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#and there's consoles and games and gaming magazines and posters everywhere and a little TV that plays old game ads from that time
radellama · 3 years
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Seriously. What does it take to start up a museum?
#i want to make a video game history museum. it's my new dream jgsgjddgdgj#even just the thought of having a really good place to have archives available of everything I can get my hands on has me so excited#and maybe it'd be fun to keep it in current events by having local gaming companies (and anyone who wants to visit) to come give like#ted talks or showcase new things they're working on#and to be able to have events that host people studying gaming in whatever capacity... see what cool ideas they have..#and just to have this beautiful gallery filled with gaming history...#imagine like.. display rooms that are themed around certain times and it's like a kids bedroom in the 90s#and there's consoles and games and gaming magazines and posters everywhere and a little TV that plays old game ads from that time#and just to have an official and clear space to celebrate gaming so everyone can see the history and appreciate it#i could use my film degree to make nice informational videos and mini doco series on gaming and they'd all be available to the public#i can dream...#like augh how fun would it be to have a team of people who are equally passionate about gaming helping to set this up#imagine your job being like. PlayStation specialist lol#i dream of having those cool interactive displays where you can see a console pulled apart and it's labelled nicely#so you can see how everything works#and there's cool info on every game we can get#imagine you get a little ticket at the start and it's got some random game and you go find it and pick up some nice trivia for it#imagine walls of games lining hallways and you can literally walk through the history of a company's gaming history#AUGH ID JUST LIKE TO HAVE A REALLY COOL GAMING MUSEUM TO TAKE CARE OF SO I CAN SHARE IT#AND KNOW THAT I'VE DONE ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING I CAN WITH PEOPLE WHO KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING TO PRESERVE GAMING HISTORY
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auroraphilealis · 6 years
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Metamorphosis (7/10)
Metamorphosis (7/10) | Once upon a time, Dan Howell and Phil Lester were best friends. They did everything together, from hanging out at each other’s house, to sitting next to each other at school - but one day, Dan was torn away from Phil by none other than Phil himself. Five years on, and Dan still doesn’t know why his best friend threw Dan away. Was it the fault of the bullies who relentlessly picked on Phil, or was it Dan himself? Dan just didn’t know. So when a chance to protect Phil and get his best friend back arises, Dan jumps on it in a heartbeat, and uses his own confidence to boost Phil’s just enough to make the bullies back away. | Phan | Teen and Up | High School AU, Bullying, Getting Together, Make Over Fic, Kissing Booth, Kissing Lessons | 2,705 Words this chapter Disclaimer: In no way do I pretend that this is real or cast aspersions on Dan or Phil.
Thanks again to my beta etoilesdephan for her wonderful help editing this fic <33
(Ao3) (Previous)
Chapter Seven
Walking into Phil’s home again after five years of not being allowed inside was interesting, to say the least. Dan hadn’t quite been able to even hope for this day to come again, and yet here he was. Everything was just as Dan had remembered it too; the mahogany bannister of the stairway sleek and polished by a caring mother just across the way from the front hallway, the orderly, bright colors of the family room with the same purple loveseat and couch combo Dan had spent far too many nights playing board games with the Lester’s on, and the pleasant hum of a mother who worked from home on the best of days baking cookies in the kitchen.
The whole experience was surreal, and felt like coming home.
“Philip, is that you?” Mrs. Lester called from the other room. The sound of her voice sent happy tingles up Dan’s spine, and he practically vibrated in place as Phil toed off his shoes and tossed a happy grin Dan’s way. He seemed just as happy as Dan to finally have Dan back in his house, and that was enough to make Dan want to break down into tears. This was finally happening; he was finally getting Phil back.
“Yeah, mum, it’s me. Dan’s here too, if that’s okay?” Phil shouted back, for the first time all day raising his voice and speaking normally. He was safe here, that was undoubtedly true, and he radiated with a spirit Dan hadn’t properly seen in five years, not even that afternoon.
Home was true haven for Phil, always had been. The Lester’s were the most supportive, warm family that Dan had ever known, all a little strange and quirky, and raising their son to love himself above all else. It had always been too bad the outside world was so much crueler than them.
The kitchen went suddenly quiet and still at Phil’s question. The humming from earlier had stopped, and there was no gentle pottering around of someone fiddling with dishes and pans. For all of a second, Dan worried that he wouldn’t be welcome here, that somehow, over the course of the last five years, the Lester’s had come to resent Dan, but then, quite suddenly, Mrs. Lester came rushing out of the kitchen with a look of absolute stunned surprise on her face, and her lips quirked up in a half grin.
“Daniel?” she asked as she took in his presence at Phil’s side, their hands still slotted together innocently. Her gaze drank him in, and she blinked rapidly a few times like she couldn’t quite believe her eyes.
Then, her gaze seemed to catch onto Phil’s new appearance, sans glasses and with black hair, and she absolutely gasped, hand rising to her breast as if to still her suddenly racing heart. Dan laughed, bright and loud as Mrs. Lester stared at Phil, who looked unsure and awkward beside him.
Mrs. Lester gaze was appraising, thoughtful, happy, as she took in the sight of her son, and it was clear by the way tears sprung to her eyes that this had been all she’d ever hoped for; a Phil confident enough to embrace the things that he’d always wanted, and to try them, finally, for himself.
“Daniel Howell,” Mrs. Lester suddenly burst out, “You absolute saint, you!” she continued, and moved forward to pull both Dan and Phil into a bright, perfect, motherly hug. Again, Dan laughed as he was drawn into a pair of arms he’d long missed, and he reached around Mrs. Lester’s waist to hug her back just as fiercely. All the while, Phil moaned and whined from beside Dan, but Dan didn’t care because he was finally back with the family he’d loved for so long.
“Look at you!” Mrs. Lester was saying, patting her hands at Phil’s hair, cupping his face, and kissing at his cheeks. “So dashing. That color really does suit you, Phil, and look, I can see your eyes!” she cooed, smoothing her fingers across Phil’s newly exposed forehead and laughing at the way he squirmed away from her, blushing an incriminating red. “And you!” Mrs. Lester continued, drawing away from Phil to cup Dan’s face as well and have a good look at him. “How grown up you are. It’s so good to see you back here, Daniel, dear!” she exclaimed as she tilted his head this way and that, all while Dan laughed and Phil rolled his eyes with a fond smile from beside them.
It was all very silly, and yet all very homely, everything that Dan had been missing for so long.
“Oh my boys,” Mrs. Lester squealed as she finally pulled away properly. She had both of her hands pressed together in front of her, and she was very clearly crying as she looked between the two of them. Dan’s hand had been dislodged from Phil’s, but he took it back in his easily enough, just wanting to remain connected to Phil, and watched as Mrs. Lester threw her head back at the sight and laughed. “Just the same as always. I’m so glad to see you again, Dan. I do hope you will stay for dinner?” she invited.
Dan didn’t even have to look at Phil to see the way he was blushing and grinning, and he nodded his head with a simple “Of course,” because who could pass up on an offer like that? Besides, Dan was certain that his own parents wouldn’t mind.
Soon after, Dan was once again picking up the many bags of shopping he’d done that day, and was following Phil up the carpeted stairs of his home and up towards his bedroom. Just as Dan remembered, Phil took the stairs two steps at a time, something that terrified Dan, and when he commented on it, his friend merely laughed. The sound was so familiar, the conversation an echo of the past, that Dan couldn’t help laughing as well, taking the stairs up at a much safer one at a time.
When they reached the landing, Dan couldn’t help casting his gaze across the familiar floor plan, noting the Lester parent's room, and then Martyn’s, Phil’s older brother who he’d watched go off to Uni two years prior for the first time. Having to witness that from his bedroom window had been hard for Dan, who’d been so close to the family for so long. He wished Martyn were here now to see Dan and Phil’s reunion, but he knew, one day, he’d get to see Martyn again too. Finally, Dan turned to follow Phil into his bedroom, and didn’t waste a second taking a look around.
Phil’s room hadn’t changed all that much; he still had a Buffy shrine with a huge Sarah Michelle Gellar poster on the far wall of his bedroom, just across from his bed, the Sarah Michelle Gellar life sized cut out Dan had won for him in a magazine one year, and the collage of emo boy magazine cutouts glued to the walls shrouding his bed that Dan had helped him set up one week during the summer. Dan could practically see young-him laughing with Phil on his bed with messy fingers as they smeared glue everywhere.
The memory made him smile, and he stared at the familiar bluey-green bedspread Phil had always had, at his desk shoved into one corner, and his tv with all his gaming consoles stacked up at the far side. It was achingly familiar despite the new hosts of games and consoles Phil had acquired, achingly familiar in that there had been a time when Dan spent most of his days lounging across Phil’s rather massive bed.
No, not much had changed after all, and that was something Dan could admittedly be incredibly grateful for.
Finally dropping the shopping bags onto the floor for, hopefully, the final time, Dan turned his grin onto Phil and clapped his hands together. Phil looked a bit more unsure than he had earlier, a little more awkward and scared, as if Dan would judge his room’s decor, and was waiting quietly in the middle of his bedroom.
“Right!” Dan said, choosing to ignore this and break the awkward tension. “I didn’t get too much, just a new school tie for you, a few t-shirts, and a pair of sneakers, but I’ve kept all the receipts in case you don’t like them. Should we start with the tie?”
Phil didn’t argue. Instead, he took the tie Dan was offering him, and, thankfully not looking at the tie, slipped it over his neck without so much as thinking about the second tie currently already in this tie’s place. As soon as he realized this, however, Phil began to blush up a storm, and Dan laughed with an easy step forward.
“Here,” he said softly, reaching out with steady hands to undo the knot on the first tie and unravel it easily from around Phil’s neck, “Let me get that for you.”
Phil practically froze at Dan’s proximity to him, his eyes glued to Dan’s, and the look sent a shower of sparks throughout Dan. Rather suddenly, he felt incredibly warm right down to his core, and he could feel his heart fluttering along with a secretly longing he’d long since tried to suppress. He didn’t act on it though. No, he couldn’t act on it, and so he merely dropped the first tie of Phil’s to the floor, and reached up to do up the new one around Phil’s neck.
Phil didn’t stop him. Instead, he merely continued to stare into Dan’s eyes with a look of absolute confusion and terror that made Dan’s heart ache. Dan couldn’t seem to stop flicking his own gaze upwards to catch hold of Phil’s, back and forth as he did up his tie. Phil’s breathing, meanwhile, was uneven, and though Dan had a guess at why, he didn’t want to imagine Phil still being afraid of Dan in that way. Could he not see the longing in Dan’s eyes? The desire in his heart?
Perhaps it was best that he could not.
Once the silk fabric was done up properly, Dan dropped his hands and stepped away from Phil.
“Much better!” he exclaimed, shooing Phil over to his full length mirror. “It’s much thinner than your old one, and an actual bright red rather than that atrocious faded thing you had before. Better suited for school than what you had on, for sure,” Dan decided easily, bending over and taking the strip of fabric currently on the floor into his hands. He wasn’t risking the chance of Phil trying to keep it, but it didn’t seem to matter either way; Phil wasn’t paying Dan a lick of attention.
Instead, he was once again staring in awe at his reflection in the mirror, hands shaking as he reached up gently to fiddle with the tie and run the soft fabric through his fingers, as if he couldn’t believe it was his. The sight made Dan grin, and he actually laughed when Phil pulled lightly on the knot to loosen the tie just a bit more, matching the way Dan’s was largely loosened around his own neck.
“Now you’re getting it!” he exclaimed, and watched as Phil grinned in return, turning back almost instantly to take in his own appearance. The top two buttons of his uniform were undone, showing off the slightest bit of pale chest, and his shirt was baggy around his waistband, untucked as it was from Dan’s earlier ministrations. Even his trousers didn’t appear so straight laced anymore, and Dan felt proud of what he’d done. He’d given Phil a step in the right direction of confidence. Now if only he could instill that inside of Phil, rather than just decorating the outside.
He hoped this would work to do both.
“No one in their right mind would dare to make fun of the way you look now,” Dan decided, stepping up behind Phil so that his friend would see him in the reflection cast by the mirror as well. Slowly, Phil’s gaze moved to latch onto Dan’s, and Dan felt something warm settle deep inside of him. Softly, he grinned. “You look perfect.”
Dan could see Phil’s cheeks turning red again, knew before Phil dropped his head to look away that he would, and decided to give the poor boy a break for once. Surely, he’d embarrassed him quite enough as it was. Humming, Dan turned away and started to rummage through the other bags at his feet for the other articles of clothing he’d picked out for Phil. He could only hope that Phil would like them.
Dan’s fingers quickly landed on the galaxy print jacket he’d seen earlier, and he held it up with a huge grin, remembering again the spark of something he’d felt when he’d seen it. It had just screamed Phil, and while Dan hadn’t spoken to his best friend in five years, he could still hope that he’d managed to stay enough the same that Dan could still pick out the right kinds of clothing for him.
Besides, Dan was certain the purple jacket would look far better against Phil’s skin than the old, bulky black hoodie he usually wore. It had been bundled up and tossed into the bags alongside Phil’s new clothes not long after Dan had picked Phil up from the salon, covered in hair and generally the worst for wear, but it didn’t matter. Dan hoped that now, Phil would never have occasion to wear it again.
Turning around with the jacket outstretched in front of him, Dan said, “I saw this in the store and instantly thought of you. Do you like it?”
Slowly, almost reluctantly, Phil turned away from his reflection in the mirror to look at Dan and what he was holding. For all of a moment he looked surprised at the object in Dan’s hands, and then his expression exploded into one of extreme excitement. He didn’t even have to say a word for Dan to know just how Phil was feeling about it, and he shoved it forward easily enough when Phil reached out with grabby hands to take it from Dan.
“I love it,” Phil said as he shrugged it on, instantly turning to stare at himself in the mirror, and even turning a few times this way and that to see how it fit against his shoulders. It was perfect, just as Dan had imagined it would be, and with Phil’s newly black hair, it gleamed against his body like it belonged there. It made his shoulders look broader, and clung to him in a way that the black hoodie had not. Phil looked, should Dan dare say it, hot.
He swallowed thickly as Phil once again turned to him with the biggest smile yet, and did his best to smile back.
Phil looked absolutely stunning, his expression showing that he actually thought so too for the first time in his life. There was nothing Dan would not do to keep that expression there.
So he said, “You look amazing, Phil, fuck,” and watched the way his cheeks turned dark red all over again. He ducked his head, but Dan wasn’t imagining the fact that Phil also appeared pleased.
As the afternoon wore on, Phil tried on the other two shirts Dan had picked out for him, as well as the shoes. He was absolutely in love with the pokemon themed one, and endlessly delighted by the heat sensitive one, but his favorite thing by far were the pair of shoes. While Phil’s worn down converse’s were bright blue and definitely served him well, he’d been long overdue for something new, and the mix of red and white looked absolutely dashing on his feet.
The look of absolute glee that took over Phil’s expression as he stood in those made Dan feel as if he were on top of the world.
There had been a time where he’d thought he’d never get to share a moment like this with Phil again, but as the night wore on, and Phil threw his arms around Dan for a hug, whispering in his ear, “I’m so glad to have you back,” Dan felt like everything was finally going to be alright.
(Next)
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yorkshirewerewolf · 7 years
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The Yorkshire Werewolf's Toys I Loved as a kid #44 The ‘New Avengers’ Shooting Game (1976)
My first televisual encounter with 'John Steed’, a debonair bowler-hatted British secret agent, was in the Original 1960’’s “ Avengers ” TV series starring Patrick Macnee and his female partner 'Mrs Peel’, played by (my first TV crush) 'Dame’ Diana Rigg. Together they would fight evil spies, hit men, underworld criminals, even Robots, you name it, they fought it. Now it’s celebrated as a cult TV series, its viewed as a classic piece of British TV history. When the original series ended, it’s constant repeat’s increased its popularity worldwide, so it was not a suprise when in the seventies it was to be 'rebooted’. Bring forth “the New Avengers ” Trusty Steed was back, older, wiser but still the ultimate English gentleman. This time he had two partners; Gambit, cool, ruthless and someone to do the action scenes and Purdey, a beautiful deadly ex ballerina whose high kicks and hairstyle made her an instant hit with pre pubescent boys (and their Fathers, lol). The new show was quirky, capturing some of the magic of the original series but after a few seasons it declined in quality. In its peak, its promotional guff was everywhere. From the cover of “Look-In” magazine to the “TV Times”, posters, annuals, books and of course toys! It was time to cash in on the franchise whilst it was hot!
Christmas 1977, one of the first presents frantically unwrapped was the “new avengers annual.” As a kid in the seventies, at Christmas in England, it was an unwritten law that every child must receive at least two identical annual’s or toys from different aunts & uncle’s. This was to be the case. So when school started again, it was a chance to barter with your mates for a trade, (I exchanged my new avengers book for a “Minder” annual!) The next present was from Dad. It was a huge box and on opening it was amazing. The “New Avengers shooting game” was a very unique concept. For once the franchise holder (Denys Fisher) had actually watched the TV series. I think they were inspired by the classic episode “TARGET” which involved Steed & Co compete in a mock village, filled with robotic dummies each trying to attack our heroes. The village set up was to test the agent’s shooting skills.
The box cover-art was bright emblazoned with the iconic “British Lion”, in its union jack colours. The shows logo was there, complete with mock bullet holes and to finish photo of our three heroes. Inside it looked even better. The large building style “target Base” had windows in it which you carefully placed bright yellow and black card silhouettes of various badguys. This contraption was then set upright and you loaded your gun. Now, if anyone actually has been kind enough to read my previous posts, you will be aware of my childhood toy OCD. Toys had to be realistic, or it was a big problem for me. The gun that was supplied looked very cool. It was made from black plastic, very durable (I still have it in the, and it works).The downside was that it’s side was missing as it was fitted with a multiple plastic disc firing mechanism. I had already come across this in my “Space 1999 stun gun,” ( see previous post! ) the good news was it did fire the small yellow circular disc at quite a speed, at force with reasonable accuracy. So with the gun loaded with its discs, you then turned a “gun” shaped knob which was a clockwork timer. This gave you a limited amount of time to hit as many of the targets before the shutters on the windows closed, hiding the targets and ending your turn. Some windows were larger so easier to hit, but although it was straightforward, it was quite fun.
The big problems..,Firstly, the gun. It would jam, constantly. Then the 'discs’ would get lost. Second, the target.When you set it up, the 'Card Targets’ tended to fall out of the windows if the table it was on wasn’t level. Now for the good points, it was battery free, so was always ready to go. But after a while it was overshadowed by my first TV computer games console (which came with a light gun).
And so the game went up into toy heaven (the attic), when all the discs were lost. Not sure what happened to the game, but the plastic pistol is in a memory box in my loft, a shame as a complete boxed example today in good working order is worth a largeamount of dosh on fleabay, (although I wouldn’t have sold it.)
This was a well loved, well designed toy and one of the few from my childhood that actually fitted in to the franchise it was part of. Writing these notes might come across as self indulgence but if you had this and might have forgotten about it, I hope it jogged your memory and gave you a little warm nostalgia fix…..bye 4 now!
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