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emluvirzo · 6 months ago

Note

Hello there! I would love to read a cute Sirius x reader OS where they end up in detention together. They don't really like each other but get closer and closer...

Hope that sounds interesting to you as well :)

Thanks in advance💕

notes: hi ! so this definitely took a while for me to get to (so sorry about that) but here it is (pls have mercy, it has been so long since I wrote anything). i tried to compensate by making it detailed and lengthy. for writing sake, I tried to make the annoyance more on the reader's side, and Sirius his usual, charming self, enjoy <3 if you want a part 2 with fluff or just a continuation, then lmk !! word count: 3845 part 1 | part 2 (in prog)

The Trophy Room - Sirius Black x Reader OS (Pt 1)

The insufferable prat sauntered into detention like he owned the bloody place — mind you when he wasn't surrounded by the other idiots he called his friends, it was usually the first port of call for where to find him.

“Hello, stranger.” He said in a bemused tone, as though he were oddly pleased to find Y/N here, of course he’d be, the twat. She rolled her eyes in sheer displeasure, an annoyed and large exhale through her nose - an attempt to not rip her hair out or swing at his face (not that it would necessarily be a bad thing).

“Go away, Sirius.” She grumbled as he conveniently chose the other end of the back row Y/N was sitting at. The clock clicked quietly with every agonisingly slow second that passed as he mumbled a "Sorry, sorry, just trying to lighten the atmosphere." in that sing-songy, unfailingly insufferable tone of his, as her face burned up slightly, the blood pounding in her ears.

The door pushed open, and in walked Professor Minerva McGonagall, her lips pressed into a thin line, arms crossed as she walked in, though Y/N's eyes were practically burning a hole into the dent on the desk that her eyes had trained onto as a form of distraction from the black haired boy on the other end of the row.

"Miss L/N, Mr Black, please get up and bring your things with you." Her voice cut through the silence of the classroom. Which was shortly rebroken by hers and Sirius' chairs scraping against the floor as they both moved to stand, grabbing her bag from the floor in the process. Trying to block out Sirius' relentless pestering of McGonagall as they walked through the corridors to wherever the two were being taken for their task to detention proved to be a challenge. "Do you ever shut up, Black?" She griped, only loud enough for him to hear, which she also assumed he ignored or didn't hear at all as it didn't elicit a response other than the smirk on his face widening ever so slightly and he continued to pester McGonagall.

The torches on the wall flicked and danced in the blanket of winter darkness that filled the corridors of the castle, which Y/N took note of, it almost being a comfort to her as she walked in silence. But his voice continued to filter through her thoughts, the way his laugh bounced off the walls of the now narrowing corridors. How... frustrating. How frustrating that he was treating being guided to detention as an excursion. How he never took anything seriously, even in classes, but still managed to come out on top, or in the vicinity of it. Y/N subtly shook her head, an attempt to somehow clear her mind, as though shaking it would detract from the fact she was trailing behind him and McGonagall with what was a more than sour expression on her face.

They eventually came to a stop in front of a familiar room, the trophy room. She internally groaned, the dread filling every crevice of her body. Her hands were going to be dead by the end of it.

"- that's enough chatter from you this evening, Mr Black. Now, both of you are well aware of where we are." McGonagall gave them both a pointed look "You both know the rules. Have everything polished and done by dinner. I'm sure you're both exceptionally experienced by now and have learnt to do this efficiently. You in particular, Mr Black." To which Y/N saw Sirius' smirk widen into a wolfish, mischievous grin from out of the corner of her eye, his hands shoved deeply into his pockets, shirt untucked, tie loose around his neck, hair unfailingly messily styled. Sirius' eyes flicked over to Y/N, her own eyes instantly averting the minute she realised she may have been caught.

As McGonagall's footsteps echoed as she left Sirius and Y/N, an odd silence between them as they stood in front of the door. Sirius, with his bag slung casually over one shoulder, started to roll his sleeves up as he walked in first. She tailed him and chucked her bag into a corner as she rolled her own sleeves up, blissfully unaware of the weight of his eyes on her back as he leaned against the wall, between 2 of the trophy cases.

The silence filled the room as she opened the cleaning supplies cabinet, she grabbed a rag, throwing it over her shoulder and the polish spray, when she heard "I never took you for the eager type, L/N.". His voice was a lazy drawl, an almost amused lilt to his otherwise deep and smooth voice.

Her jaw clenched as she moved to the farthest trophy case, near the door, but despite her resolve, she shot back— "Well unlike you, some of us have better things to do and don't live in detention.". She didn't bother to look back at him as she opened the trophy case and pulled them all out, placing them safely on the floor. Y/N picked up a quidditch trophy from the floor first and started to work on it absent-mindedly, silently fuming that she was there, to begin with, internally monologuing how this was all Sirius' fault.

As she worked on the trophy, she noticed it had been awfully silent and she turned back to glance at him, where he was still leaning between two of the cases, but his eyes were trained on her.

"What're you looking at, Black? Don't tell me you still don't know how to polish? With your reputation, aren't you meant to have done this a million times by now?" She questioned, her face slightly scrunched up in both scrutiny and confusion, ignoring the way her eyes kept trailing down to his forearms. How stupid. Rolled up sleeves to not even actually do any work. Could he get any more obnoxious?

"'Course I know how to polish, L/N, I reckon I'm better at it than you are. I just prefer to supervise." He mused as he watched her eyes narrow, the frustration on her face obvious. However, he did notice how her eyes kept flitting to his forearms. A thrill of satisfaction ran through his body as his charming, lopsided grin made its way onto his face. He subtly flexed them, his veins rising slightly.

Her hand tightened its grip on the trophy, the other clenched into a fist around the damp rag as she glared at him, her eyes cold and unfailingly held his gaze. They stayed like that, their eyes connected across the room from each other as the air in the room crackled. They were at a stalemate as she was determined to win. They stayed like that for a solid 30 seconds as she watched Sirius' grey eyes flick through a cycle of emotions. Surprise, amusement, then finally, resignation.

"You've got an attitude, L/N, you realise that, right?" He mused as he sauntered towards the supplies cupboard, grabbed a rag of his own and sprayed some of the product onto it. He walked to the trophy case next to her, and opened it, putting all the trophies on the floor, the same way she did. She side-eyed him as she internally cursed him out, before she retorted back, rising to the bait "And what? You think you're Merlin's gift to wizarding society? You've got so much bloody attitude you could share it with the rest of the wizarding population and still have enough left over to remain an insufferable, stuck-up prat."

Sirius' shock, turned into a shit-eating grin "Oh yeah? That's what you think of me, L/N? An 'insufferable, stuck-up prat'? You do know how to wound my feelings, darling." He clutched his chest dramatically, as he kept glancing towards her, trying to gauge her feelings and reaction to his own dramatic display of antics, which despite her anger, was mildly amusing. She fought to keep her expression painfully neutral, though she couldn't quite stop the way her mouth slightly twitched upwards.

"You're not funny." She said curtly as she quickly stamped away any amusement she may have felt.

They settled into a comfortable silence as they worked, her eyes occasionally flitting over to him. Just to check his progress. At least that's what Y/N told herself, just to make sure he was actually polishing. She took note of the way he hummed familiar riffs under his breath, catching notes of certain lyrics, a lot of Queen and Bowie, she noticed. He had good taste. She'd give him that. The way his eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly as he worked on a particularly dull plaque. The way the smell of polish filled the room as well as the smell of... leather, smoke... some form of oud...? The smell of his shampoo. She blinked rapidly a couple times as she realised what she was thinking and flushed slightly

"You missed a spot." He murmured as he leaned closer to her, causing Y/N to jump slightly at not only the sudden proximity, but the sheer surprise of him breaking the fragile silence.

"No, I didn't." She replied as she glanced at him, then looked back to the plaque, her eyes running over it just to confirm her own belief.

He said nothing, but with a graceful and swift move of his hand, swiped his rag over a spot, the metal gleaming under the candlelight that filled the room. "You were saying?" He raised an eyebrow, an amused smirk on his lips. He clucked his tongue, as he shook his head in mock disappointment "I thought I was meant to be a 'stuck-up prat'? Told you I was better at this than you." He gloated with mock cockiness. She looked up at him their faces now only separated by a few inches as he leaned down. His grey eyes locked onto hers as they glinted with amusement, that stupid smirk plastered onto his face.

"Pretentious, cocky arse, too." She grumbled, "Add that to the list of adjectives people would use to describe you."

The more she snapped back, the more Sirius tried to dampen the feelings of genuine hurt that stung, his smirk faltering. He knew he played up an act, a persona to everybody. That was very much part of his whole personality, what made him who he was to the rest of the school, nix James, Remus and Peter. He tried to keep the mask on his face but he faltered for a second when he heard her add the last bit. 'Add that to the list of adjectives people would use to describe you.'. He didn't understand why it stung so much. Sure he had shared classes with her for so long, but he'd always acted like this. This wasn't exactly new behaviour. The rest of his classmates found him amusing to some degree, but not her? Why not her? It confused him, how she was immune to it.

She felt instantly bad when she saw him withdraw and settle back into silence, a different type of silence this time. They continued to polish, making their way in a circuit around the trophy room. Sirius' quiet humming and mumbled lyrics stopped, the only sound was the occasional opening and closing of trophy cases, the clink of trophies against the glass shelves. The silence dragged on until they were both on the last 4 trophy cases, 2 cases each.

"Why do you hate me-" "I'm sorry-"

They stared at each other for a second, both their hands stopping any motion of polishing as they looked between themselves and the trophies they each held.

Sirius spoke up first before she could even process what he had asked her, repeating his question. "Why do you hate me so much, L/N?" which caused her to blink a couple times in shock. She couldn't tell if he was being serious but she gave him an answer anyway.

"You're so... unserious. About everything. About people around you, about your studies, about who you hurt in those stupid pranks of yours. You lack of consideration for others. Basic empathy. You're... you're arrogant and reckless. And... and... you're just an arse, okay?" She ranted, Y/N's chest rose and fell a little faster as she tried to catch her breath from the sheer speed at which she spoke.

"Our pranks don't hurt anybody unless they deserve it!" He replied defensively, his face now shaped into a scowl, his knuckles turned white from gripping the trophy so strongly.

"And who are you to decide that? You aren't a higher-up being. Just cause you come from the family you come from doesn't mean-"

He froze, and a white-hot rage burned through his body. It seared through him — nobody but his best friends knew about his family and home life. Sirius knew exceedingly well the stereotypes that followed his last name. The fact that Regulus was the pinnacle of what was meant to be 'The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black' didn't help his case. Especially since it had been spread around that his place as heir had been handed down to his younger brother, though it was kept under wraps as to why. "Finish that sentence. I dare you. Don't you dare bring my family into this. You know fuck all about me."

Y/N in her own rage, didn't see the warning signs, the way his pupils shrunk, his body language resemblant to that of a dog about to bite. "So tell me then- what makes you so special that you get to decide who gets to be the target of your and your friend's stupid pranks. They're childish and obnoxious and quite frankly, distasteful."

"What makes you so fucking special that you get to decide if they're childish or obnoxious? Cause from where we're standing, the only person who seems to have a stick up their arse about it is you."

"Yeah well, they're idiots too. Birds of a feather flock together, Black."

The air was thick with unsaid words, the anger heating what once was the ice-cold trophy room. She took a breath and tried to calm herself. She let her eyes trail over him, reading his body like a book. His silhouette was oddly familiar to her, from watching him slink in late to class, or from him being in her eyeline in their class' seating plans. His usually relaxed body was taut, tightly strung like that of a bow. Her heart sank and her expression faltered. She'd hit a nerve and she realised it too late.

"Sirius-" she started, the use of his first name unfamiliar to her tongue. Unusual, yet not quite unwelcome, her heart raced in her chest as she looked up at him, her head cocked ever so slightly to the right "I'm sorry. I didn't realise-" She tried again, but the words refused to come, tangled between thought and feeling.

Sirius took a step forward, opening his mouth to speak when the door to the trophy room aggressively swung open, revealing Filch.

"Well, well, well. Look what we have here." Filch delightedly wheezed as he leaned against the doorframe to support his weight. He stood there, his rounded frame prevented the light from the corridor from flooding into the otherwise dimly lit trophy room.

"Caught red-handed." He said gleefully, crooked yellow teeth beaming at Sirius and Y/N as the smell of mildew, dampness and sweat filled the room. "Detention won’t be enough this time. Oh no, I’ll see to it myself—proper punishments, the way things should be."

Y/N and Sirius' heads snapped towards the door at the sudden intrusion, their eyes flitting from Filch, then to each other, before Y/N spoke up in an attempt to pacify Filch, unaware of their close proximity to each other. "We're nearly done," She said quickly "We have these last few cases then we'll leave for dinner, Sir."

Her voice was steady, polite and practiced. Though Sirius was ignoring the exchange, uncaring of any threats of further punishment Filch threatened them with. Sirius' eyes never returned to look at Filch. For a fleeting moment, he forgot Filch was even there.

Instead, they remained trained on her, the flickering torchlight cast a warm glow across her face, adding a glow to her skin he had only ever noticed occasionally, like when she'd lounge by the fireplace in the common room, laughing with her friends. His frustration from earlier—the heat of his anger—seemed to melt away, tempered by something else entirely.

He wasn’t sure what it was. Only that looking away felt impossible.

"If you're not done by dinner, I'll make sure your second punishment is worse." Filch sneered, spittle spraying onto the floor.

Y/N gave a curt nod. They both watched as he huffed out of the room, the door slamming shut behind him. His grumbling echoed down the corridor, the sound seeping in through the crack beneath the door.

"Let's hurry up and get out of here. I don't fancy being stuck in another detention." She said quietly as she turned back to her trophy case.

She reached for her rag once more and instead found her fingers brushing against his, as he picked it up to hand to her, his gaze averted as he held it out towards her. A feigned nonchalance. She took it from him, muttering a quiet thanks. A fleeting touch—barely there, but enough to send a spark up her arm. He didn’t pull away immediately, nor did she. His fingers reluctantly released the rag and she slowly started to polish her trophy once more. Only now, she was under Sirius' gaze, a new curiosity had been sparked in him.

The act in itself now felt, awkward. Unnatural. The weight of his gaze was heavy on her shoulders, though she wasn't imagining it. He had gone back to leaning back against the wall, absent-mindedly and lazily polishing his own trophy, though his eyes were focused on her. He eventually gave up the pretense of polishing the trophy and instead just stared at her. He wasn't even pretending to work anymore. His gaze was no longer teasing, menacing, nor angry; instead it was thoughtful, almost considering, though his lips carried the same insufferable smirk she was well acquainted with.

"You’re staring," she murmured, not looking up from the trophy she was polishing, focused on a particularly difficult smudge that she was failing to remove.

Sirius tilted his head, his gaze unwavering. "You really don’t like me, do you?"

Y/N sighed, rubbing at it, getting progressively more frustrated with the fact it was unfleeting. "You make it very easy."

"And yet," he mused, watching her, "you almost sounded sorry earlier."

She continued to buff out the trophy, Y/N's eyebrows furrowed as she delved into her thoughts. After a moment, she spoke up "I am. About me making a jab about your family. It was a low blow." She sighed. "I'm not entirely sure what the deal is there — not that it's any of my business, y'know. Everybody has their own crap to deal with. It wasn't right of me to make an assumption. So yeah. I'm sorry, Sirius."

Sirius blinked, taken aback and caught off guard. Of all the things he’d expected her to say, that definitely wasn’t one of them. He had braced himself for another sharp retort, another exasperated sigh. Instead, she was… apologising. He didn’t know what to do with that. From what he had heard of her in passing from watching her, he knew she didn't apologise and not mean it.

His smirk faltered, just slightly, before he quickly pulled the mask back over and redressed his bravado.

"So you are sorry," his smirk widened as he tilted his head, and a glint of satisfaction flicked in the silver depths of his eyes. "And here I thought you just enjoyed taking the piss out of me."

She huffed, going back to her polishing. "I do." Though her eyes flit to meet his, a flash of amusement and what seemed to be warmth seeped through.

His lips curled. "Ah, well, that’s reassuring." He lazily ran a hand through his hair, letting it fall however he pleased. Annoyingly gorgeous. Could he get any more frustrating?

They lapsed into silence again, but this time it wasn’t thick with tension or resentment. It was… different. Warmer, somehow. As though the weight of any lingering resentment or confusion had been cleared. A breath of fresh air.

By the time 6pm rolled around, it was time for dinner and Y/N had finished polishing the last plaque. She let out a soft sigh of relief as she clicked the glass cabinet shut and lightly shook out her hands in an attempt to alleviate the cramp that she knew would inevitably set in. As she clicked the cabinet shut, Sirius stretched with a lazy groan, arms high over his head. His shirt lifted just slightly at the movement, and Y/N forced herself to focus on anything but that. Anything but the slither of skin that was exposed.

"Finally free," he drawled, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "Come on, then. I’ll walk you down." He slinked towards the door and opened it.

She glanced at him as she walked towards the door, one brow raised. "Is that a kind gesture I hear? I should pinch myself."

"Don’t be ridiculous," he smirked. "I’m just making sure you don’t go around badmouthing me again, or find another reason to label me an 'insufferable prat' before we even make it to dessert." To which she rolled her eyes at him and walked out, the sound of her footsteps bounced off the walls of the corridor. The tension still clung to the air between them. Y/N told herself she imagined it—that it was nothing. But then she felt it.

The faintest brush of his fingers against hers as they walked.

Sirius fell into step beside her, their shoulders barely brushing. It was an innocent touch, the kind that wouldn’t normally matter.

So why did it? It shouldn't... have an effect.

She begged her heart to stop racing and for her stomach to settle, playing it off as excitement for dinner. Nothing more. Surely not.

When they finally made it to the Great Hall, Sirius and Y/N stood and stared at each other for a second, glancing over at the spot where either of them sat, and discovered that today, their friend groups had merged, most likely as a result of the fact that one key member of each had detention. Y/N slid into her usual seat next to Lily, reaching for a goblet of pumpkin juice. Across from her, James nudged Sirius with his elbow, an exaggerated waggle of his brows.

"So. You two looked cozy coming in together," he teased.

Sirius scoffed, shoving a roll into James’ mouth before he could say anything else. "Eat your dinner, Prongs."

#dead gay wizards from the 70s #dead gay wizards #marauders harry potter #mauraders #the marauders #marauders era #the marauders era #sirius being sirius #sirius orion black #sirius black x reader #sirius black #padfoot #marauders #emluvirzo

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sorenblr · 1 year ago

Note

on the off chance you like Dragon Quest, can you explain its appeal? Japanese people really like it from what I've read, but it seems to play second fiddle to FF in the West

I love Dragon Quest. I have a general JRPG brain illness that isn't confined to SMT. There's even a DQIII reference in Marsyas and the Vampyr...

Anyway, I think the appeal is self-evident: the Toriyama designs, the meat-and-potatoes simplicity, the emphasis on individual vignettes that lends the series an easy, almost serialized narrative tone, the relentless charm of it all- even Sugiyama's classical inspirations stand apart from the prog-infused soundscape of the genre. The English releases also benefit from localization, injecting color and accent that conform so well to the original tone that it hardly scans as adaptation. There is a character and magnetism at play here that no other franchise dares emulate. The series is somehow totally archetypal but completely inimitable. It's a very tidy balancing act.

The individual design elements are unremarkable - the ascetic turn-based combat centered on simple buffs and damage control, rudimentary dungeon crawling, barely extant character building except where the vocation system is present- but tend to cohere under this satisfying sense of polish and planning. And while there's more mechanical experimentation across the series than is evident at a glance, DQ still has a fundamentally conservative design ethos that sets it apart from "modern" JRPGs while ensuring a consistent reception from the more settled-in demographics: liking one entry in the series is no guarantee that you'll love the rest, but you're unlikely to be disillusioned going from one game to another.

It's also difficult to overstate the domestic legacy status. In the Western imaginary, the generic JRPG probably resembles a sort of desacralized FFVII. In Japan that image has always belonged to DQ (and more specifically DQIII), where its status as the progenitor of the genre is less clouded by the decontextualization that Japanese games experience during export- less so in the globalized present, but especially pronounced during the crucial formative years for both series. The emphasis on rudiments is something that's more permissible as a result.

But that comparison relates back to FF's dominance in the West, which is mostly attributable to the series' output during the fifth console generation. More expansive allowances for 3D representation created a demand for games designed around the cutting edge. This is the moment that FF cemented its modern reputation, across three separate entries*, as a series of constantly re-inventive, systems innovative, graphical-showcase melodramas. Meanwhile, the mainline of DQ greeted the moment with a single entry: DQVII, an infamously long and plodding game that married simple polygonal backgrounds with 2D sprites in a fashion that too much resembled the rustic SNES titles of the previous generation to suit the tastes of the average PlayStation Magazine subscriber. Debuting several months after the launch of the PS2 inflamed the issue. Considering the technocratic lust for graphical bombast that informed consumer demand at the time, it's no surprise that Western markets imprinted on FF. There's more at play there- from a marketing perspective, the diminutive peasant-protagonist of DQVII was at a disadvantage against Nomura's millennial aesthetic- but that's the thrust of it.

By the time DQVIII released, FF was already dominant, enjoying a consistent stream of profit from their MMO sector even as the wait between FFX and FFXII spanned the entire lifespan of the new system. With DQIX crafted for the DS and DQX being passed over for localization, the mainline series essentially sat out the critical transition to HD, so FF maintained its edge in the West despite increasingly troubled development and exploding production costs. Things have dovetailed neatly, with DQXI charting a series-best performance in the West, filling a niche for console JRPG experiences of this scale that has been largely unoccupied since the PS2 era. FF is meanwhile occupied with recreating, in a fit of Byzantine decadence, the very title that established its grip on the Western imagination.

*It hasn't enjoyed the same critical longevity as FFVII, but it really can't be overstated how acclaimed FVIII was at release, and the move to less abstracted, more 'realistic' models was crucial to that reception.

#ask #final fantasy #dragon quest #dq #dragon quest vii #final fantasy vii

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sol-flo · 5 months ago

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how is it next fest again.

played

isopod: i love it when games auto select graphics options my computer clearly can't run. loses a lot of its charm when it's on lowest settings. movement is pretty pleasant and the game is cute but not really my thing. didn't try on linux.

house of necrosis: a sickos game. retro turn based horror mystery dungeon, pretty inch resting. haven't finished the demo yet. didn't try on linux.

run tavernquest: it's ok? like. good presentation and interesting premise (stanley parable but it's a text adventure and you're the narrator) but also it feels too derivative for me to give a shit. antagonizing steve is fun but i don't think this would work too well past the half hour mark. linux friendly.

kill the music: rhythm action roguelike?? ok let's go. i found the screen rather hard to parse, i usually didn't know exactly why i got hit or how much hp i had left. but the game is interesting! linux friendly.

hopeless sea: shmup. no continues is pretty annoying. idk there's so many bullet hells out there i don't see a reason to play this one in particular, though it looks pretty nice. linux friendly.

palm cracker: puzzle. the demo is really really short so it overall definitely feels like style over substance but i like (the idea of) pdas, the presentation is very nice! and it's not a bad demo by any means but it's stuck at very basic cyphers since it's the start of the game. also looks like the game will be free so i'd just wait for the whole thing to drop late march and play it casually. linux friendly.

lilac 0: shmup. feels like it's following zero ranger and i'm fine with that. it looks and feels super polished, and the attacks are kinda unusual (there's a regular shot, your focused state doubles as an attack when you let go of the button, and a dodge attack gives you invuln — no bombs). haven't cleared yet but intend on trying. linux friendly.

zpf: retro shmup. i've never really played horizontal stgs and uh this won't be my first one. it's very clearly a nostalgia thing, and while it makes the game look nice i don't think it makes it good. for starters, it's 100% aimed at arcade controllers and won't let you rebind keyboard controls at all — it won't even tell you what keys do what. freak behavior, i had to pull out my (regular) controller for this because i didn't want to try pressing every key. buddy just give me arrow keys + zxc. linux friendly though.

ginger: language game set entirely within a book. sol bait. it's fascinating, i don't get it at all. excited to properly dig into it, maybe with a dedicated notebook because controlling the mouth is a little arcane. linux friendly.

elissa: body in the bedroom: ooo great looking mystery point-and-click. very interesting, definitely gonna get the full release. linux friendly.

whisper of y'ryando: i do not understand it. maybe appropriate for something lovecraftian? you literally just get snippets of clues you can combine into new ones. it's kinda like those alchemy games? anyway it did boot nicely on linux but there's no way to change the resolution / resize the window so a lot of it is cut off. only playable at 1920 x 1080.

your house: really neat text-heavy puzzle, i think it works really well. looks super sleek, story seems interesting! easy wishlist. linux friendly.

am i nima: this one is gonna fuck me uppppp i can tell. the word combination / association mechanic is really nice, and the game looks good. and as i said. it's gonna fuck me up. it's like a inside mari in here? linux friendly.

girls made pudding: seems to be a pretty clear girls' last tour inspired mood piece. didn't really grab me but i think it's cute. linux friendly.

angeline era: technically the demo has been out for a bit but eh it counts. this game's super charming but i unexplicably had dogshit performance despite being way above min specs. linux friendly but maybe proton is at fault for those issues? my laptop has been a little weird though.

quantumpulse 2a: awesome looking programming puzzles… needless to say this game is very hard as non programmer, though i did beat the demo and had fun. i don't like that the manual is an external webpage. it opens within the steam overlay but means you can't play offline and just isn't resilient. doesn't run on linux.

labyrinth of the demon king: looks baroque-esque. it's on my friend's wishlist and i'm pretty sure he thought the exact same thing. looks truly awesome but it's not what i wanna play right now so i only poked it for a bit. doesn't run on linux.

qualia: uh idk i think AI is a tired / played out subject in 2025 and i think i don't give a shit. not an enticing demo. doesn't run on linux.

centum: puzzle adventure with an unreliable narrator. sure. quite interested on seeing more, i like the presentation and i think it'll be right up my alley. didn't try on linux.

secret third thing

blackshard: megastructure and labyrinth. sol bait. however i got one single frame per second at the logo screen. putting graphics on low (terrible experience, also pray tell why does it default to high) raised the menu framerate to 3. doesn't run on linux. doesn't run on windows either. someone genuinely needs to be killed for this.

not played

rogue light deck builder: love the visual style here.

zenomatrix: i hate this game's description — "the first ever game to seamlessly combine puzzle-solving and horror" it might well be but chill out — but i love the 90s cgi style. however: minimum 4gb graphics so i won't be playing it.

eloquent countenance: rpg maker. looks cute ^_^

hot wax: tetris... 2! i remember seeing a teaser for this game. might give it a shot

#will update as i play more #but i wanted to post early because people looove taking down demos after the fest ends -_-

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feeshies · 3 days ago

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A post where I randomly recommend metal bands who appear in my recommendations and elsewhere

Asagraum: Dutch/Norwegian - Black Metal

youtube

Athal: Mexican - Prog Metal (with heavy mariachi influence)

youtube

Impureza: French-Spanish - Flamenco Death Metal

youtube

Al-Namrood: Saudi Arabia - Blackened Folk Metal

youtube

Eternal Fear: Polish - Dungeon Synth

youtube

Abstract Spirit: Russian - Funeral Doom Metal

youtube

Wrust: Botswana - Death Metal

youtube

Aversekrist: Filipino - Black Metal

youtube

#Youtube

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jesuisgourde · 10 days ago

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I've just added a bunch more songs to this list, so I'm posting the link again! If anyone is interested, this is a massive playlist of a bunch of the cool music I've heard at my indie bookstore job in the past 3 years or so. Everyone I work with has really cool music taste and we listen to a wide range of stuff, a lot of bands that are less well known. I've found and fallen in love with more bands in the past 4 years of working at this job than probably in the past 10 years before that.

If you're looking for recommendations of new things to listen to or discover, definitely bounce around in this playlist a bit.

For example, three new bands I've discovered at work within the last week and added to this playlist: Polish 90s girl rock band Maanam, psych/prog rock band Trees Speak, and synth musician (a la Mort Garson) Kenneth Freeman.

#squash rambles #music #music recommendations #Spotify

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iero · 9 months ago

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hiiiiiiii! i'm one of the multifandom blogs that follow you and i see mcr all over my dash now and was wondering if you have any song recs for them? if there is anyone i can ask to not be rude and be like you don't listen to mcr it's you lmao. not an mcr fan currently but maybe i can become one ofc!

Hi anon! This message made me smile. They've been one of my favorites since middle school, so we're going on, like, 15-16 years at this point over here. I won't be rude about it. I completely understand and I'd love to help you!

Now, it depends on what kind of sound you're going for? Their first album called I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love has a kind of post-hardcore, punk sound. Their second, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge (and my personal fave album of theirs) has that same kind of sound, but more polished? Their three album, The Black Parade, is arguably their most popular, but it's a fantastic concept album with a more alternative rock sound? Their fourth album, Danger Days, is definitely more, like, dance-punk, pop rock sound and still has fans divided to this very day! Then there is Conventional Weapons a set of singles they dropped before their break-up in 2013 and that one also carries kind of an alternative rock sound as well! I'll share some songs from each album!

Bullets:

Personal faves: Demolition Lovers, This is the Best Day Ever, Early Sunsets Over Monroeville

Most known songs off of this album: Vampires Will Never You, Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough for the Two of Us

Revenge:

Personal faves: You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison, Thank You for the Venom, I Never Told You What I Do for a Living

Most known songs: Helena, I'm Not Okay, The Ghost of You

The Black Parade:

Personal faves: This is How I Disappear, Mama, Disenchanted

Most known songs: Welcome to the Black Parade, Famous Last Words, Teenagers

Danger Days:

Personal faves: Vampire Money, Planetary, Save Yourself, I'll Hold Them Back

Most known songs: Na Na Na, SING, The Kids From Yesterday

Conventional Weapons:

Personal faves: Surrender the Night, Kiss the Ring, The Light Behind Your Eyes

Most known songs: Boy Division, The World is Ugly, Burn Bright

Non-album songs I recommend:

The Foundations of Decay (6 minute prog rock banger that they surprise released about two years ago!)

Desert Song (Originally, supposed to be an unreleased track, this was a song put on the tail end of one of their live albums. Very sad song, but it showcases Gerard Way's vocal abilities in my opinion!)

Kill All Your Friends (This is a Black Parade B-side, one of three!)

Desolation Row (Bob Dylan cover they did for the Watchmen soundtrack! Highly recommend watching the music video for this one.)

Zero Percent (Danger Days B-side! Definitely gives out that dance-punk energy.)

All the Angels (Live demo of an unreleased track, during the Black Parade days.)

I think that's about all I got anon! Let me know what you think and happy listening! :)

#answered #Anonymous #Also sorry for all the My Chem all over your dash. We're going a little crazy over here. <3

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pagingdrmusic · 6 months ago

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New album today, some Polish prog!

#music #album #new album #album update #rock #progressive rock #Polish prog #Abraxas

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cruesuffix · 27 days ago

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Folk songs anon here (lol), do you think peepaw would like folk/pagan songs? He said in interviews that he likes a lot of 1940's music and classical, like Chopin (BTW CHOPIN WAS POLISH, POLSKA MENTIONED RAHHH🦅🦅🦅🇵🇱🇵🇱), and my mentally ill ass went full on maladaptive daydreaming for a few days about me and him exchanging our favourite songs and what we'd think about them. Slavic pagan/folk music is my favourite genre next to metal, and I'd really like to hear his opinions, but I consider you a bigger Mars guru than myself, and that's why I'm asking. I'm talking about this type of songs btw: https://youtu.be/g1vB3G0KxbE?si=XpLn3hyjcPrW8uUD

right now this is my favourite song, with beautiful animation, it has english subtitles available so you won't get lost in the words lol. I also think this would go hard as an electric guitar cover (yes, now I will imagine peepaw playing this on guitar for the next few hours)

this is a good question!

i can’t give a definite answer because i’m not exactly sure if folk was really his forte. you’re right that he likes classical music + music from the 40’s, but we also have to remember this is also the man that was really into surf music at one point, and he was a beatles superfan. he also really liked prog rock and OFC the blues lmaooo. i mean he did have a pretty eclectic taste tbh, even if it doesn’t look like it! i’m pretty sure he even mentioned liking sheena easton back in the 80’s… though i’m not entirely sure if he was being serious or not!

all this being said, the song you linked is pretty heavy, and to me it kinda fits in the whole “other side of mars” aesthetic sonically and the vid itself. so… my answer would be probably not, but… he’d probably be open to listening and checking out some folk songs!

#inquires about peepaw #i could see him liking the song you mentioned though #that being said… i can’t see him liking folk as a whole though #i wish i could just ask him what his top ten albums oat are #i need to know what music he was listening to back in the day #at least… what he was listening to besides the yardbirds and jeff beck LMAOO #lily of the asks

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smilingpessimist · 5 months ago

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lil get to know you game!

(Thank you for tag, @thoughtfemme !💖)

three ships: Perc'ahlia, HimFri, and Elle Woods and Emmett Forest from Legally Blonde (The Musical)

first ship: I don't know for sure. I do know in 7th grade I was obsessed with an ongoing Twilight comic on DeviantArt that was about Alice Cullen and Jacob Black getting together, though.

last song: Achilles Come Down by Gang of Youths

favorite color: Lavender Gray

last book: currently working on Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents by Lindsay Gibson

last movie: at home? Just My Luck

in theaters? Deadpool vs Wolverine

last tv show: Frieren

sweet/spicy/savory: Savory

relationship status: Soon to be divorced (🎉)

last thing googled: "ramona drawing scott pilgrim"

current obsession(s): learning Netrunner, adult coloring books and alcohol markers, cat eye nail polish and builder gel, SMOSH, 70s prog rock, earrings, pink makeup, and probably much more I can't think of right now.

looking forward to: this year I'm looking forward to seeing Colin Mochrie & Brad Sherwood live + being a bridesmaid in my college bestie's wedding 💖

no pressure tags <3: @gothgrampa @loafingdragon @xxsliverwolfxx @violentlyvaduren @voluptatiscausa and all of my other cool mutuals 💕

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blackoutfeverdream · 4 months ago

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Broke Dysphoric Angry Ten-Light-Years-in-The-Closet Kamille Bidan

Woke Femboy Camille Bidan on microdosed E, prog, and hips and thighs with enough Cs for an entire Polish Scrabble set.

#zeta gundam

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vinylspinning · 6 months ago

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Mariah: Mariah (1975)

The unwieldy size of my record collection and the rising cost of vinyl have made it harder to take calculated risks on musical discovery, so I'll be dialing down my VinylSpinning posts from 18 to 12-per-month in 2025, after cutting back from 24 to 18 in 2023.

Please try to control your delirious cheers ...

But my endless search for the lost treasures of '70s hard rock and metal continues (not least because these LPs are often bargains), and this year's first candidate for rediscovery and reappraisal is Chicago's oddly named (well, not during the Holiday Season, I guess), Mariah.

Their inexpensively packaged (is that a twin-neck butterfly guitar?) eponymous debut arrived in 1975, but singer V.J. Comforte had been rocking Windy City clubs since at least 1967, as frontman for the even more obscure Jamestown Massacre.

But when Mariah was taking their shot, some 50 years ago, music was changing fast, and the rough-edged heavy metal and adventurous progressive rock that characterized the early '70s were giving way to a more polished and melodic sound that would soon become late '70s AOR.

So, in Mariah, Comforte surrounded himself with younger players armed with both the instrumental chops and rich vocal harmonies that were taking over radio, including keyboardist Mark Ayers, bassist Ed Burek, drummer Wayne DiVarko, and guitarists Len Fogerty and Frankie Sullivan.

Yes, the same Frankie Sullivan who would later lead Survivor of "Eye of the Tiger" fame ... see where this is going?

If not, I'll clarify that typical Mariah songs like "Hey Mama" (*) "Mystic Lady," and "I Was Born" would feel right at home on a late '70s Styx or REO Speedwagon LP, while the driving "Feel It" is almost uncomfortably similar to Painter's 1973 gem "Slave Driver."

("Who the fuck is Painter? Well I covered them here a decade ago.)

Moving on, the extensively named "Broadway (How You Gonna Keep 'em Down On Broadway After They've Seen the Farm?)," jams a dozen styles together and yet, somehow, it works, helped by a welcome dose of humor.

Finally, more complex, organ-enhanced numbers like "Reunion" and "Nomad Man" see Mariah edging closer to prog, while "Asleep at the Wheel" swerves towards southern boogie, and the cheesy "Rock and Roll Band" sounds like a poor precursor to Boston's far-superior attempt one year later.

And the Boston reference is certainly relevant here, because it was precisely that ubiquitous group's watershed, mega-platinum-selling debut that would rewrite expectations and raise the bar for commercial melodic hard rock for the duration of the '70s.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if countless bands, when faced with the daunting prospect of competing against Tom Scholz's meticulous hard rock symphonies, simply threw their hands up, their instruments down, and decided there were easier ways to make a living ... say, like selling insurance.

And maybe that's what happened to some of Mariah's players, but not Sullivan, who evidently picked up Boston's AOR gauntlet and formed Survivor with multi-instrumentalist Jim Peterik, who coincidentally wrote almost half of the songs on this LP!

Needless to say, learning about these incestuous musician relationships and their intersecting career paths (see last year's Target, which yielded future Survivor singer Jimi Jamison) is another reason for my fascination with rock's lesser lights and also-rans.

We already know more than enough about the superstars ...

* Trivia time: this is a cover of a song co-written by original Deep Purple bassist Nick Simper for his band Fandango --not to be confused with Joe Lynn Turner's American band by the same name.

More Obscure Mid ‘70s Hard Rock: Armageddon’s Armageddon, Baker Gurvitz Army’s Elysian Encounter, Bedlam’s Bedlam, Black Sheep’s Black Sheep, Black Spirit’s Black Spirit, Blackfoot’s No Reservations, Blackfoot Sue’s Nothing to Hide, Bloontz’s Bloontz, Blue Goose’s Blue Goose, Bux’s We Come to Play, Brownsville Station’s Motor City Connection, Cain’s A Pound of Flesh, Diamond Reo’s Diamond Reo, Dirty Tricks’ Dirty Tricks, Earth Quake’s Rocking the World, Elf’s Trying to Burn the Sun, Epitaph’s Outside the Law, Gedō’s Gedō, Goliath’s Hot Rock & Thunder, ...

Even more Obscure Mid '70s Hard Rock: Good Rats’ Ratcity in Blue, Granicus’ Granicus, Granmax’s A Ninth Alive, Growl's Growl, Hammersmith’s Hammersmith, Hustler’s High Street, Legs Diamonds’ Legs Diamond, Max Webster’s Max Webster, Mother’s Finest’s Mother’s Finest, Moxy’s Moxy, Murasaki’s Murasaki, Nitzinger’s Live Better Electrically, Nutz’s Nutz, Painter’s Painter, Pentagram’s First Daze Here, Piper’s Piper, Plus’ No Pisar el Infinito, Primevil’s Smokin’ Bats at Campton’s, Silver's Children of the Lord, Starz’s Starz, Stepson’s Stepson, The Storm’s The Storm, Strider’s Exposed, Strife’s Rush, Tiger’s Tiger, Trooper's Trooper, Truth and Janey’s No Rest for the Wicked, Widowmaker’s Widowmaker.

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