sempercry

[sempercry]

Flick. Flick. Flick.

Character/Pairing: Jason Kolchek x Salim Othman

Tags/Warnings: Violence, blood, temporary character death, panic, smoking, hurt/comfort, angst

Disclaimer: Takes place an unspecified amount of time after the conclusion of House of Ashes.

All credit goes to @smolbeandrabbles - thank you for introducing me to the game, unwittingly giving me the idea for this fic, and being the best hype person. Love you ❤️

Word Count: 1460

Summary: Salim promised that he’d give up smoking but sometimes his nightmares make that hard to do.

Read on AO3 or below

Salim stared up at the sky, dark, except for the slivers of sun he could see behind the moon. In years past, he’d’ve thought it beautiful. But it was hard to appreciate as his blood drained onto the sand beneath him.

The pain had become so intense that he no longer felt anything. Not the gashes along his torso nor the feeling of the creature atop him, filling its belly with his life force. If he did feel anything, it was a great heaviness, seeping into his limbs, his body, his head, lulling him into a sleepy haze.

His eyelids began to droop, as the idea of the end settled into his mind. But it was cut short by the sound of a scream, a scream in the form of his name. He knew this voice, he had to. It was so familiar. Over and over, his name was cried out, getting louder. He willed his brain to work. Yes, he knew this voice. It had said his name before, he was certain. In annoyance, in snark, in pleasure.

Mustering the very last of his strength, Salim managed to turn his head in the direction of his lover.

Jason was barreling towards him, anguish painted on his face. Salim wanted to raise his arms up and yell. ‘No, foolish American. Why are you coming closer with no weapon? Run, run and save yourself.’ But it was no use, his energy was long gone. He could only watch helplessly as Jason continued in his trajectory and the vampire tore itself away from his entrails and honed in on the approaching target.

He couldn’t even make a sound as the monster launched itself at Jason and took him down with ease. Piercing screams filled the air as the vampire began to tear into Jason’s flesh, the man kicking up sand as he struggled.

The heaviness choked him as he watched his lover suffer the same fate as him. Now as his eyelids began to drift, there was nothing left to stop them. And as Salim drew his last breath, he closed his eyes to the sight of Jason’s soft blue shirt turning crimson.

•••

Salim jerked upright, his heavy quilt shifted off his body as consciousness returned. Air entered his lungs in ragged gasps as he looked around him. The desert was gone, replaced by the walls of his London flat. He didn’t wait for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, instead lurching to turn on the lamp atop his bedside table, knocking over a stack of books in the process.

Light flooded the room and Salim first looked down, examining himself. No wounds, no blood; he seemed entirely intact. Next he whipped around to examine the body beside him. Jason began to stir from the commotion but Salim needed to be sure he was alive.

His unsteady hands made contact with Jason’s bare chest, right over his heart. Despite his trembling, he felt Jason’s strong heartbeat as the younger man was now wide awake and moving to sit up.

“Salim, what the hell?” Jason blinked, the light blinding him after coming out of a deep sleep. Salim slid his hands upwards and came to cup Jason’s face, drawing it closer to his own. It was then that Jason seemed to register the distressed look he was receiving and reached up to grasp Salim’s forearms. “You okay?”

His first instinct was to nod, then to shake his head. From Jason’s furrowing brow, he realized he was moving his head but in no coherent direction. So he said the first word that came to his mind, a word that they were both intimately familiar with.

“Nightmare.”

He released Jason’s face from his hold and pulled away to search for the second word that came to his mind. Cigarette.

He stumbled out of bed and towards the living room, turning on every light switch within his reach. He arrived gracelessly at his desk and yanked open the top drawer, fumbling for his emergency stash. Box and lighter in hand, he tripped towards the balcony, swearing as he went, cigarettes spilling from their box as he struggled to pull one out. He stooped to pick one off the floor, abandoning the box and its contents scattered around it.

Cigarette in hand, he slid open the door and stepped out into the crisp night air.

With great effort, he managed to flip open the lighter and strained to hold both level with each other.

Flick. Flick. Flick.

His hands shook so hard that he couldn’t get a grip on the lighter wheel strong enough to ignite the flame. He cursed again, willing his hands to work, willing them to be steady.

He jumped as Jason materialized in front of him. “Gimme that.” With ease, he removed the light from Salim’s hand and wrapped his hand around his wrist, keeping the cigarette in place. With one fluid motion, Jason rolled his thumb across the lighter’s spark wheel.

Flick. Whoosh.

A small flame danced between them as Jason carefully lit the cigarette and let go of Salim’s wrist. As the first hint of smoke curled into the air, Salim turned and took several long drags. As the seconds ticked by, he felt his body begin to relax and his mind slow. His eyes darted up to the sky. Bright moon. No vampires.

Within a minute, he had burned through the first one and turned back towards the door to find a second. He was met by Jason stepping back outside, box in hand with the cigarettes tucked safely back inside, save for one that he handed to Salim.

“Thank you,” Salim managed to rasp, his voice as unsteady as the rest of him. It earned him a nod as Jason reached out with the lighter again, lighting the second one.

He moved away to take a drag, knowing Jason’s aversion to the habit, but the younger man stayed close. As Salim breathed in, he felt a gentle hand on his back and a warm body pressed against his side. He glanced over to see Jason peering down at the road below them, vacant at this hour.

As the panic slowly subsided, Salim was left with a growing sense of guilt. Guilt over waking the man beside him. Guilt for breaking his resolve to quit smoking. Each subsequent drag was both a physical relief and a mental strain.

“Hey, I can hear ya thinkin’.” He locked eyes with Jason who fixed him with a stern look. “We’ve been over this shit. A couple here and there is fine. I don’t care. We’ve been through enough.”

Salim nodded, knowing his partner was right. They had been through enough, enough for several lifetimes. And here they were, body to body, alive. Without breaking eye contact, Salim stubbed out the cigarette on the balcony railing and expressed his gratitude in the best way he knew how.

“I love you.”

It was Jason that looked away, and Salim could see his cheeks flush under the moonlight.

“Love you too.”

Salim smiled and once again took Jason’s face into his hands, pressing a long, gentle kiss to his lips. They paused to rest their foreheads together, breathing in each other's air. Then it was Jason to initiate a kiss, this one more forceful, grounding.

When they broke apart, Jason took his hand and began pulling him back inside with a soft but firm, “Come on.”

Salim let himself be led back to the bedroom, stopping only for Jason to tuck the cigarettes and lighter back into the drawer and to turn off the living room lights.

The soft glow of his lamp greeted him as Salim returned to his bedside, books back in their place, he noted, as Jason moved around to the other side to settle back in.

“Can I…?” Salim glanced from Jason to the lamp and back.

“You ain’t gotta ask.” Salim nodded his thanks and eased himself onto the mattress. Following the incident in the desert, they were used to falling asleep with a light on regularly, but Salim still felt the need to ask.

Once they were both in bed, Jason wasted no time wrapping Salim in his arms and pulling him to his chest. The older man smiled to himself, snaking his arms around Jason in return. Gentle fingers found their way into his hair and he sighed. With Jason’s heart beating steadily against his cheek, Salim allowed the sound and feeling to be his sole focus as Jason drifted back to sleep.

He wasn’t sure how long he lay there, listening to each thump, but as the light in the room shifted from artificial to natural and dawn finally broke, Salim closed his eyes and slept.

[sempercry]

Inspired by this interview bit of Emily Blunt & John Krasinski

[sempercry]

Jason Kolchek x Salim Othman (Jalim)

1. i love how Jason can improve his personality and defend Salim after they got arrested, my respect man

2. Enemies to lovers 🥰

3. They have amazing chemistry with each other, are the epitome of enemies-to-lovers and the best duo Supermassive has ever created, have funny and flirtatious interactions and some of the best scenes in the game. What's more to say? ;D

4. Enemies to friends to lovers is one of my favourite tropes, plus seeing Salim manage to wedge his way through the walls and biases Jason had/has melts my heart

5. Do I really need to say more?!

6. I love the fact that they helped each other grow, specifically in the case of Jason, who at the start of the game desperately needed some character development

Sam Giddings x Hannah Washington

1. Best friends to lovers dynamic? perfect. Sam was the only one (except for Beth) who was nice to Hannah in the prologue. And their relationship stats are very high. Sam would be very protective gf for Hannah

2. In your "Nothing bad ever happened ever" AUs, you've got some classic best friends (even childhood friends) to lovers. In canon, though, the tragedy of it all makes you want to chew through wood. Thinking about Sam having been in love with Hannah all that time when she was pining for some guy, and then losing her tragically because she couldn't find her in time to stop the prank. Also, right at the end of the game, as Sam makes a break for the light switch, you could easily assume that Hannah is lunging for her and ended up tackling a miner in the process, but a better idea, a *gayer* idea is that deep down, Hannah recognised Sam, and wanted to save her when it all came down to it. It's tragic. It's heartbreaking. It's kinda beautiful, to think, even in that altered state, Hannah loved Sam too, but only came to realise it at the last possible moment, and used that clarity to save her friend. Maybe she loved her that whole time, before the prank, but latched onto Mike as a way to seem 'normal'. Heteronormativity is the real villain in this game and that's that on that

[sempercry]

happy halloween from jason

[sempercry]

Yeah!!! My fav games is two years old!!!

[sempercry]

the way Salim says Mary's name, with that tiny bit of accent, I melt inside everytime 🥺🥺

[sempercry]

Chapter 11 — Bloodbath

[sempercry]

@writtenjewels look what you've done.

Jason's twinkling blind eyes won't get out of my head. Look at his pupil-blown, useless, doe eyes. They give Salim's a run for their money

Go read WrittenJewels SPECtacular fic See No Evil , EYEconic quote in ch 7 👁👄👁

[sempercry]

Happy (late) birthday to Rachel!

[sempercry]

I’m obsessed.

This one’s a little bit more accurate ! Still training to draw his features :D

[sempercry]

Joe from Man of Medan (i know it’s just Jason’s face model again but bare with me..)

Adding those 2 too

[sempercry]

Supermassive Choices

Have you ever wondered how many choices Supermassive's choice-based games actually have? Well, I did, so naturally, I decided to count them :D

For everyone who just wants the numbers, they are under the cut. For everyone who wants to know which choices I exactly counted, they can look them up in this document. I went for a mix between "good choices" and "maximum choices", so it is possible to make even more ... and it is definitely possible to finish the games with less. This is just an estimate on how many choices each game roughly has during a playthrough where you try to save everyone and get as many choices as possible without being too mean and without missing out on important scenes :)

Little disclaimer: Obviously, the pure amount of choices doesn't necessarily mean anything. A game you like can have few choices and a game you dislike can have a lot. But I still thought it was interesting to know ;)

So now, the numbers!

Until Dawn: 145 (91 in Act 1; 31 in Act 2; 23 in Act 3)

Hidden Agenda: 76 (32 in Act 1; 28 in Act 2; 16 in Act 3)

Man of Medan: 106 (64 in Act 1; 25 in Act 2; 17 in Act 3)

Little Hope: 127 (84 in Act 1; 22 in Act 2; 21 in Act 3)

House of Ashes: 90 (38 in Act 1; 43 in Act 2; 9 in Act 3)

The Devil in Me: 64 (33 in Act 1; 20 in Act 2; 11 in Act 3)

The Quarry: 204 (79 in Act 1; 48 in Act 2; 77 in Act 3)

----------

Until Dawn and The Quarry don't have official acts, but with a little help from @legenspeople, I split them up in a way I thought would fit. :)

So, what do you think? For me, there were definitely some surprises there, like Little Hope being the DPA game with the most amount of choices or House of Ashes and The Devil in Me having roughly as many choices as Until Dawn's/Man of Medan's first act. I was also surprised by how few choices you can have in House of Ashes' and The Devil in Me's third act, and how the overall number of choices usually decreases the farther you are into the game. There are even more interesting details in the listed document, like the chapters with zero choices - feel free to give it a look :)

Overall, this was a fun little project and I hope someone else enjoyed my findings, too :D

(Little Edit: These choices do not necessarily represent my own opinions. Especially with Until Dawn, but also with the other games, I had fun picking some "community choices" ;D)

[sempercry]

Supermassive Choices

Have you ever wondered how many choices Supermassive's choice-based games actually have? Well, I did, so naturally, I decided to count them :D

For everyone who just wants the numbers, they are under the cut. For everyone who wants to know which choices I exactly counted, they can look them up in this document. I went for a mix between "good choices" and "maximum choices", so it is possible to make even more ... and it is definitely possible to finish the games with less. This is just an estimate on how many choices each game roughly has during a playthrough where you try to save everyone and get as many choices as possible without being too mean and without missing out on important scenes :)

Little disclaimer: Obviously, the pure amount of choices doesn't necessarily mean anything. A game you like can have few choices and a game you dislike can have a lot. But I still thought it was interesting to know ;)

So now, the numbers!

Until Dawn: 145 (91 in Act 1; 31 in Act 2; 23 in Act 3)

Hidden Agenda: 76 (32 in Act 1; 28 in Act 2; 16 in Act 3)

Man of Medan: 106 (64 in Act 1; 25 in Act 2; 17 in Act 3)

Little Hope: 127 (84 in Act 1; 22 in Act 2; 21 in Act 3)

House of Ashes: 90 (38 in Act 1; 43 in Act 2; 9 in Act 3)

The Devil in Me: 64 (33 in Act 1; 20 in Act 2; 11 in Act 3)

The Quarry: 203 (79 in Act 1; 48 in Act 2; 76 in Act 3)

----------

Until Dawn and The Quarry don't have official acts, but with a little help from @legenspeople, I split them up in a way I thought would fit. :)

So, what do you think? For me, there were definitely some surprises there, like Little Hope being the DPA game with the most amount of choices or House of Ashes and The Devil in Me having roughly as many choices as Until Dawn's/Man of Medan's first act. I was also surprised by how few choices you can have in House of Ashes' and The Devil in Me's third act, and how the overall number of choices usually decreases the farther you are into the game. There are even more interesting details in the listed document, like the chapters with zero choices - feel free to give it a look :)

Overall, this was a fun little project and I hope someone else enjoyed my findings, too :D

(Little Edit: These choices do not necessarily represent my own opinions. Especially with Until Dawn, but also with the other games, I had fun picking some "community choices" ;D)

[sempercry]

Happy birthday, Jason! 🧢

[sempercry]

Joke Book

The “party” for his birthday was a subdued affair this year. Growing up, Jason had learned not to expect a big celebration-- his family could never afford much-- and by the time he was grown up it just didn't matter to him anymore. As long as he had his sister and his friends over, it was all the party he needed.

One by one he went through the presents, thanking everyone for what they gave him. He saved Salim's to last and his heart pounded as he picked it up. Salim sat up a little straighter in his chair and watched hopefully as Jason tore through the wrapping. Jason caught his eye and smiled at him; he got an answering smile in return. The last of the wrapping was pulled away and Jason paused, frowning at the gift.

“What's this?”

“A book,” Salim responded.

“I know that, smart-ass.” A book was the absolute last thing Jason ever expected to get for a birthday present. He had no idea what to make of it. He turned the volume over in his hands in confusion. It was a book on puns, riddles, and other jokes.

“You like my jokes so much,” Salim explained, his smile fading a little uncertainly, “that I thought you might enjoy a book about them.”

“Thanks,” was all Jason could say. He knew it wasn't nearly enough and from the look on Salim's face, the other caught that, too. Penny decided now was a good time to clear up the wrapping paper so they could have coffee and cake.

A little while later, Salim stepped outside for a smoke. Jason made sure his guests were all entertaining themselves before following.

“Can't believe you survived fuckin' aliens just to gunk up your lungs with that shit,” Jason huffed.

“I know.” Salim exhaled a puff of smoke. “It isn't like you to be so polite, Jason. You could have just said so if you didn't like my gift.”

“It ain't that I didn't like it,” Jason argued. He stared out into the distance searching for the right words. “It's just… I don't laugh 'cause I like the jokes. I laugh 'cause of the way you tell 'em. They won't be funny if I just read the book.” Salim went still, and Jason worried he explained it wrong. Maybe if he tried another approach. “Why did Hamlet feel sorry for Yorik?”

“I don't know.” Salim's brow knitted in confusion. “Why?”

“He was getting a head of himself.” Salim let out a soft laugh, and Jason grinned, nudging him. “See? That's what I mean about your jokes.”

“Are my jokes really that terrible?”

“Most of the time, yeah.” Jason smirked at him before adding, “Sometimes they're even worse. But I laugh 'cause I like when you tell them.” Salim's smile widened, his gaze almost tender. The look made Jason's heart beat a little faster. “Anyway, thanks for the gift.”

“You're welcome.” That tenderness was still in Salim's gaze. “I only gave it to you because I like when you smile and laugh.” Jason wet his lips, suddenly nervous. It felt like they were confessing something more to each other.

“I better go back inside. Try not to give yourself more lung cancer.”

“I promise that the only thing smoking will be your candles on the birthday cake.”

“Like I said,” Jason snorted, unable to stop the smile on his face, “your jokes are awful.” Salim's eyes twinkled back at him and Jason had to hurry away before the other man noticed the blush starting to rise on Jason's face.

That stupid joke book turned out to be his favorite birthday present yet.

[sempercry]

Happy birthday Jason 🥳

[sempercry]

It's his birthday✨💙