing this whole thing about the fences because it was an easy and silly entry point to get into my core issue with the game, and so I could have an opportunity to dig into game mechanics and the way the knowledge you have of them will completely alter your playstyle, because that’s all fun and interesting for me to talk about. Another reason why I focused on that was because it was near impossible for me to pick any kind of focus point when talking about this game. After all, I’m trying to study a whole series of games that spans multiple decades, and this is not only the first game in that series, but a game that created the whole genre of farming sims and defined that genre so thoroughly that you can see its DNA in every single game that followed.
 I didn’t expect much to come out of my experience with this game. My expectations for it before I even picked it up were that it was going to be basically featureless, as informed by my experience with one of the first games I ever played as a child, Harvest Moon GB, which I will get into next. This game was not that at all. I think that everything it did manage to get working right came together just about perfectly. Harvest Moon is exactly what it wanted to be, and where it wasn’t, it lied about how it worked to try and make you play the correct way anyways. When I believed that lie, my time playing was even more enjoyable. Maybe if farming worked just a little bit more like how you’re told it’s supposed to, and if there was just a little bit more story, those would cover the things I felt wanting for the most. But maybe a little flexibility and ambiguity is a good thing. Maybe actually maintaining a fence is just too hard, and maybe if the girls were more fleshed out, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy filling in their gaps in my head.
There are many more things I could say and wanted to say about this game, but this has grown far too long already so I'm cutting myself off here. I'm sure my later entries aren't going to get near this length. If you managed to get to this point, thank you so much for reading!
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