SonicRanger-1

And here we are again. Another year has come and gone. How time flies.

So, where do I see myself now on the brink of the 27th year of my life? Well, certainly still afraid of the unknown. Still full of doubt and anxiety. Still lost in this huge world of opportunity and not quite sure how to navigate it. Still a little bitter, still a little angry, still a little heartbroken. Still a very broken human being in an ugly, broken world of sin and hate. And yet... I am also a little stronger. I am a little braver, and a little more trusting. I'm a little less lonely, and a little more sure of myself. I have a little more faith, and let God love me a little more. I've released a bit more of the pain of the past and look a little harder to the future. I've grown a little closer to the people around me and I've learned a little more about myself. Yes, it was another hard year full of trials, fears, and suffering, but it was also another year to grow into the beautiful flower I know God sees in me, even if I still can't. I've lost a lot, but God has made every loss worth it. Just as he always has. No matter how I cry out to him and feel unheard at my weakest points along the way, I know a little better that he's hearing me and making a way for me, even if it will be a few more birthdays before I'll truly see or understand it.

So who am I at 27 that I wasn't at 26? Just another step closer to God.

And that's the greatest birthday gift of all.

Hey, guys! Hope you've been visiting my Vocal page! I've been posting brand new original stories on there, while sharing more parts of stories I've started here on DA, so you're missing out if you haven't been by! We've got Rydian and Kylia's stories posting up on Vocal, as well as special short stories I've been writing for Vocal Challenges, which is going on every week all summer, so come see for yourself!

Every view counts, so please support me by visiting my Vocal page and reading some of my work!

https://vocal.media/authors/lydia-booker?page=1

Thanks and enjoy!

Hey, guys! So, I have just officially begun writing on a site called Vocal! This is where I plan to start posting my original novels from now on! I'll still post fanfics and such here on DA, but posting to Vocal will actually help me start making some kind of progress in making money from my writing.

So, if you enjoy my original novels, check me out over there! In fact, be sure to check out a little something I just wrote solely for the new site! I won't say what it is, but you can go see for yourself!

Know that reading on there does make me a little money, so I humbly ask that you give it a look! Every view counts! So do tips if you wanna help support my journey as an author!

Thanks to all of you who have been such a big part of my journey thus far! Here's to the future and making dreams come true!

Friday Night Funkin'

...

...I had died and gone to heaven. This game is freaking AMAZING!! The music is absolutely awesome, and the art style is so fun and compliments it so well! If you've seen Mystery Skulls Animated, it's a lot like that, yet kinda better! So much so, that I am gonna write a story for it! Obviously! And I don't even have to make anything up, because the best part is, despite how simple and DDR based it seems, THERE IS A STORY!!!

Ok, if you do not want spoiled on the actually story for this game, do not continue, cause I'm gonna be breaking it down for the people who either played and didn't realize the story(I sure didn't at first. I just thought it was an awesome music game, then I went looking, and THERE WAS SO MUCH MORE!!!).

You've been warned!

So, here's the deal. The game is split into six weeks so far, since they seem to keep adding stuff through updates. I'm sure there will be more in the future, but for now I'll stick with the six weeks they provide. Oh, and tutorial!

The tutorial is, obviously, a tutorial. You'll notice the cute kids there, named Boyfriend(Jack is the only name that has been teased and not de-confirmed as of yet) and Girlfriend by the creators, and how it's Girlfriend teaching him. So, the story here is that Boyfriend is a singer and Girlfriend is, well, his girlfriend, who is helping him get ready. Ready for what?

For week one, where Boyfriend challenges the first person who is standing between him and his girl. This demonic singing dude is actually none other than Girlfriend's dad, called Daddy Dearest! He's actually an ex-rockstar who apparently does NOT approve of his daughter dating Boyfriend, so Boyfriend challenged him to a sing-off to prove himself. Fun idea, right? Gets better!

Week two is a fun one! Here you meet Pump and Skid, a pair of halloweeny characters who Boyfriend sings-off with in what looks like a haunted house. Weird, right? Well, if you look up the halloween pair, you find that they are actually characters from a series of shorts by Sr. Pelo called "Spooky Month". They're actually a pair of best friend kids in costume who are basically tricked by a mysterious figure to collect Girlfriend as a "treat" for him. Of course, these are just a couple cute kids, so they don't actually kidnap her, only ask her if she's be their treat for someone. Of course, Boyfriend challenges them, winner gets Girlfriend. Obviously, this is really more of a guest appearance, but I love how they're actually fully included in the story, and there's even an easter egg of Boyfriend in the series now, specifically the shot called "Unwanted Guests".

But there's MORE!! There is actually a cut third song! Every week has three songs to challenge through, all except week two. Apparently, the third song would have been against the figure who sent Pump and Skid. Yeah, and boy is he a freaking guy. What he is or why he's there, you won't know if you don't know the story, but he's actually the only character who sings in English, thus you here his... fun dialogue. Specifically how he wants to cook up the Girlfriend and eat them, and he's very creative about how he's gonna do that. He's literally a cannibalistic lemon-headed demonic creature. And he ain't cute. Fascinating, but a literal nightmare. And how does our hero stop his monstrous plot? Sing-off, baby! But, of course, you only get this third song by using a special cheat.

Oh, also! Just so you know, chronologically, it's been pointed out that Week two actually takes place AFTER Week four. So, it makes sense why that haunted house is in fact Girlfriend's parents' house. Probably a visit Girlfriend forced her parents to allow, since they both would have lost by this point. Yeah, you meet mom later.

Then we find ourselves on Week three, and I personally find this to be one of the most interesting to me. Maybe you didn't notice from the cannibal previously mentioned, but this game is actually super dark(though, if you watch "Spooky Month" shorts, you'll notice it's not so innocent either ^^: ). This is proven further by the next guest appearance to the game. First off, understand that this game is a Newgrounds game, which is a certain game site that I had heard of over the years, but never really looked into until now(heard of too many npt-child-friendly games on it, and I didn't start exploring the internet and my more adult interests until I was at least twenty. I wasn't even allowed on the internet until I was fourteen, and I was raised to understand that it was full of bad, evil things, so you can see why I didn't get very far until more recent years). I'd heard it was awesome and, to my surprise, it actually is!

Though, I will admit, this particular guest appearence is a good reason why I was wise to stay off Newgrounds until now, seeing as it proves my parents right about the kind of stuff you can find on the internet. You see, this new character's name is Pico, and if you've been familiar with Newgrounds, you've definitely heard of him or seen cameos and easter eggs before. He comes from a hugely popular game on Newgrounds called "Pico's School", and it was so big that Pico even has a "Pico Day" on the site, being the creator's birthday. Pretty big deal, right? And what is the game he was so famous for?

A game where super-powered kids shot up the school and killed everyone, Pico being the only survivor and now left to defeat these villians(and yes I do mean kill them if that's the path you take) with only a gun and his wits to escape alive. Yes, it's a literal school-shooting, where a kid must survive by killing the other kids. The bodies are even used against you as a weapon at times. Not a game my mom could ever know about, that's for sure. She couldn't even handle Hunger Games.

Anyways, that's the kind of survivor kid Boyfriend is singing against, and here's why! Apparently, Daddy Dearest, mad about losing to Boyfriend and still entirely against him dating his daughter, hired Pico to kill Boyfriend. What he didn't know is that Pico actually knew Boyfriend from the past and decided not to kill him, instead accepting Boyfriend's sing-off challenge. (I plan on doing more research on Pico later, because I kinda love his character. Makes me think a lot about the game "Kindergarten" actually, and I heard he's in a lot of other games, so there is clearly more to see.)

Yes, I am aware that a super popular headcannon from the fans was that Pico was actually Boyfriend's ex, so much so that even the two creators agreed to make it canon, However, it wasn't actually meant to be canon, and was even stated that it wasn't canon. They only changed their minds because the fans loved it so much, so I personally prefer to stick with the original idea that they were just friends. My personal headcanon is that Girlfriend is Boyfriend's first crush, thus why he fights so hard for her, even at times when it's a risk to his life. I'm an old school romantic like that, ok, sue me.

Now we find ourselves on Week four! From what you know of the story now, you can imagine who the gorgeous woman Boyfriend challenges next is; The Mom. Yep, you beat Girlfriend's dad, but now you have to beat her mom, and she is suuuuuuper tough, gotta say. Unlike Daddy Dearest, who is an ex-rockstar, the Mom is apparently still very successful as a star, seeing as she has henchmen and is even challenging Boyfriend on top of a limo!

(I'm sorry, but I freaking love that when Boyfriend loses, he is x-rayed to show his balls are blue. He got blue-balled. That is hilarious to me, I'm sorry. )

Then we have Week five! Christmas time! We've got Daddy Dearest and Mom challenging Boyfriend together, the first ever duet of the game, as they hold Santa Claus at gun point in a mall for everyone to see, while Boyfriend and Girlfriend are in adorable little outfits. It just looks like Girlfriend invited Boyrfiend to go to the mall with her, only to find her parents stole the mall Santa's spot for a little villainous fun, just to challenge Boyfriend together to beat him in front of everyone once and for all.

I just love the style of this week, and also the sudden shift for the third song. If you haven't noticed, every week has a sort of style to the songs. For example, Week two was kinda spooky to fit the halloween theme, while Week four had a sorta oldies style, and Week three was totally rap. Week five is, obviously christmas styled, and that does include the third song, where a familiar lemon-headed freak returns for round two. A head atop the christmas tree, blood for garland, and the mall completely abandoned, he truly does know how to make an appearance. As his English lyrics prove, it's pretty easy to know he's back for the couple so he can finally eat them. And yes, he still fits the christmas theme, since I think it's a shout-out to Nightmare Before Christmas, my favorite halloween-meets-christmas movie. He even has a santa hat. Ain't he lovely?

Then we have Week six, and this one was a bit of a surprise, and even the week where a bit more lore is added to the game's story. Yeah, it just looks like you're playing in an anime dating sim game style, but the video game image on the main menu page makes it pretty obvious there's more to it. And there is! Apparently, our favorite couple got trapped in a video game, only to find Boyfriend being challenged by the game character Senpai, who wants to whisk Girlfriend away. Of course, Boyfriend challenges him, only to find that Mister Perfect isn't so perfect and even shows a much uglier side. Though, when he's beaten a second time, some freaky evil spirit bursts literally out of his face. He even claims that Daddy Dearest is the one who trapped this creature in the game, and now the creature is gonna use Boyfriend and Girlfriend's bodies to escape. Surprisingly, it's claimed that it was Daddy Dearest who pushed them into the game, but that doesn't make much sense to me. Why would he trap them in his daughter's game, which is where he would know he trapped this thing. Sure it could be to kill Boyfriend again, but why his daughter too? I feel like Daddy Dearest, if this was indeed his plan, didn't mean for his daughter to get trapped too, or maybe she went in to save him. Either way, really fun idea!

Ok, now you know the story! So far, of course! Now you see what I have to work with! Of course, my song won't have the sing-off element, since I can't really replicate the music and game mechanics, so this will kinda be something of a story-only version, thus what attracts me to the idea so much! It kinda gives me the creative freedom to create how Boyfriend goes about winning his girl while facing all these fascinating challengers, and you know how I get when I get my hands on creative freedom. Gosh, I am excited!!

Think of it a bit like a "Scott Pilgrim VS the World" concept! It's a little like that when you think about it!

So! Keep an eye of for that when I finish it! How I plan to do it is in something of arcs. The first being how the two lovers meet, and even how he faces Daddy Dearest to make their relationship official. Then we'll have the second being Pico's appearence to kill Boyfriend, and Mom's arrival to split the couple apart as a last defense. Third will be our spooky new friends showing up for halloween. Fourth will be Christmas time at the mall with the future in-laws(obviously, seeing as it actually does come after halloween I just got that!) The last one, for now, is escaping the video game world!

My gosh, I am geeking out right now! Last time I got this excited was when I wrote "Hello, Neighbor"! Writing "Tattletail" and "Kindergarten" were fun too, but "Hello, Neighbor" was definitely my favorite. The more creative freedom, the better for me!

Check out our little Annabell looking sexy as all get out!

She ain't the cutesy little princess of Lexia anymore. Thanks to BloomPhantom, who had the bid for the ych that I won to get this! It looks amazing and I love it!

Annabell: Honey, do you like my new halloween costume? Shara helped me pick it out! She said it would be your favorite!

Shade: *suffering a major nosebleed*

Annabell: Are you ok? Why is your nose bleeding? Did you get hurt? Should I kiss it?

Shade: Is it weird I wanna marry you all over again?

I love these two so much!

Umbra: *trying not to look while feeling super uncomfortable all of a sudden*