bitemarx · 2 years ago
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tpk stands for totally perfect komrades, trust me bro
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darkficsyouneveraskedfor · 3 months ago
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Office Space 4
Warnings: this fic will include elements, some dark, such as noncon/dubcon, and other untagged triggers. Please take this into account before proceeding. It is up to curate your online consumption safely.
Summary: you’re an assistant to private and corporate investigator, Nick Fowler, and find yourself brought into the fold of his shady professional life. 
Characters: Nick Fowler, Jonathan Pine, this reader is known as Elfie.
Author’s Note: Please feel free to leave some feedback, reblog, and jump into my asks. I’m always happy to discuss with you and riff on idea. As always, you are cherished and adored! Stay safe, be kind, and treat yourself💜
💼Part of the Bad Bosses AU💼
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“Well, it has been a day, has it not?” Pine frightens you as he emerges. You pop your head up, your vision squiggly with the imprint of a spreadsheet. 
“Sir,” you straighten up to see him past the monitor. 
“Hmm, and when do you let out, darling? Surely Nicolas wouldn’t have you pent up on a Saturday such as this?” He makes a show of checking his watch. You give a sheepish smile and run your thumb along the space bar. 
“Soon.” 
“I’m sure.” His tone is unimpressed. “I did say I owed you for the tea.” 
“Oh, that’s--” 
“I do like to follow through and I must admit, aside from our mutual acquaintance, I am not very familiar with this city. I would not complain for company.” He twists on his heel and struts to Fowler’s office door. The knock has you strangled in the fraught silence that follows. 
Pine sighs and leans on the door frame. He clucks impatiently and raises his hand again. You sink down to hide behind the screen. 
“Jonathan,” Fowler greets. 
“Hello, I was just packing up for the day and I noticed your lovely assistant is still hard at work.” Pine intones 
“How observant,” Fowler snorts. 
“Well, I think she’s due for her release and since I’ve promised her recompense--” 
“Recompense?” 
“Ah, yes, she has been a gracious host. You may learn a thing or two.” Pine’s chuckle sets you on edge. Even behind the shield of the computer you feel your boss’ roiling irritation. 
“I forgot about you sort and your pints.” Fowler spits the last word. 
“If she is so inclined, a pint is in order, but she does seem to be more of a sophisticated type, though perhaps not so much as you and your vintages, eh?” 
Fowler huffs. “I thought you came for work.” 
“What is work without fun? Let the poor thing go. On my honour, I’ll keep it on the up and up,” Pine insists. 
Silence. “Elf, didn’t I promise you a work dinner? For all your hard work, of course?” 
You’re happy neither of them can see the surprise rippled in your forehead. You wipe it away quickly and peek up above the monitor frame. You force a smile. Fowler’s icy blue eyes chill you to the bone as Pine turns with a coy crook of his brow. 
“I think... yes. Um, but, er...” 
“Least I can do,” Fowler smirks. “I’d hate to be rude. You don’t mind if my colleague joins us? He is new in town and all?” He looks at Pine who returns his challenging glint. For a moment, they stare at one another. 
“I should hate to presume...” Pine says. 
“It’s okay,” you say a bit to quickly for your brain to process. You bite down on a cringe and clear your throat, “but if you’d rather catch up, we can do it another time.” 
“Sounds like a plan. My treat.” Fowler insists with a defiant tilt of his chin. 
“Right, okay.” You sit back as he retreats into his office and Pine hums. You click around on your screen as you try to figure out what just happened. You’d rather just go home but it would be rude to say so. 
As you double-check the autosave, Pine’s shadow comes to loom from the other side of the desk. You glance up with a sheepish smile as you sign-out and push your chair back. You bend to grab your purse from under the desk. 
“Your boss has ever been a rather stormy man, hm? Though you’d have laughed to see him on my side of the pond. He mightn’t admit it but he was rather fond of a pint or two. Perhaps a bit too fond. It may just be the reason for his recent aversion.” Pine laughs and you do your best to humour him. 
“I don’t really drink beer. Makes me feel bloated but I have some drinks now and again. Last night, I had some with a few friends. Nothing wild but it was nice.” 
“And he made you come in today?” He tuts. “How cruel. Well, never worry, I shall endeavour to make our own working relationship less than burdensome.” 
“It’s work. Really.”  
You leave him to turn off the printer room lights and as you come back, he leans on your desk. He watches you with his soft blue eyes. “Old friends?” 
“Some of them. We... we work in the same field.” 
“PI work?” He wonders. 
“Oh, no. We—we’re all personal assistants or secretaries or whatever. Couple of us met in college, others at work, a few randomly. Guess we just ended up together.” You come around the desk and seal your lips against a yawn that flutters your lashes. 
“Alright, let’s go.” Fowler snaps his office door behind him as he marches out. “Remember that steakhouse I mentioned, Elf?” 
Nope. You don’t think he’s ever talked about a steakhouse or anything fun with you. If you didn’t bring him most of his meals, you might think he doesn’t eat at all. He is inhuman enough that he might subsist on resent alone. 
“Uh, I think so,” you lie. 
“You’ll like it. Wagyu is their seasonal special.” He surpasses Pine and ushers you to the door. As he opens it ahead of you, you hesitate. It’s strange. He’s being... nice? You step outside and Pine trails, thanking Fowler as he does. 
“Wagyu?” Pine puts his hand to your lower back as he turns you down the sidewalk. “I’m more inclined to a nice filet or beef wellington.” 
“This way,” Fowler catches your arm and pulls you around. Pine scuffs and turns back to follow once more. “It’s close. Don’t even need to drive.” 
“Mm, ever the man with all the secrets, eh?” Pine comes up on your other side.  
Fowler keeps his grip on your arm. He seems to recall himself and unclamps his fingers, only to hook his arm through yours. You let him as you walk stiffly down the street. What the heck is going on? 
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Fowler tosses back. He is met with another airy chuckle from the taller man. 
“So long as they have good drinks, eh, Elfie? It might be a good place for girls’ night,” Pine brushes your shoulder gently. 
Fowler looks over, a terse slant in his jaw, then sets his sights straight. “I don’t know, the vintage might be a bit too much for an Englishman’s taste.” 
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blueskittlesart · 1 year ago
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This is kinda stupid but as a Zelda expert I wonder if you'd have any tips for me. I got BOTW like years ago bc I'm obsessed with all the content that came out of it but with a combo of general anxiety + the fact that I am egregiously bad at playing video games I have uhh barely played it. I kind of had the same issue with Stardew Valley of all games b/c the mines gave me anxiety until I was given tips for getting through them quickly. Now I really do wanna finish BOTW bc if I can finish then reasonably I should be physically capable of playing TOTK???
i think that botw can be a particularly overwhelming first play bc of the sheer size of the world and the lack of guidance, but just so you know most of that anxiety you're feeling is unfounded. despite how much it builds itself up in-game as having very difficult combat situations, botw is a relatively easy game in terms of combat difficulty, and you can actually avoid a good amount of combat altogether once you get off the plateau. like with almost any open-world enemy you can just run away and they'll eventually stop chasing you with no fight needed. but the open world enemies also become stupid easy once you get some halfway decent weapons and armor. i suspect you're probably just stuck in plateau purgatory where everything is hard by virtue of you having very few hearts and shit equipment. this is unfortunately the only segment of the game where you CAN'T really set your own pace and have to do things in a certain way, but there are only four shrines to complete and the second you complete them everything gets way easier, i promise. if you ARE off the plateau and still feeling that anxiety, it might be helpful to nail down some objectives to combat that open-world-endless-possibilities fear factor. i would suggest focusing on building up your heart count with shrines (you can find them pretty easily by climbing sheikah towers at night and looking for their orange glow) since having more hearts is going to make everything a lot less difficult for you in general (i wouldn't bother with stamina in early game, get a decent heart count first. at least 13.) as well as building up your armor and weapon stashes to a point where you're confident enough with menial enemies. getting as much of the map as you can in early-game is also really helpful because it makes it much easier to find and access points of interest like villages. you might try practicing archery or swordsmanship if you're really concerned about that element--there are several in-game training spots that you can utilize basically as much as you want in order to get the button combos down. then once you're confident enough in your abilities you can switch gears to the main quest (divine beasts!) and just remember, there's no wrong way to play video games and there's no penalty for deaths or failures. if link dies all the game does is drop you back into your last autosave, and botw's autosave is so good that you probably won't even lose any progress. no one is going to get mad at you if it takes you a few deaths to beat a boss. no one is going to get mad at you if you need to google walkthroughs to beat bosses or puzzles. your gameplay experience should be enjoyable, and whatever accommodations you have to make for yourself in order to make it enjoyable are fine! there's no reason to suffer through something that could be made easier just for the sake of doing it right.
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late-to-the-party-81 · 9 months ago
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Daddy makes it better
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AN: This is a longtime request from the lovely @christwrites. Love you my darling. Here’s something soft with our lovely Daddy Ari.
And look at me, updating two of my series in quick succession!!
Not Beta’d, so I apologise in advance.
Likes are loved, reblogs are golden
Mood board by me and dividers by @firefly-graphics
Join my tag list here
Master list | Series Master list
Feel free to send me asks about these two
Summary: When work kicks your ass, your Daddy knows just what to do to get you to relax.
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Relationship: Ari x Female Reader (Angel)
Word Count: 2.1K
CW: Daddy kink, Soft Dom Ari, Body Worship, Bathing together, Vaginal Fingering, Ari’s chest and thighs
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“Angel!” Ari’s deep voice rumbled through the beach house. “Are you here?”
Sometimes you wondered if you’d made a mistake, moving in with Ari so soon after getting together, but on days like this you realised that the reverse was true - that it was the best decision you’d ever made.
You raised your head from the pillow just enough so you could let out a loud groan, and then flopped back down, your arms and legs akimbo.You were still in your work clothes and shoes, so exhausted after your stressful day that you’d just thrown yourself down on the bed as soon as you’d got home.
Within a few seconds, you heard a low chuckle from behind you before the mattress dipped under Ari’s weight. You felt him place his large hand on your head and when he started to stroke your hair you immediately began to relax.
“That bad, huh?”
“The worst,” you mumbled into the bedclothes, before you turned onto your side and made grabby hands at your massive bear of a boyfriend. With a smirk on his face he lay down next to you and pulled you into the circle of his arms. You immediately tucked your head under his chin, burying your nose in his neck, and inhaled the calming scent that was uniquely ‘Ari’.
“My office is so cheap. It’s clear that not only do we need updated software, but hardware too, but they just keep insisting that it isn’t cost effective. However, when I lost my spreadsheet for the third time today I just wanted to fling the goddamn computer out of the window. And then Janice…”
“We hate her, don’t we?” Ari interjected, questioningly.
“Yeah, we do,” you confirmed before continuing, “Janice helpfully came over and made a comment about how I should just ‘save’ more often, like I don’t have autosave turned on. I’m the one who taught her…”
“Taught her keyboard shortcuts, yes. You might have mentioned it once or twice,” he teased, completely used to your work-related rants by now. “What I’m hearing is that my Angel needs to have a relaxing evening, so how about I go and run us both a bath and then after that we can get takeout and snuggle?”
You lifted your head and dropped a kiss to his lips. “Sounds perfect, Daddy.” It was easy to slip into the headspace of being Ari’s pampered princess.
“Anything for you, baby girl.” 
He rose from the bed and in a deft move that made you squeal with laughter, he lifted you up in his arms, returning your kiss with one of his own. Then, in a few strides of his long, powerful legs, he walked through to the bathroom and placed you down on the marble bench that ran the length of one of the walls. You watched as he lit a bunch of candles and set the bath to run, giggling as he picked up each of your bottles of bath bubbles in turn and sniffed them carefully, like a sommelier selecting the right wine for a meal.
Once he’d made his decision and poured a generous amount into the water along with a handful of rose petals, Ari turned back to you and dropped to kneel in front of you. You felt your cheeks heat with the care this hulk of a man was giving you. He lifted each of your feet in turn and pulled off the shoes that you’d been too tired to remove yourself, tucking them carefully under the bench. He then urged you to stand, and his broad hands skimmed up your thighs and under your skirt, gently tugging down your pantyhose. He tossed them over his shoulder and threw you a wink for comedic effect, before turning you so he could pull down the delicate zipper of your skirt. As the fabric fell away, you felt him brush a kiss across the small of your back, his beard prickling your skin through the thin fabric of your panties, and you couldn’t help but shiver. When you turned back to face him, you could see the darkened expression in his eyes, and despite your lethargy, you felt the initial curls of lust start to build in your belly.
Ari’s fingers worked over the small buttons of your blouse next, undoing them from bottom to top, and he pressed more reverent kisses to your body as each patch of skin was revealed to him. The giant tease that he was, he bypassed your breasts, only deigning to worship the upper swell of them, although his beard did rub lightly over your nipples as he did so. He gently unclasped your bra, drawing the straps down your arms, and smiling as you let out a sigh of relief as it was removed.
“You know,” he said, a teasing note to his voice, “that if you gave up work and let me look after you as you deserve, you’d never have to wear a bra again.”
You rolled your eyes. He kept bringing this up, and you knew he’d be more than happy to support you living a life of leisure if you so desired, but he also knew that for the most part you enjoyed your work, and would feel guilty if you became his kept woman. He liked to remind you it was an option though, especially when you had days like this.
“Tempting,” you replied with a smile. “But someone has to keep Janice in her place.”
Ari slid your panties down your legs, and pressed another kiss to the very top of your mound, while looking up at you from under his sinfully long eyelashes. God, he was going to be the death of you. You stepped out of your underwear and Ari discarded them with the rest of your clothes, before standing and making quick work of his own clothing. You didn’t even try to hide your ogling as he revealed inch after inch of firm, sun-kissed skin.
“It’s rude to stare, baby,” he chastened you, but you just took your lower lip between your teeth and stepped forwards. You placed your hands on his chest and scrapped the blunt tips of your nails over the thick coating of hair covering his pecs.
“It’s only rude if I don’t promise to do something about it later,” you replied coyly, and you felt his cock, thick and heavy, twitch against your thigh.
“Touché. But let’s have our bath first and get you all relaxed and taken care of.”
He stepped over the side of the tub and held out his hand to help you do the same. At the feel of the warm water lapping around your legs, you let out a decadent moan, causing Ari to smirk. The pair of you sank down, with you finding your place between his thick thighs and your back pressed to his chest. You let your head rest against his shoulder as he picked up the sponge, added some body wash, and started to soap up your arms. He loved to take care of you like this, and who were you to deny him.
The bath started out fairly innocently, Ari requesting you to raise your legs in turn so he could wash them, and asking you to lean forward so he could get to your back, but after that things started to heat up. As soon as the soapy sponge made its way over your breasts your nipples pebbled and you heard Ari’s low growl rumble in his chest as he watched them stiffen. When he brushed over them a second time, you didn’t even try to hold back your sudden intake of breath. 
Ari lifted the sponge in the air and squeezed it, sending a shower of water over your chest that was then followed by a cloud of soapy bubbles that dropped down in clumps to land on your skin with wet splats. With his free hand your boyfriend drew patterns across your skin in the white foam, swirling the tip of his finger around each of your nipples in turn so he could watch them pucker and feel you squirm against him.
“Ari…” you whined, but he apparently wasn’t having any of it.
“Nah-ah, Angel. That’s not my name, is it?”
You huffed at his teasing tone, but when he decided to tweak your nipple in retaliation you arched up into his touch and cried out.
“Daddy!”
“That’s better, baby girl. You want Daddy to take care of you? Make you feel good?” He abandoned the sponge, which floated for a moment before sinking to the bottom of the tub, and rested his hand on your stomach, fingers splayed and curling gently into your soft skin.
“Please Daddy!” You turned your head so your lips could mouth at his throat and you shifted your hips, trying to rub against his partially chubbed up cock where it was wedged between you. Ari stopped playing with your breasts so he could tilt your head up and bring his lips to yours. He kissed you slowly and deeply, the hand on your abdomen moving lower to push your folds apart and cup your sex. 
Your hands found the tops of his thighs, and you gripped the firm muscle to anchor yourself as his tongue pushed its way into your willing mouth, just as one of his fingers pressed inside your pussy. The whine you let out seemed to spur him on, and he pumped his finger slowly in and out of your channel as he relinquished his gentle grip on your chin to return to stimulating your breasts.
Needing more air, you pulled your mouth from his and panted and moaned into his neck.
“That’s it, Angel,” he encouraged with a drawl. “Let Daddy hear you.” He pressed a second finger inside you and placed his thumb over your clit, and the pitch of your sounds increased in response. Your hips rocked of their own volition, causing the water in the tub to roll like the tide, some of it spilling over the sides. However, you didn’t care. In fact you barely noticed, as your eyelids drooped and you observed what little you could see of Ari from between narrowed eyes.
You were getting close now, your orgasm building in the pit of your stomach.
“Daddy, I need to come. Please!”
Ari pressed a kiss to the top of your head, the tenderness of the action in stark contrast to how his fingers were playing your body as though it was his own personal instrument.
“You come when you want to, Angel. I’m just here to make you feel good.”
You nodded against his throat and took your lower lip between your teeth again, whining and whimpering as the fingers buried inside you started to press and stroke against your g-spot.
“Always make me feel good, Daddy.”
His thumb rubbed circles over your clit as you rocked yourself on his hand, lost to the sensation of pleasure coursing through your body. When your orgasm came it washed over you like a warm ocean breeze, making you tense for a moment before you fell lax against Ari’s torso. When he pulled his fingers from you, you turned to straddle his lap and nuzzle up against his hairy chest, his cock trapped between you, pressing against your sensitive pussy.
You heard him chuckle indulgently before he gathered you in his arms and stood straight up, letting all of the water cascade off the pair of you. Somehow he managed to snag a towel and wrap it around your shoulders so you wouldn’t get cold as he walked back through to the bedroom and deposited you on the bed.
As he laid you down you clung to him and tried to grind against his erection.
“Daddy! I need… you haven’t…” 
“It’s okay, baby girl. I’m alright. That was just for you. You deserved it after such a difficult day. You stay here and I’ll be right back. We’re gonna snuggle and enjoy our takeout, and if you want to return the favour later, you can, but no pressure. You know I like to take care of you, Angel. Now, do you want Thai or Mexican?”
As you pondered the choice, you thanked whichever deity had seen fit to make Ari notice you that first day and for all of the things that had come since. You were so lucky to have found a man as perfect as him.
“I love you, Ari.”
“And I love you too, Angel.”
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Tag list: @christywrites, @alexakeyloveloki, @doasyoudesireandlive, @goldylions, @crayongirl-linz, @km-ffluv, @wheezy-stucky, @mrs-illyrian-baby
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demdozeguys · 3 months ago
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Strap in for a long one, because it's time for:
REVIEWING AND RANKING EVERY GAME I GOT FROM THE STEAM SUMMER SALE
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ramblings under the cut:
UNRANKED: ULTRA STREET FIGHTER IV
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okay look I know I said I'd be ranking all of these but putting a fighting game up against six linear-progression single-player adventure type games feels a bit unfair.
as for whether I liked it: yeah it's alright. it's street fighter, it's fun. only time will tell how much my brother and I will get out of it, but I'm already feeling like I don't like it quite as much as 5. how much of that is due to 4 not having Urien is anyone's guess.
#6: CROW COUNTRY
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I'm gonna be honest I didn't fuck with this game nearly as much as I thought I would.
maybe it's because I'm new to the genre. maybe it's because I've been spoiled by autosave. or maybe it's just because I can't aim to save my life. but losing upwards of 20 minutes of progress every time some creature I failed to hit or juke tagged me one too many times got frustrating pretty fast.
I didn't hate my time with Crow Country. the environments are gorgeous, the story kept me intrigued, and filling out my mental list of "oh shit I can go here now"s was still satisfying. if this is your thing don't let me dissuade you, I just wasn't built for it.
#5: KAMIKO
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Kamiko is decent fun, but there's not really a whole lot to say about it. It's a short and sweet zelda-esque game where the meat of the playtime comes from trying to go through it as fast as possible, and as you'll see later I happen to enjoy going fast. enjoyable, but not super meaty. if you like routing and time management give it a shot.
#4: PONY ISLAND
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Alright, this is where we get into the Good Shit.
Pony Island is a game in which you play a game called Pony Island made by The Devil From The Bible. every few minutes there's some new weird meta setpiece to keep you on your toes, plus the code puzzles and pony sections between are solid fun on their own. it's a great time. and if you're interested, there's a pretty solid reward for getting 100%.
if I had to dock points, it didn't seem to have much in the way of replayability, but that's not a huge dealbreaker. I really need to get my hands on Inscryption now.....
#3: SPOOKY'S JUMPSCARE MANSION REMASTERED
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I'm not normally big on horror but Spooky's kept me coming back. despite going into it already knowing what all the specimens did, they managed to keep me on the edge of my seat because you never know when they're going to show up. combine the legitimate building terror with an offbeat and self-aware sense of humor and you have a damn fun package.
it's worth noting that as of writing this, I've only completed the main story. the DLC campaigns probably won't affect the final ranking? but I have a feeling they'll make me appreciate the game more.
#2: PEPPER GRINDER
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Pepper Grinder is fucking awesome.
The level design is great, the soundtrack rips, and just moving around with the core gimmick of "what if you could drill and then jump out" is so good. I just really wish there was more of it.
I was able to get all the major in-level collectibles and reach the end in under 3 hours. the bulk of my playtime came from the time trials, which do manage to hit a sweet spot of encouraging you to push yourself without requiring CBT perfection. demolishing the gold medal on the final boss took me well over an hour's worth of attempts and may have been one of the most viscerally satisfying challenges I've ever completed in a game.
Pepper Grinder is really, really cool. But if it had another world's worth of levels it would be even cooler.
#1: CHICORY: A COLORFUL TALE
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Man. I fucking love Chicory.
The vibes are immacculate. The story made me really feel for these gay little animals. The soundtrack is delightful (Lena Raine, everybody!). The exploration is rewarding. The painting mechanics made me actively want to go back to areas I'd already been to and recolor them better than I did originally, which is like. not something most games do. You can even draw penises everywhere if you want. There's something for everybody.
I'm having a hard time putting down exactly what made me fall head over heels for this game as much as I did - especially when I wasn't expecting to going into it. Maybe it was just in the right place at the right time. No matter how it cheated the system, Chicory is easily the best game I picked up.
And that's that. this was my first time doing something like this (especially on tumblr) so it felt kinda weird but idk lmk if I planted any seeds in your brain
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plaidbooks · 11 months ago
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Deadline Stress
A/N: Hello! This is a Baldwin x writer!reader that @witches-unruly-heart requested! This also covers the Home for the Holidays square in @storiesofsvu bingo! I hope you all enjoy!
Note: Reader is a human and does not yet know Baldwin is a vampire (this may be explored if I do a second part).
Tags: none
Fandom: A Discovery of Witches
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"Ugggghhh!" you yelled, throwing your hands up and leaning back in your chair dramatically.
Baldwin watched you in silence, eyes narrowing as he sensed your blood pressure rising.
But you were already leaning forward again, typing away incessantly. It wasn't until you angrily pushed your laptop away that he finally came over to you.
"Why don't you take a break, darling?" he asked gently.
You didn't even look at him, just snatched your laptop again, sliding it back over to yourself. "I don't have time. Deadlines."
Baldwin held in his sigh. "You're off work until the new year. You finally have time to be home and relaxing. But instead you're pissing yourself off with work."
You whipped around to glare at him and hated that he didn't even flinch. "I have exactly ten days off--ten days in which to get this writing done without my other job draining me!" You huffed, "now, if you're only going to distract me, you can go sit in the other room."
He stood there as you continued typing, then backspacing the last line you wrote, then letting out a frustrated curse.
"You're in my space," you grunted, looking for any reason your muse had disappeared.
But instead of being upset, Baldwin just leaned over your shoulder and closed your laptop.
"My work!" you yelled, reaching to open it back up, but he held the laptop out of your reach.
"You had autosave on, darling; it's all there still," he said calmly.
You were so mad, you could punch him. "Give. It. Back."
"Only after you go with me on a walk."
"Argh!" you screamed, standing from your chair and pacing angrily. "I don't have time for this, Baldwin!"
He was so damn calm, and it did nothing to stop the anger flowing in your veins. But deep down, you knew you weren't angry at him; it was this damned paper you were trying to write.
"You have 20 minutes to go for a walk with me," he replied before adding, "trust me; the fresh air will do you some good."
You threw your arms in the air, rolling your eyes. "Fine! I'll go for a stupid walk with you. Let me go get a jacket since it's cold as balls outside."
~~~~~~~~~~
Baldwin's gloved hand was in yours, arms swinging gently as you walked through the park. At first, you held onto your anger like an extra coat, letting it protect you from the reality outside.
But as you walked with him, you slowly became less angry. You took in a few deep breaths, letting the crisp, fresh air punch your lungs almost painfully.
You took in the yellow and orange leaves still littering the ground; they'd be covered in snow soon enough. A bright cardinal landed in a bare tree and chirped happily. Families walked around, happy to be together and home for the holidays.
And finally, you smiled, happy to have Baldwin in your life, holding your hand and being so patient with you and your budding writing career.
Your main job was only a way to pay the bills, but it wasn't where your passions lay. Your real dream was to be a writer; you just didn't have the time nor the energy to devote yourself to it.
And Baldwin understood that. It's what first drew you to him; he was a breath of fresh air in your monotonous life. At first, it was just a one night stand. But that first taste of him made you starving, and only he could sate your hunger.
Likewise, it seemed he couldn't stay away from you, either. You went from a one night stand to fuck buddies to eventually dating. Now? You lived together, though he worked almost all hours of the day and you were busy, too.
This holiday vacation, while time for you to hit some upcoming deadlines, was supposed to be a chance to spend time with Baldwin again. Though he was still working through the holidays, most of his work could be done via email, so he was at least home.
"You're thinking awfully loud," Baldwin said, breaking you from your thoughts. "What's going on in that head of yours?"
You smiled shyly up at him. "I'm just thinking about how I haven't been present with you during this little holiday. And that I'm sorry for that; I've been putting writing ahead of you."
"Writing is your passion, darling, I know that." You opened your mouth to argue, but he continued, "I'm not upset that you're using your time to write. But I get upset when you are, especially when you're just running yourself into a wall and I can't help."
"This walk helped," you tried, squeezing his hand.
He squeezed you back. "It's the only way I know how to help you. Sometimes, it's a good thing to take a break, help your brain relax. But you need to let me do that."
You nodded. "You're right. I'm sorry I snapped at you."
Baldwin stopped you with a gentle tug of his hand. He turned you to face him before leaning in to kiss you. His lips and nose were cold against yours, but you didn't care; something about Baldwin's sweet kisses made your brain short circuit.
When he finally pulled away from you, you had a dopey smile on your face.
"Apology accepted. Now, let's get you home and warm. You can bounce ideas off me," he said, pulling you back the way you'd come, back towards home.
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quinloki · 4 months ago
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So, I've been writing your story, right? Except this time I was writing it in Libre Office, because I've been trying to get my stuff out of google docs. The problem is, Libre Office does not. Autosave. Or if it does, I have not found out how to make it do that. I forgot that it did not do this, when I closed the document. When I came back the next day it was gone. There was an option to restore it, but it failed. So we have started again, and are 2100 words into it. I might be stupid lmfao.
Oh.
Oh gods.
Oh man I am SO SORRY. That is the worst.
Look, it's not like FREE, but it's not expensive either, and I have got to recommend Scrivener.
My friends ( @mamaalpha ) uses it, and through her I saw how it worked, and it has been a LIFE changer.
But the other nice little bells and whistles, it auto-saves.
I even dropped a little extra and got the app on my phone and set up dropbox so I could transfer between my desktop and my phone (and also have a backup set up via drop box) and it was worth every penny.
None of that helps you immediately, but like, going forward it might.
T-T I'm still so sorry. That is the worst. I would even understand if you didn't want to re-write that, but I'm really touched you soldiered on like that. Blessed be my friend ❤️
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celesticaether · 1 month ago
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[Log Date - 01/01/23]
I'm starting this log as to chronicle a weird glitch I've encountered in the latest Pokémon. Here's the gist:
I was playing Pokémon Violet again because I got bored and figured that my team could use some new composition, so I looked around and started replacing members here and there.
Out came Great Tusk (primeul Tusk as my friend named 'em), in came Garchomp. Out came Ampharos, in came Mirai... wait, it goes back to its ride form EVERY time I ride it? Who let that through?!...nevertheless, in came Toxtricity (side note, turns out I just had to look slightly hard to find the other Miraidon and had passed it previously, but that's for another time.)
Anyways, I had my team set up but there were some flaws, and even if I didn't intend to get rid of Meowscarada I figured I could have a look at Amoonguss, because A) haha, GET OUT OF MY HEAD GET OUT OF MY HEAD GET OUT OF MY HEAD, but also B) it's fast enough with some set up to pose a genuine threat with Spore.
After EV training the team a bit (aka getting bored after about 10 moves a piece) I went looking for the Amoonguss I wanted. But that's when I came across... it.
It wasn't a normal Amoonguss, almost like it had had lasting effects from Salt Cure, but eh - stylish. Regardless, when I tried using Let's Go because it was a little freaky, Miraidon refused. I knew it wasn't shiny, so what was the holdup?
Regardless, I figured I'd just hit it with something like Power Gem (I was planning to get rid of it soon, since I didn't need it for anything besides a Bug type that somehow had taken out the entirety of the rest of my team, which... not gonna happen, be real.) but that's when things really got weird.
The thing had 0 HP. Not like I could see the number, but with an empty health bar that'd be redundant. Despite this, it managed to outspeed Miraidon by some miracle and landed a Spore. But... this wasn't just a "Spore". It was some kind of move that almost seemed like a typo, being "Spores".
The effect was mostly the same, but instead of falling asleep, the game pointed out that Miraidon was "in a deep sleep" which, again, a little freaky, but nothing major. After this, the game closed randomly. I hadn't managed to faint it; then again, could I have? I mean... it was technically fainted prior, so I guess I won automatically - but that's besides the point. What matters is what happened when I reopened the game.
The title screen was silent, or maybe I just had a weird audio thing; the chimes still played, plus when I loaded in everything was fine audio-wise. However, when I checked around me... the Amoonguss was gone. This was strange, since I thought Pokémon would respawn upon reloading a save at least, shiny hunters always SAID to save.
What was stranger was that... Miraidon was still asleep. Now, if it was really before the battle, it shouldn't have had time to autosave, but maybe the game was weird. Even so, I checked it out since maybe it was just a visual glitch, but...
...the summary page was off.
In it, it had a little note at the bottom, in almost illegible text just stating one message:
"Tainted - Stage: 1. Curable if given a certain item."
Now, I looked this up and nothing useful. What the hell did "tainted" mean anyway? Probably nothing - Miraidon LOOKED fine.
That's where I last saved. Will update if anything changes, or if I fix this stupid bug. Send in advice if you've seen this before, cause I've got a weird feeling this is time sensitive.
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blacktobackmesa · 1 year ago
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Hiii I wanna hear all your thoughts about the clone fight because I cannot stop thinking abt it and you have good opinions
With pleasure, my friend!
Now, I understand why a lot of people have the headcanon that it was a rogue clone that led the attack and not Coomer Prime. However, I think the clone fight is a key part of Coomer's character arc, and leaving him out of it just isn't narratively satisfying.
The military ambush was the moment where the pieces came together for Dr. Coomer, and he realized that "Gordon" was a puppet for an outside force. Feeling powerless with the knowledge that existence itself was nothing more than a game for cosmic interlopers, he was desperate to gain some form of control and furious at Gordon for manipulating him and pretending to be his friend.
But if "Gordon" could inhabit this player character model and control the world... why couldn't he? If Coomer was the player, the one who can authorize PlayCoin transactions, the one who decides when the world stops and starts again? Oh, the potential would be limitless. He could get out! He could get all of them out! He wasn't the type to play God under normal circumstances, but seized by despair and seeing only one way out, now was the time.
Controlling all those clones is a disorienting feeling, and not easy to do! It's hard to explain, but there's plenty of reasons as to why he hadn't done it before in their adventure. He's much happier when all of his power is in one body, but an army was necessary to take out Gordon. An unfocused army admittedly, but it still would have been successful without Tommy.
...well, "successful" is relative. If he had killed Gordon, he would have gone back to his last autosave, which would have left everyone confused. Especially Gordon, currently lost in his own head about what was real.
Regardless. I've covered what comes next through a flashback in Streamer Unconsciousness, where Coomer out for blood until the clone he has the most focus on is dying. In those dying moments, he gets a good, solid look at Gordon's face, and realizes. Oh shit. This person is genuinely afraid for his life. I don't think he's here for fun.
So when his focus is back on his main body... he reconsiders. Gordon gets frustrated with them all easily, but he seems to care. He didn't need to keep saving them from danger. Coomer knows that the sense of loyalty he has towards Gordon is pre-programmed, but...perhaps that's okay. Maybe Gordon can be trusted after all. And besides, with the shape he's in right now, Gordon needs his help.
Maybe he can help Coomer in return. He can only hope.
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valiant-if · 2 months ago
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So listen.
I've been replaying Dragon Age: Inquisition, which I actually started doing before Veilguard's release date was announced, so it's just convenient that I've been doing so, but I've put a total of somewhere over 2000 hours into playing DAI since it came out in 2014, so I haven't been in any rush to get through it.
I'm petsitting this weekend, and I decided that I might want to play it, so I copied over my mods and the ReShade I was using onto a drive so that I could play the game on my laptop with the same mods and settings.
And I went to do Dorian's personal quest last night, and Halward Pavus walked down the fucking stairs, and I was like, "Who the HELL is THAT?" Because his face was totally different. Like, completely, staggeringly different. And I thought I had noticed that Loghain looked weird too, but I was like, eh, maybe I just imagined it. But then Halward Pavus absolutely threw me, I was like, no there's gotta be something wrong with my mods.
So I went hunting, right? Cuz I don't have any mods that alter the appearance of NPCS outside of one that changes Blackwall's hair, so I was like, wtf is changing these faces? I removed all my mods and still had the issues, so I was like, oh my god, is the copy of the DAI Mod Manager that I'm using laced with some mods without telling me? Did the official patch from the mod manager fuck up my game?
So I did a clean install of the game, and his face was still fucking weird. So I figured, oh well, it's not like it matters that much to me, it's just fucking strange, like, he looks like he's young enough to be Dorian's brother.
So I continued playing for a few hours, and then it occurred to me... I have never played DAI on this laptop before, so who knows what the graphics settings were set to? Sure enough, they were defaulted at medium even though this laptop is capable of ultra, so I changed the settings and went back to an autosave of the scene, and sure enough it was just the graphics settings causing the problem.
Which is still absolutely fucking wild, because lowering the graphics didn't just smooth some of the textures and use a lower poly count, it turned Halward Pavus into a completely different person. I have never seen graphics settings change how a character looks so drastically before. I'm still absolutely thrown by how fucking weird he looked.
If you have only ever played Inquisition on medium settings or lower, I beg of you to look at his screenshot on the wiki or something, he literally looks nothing like his lower-graphics self.
So anyway, I wasted 45 minutes trying to fix a mod issue that never existed. The end.
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bellysoupset · 2 years ago
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Hello! Little flashback fic, trying to get back in my groove. TW: mentions of scat, bellyache, etc. Lucas cannot handle spicy food.
"You're a witch," Lucas whispered, as he watched the cute IT girl, Isabella, who sat in the chair he previously occupied retrieve his lost essay after the computer had blue screened on him.
"Most people would call me an angel," she sassed back, not bothering to hide her smile, "alright, I managed to get the last saved version, it may be a little corrupted, but at least you didn't lose pages of your work."
"Witchcraft," Lucas grinned, rolling the chair he was sitting on around her, "Oh, those little symbols are the corrupted part?"
"Yeah," she nodded, pointing at them, "I think it corrupted your accent marks..." She turned to frown at him, her eyes were very blue, striking against her tanned skin "was the paper not in English?"
"Subject was the French revolution," Lucas cleared up, explaining the sheer amount of accent empty squares appearing. She hummed under her breath, the clicking around.
"There, I made you a copy in the cloud, using your university email and it should be autosaving from now on," she smiled, "anything else?"
"No, no, you're just- You saved my life, Isabella" He opened his biggest smile, "really."
"Teaches you not to leave your assignment to the day before," she grinned and got up from the seat, "I have to run, other poor souls to help-"
"Oh yeah, go save the day," Lucas got up too, to sit back down on the chair she had just freed up, but instead he remained standing, smiling at her, "I think I'll pull an all nighther, so if you're around later..." he shrugged, opened a confident smile, "join me for a coffee?"
She raised an eyebrow, amused and impressed, not really bashful. He enjoyed it all the more, coy women weren't really his type.
"I can't, I'm sorry," she shook her head.
Ah, Lucas thought, trying not to let it show on his face how disappointed he was, "no worr-"
"Lunch tomorrow, though?"
His heart all but jumped to his throat and Luke nodded eagerly, "it's a date."
Then she blushed, rolling her eyes and leaning in to write her number on the edge of his open notebook on the table, "Call me Bella, by the way."
--------
"A date?" Vince repeated as they finished showering right after training, the day after, "...I thought you didn't do dates."
Lucas frowned, "what?" he finished lacing up his shoes, "why?"
"Well, I've never seen you go on a date. Ever. And you look like that," his friend, who was very quickly shaping to be his best friend despite them only have met at the start of the year, squinted at him, studying him up and down.
Luke chuckled, rolling his eyes, "very convoluted way of saying I'm hot, but I'll take the compliment," he shrugged, getting up and patting Vin's shoulder, "not all of us are whores like you, man, that's all."
"I'm simply enjoying life," Vince announced proudly, "so you've asked out the IT girl? The cute one with the pink bangs and the glasses?"
"No, not that one," Lucas waited patiently for his friend to join, "the smoking hot ginger?"
Vince stared at him, amused, "the smoking hot ginger?" he repeated in his best imitation, "sorry man, never saw a smoking hot ginger with the IT guys."
"She might be new then," Lucas shrugged, "because she's hard to miss."
"Oh," Vince jumped to his feet, pushing Luke towards the locker room doors, "you're smitten already! That's soooo cute!"
"Shut up, Vin," Lucas laughed, shoving his friend right back.
He hadn't taken any chances, not only Lucas had texted Bella that same night to make sure he had the right number, but again that morning, asking her to pick a restaurant.
It was much to his dismay, however, when the following text came in halfway through his second period class: "Bella: what do you think of the Bandoleiros? it's just off the campus and they have a mean fajita."
"Shit," Lucas mumbled and Vince, sitting next to him and staring ahead to the lecture, looked at him.
"What?"
Luke turned his phone around and Vince read the last text, then let out an amused smile, "so are you going to tell her you can't handle spicy food at all or...?"
"Hell no," Lucas scoffed and Vince raised both his eyebrows.
"The wise decision, I see," he said sarcastically, "I'm guessing you won't be coming in tomorrow."
Luke rolled his eyes, "I'm not that bad, I'll just try and pick something mild..." he mumbled, as he texted back: Sounds great, meet you there?
Bella looked even hotter out of the IT uniform. Instead of the deep red button up and black trousers, she was wearing a black leather mini skirt, a cropped top full of holes and with the sporty bra strap showing and boots that could probably be classified as a weapon.
He didn't regret this date at all.
And from the way her smile only grew as he walked towards her, neither did she.
Bella had already picked them a table and she took his hand in hers, all confident, as she guided him inside.
"Such a gentleman," she teased as he pulled the chair for her and Luke rolled his eyes, grabbing the belt loop of her mini skirt.
"Sit down, will you?"
She stared at him for a second, before putting her hand over his, "no need to get all caveman about it, Lucas," then she pushed him away from her, smiling the entire time.
"So what's your major?"
Making small talk with her was easy enough, she had a very acidic sense of humor that kept catching him by surprise and Luke quickly forgot what he was nervous about to begin with. It felt like he knew her.
She was a computer science major and had a full ride scholarship, also worked at the campus IT. If he couldn't tell by her top - He couldn't - she was also a huge music fan. Apparently whatever band that was displayed on her top was some obscure punk band.
"I don't really like music," he said, just a couple minutes after the waiter took their orders, Lucas discreetly trying to order the least spicy thing in the menu. Bella stared at him, then shook her head.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I don't think this is going to work out. I should go," she teased, only to cause him to splutter on his iced tea.
"What- Why?!"
She rolled her eyes, sitting back down, still looking half amused, half shocked, "you don't like music? Like, at all?"
Lucas shrugged, "I guess? I'll listen to it if it's on, but I don't-"
"You don't have music on your phone?" she interrupted, reaching in, hands all grabby, "show me."
"That's private-"
"Show me," she pulled her chair, circling the table so they were shoulder to shoulder. Her hair smelled like strawberries, Lucas noticed vaguely, pushing an auburn curl away from her face and then fishing his phone out of his pocket.
True to his word, his Spotify had the grand total of 3 songs saved. Bella whistled under her breath, "how do you even... Live?"
"Judgy much?" he scoffed, going to retrieve his phone, just as she shook her head.
"No, no, you need some songs here," she started typing away, adding titles to his gallery and Lucas could barely fight his smile, "there, so you can give them a listen later and text me about it."
"I'm going to hate them," he warned, smugly, and she squinted at him.
"Doubt it."
Their orders arrived as he asked about her family and Bella made no effort to move her chair back to its original spot, much comfier sitting right next to him, whole body turned so she could look him in the face as they ate and chatted.
"Nah it's just me and my mom," she told him truthfully, "my dad was some gringo tourist, I don't think he ever knew about me."
"Gringo?" Lucas teased, trying to ignore the way his mouth was on fire. He thought he had been so smart ordering just the damn chicken fajitas. Five bites in and he was already second guessing himself.
"Yeah, well... You would be a gringo," she teased lightly, "so Lucas Atwood, your turn. Tell me about yourself."
He shook his head, chugging down his iced tea and filling up the glass once more. It made him hiccup and he blushed, while Bella giggled, taking the time to eat her own food.
"Uhm, I'm in the football team..."
"I could tell," she nodded, reaching in to wipe the hot sauce from the corner of his lip and sucking at her finger, "saw your jacket yesterday."
His face was on fire. Lucas cleared his throat, wincing as his stomach started churning, even though he had barely managed to get down half of his fajita, "I'm an only child too, like you."
"Do you like it?"
"No," he squeezed the napkin in his hand and fought the urge to burp, "it was lonely, coming to college and hanging out with the team... I was very lonely back then, I didn't even know."
Her eyes softened and he could tell she wanted to ask more, but his body picked that moment to send up another burp, one he couldn't help but rush to cover his mouth with a hand, seeing as he couldn't swallow it back down.
Bella snorted, amused, "excuse you."
"Shit, I'm so sorry," Lucas' cheeks burned and he was starting to sweat, "sorry, that was so rude... Uhm," he grimaced against the spiciness in the back of his throat, "what was I saying?"
"About your life back home," she reached in over his plate to grab the extra hot sauce, drenching her burrito with it and then holding it up for him in a wordless question.
Just glancing at it made Lucas feel vaguely nauseous, he shook his head again and grabbed his glass of iced tea, "so, yeah, it was very lonely back home..."
"Where are you from?" Bella frowned, "you speak as if it's far away..."
"No, not really," he wiped the sweat over his upper lip, swallowed in another burp, "just- Just went to boarding school, so-" his belly cramped and Lucas groaned, eyes squeezing shut.
When he opened them again, Bella had lowered her burrito and was staring at him, equal parts concerned and enthralled.
"Big guy such as yourself and half a fajita takes you out, Lucas?" she teased lightly, "please."
He scowled at her, "I'm sorry."
Seeing as clearly her humor was lost on him, her smiled wavered, "no, I'm sorry... I should've asked how well you liked spicy food... Uhm- Do you want to wrap this up...?"
His heart sank, he had absolutely blown their date. Lucas shook his head, refusing to believe it, "no, I'm fine-" as if to contradict him, his gut let out a loud whine, so loud that Bella heard it, eyebrows up, and she let out a sly whistle.
"Yeah, no," she shook her head, "you're clearly not feeling well, let's end this-"
"I'm so sorry," Lucas grumbled, while she gestured for the waiter for the check. Bella waved him off.
"It's not your fault..." she bit down on her lip, dark black lipstick be damned, "we can reschedule...?"
He wanted to feel triumphant over her not dropping him like hot shit, but talking about that... Just then Lucas felt a strong cramp hit his intestines and he whimpered, wrapping an arm around his gut, "Fuck..."
"Lucas, are you alri-"
He felt a gurgle head south and Lucas immediately pulled back, standing up in a jump and making a mad dash for the bathroom.
It burned, he thought as he collapsed down on the toilet, diarrhea making him lightheaded, all the while nausea still plagued him. He buried his face in his hands, burping wetly towards his lap and trying to keep down the half fajita he had managed to eat.
Such a fucking baby, he thought sourly, fifteen minutes later, as he managed to get up on shaky legs. His reflection was drenched in sweat, pale face, but his ear and neck red. He washed his hands, then his face and his mouth, for good measure. Bending down send up another wet burp and Lucas groaned, swallowing down the urge to puke, knowing it'd burn just as much coming up.
He didn't expect Bella to still be there once he got out, no one in their sane mind would be, and she wasn't. Still he felt a pang of disappointment.
"Hey," his voice sounded terrible, as he approached the cashier, "sorry about the scene. Uhm- Table eight-"
"Oh your girlfriend already paid the tab," the woman smiled sweetly at him, "I'm sorry you're feeling poorly hon, is there anything we can do to help?"
Fuck, not only he had mad dashed from the table, he had left the whole bill on her? Lucas was going to jump off a bridge. Whole face on fire he shook his head slowly, "no, thanks, that was on me for trying to handle spice when I really can't..." he slid a twenty dollars bill in their tip jar and smiled apologetically once more before heading out.
Much to his surprise, Bella wasn't gone. She was actually sitting on the hood of his car, ankles crossed and with a two white boxes next to her, a little plastic bag on her lap.
"Shit, I'm so sorry-"
"It's fine," she rolled her eyes, throwing the plastic bag at him, "there."
Lucas moved to lean on the car too, right next to her, and then blushed even more furiously as he saw a plastic bottle filled with little chalky mints. Tums.
"Bella, you shouldn't have," he groaned, really feeling like he was going to vomit now, if only out of sheer humiliation, "you already paid the bill-"
"Oh, but I'm stealing your fajita," she interrupted, a bright smile on, "I figured you wouldn't want it and my roommate fucking loves those."
He stared at her, surprised, before opening a small, shaky smile, "you're not pissed?"
"Over you getting sick?" Bella frowned, "I wish you had told me you can't handle spice, I was having a lot of fun before you bolted... But I'm not mad."
"I just didn't wanna blow it," Lucas pouted and she snorted.
"You blew it alright," Bella rolled her eyes, "c'mon, take your tums and let me drive you home."
He groaned, "you don't have to-"
"I know I don't," she jumped off the hood of the car, grabbing her to-go boxes, "c'mon, Luke."
He grumbled as he chewed on two of the chalky pastilles, getting on the passenger side of his own car after unlocking it and handing her the keys, "so no second date?"
"No," she rolled her eyes, "but you can try and make it up to me on another first date. You pick the place."
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thessalian · 7 months ago
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Thess vs Horizon Forbidden West
So. Horizon Forbidden West. I mean, I haven't got very far into it, so it's not exactly going to be spoiler territory, but I'll cover the basics - including why I'm not very far into it. Story-wise, they came up with a pretty good way to explain Aloy's still having basic gear after the end of Zero Dawn, and to cover the overall plot for the newbie or the memory-challenged. I mean, that's what an EveryMan is for - whether protagonist or NPC companion. I kind of vibe with things like that. Also, they seem to have done a pretty good job of the port, and I remember the controls enough to basically go right back to my usual tactic of "go stealth, find weak spot, shoot from a very long distance away - if creature is not dead yet, use the time it spends looking for its attacker to take out weak spot again", with only really the new abilities left to learn. So overall they seem to have structured it pretty well. Maybe a little too slow a burn at the outset, though - odd for something that starts so in medias res, but there you have it.
Actually, the slow is partly my own problem. I didn't used to mind the careful sneaking through facilities. Just ... well, it's the fibromyalgia again. We start in a spot with no manual save points, so if I want to take a break, I have to watch the corner really damn carefully for an autosave. I could just pause, but a) I get a little paranoid about "What happens if it crashes when I'm AFK?" and b) my breaks aren't just a couple of minutes for the loo, y'know? I sit down in one position too long, my legs start doing the spasm thing and my back starts to ache, so I have to walk around and/or move to the sofa, depending on exactly what hurts and what kind of pain I'm having. So it looks like "blitzing through a game for hours at a time" is off the table for me these days. I mean, I can take those kinds of breaks on games like BG3, where you can save basically whenever you want to (I mean it; the damn thing autosaved mid-combat on me once), but it's more anxiety-inducing with games with manual save points, especially when you don't find them for long sections of game, and even more especially when the auto-save is not exactly obvious when it happens. It'll be better when I get out of the prologue, probably, but I won't be doing that tonight.
I have a lot more thoughts on video games, partly due to articles I've been reading, but I'll save the whole slew of "In this essay, I will..." posts for later. For now, I'mma at least get my poor bunch of tadpole-infested bastards to the Last Light Inn.
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princecharmingtobe · 2 years ago
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Learned a valuable lesson today. Or rather, was reminded of: DON’T LEAVE YOUR FORTRESS UNATTENDED
BF ordered food, and when it arrived I set up a bunch of work and stuff for my dwarves and then left them to it while I went to eat, figuring that things had been relatively uneventful so far, and it wouldn’t get further than the next season where it would then pause to autosave.
I came back to find that a herd of agitated unicorns swept through my fortress, killing every last one of our animals. many of our dwarves including Dotok Fashatir whom I’d made a hero forge mini for, and three of the unicorns have apparently earned themselves names for their conquest.
Our fortress is a bloody mess and I may just go back to the previous autosave...
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enbyboiwonder · 10 months ago
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any combo of these for the fic writers ask? ❤️👻🏷👓😎💛💌 (also, hope you're doing well!)
I think I’m doing probably so-so (though I was doing better before this disgrace of a website reloaded the tab when I was 95% finished answering this and I had to restart from scratch—I am salty). I dunno how long it’ll last, especially since it’s not simply a periodic downswing, but oh well. I think playing Neverwinter Nights (and fantasizing about if not always writing Hero/Tomi fic) might be helping though, or at any rate, it ain’t hurting.
Send me fanfic author questions!
❤️ What is your favorite line that you’ve written in a fic?
The reason it took me so long to answer this—at least, before this sorry excuse of a website decided to delete everything I’d written because apparently autosaving to drafts is a thing for every type of post except ask responses—was that I had to go back and reread all (well, almost all; some of them I’d rather like to pretend don’t exist and either A. I’m still undecided on whether to orphan or not, or B. I can’t orphan them because they’re part of a series) the fics on my account. Is it weird that my fics don’t really stick in my head that long? Even when I don’t all but block them out. Anyway, it might be…
He feels safe—god, he feels like home.
from Don’t Tell Me Where the Road Ends (MacGyver 2016, macdalton). It’s not anything fancy or eloquent or anything, but idk, I still like it.
Or maybe…
He watches with poorly concealed amusement as Chika seems to work his way through all five stages of grief and back in the span of about two seconds.
from The Shape of Soup (2.43, yunichika)
(Yeah, I had difficulty choosing, so the rest—and the rest of the questions—will be going under the cut for length vvv)
Or even…
Somewhere along the way, his admiration has turned from jealousy to want—from wanting to be him to just wanting him.
the line that birthed not to remain as just a wish (2.43, odaoki)
Or possibly, since I feel like I should have one that is imagery-type/more poetic/(would it be conceited to call it eloquent?)…
His whole body is alight with the fizz of cider close beneath the surface of his skin, overflowed from the cavity of his chest to spill down his limbs and climb up his throat, pooling and sparking in all the places that Mao touched him like senkou hanabi, like miniature fireworks all their own, the brightest of all where Mao's fingers are still tangled with his, and it's wonderful and overwhelming at once.
from candy-apple red (Girls Blue, kisaragi/mao)
👻 What is your wildest headcanon?
I don’t think I have any tbh? My headcanons all tend to be more the run-of-the-mill type and/or generally accepted fanon and/or stuff extrapolated from them being clearly ADHD and/or autistic. They’re small things, like Yuni liking spicy foods but being unable to handle sour stuff while Chika loves both, or Nao liking space but not particularly caring for sci-fi, even sci-fi that’s set in space. In fact, both of those I came up with while writing the fics they show up in lmao (Lemon Squash and 流星群, respectively. Though, technically, Chika liking lemons—with the sort-of implication that Yuni doesn’t—showed up in The Shape of Soup, but that was just lemons.)
🏷️ Is there a tag you like to search for when looking for fanfics to read?
I don’t think I’ve ever gone into a content tag outside of when I was trying to see how to do something while attempting to write smut. It’s never really worked out. Even when I think I’ve figured something out, it all flew out of my head as soon as I opened my own fic. At least I prefer writing non-smutty fics, or this would be a much bigger problem than it is lmao
No, usually what I’ll do is just go into a ship (or character) tag and filter out any tag I come across that I don’t want to read.
👓 What helps you focus when you write?
Music, though that’s also just a general thing. Typically I’ll just listen to whatever I’m already listening to (which for the past few years has mostly been the 2.43 OST), but if I’ve got a specific song or set of songs in mind for a fic, I’ll generally listen to that instead. Sometimes when I’m rewriting a canon scene or writing something that includes one, I’ll just leave the show playing in the background once I’m done with it. (That’s actually how one of my 2.43 rewatches happened lmao, though I guess it only half counts.)
Of course, sometimes my brain will focus on that instead…
Yeah, I haven’t figured out how to reliably hack my ADHD. Mostly I just hope I’ll slip into hyperfocus (and then hope I’ll manage to finish it while I am, but that only very, very rarely happens. Normally I’ll come out of my daze to find I’ve added like 1600 words and I’ve got no idea how to write the missing bits).
😎 What fics do you prefer on a scale of canon compliant to wildly original?
It depends on my mood tbh. Also how much I hate canon (though it can make for some delicious angst, depending on why I hate it). But most of my fics end up being canon compliant, or at least not canon uncompliant, so I guess when it comes to writing, it would be that? Though I do also accumulate my fair share of AUs (but then, most of those are Canon AUs of one sort or another…)
💛 What is the most impactful lesson you’ve learned about writing?
I’m not so sure I’ve learned anything, and certainly not anything impactful, except that I have zero idea how to describe emotions. That, and it’s obnoxious af when people use epithets for the POV character. I can’t believe I used to do that. It makes me what to crawl into a hole and die in shame. Like, what someone/something is referred to in the narrative is how your POV character thinks of them! Your MC can’t be “the other man”—he’s the man! Everyone else is “the other” in reference to him! (That’s probably also why I’ve gravitated more consistently toward referring to the POV character by their given name, though I’ll still use surnames sometimes—and not just when we never learned their given name.)
💌 Is there a favorite trope you like to write?
I tend to prefer writing Pre-Relationship/Feelings Realization/Getting Together/First Kiss stuff over Established Relationship stuff, but I’m not so sure any of those are tropes. Wait, what does count as a trope. Cuz I also love Fluff (particularly the sappy stuff—I’ve had several turn out way sappier than originally intended) and Angst and Hurt/Comfort about equally, but I feel like those are closer to genres than tropes…
Hmm, well, I do love Character x Their Significant Annoyance (A finds B annoying/frustrating/exasperating/baffling/etc. but is still inexplicably fond of them anyway), and I feel like a lot of the fics I’ve written are for pairings with that dynamic, so let’s just go with that, shall we?
I’m also a sucker for tropes in the Fake Dating to Real Dating/Didn’t Realize They Were Dating/Practice Kissing area, though I haven’t finished very many of those, and I also love Crossdressing (particularly sticking unfeminine men in women’s clothing and/or guys just casually wearing women’s clothes), but I haven’t finished any of those, either. Granted, some of those involve smut, which could explain it, but it’s not like all of them do. Half or less.
Plus there’s The Italicized Oh, and I love sticking those sorts of moments into my pre-relationship fics, even if there is no actual italicized “oh.” Just—the yearning. I’m an absolute sucker.
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prismatoxic · 1 year ago
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rereading the story of that time in skyrim's development where the opening couldn't play bc the cart was being sent into the stratosphere by a single bee and remembering i experienced something marginally similar while modding the game
it's been a few years... but for some ungodly reason, i was going through the cart intro again instead of just loading into unbound (an alternate start mod). i guess i wanted to do the real intro again but didn't have an autosave after the ride ends? don't remember.
so, anyway, i was doing the cart ride, and about halfway into it, the game crashed to desktop. now this isn't terribly unusual for skyrim, and i was willing to move past it if it didn't happen again, but it did. and again, and again, and again...
so obviously i started futzing with my mods. i mean, clearly, that was the issue. i don't remember if i had 200 at the time but if i didn't, i still had a number well above 100. that's a lot to go through, and neither vortex nor LOOT indicated any issues, and SKSE wasn't showing me anything of use either. so what the fuck?
(fwiw, modding skyrim does involve multiple programs, but as the game was made with modding in mind, it's way easier than the majority of games that came out around the same time, let alone earlier.)
i think around this time i tried to load into unbound again, but the game crashed immediately when trying to do so. i had to find this issue if i wanted to play skyrim with my current mod loadout.
so i had a few options:
split my mods into batches and test each one until the crash occurred, then narrow it down until i knew the culprit
learn how to actually understand SKSE a little better and find the problem through it
load the game with NO mods and try to pinpoint what the issue could be to narrow it down immediately
believe it or not, i did all 3.
i started with the first, but iirc i only split my mods in half, and the way vortex works and the way things are divided made it a bit hard to do even that in a non-time consuming way. you can split up your mods but you also have to make sure each half has all relevant dependencies, you see, or the game's going to crash anyway. so i narrowed it down to half of my mods (the other half ran fine), and went from there.
this is where the last option comes in. frustrated, i loaded into the vanilla game, taking note of the setting right about where the crash always happened. i noticed that just when it tended to occur, a rabbit ran across the road. was that it? was that my culprit? i combed through the borked half of my mods, and sure enough, rabbit mod. except it was just a mesh restructuring that a different mod i actually cared about was dependent on. but hey, mods are weird, so i disabled it and ran the game.
nope. still crashed. not the rabbit.
now, i'd been hunting through reddit and the skyrim modding discord and nexus threads the entire time i was going through this ordeal. NO ONE was having the same issue i was. but there are a lot of troubleshooting tips out there for skyrim fuckery, and when several other steps had already failed, i turned to one i'd never tried before: coc riverwood.
"coc" means center on cell, and it's a console command to teleport you instantly to any cell in the game. notably, you can activate it without loading into a save. (i'm sure plenty of other commands can also do this, but i don't mess with the console much).
so riverwood is usually the location people use to check and see if the game is running well otherwise when the intro is bugging out. now, i'd been messing with this CTD issue for hours. i was convinced my game was just irreparably borked, somehow; maybe my computer simply couldn't handle the mod load. but i did try coc riverwood anyway, inputting it at the start menu, which either loads you into a default character or a character from one of your saves, i don't remember which.
and... the game ran fine. VERY fine. better than i was expecting. i wandered around riverwood, interacted with things, and saw no issues at all. so what the fuck? clearly, the crash wasn't a skyrim-wide issue, it was an issue with the cart ride.
and where is the cart ride going? helgen, of course.
so, on a hunch, i backtracked along the path i'd walked a dozen times with other characters, out of riverwood and towards the caves you use to escape helgen. i think i was just barely in view of the start of the reverse of that path when the game crashed.
so, problem (sort of) located: the helgen cell. (which would explain why unbound also didn't work: it loads you in on top of a tower in helgen when you're selecting your file options.)
so here's where that middle option came in. removing mods i knew for sure affected helgen didn't fix the issue, and i didn't even have that many of those, because why would i? helgen is destroyed and there's not a ton of reasons to go back to it outside of morbid curiosity, which i'd done enough times in other saves. that meant whatever file was the problem did not openly or obviously affect helgen, which in turn meant i would need to comb through the half of my mods that crashed the game in SKSE to figure out what was doing it.
this was at least easier than going into SKSE blind; i knew what i needed to look for. so i started looking. by loading all of those mods into the program and then looking specifically for effects or changes to the helgen cell, i could figure out what the issue was.
SKSE is color coded; i don't have it on my current desktop so i can't open it to look right now, but i know for sure that scripts causing no issues at all are green, and scripts causing issues are red. (there are also yellow/orange and grey ones, i think, but i don't remember what those mean.) usually red scripts mean conflicts, which can range from "negligible gameplay impairment" to "crash to desktop when the scripts meet for any reason", because modding is cool and fun.
so i think what i did was keyword search "helgen", and the results i got were largely just confusing for me, because i cannot wrap my mind around how SKSE works. but there was a very clear conflict in there. i just wasn't sure what it meant, or if it was actually my issue.
the script in question was from a mod that i cannot actually recall, but what i DO remember is that it was a mesh/texture optimization mod of some kind. like, the sort you install to make your game run better. it wasn't one of the big ones, i was just overcompensating for my poor old windows 7 desktop that had long since become obsolete for modern gaming, so i had a lot of them.
the specific script i was getting a conflict error on was some texture or mesh in helgen, likely an insignificant one based on what i remember... so i was unsure if it was the issue, but aware that it 100% could be.
and it was.
disabling the associated mod allowed me to enter and exit helgen as normal, with no crashes. i'm reasonably sure i did post about this issue in that mod's comments, or on r/skyrimmods, or... something. can't remember. i was also liveblogging it on twitter but no part of me wants to try and find that again (if it was even on my currently existing twitter and not the old suspended one)
i'm not sure if the mod itself was the issue or if my download of it had gotten corrupted in some way, but i never did try to use it again, so who knows.
skyrim modding is super fun when it works! and when it doesn't work, maybe take breaks while going through the arduous process of troubleshooting your obscure issue
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nanfoodle · 2 years ago
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I finished Pokémon Violet last night and I have to say, it blew me away.
The last game I played was Sword and it was so bad that swore off Pokémon games forever, the franchise was going to make games for elementary school kids only and I should stop expecting to find a child's game fun. My partner bought Arceus and from what I observed it was a decent open world game but it felt like Baby's First, so again, for children and I didn't plan on wasting my time or money.
My partner's mom surprised both of us with SV for Christmas and I thought, well, I'll play it til I get bored of it or it gets too cheesy, but that time never came! I went in with zero knowledge of the premise because I was so sure I'd never play this one. I didn't even know the starters' final forms.
I don't give a shit about the graphics, or the "lazy" Pokémon animations, clipping through the ground, or lag times when trying on clothes. My game crashed several times but thanks to the autosave it didn't really matter.
THE STORY was finally GOOD. I thought all the hype of going to the fancy academy, only to immediately be sent out for "field study" was a bit stupid but the story it was able to tell with most of the characters was anchored in that school setting, not only Team Star but the teachers and gym leaders were also influenced by the school setting but theres also the mysterious Area Zero which has fantastic world building surrounding it and honestly even though you can see the twists coming the way they handled them was genuinely a little chilling and if I was a kid some moments would've been FORMATIVE experiences for me (the PPP reveal). Also I just love the little adventure you get to go on at the end.
Also by having 3 paths to focus on, you not only get so much extra story than a normal Pokémon game, it gives every type a chance to be a boss so a variety of Pokémon, or at least moves, is necessary. and I won battles by the skin of teeth sometimes! I had to actually grind levels and search for different Pokémon and not just blast through everything with minimal effort.
Honestly, this one was a hit in my books. If you care more about story and character/world building than about the "latest graphics and high quality animation" then you should definitely consider giving SV a chance.
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