Old Faces, New Faces

 -The Backrooms-

Three women walked together down a hall of the realm of The Backrooms that was referred to as 'The Waiting Rooms'. Here on the border of the Waiting Room and the nearby Classrooms was a hazy in-between area that resembled a school library. Books lined the walls, assembled on shelves that stretched up to near the ceiling. Various statues and other pieces of decor sat at the very top of the shelves, wooden figurines and stuffed toys looming over the trio like hunching gargoyles.

"Fascinating place you've got here." said Binah, looking around with appreciation. "You've certainly got some impressive discoveries under your belt already, Loremaster."

"Thank you, Binah!" Loremaster replied with a cheeky smile. "For the last year and a half, almost, studying this place has been my number one goal! It's a bit sad to de-prioritize it, but with its' main mysteries conquered, it's prudent I join you in Titan research. That seems rather more urgent. Now, to my honored guest..." Loremaster glanced over at the third woman in the party. "Allow me to introduce my latest breakthrough here in The Backrooms. Are you familiar with 'lost media', miss?"

"Yeah!" came the enthusiastic reply. "I help searches sometimes. In fact, just last month I managed to dig up a critical lead that helped people find the promo bumpers for the 1996 Kids Blast The Ballot Box awards show hosted by Stereoscope!"

"...Excellent!" Loremaster said, nodding as if she understood what any of that meant. "Anyway. I found out about lost media not too long ago, and I realized it could be entwined with The Backrooms. As I've shared already, I have a growing body of evidence that indicates that The Backrooms are formed and influenced by the memories of people on Earth. The places and things that appear here seem to be connected to half-remembered memories of the past. Which means, this could be a hotbed for lost media! If people remember something but it isn't easily accessible today, it could well be found here!" Coming to another room, Loremaster spread her arms and let her two guests soak in the sight of a personal study, shelves packed with books, discs, and cassette tapes (both audio and video), and a large desk with a computer acting as the centerpiece of it all. "Here, I have collected a large number of interesting-looking Backrooms books and media. I don't have the time to look through it all, unfortunately, but if you'd care to join us at Monarch, miss, I would be happy to give you access to this collection. Perhaps you'll find some new lost media!"

"WOW!" the girl exclaimed, pumping her fists excitedly. "This is the chance of a lifetime! And you're saying all I gotta do to get to use this study is to help you with Monarch? It's a deal!"

Truth be told, she probably would have helped even without this extra incentive, but she certainly appreciated it. After all...

Now she had twice the opportunities to expose the esoteric!

Chatzy Madness Volume 424: I Don't Like Killing, But I LOVE Steroids

RubyChao: Exactly how bad is the funding situation for Monarch, again?
Gooper Blooper: oh god
Gooper Blooper: Monarch is a huge deal in the Monsterverse and is easy bait for a massive, world-spanning plot, which I still might do, but I liked the idea of starting small
Gooper Blooper: Binah dreams of being a globetrotting kaiju whisperer but she's stuck here in the desert with Doug
RubyChao: i like it too however binah having to do a stint at mcmechos is still funny to picture

--- 

(After JRM changes his avatar to Mimi Sentry)

Jumpropeman: I can promise

Jumpropeman: Mimi is an idiot

(Later)

Gooper Blooper: the real reason JRM dislikes single fangs: why have just one when you can give a girl a mouth like a bear trap

Brine: Accurate, best kind.

---

New Years Eve-Il: "In Lufia 2, The Sea Ring is strong against Sea Creatures...but the programmers didn't flag any monsters as "Sea Creatures".

Harpydia: owned

Gooper Blooper: Big "Gen 1 ghosts beat psychics" energy

New Years Eve-Il: "Likewise, there is a Capsule monster with "Soil" attacks. There are no monsters with the Soil weakness flag set."

RubyChao: big "moon ball and burn heal" energy

New Years Eve-Il: "Final Fantasy Adventure has an item that cures the "Moogle" status—but the player can't use items as a Moogle, which renders the cure useless."

Harpydia: get moogled, idiot

---

Gooper Blooper: started playing a new robot fighting game today called Battle RC, runs great on the new comp

Jumpropeman: according to steam, Battle RC is similar to the game I've played, Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed

Gooper Blooper: My favorite thing about it is the Steam Workshop where people are uploading bot designs because there are a couple of super hardcore robot combat fans on there. Know how I know? Because instead of making replicas of famous and popular robots, they're putting the most obscure and random robots imaginable into Battle RC

Jumpropeman: excellent

Jumpropeman: ZFRP tier selection methods

Gooper Blooper: link

Jumpropeman: that's the kind of robot you throw into a tournament and it goes on an inexplicable run

Gooper Blooper: A few actually famous robots like Tombstone, Hydra, Toro, and Rusty did get representation on the workshop, but they are definitely outnumbered by the hordes of obscure one-and-done robots from multiple seasons ago

Gooper Blooper: who could forget... *checks notes*... Bucktooth Burl, who entered one tournament and didn't even get on television

Jumpropeman: excellent

Jumpropeman: sorted by most popular, looked at the first page, only recognize Tombstone :V

Gooper Blooper: You mean you don't recognize this famous bot?!

Gooper Blooper: (Malice is on the front page though, we know them because they sent me cool merch!)

Jumpropeman: Unidentified Red and Yellow Flipper for next Robot Champions

Sonic's Good Again: The Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of My Relationship With the Sonic the Hedgehog Series

-The Beginning-

You know this story. I've told it before. But here it is, one more time, to set the scene.

It was 1993, and little three-year-old Goops was beginning to form an attachment to video games. I played my mom's Atari 2600 as often as possible, usually playing Space Invaders. One day, the system went dead and refused to turn on again. I was beside myself with grief, and my mom knew what she had to do: get another video game console. She understood the Atari 2600 was old news by the 90s, but since she hadn't kept up with gaming since getting it, she wasn't sure what would be a good system to buy. Originally she considered an NES, but when she asked my older cousin for advice, he directed her away - the NES was old hat, too. The SNES, then? Nah. There was something much cooler on the market. If she wanted the most awesome video game system 1993 had to offer, she needed a Sega Genesis. And so, one morning I woke up to the sight of a new-in-box Model 2 Genesis in the living room and I was enraptured. Later that morning, the system was hooked up and I turned it on for the first time...

My mom has since added some additional information and a correction to this classic tale of how I first got into video games. Firstly, it wasn't a birthday gift like I had misremembered - the Atari did not happen to break down around then, she just wanted to cheer me up with a modern video game console after seeing how upset I was that the Atari had bitten the dust. Hilariously, she also added that when she became a mother, she had actually planned to raise a child without video games, which were at the height of their stereotypical "bad influence/brainrot" stereotyping in the early 90s, and she had bought into that mindset. When I'd found the Atari hanging around the house, though, she'd been willing to let me try it, and when she saw how despondent I was upon its' death, she already knew it was too late and couldn't bear seeing me so sad. Since then, my younger brother and even Mom herself have grown into avid gamers, and we've held the medium in high regard in this household ever since.

But it all comes back to that Genesis, and the pack-in game. Sonic the Hedgehog 2.