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animeyanderelover · 4 months

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I already did the letter T for Dazai in a previous request.

Tw: Yandere themes, toxic relationship, possessive behavior, obsession, delusional mindset, stalking, clinginess, manipulation, blackmail, gaslighting, abuse, sadism, isolation, abduction, mentions of suicide

Tags: @shumidehiro @leveyani @izanami78

Yandere Alphabet

Dazai Osamu

Nightmare-What would be the worst experience for their darling? Would they break?

🤎The worst experience for Dazai's darling would be without the doubt the moment the darker side that has always existed within reveals itself and the warm glimmer in his brown eyes disappears with it. You get to know Dazai merely as a goofy, silly but charming man at the beginning, a facade with which Dazai lures you like prey closer to his side. Until he reveals his fangs. Never forget that this man used to work for the Port Mafia and just because he has switched sides never meant that he really changed. The beast is still there and the moment he lets it out, you are doomed. Because that's when Dazai becomes the full package of a toxic boyfriend. He's manipulative, degrading, gaslights you and hurts you even physically as his warm behavior is replaced with a cold and sadistic attitude. Through all of this though, he never once lets you go. He only tightens his grip on you as he slowly lets you watch how your little life crumbles apart. If you have only him left to imprison you and look out for you, you should hopefully learn your lesson.

🤎Yes. Chances are very likely that his darling would break in the process of Dazai unleashing his other side. Dazai's feelings on such a thing are quite interesting though. On the one hand he feels a strong and dark urge to break you down and fix you himself if you should ever defy him or reject his love. He isn't afraid of punishing you for you to learn to not dare to disobey him even if he might feel guilty later on. A part of him doesn't want you to break down fully and make you lose grasp of who you are and what you are like though. He's afraid if that would ever happen. Dazai is already a broken man so even if your personality defies him, it's ultimately what he also fell in love with. Breaking you is never really his goal, it's more that he wants to bend your personality a bit here and there to make the relationship for the both of you easier If he'd ever fully break you to a shell of what you used to be though, he wouldn't know anymore what he should even do with himself. You are his light after all. If your light is gone, he's lost once again.

Yell-How do they react to their darling breaking down in front of them?

🤎There would only be very few circumstances where Dazai wouldn't show a reaction to your tears and your distraught and those are the moments where he is at his most scariest. Those are the moments in which he lets the monster take control that has always been lurking beneath his surface and then all your pain and your tears will be directly his doing as he mocks and humiliates you for it, his own heart broken in such moments because of you as he unleashes his bitterness and pain out on you. In every other scenario, Dazai will show a reaction to your sorrow and your despair by coddling you and comforting you. In general he really doesn't like seeing you sad and being given the chance to be the one to soothe you and help you with your pain is always taken by him. What better chance to worm his way into your heart and mind after all then by helping you when you're at your most vulnerable?

Zero-What are things that always make them snap? What would they never allow their darling to do?

🤎Dazai's worst fear is being left alone in this world so something that would cause him to crack very quickly is the danger of his darling being killed or seeing them getting severely hurt right in front of him. There is this short moment where his eyes grow dull and all emotions leave his face that makes him look more like a corpse than a living person before a crazed gleam appears in his eyes. Burning rage and indescribable pain take over him and almost blind him. Tears fall down his eyes and not even he himself is able to tell if the sounds spilling out of his lips are sobs or laughter. It's a raw moment where he isn't capable of putting on any facade and it is a terrifying sight to behold. His composure will never crumble faster than when he fears that you might leave him alone in this world where he is still lost after so many years of existing.

🤎This fear of being left alone by you extends to what he would never allow you to do. To leave him. Dazai will never let you leave him all alone. You are not allowed to die. At least not without him. If you would ever take yourself away from him, he would completely lose hold of who he is and would only remain as a broken husk of something that never felt complete to being with. As ironic as it may sound, he would never allow you to take your own life to escape from this world but especially not from him. If you desire to leave this world, if you ever feel like you can't hold on anymore, don't do anything without him. Let him try to console and fix you or let him join you in the worst case in your final moments so that both of you can die as lovers together. But do not think that you have any autonomy to ever make such a decision by yourself!

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Nightmare-What would be the worst experience for their darling? Would they break?

🍎Honestly, just being Fyodor's darling is the worst experience one could ever ask for because of his twisted ideology. Differently from Dazai, Fyodor doesn't have two sides within him. There has always ever been one side of his and you'll experience the true terror of that long before you are even aware of his existence. Fyodor sees himself above the sinful nature of humans, as someone chosen from the lord to cleanse this world of impurity. Even his darling is seen as part of the lost souls of humans and their foolish greed, only that you threaten to drag him down with you into hell. Sin has always been sweet for humans and he realizes that in your presence as you tempt and entice him. He desires you yet won't let your stained presence be his downfall. So he claims you, punishes you for the fact that he yearns for you so much and takes you for himself. Little mouse, let him cleanse you of from your filthy life.

🍎You will be broken because that is Fyodor's goal. No matter how hard you may try of your own accord, you can never be truly free from the sins of humans. On your own you can never reach a pure level and no other human can help you with it either. but Fyodor is different. He can help you, he needs to help you. How else could he ever let you be in his presence otherwise? Sinning is part of your nature and personality so he takes the cruel step of breaking and re-shaping you and by doing so, freeing you of all of your wrongdoings. If you're empty, he can help you to be reborn. With Fyodor you never stand a chance to remain as you are, his cruel and twisted ideology of how to save you would never allow you to stay as you are.

Trauma-How would they act when at their lowest and most neediest point/when they nearly lost their darling?

🍎Fyodor has never been someone who would ever reveal his weakness to anyone. He's a man who would express never much distraught or despair to anyone, not even to his darling who he keeps close yet simultanously away from his heart. He wouldn't allow you to see him in such a vulnerable state. But he keeps you close. Closer to his body than most of the time if he should ever cave in to his own vulnerability as his grip around you literally and metaphorically tightens. You're never allowed to leave his sight in such moments as his own glowing eyes never stray away from you and hands caress gently the shape of your face, embedding everything about you in his mind so that he can never forget about you. Not your sweet and broken eyes nor your enchanting voice.

Yell-How do they react to their darling breaking down in front of them?

🍎You only ever break down because of him. From the very moment you've snatched his heart away, he has made it his goal to break you and ruin you. He has been watching your mental breakdown, your panic, the fear and the despair all for so long and it has always brought an serene smile to his face. You deserve it. You deserve all the pain as he delivers God's punishment to you. Seeing your tears right in front of you though as soon as you have been abducted is even more enrapturing than he could have imagined as all the agony and anguish you go through because of him only ever brings one word to his mind. Beautiful. You look beautiful as you suffer for your sinful nature and slowly but surely give in, giving him the chance to give you your salvation. As the first cracks appear, his touches slowly grow more comforting and his words more soothing. Don't resist. Let him save you.

Zero-What are things that always make them snap? What would they never allow their darling to do?

🍎He can never allow anyone taking you away from him. Differently from Dazai though, his primary fear in such a case isn't even that you might be killed. It is that someone might taint you and ruin you again. He could never allow his partner to be part of the common and vulgar crowd. You need to be pure and free of sin and unfortunately sin is a disease shared among humans. If you were ever to escape his grasp and spend time among others, your pureness would slowly be tainted by their ways. What your broken mind would have recognized as help before Fyodor shapened you to someone else is viewed as a crime, a sin so large that not even death could ever save their soul. How dare they ruin something pure after all? How dare they to drag you down to their cheap and unworthy level where you are not meant to be? How dare they, defying his work and spoiling you to be unworthy of his love once again? Don't worry though, he will save you again and again.

🍎I already talked about it but something he could never allow you is to let you be you. His own righteousness has already been putrefied by allowing his heart to be infected with you. So the only path left for him to save him from falling victim to sin as well is by cleansing you of everything that would have made you unworthy and dirty otherwise. You shouldn't be like the rest of humanity. Fyodor won't allow you to be like them. Not now that his heart has festered with an obsession for you. You have to change, you have to be punished or otherwise he could never have you, love you, own you. You will never know a peaceful day from then on again as he has made the decision to change you, to turn you into someone he can keep and cherish without succumbing to his own sin. To make this forbidden love possible, he will shape you into someone he can allow himself to treasure.

Jouno Saigiku

Nightmare-What would be the worst experience for their darling? Would they break?

♦️There are quite a few things that can and will go terribly wrong as his darling. I think what would be worst is Jouno's heightened senses as a compensation for his inability to see. You can never keep a secret from him as your heartbeat, your breath and even your blood flow will betray you and this makes you vulnerable and metaphorically completely naked and completely exposed to this man. Since Jouno has a sadistic and violent personality of his own, he tends to use your inability to defend yourself mentally from him to shamelessly degrade, humiliate and bully you whenever he sees fit. His heightened abilities that make him more sensitive to his surroundings additionally mean that he doesn't do well with strong emotions since they overwhelm him more than others so if his s/o is very emotional, that also means that they can expect little to no comfort and instead major annoyance from his side due to their emotions.

♦️Chances are that he might break his darling but intially Jouno doesn't seem to worry about this possibility or perhaps he never considers it for long anyways. It isn't fully his intention as he does so but he doesn't seem to be bothered about it at first. He just tells himself that at least now he doesn't have to deal with your emotions and feelings anymore. Until the silence threatens to suffocate him. There is a growing feeling of unease that only festers more and more whenever he spends time with you. He realizes that he misses your quicker heartbeat, the way your breath would hitch and the sound of your voice conveying your emotions always so perfectly. Instead your heartbeat...Instead the very sound of you sounds dull and lifeless, an empty shell with a body that only functions to keep you clinically alive is all he is left with. Unwillingness to admit his own mistake soon turn into slight despair as his touches and his words grow tender. Please...just give him something. Your emptiness is deafening.

Trauma-How would they act when at their lowest and most neediest point/when they nearly lost their darling?

♦️Jouno has problems opening up to his darling. Vulnerability and weakness have never been pleasures he was able to enjoy in his life to the point where those mere two words sound foreign to him. He, the one who can so easily sense when others around him are feeling low, is unable to do as everyone else. But he takes pride in that. He doesn't want to be viewed as weak, he has to be the strong savior for people after all. So letting his guard down around you whenever something manages to shake him to his core is a strange feeling that leaves him irritated due to the sheer vulnerability. He doesn't even know what he wants to do with you whenever he reaches such a point but he just knows that he wants to be with you. That makes everything always a bit awkward between the two of you as he is left to figure out what to do now whilst you are constantly on edge the entire time he is in your room, fully aware that he can hear it.

Yell-How do they react to their darling breaking down in front of them?

♦️Most of the time he is reacting quite insensitive. As I mentioned, he doesn't do well with overly strong emotions since his heightened senses make him experience it all so much more enhanced than everyone else and it annoys and irritates him. You can't expect much besides sharp words from him as he mocks you for your own emotional breakdown that cut deep into your already crumbling heart and make everything even worse. Eventually sadistic fun turns into annoyance though as your emotions give him a headache and he becomes mean and degrades and humiliates you through cruel and harsh insults. Until he just leaves you, done with your bullshit. If he actually attempts to be nicer and try to comfort you, he probably still ends up somehow saying something rude as his annoyed temper still breaks through even if he tries to prevent it.

Zero-What are things that always make them snap? What would they never allow their darling to do?

♦️He absolutely despises it when someone tries to use you to get under his skin. In which way and form that is doesn't matter as it will be in either case a huge success in making him lose his supposed composure as his fierce temper and his violent tendencies break through his composed facade. He loathes it when someone knows that you are his weak spot and takes advantage of that. It is already confusing and frustrating enough for him to navigate through all the emotions he stuffs away inside of him, all caused by you. He can't have it getting even worse by anyone doing as much as putting your name in their mouth in an attempt to win against him or to distract him without him feeling the intense need to strangle that person or cut their tongue off so that they can never speak your name again. He can't have people targeting his weak spot so in order to prevent that, he isolates you from the world.

♦️He doesn't enjoy disobedience. As he knows that you are his only weakness that could probably make him lose all of his composure, he feels an intense need to control you. Knowing where you are and with whom you are but especially knowing that you are obedient to him gives him a bit more security to hold onto his composure. He refuses to let you use his own emotions for you against him as much as he won't allow anyone else to do this. A little bit of stubbornness might be amusing but know when to stop and never dare to push your boundaries. You will be punished otherwise and Jouno isn't afraid of being rough on you either if you are too daring in defying him. He's only doing this for your own protection after all.

Sigma

Nightmare-What would be the worst experience for their darling? Would they break?

☁️Sigma's sheer dependence on his darling would probably be the worst part about having him be the one obsessed with you. He cannot imagine being without you because his whole identity and existence is dependent on you. He was created without any chance to figure out who or what he even is, stranded without any purpose. So he fills the void, the empty shell he is, by having you. You give him purpose, you help him figuring out what he is, who he is and why he is and that makes you so much more precious than all the riches he has in the Sky Casino. Sigma can't exist without you as you are his existence and as sweet and nice he tries to be, aware of your feelings about being isolated and essentially put in a golden cage high in the sky, he just can't help it. He needs you and it's this overbearing and dependent behavior that shackles you down and nearly smothers you at times.

☁️I think the problem with Sigma is that this experience isn't limited to a certain time. It is there the whole time and therefore sucks the energy slowly and constantly out of you if you can't learn to adjust and accept it. It's draining and tiring and will slowly seep the life out of you. Sigma on the other hand can't let that happen. If you lose yourself after all, he has nothing left. If you would turn into a hollow husk, he would have failed in the only purpose he ever had: You. And because he is so incredibly observant and obsessed around you, he quickly notices any shift in behavior around you. He knows that your mental health may suffer but at the same time he is unable to let you leave. So he tries to help you in any way he can but ultimately that only makes him even worse. It's a never-ending cycle.

Trauma-How would they act when at their lowest and most neediest point/when they nearly lost their darling?

☁️You can feel every crevice of his body clinging to you, his palms sweaty and his breath uneven and jittery. If both of you wouldn't be wearing any clothes, you're sure that he would probably melt together with you because it honestly feels like that is what he is trying to do. Sigma is already normally very dependent and tries to spend as much time with you as he can whilst also continuing to be the host of his casino. Yet he is prone to a meltdown for sometimes no apparent reason at all and with the ever-growing tightness in his chest, he escapes always to the only person he feels safe and alive around. That's only you. He usually just clings as long to you until he feels more stable about his whole existence again before he hesitantly leaves you again. If there is a risk of you being targeted or if he is just in a generally bad mental state, the security around you is tightened even more as he comes and visits you multiple times even in between his work for short cuddle sessions to be able to keep going.

Yell-How do they react to their darling breaking down in front of them?

☁️He's only that far away from breaking down and panicking with you yet he tries to cling to the last bit of composure he has. You need him right now after all. He can't mess this up. He reacts so incredibly sensitive to your emotions but differently from Jouno who would get annoyed and even slightly mad with you if you should crumble in front of him, Sigma just gets overwhelmed to the point where he feels his own heart threatening to jump out of his chest. Your despair causes him immense stress and anxiety because he knows that he has to fix it but is also always so terrified that he will mess up. In a way he sees it even as part of his purpose and responsibility to look out for you and take care for you but that makes everything only more stressful for him because he's so scared that he will mess up and that he just won't be enough. Even if he is pushed over the edge though, he doesn't leave you. Instead he just panics with you together.

Zero-What are things that always make them snap? What would they never allow their darling to do?

☁️He would never allow someone else to take you away from him. He just can't effort to lose you because your loss is equal with losing himself too. Everything he has somewhat established has only been because of you as his entire purpose and his reason for existence is only found when he is in your presence. Partially he knows that what he is doing to you only causes you grief and sorrow but he doesn't want to be left alone anymore in a world he doesn't understand and in which he just suddenly appeared one day. It is a determination laced with sadness even if someone has good intentions of freeing you but it is an iron will nevertheless. No one will take you away from him and even the mere mention of it is enough to make his heart drop to his stomach and do intense research on whoever made this remark to him.

☁️In the same manner that he would never let anyone else take you away from him, you aren't allowed to leave him either. Honestly, even if you hate and despise him, he could manage somehow. He would be hugely unstable and anxious but he could go on with his life anyways because you're still in it. If you're completely gone from his life though, Sigma feels like a blind man who is left stumbling around aimlessly all by himself. Nothing could kill him more than the hollowness that would grow and fester inside of him if you would be gone from his life. Even if you should hate and despise him and even if you would shatter his heart to pieces and make him suffer everyday, the pain would still be proof that he exists. It's better than the nothingness and the meaninglessness that would befall him if you wouldn't be within his reach. Please, he's begging you! Don't leave him!

#yandere bungou stray dogs #yandere bungo stray dogs #yandere bsd #yandere dazai #yandere dazai osamu #yandere fyodor #yandere fyodor dostoevsky #yandere jouno #yandere jouno saigiku #yandere sigma

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kingmaker-a · 4 months

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Lost & Found | Kim Jungeun

Non-Idol AU - Set on New Years Eve

Warnings/Tags: Minor injury (Cut on the finger/s), blood, light alcohol consumption. Reader wrestles with themselves quite a bit.

It's New Years Eve and Kim Jungeun (the girl who you've called an asshole) just posted an instagram story wearing your necklace. Great.

Wordcount: 3.7k

Genre: Fluff, Angst (Self doubt and anxiety).

A/N: Inspired partially by a conversation in Paladins group chat, with @sanccharine and @panda-writes-kpop. I'll be real, it wasn't supposed to turn out like this, but I don't hate it. Kinda miss the more delusional original idea (there wasn't an original idea, just vibes).

Anyway, belated happy new year, I hope the year treats you well and with the kindness you deserve.

Where do you even begin? There are no boundaries to the start of a story, they just happen, after all. Yet, there's always that voice that needs it to be perfect.

Keep it to simple facts.

Like most stories, there's a girl.

Kim Jungeun, her friends call her Lippie and you call her… nothing.

…Well, you’ve called her asshole.

That is certainly no way to greet a stranger.

But that’s skipping over too many details.

Rewind a little bit.

There's a girl, Kim Jungeun and your mind just frays-no that doesn't quite have enough bite-fractures into all the fragments of possibility, when it frankly shouldn't.

And, and-

It’s hard to articulate, which is something of a constant lately.

She was supposed to be a distraction, a cursory interest at best. At least while the girl you're actually interested in is studying abroad.

Not that you’ve actually talked to her either.

…You’re a mess.

Things just have a way of getting out of control in your head space.

It’s slow and tentative the way your hand brushes against your chest, ghosting over where a familiar pendant should be.

A cigarette would be fucking great.

But where were you?

Right, right.

Kim Jungeun, an ill begotten thorn in your side.

Salt ridden obsidian waves bounce and dance, sprinkled with the lustre of moonlight and the fairy dust of the stars.

Even if barely, it soothes you.

It’s been awhile since you were last here, eyes tracing over the waves.

The old dock at the port.

A safe space to unwind your mind, though perhaps it was a good thing to miss this place?

Kim Jungeun, friend of Heejin.

Who, according to her, you shared an elective for two weeks before you switched.

Blonde, talented and totally not your type, at all.

Not that you actually noticed her all that much, like ships passing in the night.

Always too focused on Heejin, the way her smile, her antics enamoured a feeling in your chest.

Dopamine and friendship, even if you thought it could've been more at the time.

Still, you can't help the way your brain traces over every brief gaze Jungeun had given over those long lost years.

She disappeared one fall, moved overseas because of family or something or another. According to Heejin she had a going away party, an unnoticed event that you somehow attended.

You remember it vaguely, almost like looking through a foggy glass. You arrived late as had become tradition, to avoid the awkward moments where Heejin would flutter off to socialise while you would nurse a drink awkwardly.

It was hard to miss the slight sad edge to Jungeun's smile when you had arrived, Heejin nearly passed out on a sofa.

No thoughts or words came to your mind as you wrestled her arm over your shoulder, merely a soft wave as you departed.

Only now does the memory warp ever so slightly under the weight of your modern delusions, the need for there to be something unspoken between the two of you.

Your tongue clicks against the roof of your mouth.

Hell, that might not have even happened at all.

It’s hard to truly say, not after the freight train that ran you over when she came back years later.

Something had changed about her after her time away, or at least that's what you would like to say.

But It’s all retrospective hindsight, pieces that you can only put together because you're looking for a way to explain why she ties your chest into knots whenever you look at her.

The problem with being a hopeless romantic is there has to be some sort of divine providence involved, some story that somehow ties it together…

To make it perfect, like It’s a movie.

But real life isn't like that.

Even if you want it so god damn desperately, the nascent need to love and be loved claws and etches at the sensitive flesh of your brain. Still, it only traces a carved pattern that lays at the core of your soul.

Much like any novel, it’s the hunger to be chosen, needed or objectified in the gaze of another.

It’s hard not to drown against it all, eyes sink against crashing, violent waves, you can practically taste the salt on your tongue.

You're a mess, a desperate craven for a single hopeful touch.

You can feel the way your mind drags against the murky seafloor of your own mental abyss.

Still, it's like the snap of a chain, the tug of a haunted ghost that caresses your skin.

A single notification.

A taunting admission.

An update to her Instagram story, the photo itself, a nonsensical blur as you latch on to the familiar metallic shimmer that dots her collar.

It takes everything to pull your eyes away, crashing waves are a soft comforting comfort. Still, your teeth graze your tongue as you contemplate how you feel.

Your phone trembles in your grasp, vibrates with an anxious bounce–Wait, it’s actually ringing, you almost choke on air when you accept the call.

You can practically taste the smile that lingers on unseen lips.

“Hey, asshole.”

Perhaps it’s the mere act of being caught off guard that culls your anxiety before it even has a chance.

Here you are, on the steps of a kingdom unknown. The bloom of orange hallowed light is the only tell tale sign you’re in the right place.

It’s warm you note, in the comforting sort of way, like homemade soup on a particularly sick day.

Your fingers knock against her door with a soft, delicate touch.

it’s hard not to indulge the nauseous thoughts in your brain, in the silent gaps of air. Like exposed skin in a sea of mosquitos.

Maybe the way her lips curve into the slightest smile is its own insect repellent.

Still, it’s only the briefest peak at what lies below the surface, as it fades into the poised detachment you had grown used to.

“So you came huh?” There’s a braggadocious air to her tone, that is almost surprising to your ears. It’s hard to ignore the smirk that swells at the edge of her lip, it’s vivacious and effervescent.

Words catch on the hem of your throat, twisting, coiling and snagging against the roll of her eyes.

There’s a playfulness to the way she bites her tongue, the denouement of victory. Still there’s something to be said about the almost child-like sparkle in her eyes.

What exactly? You haven’t decided, or perhaps you can’t explain it. It radiates a warm comfort in your chest.

And perhaps that is good enough.

You can’t help the awkwardness that clings to your bones, when she gestures for you to come inside, it weighs heavy like rotting iron.

There’s a flash of something else hidden under the contortion of confusion on her face.

“Did you need a formal invitation like a vampire or something?” it’s a sharp almost biting edge, you’ve never held a real conversation with her.

But you can tell it feels unnatural, forced even.

You can't help the curiosity that itches under your skin, burns across your eyes. It’s almost enough, a distraction from that which gnaws at your bones.

The creak of anxiety rattles through your bones, there is no easy way to jump head first into the abyss.

If it even is the right abyss.

Soft, svelte fingers brush against your own, coaxing you forward.

You fall, head first into her domain. It clicks in your head, how little you know about her.

All you have to pick apart is causal anecdotes from Heejin and the chic, almost detached persona she presents.

You know something else swims below the surface.

Just out of reach.

“Beer?”

Gross.

“Sure.”

The soft curve of a smile is a gentle reminder that she likes beer. Your eyes trace her living space as she disappears towards her kitchen.

It’s spacious, minimalist and functional, the only evidence of an inhabitant is the barely past season Christmas tree.

There's a joke about being eager for Christmas in January if she leaves it any longer.

You can't help the tiny smirk that dots your lips, earning you an arched eyebrow and a cold beer.

It’s snug and awkward against your grip, maybe it’s just a creative analogy for you.

Your hand struggles in vain, twisting against jagged metal teeth. They cut into your fingers with a spiked, hungry sharpness.

Crimson paint slowly boils to the surface, at least the cut wasn't clean unlike your stupidity.

Your hand clenches into a tight fist in an attempt to hide your mistake.

Thankfully she’s transfixed?

Enamoured by the tick of her clock or perhaps the weight of her own thoughts.

That's wishful thinking.

Still there's something equally enamouring in the way she prys the cap off her beer. There's a practised skill in the way she peels it off with her ring.

A symbol to her fondness.

Perhaps it is those small idiosyncrasies, fruit born from passion in life that makes your chest palpate.

Maybe it’s the way your eyes linger on her lips as she takes a swig.

Victory burns across her lips, blooming into a satisfied exhale. It’s the soft swell of a smile that almost makes you believe beer tastes good.

After all, how could she be wrong?

You clear your throat, offering your bottle.

There's a flash of recognition, exorcising any haunted whispers that dwell as she grasps the bottle.

Her lips squish, shrinking together as her cheeks puff ever so slightly. It’s odd the way she almost squirms under your gaze before she releases an exasperated sigh.

“My bad,” despite the almost shameful weight to her tone, her fingers are anything but. They glide and dance with familiar grace, commiting your jagged tooth assailant to the grave.

She's cute you realise, almost needlessly so.

It’s the tiny fragment of her embarrassment that plays at your heart like a guitar pick, you almost apologise.

Even if fault lies with neither of you.

Yet, there’s another flash that bounces across her eyes, burdened by worry and guilt as bottles clang onto her coffee table.

“Shit,” her grip brushes ever so softly against the tips of your fingers, it tingles with an electricity you’ve only dreamt of feeling.

Though, you didn't expect there to be trickling crimson rivulets.

Do you think it conducts since it has the same source?

She tugs at the corner of your shirt, pulling to her couch, a small little thing-barely a two seater on the best of days.

Maybe you're just making excuses?

You’re brought back to an earlier thought if only briefly, as she swipes through a coffee table drawer.

Functional and minimalist, what she keeps on or around her has purpose, even her ring.

Which begs the question about her-your neckl-

Sometimes life is the perfect conflux of coincidence meets happenstance, in those rare moments you will find the answers to some of your most burgeoning questions.

Or jokes in your case.

Because, it does in fact conduct. That's the only rational way to explain the way your brain surges, short circuiting when her tantalising lips soak crimson, pressed feverishly tight against your damaged flesh.

It’s intoxicating, dangerously so, the way your mind lingers as your jaw slackens. Your breath hitches, catches against a heated haze as her eyes latch on to yours.

You can barely pick out the slightest ping of worry as she searches through gaze, looking for any sign of discomfort as you feel pressure tighten against your wounded flesh.

You swear you feel a smile burn across your fingers before you blink.

Spongebob patterned plasters replace the soft embrace of her lips.

Though perhaps that's another delusion to the list…

Right?

Wrong, it’s spelt with the claret stain burned into the sleeve of her knit sweater, dotted with the glistening cerise fleck on the edge of her lip.

Yet, she looks at you expectantly, like nothing had transpired, as if there was only a momentary gap in conversation.

You’re a good samaritan you realise, after all that has to be the reason why your fingers tuck under her chin-god you need to ignore how you snap together like puzzle pieces-as your thumb brushes softly against her lip.

She practically preens against your touch, lips curving into a knowing smile.

She’s been caught red handed, your flesh against her fangs.

Your eyes linger against her lips, to consume her wholly and utterly to stain yourself in her colour.

Still, there's a coyishness as her head tilts to the side, eyelashes fluttering with chic elegance.

But is it right to take the plunge?

Is now the moment that makes up for every missed opportunity, every life not lived, every love unhad?

The answer is-

Your hand…

No, that’s the answer.

Retracts, slow and hesitant.

To indulge in this moment is to make every other lesser in Its wake, to tattoo it across your skin and into your heart.

Could you love so permanently when you change with the tide?

Her smile tightens, soft and friendly.

Perhaps that's all it ever was.

She pulls aways, grabbing her beer and… You follow suit, nursing it between your lips.

It tastes better than you thought, though anything is better than drowning in the awkward silence that slowly fills the room.

It’s odd to notice how truly quiet it is in the dead of night, it’s worse to hate such a monument to peace.

You try to find idle work tracing her living space, to find anything of note or interest.

But, you have no such luck as your eyes eventually settle on her clock.

11:50

Maybe that's why she always stares at it? What the fuck else are you supposed to look at?

After all, you can't bring yourself to even dare look her way.

She keeps everything for a reas-

“Why do you have my necklace?”

She scoffs, it’s sudden, violent and abrasive. You can hear the way her fingers tick away at her beer bottle before she takes a deep breath.

It’s practically thrown at her coffee table.

She turns to you, full body and all. Her eyebrows draw tight together like the wound string of a bow.

Whatever confidence she has dissipates slowly as her knees slowly tuck towards her chest.

If the air wasn't heavy with melancholic seriousness, you would've made a joke about her sitting like that one anime character.

Her features scrunch ever so slightly for the briefest of moments as she practically shrinks behind her knees.

“Are you sure you wanna know?”

The question is redundant isn’t it? You wouldn't have asked otherwise.

“Yeah.”

You swear you catch the briefest flicker of a temper tantrum bounce across her face before she sighs.

Part of you can't help but want to entertain the idea.

She probably screams like a pterodactyl.

It’s a weird sort of honour, to be in her presence as her chic edge is peeled away by the skin of your teeth.

It’s nice.

“Wel-” her eyebrows twitch latched on the hook of something else, a flash of annoyance blooms across her face. “Why'd you give it to her?”

Why did you give her your necklace? A matter of circumstance? Of love unabated?

Actually, “why does it matter?”

She seethes under her calculated exterior, you can taste the brimming smoke, choking and noxious as she rolls her eyes, her gaze shifting away from you.

The thin layer of silence does nothing to hide her muttering.

“Man, you really are an asshole.”

It’s the small hitch of a raised breath, the kind that blends against the slight exhale of receiving a meme.

You can't help the slight smile that twitches across your lips, the closest thing to an inside joke.

Her eyes return to you, poised like a sharpened dagger.

Cold indifference, a biting edge ready to strike, deadly and true.

You can practically feel the slice of her remark.

Except she falters, caught on the smile that blisters across her lips, soft and tentative.

You know it would clasp perfectly against your own.

Her nose scrunches ever so slightly, cheeks swelling on a held breath before she releases a sigh.

Her hand darts to yours, there's a shakiness you can't see, but feel as her touch trembles against yours.

“Do you like her?”

It’s like being dumped into the arctic, your mind collapses against the sobriety of it all.

Do you? Your chest sinks with a held weight, threatening to suffocate every last thought and breath.

“I don't know-”

Her head cocks to the side, eyes tracing your features with a delicate touch.

There's nothing romantic about the way she looks at you, just a soft, caring warmth. She hangs on to every microcosm of you as if each moment is its own answer.

Even as her hand trembles against yours, bouncing with an anxious quiver, there is no pressure.

No rush.

Just patience.

You’re lying, lying through your teeth, scared to be the one wolf amongst a world of sheep.

“I did-”

You’re a paradox in a world of certainty, always in a state of fluctuation.

“-maybe once upon a time.”

She offers a soft nod, grip tightening against yours, it trembles with every tick of her clock.

Her lips purse, bubbling with a tepid question.

“And you never made a move– told her even?”

Of course not-

You take a deep, almost shaky breath. It's cut across the jagged rocks of your own disdain.

She wouldn't understand you put the hopeless in hopeless romantic, too caught up in the whirlwind of novelty and what-ifs.

Not what could be.

“What's the point?” You can't help the way it comes out, sodden, soaked, dripping with resignation.

It’s the kind of thought that's better left unsaid, usually left unsaid.

She frowns, lips scrunching once again as she pouts and you realise there's something about her that makes you honest.

Well and truly.

Perhaps there is a kind of honesty that can only be learnt in the company of a stranger.

After all, when you're splitting hairs, how much do you actually know about Kim Jungeun?

Her eyebrow quirks forward, “because you liked her?”

There's a certain punchiness, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.

Like the blue hue of the sky.

“Liked, being the keyword Lippie.”

You swear you catch the slightest hitch of her breath against the rough edge of her nickname, an attempt at annoyed levity.

Still, she offers you the slightest tilt of a smile, the smallest peak at perfect porcelain, it’s an almost indignant, so?

As if you had mentioned, sometimes the sky is a muddy grey because of the clouds.

Except perhaps it would be better if the analogy was swapp-

It slams like a fist to the gut, her soft smile.

“You know you think too much for someone who is criminally stupid.”

All you can offer is an incredulous huff as you double over (emotionally of course).

“Asshole.”

She rolls her eyes, her smile blooming with an annoying smugness.

Her hand retracts, finding purchase on her beer bottle.

A victory lap of hers.

“Love people while you do, when you can.” Her eyes go glassy, shining with a melancholic wistfulness before she shrugs.

She takes a sip of her beer, eyebrows knotting together with a sudden thought.

It’s soft the way her eyes trace you, hesitant as she places her beer back.

“Sometimes the act of loving someone, makes you love them more,” she clears her throat, eyes shifting under your continued gaze. “But, uh-”

She takes a deep breath, “live in the moment, not your head?”

You never know what could happen, perhaps something to do in the new year, a thought that hangs on your brain as your eyes linger on her clock.

11:59

Live in the moment.

“...So why do you have my necklace?”

She instantly shrinks, as if your words were a hammer in a game of whack-a-mole. Her eyebrows crease, her nose scrunches and her lips purse as she squirms under your gaze.

Throughout it all, she finds a sudden interest in her plain, boring floor.

Her cheeks swell ever so slightly, an embarrassed smile teases her lips under the sudden stress.

She’s probably surprised you remembered the question.

Or she forgot herself.

It’s cute, it really is. The way she forgets herself, the practised chic persona lays fractured, broken at the base of it all.

What you would give to be a Bluetoothed pair of idiots.

She tugs at her knit sweater, pulling it over head as you catch a muffled pterodactyl scream.

Maybe you're just projecting on the pterodactyl part.

She plucks at the fragments, tries to assemble some facsimile.

But it’s redundant, redundant when the slightest pigment of scarlet, rosy pink dusts her cheeks, redundant when eyes remain glued to the floor even as they shift your way.

Her words are small, tiny as if she were speaking gnomish.

“...It makes me feel happy, when I wear it.”

That answers everything and nothing at the same t-

She looks at you expectantly, a soft timid glassiness lingers in her eyes.

Her eyes snap to her clock, muffled fireworks echo through the night sky.

A frown lines her lips.

“Happy new ye-”

Her words are muffled, halted by the painterly brush of your lips. Her smile echoes across her lips and you can taste the smugness.

It’s eye rolling.

Her fingers tangle through your hair as she pulls you deeper into free fall and fall you both do.

You can't help the reluctance that echoes through your bones and across your lips as she pulls away.

A smirk peeks through her supple lips, an annoying comment no doubt.

Instead you’re surprised by an admission.

“Do you know how long I’ve waited for this, for tha-”

You pull her into another kiss, brief and chaste.

Even, enamoured in your touch and out of breath as you pull away, her eyes narrow. Something was amiss.

You can't help your own devilish grin, “all year?”

She scoffs, the kind of reluctant but annoyed huff you expected as she rolls her eyes.

“God, you really are an asshole.”

Still, there's an unequivocal softness to the way she says it, you can taste the burn of her annoyed smile as she drags you into another kiss.

At least you found your necklace you guess?

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romeoandjulietyouwish · 1 year

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anyway I adore Kingsley so have a character study I guess <3

Kingsley bounds to the front of the ship, looking out at the water with childlike glee. Childlike is right, he’s technically not even three months old. Sometimes he feels older, sometimes he really does feel like the child the others seem to think he is.

Everything is still so fascinating and new but also familiar. The ship isn’t familiar, neither is the water, but the people are. Jester and Fjord. It feels as though he should know them but he doesn’t.

Every so often he gets a flash of a memory, Jester smiling up at him, whispering to him in Infernal. Or Fjord bisecting some kind of creature with a sword.

He doesn’t tell them as much, doesn’t want them to get their hopes up that whoever inhabited this body before him is returning. He’s not that person anymore, either of them, and it’s taking them all some adjusting.

Kingsley takes a big breath of salty air as the wind blows his coat back, certain with every bone in his body, that he's never done this before.

They tell him he used to read fortunes. And apparently they’re right. His hands know the worn deck of tarot cards Jester hands him. He knows how to get the card he wants to the top and how to trick his customer into thinking he’s genuine. Kingsley hates it. It’s not him. It’s something else, someone else in his head bleeding through.

So he gives the tarot cards back to Jester. The next time they make port he purchases a worn book on palm reading. He reads through it in one night, burning a candle down to the stand. And the next day he spends hours just staring at his palm.

His life line is frayed, splitting off into three lines. He traces a nail through them, wondering which one is his. Wondering if it even matters.

His heartline is the deepest one. It means you love deeply and completely, the book had said. And that’s the one he’s become fixated on. How can his hand know more about him than he does? It doesn’t make any sense and yet at the same time it makes the most sense of it all. This hasn’t always been his body. Maybe the line was meant for someone else. Lucien? Mollymauk?

Sometimes when he lies in his hammock below decks, he’ll trace that line over and over again, hoping beyond anything that it belongs to him.

The nightmares are the worst part. More often than not in the early months, he wakes up screaming names he barely knows, looking at faces he doesn’t remember. He dreams of a city made of roiling flesh. He dreams of a snowy road and a sharp blade. He dreams of a figure in red staring down at him. He dreams of dirt and ash and books and eyes. So many eyes.

Nothing but fucking eyes.

Jester is always there to comfort him. She’s good at that. She’ll hold him in her arms, let him cry and babble on and on about his dreams, switching mindlessly between Common and Infernal. She doesn’t judge. She doesn’t tell anyone.

She’ll braid his hair and sing a song her mother wrote her. Kingsley doesn’t know his mother. He doubts he ever will. And it eats at him far more than he would ever let on. Jester never sees his thumb digging into his life line almost hard enough to cut the skin.

Unlike the others, Caduceus has no expectations of him. He is a welcome friend, despite their many differences. It's Caduceus that Kingsley talks to when he can no longer stand the thought of staring at his palm, wondering what it all means.

Caduceus takes his hand, gentle as ever, and turns his hand over so Kingsley can no longer see the lines. He taps his thumb against the scar on the back of Kingsley's hand, asks him how he got it.

Kingsley is prepared to say he doesn't know, that it's a relic from Molly or Lucien. But then he takes a better look at it and smiles, telling Caduceus that it's from when Fjord tried to teach him to cook and a huge wave rocked the ship making him cut himself.

And in that instant, Kingsley understands the point Caduceus is trying to make. It doesn't matter who came before him, it doesn't matter which lines are his, because at the end of the day it's his body now. Every day he's figuring out who he is, he's adopting mannerisms, he's learning. And he's growing.

And that has to be enough.

#my fic #mighty nein #cr spoilers #critical role #kingsley tealeaf

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minimafioso · 1 year

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Chuuya is a flawed person as pretty much everyone in the series is however it's so painfully obvious he just wants some sort of bond, a community, a family. To belong somewhere. The sheep betrayed him. He was tormented and lost his identity as a child. He is manipulated during his teen years during a fragile mental state to join Port Mafia.

And to top it off, the partner Chuuya had for years abandoned him. They bickered but they trusted each other. I doubt there were many teens there and if there were they didn't have responsibilities the way Chuuya and Dazai had. They were antagonistic to each other but they were also young teens who never had a chance at a childhood. They don't know how to deal with feelings so they rely on teasing and insults.

So Dazai leaves and Chuuya has to deal with the holes. He is painfully loyal to those who show him any form of humanity. It's not a great thing but he's clearly got abandonment issues. Despite that he still trusts the other half of Double Black to the point he'll risk dying.

If he really wanted to kill Dazai he'd have done it. He doesn't need Tainted. Chuuya wants to smack him around and make empty threats. He switches from 'I hate you' to pure worry when Dazai is injured which alone should make it obvious that his 'hatred' is more likely just what he thinks it is when really he just feels betrayed and hurt.

I just want to know how this man continues to care for others the way he does. In drama cds he's shown mother henning Akutagawa, making sure to care for his health. On top of that even though Chuuya claims to hate Dazai he will be supportive and tell his companion to get better for him. No animosity.

And that's what hurts me about Chuuya. Does he push down the feeling of knowing his own subordinate caring about what a traitor thinks instead of his current mentor?

Does he feel lonely as Mori and Kouyou go on about Elise and Kyouka? Or get discouraged when his accomplishments, like defeating a dragon to save Yokohama, are overshadowed by 'The Main Star' Dazai?

Has Chuuya ever been on patrol and while sitting on a rooftop only to see Dazai with his new partner and apprentice, his new family, his new life that he got when he left Port Mafia?

This thought occurred to me while reading the chapter where Tachihara remembers he's part of the Mafia. In the background you see members he's always around. Gin, Akutagawa, Higuchi, Hirotsu.

Chuuya isn't there despite the fact they are seen interacting a bit in the series. I can only guess it's because he sees Chuuya as someone beyond him because of rank, but they don't seem to have any negative interactions.

It reminds me that Chuuya smokes when he's stressed. He drinks to forget. I wouldn't be shocked if he overworks just to feel like he's proving his worth, and also to distract himself from that fact that, no matter what he does, the highest he'll be to someone is second best.

#bsd #bsd rambling #bsd chuuya #text post #character study #repressed feelings #bungou stray dogs #chuuya nakahara #nakahara chuuya

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lomappreciationblog · 5 months

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youtube

Oooh new Mana game?

Admittedly the only Mana games I've played and finished are Legend of Mana and Children of Mana. (I have played Sword of Mana on emulator, but I haven't finished it yet...but I will get back to it sometime!)

I don't have the consoles or the PC to play this though....I only have a Switch, and it seems doubtful this game will be ported to it. It definitely looks beautiful, and seeing our familiar Elemental Spirits make me smile. I'm just guessing here, but I think HACCAN is the character designer and/or character artist, since looking at the characters it's similar to the art he's made for the Mana series.

The main character does give me Shiloh vibes, love the poofy hair haha. It does make me wonder, will we ever get a full game in HD featuring Shinichi Kameoka's art style? Egglia shows its possible for his characters to be in 3D, after all.

Though it seems I won't be able to play this game, it's still nice to have new titles for the Mana series! It also looks like this is what Dawn of Mana should have been, if it hadn't been plagued by development and technical problems (that being said, the art im Dawn of Mana is godly though, Nao Ikeda's work is gorgeous.)

I am thinking of playing Children of Mana again since it also has beautiful art, so maybe I'll post about it soon.

#not lom but all mana games are loved and appreciated!#Fa'Diel in Visions of Mana looks beautiful ngl #Youtube

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pixelgrotto · 10 months

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Cannon Dancin' In The Middle East

If the Strider series represents a Japanese team making a blazing action game set in a Soviet futurescape, then Cannon Dancer is the same but for the Middle East.

Prevously unknown except to the handful of people who either touched the arcade cabinet or downloaded the ROM for MAME, Cannon Dancer flew under the radar for nearly 30 years until it got a surprise remaster earlier this year. I have the pleasure of reporting that Cannon Dancer's 2023 Switch port is just as batshit as the 1996 arcade original, and I'm glad that a wider audience can now experience the joy of an assassin in floopy trousers rampaging through the streets of future Dubai, kicking tigers in the face and battling giant goddesses for control over the planet.

Cannon Dancer is a spiritual successor to the original Strider, made by designer Kouichi Yotsui after he left Capcom and decided to channel the same energy that birthed Strider Hiryu for Mitchell Corporation. He did this despite the fact that arcade platforming action games were pretty much dead in '96, and as a result Cannon Dancer never did well financially. But I doubt that anyone who played this visual kaleidoscope back in the day forgot it. Cannon Dancer bursts with bright colors and killer sprite art, depicting some of the most vibrant levels I've ever seen.

It starts out in Agadan, a cyberpunk UAE-style metropolis on the Persian Gulf, and continues to a temple, a sprawing desert, the Indian Ocean, some forest near Aleppo, Prague, and a weird final level that may or may not take place in the Earth's upper hemisphere, except that it's red and nightmarish instead of freezing cold. Throughout all these arenas, Cannon Dancer's protagonist, a dude named Kirin, exquisitely beats ass by kicking things until they explode and getting powerups that shoot after-images of himself across the screen. How do you know you've gotten a power up? The color of Kirin's pants change. It's great stuff.

Visually, I've appreciated Cannon Dancer's aesthetic ever since I first glimpsed it in emulated screenshots. Just as the Strider series' unusual penchant for Soviet-era futurism feels dated yet novel at the same time, Cannon Dancer's depiction of Western Asia populated by robots, techno troopers, oil rig mechs and pyamids rising above skyscapes is rad. It's rare to get a Japanese game (or any game from the '90s and 2000s, really) that channels the Middle East in a way that isn't just an Arabian Nights retread or some drab, browish setting for world militaries to make a mess in. While I wouldn't exactly call Cannon Dancer's "representation" good, it's at least fun and memorable.

One missed opportunity is that Kirin doesn't appear to be Middle Eastern himself, despite the English version giving him the Turkish name "Osman." (In fact, Cannon Dancer was released outside of Japan as Osman, and the new re-release generously goes by the title Cannon Dancer Osman. But let's be real, Cannon Dancer is 100% the better name.) Instead, he seems to be your usual Japanese action game badass who serves on Teki, a mercenary squad. He takes orders from Jack Layzon, the attorney general of the WORLD who desses like a 1930s gangster, because Cannon Dancer's vision of the future is wild. After a routine mission to take down cultists goes haywire, Kirin is left in the desert to rot and forced to seek revenge on his old Teki comrades and Mr. Layzon. Along the way, the deity Abdullah enslaves him as her personal avatar of justice...until Kirin breaks free and goes to beat the crud out of her as well, presumably becoming a deity himself by the end of the game.

This is my own interpretation of the plot as gathered from the various Cannon Dancer entries on the Strider wiki, by the way. There is a surprising amount of story bubbling around the edges of this game, but it's all stuff cobbled together from interviews or magazine articles. There are actual cutscenes, sure, but they feel like the work of a development team tasked to create a game based on an 80-episode 1995 anime about a cyber ninja in Baghdad that nobody else watched. Obviously, most Japanese games in the '90s had something lost in translation. But Cannon Dancer takes it to a new level, relishing in its incomprehensible nature yet offering the curious a treasure trove of lore if they bother to dig around online. It reminds me of the underrated Strider NES game, which was also baffling yet at least had a manga to fill in the gaps, and I respect it for that.

As far as its status as a Strider spiritual successor goes, I'd say that I actually prefer Cannon Dancer over both Strider 2 and Double Helix's 2014 Strider remix. Those are decent games held back by poor pacing, whereas Cannon Dancer is just as tight as the original 1989 Strider, if not more so thanks to the additional years that Kouichi Yotsui and his team had to improve on gameplay mechanics. And while you could dismiss Cannon Dancer as too much of a clone to win such praise, as some did in the years leading up to its re-release, I think there's more room out there for mashups which can best be described as "neon-drenched Dubai nightlife meets Jojo's Bizarre Adventure." Cannon Dancer is a garish Middle Eastern fever dream, and the world is better off for its existence.

#pixel grotto #favorites #cannon dancer #osman #cannon dancer osman #strider

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noelledeltarune · 11 months

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please watch the new nintendo direct!! or at least skim through for the mario bits because theres a lot :0

YEAAAHHHHH I JUST SAW!

honestly most of that did not really appeal to me because i’m not a person who cares for remakes and the smrpg one specifically kinda looks like bdsp to me in a way that i didn’t love. i also don’t own sparks of hope in the first place and just never really buy dlc in general so even if i did idk if i’d be super excited. i’m super happy for everyone who is excited about this though :-] it’s probably gonna be nice to have portable smrpg + a version that isn’t super clunky to play like it is on wiiu LOL even if i’m probably not gonna buy it. i’m also excited for the rehashed soundtrack, i usually don’t like how they sound in remakes vs the originals but you never know

the new peach centric game looks pretty neat too even though we didn’t really get any substantial gameplay footage. at first i was like "is this a super princess peach remake??" before i saw more of it. also not really looking like my sorta thing but it’s great to see because we haven’t had a peach game before or after super princess peach. idk if i dig the semi-3D gameplay though. it feels weird having a lot of horizontal but very little vertical movement. and like it’s cool that we’re getting a new game but that showcase really gave us nothing LOL like i have no real idea what type of game this is

tbh idk the point of the dark moon rerelease though like it doesn’t look THAT much better to me and it was already playable on a portable console and there’s already lm3 on switch? but like i guess again if you don’t have a 3ds you might want to play it? but it’s like not really as widely loved as the original or lm3 which is already for switch but whatever. it does have its fans and i’m sure there’s people interested in playing it. + they already ported the original to 3ds so just putting it on switch too i guess would seem kinda weird

super mario wonder also looks really neat?? it’s weird that the only game i really think i’m considering getting is the 2D platformer LMFAO. mario turned into an elephant and said wowie zowie 🥺 also this is the first time daisy has ever been playable in a nsmb type game which is sick. peach looks really weirdly short though compared to M&L which is kind of odd because when she was playable in other games they never had to do that so it’s jarring to see. the playable cast might be bigger than shown too because i doubt they’d get rid of rosalina after 3d world and i’m thinking toadette will probably be there. the style seems cute even if it’s jarring to see after like 20 years of the nsmb look

i also don’t own mk8 deluxe LMAO but it’s cool you all got more stages

overall not really a direct for me but i hope everyone has a good time with all this stuff :-] people who can’t buy smrpg on wiiu can play it portably on switch which’ll be nice, peach fans get a new game, mario + rabbids fans have been looking forward to this dlc so i hope it met expectations, luigi’s mansion fans people who have never played it can try dark moon and the new 2D mario looks fun 👍👍👍

#talk tag #ask tag #direct spoilers #nintendo direct spoilers

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duckyfruitbat · 4 months

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Fami-Clone Consoles: Now Available at your Local Walmart!

Have you ever heard the term fami-clone? The name comes from the Nintendo Famicom and it refers mostly to plug and play systems. These systems tend to advertise an absurd number of games in one console. These consoles are loaded with mainly 8 bit games but with something altered, usually the title but also some assets switched around or even changed entirely. These games can look absurd, there is one Sonic bootleg but it replaces Sonic with Mario, with another version that's just pikachu. Other games on these systems are sometimes just the same game but the levels are separated and labeled as separate games, which is how they get the numbers so high. There are even a couple downgraded titles floating around such as Angry Birds.

A few years ago I ended up finding a bunch of these at Walmart, one of which was just a GameBoy going through its emo phase. It was of course loaded with all the usual fami-clone titles, Mario broken up, re skins of B grade NES games, and some 16 bit games.

Now it is possible to get a license from the original IP holder to resale these games, but given the trend that most of the fami-clones tend to follow, it is doubtful that the majority of these manufacturers are operating within the law. Nintendo for example is fiercely protective of their IP, they don't even let themselves port their own games. This is probably why a lot of the games are modified in some way, hardly enough to avoid any copyright law.

Hardware wise, all the fami-Clones are in the clear. The patents on these gadgets were filed in the 80's and ran out in the early 2000's. Now I haven't found anything on if Nintendo has successfully sued a fami-clone manufacturer on copyright issues. Every time I think I found a case, it was either in the 90's before the patents expired, or the link is dead. The closest thing I have found was a one paragraph article on a lawsuit Nintendo has filed over a patent violation, didn't even say which patent. So time for some speculation!

Nintendo and companies like it are very well aware of the games that are on these bootleg systems. However, these ports are actually pretty bad as far as ports go, and there is no way to mistake most of these for officially licensed ports, they don't even get the titles right. What does that mean? It means that it's just not worth it, besides, the fami-clones are already well known for their stigma of being just cheap knockoffs you find in street fairs that may or may not outlast the gold fish you dropped into the cotton candy machine. This is the only reason I can think of why these things are still around, as far as them being in stores like Wal-Mart, someone probably just absent mindedly approved of it.

To make that last point I want to point out another thing I found at Wal-Mart. I was walking past the toy aisle and I noticed this mini arcade cabinet made for the American Girl dolls. It had a try me sticker and when I turned it on I found the usual 1000+ game selection screen and a Christmas game that is well known for being in these fami-clone consoles. I can safely conclude that fami-clones persist out of apathy, on the original IP holders, on the sellers, the manufacturers, and the end buyers. Most of the fami-clone companies tend to remain in obscurity and are often forgotten.

Before I forget, piracy is illegal and I don't condone it. Gotta cover my legal bases, BUY GOLD!

#duckyfruitbat #rambling #piracy #famiclone #8bit

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jakethesequel · 4 months

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I love emulators very cool. I love FPGA/hardware emulators too very cooler. However my favorite thing is when some enterprising little bastards decide to re-create a whole console physically. That's badass. That's peak emulation to me right there. It can take original cartridges and disks? Mwah! It uses the original controllers? Hell yes! It interfaces with obscure original console accessories? Now you're just showing off! That's the dream, anyway.

Don't get me wrong PC emulation is great and I love you but even as a kid there were still games and consoles (mostly Nintendo tbh) that I knew I could emulate but still wanted to buy a real copy. The physical copies provided a felt, tactile difference in the play experience. Real buttons on a GBA vs a phone, the DS's screens and stylus, the 3DS's 3D; plus all of them had local multiplayer stuff that was hard to emulate. The Wii and Wii U had unique designs that are still hard to emulate properly, although we're much closer now; even the N64 isn't the same without its freakish Zaphod Beeblebrox controller, and Smash nerds are married to the Gamecube controller. Even MGS3 on the PS2 has some controls that rely on pressure-sensitive buttons (this is because Kojima is a genius). Of course some of that was just me having a collector's spirit and wanting to own physical copies, but I think there's definitely something to it that makes emulating the physical aspect of games just as worthwhile as the software.

The physicality and tactile design of games is underrated when it comes to talking about game design in general. Everyone will complain if a controller is uncomfortable or breaks down, but the solutions are treated as obvious and expected, when I doubt most people could actually tell you what design a controller needs to last hundreds on hundreds of game-hours without degradation to itself or its players' variably-sized hands. Add on "while equally supporting suitable control schemes for developers of wildly different game genres but without straying too far from the gamers' expectations" and "that can be mass-produced at a reasonable enough price to include a couple with the console and not bankrupt your customers if they need another." I think that's part of why I've always been primarily a PC-and-Nintendo gamer (besides my old PS2). Nintendo was always adding hard-to-emulate tactile differences to their consoles, while Sony and Xbox (despite having better generic controller designs) rarely ever made me think "this PS/XB game would be better enjoyed on the original console rather than the PC port/emulation." From early on they had Gunpei Yokoi replacing the joystick with the D-pad & buttons (becoming the default layout for future controllers, especially after the SNES upgrade) and sucessfully introducing portable consoles with the Game Boy; later the N64 introduced 3d gameplay and tried to handle that with its triclops controller, the DS and Wii both had unique designs that distinguished from the competition, the 3DS and Wii U added even more distinctive features on top of the DS/Wii framework, and the Switch broke free of the trap of consoles competing with PC through being the first real home/portable hybrid console. There were a lot of reasons to say "this GBA/DS/3DS/Wii/WiiU/Switch game would be better on the original console rather than PC."

By now though, people are catching up! Software emulation is getting better at managing the unique designs of consoles like the DS and Wii families, and 3rd-party physical peripherals are filling in the tactile elements. I hope to see that trend continue, especially as the originals -- like the DS and Wii families -- are breaking down over time. I did worry that the physical elements of those games could have gotten lost to time! It's great to see! I wish the software+hardware emulator devs and designers the best of luck; and I wish all Nintendo's C&Ds against them explode, setting the Nintendo legal department on fire. Fuck off, these games are a decade old and you don't even sell physical modern-console ports of them. Let the fans preserve, they do it better!

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a-bit-too-much-of-a-pokemon-fan · 1 year

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I'm gonna be praising Pokémon SV a lot on this blog, and making fun of the game's jank as well. So I'll take this opportunity to give my honest thoughts about that jank and the state of the Pokémon games. It's a long one, so read below the cut.

Scarlet and Violet are embarrassingly rushed. That is the keyword. Rushed. I believe that in most if not all cases, game developers are not lazy. When a game looks like this, it is obvious that the upper management did not give their developers nearly enough time. It in management's fault, not the people making the game.

In my experience, whenever someone complains that a game’s devs were lazy, they are really disagreeing with how the devs prioritized that limited time they were allowed. The world geometry is strikingly blocky and not very well textured and the frame rate almost never runs at 60 fps (your profile's play clock consistently runs short of your actual playtime because of this).

On the other hand, there are 400 Pokémon in the Paldea Pokédex. 102 of them are brand new to Gen IX. Every mon had to be coded, textured, animated, etc. It's impressive how expansive the dex is considering it contains 40% of all Pokémon ever created. So while performance is bad, they did use some of their time to give us a really good regional dex. It's impossible to know how many compromises like this were made, but I know there were a hell of a lot of them.

It is depressing that SV shipped the way they did in the year 2022. Breath of the Wild was essentially a Wii U game ported to Switch in 2017 and runs almost flawlessly on the exact same hardware. And it looks much better while doing it. It’s astounding that the higher-ups at Gamefreak looked at the game that their undoubtedly stressed and overworked devs were producing, and said “Yeah, that can ship this year.”

The problem has only gotten worse with this company. Black 2 and White 2 were absolutely jam packed with content, but developing on modern consoles is much harder than on the DS. Ever since, you can tell that corners have been progressively getting cut. X and Y had no postgame. Sword and Shield had an underwhelming presentation and finally cut the ever-expanding dex. Legends: Arceus has bugs all over and is startlingly unpleasant to look at. BDSP was developed by ILCA and not Gamefreak, but you can tell at a glance that they didn't have enough time either.

So, what's up? Will it get better? I doubt it. For every adult fan who cares about the state of the franchise and quality of the games, there are leagues more children who can't tell the difference between a masterpiece and piece of shit. The games will sell as long as there are children (and their parents) to buy them. You and I are the minority and no amount of boycotting would work.

The only way I see this getting better is if the next games are so catastrophically rushed that they are literally (and I mean literally) unplayable. When parents start returning the games for refunds because their kid can't play the game, things might improve. Ain't that comforting?

It makes me sad to see one of my childhood favorite franchises go like this. I want the best for Pokémon. Not just for myself, no. For today's kids and tomorrow's kids. I'm able to look at the games I played growing up--Platinum, Heartgold, White--and see the abundance of care and polish put into them. They're genuinely good games and I'm happy I got to play such good games when I was young. I want kids today to be able to look back 10 years and say the same, because right now? They deserve better.

#pokemon #pokemon scarlet and violet

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splatoon-autism · 11 months

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I doubt they'll ever port splatoon 1 to switch but maybe someday we can get splatoon 1's story mode (Octo valley) as DLC for splatoon 3 since it's still a canon piece of the timeline

#splatoon 3 #splatoon #splatoon story mode

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everygame · 1 year

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Pool Shark (Arcade)

Developed/Published by: Atari Released: 6/1977 Completed: 21/10/2022 Completion: Cleared a whole rack, playing a 44 point game. Version played: Atari Flashback Classics (Switch) Trophies / Achievements: n/a

Another weird inclusion in the Atari Flashback Classics range (and one ignored by Atari 50) probably only included because it seems to use the same hardware as Dominoes (I have not bothered to confirm this.) A game so unheralded, frankly, that it doesn’t even get a Wikipedia page, and they almost all bloody do.

This is a real ¯_ (ツ)_/¯ of a video game. Obviously, no one is doing a full simulation of pool yet, but if you looked at a screenshot you might think they are. No. What the game is is that you’ve got thirty seconds to directly control the white ball (you move it around in a way that feels a bit like Williams’ Bubbles, but I think I’m just imagining that) and try and knock a whole rack of balls into the pockets.

It’s… clumsy. I mean, first of all, when you knock into the rack all the balls judder against each other as the system desperately calculates their trajectories over and over as they bump into each other, and until you get rid of about half the balls the game is treacle slow (at which point it speeds up to quite a clip–this may be the emulation, but I doubt it.) There are some tactics–when you first play, you’ll probably be trying to “sweep” the balls in, but that doesn’t really work, so you actually have to try and hit them at the right angle to pocket them, especially when there are only a couple of balls left.

Of course, to get to that point, it’s basically completely random, as you just sweep around the screen hoping some balls you aren’t even looking at pot themselves. If you manage to pot all the balls–and it’s a briefly amusing challenge, I’ll give it that–you get about 15 seconds of bonus time. I don’t know what happens if you manage to then pot all the balls again in 15 seconds, but considering I assume no one has ever done it, you probably become the president of Atari or something.

Anyway. This is very forgettable and if it’s 1977 and you’ve got any pals you’d definitely rather be playing Dominoes, and if you don’t… just play pinball, man.

Will I ever play it again? No need. And it doesn’t look like they tried to port this to 2600 with a different name or anything, so even for Atari this one is forgotten.

Final Thought: Although, it’s worth noting that this forgotten filler is why I picked up the Atari Flashback Collection as well as the clearly superior Atari 50: The Anniversary Collection. Because there’s like 75 games on it that Digital Eclipse quite sensibly ignored because who on earth would play them?

Me. I mean I made a dang spreadsheet guys. I’m going through them.

Support Every Game I’ve Finished on ko-fi, either via a one-off donation (pay what you like) or by joining as a supporter at just $1 a month.

#video games #games #gaming #atari #1977 #pool shark #pool #arcade #review #text #txt

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goddessofroyalty · 2 years

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First off, thank you for existing and your Zaunfamily/omegaverse content gives me life!!!!

I just wanna ask, do the counselors/chembarons in this AU give Silco something like a gift basket filled with baby stuff during his pregnancies or throw him a surprise baby shower?

What is the weirdest food craving that Silco has ever had during any of his pregnancies? (If he did have any)

And during his pregnancy with Viktor, had Silco already moved in with Vander or did he move in after he realized he was pregnant?

(Also, not to be too angsty but did Vander ever doubt that it was his kid in Silco's tummy?)

Glad you're enjoying it. Putting a cut because I got rambling on some of these.

Do the counselors/chembarons in this AU give Silco something like a gift basket filled with baby stuff during his pregnancies or throw him a surprise baby shower?

In the main version of the verse I don't think so. When the babies are born the Counsellors don't even know who they are and the Chembarons are not really unified yet into a group that all answer to Silco(/Vander). That only starts to happen after they adopt the girls when they switch from trying to just revolt against Piltover into more turning Zaun into its own self-covered 'state'.

That's not to say none of them do because I think their ties to some of the Chembarons go back to before that period of time (Babette for example). But it's more likely just to be a small gift because Silco and Vander are doing things for them as well during that period with no idea of how important the two of them will become.

Now in the verse where Silco has another pregnancy after becoming Zaun Representative. The Councillors definitively give them gifts (it's the polite thing to do afterall) but they don't like him enough to want to have a baby shower. Chembarons are probably pretty similar, although in their defence baby showers probably aren't a big thing in Zaun culture generally, so why would they host one for effectively their boss? The presents are very much a trying to get in his good graces' thing.

What is the weirdest food craving that Silco has ever had during any of his pregnancies? (If he did have any)

He did have them. I just don't exactly know what they would be because I don't really know what the kind of food in Zaun/Piltover would be (other than probably a lot of seafood because Port Towns).

I feel like with either Claggor or Mylo (or both) he ends up craving something that’s very much Piltoven Cuisine. Which is firstly annoying to him because he doesn’t want to admit he likes the food of the enemy (and they are still very much enemies at that point). And secondly, a bit hard for them to get for him. Not to actually make mind you, half the cooks in Piltover are probably actually from Zaun they just have to find one, but to get the ingredients of especially in a timely fashion when he is craving it.

And during his pregnancy with Viktor, had Silco already moved in with Vander or did he move in after he realized he was pregnant?

He moved in after he realised he was pregnant. He was still living with his parents (although the kind of living with where they didn’t exactly care that he didn’t come home for the entire week of his heat) and I feel like Vander and Benzo were living together at the time. So it was after he realised he was pregnant that either they both moved into a new place or Benzo moved out or Silco just moved in with them both (all are equally possible).

(Also, not to be too angsty but did Vander ever doubt that it was his kid in Silco's tummy?)

The thing about omegaverse is that babies tend to be conceived around heats. So considering Vander had been there for basically the entirety of Silco’s heat (in Vander’s apartment as well where Silco started and ended his heat) means he can be pretty certain that the kid is his. Especially seeing the most effective way they have of knowing they are pregnant is when their heats stop so Silco was not pregnant before the heat and is pregnant before the next one (plus Viktor was “”a couple weeks early”” from a due date calculated from Silco’s heat, if he had of been conceived after then there would have been other clues because Viktor would have definitively been a premature baby and not just a little early but still fully cooked).

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