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starkerkeyz · 5 years

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Merman, Caveman, Same Difference

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Enjoy this monster fucking piece by me ;D

Warnings: NFF, Monster fucking, Merman fucking, dubconish, Slutty Tony DTF anything with a big dick, ABO, MPREG, mentions of Pepper but Tony and her are not together.

Tony descends into the depths that housed the underwater cables for his tower and thinks about how impressed Pepper is going to be with his clean energy initiative. Darkness envelops him like a stain spreading over paper. His suit turns on the lights mounted on his shoulders to counter the natural decline in visibility. Pepper might even be so impressed she’ll let him take her out to dinner.

Something disturbs the murk with a quick flash of dark blue. Tony’s heart kicks up instinctively but he swallows the fluttering panic. His monkey brain might still think he’s prey down here but the suit can withstand 10 tons of pressure and no shark tooth is puncturing his titanium alloy.

Still.

He reaches the piping protecting the cables and pops the casing without fanfare. Once he’s got eyes on the inner workings he focuses on his revolutionary, forward thinking clean energy and not the shifting, turbid shadows of the water pressing in all around him. The silence is so loud in his temples. His senses are getting turned around and he hasn’t moved from where he’s holding onto the cable. The gloves of the suit are getting wet from his clammy sweat.

The upgraded tech cuff snaps on around the cables. Tony lets out a breath. It extends itself until the inner cabling is protected and able to synch with the new software surface side. It glows softly white and green in the darkness, successfully installed.

A loud, rending crunch filled the water.

Tony’s interface filled with blaring red milliseconds after; then he’s dragged backwards through the water.

He’s so shocked by this turn of events he almost doesn’t react at first. Then he remembers he’s fucking Ironman and powers on his thrusters. Whatever’s pulling him is jolted but the force of four different jets doesn’t stop it from dragging him through the water. Tony changes tactics and aims upwards, hoping to catch whatever creature or machine is attempting to haul him away.

His suited wrist is caught in a very human looking hand and Tony stops fighting from sheer astonishment. He’s hundreds of feet below surface level of the Hudson river. No one should be able to survive the pressure, let alone be able to drag him through the water suit and all.

He’s so dumbfounded by this unexpected variable that he gets towed up the coast of Manhattan and into an underwater cave beneath his own tower that’s so cliche and convenient and villain-like Tony starts cracking up.

“What the fuck is even happening.” Tony says out loud through the panic induced giggles. He’s brought up above water and pulled towards a rock shelf that’s hanging half a foot off the water and slopes up to what must be his abductor’s lair. He doesn’t think much of what he’s been brought here for until he’s bent over the ledge and pinned belly down.

“Oh, hell no, this is not happening.” He goes to sit up and look over his shoulder but the hand that had been holding his wrist goes to the back of the suits neck and pins him. Tony grits his teeth and ignites his thrusters again-

-and doesn’t move. Whatever’s got him is stronger than the suit.

“Stop fighting.” It’s spoken in a voice that sounds bizarrely sweet and normal. Tony flips up the face-plate and strains to see as much as he can of whoever is behind him. He’s not sure if he’s seeing things right though because from what he can see it looks like he’s been kidnapped by a teenager or young college kid.

“Stop holding me against my consent.” Tony counters. He speaks English so asking can’t hurt. Probably. Actually, Rhodey would say Tony asking questions gets him in a lot of hurt. Good thing he isn’t here to see this.

The hand on his neck retreats and Tony has only long enough to make a mental note to tell Rhodey about this when the metal section of suit protecting his hips and ass is yanked on. Then the ass portion is torn off completely. The undersuit doesn’t stand a chance and now he’s feeling a breeze. Tony has seen the kinds of porn where the man rips the twink or woman’s pants and underwear to get at their hole faster. He never realized how vulnerable it was or how hot to be on the receiving end.

If only he weren’t currently discovering this kink dangling over a ledge, legs still encased in the suit under the water and- wait.

“How the hell are you still behind me in the water?” Tony’s trying to sit up again, this time driven by pure curiosity. This kid can withstand those depths and tear his suit apart by hand and also walk on water?

“Merman.” Tony is flipped onto his back and pushed further up to give the merman room. The rock is cold on his bare ass but he ignores it in favor of taking in every inch of the creature inhabiting the space between his thighs.

His hair is fluffy and brown -dries fast or has something protecting it from the water? Tony wants to run his hands through it to find out- and his torso is lean but tightly muscled. His waist tapers into a dark blue mermaid tail that’s threaded and accented with a brilliant red, fins gracing where there would have been hipbones and a slit in the center where a huge, human looking cock has begun emerging as Tony keeps staring.

The merman is slowly swishing the long fin at the end of his tail to maintain his elevation. His movements are smooth and graceful; he barely bobs in the water and if Tony only looks at his face he could think he were talking to someone on land.

“Peter.” Tony snaps his eyes off the enormous dick and up onto the sweet, angelic face. Upon closer scrutinization he realizes that while Peter’s eyes are a normal brown, the pupil isn’t round. It’s instead slitted sideways and curved into a rounded ‘s’ like squiggle; reminiscent of a cuttlefish’s ‘w’ shaped pupils.

“Tony.” Tony indicates himself with a wave. Despite the circumstances his dick has taken interest in the merman’s gigantic cock. It’s hard to feel shame in the shadow of that thing.

“Mate.” Peter surges upwards with one powerful flick of his tail and then he’s got his webbed hands on the shoulder lights. He leans in close to Tony, brown eyes shining in the light, curved pupil scrunching up like a small accordion. He smiles wide and reveals sharp shark teeth before he crushes the lights in his fists; bulb and metal popping loudly in the sudden darkness.

Panic attempts to rear its head but stubbornness, pride, and his still hard cock win out. He keeps his breathing even and controlled and listens to Peter’s nails running down the metal of his suit.

From out of the darkness a soft red and blue glow begins registering. Tony looks down the length of his torso to see that all the red fins and curling red accents of Peter’s tail have begun to give off their own light. It’s strong enough to reflect the dark blue of his scales across the cave walls and to light up the water beneath him. Once Tony’s eyes have adjusted he’s actually able to see more than before.

“Bioluminescence.” Peter’s voice draws him in again. The merman’s worked his way down Tony’s body and is tapping long, pointed nails against the metal plating covering Tony’s abs. His hands haven’t touched Tony’s dick but now that Tony can see again, he can see the way Peter’s scrunched up squiggle of a pupil is trained on it.

“Hold up. You’re speaking in one word sentences and one of them is bioluminescence? How do you know English at all? Why did you decide to drag me away to fuck me? Actually, don’t answer that, just getting the chance to fuck me is enough reason, I get it.” Tony started rambling, mouth firing off one tenth of the amount of questions running through his head. How long had Peter been down here? He couldn’t always pick his sex victims this way; not that many people dove in the Hudson and if enough of the ones that did came back talking about a merman fucking them six ways to Sunday, he’d have heard about it.

“Rut.” Peter flips Tony back over and pulls him back into position with a screech of metal, being kind enough to not crush anything delicate in the process. Tony’s cock hangs between his thighs, full and on display beneath the rock shelf. Now that he’s seen the face and gotten a name he’s a whole lot more on board with being essentially bent over a rock for a quickie. He’s fucked in less wholesome places.

“Are you telling me you saw my fine ass and couldn’t help but drag me away to your cave, literal caveman style?” Tony looks behind him only to see Peter ducking down. A sharp nip to his flank had his skin jumping in anticipation.

“Yes.” Peter’s tongue licked at the furl of skin between Tony’s cheeks. Tony felt his sharp teeth grazing gently against tender skin, but Peter never allowed them to pierce or slice. Strong hands cupped and pulled at Tony’s cheeks, opening him up for Peter’s tongue to slip inside. Tony couldn’t help the shameless moan that left his throat; Peter’s tongue was flicking hotly against the sensitized skin.

Tony’s hand is suddenly picked up and before he can get his wits about him the glove portion is ripped away. He lets out a protesting noise from the back of his throat.

“I could have done that if you had just asked, you know. Now I’m going to have to make a new glove.” Tony would have gone on except Peter’s placed his own hand over his ass, pressing his index in against the teeth reddened rim. Who knew shark teeth could be so stimulating? He wiggled his fingers but didn’t sink them inside. “Need you to get my fingers wet first.”

He expected Peter to lick them like he’d been doing to Tony’s twitching hole. Instead the merman spat on them and then sucked them into his mouth around the teeth. Tony thinks about how good it might feel to dip his dick across this wet tongue and groans, dropping his head forward. Fuck, this was the weirdest sex of his life but he was still so fucking horny.

When Peter pops his fingers out of his mouth Tony takes the time to caress his jaw. Peter’s cheek feels like any other lover Tony’s had. The sound of splashing and fins slapping as Peter rises up behind him (after a quick return nuzzle to his palm) reminds him why he’s not.

“That’s incredibly distracting.” Tony breathes the words out with an amount of awe that would be embarrassing anywhere else. Peter’s slotted his thick cock between Tony’s cheeks while he waits, forcing Tony to reach under to get at his hole. He’s caught between wanting to be fucked by that dick as soon as possible and wanting to be stretched thoroughly since all he’s got for lube is spit. He wishes he’d known he might be getting anal tonight; he’s got a few plugs that he can wear in the suit and could have been prepared already.

“Mate. Omega.” Peter’s nails bite into the metal over Tony’s back. Not ripping anything off this time, thankfully, but anchoring himself to the suit. Tony figures maybe it’s a cultural thing. Alpha on top, Omega on bottom, right?

“Yeah, sure, okay. I’ll be your omega if that means I get that alpha cock.” Tony’s always been adaptable to new kinks. Considering how Peter’s tail thrashes noisily behind them and his cock gets even bigger against Tony’s ass and pumping fingers, Tony figures he’s said the right thing to hit all his buttons.

“Mine. Mate.” Peter’s teeth worry at the plating over Tony’s throat where it meets his shoulder. The metal threatens to dent but Peter holds himself back from anything more. Tony’s balls throb from the show of power and the show of restraint; judging from how easily Peter’s destroyed every other part of the suit, he could have torn that up like tissue paper.

“In me. Now. Fuck me, Peter.” Tony demands, suddenly too overcome to care if it hurts. He needs to get fucked by this merman and feel all that power pounding into him. He slips his fingers out of his stretched out hole and braces his suited elbows on the rock floor. His legs dangle straight down into the water leaving him on display and presented for the taking.

The red and blue lights flash and ripple across the cave walls as Peter lowers and positions himself, using the anchor points in the armor as leverage. His cockhead nudges and catches on Tony’s rim. He doesn’t waste time once he’s found the right angle and starts sinking in, brutal and unending and exactly the burn Tony knew it would be. His balls ache already and he’s glad he can’t easily reach down and stroke himself.

“Omega. Mine. Mine.” Peter’s using more words. Was getting his dick in Tony really the cure for his monosyllabic phase? The thought makes Tony’s chest surprisingly warm and it’s not all lust. He chooses to focus on tipping his hips and rubbing his prostate against Peter’s cock like a cat arching into a pet along its spine. The slide and burn is delicious and distracting; just like he likes it.

“Yours. Fuck me. Fuck, I haven’t ever had someone so big. And that’s not a line, sweetheart; your cock is gorgeous.” Tony babbles during sex. Doesn’t matter if he’s top or bottom or Dom or sub; if he doesn’t have a cock in his mouth he’s talking. Peter doesn’t comment or tell him to stop. Instead he places his cheek against Tony’s throat and seems to be feeling the vibrations of his speech. It’s weirdly intimate and Tony wonders why this hot monster fucking keeps trying to turn so domestic in his head. Is he that lonely? Pepper probably would have gone to dinner with him.

“Beautiful Omega.” Peter sets a rhythm using his tail; thrusting up and in with each strong swish through the water and then letting himself slip out and down before swinging his tail back and thrusting in again. The water churns from his pendulum swimming, frothing up from the power he’s putting into each thrust into Tony.

“Sure, beautiful. You’re pretty cute yourself, kid. How old are you anyway? Christ, yeah, that’s it, that angle is perfect.” Tony threw his head back and rolled his hips as much as he could. Peter’s fat cock is nailing his prostate so good. It feels like his monster of a dick is rubbing all of Tony’s sweet spots at once. He isn’t really paying attention to his words anymore.

Peter’s grinding his hips in tight now, rubbing his dick across the same small span of inches and making Tony squirm. He’s already so stretched that he almost doesn’t notice when his rim starts getting pushed even further to the limits. His ass is on fire and Peter’s whispering soothing words, licking him below the jaw and biting lightly at his throat.

He thrusts in impossibly deep and then doesn’t retreat. Tony feels it as the cock swells up and starts unloading a hot torrent of a load deep within him. He didn’t think he could be stretched this much and it could still feel this good. Whatever happened to Peter’s cock that keeps it locked in place is also milking Tony’s prostate relentlessly. He’s so overstimulated already.

“Cum for me, Omega. My Tony.” Peter’s voice is clear and strong and the contrast mixed with all the other stimulus sends Tony over the edge without touching his cock. He spurts into the water and groans throatily as his balls pulse and empty, squeezed dry by how full Peter’s got him.

“I don’t know what the fuck that was, but it was awesome.” Tony panted, coming down from the high only partially. He was stuffed so nicely full of cock. It didn’t feel like Peter was going to pull out anytime soon and Tony kind of liked the idea. He was a cuddler after sex and Peter was draped all across his back, fingers removed from his back armor and now stroking up and down Tony’s arms. Then he hauls Tony up a little, enough that his ass is slightly propped up and Peter can reach down and pet at his belly plating with a free hand.

“You’re going to be a wonderful mother.” Peter places his webbed palm against Tony’s stomach. Tony looks over his shoulder. Peter’s cuttlefish ‘s’ pupils squiggle up in that way Tony is learning to mean he’s pleased- or turned on.

“No, no, no. I am NOT the mother here! I am and have always been the Daddy of the relationship!” Tony says and then stops. He looks down to where Peter’s hand is caressing his stomach armor from lower abs to upper groin. It’s a very specific area to be petting.

A very telling gesture; if Tony were a woman.

“No.” Tony’s already been fucked by a creature of myth underneath his new tower in the weirdest christening of a new building he’s participated in sober. There’s no way. He can’t have this fucked up of luck.

“Once they’re born, you can transform, too. The pregnancy will change your DNA for the babies.” Peter’s smart, and cute, and he’s claiming to have knocked Tony up. Tony wonders if he should have, perhaps, asked more questions before falling prey to his libido.

“I’m. I’m going to unpack that all- later. For now, I’m starting to get a little cold and this isn’t that comfortable when I’m not getting actively fucked. Do you have access to the tower down here?” Tony is actively compartmentalizing. He will freak out in the luxury of his penthouse not draped over a ledge with his soft cock hanging out in the open air like fish bait.

“Oh, yeah. I work there.” Peter answers casually and shifts his tail in a circle, grinding his cock into Tony’s prostate and firing up the nerves along his abused rim. Tony’s eyes bug out from both the pleasure and the surprise of that knowledge bomb Peter just dropped. He works for Tony?! “My knot won’t go down for a while but I’ll warm you back up. I’ll take care of you, my omega.”

“There’s so much we need to talk about after my brains back online.” Tony whimpers; he doesn’t normally do multiple orgasms and never this much prostate stimulation and it’s almost too much.

Peter leans down, tail cutting through the water so he swivels his knot along Tony’s sweet spot. He nipped at the man’s ear, breathing ragged and low as he fucked into his sloppy hole.

“Deal. But if I had my way, you’d never go long enough without my cock for that to happen. I’m a generous alpha; my omega deserves my knot. Such a good boy for me.” Tony gasps, eyes rolling. The fucking before was animalistic. This dirty talk is making it hard to see the problem in giving in to whatever Peter wants. All he can manage is a shaky nod; tears gathering but not falling just yet.

This is a terrible idea and Tony is going all in.

The scene starts from that 4 second clip of Tony dicking around installing arc reactor tech underwater. Peter is older than Tony (think hundreds of years, creature of magic and lore, like Thor and Loki but not as Godly and more Fae almost) but looks young because Magic~

This is my contribution to Halloween and kinktober because I suck :) maybe next year I’ll be more organized and better at time management?

#keyz fic #nff #starker #monster fucking #mermaid peter #merman peter #Peter ripping the suit apart with his bare hands #mmm yes #ABO #mpreg #failed kinktober challenge #take this instead #dead dove do not eat #I don't think this is that bad actually BUT #you never know

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thewakingcloak · 7 years

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Better Difficulty Modes

Difficulty in games is a pretty hotly-contested subject.

The most recent hullabaloo came about from this article on a “skip boss” button. Many are vehemently against the idea. Others loved it. A few fell somewhere in the middle. My opinion? It depends on the game. A “skip boss” button itself might not be a good idea, but maybe an optional invincibility mode is (Nintendo games used to offer an invincibility star if you died too many times, or there’s the old school godmode cheat). Ideally, this is tied to bonus points, or score, or achievements, or unlockables--but I digress.

Here’s what I want: better difficulty options for all kinds of players. We can have our cake and eat it too, if we just spend some time thinking.

First things first: not all games need difficulty options. For some games, difficulty is integral to the experience. Dark Souls is a common example: its core gameplay loop is built entirely around its difficulty, and the experience would unravel if it was too easy.

But I’d argue most games aren’t built around difficulty.

Enter difficulty options

The standard approach is a decision between some variation of Easy/Normal/Hard at the beginning of the game. Normal might be the developer-intended way to play the game, Easy is for those who want to relax after a hard day’s work, or for little kids, or for those who want to experience a story, or for those who just aren’t very good at games (and that’s ok, by the way). Hard is for those who want an extra challenge and maybe extra achievements or unlockable secrets.

But we need better difficulty settings, because there’s a problem with Easy/Normal/Hard: it’s an uninformed choice.

Uninformed choice is a bad choice

In other words, when you ask the player if they want to play on hard mode, what does that mean? More HP to enemies? More complex AI? (ha, right) Cheating AI? Fewer powerups? More XP needed to level up? You don’t know until you actually play the game, and sometimes even then you aren’t sure. The player has to guess what they’re getting themselves into.

This isn’t good choice.

Sure, you might know you generally prefer Easy mode, and for most games that offer these options, it ends up working out. But we can do better!

Informed difficulty settings

First, let’s tell the player what’s going on. Some games explain what different difficulty modes mean. This is a much better version of Easy/Normal/Hard. For example, Shadow Warrior 2:

If you’re going the traditional Easy/Normal/Hard route, add these descriptions. Inform your players’ choices. Tell them they’ll take 50% less damage and get more healing items. I enjoy the personal touch here, reiterating that Easy Mode is a perfectly valid way to play.

(Another good example of this is Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition. Check it out! Even though I usually like a challenge, I’m unashamedly playing on Easy because AD&D 2 is freakin’ brutal.)

This is a good choice, because players now have an understanding of what they’re getting themselves into. But guess what? We can do even better--we can give the player control!

The ideal: custom difficulty settings!

Keep Tourist, Easy, Normal, and Hard modes, but also display a list of more granular difficulty options beneath--these granular options can get highlighted and switched on when a particular difficulty mode is selected. The player can choose one of the basic options, or create a Custom difficulty--perhaps even save custom difficulty profiles if there are a lot of settings.

The mockup below isn’t perfect (I got tired of placing each individual letter), but it’ll give you a general idea. Also these are not options for The Waking Cloak (though some of them might be).

Some things I might change even here: I didn’t highlight which individual settings get counted as Easy/Normal/Hard as they were selected. And I’d like to add a better description for what each option does, especially for players who’ve never played the game before. I also considered some kind of indicator for whether a setting counted as very easy, easy, normal, hard, or very hard, like a colored underline--green for easy, red for hard. There’s more, but the mockup should at least give you the idea.

Ideas for custom difficulty settings

Story/Tourist mode - just wander around and experience the story. No fighting.

Save types - player can save wherever they want, only at designated save points, or ironman (only one “suspend” save file, deleted on death).

Dungeon guide - a glowing “critical path” to guide players through dungeons. If you have this option on, you can still turn the guide on/off.

Skip boss button - display the skip boss button to optionally allow players to avoid them.

Enemy amount - fewer, normal, lots. Ideally on the “more enemies” settings, you’d have different types of enemies that force the player to think more critically

Enemy speed - movement, attacks, etc. Test those reflexes! This is a more meaningful, fun way to increase difficulty than just giving enemies more health. Bullet sponges aren’t fun.

Enemy strength - Also much more meaningful than bullet sponges. You can even have an instakill option.

Enemy health - some people like bullet sponges. More power to them. You can even have different options, like regenerating health.

Passive enemies - enemies are all still there, but they don’t attack you. Good for little kids or those who don’t like violence.

Healing hearts/potions - turn your ability to heal on or off. Want the harrowing feeling of no healing items out in the field? Go for it!

Survival Mode - you need food/drink/shelter to survive. Also? Diseases! Fallout 4 and Skyrim are adding these modes, and I approve!

Nuzlocke Challenge Mode - specifically for monster collection RPGs!

The main thing to keep in mind is that not everything will work in every game. Design difficulty settings around particular mechanics in your game. As we’ll see later, a driving game might have options that ignore hydroplaning to make things easier or manual shifting to make things more difficult. A stick shift mode wouldn’t work in The Waking Cloak, nor would survival mode make sense in a racing game.

Ok, so what’s the catch?

More settings means more testing. More options means more development time and more work. You need to decide which variables to expose. You need to program the game so that these variables can be exposed in the first place. You’ll need to spend more time considering completely different play styles.

You also want to be very careful to not lead players down the path of least resistance against their will. This is the thing I have against fast travel. Some people like it, and that’s fine. But to people like me, who enjoy the journey of walking around and exploring, it’s more like a temptation. From experience, I know I’ll enjoy the journey more, but once I start fast traveling, I always fast travel, and the game becomes a lot more shallow to me.

(There’s another principle of game design around fast travel--make walking around more interesting and varied. But that’s another discussion for another time.)

You don’t want to overwhelm the player with options. Analysis paralysis is a thing. Try to only reveal the options that are most meaningful to the player and the game’s mechanics. Walking the fine line between too few and too many options might be difficult.

Examples!

This isn’t a new concept. Plenty of games have implemented granular difficulty settings.

Way of the Passive Fist - four sliders allow you to choose your difficulty. This is nice and granular, allowing for all kinds of tweaks.

Darkest Dungeon - from Mark Brown’s tweet. I like that this explains that you’ll be changing the experience. Notice how the difficulty settings are linked very closely to game mechanics, like monster corpses or enemy crits.

Forza Horizon 3 - the description is nice, because that makes your choice even more informed. I also like that it’s clear that you get bonuses for harder settings. Again, notice how difficulty settings are linked to game mechanics, such as steering, ABS, and tire wear.

Invisible, Inc. - I’ve heard good things about the difficulty setting here! Once again, difficulty settings are linked to game mechanics. One review stated that choosing custom settings was letting the player try out game design, and I agree.