#*saves game before every dialogue option*

[easy-there-leftovers]

I See You, Darling

[Astarion x reader] The idea never left my mind, and I so very badly need this right now. Heavily inspired by this cutscene where Tav chooses a dialogue option and Astarion's eyes just deviate-- (gif above, just wait for his eyes to look at you WKDKWKDK) |Word count: 2k.| Based off of this post I made.

Part 2 here!!

Also, this is more heavy on the world building rather than dialogue. If I end up making this a series, I might write with more dialogue in mind but it was just necessary to do this first afhjaqfbnjkafbnebn--

A story in which an overworked art student longs for a fictional character that they've devoted so much of their time to.

Alternatively; Astarion realizes there's someone else watching him. And he can't wait to get acquainted with them.

————━─━────༺༻────━─━————

One.

Two.

Three.

It takes you three seconds to comprehend what just happened. Three seconds for you to try and save the progress you’ve already made so far. Three seconds for you to feel the chill of dread run up your spine. 

You’ll admit, perhaps you were simply tired. Attending a prestigious school for the arts doesn’t exactly leave you with much free time to indulge in more calming forms of recreation. Your course requires you to consume a wide array of media to expand your library of creativity, after all. All in the name of generating more interesting media to entrance and enthrall your audience with your original work. 

Maybe all the moving pictures and swimming texts have caused you to greatly misunderstand what you are seeing. Surely, your favorite character isn’t looking directly at you, right?

Right?

But before that, let’s review what might have happened earlier to explain just what exactly in gods name is happening.

Shall we?

——

You purchased the game a few months back. “Baldur’s Gate 3.” A game that took the players and immersed them in the world of Dungeons & Dragons, introducing them to the mechanics of tabletop RPG as they did. It seemed interesting enough. And if the concept of character creation and storytelling didn’t sell you on the idea of it, the pretty faces on the cover certainly did.

So, with the little money you could spare from your part time job at your own institution’s library, and with what little sanity you had left to argue with, you impulsively bought said game. And it was fun. Exhilarating. Electrifying. 

Until you ran into a problem.

Astarion. The rogue, elven vampire that you have chosen to romance after careful deliberation. You scoffed to yourself. He was one of the biggest reasons why you purchased the blasted game at all. You’ve carefully studied the character in all his glory, from his striking carmine eyes and delicate unstained curls, to his aptitude for bloodshed and all manners of gore. He was such an interesting character, giving you more and more reason to pursue him as the story progressed. Yet the same can’t be said about your relationship with him. Or at least your “Tav’s” relationship with him. 

You’ve had some difficulty in deepening your relationship with the ex-magistrate. It seemed as if no matter what options you chose, no matter what manner of advances you made, he’d be quick to dismiss you. Painting you as a desperate little pup as he did. Denying you the opportunity of further knowing him. You’ve created and overwritten more save slots than you'd like to admit, perusing each one to select different lines of dialogue only to be rejected time and time again.

You thought it strange. But perhaps this was simply the way his route was meant to unfold. He was such an incredibly complex character after all. Perhaps this was meant to prove the party’s loyalty. 

But that didn’t stop you from being frustrated with other aspects of the gameplay. You've spent countless nights hunched on your work chair, back curving like a dead bug as you analyzed each and every possible outcome in combat. Eyes, bloodshot from cutting your sleeping hours short, just to endure the story until you were at an appropriate place to log out. And hair, flicking and curling out in different directions due to you weaving your hands through them in exasperation. 

You saw your reflection on your screen as it darkened to load the next scene and you couldn't help but stare at your character in slight envy. You know full well that however you designed them, it wouldn’t affect how the others perceived you, and yet you couldn’t help but pretty them up for your own interest. You designed it with yourself in mind, but making them far more attractive than you would ever be. Effortlessly beautiful as they stirred to wake up in the forest you settled in for camp.

How could Astarion ever turn this beautiful being away? If not for their heroism, then surely their looks would be enough to draw him in, no?

And speak of the devil. Once you could control your character again, you readied them to interact with your sharply dressed companion. Wanting to try your luck once more as the bright sun shone upon your character like a promise of a new day. Unfortunately, you’re greeted with a look of boredom, oh so familiar, that you sigh. “I hope you’re not here to beg—” Mocking him, echoing the words you’ve come to expect with faux mirth in your voice. But you cut yourself short when you realize he has yet to say anything. 

Strange.

 What’s even stranger is that he's just staring at you. Well,--- he’s staring at Tav. Your character.

“What the fuck…?” You move your mouse around, clicking to try and toggle the dialogue options to no avail, screen stuck in a cinematic close up of his face. Much like how the camera always pans when awaiting your response. 

However, unlike the common script of his actions that you’re used to, the one that you’ve memorized like a well practiced dance, his eyes smoothly glide off of your character and onto you. 

You freeze, but your heart doesn’t. The beating of your chest growing stronger the longer he looks at you. Eyes, blood red like rubies, boring into your own. He regards you, blinks, and then smiles that deviously charming smile of his before your screen turns dark. Your computer turns off, and you stare in shock of what just happened.

‘No fucking way, no fucking way, no fucking way—‘ You’re not delusional, right? Sure, you’re tired, but no fucking way did you just imagine one of the hottest characters you’ve seen in a while break the fourth wall just to fuck with you.

You laugh to yourself.

Yes, you’re just tired. Nothing like a good four hours of sleep can’t remedy. Although, as you get up from your chair, foolish as it may seem, you grab a used shirt from your floor, and hang it on your computer in the case that those piercing eyes come to life once again while you sleep.

——

You stir awake after your short slumber. Your body, heavy like lead, though not at all a feeling foreign to you. You think about what happened last night, wondering if it was all a dream. Yet as you get ready for the day, you notice your dirtied clothing still on your computer. Covering it as if it were a petrifying doll from a horror movie. You feel childish for doing so, reasoning that you were simply stressed from the events that taken place prior and removed the cloth.

As you did, your screen was brought back to life. Showing you the next night as if your little "tryst" with Astarion never happened. An entire thirty minutes or so of progress seemingly gone. Thankfully, you saved just before your game went haywire and you attempted to load up your last slot. 

Zzzt Zzzzt!

Alas, your game was not cooperating once again. You tried the save just before that and the same error screen presented itself to you. ‘Maybe this is a sign that I should just fucking work instead.’ Irritated at the thought, you moved to log out of the game but a familiar voice convinces you otherwise as the screen returns to normal. 

“Why, hello pup. How was your awfully short slumber?” 

‘Is this— a romance scene?!’ Astarion had never initiated an interaction before! Perhaps the game gods were granting you mercy. Or maybe, something you did last night might have given way for this line of dialogue to open up. Regardless, you happily took the opportunity and began reading your choices.

“Why, hello pup. How was your awfully short slumber?” ━─━────༺༻────━─━

Well. Thank you.

It’s none of your concern, fangs.

Better now that you’re here.

What happened last night?

━─━────༺༻────━─━

What…did happen last night? You don’t recall anything past the blackening of your screen, but it looks like you did something after that which caused this dialogue.

You don’t want to squander this opportunity, who knows when this will happen again, but your curiosity gets the best of you. So you save, and choose option 4. 

“Oh, you poor thing. Spooked you, did I?” He laughs, seemingly taking in the look of confusion that graces both yours and Tav’s face.

“What do you think happened last night?”

“My fucking game crashed.” You answer automatically.

Tav moves to open their mouth but is silenced with a tut. “Not you, spawn.” His eyes crinkle at the corners in amusement, but the way his mouth is pulled in a tightly-lipped smile offers you further insight otherwise. 

“I need your answer.” His eyes are on you yet again, and you feel the world begin to spin.

——

You stir awake after your short slumber. Your body, heavy like lead, though not at all a feeling foreign to you. You think about what happened last night, wondering if it was all a dream. Yet as you plan to get ready for the day, you notice you’re not exactly in a state to do so. You expected to wake at dawn, the dark and cool air to greet you as it fills your room and envelops your walls. Instead, you wake to see an endless amount of evergreen and the smell of the dark and damp grass beneath you filling your senses.

And if spending hours, weeks, months, of playing this damned game has taught you anything, you know that you now reside in the heart of the forest that you usually set up camp in. But this time, you're far from your bedroll and the fire that your party created.

One.

Two.

Three.

It takes you three seconds to comprehend what just happened. Three seconds for you to try and save the progress you’ve already made so far to no avail. Three seconds for you to feel the chill of dread run up your spine. 

And this chill so does love playing games.

You clamber away on your knees when you hear that deep chuckle of his emanate from right beside your ear. Creating as much distance to inspect this figure you’ve yet to face.

You see Astarion in all his vampiric glory. ‘Well, for a vampire spawn, I guess.’ You comment to yourself. Crimson eyes, darker than you imagined, with full, dark lashes contrasting his pallid skin and pure hair that glow under the moonlight. An unsettling, and cursedly attractive, smirk curls onto his lips. His ivory fangs on full display as he does.

“It seems as if those useless artifacts were worth something.” He marvels at his handiwork, his prize, and approaches it with confidence. 

“Well, your character certainly is more ‘prettied up.’” He circles you, carefully appraising his newest asset, and grins. “But you are far more intriguing.”

A simple, “What the fuck?” is all you can muster.

“Although, you are very cute. Cheeky little pup, aren’t you?” He jests.

A simple, “What the fuck?” is all you can muster which earns you a click of his tongue in response.

“You’re not broken, are you? Or am I to anticipate your little ‘what the fuck?’s as your only contribution?” Long, and incredibly masculine, fingers crawl and curl to grasp your chin like a spider. 

“I’ve waited months to have you. And now here you are, finally within my grasp.” The statement causes something to stir within you.

“What do you mean, ‘months?” 

He narrows his eyes, possibly trying to comprehend your stupidity.

“I’ve been watching you. Waiting, for the right moment. Interacting with this– caricature of yourself until you could deny yourself of me no more.” Blood rushes to your head. Your cheeks burning in embarrassment for seeming overly eager. And in panic as his intentions have yet to be cleared.

“And now that I’m here? Do you want to kill me?” You feel your heartbeat in your ears, awaiting his response. Your eyes wide in fear, yet trying to fake heroic bravado in the attempts to gain the upperhand.

And in this moment, he thinks you absolutely invigorating.

“Oh no, sweet pet. I’ve waited far too long for that. I’m going to make you mine.”

————━─━────༺༻────━─━————

Should I make this into a series? "The adventures of a misplaced artist in Baldur's Gate!!" Or something like that. Let me know, lol

[artbyblastweave]

Still playing Skyrim. And I’m interested to report that the game is actually better than I remember, on balance. But I’m kind of fascinated by what’s going on with Lydia, mechanically and narratively.

Lydia is the first follower who gets shoved in your face just by virtue of following the main quest. There are others you can pick up earlier, but not without finishing errands (for Faendal and Sven), by forking up a pretty big chunk of change for the early game by hiring Janessa, or by going out of your way in some other manner. If you’re completely new to the game and you’re just powering through the main story as it’s presented, she’s the first option for a follower that the game highlights for you in giant blinking neon lights. And as a quest reward, she’s mechanically kind of a godsend at that point in the story; a doubling of carry capacity, an excellent meat shield and distraction, a way to extract utility from weapons and armor you don’t want to use yourself. More subjectively she provides the impression of a stalwart ally or companion in what can be a very lonely worldspace to exist in. There’s very little reason not to take her with you, and once you have her, the majority of companions being equal, there’s very little reason to get rid of her until she stops level scaling.

Despite the mechanical utility Lydia provides at a crucial point, and the resultant likelyhood that you’ll haul her along for the ride, she’s only a couple steps up from the companion cube. She has no specific, non-fungible impact on the narrative beyond demonstrating Jarl Balgruuf’s favor. Her deferral to you is automatic; if someone is actively paying her a salary to help you defile graves, cut deals with every deity on the continent and invade the afterlife, it sure as hell isn’t you. It isn’t clear what her gig under Balgruuf was before she was assigned to you. She has no personal narrative. She has no personal side quest. One of her biggest inklings of personality is when she expresses vague dissatisfaction with being treated as a pack mule, but then she does it anyway.  She’s party to world-shaking events and political upheavals, but she’s present purely in her capacity as your appendix, so reality simply treats her as your plus-one. 

She’ll block doors you’re trying to get through, and she’ll get mad at you if you push her out of the way. She’ll charge into battle or set off traps while you’re trying to sneak. She’ll microaggress you with stock Nord dialogue while pulverizing your enemies, a plurality of whom are also Nords. She’ll distract bosses long enough to buy you breathing room for a healing spell or a potion. You’ll kill her by accident with an ill-timed area-of-effect spell, roll your eyes, and, ultimately, probably reload your save. Because she might only be a couple steps up from a companion cube, but the whole gag with the companion cube is how ridiculously low the threshold is for the audience to get genuinely attached to something in a video game. A thin character invites apophenia. Behaviors that are purely downstream of dev thoughtlessness will still imply character traits if taken at Watsonian Face Value. In this case, inexplicable undying loyalty, reserved comments on impressive landmarks, and comical stoicism in the face of some of the weirdest events it’s conceptually possible to encounter.  So here’s to weird, underbaked companions in Bethesda Games, and everything we can project onto the void they provide. And Here’s to that related genus of character- units in squad-based tactics or management-sim games with permadeath mechanics who last long enough and accumulate enough equipment, skill points, etc. that they become your Special Little Guy despite otherwise lacking any deliberate character traits.

[dalishious]

Alistair vs. Cullen

It really annoys me when people act like Alistair and Cullen are the same character, when they are very different.

Alistair grew up with child neglect. When visiting Denerim, Eamon kept him in the kennels. At Redcliffe, he slept in the stables on a pile of hay. Alistair also recounts a time when he was locked in the dungeons for a day before someone came to get him out. And of course he also talks about how Isolde despised him, and “made sure the castle wasn't a home.” But is still convinced that Eamon is a good person and he deserved all that. Cullen had a very fortunate upbringing with a loving family who supported him and what he wanted in life.

Alistair never wanted to be a Templar; he was forced into joining the Order by Eamon. He is vocal about how much he despised this, and considers Duncan recruiting him for the Wardens as “saving” him from them. The only thing he says he enjoyed about Templar training was the educational component, which he did not receive previously. Alistair was a poor recruit because he frankly did not want to be there, and therefore did not take it very seriously. He saw practices like the Harrowing as horrifying, and deepened his dislike of being a Templar further. And as time goes on, he becomes even less of a supporter of the Order; he outright says Meredith is the biggest threat to Kirkwall in Dragon Age II, if made king of Ferelden. It was always Cullen’s dream to be a Templar, and would even force his younger sister to “play the apostate” for his “training” before being recruited. Cullen was an enthusiastic recruit who considered Templar training “all that he had imagined”, and “did not hesitate” in taking his vows. Even the Harrowing did not waver his devotion to the Order, which by Dragon Age II becomes downright fanatical and tyrannical, practically worshipping Meredith. (Though this was later attempted to be retconned in Dragon Age: Inquisition… just as poorly as all the other retcons in that game, taking the path of “just pretend he never said and did all those things!”)

There is a lot of dialogue from Alistair about how much he dislikes the Chantry. Cullen, on the other hand, is extremely faithful and the only criticism he ever has about the Chantry is that they don’t treat the Templars well enough.

Alistair has a good sense of humour—in fact, it’s one of his biggest coping mechanisms. Cullen wouldn’t know a joke if it hit him in the face.

The player can disagree with Alistair on every turn. He is presented as sometimes being right, and sometimes being wrong, like most people. (Side note: more than that, you can be downright verbally, emotionally, and physically abusive to Alistair. Holy shit, I didn’t even realize how bad it can get until reading through the dialogue in the toolset, because I’ve never picked those options in game. I was honest to god flabbergasted and very uncomfortable through much of it.) The player rarely has the chance to even mildly disagree with Cullen. On the rare occasion you do, the dialogue is painted as if the player is being an unreasonable asshole, and he never even addresses what they say. (Example.)

The only reason I think people are capable of mistaking them for another is because fandom likes to donate Alistair’s personality onto Cullen. That and the the ever-frequent whitewashing of Alistair doesn’t help matters. But I’m not even a Cullen fan and I think it’s a disservice to both of them to act like they’re just Alistair and Alistair 2.0, honestly.

[bless-my-demons]

Redamancy: Chapter Twenty-Four

Series Summary: What happens when your soulmate is a vampire that struggles to maintain a diet of trying not to kill you? Common sense says run for the hills, nothing is worth your life - but my heart is whispering why not, what’s there to lose?

Warnings: Tooth-rotting fluff, cuss words, and… angst

Notes: I fell asleep after I decided to add a Jasper dialogue last night… I’m sorry it’s later than normal lol remember, I told yall Jasper has to make up for his being gone😌🫣

Word Count: 2373

Series Masterlist

• March 20th, 2006 • Forks HS •

Reader

The weekend passed by in a blur, I spent it wishing I got more time with Jasper, but he desperately needed to hunt. So that left me with Quil, if he noticed my far-away mind, he didn’t comment, the new video game he picked up Friday occupied most of his attention.

Friday. I jumped off a cliff with Bella, was rescued by Quil’s ex-best friend, and then the object of my every waking thought showed up at my doorstep.

Friday was a long day, to say the least.

Which brings us to today - Monday. I have to go to school as if it were a normal fucking day, like my weekend hadn’t changed the trajectory of my life. Like my other best friend isn’t in Italy right now fighting to save the man she loves.

Slamming the door shut to my locker, I turn towards the direction of second period when a hulking mass at the other end of the hallway stops me short.

The blonde next to him grins, gracefully walking in my direction as if no more than the weekend had passed since I last saw them.

“Life has been rather dull without you.” Rosalie brings me into a delicate hug, the smile on her face growing.

“I missed you too.” The words aren’t much more than a whisper and my heart twists in my chest, they’re really back.

My eyes haven’t left his and they’re so full of sadness. The hallway empties out, but neither of us has managed to move an inch or look away.

Rose nudges me, “Go.”

A simple word, but the command moves my feet. It started off as one step and then two, but then I’m halfway down the hallway in a full sprint. Emmett takes one large step and then another before I fling myself into his arms, wrapping my own tightly around his neck.

“I hate you.” The words aren’t true, but this ache in my chest can’t be described any other way.

“I know.” His words are muffled as he lifts me.

“I missed you every day.” Tears well in my eyes, making it hard to see the grin splitting Rosalie’s face.

“I missed you more.” He argues back.

Safety, that’s Emmett McCarty Cullen. He’s strength and power and softness that only a man his size with his heart could exude. He is the definition of protector - someone that would go to any lengths to safeguard those closest to him. And just his hugs alone could cure anything, the hug of a brother who cares immensely.

“You left me.” The tremble in my voice gives my hurting heart away.

He clears his throat, “And I put him through hell every day for it.”

“He really has.” Rose confirms, full on smiling at me.

Emmett sets me back down on my own two feet, holding my shoulders in his massive hands, “Never again, I can promise you that.”

“Emmett-” I start, but he isn’t having it.

“Nope, we’re already late for class and I have some catching up to do.” Winking, he offers me one arm and his mate the other, leading us in the direction of next period.

• March 21st, 2006 • Home •

Reader

“Hey, you got a sec?” Knocking on the door frame to my mother’s bedroom, I watch as she turns off her tv.

“For you? Always honey, c’mere.” She pats the bed in front of her, her full attention making me a little nervous.

I sit and work up the courage for a few beats. “He’s back.”

“I know, I saw Doctor Cullen at work yesterday.” Her calm answer surprises me.

“I’m not sure what to do, momma.” I pull at her old bed spread, hoping for some words of wisdom.

“Well, you have options.” Her warm hands cover mine and encourage me to meet her eyes. “You can kick him to the curb since he dropped off the face of the earth for six months.”

“Or?” I ask, provoking her to complete her unfinished advice.

“Or, you can give him another chance.” A beat of silence while I weighed her answer. “You don’t have to do it right away either, you can ask for space to think about it. You can make him talk it out too.”

I process the possibility of cutting him out of my life for all of half a second before my heart tells me it’s impossible.

“Talk to him, I know you need to.” My mother has always been able to read me like a book, it’s why it’s so easy to get along with her.

“Why give me options? Why not forbid me to see him?”

Her knowing smile grows, “Because you’ll do what you want anyways. And no matter how much I want to protect my baby,” she lovingly strokes my cheek, “you have to navigate this in a way that heals that pretty heart of yours. I’d be failing you as a parent to not allow you to figure this out.”

“Mom-” tears threaten the corners of my eyes.

“Don’t think that means I’ll cut him some slack.” She jokes, but her tone includes some seriousness. “He hurt my baby.”

“I love you, you know that?”

“Always sweet pea, I love you too.” She delivers a sloppy kiss to my cheek before reclining back to her previous tv-watching position.

Rising from her bed with a lighter heart in my chest, she stops me at her doorway, “I got your back kid, whatever you decide.”

I turn and give her a genuine smile, “I know, thanks mom.”

• March 22nd, 2006 • Forks HS •

Reader

Setting my tray down at the dubbed “Cullen table” I make direct eye contact with Edward as I stand before the siblings.

Don’t fucking do that again.

His face splits with a grin. “To which are you referring?”

Leaving her, leaving your family, going to Volterre with a death wish, you fucking idiot.

He actually laughs at my angry directive thoughts, the bastard.

You have people that care about you, you know. My eyes soften as his meet mine seriously. Including me. I’m glad you’re safe. And home.

He nods, unable to meet my eyes now.

“I’d hug you if you weren’t so adverse to physical affection.” Before I finish my statement, he rises from his chair to round the table towards me.

Shock roots me to the spot as his arms envelop lightly around my frame, my arms hesitantly wrapping around the tall Cullen after a beat.

“Thank you.” It’s whispered low enough for just me to hear and he’s returning to his seat.

Emmett’s jaw practically hits the floor, “You’ve never given me a hug-”

“Because your hugs are rather violent in their intensity.” Edward notates.

“But-” Emmett whines.

“No ‘buts’, I’m his favorite.” Sticking out my tongue at Emmett as I take my seat next to Jasper, the jealous vampire launches into a deep explanation of why he must be the family favorite.

“Thank you for starting something I will never hear the end of.” Jasper leans over to whisper in my ear as I grin at Edward who rolls his eyes.

“Glad to be of service.”

Reader

That afternoon I rode with Alice to the Cullen’s after school, something about an intervention with Bella and their family. And naturally, the curious part of me agreed to tag along.

The moment her car comes to a stop in their driveway, Jasper is opening my door and offering me a steadying hand.

“Do you know what this is about?” I ask, watching as Alice skips ahead of us.

“Not a clue, sweet girl.” He answers, leading me inside his family home.

His cool hand enveloping mine sends a pang through my chest, it’s like none of this is real - I’m just in some heavy dream. I’ve wished and hoped for their return with every fucking cell in my body, but now that they’re back? It’s surreal and I’m on edge - I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Standing loosely in a circle in the living room, our attention turns to Bella on the stairs, Edward looming behind her.

“You all know what I want. And I know how much I’m asking for. The only thing I can think of, for it to be fair, is to just vote.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about-”

“Shut up.” Bella shushes Edward from his grumbling.

Bella is asking them to vote on her becoming a vampire? A slight tremble begins in my hands, this isn’t exactly a debate I’d wished to be a part of. I mean, what would this mean for me? Would we eventually have one of these for me?

“Alice?” Bella asks, opting for starting with the one securely in her corner.

“I already consider you my sister.” She surges forward to wrap her in a hug. “Yes.”

One vote yes.

“Thank you.”

“I vote yes.” The rumble of Jasper’s chest under the hand I have placed there stops my breathing. “It would be nice to not want to kill you all the time.”

It would be nice to not want to kill you all the time. The words ring in my ears and burn my chest, repeating.

Two votes yes.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry to both of you for how I’ve acted. And I’m really grateful that you were brave enough to go and save my brother.” Rosalie’s next sentence a quiet confession within her answer, “But this isn’t a life I would’ve chosen for myself. And I wish there had been someone there to vote no for me. So, no.”

A breath, one vote no.

“I vote hell yeah.” Em spins her around in his excitement, “We can pick a fight with these Volturi some other day.”

Three votes yes, one vote no.

“I already consider you a part of the family, yes.” Esme happily gives her blessing as Carlisle steps forward to look at Edward.

Four votes yes, it’s almost unanimous.

“Why are you doing this to me?” He asks his adoptive father. “You know what this means.”

“You’ve chosen not to live without her, which leaves me no choice. I won’t lose my son.”

Carlisle’s answer is like a gavel being slammed down, sealing her fate, confirming what she wants.

Bella meets my eyes, even I can tell relief floods them as I’m sure anxiety fills mine. She’s going to turn into one of them - a vampire.

Jasper

After a few heavy minutes following the votes of my family, I turn to Y/n.

“Would you like to go home? It’s getting late.” I ask her, but her eyes are distant.

Immediately I gently probe at her emotions, but I can feel her trying to suppress them. I furrow my brow as I look down at her, why is she hiding from me?

I tilt her chin back and she removes herself entirely. Ice, I know as a vampire my core temperature is already low from the absence of blood in my system, but with her physical departure - it feels as though every ounce of warmth has been zapped from my very soul.

“I need time.” Her request is hardly a whisper and her eyes still refuse to meet mine.

Shock roots me to the floor, time? She’s asking for time from me. Not with, from. Away. Without.

And I must grant it to her. I’d give her anything in this world she would ask for.

I remove myself a step back from her even though my chest wishes to tug me forward.

“Emmett?” I ask aloud, not taking my eyes from her, he immediately answers by way of flashing to my side. “Take her home?”

“Of course, but-?” Curiosity tinged with sadness finishes what he fails to ask.

“Just get her home safe, please.” I step aside, forcing my eyes to my shoes as I clear the path to the front door for them.

Emmett escorts her outside and I swear, every bit of strength leaves and threatens to buckle me. I watch as the Jeep’s tail lights disappear down the driveway from the front windows.

“It’s the right thing to do.” Esme lays a hand on my shoulder as she watches with me, I hate the truth in her words. “She needs to process everything, we haven’t given her the chance and now this with Isabella, it’s a lot.”

“I know.”

Love. “Come here.”

I turn into her waiting arms, the overwhelming urge to cry hits me like a fucking freight train when her arms pull me close.

“She will be back, just be patient with her.”

“What if she realizes-”

“Nonsense, she’s hopelessly in love with you.”

I pull back to inspect her face, “What?”

She smiles at me in only the way a mother really can, “My son, trust me. Give her a few days, but she needs to know that love is returned.”

“How do you-”

“I’ve known since the day you first brought her home. I knew then she was yours before you ever figured out she was your singer, I’m a mom like that.” Winking at me, she pats my shoulder. “She makes you happier, lighter. It makes me happy to finally see that in you.”

Venomous tears make my vision swim, more often than not I take the fact that Esme mothers us in ways unique to every single one of us for granted.

Glancing down, I clear my throat like a typical male trying to avoid being emotional, “Thank you, Esme.”

“Dear, you never have to thank me, I love you more than you know.”

“I love you too.” I kiss her on the cheek, our talk having smoothed out my frayed nerves.

Time. I can give her time to think, to process everything that’s happened in the last week. But then she’s mine - she has to know how I feel about her. And if she wants nothing to do with me after that?

Well, I guess I’d give her that too.

But not until after I fight for her, because fighting for her is in my bones. Fighting is all I’ve ever known and it’s time I put it to good use.

Next

Taglist Part 1:

@aoi-targaryen @Min-jianhyung @pbbsl @timelordhunterandmysterysolver @sheerangermany @clearwater-hoe @Blackbluerose666 @ivy-plays @random-human02 @delightfulbluebirdstarlight @steh-lar-uh-nuhs @gaymazinglula @l3ejm @angelfuzzy2 @losa12308 @thekinkpopstandsforkrackheads @flyawayprincess @ropickle @catbusloki @deviat3dsn0wf0x @lovesanimals0000 @unrevived @h-naec @cutesnakemum @zudooms @itsmytimetoodream @stinkii-boii @acoolnight @anothercoffeeblogx @irishblend10 @from-now-on-im-switzerland @kyraslife2 @naolvshan @kiiwiigii @rosedpetal @kiaraandrea @foolsgoldxo @heartfilia01 @azuredgalaxies @geekysimmerthings @graciereads @ramen-girl-2424 @0hmydekiru @creeqvealley @cherriebat @whichwitchisthebitch @dragon-rider-with-a-book @secretfairytailpetscookie @psychobitchsthings

[lookinghalfacorpse]

pandora's vault as a point-and-click horror game.

the objective is always at the top of your screen: "get the revival book." you can access a map that will take you to a few different places on the server, but once you click on the prison, the map icon only appears when you're near the entrance. when you get further in, you're trapped.

you can go to the arctic. philza is there, always peaceful and always sewing, sitting on a nice rocking chair. you can present items to him and he'll give you some clues about how to use it. you have a hunger bar, and if you're low, you can get food from him. technoblade is in the background, cooking. you can't interact with him.

you can stop by some other places too, like mcpuffys, and get a burger if you gather enough gold to buy it.

wandering the prison is confusing. it's a maze, and the more you click, the more the prison shifts. interact with too many items that make a lot of noise and you'll upset sam, and he'll kill you quickly. the warden walks in a pre-determined circle around the prison, and you can't interrupt him unless you have an item that interests him. following him is your best bet to navigate the prison, but he's hard to track. you have to learn his pattern.

take too long, and the prison shifts faster. doors close on their own.

you can summon technoblade once to save you from sam. he'll buy you time and de-aggro sam, but then he disappears, and you'll see him in the background with philza again when you tp there.

make too many mistakes, and you'll be transported to the main cell.

dream is there, starved and thin. he's curled into himself. hover your cursor over him and he'll kill you-- he doesn't want to be seen.

you have to be patient. keep your cursor on the wall. wait. eventually, dream says "...what do you want?" and a dialogue options shows up. he'll chat, but he won't give up the revival book. you click everywhere. you find no way out. new objective: "get out alive."

there are different items you can collect on your way to the cell that will affect your chances. you can gather food from chests you find, but you should preserve them and give some to dream to get on his good side. if you present shears, he'll kill you, no matter how good you're doing with him. you can collect status effects, and if you get "sir," he'll obey faster. but he's never particularly helpful.

the screen flashes into images of blood and gore across the cell.

try to kill dream, and sam stops you. you hear dream sigh.

really, the key is endurance. you have to make sure you have enough resources when you enter the cell to stay on dream's good side and survive until sam decides to let you out. a bit of experimentation.

or, if you make it to the main cell without sam putting you there, you can get out at will. but that's very difficult, and you won't achieve that your first run, but the status effects help. you'll gather more of those as you play. with "sir," sam gets less agitated with you.

get dream's favor, and you get a new objective: "get both of us out alive"

there's an item called "hope"-- a stuffed cat. if you present it to philza, he'll say "…someone else could use this more, mate. you shouldn't leave it here with me."

get back to the main cell.

What do you want to do with "Hope"?

>>Give to Dream Destroy Nothing

if you give it to him, big tears will roll down his face-- an animation you've never seen before. he'll give you a piece of his bloody shirt in exchange.

take the bloody shirt to philza, and technoblade will move from the background. there's an animation where he rushes out the door, and philza follows him. that's the good end. objective complete.

you can also keep with the first objective, if you want. you can go in every day, if you want. you can gather weapons and shears and experiment with how dream responds, if you want. perhaps, somewhere in the code, there's a way for you to get that book. maybe THAT'S your good end.

[horrorvisuals]

Baroque (1998) is a post-apocalyptic first-person action RPG taking place inside the Neuro Tower, a mysterious place nobody dared to enter before.

It's a game that uses death as a core mechanic to advance the plot, rather than resulting in a game over.

Developed by Sting Entertainment for Sega Saturn, it later got ported to PSX, PS2 (remake), Nintendo Wii, and Switch (JP exclusive).

It looks and plays similarly to the classic Shin Megami Tensei games. (Fun fact: Atlus published it for NA)

Set in a post-apocalyptic world, it shows us a world hit by catastrophic climate changes on May 14, 2032, after conducting an experiment to understand the Absolute God.

Its surviving humans got physically twisted by manifestations of guilt, pain, and suffering.

As the amnesiac, mute, and nameless protagonist, you are picked by Archangel and tasked with entering the Neuro Tower.

You have to advance its levels, find the Absolute God, and fix the world.

Each floor is randomly generated and your aim is not to reach the top floor. It's to reach the bottom.

You explore the floor, gather items, fight enemies, and reach the next floor. The usual dungeon-crawler gameplay.

Upon death, contrary to other games of the time, it doesn't result in a game over but rather teleports you back to your hometown. Every death progresses the narrative, unlocking new dialogue and areas. It's a core part of the game.

You are able to save some of your items using consciousness orbs and gather them on your next playthrough.

Throughout your playthrough, you get to meet NPCs and have various dialogue options with them. Through these encounters and other contextual elements, you learn of the game's overall story.

[alexissara]

Recruiting Minthara Without Doing A War Crime - BG3

Opening Disclaimer: I do not know every variable, I am sharing what I did to recruit Minthara in BG3 since basically every guide in the internet is wrong and says you must do a war crime to recruit MInthara. You will lose out on the Minthara post battle sex scene and she remains mutually exclusive with Halsin you either have her or him but she can be obtained as a party member and even has exclusive voiced dialogue for Karlache and Wyll whom many say you are also locked out of to recruit her. Also this is totally intentional and accounted for but in my personal run I am getting some bugs, idk if it's an everyone issue or a me issue the game is still very new.

To Attack The Grove or to Kill Everyone In The Goblin Camp, that is the question, one that needs not an answer. You can do quests in both places, talk to Minthara, and more and still walk away from this fight.

All you need to do is simply progress the plot ignoring these two binary options. You'll need to ensure Minthara does not know the location of The Druid Grove so for me the way I did it was I rescued Sazza then killed her in the goblin camp before she could rat out the location and turn on me right before she would have walked me over to MInthara. It triggered a small fight but I destroyed the drums they played to trigger an alarm and have everyone fight me meaning I only had to kill four Goblins or so. I went to talk to Minthara and told her I had no clue where the druid grove or her item were but i'd totally look into it. I grabbed everything I wanted from the Goblin camp and before that did all of the Tiefling kid side quests except stealing the artifact in The Druid grove, upgraded Karlache's infernal engines, looked around everywhere I could. I did not at any point meet or talk to Halsin.

Then from there I simply went to the Underdark, you may be be able to take the Gith path instead, idk I didn't do it but I personally went to The Underdark by way of Feather Falling in the Phase Spider Monarch's layer down into it. From there I found some slavers, killed them and stole their boat. I sailed away to a forge where more slavers were living, I helped them save a true soul, helped the true soul kill them and then killed The True Soul. With that I was on my marry way and entered act 2. This I believe triggers time to have progressed in the game and everything will have gone into motion. I wanted to be sure though that I had done everything correctly so I headed to Moon Rise towers as fast as I can. I did some fights, got to the tower and found Minathara getting yelled at by her boss and thrown into a prison. In the prison two women are trying to wipe her mind. I killed all the guards before trying to help her out in the prisons area and freed some other prisoners. Stole a bunch of stuff then went to the girl herself. I then killed the people trying to brainwash her after talking to them for a little, walked out with Minthara, the guards at multiple times were like "why the fuck do you have Minthara" I smooth talk my way out of each situation, we leave moonrise and I tell her she can stay in our camp. From there she is a party member.

The game suggests you don't bring Minthara back into Moonrise Towers with you, I have got some light glitches on my own run when going to areas that are before you can normally recruit minthara and going to camp sometimes she spawns over at The Goblin camp where you first meet her. The Goblins seem to be basically fine so what happened with the tiefling and druids. Well the tieflings were forced to leave the druid grove but they were gonna do that anyway and the same quests are triggered as if you didn't do that as far as I undertand. I have met one of the tieflings already in act two and they were not mad at me for not helping the grove. The grove however did do the ritual and is no longer accessible. I will update this when I enter Baulder's Gate if I find out I like idk caused the death of a bunch of characters for not siding with either but I don't think I cased any deaths at all, I think I spared the most lives, the most peaceful bitch.

I want to end of the note that there is more to Minthara than Girlboss, Gaslight, Gatekeep. She for narrative reasons is a fun character to have. She is cold for sure but I think the game does a pretty good job justifying it and you can see right away glimmers of her warming up. In terms of a party member her kit is interesting, she starts with tadepoles already in her head so if you were totally avoiding them like me you'll be able to see a few of the powers in action given you have no option to remove them from her.

[tearlessrain]

bg3 is fucking wild when you're used to bioware games, because I always go into situations expecting them to do the bioware but-not-really dance and instead they commit so hard to every single thing they put down. I keep having to reload because I keep going down rabbit holes fully expecting to be headed off by the dialogue tree before I can do anything crazy and instead they just let me and that is way more power than I should have.

if the pain goddess guy had been in dragon age he would have been so vague about it and you'd have exactly three options to respond that were all just getting the hell out of there with varying levels of politeness. but we're not in dragon age so you can be like "hell yeah let's do some bdsm in the middle of this goblin camp" and the game will be like "all right roll a con save and a performance check" and anyway now I'm kind of fucked because I spent half my hp on that and there are so many goblins that are going to try and kill me once I actually get around to what I came for but I regret nothing this game is awesome

[juniesfairies]

The first time I got to this part it was without Kim, and found out about my motor carriage all by myself and felt bad about it, I wanted Kim to be with me for this. So I went to my previous save and did a bunch of dialogue again and avoided looking at the MC until day 4. And so I did, I sat on the swing discussing how physical phenotypes emerge while the tide itself recedes. With way more dialogue options and feedback from your partner, I started crying. Because this moment is extremely real. I have an extremely bad and dangerous habit of loosing every object that I own, or ones that I don’t. I have a good memory but will forget to take my backpack home. Stupid blips like that really make you feel useless. So to hear Harry say “first my badge, then my gun, now this, and another, worse fourth thing” made me realize why I connected with this character so much. Why I bought this game after hearing about it for months specifically after I relapsed. And before all this even happens with you, Kim whistles with you, he goes along with you through these few hours because while *you* make mountains out of molehills (a teacher used to say I did that) someone who doesn’t will be by your side, and you remember that.

[inkdemonapologist]

anyway here's the batim dating sim concept that im obviously never going to make but i just think abt sometimes:

sepia sketchy style of art but it's the human characters

you don't play an outside character; you pick a BatIM to play as + time period to play in and that influences your date options so its essentially a shipping simulator.

every time you reach an ending, whether it's good or bad, you get a sort of "game over, try again?" screen which does a sketchy effect of scribbling the previous ending out before starting the next run.

BUT, choices you made AS a character kind of stick when you play a different character. So if you played Sammy and picked all the nicest options, then try again and play as Wally, Sammy would still be making those slightly nicer choices. So as you go, you can actually influence BIGGER things by kind of hopping into each character and steering them in a particular direction

sometimes setting things up so that a character survives or dies or leaves the studio will add or remove them as a date option for other characters -- like, for example, doing multiple runs between Sammy and Susie to make the choices that will save Susie from going into the Ink Machine might make her an actually possible dating option when playing as Allison in a future run -- that sort of thing.

you can't romance Henry as any character in any time period, but little things do seem to affect his dialogue or the things that other characters say about him, and it's highly implied that he's a Secret Unlockable Option if you set everything up JUST SO

..... and if you DO meticulously set everything up perfectly like the game has been hinting, then it is revealed that this whole time you have been Joey Drew, working with the "characters" of your various employees, trying to figure out the perfect scenario that would've saved the studio or kept your employees from leaving or dying or….. made it so that Henry stayed.

[linnaealyn]

Old mod page, abandoned 3/2/24; New mod page @ Godsibb

Finally, after 2 years of work, it is complete. -But still being updated.

There's a Japanese version of the mod now!

今は日本語版のMODがある！

This is a mod for Xenogears using Retroarch's Beetle PSX HW core real-time texture replacement feature. (It requires the Vulkan driver, so make sure your graphics card supports that.) (Duckstation doesn't have a similar option, unfortunately.)

It replaces every single character dialogue portrait, menu portrait, & (almost every) battle portrait (looking at you, Yggdra officer Gear pilots) with high quality, cleaned up artwork, as well as recreated high quality UI while keeping it as close to the original game as possible.

And best thing about it is, if there's anything you don't like about it, like certain aspects of the UI, you can locate and delete that file from the folder. Everything is optional. (if you have any questions as to what's what, drop them into my dms)

Current version: 1.4

現在の日本語版: 1.4

(More screenshots below download info and UI changes.)

Being a real-time texture replacer, it should work with any English version of XG, both base-game and modded/patched. Any fan-translated patch using the US version as a base should display correctly.

There's a separate version for the Japanese version of the game. May need some editing still with other characters' UI ("Ether"/"Spells"/"Arcane"/etc) but for the most part its good to go in terms of battle UI. Let me know if you find any errors.

(I've been using it with the Perfect Works Build mod. Highly recommended!)

(Note!!: If you use PWB mod, don't use its "readjusted portraits" patch when patching your rom, as that patch interferes with this mod's portraits texture replacing.)

(It works on Steam Deck... but don't ask me for details in setting that up in particular, I don't own one 😅)

~~~

Download/ダウンロード

I recommend reading the instructions txt files I included in the DL.

This includes information such as how to set up .cue and .m3u files, swapping discs, renaming the texture folder, Retroarch settings and Beetle PSX HW Core settings to get the mod working, settings suggestions for making a cleaner looking and faster playing XG (YMMV), and settings to fix certain emulation issues Ive come across (freezing on fast-forward, crackling audio during 3D/effects-heavy cutscenes/gameplay, blank screen during Rico flashback, etc).

~~~~~~~~~~

-Changes made to the UI include:

Menu UI:

selection triangle, Walk/Gear icons

menu portraits

▲ ■ ● ✖ button DeathBlow menu icons

ABXY button DeathBlow menu icon- alternate textures

Battle UI and on-foot specific battle UI:

Circular battle palette and tags behind text

Battle palette text, "Combo", "Return", "Enter", "Miss", "EP", & HP/DMG/heal/AP numbers

HP/AP bars

"Time", "fuel", "total damage", AP numbers, "1/2/3 point(s)", "cancel end"

battle portraits

▲ ■ ● ✖ button DeathBlow icons

ABXY button Deathblow icons- alternate textures

Bottom screen mid-DeathBlow ▲ ■ ✖ icons (unfortunately, there's no way to change the other mid-DB quadruple-button icons)

Combo 1-7 and Accept icons

In-Gear specific battle UI:

"fuel" and fuel numbers

"Fuel" (when using boost)

fuel bars (top and left)

All Gear status menus' green text/numbers

Attack level numbers and ∞

Gear menu backgrounds

Gear "power shut down", "camera damaged", "out of fuel", etc, statuses

background UI elements, runes, triple red triangles, Gear lock-on UI (unfortunately, there's no way to change the circular part of this UI)

Misc UI changes:

Red/grey spheres (in the menu and loading screen)

All instances of selection diamonds, both horizontal and vertical

Load/save screen "CARD 1"/"2" text, memory card icon, load/save bar/text

Disc 1 and 2 maps (with alternate color versions; makes the enterable area indicators harder to see though)

NESW compass letters (unfortunately, there's no way to change the circular compass texture)

~~~~~

-Screenshots (before & after and alts):

And Japanese version's (日本語版) UI:

⬇!!Spoilers in images further down!!⬇

--

I won't be showing all portraits here; only the ones worth mentioning.

Portraits created for the mod that have no artwork equivalent:

Portraits to match their sprites vs official unedited artwork:

(default on left, alt on right)

Roni/Medena/Erich edited sprite equivalent vs their official PW art

Citan edited unsmiling (dialogue-only) sprite equivalent vs official smiling art)

Krelian(s) edited sprite equivalent vs official art

Portrait alts created for fun:

Both sides of scar-eyed Bart

Two-eyed Bart

Kim lab coat with glasses

Fei-colored Id

Fei-colored Id with Id's yellow eyes

Fei-colored young & older Emeralda

(might add to this list later. have any suggestions? fun ideas? lmk. It doesn't have to be canon-compliant.)

Screenshots of alt portraits in-use:

I'll continue to update this and subsequently reblog it as new versions are released.

With any new updates, just DL and replace/overwrite the old folder.

In-progress tumblr post of the past as a bit of a time capsule for myself 😄

[zephyrstargame]

well here's something I can do!

this is a little spin on an idea i've been seeing around that i think is wonderful... I personally, am not in the best financial place to be donating, but i can use my platform as a game developer to help out and do something cool at the same time :3

In exchange for donating esims to gaza, I'm gonna populate the world of Zephyr Star with your characters as NPCs! currently: OPEN!!

Here's the deal-- scurry on over to gazaesims.com to figure out how to buy and donate an esim to the people who need em-- any plan works for me, as long as you're gettin something out there!

then slip into my DMs (or anywhere else you can contact me directly) and show me a screenshot of the email, preferably with timestamps for proof that it's from after this post was posted... or really, any proof that you did do the thing-- also show me:

a reference image for what character you want me put in the game

what this character should say as an NPC (just a few lines at most) (optional; if you'd like i can just write some general dialogue instead)

how you would like to be credited in the in-game credits (ie what name i should put)

below the cut are some submission guidelines and extra notes, please also read that if you're interested :>

here are some general submission guidelines:

nothing too lewd, please!

or racist

or otherwise offensive

fandom ocs MIGHT be fine if they're Legally Distinct enough from the source material, but try not to get me sued here

In general, this game's world has No Humans, but that's not a strict requirement-- just a general suggestion

and keep in mind that characters with super intricate details might have to be simplified in order to work as pixel art

otherwise, anything works! furries, robots, sentient objects, your cat, whatever

and here's some notes, so you know what to expect:

i'll take anywhere between a few hours to a few days to finish, depends on how i'm feeling... either way, i'll tag you in a new post when i'm done!

the character will be done in small pixel art, with maybe some additional effects if i feel it works for the design

i will adjust the sprite size depending on the character-- an average sized character is drawn on a 32x32 canvas but if it's like a giant or really tall or something, i'd make it bigger so that the scale is accurate

everyone also gets a zoomed in headshot for the dialogue portrait

no secret bosses, shopkeepers, or other special story purpose for now, sorry! these are just some guys that stand around and say 1 or 2 lines as you go about your adventure

im putting the characters in various places at random, but if you want your guy to be in a certain type of location in-game let me know

this game is STILL in relatively early development-- but i do promise that each and every submission will be in there by the end! it might take yeaaaars for the full game to finally be out, but i'll be posting screenshots as I put em in the game so you know im not slacking around :>

and alongside the screenshot, i'll also post the sprites on their own if you'd like to save them for yourself

legal stuff uhhhhh im not good at legal stuff-- by participating, you are giving me permission to use your submitted character in the final game-- credit will be given in-game where you would expect to see it (the credits) and i will not claim ownership of any of your guys

(cartoon mafia boss voice) if at any point you want your character scrubbed out of the game, or you want anything changed, let me know in my DMs or anywhere else you can contact me and *click* *sinister laugh* we'll make it happen

no money goes to me ever, im not even gonna be the middlesnake between you and the esims-- i just think its less of a hassle to work this way -w-

did i get everything? i think that's everything... if i forgot something important sorry i'm a scatterbrain failgirl who has never done anything like this before im trying my best okay

may the rift be filled with your cool little guys! but more importantly, let's keep gaza connected! free palestine! 🍉

[sexhaver]

ive been playing Cassette Beasts for a minute and it never stops being funny to me how flagrant they are about making this "Pokemon but with features you didn't know Pokemon has always needed". off the top of my head:

super effective/NVE hits have added benefits/debuffs beyond just doubling/halving the damage (hitting Electric types with Ground reduces their evasion and speed, hitting Steel types with Poison gives them poison-coated spikes that do contact damage, etc)

legally-distinct-Pokemon will learn new moves while in your party without having to battle, and you can then straight up steal these moves from them and put them on a not-Pokemon you actually care about using, which gives an actual incentive to hunt down and raise otherwise fringe not-mons beyond completing the not-Pokedex

we all played the Pokemon Infinite Fusion fangame right? we know how fusions work? okay so this game has them as temporary per-battle things instead of permanent ones, which is only marginally less cool while being infinitely easier to balance around

attempting to catch something shows you the percentage chance of success so you know whether you just got unlucky or if you should save your Pokeballs-i-mean-blank-cassette-tapes

leveling up is tied to your not-trainer instead of your not-pokemon, so you don't end up in the classic trap where your starter is way overleveled and everything else is underleveled and then you hit a fight your starter can't solo and have to spend an hour grinding to get the weaker not-mons up to par (funnily enough most Pokemon Nuzlocke romhacks have already figured this out and give you infinite rare candies with the only restriction being that you can't level past the next gym leader's ace pokemon, because Pokemon fans have realized that grinding is the worst part of the game way before Game Freak has)

moves, not-Pokeballs, not-PokeCenter visits, and healing items are all bought using entirely separate currencies which stops you from trivially breaking the economy in half

the soundtrack, fittingly, is pretty good! the vocals were a bit much for my taste but there's an option in the settings menu to straight up turn them off (letting the BGM play on its own), which i've never seen in any other game and really appreciate

downsides:

on a game design level, i understand why can i only carry a max of 5 not-Potions and 1 not-Revive at a time - it's to put a limit on how far away from fast travel points i can get by just running away from everything and healing off damage. on a gameplay level, however, this feels pretty bad

the pixel art style is trying to look as much like Pokemon as possible without actually being Pokemon so the overworld sprites look more like beta stuff from Pokemon that they cut for looking too weird. i have yet to find a haircut that doesn't look bad

this is super petty of me but something about the bloom and lighting of the 3d environments combined with pixelated 2d sprites that still cast shadows makes me painfully aware im playing a video game. it's like they were going for the same aesthetic as Octopath Traveler but fell just barely short. i can't think of a better way to articulate this feeling but if you know you know

it does that really obnoxious half-assed style of voice acting where plot-relevant characters will sometimes (maybe every third or fourth textbox) speak the first two or three words of dialogue before trailing off. mashing through textboxes (as one does) means constantly getting jumpscared by "hmm"s and "haha!"s "okay then!"s

i get that they wanted to make the player feel involved in the story, and it has a pretty decent hook so far, but oh my god. the amount of dialogue "choices" that just transparently do not matter. you know how people memed on Fallout 3 and 4's dialogue choices all leading to the same outcome, to the extent that you were basically choosing between "yes" and "yes (rude)"? and you know how Bethesda would at least attempt to justify how both options led to you accepting the quest anyways, even if it was really dumb? Cassette Beasts has streamlined this process even further by making the options in most of their binary decisions so identical that they don't even require different followup dailogue before rejoining into the main conversation thread. a solid 2/3rds of the dialogue options in this game so far feel like checks that you're still awake. i know this is a minor issue because people aren't playing Pokemon-likes for the engaging "choices matter" approach to storytelling, and i did ignore it at first, but it's so pervasive that you really can't ignore it

[lucrezianoin]

Sub!Marazhai's impossible romance

"Are you pleased with me?"

Love THIS.

Even if the first sex scene is clearly dom!Marazhai, but I think it is a known bug.

God, romancing this guy as a dom is impossible without mods (toybox in particular).

I think there are at least three points Dom/Sub you can get in act 3 (or between act 3 and the start of act 4), because when I started the romance I had three points. The problem is that the flag seems to be opposite.

From what I remember (I cannot confirm this is 100% flagged for a sub!Marazhai, as at the time I was not using toybox to check the consequences of answers):

Grabbing his wrist:

The agoniser (use it on yourself instead of letting him use it on you)

I cannot remember a possible third point, but it must be somewhere before the triggering of the "first warp".

Then, when Marazhai goes mad with terror/bloodlust you can start the romance (the agoniser tho is fundamental too, so don't skip it). You can decide how to deal with Marazhai's needs every time the ship jumps through warps. @pjenn literally saved me because when I checked the dialogue description in toybox I actually got this:

Deciding Marazhai can hunt wherever he wants (1 point in Domination = Dom!Marazhai)

Letting him have the lower decks as his hunting grouns (no sub/dom point, but a third mysterious option called "sybarite").

Locking him away (1 point in Submission = Sub!MarazhaI)... the problem is that apparently this option breaks the romance, and it did for me.

So when I reloaded and checked my dom/sub points, even if I only chose the dom-related options (from dialogue) I found that in:

Toyboy -> Search n Pick -> Submission was LOCKED. Zero points, still locked. While Domination had three points. Which meant that me grabbing his wrist or bossing him around ended up flagged in the opposite way.

So I had to change that. I changed it to 10, which is probably too high, but because I read from some steam comments that ten should be the final result I will keep it as that until the end (and adjust it later).

And I lowered the Dominant to zero.

The romance fully starts once he invites you to hunt with him and you can tell him:

Guide me (Dom!Marazhai - Sub!Player)

Ask me properly (Sub!Marazhai - Dom!Player)

This time, the "ask me properly" was correctly flagged as Submission (as you can see in the pic above my current value is 11, so 10 that I set + 1).

When I selected "ask me properly" when I used to have Dom!Marazhai at 3, Marazhai answered with annoyance, telling me I should not mix our games. Basically telling me I was giving him mixed signals.

I will keep an eye on future choices in game to see if in act 4 stuff is flagged oppositely too. But for now it looks like act 3 Dom/Sub options are opposite.

This is him in his first romance scene with zero points in Dom!Marazhai btw:

Btw, he doesn't kiss you if he is dom!Marazhai, and later in bed he refuses your kiss.

Unfortunately, the sex scene is also weirdly bugged. He acts like dom!Marazhai indipendently from your dom/sub score. So I annoyingly tolerated him calling me "pet":

At least I got this:

I am going to change the dom/sub score now pre-first warp scene to see if it influence the first dialogue you have with him too (given he calls you pet there too and there used to be a specific sub!Marazhai dialogue post it, but it is not there anymore). If you see no updates to this post, it means nothing changed.

EDIT: on the left this is how he greets you if you manually change him to full sub; on the right is how he greets you normally (impossible at the moment to get the greeting at the left without mods)

Which is pretty annoying because it confirms that the whole "pet" ordeal is heavily dependent on him being dominant. Which means that there is no possible scene of sub!Marazhai for the first sleeping together.

[mlmmetalhead]

Kinesthetic learner

Request:

Eddie Munson x Male reader

CW: smut, heavy dom/sub dynamic, dirty talk, degradation, overstim, possessive kink, no prep no protect, a lot of dialogue for some reason.

An: I was listening to Rob zombie while writing this, man's music does wonders to me, but I also feel like the actual smut is a little short, this was a little rushed and I don't really like it

taglist: @deddiemunson

WOMEN DNI

"Oh come on, you can't be that much of a bore!"

Y/N exhaled, lowering the book to his knees, death staring the guy sitting next to him, Eddie's hands tangled in his hair, legs crossed in front of his torso, as he looked at his "tutor" with a slight disappointment.

"In fact, no, I am not. If you didn't notice, I'm not a big fan of all this either. I wouldn't be here, only if I had the option."

"Really?", Munson smirked, shifting in the chair, his bottom lip caught between his teeth, "That's a shame... I'd hope you would at least get some kind of sympathy for me, all this time..."

He sighed, pretending to pout and look down, his eyes switching to Y/N from time to time. The other, however, left unresponsive to Eddie's playful attempts, maintaining his death gaze, left eye twitching. Rightfully so, not everyone could be cheerful and playful after four hours of tutoring Eddie Munson. Well, tutoring is a stretch. More like trying to tutor, while he is acting like a three year old who's being forced to eat his veggies. It was seriously pissing L/N off.

***

"Hi Eddie. I expect you over at my house today, at 6. I believe you have a project in science for-"

"Ooh...", Munson turned around, facing the guy talking to him, while slowly leaning against the lockers, crossing his arms, "Yeah, sorry, no can do. Not today, at least. You see, a new campaign is going to start, right on Monday, and I really, really, need to finish it, you gotta cut me some slack here, man. I'm struggling!"

"Sorry, but I can't just tell the teacher that I cancelled our meeting, I remind you, once again, just because you need to go do nothing all evening."

He furrowed his eyebrows, tilting his head to look at L/N with the most confused and offended expression possible.

"Yeah, sorry, I- Hah, I think you didn't quite catch me. I'm not going to be doing nothing, alright? It's extremely important to write down every single detail of the campaign, even if I'm a good improviser, that won't save me when-"

"When the teacher is going to ask you, once again, to be the first one presenting your project. But it's alright, I guess you could just present them your D&D campaign, right?"

Eddie bit his lip, lowering himself against the lockers, eyes darting somewhere down, while scratching his cheek. Then, as if a lightbulb went off in his brain, he switched his gaze back to Y/N, a smile growing on his lips.

"Do you think that could work?"

***

Munson went up to his trailer, whistling some songs to himself, keys swinging on a finger.

"Look who finally decided to show up!"

Eddie almost jumped at the unexpected voice coming from behind. There stood no other than Y/N, his lips pursed, brows furrowed, and the familiar death gaze almost burned a hole in Munson's forehead. The other guy, however, smiled, hooking his hands behind his back, hips swaying in a playful manner.

"Heey there, L/N! What are you doing here? Wait! Don't answer!", he put a hand in front of him, hips freezing for some time, before the stretched out hand went back up to his chin, stroking it, as if mimicking thinking. Immediately after which, he retrained the hand back behind his back, jumping on his two, "Yes! I will go out with you! I was starting to think you wouldn't ask, man, I was kind of scared that-"

"I'm not here to ask you out, stop playing one of your games, I've been waiting here for almost an hour, and the only thing that was keeping me here was the thought, that I would get to tell you how much of a pain in the ass you are."

With the playful expression dying off Eddie's face, his hands wandering back to his sides, blinking a couple of times, he pursed his lips, eyes darting away from the other guy.

"Sorry, what'd I do?"

"You can't be fucking serious, can you?"

L/N watch in disbelief, as Munson shrugged his shoulders and shook his head, looking back at his tutor, waiting for a verdict of his guilt.

"Eddie, this was the last chance on this week's meeting. We had one planned on Tuesday, but you couldn't show up, so we moved it to Wednesday. But when I went to your house on Wednesday, we studied for exactly fifteen minutes before you had to go somewhere. So we moved a meeting on today. At seven. And you didn't fucking show up, and apparently, you don't even know we had a meeting?"

"Oh..." Munson scratched his back, loudly inhaling and biting his lower lip, his other hand sticking to his side, as if glued on, "Yeah, sorry, I... I didn't really... Remember, y'know? I had band practice and..."

***

"Heyy! Earth to Y/N? Where are you?"

Eddie snapped his fingers in front of Y/N's face, as the other one blinked, coming back to the present.

"Oh hey, handsome. There you are, what were you thinking about, hm? Was it about me?"

L/N’s gaze met Eddie’s, as he processed the smug smile on the guy’s face. And in this exact moment, the face made him unbelievably mad.

“Well? Are you going to tell me what were you think-”

“Shut up.”

“I’m sorry?”

“You heard me,” Y/N stood up from his chair, towering over Munson, “I’m tired of your childish antics, and the way you treat this whole thing. You always have something better to do, making me run around searching for you like a lovesick teenage girl, as if I don’t have anything better to do. Do you know how many plans I had to move and cancel because of you, huh?”

Eddie gulped down, trying to move away from Y/N, lowering off from his chair, holding up his hands in defense. “Hey, um- I’m sorry, dude, I promise we can figure this-”

“Oh yeah, you should be sorry, Munson. I neglected sleep and important health routines to come to your house, only to receive nothing but a bunch of disrespect towards me and my time. I don’t know what kind of a romantic scenario from a teen’s book you think this is, but I don’t like all of this, I don’t find your pathetic attempts at flirting cute, or entertaining anymore. You want to know what I think? I think you’re nothing but a noisy, annoying, disobedient brat.”

Eddie exhaled loudly, the look in his eyes shifting from pure fear to something more, as his thighs rubbed together, tongue wandering over his lips, “I’m sorry. How can I make it up to you?” his voice fell quieter, hands wondering closer to Y/n, but still not touching him.

L/N furrowed his brows, back straightening up, trying to read the expression on the others face. But boring into his big, brown, pleading eyes just irritated him more. Y/N grabbed Munson’s chin, holding his face to look himself directly in the eyes.

“You’ll have to do a lot, that’s for sure, you little fucker. What possibly do you have to offer that would make up for all the time I wasted on you?”

Instead of answering, Eddie slightly opened his mouth, his wet tongue pushing past his lips, as it touched and massaged Y/N’s thumb, being so conveniently pressed almost against his lips, all while not breaking intense eye contact even for a second. L/N furrowed his brows, quickly pulling his arm away, looking at Munson, sitting in front of him in somewhat of disbelief and confusion. He began wiping his hand on his shirt, until an idea popped into his head.

It was clear what the Dungeon Master was hinting at, not that it wasn't unexpected: he always was pretty flirty with the other, clearly expressing his interest. And even if Y/N was unbelievably annoyed by almost every single one of his actions and words, he couldn't deny that Eddie was quite attractive.

Slowing down the hand motion, Y/N came back closer, once again towering over Munson, a predatory look in his face, which made the other one's breath faster. Without any words, L/N's hand wandered into Eddie's hair, and pulled his head up to meet his own face, their lips smashing together.

Eddie moaned from suddenness of the contact, desperately griping Y/N by the shoulders and moaning into the kiss. Their teeth clashed together, saliva dropping down both of their chins. Munson moaned once again, grinding his crotch into L/N's leg, to which, much to Eddie's disappointment, Y/N pulled away, licking his lips and admiring his work while still holding other guy's hair in his iron grip.

"Get on your knees. And don't waste my time."

Munson quickly nodded, still not completely processing what was going on, as he got on his knees, looking up at his partner, as he removed his belt and undid his pants, slowly massaging his shaft through boxers. It wasn't long, before Y/N's dick was out and almost touching Eddie's nose. Licking his lips and quickly switching his eyes to the others face to get permission, Munson carefully opened his lips and the head of L/N's cock disappeared in his warm mouth.

"Oh yeah, that's it," Y/N hissed, once again tangling his hand in Eddie's hair, pushing himself down his throat, moaning, "Your mouth is so warm... Doesn't look like you struggle that much, you do this a lot?"

Munson tried shaking his head or making a noise of disapproval, but he could only whimper and choke on the massive cock occupying his mouth. L/N chuckled at the others attempts at communicating.

"You know that's not true. Eddie The Freak Munson, is also a pathetic little cocksucker. I wonder why didn't you just use your pretty little mouth to pass your classes, huh? I wouldn't be here right now, if you were just smart enough to... Oh fuck... To use the skills you have."

Eddie moaned around the shaft, as he tried to take even more in his throat, his pretty eyes watering, as he looked up to look Y/N in the face, pulling at his hips.

"Eager, baby? Don't worry, you'll get more in a second."

Y/N smiled darkly, as he pulled out of Munson's throat, leaving saliva dropping from his gaping mouth, catching air.

"Thank you... S-so much, I... I wanted this for so long..."

"Oh, don't worry, you made that really obvious. Now don't waste more of my time, and get on the bed. Get those clothes out of my way."

Eddie happily obliged, getting undressed just in seconds, climbing on the soft sheets, laying down, hair spread out, thighs rubbing against one another, trying somehow to make the growing erection better. As Y/N climbed in after him, his shirt discarded somewhere in the room, Munson bit his lip, eyes exploring the exposed body of another guy. L/N spread Eddie's legs apart himself, titling the other body, that way his cock pressed right against Munson's tight asshole.

"Wait- You're not... You're not going to... Y'know, prep?"

Y/N looked at Eddie, once again, with the familiar death gaze, loudly exhaling.

"You don't deserve to be. I'm not wasting my time on you, once again."

And with that, wasting no time, he pushed in, Eddie's loud moans bouncing off the room's walls. Y/N groaned, still waiting for some time, before pushing even forward, drowning another prolonged moan from his partner. Munson moaned, tears dripping down his cheeks, his eyes squinting, as the tearing pain went up his whole body from the sudden penetration. And even though it felt like thunderbolt of pain went up his whole inside, along with it, a wave of a different feeling came rushing straight to his brain, making him almost short-circuit. Mind clouding pleasure filled his thoughts, as everything Eddie could feel was L/N's big cock exploring his insides.

"Just like that. You fucking whore. What are you smiling for? You like that don't you? You like it when I fuck your brains out? Huh? Answer me."

Munson whimpered, hardly capable of any coherent words, as every single thought of his was fucked out by the next thrust of Y/N's hips,"Y-yeah... I like it...", Was all he could muster up, before his eyes rolled back, high-pitched moans escaping his throat.

L/N sped up, biting his own lips, with a loud spanking noise landing a hand on Eddie's ass, earning a pained whimper from him, "That's fucking right. Take it, you mouthy slut. That's what you get for being such a brat," with another spank.

With a loud moan and a shiver down his whole body, Eddie came, spilling on his stomach, eyes closing.

"You loved it a little too much, I see." Y/N smiled, wiping the cum off Munson's stomach, before pushing cum covered fingers up to his lips, "Clean up the mess you made, bitch."

As an obedient little slut he is, Eddie opened his mouth, gladly taking the fingers in his mouth and letting his tongue explore, sucking and licking them clean.

"That's a good whore."

Munson moaned at that, his hand rolling onto his eyes, as his whole body shook from the thrusts. Lips trembling with overstimulation, his spent cock getting red and hardening a little.

"I'm so sorry... I'm sorry for being so bad... I-I love your dick. I love your dick so- so much, Y/N."

Y/N smiled, rewarding Eddie with a particularly deep thrust, before resuming his merciless pace, while gripping at the others thighs.

"Oh yeah? Tell me more, baby boy."

Eddie gulped, trying harder to form a sentence, "It was a while since... Since someone pounded me like this, ah! Ha... Please, use my fucking hole... I wanted that big cock of yours for awhile. If- if you want... You could be the only one who's allowed to use it."

Munson moaned, once again rolling his eyes back, as he felt another climax nearing. He lifted up his legs in the air, hooking them up behind Y/N's back to pull him even closer. L/N groaned, biting down into Eddie's neck, exploring it with his tongue and teeth.

"Mark me! I'm all yours, Y/N! All yours! I'm sorry for being such a bad boy, I'm going to behave!", Tears trickled down to Eddie's open mouth, mixing with his saliva.

"That's what I needed to hear, baby," L/N groaned in Munson's ear, as his thrusts became more sloppy, his hand gripping Eddie's ass.

"Please, give me your load! Please, please, please, Y/N! You can use me like that whenever you want! Whenever you're not satisfied with my behaviour! I'm yours, your little fucktoy!"

Eddie screamed at the top of his lungs, as he came again, feeling that Y/N did soon after, too, his seed spilling inside Munson, as he moaned, throwing his head up.

Eddie quietly whimpered, as his partner layed beside him, both sweaty and breathing heavily.

"I will not be... Late at any of our meetings... Ever again."

[diversestardewvalley]

Diverse Stardew Valley 4.0 Sneak Peak!

Hey everyone! DSV 4.0 is getting close to being done, so I thought I’d show off some of the cool stuff that’s gonna be included! 😊 I’ve also been sharing little snippets in the DSV Discord server recently, so if you’re not already a member, check our website for the link.

It’s pretty long and has a lot of images, so click through to see them!

The big news is that DSV 4.0 will move back to an all-in-one download (and will also be hosted on Nexus again) with a SMAPI component, DSV Core, which will consolidate all of the config options for more convenience. DSV Core is the hard work of KediDili from a concept originally by Nuztalgia!

It’ll also mean that other mods will be able to read your DSV config choices, which opens up a lot of potential for compatibility! Platonic Partners and Friendships users may be familiar with how this works, since PPAF has a similar feature and DSV is able to automatically provide compat depending on your PPAF config.

[image id: two screenshots from DSV Core showing a selection of configuration options. The first is a table of contents and the second shows some of the options available in the Global Options page.]

Options will be divided into different pages so that it’s not an overwhelming list of choices, and DSV Core will also automatically disable compatibility options for other mods if you don’t have that mod installed, so it’ll reduce some of the option clutter. We’ve also future-proofed the config so that you also won’t need to redo your config settings when we add more options in the future and added a function to automatically fix common typos in manually-edited config.jsons!

[image id: a screenshot showing DSV Core’s page of Compatibility options.]

As you can see in the screenshot above, 4.0 will also add dialogue for many characters related to DSV’s variants! This feature has been much requested and a lot of people have contributed dialogue, so thank you to everyone who wrote some lines for us 💖 If you’re interested in helping out with dialogue as well, feel free to join the DSV server and chat to us about it!

Another major content update will be DSV’s swimsuits! We’ve updated all of the swimsuits to have fresh new designs, and there’ll be a new option for every character with a beach swimsuit in the vanilla game to use either the vanilla design (with some minor tweaks to clean up art issues & match DSV’s bases) or the DSV design.

[image id: a selection of portraits from DSV showing the characters’ vanilla variants wearing the DSV Style swimsuits]

[image id: a selection of portraits and sprites from DSV showing the characters’ vanilla variants in a before and after of the default swimsuits on the left versus the updated Vanilla Style swimsuits on the right.]

Other stuff being included is a skintone saturation boost for modded Harvey and Black Emily and Haley, after feedback from our sensitivity checkers...

[image id: a before and after of DSV’s modded Harvey and Black Emily & Haley showing the difference in skintones.]

...new & updated outfits for some characters (Emily’s outfits are by Meowpix while Sebastian’s ao dai is by Elaho)...

[image id: a selection of portraits from DSV showing updated outfits for Abigail, Sebastian, and Emily.]

...compatibility with Life Cycle and other mods...

[image id: portraits for DSV’s modded Caroline, Emily, Kent, and Demetrius showing new formalwear.]

...options for small immersive features...

[image id: portraits for DSV’s modded and vanilla Abigail wearing a variety of goth makeup looks.]

...and saving the best for last, DSV’s best girl Marigold will be making a return with updated art! She’ll be a non-friendable NPC and will require Sprites in Detail as a temporary measure until SDV 1.6 is released, but she’ll also have more dialogue, including dialogue from Linus about her, and new animations 🐕‍🦺

[image id: a screenshot of Linus’s tent showing his service dog Marigold with larger updated sprites.]

Thanks to everyone that’s supported us and I hope you’re all hyped for DSV 4.0! 💖