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displacedentities · 4 years

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Night Out

My quickfic for @doodledrawsthings Coffee Shop AU! In truth I had this in the books for months and just never got around to finish it ;u; Unfortunately only the muse can decide when it’s time to slap me with enough serotonin to work on this, so I rode the high from recent art and wrapped it up! It’s not as clean as I wanted, but you know what, have it anyway.

-Myst -----

Finally. Another shift in the books.

With a heavy sigh, Luka stretches his back as the clock chimes up on the wall over the glass doors. Deft fingers untie the back before he slips the fabric apron over his head. A light snap of magnets punctuates the white noise of steaming coffee machines, and Luka stuffs his nametag into his pants pocket.

Luka was embarrassed to think about how much of a struggle it was to steady on for the entirety of the workday. Stress ate at him all the time, over so many things. Harriet was priority number one - did he remember to prep her meals for the day? Was she still ok, back in the apartment? Was Professor Popcorn in need of more repairs? Luka would happily handle such a task, of course, but...

He wasn't guaranteed to have thumbs when the evening finally came. There was his time limit to think about.

"Hey Luka?"

Damn, but being cursed was such a pain. Chopping vegetables was a particular bane of his existence. How could he trust himself with a knife like that? Ugh. He hated to make Harriet do it - no child should be wielding a knife before the age of 13, for any reason. He'd just have to MacGyver a solution or something.

"Luka..."

And on top of that, he had the upcoming bills to fret over. Rent was due in a few days, and he'd made a decent amount in tips, but they could not afford to have their upstairs neighbor burst a pipe again. He and Harriet had spent the entire afternoon toweling up their poor carpets to avoid getting mildew. Or worse, bugs. Luka was a fan of bugs, but not in his carpets, or sneaking into the mattress where they could bite his daughter.

"HEY!"

This time, the voice manages to pierce the haze of worry writhing in Luka's brain. Jolting to attention, the auburn-haired adult turns around, blinking owlishly at his colleague, Clover.

The braided redhead is giving him a wan smile, her brows furrowed in worry as she sets down a large bag of coffee beans under the counter.

"You spaced out again, buddy. Did you hear a word I said?" the barista asks, folding her arms over her stained apron.

"Uhh... you said my name," Luka replied, feeling a bit awkward as he chuckles once. "Sorry, I probably missed anything you might have asked me."

"I was asking if you ever go out."

"Ah- what?"

That was unexpected. Go out?

"You know-" Clover holds up her hands to gesture to the world in general, and beyond the coffee shop doors "-out! Like, with friends or anybody?"

Ah.

Luka laughs once, rubbing a hand on one side of his face.

"You mean since I moved into town? Nah, not really. Me and my daughter have only been here a few months - can't say we made many friends just yet."

Nor was that a risk they could take. Who knows how long they could stay here, before he was inevitably found out? One could argue it was a risk just- doing what he was doing now. Trying to hold a job, staying in an apartment; a semi-permanent living situation. They'd been on the road so long, old habits were quite hard to break. And if he was entirely honest with himself, Luka didn't know yet if he felt safe, even six months past the first day he arrived in the rural town of Subcon.

Clover's frown deepens, her arms dropping back to her sides. Her dropped guard betrays her worry, before she tries to play it off with another lighthearted smile and upbeat words.

"Oh come on, it can't have been that long since you've just done something fun for the sake of it. When was the last time you went out with friends and enjoyed yourself?" she asks.

"Why is this important?" Luka asks, his own guard slowly rising. He didn't quite see where she was going with this, but he wasn't sure he'd like it.

Oops- maybe not the most polite way to phrase that, as he sees an awkward flinch on Clover's face. Quick, recover! Luka chuckles once, also trying to lighten the mood.

"You and MJ never really asked me that kind of stuff before. I thought I was hired to serve coffee, not tea."

"We serve both, ya doofus," Clover smirks, rubbing one of her well-muscled arms with the other in a self-conscious gesture. "You should know that, since you've been working here almost four months now. And uh- well, MJ just kind of noticed you always seem very tired whenever you leave work."

Luka smiles back, but it's forced. Careful. Don't give any hints that it's anything serious. Don't be suspicious.

"Oh, that? I uh- I'm not used to the retail scene. I'll probably adapt to it soon."

Clover doesn't seem convinced. Still, her expression is sympathetic, rather than judgmental or suspicious. She leans her back on the counter, looking over Luka's exhausted demeanor and baggy eyes with a skeptical smile.

"I'm sure you will." She rests her hands on the counter. "In the meantime, you should go out for bowling with me and MJ! We were planning this outing for about a week, and maybe you'd wanna come with?"

Luka stops mid-folding of his apron. He turns toward Clover with surprise.

"Bowling? As in- knocking over pins in an alley, bowling?"

Clover rolls her eyes, amused. "No, as in rolling cereal bowls. Yes, that kind of bowling, Luka. It'll be fun! Eat some cheap pizza, knock over pins, watch the uncanny valley animations on the TV screen, the whole shebang. You up for joining us?"

"I uh- I didn't know there was a bowling alley here?" Luka says, his voice pitching up as he gives a sheepish laugh. "I- I don't know..."

Shit.

He could already feel the first touches of his curse starting to well up. A quick glance to his hands- okay, no purple yet. But it was coming.

Luka tucks his hands behind his back just in case.

"I'm not sure, I have Harriet to worry about..." he fumbles, rushing to think of excuses. It hurts his heart a little when he sees the disappointed expression Clover wears.

"Are you sure?" she asks, her tone gentle. "It'll only be a for a couple of hours - I could ask Cookie next door if she'd be willing to handle your daughter for the night. She's a fantastic sitter, and your daughter would have Mu to play with."

Luka opened his mouth, preparing to turn it down- then closed it again, brows furrowed as he chews over the thought.

Only a few hours... hm. His curse's current time limit was somewhere a little short of eight hours, he was sure. As long as he didn't have to pick up a shift at work, he would have most of his day free to spend out of the motel. An outing to a bowling alley couldn't possibly last eight hours, though he'd... never actually gone bowling before.

"I.... don't know... I've never been bowling, I'll just hold you back-"

"Nonsense," Clover says, waving off his excuse immediately. "MJ and I aren't professionals or anything, Luka - it's just for fun! You've never been?? That means you've gotta try it, at least once. Please?"

...mmh. Luka would be lying if he said he wasn't very tempted. But he had so much to worry about! His daughter, his curse... keeping his job, being able to support the two of them. Not to mention, getting used to his slow camaraderie with Clover and MJ. That sort of outing would throw their friendship into first gear.

"It's ok," Clover interrupts his thoughts, standing back up straight as she grabs a rag and finishes wiping down the counter. "You don't have to come, we just thought... you know, it might be fun. You look like you need some serious time to unwind, dude. All we ever see of you is showing up to work, dealing with customers, then you leave. And hey, if you change your mind, the offer's still open."

Luka curls his fingers, foot tapping the floor in small fidget.

"Well, I'm gonna start closing up the back," Clover says, tossing the rag into a laundry bin next to the employee break room. "I'll see you tomorrow!"

"Wait!"

Clover stops, turning around with the laundry basket.

"What day were you planning to do it?"

What am I thinking?? I can't go on an outing with them!

Unaware of Luka's silent stresses, Clover beams, her smile lighting up once again.

"Saturday! Would that work for you?"

"Mnhg- maybe?" Luka concedes, forcing his own sheepish smile despite his brain screaming No nO this is a bad idea! His mouth continues to run away from him. "Saturday is my errand day - me and Harriet go out for groceries in the morning, and eat out at whatever lunch restaurant she picks. I wouldn't be open until the evening, and Sunday's game day for me and my daughter."

Bad idea, what are you doing?!

"That's perfect!" Clover says, delighted and still not privy to Luka's inner struggle. "If we close the shop at five, we can drive to the bowling alley around 5:30, play a game or two and eat. Should go until about... eight-ish? How's that sound?"

Say no, say NO!

"Sure, sounds fun."

AGH!

"Great!" Clover says, a skip in her step as she lopes off to the back room with the laundry basket. "I'll text MJ to let him know - he's already gone back to his apartment."

"Yeah, I'll uh- I'll text him too," Luka chuckles, scratching behind his head with one hand- and immediately putting a stop to that action, as he feels the points of sharp claws dig at his scalp. Both arms are dropped and tucked behind his back, a big smile on his face. "Gotta give him the full details and everything, haha..."

"No problem- see you!" Clover bids Luka goodbye, waving one hand as she cheerily hauls the laundry bin off into the back.

"Bye!" Luka says, his voice cracking from nerves.

Oh thank god she's gone.

Luka pulls his hands back out into view, and sees the telltale purple staining begin to creep up his flesh. Peck. It was already starting- Clover left just in time. He could already feel the sharp ends of his canines starting to poke into his bottom lip. He didn't have much left of the day in human form- he had to get home right now.

Snatching up his belongings from his locker, stuffing his work apron inside, Luka loops his bag over his shoulder and leaps over the service counter. He missed the rack of sugar packets this time, thankfully, his sneakers squeaking on the tile floor as he bolts out the door. The bell rings as the glass entryway opens and shuts, signaling his departure. Car keys are whipped out of his bag, a slowly deforming finger just managing to push the button to unlock the vehicle as he clambers inside. Just five minutes- he could make five minutes.

The engine of the car roars to life, and Luka zips off out of the employee parking space, trying his best to ignore it as his fingers swell and fuse together, and his eyes reflect golden light in the rear view mirror.

------

MJ's car putters up to outside the bowling alley, fixing his blue-dyed hair with a sigh. Clover, in the passenger seat, drums her hand on the door handle with excitement.

"This is gonna be so much fun," she says, turning to look over her shoulder at the stiff and uncomfortable Luka in the backseat. "I'm so glad you decided to come, Luka- we'll show you the ropes of bowling!"

"Great," the young man says, putting up another shaky smile as his fingers tense around his kneecaps. "Can't wait!"

"That's the spirit," MJ speaks up, giving Luka a quick smile of his own before twisting the key in the ignition. The car's engine dies down, the doors unlocking as MJ shifts the gear into park. "Clover told me you were nervous about hanging out, and that's completely fine by me - if you feel uncomfortable and don't want to stay, just let us know, ok? We'll drive you back to the apartment building, no hesitation."

Luka inhaled deeply, letting out a heavy sigh from the back seat of the car. It felt like his nerves were trying to shake him apart. A glance at his watch-

Was he really going forward with this?

...Yes. He was. As much as Luka worried, Clover had been right. It'd been far too long since he'd taken 'me' time.

Luka puts a hand on the door and pulls the handle, stepping out of the car before he has a chance to psyche himself out.

It's just a couple hours. He still had plenty of time, after his midday outings with Harriet.

Stay calm. You can do this.

The sign above the brick building shines with neon lights, saying 'Pins & Cushions' in bright blue and red. The backdrop is a painting that Luka can swear was painted in the 80s, displaying a bowling ball as it barrels into pins and knocking them askew with a cartoony impact mark.

"Pins & Cushions?" he says aloud, smirking a little bit.

"Kind of silly, right?" MJ speaks up, locking the car behind him with a click. "Sounds more like a sewing parlor than a bowling alley."

"It's because they boasted having cushioned chairs," Clover says, snickering. "You've never been, but most bowling alleys have these awful plastic chairs that hurt to sit on for too long."

"You mean like the chairs in high school?"

Luka's joke earns a quick bark of a laugh from Clover.

"Couched seating areas in a bowling alley was, sadly, a craze that never caught on," MJ says, ascending the concrete steps up to the building. "But this one did, and the place is like forty years old and too stubborn to change, so your butt will thank you later."

When the doors open, Luka is immediately washed with a cocktail of smells he didn't think could- nor should- ever go together. First and foremost is the thick smell of plastic and rubber, followed by the chemical odor of cleaning sprays, and the sizzling smell of burning cheese. Air conditioning blasts them from above as the three young adults enter the bowling alley, the doors sliding shut behind their backs. The sounds hit next - a cacophonous mix of rubber soles squeaking on polished floors, heavy objects falling and rolling, and the clatter of pins falling into the trap at the far end of the establishment.

It was loud, smelled strange, and the carpet looked lifted straight out of an arcade.

Luka was torn between anxiety, and a strange sort of excitement he hadn't felt in a long, long time. This was something new, something unfamiliar- he had hours to enjoy himself, and spend time not worrying about stresses of life. Harriet had a sitter, paid in advance with an alarm for when he would return, and he was out with- friends? Had him accepting this invitation solidified their friendship at this point? ...the thought made a happy butterfly flutter in his stomach.

This would be a great evening, he could feel it.

"Earth to Luka." MJ's amused tone causes Luka to jump. "Something on your mind? You're smiling."

"Oh- uh- nothing," Luka says, scratching behind his head sheepishly. "Just- thanks. For inviting me. I think I really did need this a lot."

"YEAH you do!" Clover thumps him on the back with one hand. "Come on! You have to give your shoes to the clerk so they can give you your bowling shoes."

"Ah, what? I have to take off my shoes on this carpet?" Luka complains, lifting a foot with distaste. "I feel like I'm stepping on twenty-year-old candy."

"It's part of the charm!" Clover sings, already removing one of her sneakers. "It's either this, or slip all over the place on the actual alley floor. You're getting the full bowling experience whether you like it or not, coffee boy."

"Ex-CUSE me!" Luka says with a dramatic gasp, hopping on one foot as he works to remove his own shoes. "I think you will find I'm a coffee man, thank you."

"Coffee twink," Clover counters.

"No, that's MJ."

"HEY! I will call lion's share of the tips for that one," MJ shakes a sneaker at them both in a mock scolding gesture.

"YOU'RE BOTH COFFEE TWINKS," Clover declares to the entire establishment as she fights off her last sneaker, racing for the counter before the others can catch up. "HURRY UP, COFFEE TWINKS, WE NEED TO PICK OUT BOWLING BALLS."

"I have dibs on the galaxy patterned one!" MJ yells after Clover.

Clover gives MJ an evil grin as she takes her bowling shoes and pays the rental fee, tying them before sauntering over to the racks of bowling balls. Her hand hovers over the selection, giving a teasing pause over the bowling ball made with swirled star plastic.

"Don't you dare," MJ hisses from the counter, pointing an accusing finger at Clover as he hands over the money for both his and Luka's rental shoes.

"It's either the tips share, or the bowling ball! You decide!" Clover yells back, drumming her fingers on the coveted starry bowling ball.

"Fiiiiine," MJ says with a dramatic tone, though his smile gives away his mirth. "You know I wasn't going to take the tips anyway, Clo."

"I know~" she says, giggling while she moves on to a different rack of bowling balls. "And you know I wouldn't do that to your poor weak arms, either, Moonie."

Luka finishes tying his rental shoes, thanking MJ before he makes his way down the small stairway to the alleys. It's very bright in this section of the building, with cushioned couches surrounding tables and standing consoles. Metal railings and a chute of some kind were positioned at each alleyway, some with bowling balls sitting idle atop the metal racks.

"So, what now?" Luka asks, the excitement of wading into unknown waters welling in his chest again.

"Pick a bowling ball!" Clover says, gesturing to the racks of heavy plastic spheres. "You'll want a heavy one, but not too heavy for you to lift and throw."

"Go easy on us, Clover." MJ shakes his head as he picks up his favorite starry ball. "Ms. Gun Show and her fourteen-pound bowling ball."

The redhead leans over and scoops up a swirled green bowling ball, hefting it on one arm and pumping it like a weight.

"You might get some guns yourself if you helped me landscape and move sod around my garden, Coffee Twink #1," she says, flexing a bicep.

"I refuse to acknowledge that nickname."

"Sorry, it's our team name now," Clover laughs, "the Coffee Twinks!"

"Hey, I thought our team name was the Comets?!"

"That was before Luka joined the team - now it's a 2-to-1 twink majority, I don't make the rules."

Luka just has his face in his hands, laughing through the whole exchange as he leans on the metal racks.

"You're just as bad as Harriet!" Luka laughs, pushing his hair back out of his eyes with one hand. "I don't even know where she learned that word - Cookie's daughter, probably?"

"Definitely," MJ says with a thousand yard stare, earning more laughter from Luka. "Go pick a bowling ball, I'll get the console up and running for our game."

Wiping tears from his eyes, chuckling under his breath, Luka turns to the racks and peruses the selection. The bowling balls come in all colors - most are black or dark brown, but there's a rather delightful mix of brighter hues like pink, blue and yellow. Some are marbled, some have glitter in the plastic, and a few very beat-up bowling balls have graphics of cartoon characters that were popular in the 90s. Well-loved by the children who patronize this establishment, he was sure. Harriet would love the Scooby-Doo ball - oh no wait. The one themed after a Pokeball, for sure was her poison of choice. And clearly the pick of the litter for many other children, as it was covered in scratches and dents from decades of use.

Ah- there was one themed after a jack-o-lantern! How fitting. He loops his fingers into the grip holes of the bowling ball, and heaves it off of the rack- only to almost crush his toes as the weight yanks his arms to the floor.

That was- heavier than expected!

"Oooooh, nice pick," Clover says, spinning her own bowling ball in her hands. "You sure you can carry it, though? That's a 10-pounder."

"I'll be fine-" Luka says, grunting as he lifts it back up with both hands this time. "Just- caught me off guard, is all."

"Alright, game's all set," MJ announces from the console.

Above their heads, a large tube television flashes blue before displaying a score board.

A loud k-chunk k-chunk k-chunk of machinery draws Luka's eye toward the other end of the alley. Metal rigging and machinery descend from the covered roof of the pin trap. Resembling a large soda crate, the rig drops an array of ten white bowling pins, before unclamping and ascending back into the darkness of whatever creation of god resided in that ceiling.

"You're up first, Clo," MJ says, waving a hand to indicate she should move forward.

"Watch and learn," Clover throws Luka a smile, the competitive taunt dampened by her genuinely helpful tone. "You want to throw the ball so it rolls like this-"

Stepping forward onto the squeaky, smooth polished wooden platform, Clover lifts her bowling ball to her chest. With a quick inhale, she lopes forward two steps, swinging her arm back with the bowling ball, before reeling it forward on the last stride and underhand throwing it into the aisle. The heavy green bowling ball lands with a tHDD before skidding its way down the oiled track, rolling in a long, smooth line. The swirled green sphere smacks into the bowling pins with a loud tHWAKK!!, sending all but one of the pins flying into the darkness beyond. The ball disappears into the hole, and Clover puts her hands on her hips with a huff.

"Damn, almost got a strike." Clover snaps her fingers, shrugging. The green bowling ball clatters back up the chute. She grips her fingers into the trio of holes again, and goes for another throw.

The bowling ball rolls down the course, straight as an arrow for the last pin. The pin spins off the wooden platform into the darkness, earning a whoop from Clover.

"Nice, got a spare!" Clover declares, throwing her arms up in triumph. She sashays her way back to the couches. "Who's up next?"

"I'm up," MJ says, standing from the console. Looping his fingers into his own starry bowling ball, MJ rolls his shoulders and steps up onto the oiled wooden planks. "I'm going to get the first strike of the day, just wait."

"Sure you will," Clover snickers as MJ winds up.

When he releases the ball, it rolls at very high speed- before curving halfway down the track, the topspin he put on the ball causing it veer off course and land in the gutter.

Face flushed, MJ coughs into his hand, suddenly very invested in fixing his shirt as Clover grins. The galaxy ball returns to the trough, and MJ pointedly picks it up again, winding up for his second throw. The bowling ball rocks down the course, and knocks over about six pins, leaving a corner of the triangle still standing.

"Woo!" Clover cheers, clapping as MJ returns to the seating. She reaches over and nudges Luka on the shoulder. "You're up, Luke! Show us whatchu got!"

Heart in his throat, Luka stands from his seat and steps up.

The bowling ball grins up at him, daring him to chicken out. It was heavy in his hand. Still, he walked up onto the polished floor, feeling the rubber on the bottom of his shoes as it grips the oiled surface.

Fighting the weight of the heavy bowling ball, Luka takes a step forward, swinging his arm back before bringing it back around like a pendulum. The ball hits the track with a heavy thDD as it’s released, sent rolling off down the track. Around the halfway point, it spins off course and lands in the gutter with a clunk.

“Aww,” Clover says, leaning over the chair cushion. “And you had such good posture, too.”

“It’s ok,” MJ speaks up, seeing Luka’s visible embarrassment. “It’s your first time bowling! Nothing to be ashamed of. You have another shot before we rotate players.”

Disappointed, Luka rubs at his arm. Well, that was a less than encouraging performance. But he noticed the angle of the spin on the ball. Maybe he could fix that.

The ball clatters up the chute back into the return trough. Luka picks it up with a huff of breath, holding it to his chest as he does mental calculations. If he turned his wrist at just the right point...

Stepping forward, Luka swings back and releases the ball, putting a top spin on the ball at the last possible moment-

The jack-o-lantern face rockets down the alley, the path straight until the very last second. It curves to hit the front pin from the side, knocking every single pin into the abyss beyond.

"OHHHHH!" Clover and MJ exclaim, clapping with enthusiasm as Luka looks stunned.

"You got a strike!" Clover says, applauding with a big grin. "You were totally pulling our legs about being a newbie to this, huh??"

"I think I just got lucky," Luka tries to play it off, feeling an uncommon shyness as he smiles.

Clover shakes her head, not having it.

"Luck nothing! That was pure talent, and you got a strike, dude!"

"Technically that was a spare, but still a strike in my book," MJ says as he rotates the turn order on the console, giving Luka a smile and a thumbs up.

"Oh let him have it, Moon Moon," Clover laughs as MJ throws her a pout. "Our new boy's got game!"

Luka hunches his shoulders, an awkward smile curling across his cheeks as he walks back over to the couches. Clover jumps to attention and makes her way to the track, picking up her green bowling ball for another round as he sits down.

This was... much more fun than he had expected it to be. The background noise of the bowling alley was surprisingly pleasant. He found he could get used to the dull odor of plastic and cleaner- and honestly, that hot cheese smell from what must be the pizzeria was tempting his stomach. But best of all was the camaraderie he could feel sparking between him, Clover, and MJ. Were they officially friends now? Or had they been already, and he was just- in denial? If Luka was entirely honest with himself, probably the latter. MJ and Clover had been nothing but kind and understanding, to him. His sporadic hours and excuses had done nothing to faze them with regards to their treatment of him at work. They still offered him drinks and invited him on this outing, offering even to pay for his expenses, didn't they?

"Hey Luka!" A call from MJ breaks him out of the small reverie. "You're up, again."

"And after this round, we can hit the arcade! I bet I can out-dance you on DDR, Coffee Twinks," Clover smirks.

"No betting. I know you can."

Maybe- maybe he had nothing to worry about.

---

The evening is going fantastic.

The first bowling game had been a pretty close match between Luka and Clover. Clover had the arm strength to pull off some mean and fast throws, but Luka had developed a system. Figuring out how to spin the bowling ball just the right amount had made up for his noodle arms and less weighty bowling ball. It wasn't long before he figured out how to roll a pretty straight record of spares and strikes, with the occasional 7-10 split. After bowling around, they went into the arcade section, with an entire paper roll of quarters to blow on games. A vicious Ms. Pacman multiplayer match had led to MJ smoking all three of them, and as predicted, Clover out-danced both of the boys on the DDR and Stepmania machines. Luka had to collapse over a nearby chair with exhaustion after his matches. He'd finished off the arcade run with a very lucky pull from a claw machine, winning a black cat plush with big yellow eyes that he was definitely going to enjoy giving to Harriet.

The three of them sat around their table at the bowling console again, laughing over a hot cheese and pepperoni pizza.

"No way, you didn't!" Luka gasps, wheezing for air.

"I did! I punched his goddamn lights out!" Clover laughs, slapping one knee. "The guy was being a huge creep, so I introduced him to my fist."

"I hope you didn't get in trouble with the cops or something for that." Luka tilts his head, giving her an impressed and worried look.

"Can't get in trouble if nobody reports it," MJ chimes in, smirking past his soda cup. "He complained to me, but I had the security tapes AND plausible deniability because I wasn't on the floor. Corporate took our side on this."

"Nobody from the city wants to drive all the way out to podunk Subcon for a random dudebro's complaint." Clover sits back on her cushioned seat, chomping into her pizza happily. "Mmmmm- delicious melty cheese."

Luka chomps into his own pizza, exhaling and blowing on it as it nearly burns his mouth.

"Easy, tiger!" MJ smirks around his own mouthful of pizza.

"I know, it's just so good," Luka says, laughing into his hand as he sips some of his cola. "But in like- the way you know it's not that great? Does that make sense?"

"Night in the Woods taught me the Pizza Scale, and I stick by that," Clover says, crunching through her crust to grab up another slice, washing down the bread with some soda. When she reaches for another piece of the pie, she pauses, and lets out a huff. "Oh, that sucks. I guess they didn't clean the bowling balls that well this time. Gross."

"Hm?" Luka says through a mouthful of pizza.

"Your fingers are all oil-stained from the finger holes on the bowling ball, Luka. Big Al needs to wash the bowling balls properly."

Confused, the law student shifts his attention down.

The ends of his fingertips are discolored with ebony purple.

Luka can feel as his brain zeroes in on the first sign of his impending transformation, and begins to shift into emergency mode as it relays the steps he must take in order to avoid further exposure. He'd gone over this information with himself many times over the past five years. It was ingrained in his mind, what he had to do, the information practically screaming at him. But he can't hear it. His ears are filled with buzzing as reality breaks into the facade he'd slowly built up over the course of hours.

No-

No no no-

His pizza slice drops to the paper plate as he fumbles with his bag, pulling out the cell phone from the liner pocket. Shaking fingers tap the screen with frantic speed, trying to turn the damn thing on-

9:17?

They'd been here nearly four hours?!

He'd spent the morning out with Harriet, doing their grocery shopping and walking around the town's outdoor mall as much needed father-daughter time. Eight hours of being in disguise had long since passed.

His time limit was up.

This couldn't be happening. Yet the numbers stare back at him from the glare of his cell phone screen. They even have the nerve to tick over to 9:18 right before his eyes.

This wasn't happening. This wasn't happening! It wasn't fair!

"Luka, you ok? You're turning pale..."

Clover's question just barely manages to pierce the haze, causing Luka to jolt in his seat. Posture stiff and breath shallow, he lifts his head to meet Clover's questioning eyes. She's staring at him with building concern, her smile becoming a frown of worry.

The tension is palpable in the air as Luka struggles to find words. Finally, he manages to say something.

"It's- it's a quarter past nine-"

"Oh shoot-" Clover says, sitting up abruptly as she grabs her own phone.

MJ checks his watch, wincing. "Oof. Sorry, Luka. I guess we lost track of time passing. I'll apologize to Cookie for the overtime, we can finish this round and go-"

"Don't feel good- going to the bathroom-" Luka wheezes, scrambling to his feet as he scoops all of his belongings into his bag and races past MJ's seat.

"Luka!" Clover yells after him, her heightened concern audible in her voice. "Ok, we'll- we'll start cleaning up! Let us know if you need-!"

Her words are cut off by the slam of the bathroom door. Luka's bowling shoes slip over the slick tile floor, his hands gripping onto the cold porcelain of the bathroom sink to steady himself. He brings his shaking hands up to view in the mirror. The blackening purple skin was spreading up his finger joints, reaching his palms.

No- not now! Why now?

Luka clenches his fists and his jaw, focusing every ounce of his will on making the purple go away. He can almost feel a vein pop on his forehead- if he still had veins, anymore- as he strains to make his unwilling body follow his desires. The purple starts to recede at a caterpillar crawl... but it slows. And the harder he tries, the more he can feel his arms struggle to hold their shape - becoming less solid.

"No- no!" he whimpers, clenching his hands into the sink again. The action splatters small droplets of purple sludge against the porcelain, which vanish moments later as the purple staining once more consumes his fingers - and now his palms. "Stop it! Just- let me be human! Please!"

He lifts his head to the mirror. Despair fills his gut as he sees amber eyes staring back at him in the reflection, and the beginnings of an inner glow fighting to come out from the back of his throat.

Luka lets out a wordless sound of sorrow, lifting an arm to pound one fist against the mirror in vain. The reflection is unfazed in its destitution, tears beginning to gather at the edges of its eyes and mouth set into a sob of clenched teeth. The reflection's canine's lengthen several inches as the eyes stare back, accusingly. The purple was starting to spread up its neck, just poking out the collar of the shirt.

"No..."

This wasn't him. But it had been, years ago. This was SUPPOSED to be him.

He curls his fist, watching as the fingers start losing their shape. Fusing together, becoming single digits and his thumbs vanish back into the purple sludge of the limb.

"I was finally-..." Luka whimpers, "...I finally felt human again."

-bang bang bang-

The sound of a fist knocking on the bathroom door causes Luka to yelp and jump back from the mirror.

"Luka? You ok in there?"

It was MJ.

Peck!

Grabbing his bag, Luka books it into the furthest stall of the bathroom. He slams the metal door behind him, fumbling to lock it with his swelling mitten fingers. Alarm shot through his gut as his shirt felt tight around his torso. Already?? This was faster than usual! Had he really pushed it that much?

"Hey man, are you sick? Clover and I are really concerned. Do you need any help in there?"

"NO! NO I'M GOOD!" Luka yells from the bathroom stall, clapping a two-fingered hand over his mouth as he hears the slight reverb echo to his own voice. Dammit! "I'M JUST- I'LL BE FINE!"

He was not fine, he would most certainly not be fine!

"Luka, you sound croaky." It was Clover this time, probably a short distance behind MJ. "Dude, are you sure? MJ, maybe you should go in and check on him-"

"NO!"

No, the reverb was stronger!

"Luka, I'm coming in."

"MJ it's fine!"

Luka could hear the seams of his shirt starting to stretch and strain. The seconds were ticking by as strings started to pop at the neck.

Shit, shit!

Luka turned left and right, the stall cramped and uncomfortable as the ruff of fur around his neck thickens and threatens to burst his shirt open. He needed a way out!

Aha! A small window, to the outside! Wow, that was probably the worst location for a window. And it was so small-

The door creaked as MJ started to turn the handle.

NO TIME!

Luka makes a dive for the window. His fingers catch on the sill, and he hauls his body up onto the tiny ledge, his head pushing up the glass and emerging out into the open air. Squeezing through the narrow space, he struggles to pull his feet through, kicking off the bowling shoes and hearing them clatter to the tiles below.

The door comes unlatched, and MJ enters the bathroom, looking around with a frown.

Luka was gone. And for some reason, his bowling shoes were abandoned on the questionably cleaned bathroom floor.

Just outside the window, tucked next to the wall of the alleyway outside the bowling alley, Luka is panting with adrenaline. He can feel his chest expand further with each breath, the fur mane around his neck already splitting apart his shirt. His fingers had fully lost their human shape by now, coalescing back into the familiar mitts he hated so much. A reminder that, no, he wasn't human. No matter what those people in the bowling alley thought of him, and what he thought of them in return... no matter how much he wanted to be human, again.

"Luka?"

His entire torso now fully drenched in purple, Luka hangs his head, listening as he fights to strip off the shirt suffocating him.

Footsteps, in the bathroom.

"...Luka? What the-... Clover, he's not here?"

"What?? But he- went into the bathroom! He was just-!"

"His shoes are here..."

"His shoes??"

Luka forces himself to stand, wobbling a bit further away from the window as he focuses all of his efforts on keeping his legs. He can't lose his ability to walk, not in the middle of town!

God dammit... god dammit! Why couldn't he just enjoy his night? Now he was wandering alleyways, half transformed, and MJ and Clover were no doubt worried to hell and back. What could he even say? 'Sorry, had to take a break to wolf out in the bathroom'?

-brrring brrring-

The buzz of the phone in his pants pocket- which was getting tight against his waist, he noticed. Luka quickly extracts the phone before it can be damaged by the fabric.

MJ's caller ID stares back at him from the screen.

The decision to trust these two with his information was biting him in his rapidly purpling behind. He'd been so careful not to slip up, and the ONE TIME he makes a mistake... He had another decision to make. He could not respond, and just be a complete asshole, but he could protect his secret a little safer, for just a little bit longer. Or he could pick up, and... he didn't know. Bullshit something? Would they even believe whatever malarkey he could cook up in seven seconds for bailing out of a bowling alley restroom? God, he was terrible at improvised excuses! He was a lawyer, not an actor! But if he answered the phone call, maybe- maybe he could hold on to that feeling again. The warmth of companionship of peers his age, that he hadn't felt since law school. Since... Vanessa. But he couldn't think about her right now. What mattered was his safety- his daughter's safety.

Peck. He didn't even think about that part. Could he really rip Harriet out of a somewhat stable home life, again? She was just starting to get along with Cookie's daughter, and he didn't want to take that precious first friendship from her.

Luka was only pulled out of the downward spiral by the vibration of the phone, which he only now realized had registered a missed call, and was now on the second call. It was still MJ, the picture of him in his Horizon employee cap still smiling from the bright phone screen.

He had to do something. He could feel his legs protest the form they was struggling to hold.

Survival instinct set in. First, he had to get away from the scene.

Stumbling to his malforming feet, Luka jogs away from the alley, ducking away from the Pins & Cushions and avoiding the bright neon sign on the side of the building.

As he walks, a headache hits, and Luka just knows his face was losing more of his familiar features. Didn't need a mirror to know that he was definitely the shade of a bruised plum, and that his eyes were glowing like gold beacons. The sharp teeth at the edges of his mouth were digging into his bottom lip as he dodges and weaves to avoid line of sight from storefront apartment windows.

The woods were so close by, just a few more blocks.

Faster. He had to run faster. But his legs- were fighting him! Already he could feel his steps become lighter, movement more fluid. It was a struggle to keep a walking stride, rather than just- leap into the air. No way was he going to fly a block from pecking main street.

His phone continues to vibrate, threatening the call to drop.

Right when he reaches the sidewalk, Luka pants for breath, collapsing beside the pole for a street lamp while avoiding the amber spotlight. Taking one last rueful look at his phone, he sighs, and presses the answer button with a doughy purple finger.

"Luka?" MJ's voice patches through. The reception isn't great, but it's sufficient. Maybe that was a lucky break, considering what his voice was going to sound like in a second.

"Hey," Luka answers. Yep. He sounded like a toad that swallowed a brass tube. "Sorry- about that."

"Dude, are you ok?? Where did you go?" MJ spoke so quickly it almost interrupted Luka, concern clear and evident in his voice. "You ran or something and- you left your shoes at the counter, and the cat plush for your daughter. Clover got them for you-"

"It's ok," Luka says, wincing. "I can pick them up tomorrow. I- don't feel well, and I have to go get Harriet."

"Luka, we could have driven you home for that," MJ responds, a hint of hurt and confusion. "You know you can tell us if you're uncomfortable, and want to leave, right?"

"No- this- I was having fun," Luka responds, cupping a hand over his mouth to try to muffle the echo. He had to wrap this up. His voice was getting less natural by the second. He really hoped the poor reception would mask it. "Look- I'm sorry MJ. But I really had to go."

"You're not getting kidnapped or something are you?" Clover's distant voice suddenly patches through in the phone. MJ must have his phone on speaker. "Because if you are, I'll hunt them down! Just yell where the car is taking you!"

"I'm not- look, I'm sorry, but I just had to go, ok?" Luka says. "Harriet needs me."

"I thought you were feeling sick?" Clover says, her worried tone now tinted with... suspicion. "You ran to the bathroom, and we were all worried about you, dude." Her voice becomes just a bit distant, as she turns to speak to MJ, but the phone picks it up. “Actually, did we ever hear anything from Cookie...?”

"No- I am-" Luka can feel his lies crumbling, nearly becoming true as he experiences a sensation similar to his stomach heaving from the anxiety. "Thanks for the wonderful evening, I'll pick up my stuff later- bye!"

"Wait-!!"

-click-

MJ's protest is cut off, and Luka set the phone down on the grass, putting his head in the other hand. That was terrible. But he couldn't back out on it now. He would just have to deal with the consequences of that phone call tomorrow.

Not like having shoes or not bothered him, anyway.

Exhausted and resigned, Luka slides away from the lamp post into the chaparral, and begins rapidly pulling his shirt over his head. No way was he going to lose another shirt, not after the last one. This was his last nice shirt, and he intended to keep it as long as possible!

A quiet gasp jolts him out of his frantic folding.

Luka whips around, shirtless, half de-pantsed, and his body a full shade of deep shadow purple. His golden eyes glow in the reflected street light as he freezes on the spot, making eye contact with another human being across the road. It was the stocky mustachioed man from the coffee shop- the regular who came by and sketched quietly in a corner. Pinstriped suit- which seemed to be the only outfit anyone ever saw him wore- an apron, and grey khaki pants. The thick glasses would make it difficult to tell where he was looking, if the man wasn't standing with his square jaw hanging down at his chest, head angled directly toward Luka. Everyone dismissed him as a paranoiac, a hermit who stopped by for his morning caffeine fix and quiet atmosphere to indulge in his imagination. Rumors flew that he used to work for some sort of tabloid magazine, and was fired- or promoted?- for how crazy his stories were.

Whatever the reason, this man was now standing, groceries dropped to the pavement, and staring at Luka. A very half-naked, absolutely not human-looking Luka.

Face suddenly burning hot with embarrassment and fear, Luka grabs his belt loops and bolts into the trees.

The movement causes the man to only gape more, making a wordless noise of astonishment before the forest breaks their line of sight and Luka retreats into the safety of the woods. Luka just barely remembers to grab his shirt and belt from the bushes. Vanishing entirely from sight, stumbling over debris as his transformation takes full hold of his body, Luka wheezes as his heart beats in his chest. After all that, he was seen! Peck! Did he just ruin everything because he wasn’t paying attention? But- but it was just the local hermit, the resident conspiracy nut. That wouldn’t be so bad, right? This wasn’t as catastrophic as being spotted by a teen with a cell phone open. Surely, this was the safest possible person in town to accidentally spot him mid-transformation. Repercussions would be minimal.

Thank god the man didn't have a camera.

#Coffee Shop Au #AHIT #A Hat In Time #doodledrawsthings #Snatcher #Hat Kid #Moonjumper #Clover #noticed a couple mistakes and it's too late to fix em wHOOPS #OH WELL

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moonkissedmeli · 4 years

Text

Dionysus [Olympian, Greek]

God of: wine, winemaking, grape cultivation, fertility, ritual madness, frenzy, theater, religious ecstasy, grape harvest, epiphany

Zodiac sign: no specific zodiac sign, but many astrologers associate him with Sagittarius and Pisces

Plant: no planet associated with Dionysus

Lineage: Son of Zeus and human Semele, princess of Thebes

Primary cult centres: Eleusis, Naxos, Athens, and Mount Kithairon, but all over Greece

It is said that Dionysus was to be a demigod; when the goddess Hera forced his mother to have Zeus show him her true form. Semele didn't know she would perish if she looked upon a God's true form. Dionysus survived his mother's death because Zeus removed her from his mother and sewed him into his thigh until he could survive on his own. He was raised by the nymphs of rain in Mount Nysa and grew to become the first to cultivate wine; a skill that he taught the humans of Asia before going to Olympus. However - some say that his mother is Persephone and that he represents the underworld in Zeus.

It's thought that the Mycenean Greeks may have been the first to worship him. He is often considered a foreign god, or a god who comes. The Olympians consider him an outsider; however, it is one of the 12 Olympians and a very important god to the Greeks. Along with Demeter, he is one of the supreme earth deities and treated the humans kindly. He is a very generous, but does not take kindly to insults or disrespect.

He is depicted in two ways: older male with a beard and a robe holding a fennel staff with a pine cone on top or as a youthful man with no beard who is naked and androgynous. The Greeks referred to him in their writings as "man-womanish."

He followed the seasons, in the summer he was happy and lively, in the winter he was unhappy and sluggish. He is an agriculture and vegetation deity. He is also said to be a horned deity, which may have connections to older world horned and bull-horned gods.

Dionysus was also captured by pirates because he looked like the son of a king. He also descended into the underworld to save his mother .

His followers would drink, play music, and become frenzied as their sense of societal conditioning dropped away; they became free of self consciousness and became one with Dionysus.

If you are looking to overcome self consciousness, rewrite your social conditioning, being more in touch with nature perhaps by farming or gardening, Dionysus is a great god to work with. If you are having troubles with fun or enjoyment in your life, even despair, he can help you get back to a happier version of yourself. He is the god of mental health, so you can look to him for support in all mental health areas. As a God of epiphany, you may look to him when trying to reach deeper levels of spiritual enlightenment or exploring your consciousness. Dionysus is also a wonderful god for musicians and artists! You can also call on Dionysus to protect you while you're under the influence.

Festivals:

Dionysia: His oldest festival; the celebration of the cultivation of wines. Was in the month of Peseideon [December/January], often around the winter Solstice. It was a procession where people carried phalluses, long loaves of bread, and other food offerings. This is the festival that began the tradition of Greek plays, as may performances and drama competitions occurred at this festival.

Anthestria: Celebration of the beginning of spring. It was three days. The Greeks said the dead came up from the underworld to attend the festival. The first day was when they opened the win vats and mixed the win in honor of Dionysus. The second day people drank and it was a quiet and secret type of celebration. The wife of the basileus was given to Dionysus in a ritual marriage. The last day was dedicated to the dead and offerings were also given to Hermes.

Symbols

Wine, partying, music, phallus, chalice, two-handed goblets, horns, theatre [comedy & tragedy]

Animals: bulls, big cats especially leopard/panthers, serpents, goats [mythological animals, centaurs, sileni, and satyrs]

Plants/Herbs: fennel, pinecones, grapes, ivy, trees, petrified wood, fig tree, sap

Scents: frankinsense, musk, dirt scent, wine, rain, grape

Colors: purple, green, black, red

Crystals: amethyst (some thing he created it), amber, gold

Offerings

fennel, pine cones, grapes, ivy, grapes, pine needles, apple seeds, orchis root, thistle, comedic masks, phallus shaped items, wine, cannabis, blood, sap, fruit, pastries, flowers

Ways to worship:

Therapy, working on your mental health, overcoming fears or anxieties, reading mental health help books or spirituality [by reputable authors], meditate, and mental health care

Partying, drinking wine, going to festivals or theatre, dancing

Playing music, writing him music, making party/dance playlists for him, sing or pray to him, singing his hymns (bonus points if you're under the influence or drinking grape juice; while doing it). Try your hand at acting.

Leave offerings at trees [environmentally safe, biodegradable natural offerings! Never leave something that could harm the flora & fauna of your area]

Making wine, make ivy wreaths, grow ivy/trees/plants

Advocate for old growth forests & reforestation

Wear leopard print

Watch comedies or tragedies or read Greek plays

Supporting the LGBTQ+ community, Dionysus was very androgynous, sometimes it is said he was raised as a girl and that he is pansexual - he would not look kindly on those who discriminate against this group!

*As a disclaimer, you do not need to party, drink, do drugs or anything to worship Dionysus. He is a really multifaceted god. Madness and frenzy really are in the ritual sense -- this does not always mean becoming completely ecstatic and out of touch with reality. This can also look like a deep meditation or even dancing until you're exhausted to reach him in higher plains of consciousness.

Epithets

Dimetor - of two mothers/twice born

Eleutherios - Liberator

Acratophorus - Bringer of unmixed wine

Aegobolus - Goat shooter

Agrios - Wild

Briseus - who prevails

Bromios - Roaring

Endendros - He in the tree

Mystes - of mysteries

Tauros - A bull

*there are many more

Sources: wikipedia, briticanna, "Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman Mythology", theoi, greekgodsandgodesses.net

#dionysus #hellenic #greekgods #gods #witch #witchy #witchblr #grimoirepage #grimoire #pagan #paganism #worship #rituals

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whumpasaurus101 · 3 years

Text

Re-trained

WH-WH-WHUMP??? LEE WROTE WHUMP???? NOT JUST A BUILD UP AND SKIPPING THE ACC WHUMP BIT??? :O I know, I know, it's unbelievable. I.wrote.whump. Ddgdyuhj oki i know i do write some but i haven't done a proper whopper in a while so uhhhhh :D

also this is a follow up piece from this one!!

CW: Creepy creeeeeepy whumper / Defiant whumpee ‘turning’ ‘broken’ hehe / whumpee referred to as boy but he’s over 18 :D`/ knives / sorta.. Carving… i think is the right word? Hhehe / possessive whumper / forced hug / manipulative whumper

Asher knelt in the middle of the basement, wrists rubbed raw from fighting against the restraints. He was so tired, he just wanted to rest for a small bit. “Well, it seems like I have such a wide selection!” Asher groaned, “Please Aiden, can we just… not do this?” “And where would the fun be in that?” Aiden whined.

“Oh…I don't know, maybe the part where my back doesn't get whipped to shreds, or I won’t get cut by your ‘oh so lovely’ pocket knife! And not to mention I- The sharp whistle of a whip was the only warning Asher had before it smacked him across his face. Asher leg out a gasp. Aiden tried to compose himself and took several deep breaths, he stormed over and grabbed Asher by the chin roughly. He brought him face-to-face and slowly traced his trust pocketknife along his face.

“Now you listen to me Danny bo-“

“That’s not my name.”

There was a beat of silence as Aiden tried to believe what he had just heard. “I beg your pardon?” Asher gulped, “I uh- I said that’s not my name. I-” Asher gulped, “Should probably stop talking now, shouldn't I?”

Aiden chuckled, “Yes. Oh yes you should.” He traced the knife down Asher’s small scar which was placed on his lower lip from all the busted lips he had gotted, “My, my, another one to our collection, hm?”

Asher’s breath stuttered, too scared to say a word. He whined as the knife dug deeper into his skin and the metallic taste filled his mouth. He used all of his strength not to spit out the blood. Aiden would’ve killed him.

The knife continued to travel down his chin and curved. Then it was lifted and Asher let out a gasp. “Oh I missed this. I missed us. Oh Danny, none of them back home are as pretty or good as you. Just come home with me! I’ll take you home!! And you’d never have to deal with Rodger ever again!!!”

Asher was about to cry. He felt so overwhelmed as he shook his head fast, “No! No! Not in a billion years! I-I’d never go back with you I-” He was cut off once more as Aiden punched Asher straight in the gut. When Asher let out a cry, Rodger held him close and hugged him.

He ran his hands through Asher’s hair, “Shhhh baby, I know it hurts. You're alright. You just need to learn. Remember what I always told you?” Asher gasped at the sudden realization that he forgot. Aiden grabbed the knife and started to slice a small line on the nape of Asher’s neck, still cradling his head. Asher let out a scream and started sobbing, “Please! I-I don't remember!”

“That's okay my little dove, I bet you need a reminder after spending so long with Rodger. I know he's too soft.”

Asher tried to remind himself how none of this was right. Aiden was wrong. But… maybe he wasn't. “Obedience-” Slice “Means-” Slice “Less-” Slice “Pain.” Slice.

Asher was a sobbing mess at this point but he nodded. The sudden rush of memories came back to him. Back in Aiden’s place. No. no. he wasn't going back there!!!!! He-he couldn't!!!

Aiden stood up, gently lifting Asher up along with him, feeling how Asher leaned into his touch. “Let's get you cleaned up, petal.” Asher shuddered but nodded and let Aiden bring him wherever he was being brought to. No fighting. No cursing. No talking back. Silence.

Asher sat in the bathtub, staring blankly at the tiles ahead of him with glassy eyes. Aiden ran a sponge along Asher’s neck, gently, “I'm so proud of you, you did so good.” Asher started to cry again. He hated it. He hated how weak he was. How vulnerable.

He wanted Rodger. Jack. Anyone who was not Aiden.

Aiden dug the sponge deeper into Asher’s cuts, “Why do you hate me so much?”

Asher took a shaky breath, “Because you put me through so much pain,” He whined. He bit his lip, keeping back sobs.

“I'm only doing what's best for you. I know you don't know that. But one day you will notice. And thank me. I'm doing all of this for you Asher, and don't you forget it.”

An hour later, Asher was kneeling by Aiden’s side as Aiden quietly read his book, occasionally stopping petting Asher’s hair to turn the page. Asher blinked back the tears he felt were coming. When was Rodger going to be home? He would do anything.

Just to answer his prayers, Asher heard a key fiddling in the front door’s lock. Aiden must have noticed Asher’s excitement, he quickly tightened his grip on Asher’s hair, making the boy whine. Rodger hesitated at the door when he saw Asher kneeling quietly by Aiden’s side, “What's going on?”

Aiden looked up from his book, “Hm?” Rodger gulped and dared to take another step forward, “I just… it's very quiet in here, don't you think?” Aiden chuckled, “That, my friend. Is the sound of obedience. I finally retrained my- your mutt.” He stood up and gathered his glasses and book. He walked past a gobsmacked Rodger and turned back, “Oh, and if he acts out again, don't hesitate to call me.

“Ciao!”

---

Taglist: @likeit-or-whumpit @milk-carton-whump @yesthisiswhump @appy-polly-loggies @as-a-matter-of-whump @@happy-whumper @jordanstrophe @myst-in-the-mirror @tears-and-lilies @heathenwhump

thank you for reading!!!!! <3

#Asher #Aiden #Rodger #my dudes #how in the frickin heck do u simp for aiden #fhjfgkfh #ill be honest #i have no clue #anywho #asher most definitley is not xD #whump writing #teeehee

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rurifangirl · 3 years

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Bitch you’re literally so awesome and sweet and funny and the best thing from Italy (tied with pizza) okay tbh I’m not too familiar with your OCs so I got this for you: what do you think would happen if some of your OCs met my OCs?

BAHJSKRHFJF TYE FIRST PART😭😭🤍🤍🤍🤍

N imma choose only 5 of my fave ocs cus 1I have like 12 of em n im too lazy to write em all here🤡😭 n 2 I don't wanna make It too lomg cus i also wanna know what ya think

(btw all of their intros/and anything bout every of my oc Is linked on the pinned post, or just ask me bout em im always free for em🤩)

Kayn💜; Honestly, dude's already an huge teddy bear so i feel like he'd get along w basically everyone there. He's also pretty naive himself, so he'd probably get into some dumbassery w them, at one point or another 😭😭

Kayn wouldn't rly matter any of the gods behaviours too, since he's already used to Hoe and just, being a proud himbo himself. He'd also prolly get specifical gifts too (ahem wine for dyonisus too AHEM), n just spendin time w each of em, cus even though they'd known for like, idk some days, he would rly care bout their well bein and everything in between. Just, a very sweet dude.

Shou��: He's very skeptical of people so, he'd definetly have the hardest time openin up, especially to em. Everything's more detailed in his post so id recommend to check It out, but let's just say he never had any figure to freerly opening up to, both because of his nature and just, about how he was. Would definetly get along best w Aiwin, because of how similar they are, both on personality n trauma. Or even Amy now that I think bout It. But even then, he'd get too self concious and probably Hide from em too sometimes.

Myst🎸: Basically almost the same as Kayn, but make It like ten times louder and a LOT more energetic. Basically another loud fucker that would probably get anyone up till he doesn't collapse. She also would rly get along w Dionysus tbh, and be hated for how all outta place he Is😭😭 But we luv her anyways 🤸‍♀️

He'd also be really caring bout em too, and when she needs to stop, she will.

Eris🌑: They're my most recent of, so I'm conflicted about who it would be the closest too. Like, moons really similar to a God,so I feel like they'd be closed to em, but at the same time I dunno who they'd open up with. Because they're polite, even caring at times, and wants to care bout their pals too as long as they don't get hurt or in trouble, so ya can tell me who they'd be closed w 😭😭

I don't have a fifth fave so I'll let the wheel decide a sec

Aight Naexi time😤

Naexi⚛️: Fun fact, they're an actual demi god, BUT, instead of when i talked about Eris, they'd be trying to get close to prolly Aiwin and Amy, for the sole reason if interests. They're interested in old folk tails, that made her fall in love with humanity all in the meanwhile, as that's also part of the reason she left her world to later on joining the gang (more on that on her post ofc), so it's normal she'd be more attracted to em.

She's also really polite and calm too, but that doesn't mean they're that overall cutesy. They can be rly subdoly teasing too, so I'll leave ya w a paring for her too if ya don't mind😭😭

Sorry If i wrote too much but i got a lil too into It😔

Tags undercut(since thecnically it's an OC ask so-):

@a-chaotic-dumbass @spoopy-fish-writes @damnfoxx @nadi-117 @dopesaladlady @audre-falrose

#ruruasks #rurusocs #oc #ocs #my ocs stuff #kayn #myst #shou #eris #naexi #dragon raja oc #dragonraja oc #my ocs rambles #N yes i just finished rn😭😭

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snippy-tano · 4 years

Note

Intimacy prompts: 3, 13, 17 and 25, with Fives please. Just something fluff and comforting towards the reader, quietly chatting with each other until they fall asleep.

Thank you so much @ahsokatano-thetogruta for this wonderful prompt for the wonderful Fives. God I love him so much. He deserves everything all the time.

This ended up being a little bit shorter than I had planned, but it’s like straight fluff the entire time. So be ready for soooo much cuteness. I hope you like it!! -------------------------------------

Surprises and Take Out

Your time with Fives was always special.

He was constantly out fighting on the front lines while you stayed on Coruscant, working as a reporter for the Senate. You��d spend every day wondering, hoping he was okay. Due to the nature of his missions and deployments, you didn’t get to see each other in person often. But you always made it count when you did.

The last time you’d spoken with him was a week previous. He wasn’t sure when he’d be back on Coruscant, but he was hoping it’d be soon. Like always, you had told him to be safe and make it back to you.

It was hard, you’d be the first to admit it. A few of your close friends were also dating, but their relationships were so much different than yours. They regularly went out on dates, spent time together, and just existed in each other’s space most days.

But it was hard to be away from him so often, terrified that one day you’d find out he was gone.

Despite all of your fears, you never gave up on him. You loved Fives, there was no question about that. And you’d continue loving him for as long as you were able.

He was worth it.

Since you had yet to hear from Fives about when he was going to be planet-side next, you had resigned to spending a night in your apartment. A few of your friends had tried to drag you out, but you wanted to spend time in for once. You’d been missing Fives like crazy and didn’t really want to go out without him.

So, you put on your comfiest clothes (including a pair of Fives’ blacks he’d left behind last time), ordered takeout from your favorite place, and curled up on your couch to watch cheesy holofilms. The only thing that would make it better would be Fives.

But that wasn’t going to happen.

There was a knock at your door and you quickly paused the movie, throwing the blanket off your lap, and jumping to your feet.

“Coming!” You called as you quickly headed for the door.

You opened the door and froze.

“Delivery.” Fives smiled at you and you blinked.

“Fives? What? How?” You stammered and he smiled as he gently pushed you inside your apartment, letting the door close behind him.

“Surprise leave. I wanted to comm you, but I figured surprising you might be fun.” He said with a twisted grin as he set down the bag of food. “Also I hope it was you who ordered from Dex’s because otherwise I just stole someone else’s food.”

Once his arms were clear, you threw yourself into them. Fives’ arms wrapped around you, trapping you against him as if he still couldn’t quite believe he was here.

“I’m so happy to see you.” You breathed against his ear, clawing yourself closer.

Fives took a deep breath, his face buried in the crook of your neck. “Me too.”

After a few moments of just holding each other, you reluctantly broke apart. Fives was quick to swoop down and kiss you soundly, making your toes curl.

Kriff you missed him.

Your stomach growled and Fives smiled against your lips before pulling back, resting his forehead against yours. “Come on, we have time for that later.”

The implication of his words caused your cheeks to burn, but he only looked smug. To avoid any teasing, you quickly disappeared into your small kitchen. Fives started taking off his armor as you dug around for silverware and rustling up something for Fives to drink.

Thankfully, you’d ordered an extra meal fully intending to eat it for lunch the next day. Maybe it was fate that kept you home and prepared you for Fives to surprise you.

The Force did work in mysterious ways.

Before you knew it, the two of you were curled up on your couch, buried under your blanket with food on your laps.

You had offered to change the holo, but Fives had waved you off, insisting he wanted to watch. You found yourself catching him up on what had already happened as you dug into your dinner. Fives’ legs were entangled with yours as you leaned into his side. As you watched, he offered his own commentary, cracking jokes that nearly had you choking on your food every time.

By the time the holo finished, both of you had finished eating, your take-out containers laying discarded on the small end table in front of the couch. You started another holofilm as Fives scooted even closer to you, his cheek resting against your shoulder.

As the holo played, Fives absentmindedly traced patterns across your hands. Every brush of his fingertips sent tingles up your arm and you found yourself focusing on him more than the holo. Which was probably exactly what he was going for.

Halfway through the holo, you felt Fives’ breathing even out. With a quick glance down at him, you saw that he was fast asleep. With a smile playing on your lips, you carefully slid out your arm from under him, letting his head rest against your chest. You slunk down further into the couch and wrapped your arm around his shoulders.

He sighed deeply against you when you began dragging your hand through his messy hair, his arms encircling you completely.

The holo ended and another one began as you felt your own eyes start to grow heavy.

And with the sound of the man you loved breathing beside you, you drifted off to sleep, knowing that it was moments like these you would cherish for the rest of your life.

#asks #askBri #arc trooper fives #fives x reader #arc trooper fives x reader #the clone wars #star wars the clone wars #tcw #sw:tcw #arc trooper fives/reader #fives/reader #clone x reader

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paragonrobits · 3 years

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A friend asked me to give a stab at a Tierlist Maker for Video Games Not Yet In the Video Game Hall of Fame Tier List Maker, so here's my list for it!

This is based primarily on what I considered to be overall value to gaming history as a whole, with games with greater influence or impact ranking higher than those that had less impact on those to follow, or on culture. All the entries are those that have been nominated to the Hall of Fame, but not actually inducted as of this post's writing. Games that I personally like are generally rated higher, though mostly because I'm more familiar with them and thus can judge their impact from a personal POV.

(Tier List explainations, below!)

SHOULD BE IN ALREADY

Final Fantasy: I mean seriously. How is this one not already in yet?? It is not, as my research suggests, the first true RPG; that likely goes to games like Ultima. It is certainly an incredibly influential one; FF is a name closely associated with JRPGs in general, and its diverse class system is one of the strongest things to do with it, as noted by challenges like beating the game with a party of Black Belts. FF is THE name of RPGs in general and I'm startled it hasn't made it in, though I suppose that's owing to more notable entries (Hard as that is to imagine). It doesn't hurt that the majority of my favorite FF titles are those most similar to this one, such as FF6 and FF9, in terms of approaching the general world setting and class systems. Most significantly is that this game popularized RPGs and made them accessible, in ways that previous games such as Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest did not; the field of gaming would be VERY different without it; RPGs became VERY popular, to the extent of RPG elements being almost universal among other games in the modern day. (I am also pleased and amused to see 8-Bit Theater mentioned on the actual Wikipedia page. Now THAT'S notability!)

Sid Meir's Civilization: HEY NOW HALL OF FAME JUDGES, DON'T YOU BE MOCKING CIV, ALRIGHT. CIV IS FUCKING AWESOME. Okay, jokes aside, I'm genuinely astonished as the Civ series is considered the first true main game of the 4x series, and it shows; the entire genre centers around expansion, resource usage and diplomacying or conquering your enemies, and considering the impact of this game and its sheer popularity, to the extent of the meme of the game getting people to play for Just One More Turn, I'm a bit disappointed that it's not already in the hall of fame. I also note that I am personally more familiar with the spin off Alpha Centauri, a sci fi variant, which is still one of my all time favorite games.

Half-Life: Given this game's popularity, to the point of its release alone consigning the likes of Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines to cult classic status and its engine spawning a whole THING with GMod and the usage of physics mechanics in FPS games, one thing of note is its use of scripted sequences; at the time, an unknown in most games of the time. There may be something to be said for how the entire game is spent as Gordon Freeman, behind his eyes, possibly engendering a lack of separation between self and character that would be later emphasized in games like Bioshock. It's influence on games cannot be denied, with publications using it as a bookend between eras of gaming. One consistent element of what seems to make this game so distinctive is its approach to storytelling, without simply imitating film techniques which don't always work well with gameplay.

Candy Crush: This is an example of something I don't personally play myself, or even like very much, but I'd be remiss to dismiss it out of hand. There's no denial that phone games are one of, if not THE biggest market of games in the here in now; if now in scale, certainly in quantity. You might call it the TF2 Hat Economy theory; people aren't spending BIG bucks, but they are spending a LOT of little bucks all the time. It proves that highly accessible games that are generally free to play, with optional purchases, are a legitimate means of game business, and this certainly revolutionized how games were seen by the money-makers.

Super Smash Bros Melee: I loved this game as a kid, but truth be told i have a bit of a love-hate relationship; i REALLY dislike the competitive community that has fixated hard on this game, so any thoughts on it will have a slight element of pause beforehand. Even so, I can't forget the thrilled delight I felt watching the trailer for this game in supermarkets for the first time as a kid. at a time when getting any new games at all was a HUGE deal in my family. So, there is a lot of feeling behind this one! Ultimately, I have to concede that while i have complicated feelings about this game, its worth noting that the vast majority of things that made Smash iconic, and influenced the competitive scene AND the games inspired by Smash AND shaped the course of the series going forwards, largely owe themselves to Melee in particular. 64 was far more slow paced, while Melee began the trend towards much more fast paced action (and while I doubt it's SPECIFIC to melee as a whole, it may have been a trend for the genre from then). Melee is STILL widely played, especially on the competitive scene, and this sort of longevity always bears evidence of notability.

Goldeneye 007: I have to admit that despite being a kid in the 90s, despite someone who put most of their time into gaming, and despite being someone whose favorite system at the time was the Nintendo 64, I mostly missed out on the trend of history by honestly not being that much into this game. I have to say that I DID play it, however; I just never managed to get past the first level or so. I have strong memories of triyng and failing to sneak around a snowy lair of some description; it wouldn't be until the mid-2000s, playing Deus Ex Human Revolution, that I got the hang of stealth. All the same, personal indifference really doesn't matter much because HOLY SHIT THIS GAME HAS SOME STAYING POWER. IT HAS INFLUENCE, FRIENDORITOS. Perhaps chiefly, at the time it was made, consoles were not considered viable platforms for first person shooters; Goldeneye revised that notion, and created a whole revolution in multiplayer and shooter games. We would later see the ultimate consequence of this in games like Halo, which further revolutionized the whole genre. Ironically, the stealth attributes I was so bad at were part of what made the game so unique! It's one of those games that may not have aged well, by modern standards, but its import to gaming as a whole goes a long, long way.

Guitar Hero: I expect this one might be a bit hard to justify, but on its own, this game is INCREDIBLY innovative, though its not entirely the first of its kind, having mechanics based on earlier games. The very first entry has a respectable library of 30 songs, which is impressive considered at the time it was made, its not likely people expected it to get as far as it did; bear in mind that the massive libraries of later games were the result of years of this game series being a massive steamroller of a franchise! At the time, this one was an unknown. It has an interesting history as being a successor of sorts to an arcade exclusive, and inspiring a genre of imitators and spiritual successors on its own; of great note is the sheer impact this game had. With so many of those successors, the increased value of liscened soundtracks, and the way the game's concept became so influential, its astounding this one isn't already on the hall of fame. (It's also very fun, but fun alone doesn't make for memorability, sad to say.)

DESERVES IT AT SOME POINT

Myst - an iconic and incredibly atmospheric puzzle game, I'm genuinely surprised that I haven't heard talk about this one in some respect; it bears note as a rare game with absolutely no conflict whatsoever. I actually rank this one on par with the 7th Guest in terms of atmospheric games, though their tones could not be more different. So why do I think this game deserves it at some point? It was an incredibly immersive and beautiful game, lacking in genuine danger or threat, encouraging the player to explore and tackle the puzzles of the game. This sort of open-ended lack of peril makes it an interesting precursor towards certain flavors of sandbox games around now. It's worth noting that it was a tremendous achievement, given technical limitations of things such as the CD-Rom it was stored on, maintaining a consistent experience, as well as tying narrative reasons into those very constraints. It has been compared to an art film; if so, it certainly is the sort that invited imitators and proved to be a great technical achievement.

Portal: PORTAL! What can I honestly say that hasn't already been said by other people? The amazing integration of a physics engine into innovative puzzle solving, combined with a slow burn sort of minimalist plot reveal concerning the AI proving itself to be a kind of reverse HAL 9000? This game got a HUGE number of memes back in the day, and I expect anyone reading this can probably reference a few. The cake thing, certainly, and its relevance to matters of deception. There is much discussion over the game's utility in academic circles, which is certainly quite notable, and for my part, I'm interested by the point that at first the game gives you a lot of hints towards what you're supposed to do, gradually making it less obvious for the player you're on your own entirely, using your experience with the game to get past the puzzles from there, and its excellent game design. Ultimately though, I place this below Half Life in hall of fame urgency, because while I probably like this one more, it doesn't have the same impact on other games, per say. (That's a lot of awards for it, though. Wowza.)

Resident Evil: Is it fair to call this one the major survival horror game of its era? No, because it's apparently the FIRST, or at least the first to be called such. It's certainly up there with shaping the genre as a whole, both its immediate predecessors and modern games. The flavor of a survival horror can even be judged about whether its close to Resident Evil's style of defending yourself with limited resources vs controlled helplessness. It's also worth pointing out that I quite like the restricted, cramped setting of the mansion, rather than an expansive city; Biohazard was a real return to form, even if its something I mostly watched through funny lets plays because OH NO ITS TOO SCARY I CANT WATCH.

Asteroids: It's called the first major hit of the golden age of the arcade. I'm forced to say... yeah, it absolutely deserves it. The actual implementation and hardware of the game makes for interesting reading, and so its innovative nature ought to be noted: it lacked a soundchip at all, making use of handmade circuits wired to the board. It's reception was great, beating out Space Invaders and needing larger boxes just to hold all the money people spent on it. It also invented the notion of tracking initials on the top ten score, which has implications for arcade challenges.

Ms. Pac Man: This one consistently ranks HIGH in gaming records of its time, though there is admittedly some confusion to whether it or Donkey Kong was a better seller. Interestingly it appears to shape most of the gameplay mechanics people remember most for Pac-Man, such as the improved AI of the ghosts. It's more highly regarded than the original game, and on a personal note, I remember being a kid and seeing this arcade machine at ALL the laundry places my family usually wound up going to.

Frogger: It's placing on this list is not solely because CUTE FROG. The accessibility and wide appeal of the game bears a great deal of consideration, the flexibility of its formula, and just how many dang times it's been ported in one form or another. (And also, cute frog.) It also gets points for the creator being inspired for the game when he saw a frog trying to cross a road, hampered by the vehicles in the way, and he got out of his car and carried the frog across the street. The game is also evident of broad appeal, and some money-makers resisting it, goes back a long way; it was apparently dismissed as a kid's game by some, which just goes to show that some problems are older than quite a lot of gamers alive today.

Uncharted 2: this is one of those games where I cannot honestly say I have personal experience to draw from. Of the playstation's big games, I remember the Jak and Daxter series; I remember Kingdom Hearts, and I remember Ratchet and Clank, and I remember Infamous, but the Uncharted series remains

something of a 'I don't go here?' obscurity in my personal playbook. It does look memorable and charming from what I've seen, and one consistent element I've seen in comments about it is the cinematic nature of the game; it feels very much like a fun heist movie, based on what I have seen of it, and the notable thing is how the game FEELS cinematic.. in a literal way. As in, it combined elements of cinematography with game design, and that's no mean feat: what works for movies are unlikely to translate well to the interactive side, and it shows how that can be done for other games. The extensive praise does the game a LOT of credit!

WORTH NOMINATION AT LEAST

Angry Birds: As noted before, I'm not the biggest fan of most phone games, given that i prefer a more passive experience than most provide. As such, Angry Birds isn't something I've played as of this writing, but I have to appreciate the straightforward and simple gameplay; it reminds me a bit of the Burrito Bison game series, which I HAVE played, and I'm going to go out on a limb and assume it's because Angry Birds is probably the innovation that coined that particular style of gameplay. It's an example of what made phone games profitable and worth the time of developers to work at them; its easy for casual players to get into, and there's a fun sort of impact involved. Given the popularity of phone games, this one has a LOT of influence in getting that rolling, similar to candy crush, if not as much.

FIFA International Soccer: Simulation games are a tricky business; it can be really difficult to get them right, and this game provides an example of it being done in a way that a lot of people REALLY loved, set up an entire game series, and revived the 3DO system after a very bad year. Of note, apparently it was commented that it was more of a simulator than a console game, and this is rather funny considering how simulator is its own genre nowadays! Such do things change. It seems to have been a revolutionary game and simulation; setting the shape for modern sport games of its type, and tending more towards realism (accounting for acceptable breaks in reality) than was typical of the time. This one's position is thus picked for its impact as a whole; while it may not necessarily be a household name now, the series continues on, and is popular enough that even after 20 years, it's still been going.

Elite: I nominate this game in this position for being a startlingly early entry into what we would now consider open-ended games, even with an element of exploration and trading; if one stretches definitions a bit, a precursor towards gameplay of the like scene in 4X players who strive to avoid conflict, if possible. Its technical breakthroughs are some very interesting reading and make for good game history; a vast and complex game (not just by the standards of the era, either), and opening the door for persistent world games such as World of Warcraft.

Wii Sports: A significant game, and much as how other titles mentioned above were famed for gateway entries into gaming for an unfamiliar audience, or those that would want o play on a more casual basis. It seems notable to me for being most suited as a family game, or a more casual experience of multiplayer than usually associated with games like this; this has greatly influenced Nintendo's design philosophy, and one can see elements of this all the way through the Wii U onwards. It's essentially a fliparound from Mario Party; less competitiveness, but definitely meant as a group thing. Controversy is evident, because like with Mario Party, injuries did result from it.

Call of Duty: I place this one here because, while it DOES hold a very significant role in gaming history, with countless imitators, spiritual successors, being a game-changer in ways that its modern reputation might surprise you with, ultimately it is less so than other games such as Goldeneye, Halo or Half-Life. It's development in AI pathfinding and tactics is incredibly noteworthy from a mechanical perpsective, and the sheer level of awards it won is notable. In the end this game's popularity and continuing influence means that it shouldn't be overlooked.

Metroid: You can't spell 'Metroidvania' without this game! A relatively open ended exploration-based game with further options opening as new tools were found give it an interesting vibe, and the oppressive atmosphere distinctive to the game says great things about its sound and level designs. It wasn't the first open world game, or explorer, or even the first to open new aereas based on equipment, but it had ALL of these elements in a very memorable package. (Samus Aran as a female protagonist is something I'm a bit reluctant to give it credit for, as her identity was obfuscated for most of the game, and only revealed in a fanservicey way in a secret ending. All the same, credit where it is due, I suppose!) It's music seems to endure as a mood setter, too!

Pole Position: Perhaps not the FIRST racing game, but still considered one of the most important from the golden age of gaming, and the one to codify many of the firm rules of the game series. It's three dimensional gameplay is incredibly innovative for its time, and having played it and games like it in the past, I'm struck by how smooth the whole thing feels. No wonder it was popular! It is notable for having been designed specifically as a 3d Experience, meant to execute techniques like real drivers might attempt, which makes it a different sort of beast in that it tried to do more realistic actions; in some ways, a precursor to modern trends of realism in many games, for ill or best. Ultimately I think this one is worth a nomination because of its influence towards racing games (a popular and long lived genre, to say the least) as a whole.

OUTSIDE CHANCE

Nurburgring 1: On the one hand, I feel a bit guilty putting this one so low; it is recognized as likely being the earliest racing game in history, and given that I just finished noting Pole Position's influence, it feels a bit mean to rate this one as relatively insignificant all the same. However, in terms of notability, I never even heard of this one, and it was tricky finding information about it. Accordingly, that may say something about its influence, though this position DOES make it noteworthy as the first of its kind, albeit with Pole Position refining and introducing elements that shaped the genre.

Dance Dance Revolution: It feels a bit strange, putting this one fairly low. This thing was a MONSTER back in the day; entire arcades were built around the dancing control peripherals it required, rhythm based games or mechanics specifically invoked it by name, and it was an absolute cultural touchstone for years and years. So, why place it low? Partly, its because I can't just shove EVERYTHING into the 'deserves a nomination' folder; I do think it's fairly reasonable for this one to at some point get a nomination in the future, though ultimately there's games more noteworthy on the whole. It's specific rhythm qualities continue outside of its genre, and are quite influential to gaming as a whole, though unfortunately the series seems to have lost something in notability over time; popularity is a factor, but so is the impact on other games.

NBA 2K and NBA Jam: I put these two together because they touch on similar touchstones for me, and they really did popularize basketball games back in the day. Jam in particular seems to be invoking the Big Head mode that were a big thing in games at the time, at least going from the screenshot. They were very popular and highly beloved games back in the day, though I don't know if they have much influence on later games. I note that interestingly, they take opposite approaches; 2k focuses on AI and realistic experiences, while Jam was deliberately less realistic and more actiony in its over the top gameplay.

Nokia Snake: This one really impresses me for the sheer number of releases, in various forms, it's had! Interestingly, there seems to be little consensus on the name of this game; most just call it Snake or something on that theme. I went with Nokia Snake because... mostly, it sounds funny, and that's how its done on the list. This one is fairly low, but I Have to give it credit for having hundreds of releases!

Farmville: My mom liked Facebook games, a lot. And I am certain this one was one of her main ones! I rate it fairly low, and no doubt her spirit is yelling imprecations at me across the void of time, space, and abandoned socks; all the same, this one is ranked low because of the sheer number of displeasure aimed this one's way. (And to be fair, she complained about it. A LOT.) It is thus notable for unusually negative reasons; an example of exploitation, pressuring players to pester their friends to play it in an equivalent to electronic chain mail, and microtranscations.

Tron: I'm inclined to give any game that takes place in a computer land and uses programming or mechanical terminology a free pass! Interestingly, this has some association with the Snake game, as they have similar gameplay and Snake games are sometimes called Light Cylce games, after this one. It has an interesting history; the graphical system was chosen largely because it was believed it was more likely to be achieved before the deadline.

NO BUSINESS IN THE HALL OF FAME

Mattel Football: I do feel a little mean putting anything in this category; firstly because I don't want to make actual fans of something sad, and secondly because I believe you can probably find notability anywhere you look, if you are inclined. And here is the chief difficulty with this one: I could not find any real information in this one. It has no Wikipedia page, a google search only led to undescriptive links of SALES for the game, but not any information on the game itself. Notability is my main resource for sorting these entries, and honestly? If google has nothing on you, that's a pretty poor sign. Sorry, Mattel Football, but you look like a poor man's Game And Watch. You're no Portal, Myst or Pole Position.

#tier lists #tiermaker lists

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dmsden · 4 years

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Campaign Sorcery - Music

Hullo, Gentle Readers. Welcome to the first article in our Campaign Sorcery series. These articles are going to illustrate some tricks and tips to making a campaign just a tiny touch more epic and memorable for your players. This week, I’m using one that has become absolutely essential for my games - music.

I’ve been using music almost as long as I can remember to enhance my games. Back in my 1st and 2nd edition days, I had mix tapes that I created for themes like “Battle”, “Travel”, “Dungeon Delving” and so on. The frustrating bit was that you had to bring a large number of cassette tapes and a player with you if you wanted to play anywhere other than home. As technology has advanced, however, I’ve been able to move on to playlists that I can access pretty much anywhere.

So how do you get music into your games? Well, that depends on how you’re playing. Roll20, for example, actually has a playlist feature built right into it, along with a decent little library of music that you could use to enhance your games. You can create a different playlist for each “room” that you create, or have them all draw from a central one. I’ve only recently begun experimenting with this, but I’ve found it very easy to use. I haven’t used other virtual tabletops, but I would be surprised if they didn’t offer some of this versatility as well.

If you’re playing on person, then your options expand quite a bit. Normally, I run my games with my iPad cued up to my Apple Music and plugged into my surround-sound speakers. I’ve created numerous playlists for various genres of games. If I’m running D&D, the soundtrack tends to lean into epic fantasy. If I’m running Tales from the Loop, then I move to my 1980s music. For Call of Cthulhu, I have a combination of 1920s and 30s popular music and horror themed lists. If I start a new game, I spend some prep time creating new playlists, and I find it fun to do so.

If you’re not an Apple Music subscriber, you could also use Amazon Music, iTunes, Spotify, or any number of other alternatives. If you *are* an Amazon Music subscriber, here’s a nice freebie for you. You can search for me (Andrew French/@Aethan) in the profiles section. You can then add the playlists I’ve already created to your library and use them for your own games. You’re welcome. :)

If you need to create your own playlists, you might ask yourself, “What should I use?” I think this depends more on taste than anything else. I have found that I prefer music without lyrics, except in very specific circumstances, so I use a lot of movie soundtracks, game soundtracks, and early instrumental music. For example, my playlists contain things like the game soundtracks to Dante’s Inferno, Dragon Age, and Myst, the movie soundtrack to Titus, The Lord of the Rings movies, and the Dungeons & Dragons movie (one of the only decent things about it), an album called Lute Music for Witches and Alchemists, and music by bands like Dronolan’s Tower and Nox Arcana that specifically make soundtrack-like music for atmospheres.

As you make your playlist, I recommend listening to each track and thinking about the mood that it evokes. Is it too recognizable? I have left out a lot of music from, for example, Lord of the Rings or Pirates of the Caribbean, because a particular theme is too obvious and could be jarring to hear. Also, does the whole track evoke the mood you want? A lot of movie soundtrack tracks change mood mid-song because of a shift in the scene. You don’t want to have something light and idyllic suddenly turn to horror as you’re describing a country market...unless that’s exactly what you want, which brings me to my next point.

You can use specific tracks to set up specific scenes, characters, and monsters. For example, one of the PCs had a romantic relationship earlier in the campaign, so the NPC he was involved with got her own theme. Likewise, the Tarrasque, which is hugely important in my campaign, has its own theme. I have a separate playlist explicitly for themes that I only play once. When the PCs encounter that creature, NPC, etc, I simply put that track on loop until it’s time to move on. Likewise, the campaign itself has a theme. The piece of music called “Our Purpose” from the mini-series of Pillars of the Earth is the perfect length for me to get my players settled and do my recap of the session before. It has the right feeling of gravitas and growing menace, complete with ringing cathedral bells at the song’s climax. Sometimes I hear a piece of music and think, “That will make a good theme.” I add it to my Themes folder until I find the right use for it, and I make sure the PCs hear it when the situation that warrants it comes into play.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this article. Next time, I intend to discuss a related topic - sound effects. Until then, may the dice fall ever in your favor.

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alpaca-writes · 3 years

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Mystics, Chapter 32

Arch becomes hired on at Mystics by the strange shopkeeper Lyrem Nomadus, and everything seems to be going well. In fact, their life nearly becomes perfection; no more bullies, better grades, and a lot less stress. Soon enough, however, Arch realizes that perhaps not everything is as perfect as it seems and that Lyrem has been hiding a very dark, and troubling secret…

Oooh I have to say I’m pretty proud of this chapter. I had to wrestle with a thousand and one plot-holes to make it work and it’s almost 2:30am but it was all worth it. Enjoy!

MasterList

Taglist: @myst-in-the-mirror & @livingforthewhump

CW: Gore, body horror, creepy whumper, swearing, there’s one bad pun this time. I lol’d about it for arguably too long.

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CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO: CURTAINS

Paimon whistled an old tune through his lips as he stepped across the hall. The knives had been placed away, and in speaking with Apollo, he had come to a startling revelation about himself and his goals.

It was Arthur’s turn to be strapped down to the table and this time, it wouldn’t be in a dining hall. Before long, Paimon had the room transformed into a stage, with dining chairs to line the one and only audience row. There was no need for a large gathering. Paimon had a very limited guest list. He had sent invitations with some poorly thought puns just for the fun of it, and had no intention of being stood up. This would be a performance of a lifetime and as director, Paimon wouldn’t dare to have a single aspect go awry.

He clucked his hooves down the darkest hallway by-passing Apollo’s chamber for the one with the two sorry humans. It seemed they were cut off from a sour discussion when they heard his steps through the corridor.

“-it really shouldn’t take too much effort”-

“How would you know?” Lyrem hissed.

Paimon smiled, glad that the two prisoners were making nice with each other.

“Big plans, my boys?” he sauntered through, making eye contact with Arthur, who rolled his eyes away from the creature to avoid looking at him fully. “No? Not a fishing trip or some good old mountaineering? I hear Colorado is gorgeous this time of year.”

Paimon tapped a chain with a fingernail to produce a clinking sound near Arthur’s wrist. The chains began lowering themselves down at the behest of an invisible, magical force. The moment he had slack, Arthur wrapped a loop of chain around Paimon’s neck and pulled it taut against his forearm. He had the upper hand, and there was nothing that Paimon could do to affect him.

“Agree to let Arch out of this deal right now, you”-

Paimon grinned and vanished into a plume of black smoke. Arthur stumbled from the release of pressure against the beast.

Paimon stalked up behind him, enjoying the little act of defiance, but he had to be stern. He wagged a finger at the human and tutted.

“You know better than that,” Paimon exclaimed. “I may not be able to hurt you with magic, but I can certainly still use it to get myself out of a sticky situation.”

He kept himself to a distance as not to get tied up twice, and glanced toward Lyrem, who seemed to be keeping to himself and was intentionally avoiding eye contact by turning his head away.

“So emotional… Don’t worry old friend, you’ll get your chance as well,” Paimon noted. He returned to Arthur with a renewed interest in his eyes. “Now, you listen. We have quite the performance ahead of us and you’re already busted up enough as it is. I don’t want to make it any worse. That’s for Arch to do.”

Arthur glanced from Paimon to his way out into the hall and then back again.

“Clear terms,” Arthur began, “Arch is given five minutes to carve out my heart, and if they fail, they are free from all bonds, any agreements, including any signed ones they had with you. And if you use even one ounce of your power to force them”-

Paimon nodded, “I don’t know why you need to specify it, Arty, truly. Arch will do splendidly and you’ll never see the light of day again. It’s a winning situation all around.”

“If you try to force them into doing anything at all,” Arthur insisted. “Then Arch is released, agreed?”

Paimon scoffed, and nodded, “Agreed! For goodness sakes, were you a lawyer in a past life? Clearly not, I think. The lawyers I know wouldn’t come to an agreement like this unless it was in writing- they’d also think of themselves first. Do you have any clue what will happen to you, Arty? What will become of you if Arch is released?”

As Paimon rambled, he tapped the shackles again, and this time with severe discipline, Arthur refrained from trying to strike at Paimon a second time. His shackles were joined now; morphed from a joint in the wall to linking together from his wrists and his ankles with hardly a sound to it.

“I don’t care what happens to me,” Arthur declared, “as long as Arch is free from you.”

“Such a sweet thing, caring about your Arch so much. I doubt that feeling will last for very much longer.” Paimon ushered Arthur forward. He was unable to teleport him anyway. The Abysmal Flame prevented Arthur from being controlled by any force placed upon him that was not physical in nature. “Move along now, we don’t have all day. Our guests will be arriving shortly.”

With a final glance to Lyrem from across the room, Arthur followed Paimon out the door and through the halls.

The hall lit itself as Paimon took his hoof-steps through, avoiding the empty souls lurking between shadowed pillars. Arthur moved slowly, feeling tired and sick from his lacking energy.

“What guests?” Arthur inquired.

“Did I not tell you earlier that it was a performance? I invited several guests to have front row seats… my uncle Hades, my half-sister, and oh, of course, your dear sister Charlotte as well.”

Arthur’s blood ran frigid. The tense, shaky breath that followed made Paimon smirk with delight.

“Ah yes, I’ll be sure she is there to watch her child to carve out the heart of her dear little brother. I couldn’t pass up that opportunity.”

“But you’re also releasing Hades? And Persephone?” Arthur asked with a puzzled look as they ascended the stairs.

“You mistake me for a fool?” Paimon challenged. “They will be bound to obeying me and my laws the moment they enter through the door I’ve created for them. Don’t think they’ll be there to do anything more than watch you suffer.”

Paimon led Arthur up to a small door that opened to the dining hall- now a stage with some seating and a table for Arthur to lie on.

Arthur stood at the head of the table as Paimon motioned for him to climb up. Shaking his head regretfully, he pulled his hand from his pocket, hoisted himself up and spun onto its surface. His chains were tapped again, and obeyed Paimon perfectly. They fastened themselves into the table until Arthur’s arms were taut to his side and his hands had just a little wiggle room near his hips.

Arthur stared up at the satyr, feeling more vulnerable than he ever did before, and watched Paimon lean over eagerly. His pointed beard draped across Arthur’s shoulder and touched the tabletop.

“This is a good look for you,” he mentioned with a deadly grin.

Feeling humble, Arthur looked away, seeing the chairs that would soon be filled with spectators; one of which would be his sister. Suddenly, he wasn’t so concerned for himself anymore.

“Don’t make Charlotte watch.”

“Hmm?”

Arthur blinked slowly, knowing that Paimon had heard him clear as day and yet pretended not to. This was all part of the fun. There was no point in repeating himself.

From the back wall, behind the chairs, a bright light glowed where three outlines stood, waiting to make their entrance.

“Ah, here they come.” Paimon smiled and offered Arthur a wink. “Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?”

--------------------------------------

Earlier,

“What are you trying to do?”

“I’m trying to create another portal.”

Lyrem sighed. Arthur’s efforts were admirable at least.

“The chains will prevent you from crossing through,” he said. “Besides, I’ve already explained to you once that the only way out of this is to go through with the deal you made”-

“I’m not trying to make a portal for me,” Arthur spoke exasperated. “I’m trying to create one for you. I know how these things go down, alright? You get into a deal with someone and then they change the rules, they raise the price because they know what you need from them. Once Arch is out of their deal, Paimon will use them against me. Arch might end up back at square one if we don’t have a significant amount of leverage.”

“Life as a junkie has certainly prepared you for this moment, hasn’t it?”

Arthur stared at the old man incredulously at the sudden unloading of baggage, and shook his head.

“My apologies” Lyrem corrected himself and cleared his throat. “You hope to release me, which won’t work, and then expect me to… do what?”

“Release Apollo. Find your friend Hekate… I assume you are resourceful enough to figure something out so that we can finally end this nightmare. It really shouldn’t take too much effort.”

“How would you know?” Lyrem hissed.

Falling to a sudden silence, Lyrem made a quick glance to Arthur as Paimon entered. Paimon addressed Arthur first.

Arthur was in no condition to create portals. Lyrem could see that he was in pain enough already as it was, but even so, Arthur’s eyes locked with his for the briefest of seconds when the chains became loose. Arthur had directed his eyes to Lyrem and then nodded toward his left hand.

The smallest of voids had formed behind his hand and into the metal piece that held his wrist up. Before Paimon could pay any significant attention to Lyrem, Arthur had wrapped a chain around his neck and started to threaten him.

Perhaps Lyrem had misjudged Arthur’s capacity to be clever, but it was still only one small portal; a gap in space and time where his wrist could pass through. It wasn’t quite enough to set Lyrem free; not yet, anyhow. Lyrem took the distraction as an opportunity to recite a mantra respecting the sacred geometry; one that would hopefully allow him to multiply one portal into four.

“Ek mein do, do mein chaar,” he whispered. The power flowed through him like water; out of earshot from Paimon, who hadn’t even realized that Lyrem was reciting ancient magic that no one had any claim over.

“So emotional… Don’t worry old friend, you’ll get your chance as well.”

Lyrem ignored Paimon’s words, still concentrating on himself instead. Soon, the other two exited the room, and Lyrem recited his words one final time before falling completely forward onto his hands and knees.

“Even as a dead man, I still feel pain,” he muttered bitterly. “How is that fair?”

He grunted, lifting himself to his feet and turned around, noticing the shackles were still intact and the voids still existing on their metal cuffs. In a spark of light, the four voids collapsed into themselves and left nothing behind.

“Must learn how to do that one day…” Remembering the task at hand, he rubbed his hands together and made his way through to the hall. “Now, to find our… leverage.”

Paimon and Arthur were gone from the hall, and it was left in darkness. The decrepit beings that roamed the halls there ignored him as he followed the corridor down to where he knew Apollo would be kept as a prisoner. The light still poured from beneath, leaking out into the hall. Lyrem took a quick glance from side to side and opened the door.

Lyrem forced himself forward towards the Sun God with his eyes squinting through the brightness. The light dimmed as the god awoke, exhausted from his half-brother’s brief visit. Lyrem started on one of the shackles holding Apollo in place around a wrist but realized soon that they were clearly the same as the ones he had only just escaped from, one room over and wouldn’t be able to get through them without help.

“Shit,” Lyrem muttered. Apollo did not look surprised or like he cared.

“Controlled by Pan, for Pan, I’m afraid,” he managed. “Did you, a silly little mortal, really believe that you could release me? There was a good reason why I sent that call through to you. I wanted to reach Persephone, or Hades.

You are useless.”

Lyrem backed off from Apollo, put on edge from the insulting remark.

“I’ll have you know I contained a great amount of magical prowess before I met your brother! Now, help me find a way to release you before”-

Apollo chuckled tiredly.

“What? What is so funny?”

“You,” Apollo answered. “You are a fool! The reason I am here at all is because Pan convinced you to tear out your father’s heart. I couldn’t give him what he wanted when I lost. I bet on the wrong horse’s conscience, didn’t I? And now, you are here, trying to right all the wrong you’ve done at the behest of Pan and oh… it just makes me laugh. It’s practically poetry.”

“Well, then,” Lyrem didn’t have time to explain himself, nor should he have to at all. His life was just laid out before him once again as a used chew toy on the ground. Now Apollo was the one judging him for his decisions. Lyrem looked to Apollo’s chest that was opened and bore a golden heart, still pumping. It was the source of the light. Paimon had left the clamp on to hold the gaping wound open. Lyrem touched the metal handle, and jolted back as it was very hot- as though it had been sitting in the heat of a flame. He quickly soothed his hand, weaved a protection spell through his fingers and promptly tried a second time. He gripped it, loosened the bar, and pulled.

Apollo screamed. The release of his wound was more painful than either of them had expected it to be. Lyrem tossed the metal bar to the ground and raised a brow. The light faded more and more as the wound healed over in record time.

“How was that?” Lyrem sniffed, wiping the golden blood off of his hands and onto his pant leg. “Was that a good enough deed for you? Or should I have torn your heart out for fun? Believe it or not, I am capable of making rational decisions- even those where my dear dad was involved. If you had known him, you’d have ripped him apart too.”

Apollo had no choice but to listen to Lyrem as his body recovered quite painfully.

“Maria once told me that I was too passionate- too emotional for her. I tried to rectify that, in order to please her, to please Pan, and everyone else I had come across in life thinking that I was always doing something wrong. But, I see now, emotional is part of who I am. Doing things out of emotion does not make me any less rational- on the contrary I believe it has made me much more productive.” Lyrem stopped speaking as Apollo met his eyes. “You’re welcome, by the way.”

The god exhaled, thankful that his chest had closed up completely. The light in the room had gone out, leaving the ambient glow of the bulbs along the wall. Lyrem stood along the ledge, searching for any portion of chain that might be weak enough to sever. There wasn’t. If Lyrem remembered correctly, Paimon had once boasted about acquiring them from Ares, the God of War and he wasn’t anything, if not particular about securing prisoners. But Ares hadn’t met Lyrem Nomadus, and Lyrem Nomadus wasn’t planning to leave Apollo chained up in the basement of the Underworld without trying a few tricks of his own. Unbound by the chains and without Paimon around to interfere, Lyrem was much handier than any god would expect. The chains began to lower, releasing slack to Apollo until his bare feet rested on the floor.

“How are you doing that?” Apollo asked. He turned his head. Lyrem hadn’t done visibly, anything to warrant the lowering chains. Their lengths clinked to the floor.

“A calming chant, a song of innocence- although…”

“What?” Apollo asked, impatient in Lyrem’s pause. The cuffs hadn’t released.

“To release you, would mean you would have to give Paimon what he was owed,” Lyrem said. “What do you owe to him?”

Apollo grunted, “he doesn’t deserve what I owe him. Not after everything he has done to our family and to me.”

Lyrem raised a brow in mild confusion, “then why stick by his side? Why play his games at all?”

“Because I care about him,” he growled back. “Like an idiot. I humored him because I felt like I had to- like I could make him better if I gave him my attention. He’s my family, and one of my closest kin. And… He’s a lost cause.”

Out of habit, Lyrem reached for his stopwatch, which had been destroyed long ago, just to see how much time had passed them by. Such an indication only told him that they would be running out of time soon enough.

Arch would be carving into Arthur at any moment now.

“What did Paimon want?”

“He wanted a Sun for his realm, the Labyrinth.”

“Give it to him.” Lyrem ordered. “And when he goes back, you will lock him in. Can you manage that?”

“Lock my brother in his own realm?” Apollo looked skeptical, but nodded. “I’ll do what I can. But truthfully, there is no guarantee”-

“And we’ll have to remove one of the Labyrinth’s inhabitants first. A little girl. Maybe a year old,” Lyrem added.

“There is a child in the Labyrinth? Why?” Concerned, Apollo watched Lyrem gulp slightly.

“I’d rather not say.” Lyrem gestured for Apollo to open a door to the Labyrinth. “But you could take her out of there, couldn’t you? And she would be… fine?”

“I believe so,” Apollo pushed his hands together in concentration, and then pulled them apart until a void grew in front of them. “Once the Sun is delivered there, I should be able to remove her quite easily.”

“Good, good…” Lyrem muttered. “Well? What are you waiting for? Give him the Su”-

They were no longer in the basement area. Instead, Lyrem was seated in a chair from the dining hall and staring out at a familiar set of faces. One was on the table, trying to speak to the shorter one standing over them with a jeweled blade; Arthur was pleading with them to listen- to hear them. But Arch was in the middle of a sweet guitar lick and couldn’t hear anything happening, even if it was only a foot or two away. They were waiting to the next song before they started their five-minute carving challenge, just as Paimon asked them to. Charlotte sat beside him on one side and beyond her, Persephone and Hades. All watched on, not paying mind to Lyrem and Apollo’s sudden arrival. Paimon found his own seat between Lyrem and Apollo and sat himself down.

He chuckled looking from one disappointed face to the other and handed each of them a pamphlet. Grinning, he patted both of them on the shoulder.

“Glad you both could make opening night.”

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lifeofmysteries · 3 years

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Fic Writer Interview

Thank you for the tag @jajalala! I love any chance to ramble about my fics slkdfjkase i am too online and v bored

Names: Dreamofmysteries/LifeOfMystery are my usernames, but ppl tend to call me either Eevee or Myst.

Fandoms: My Hero Academia is the one I write exclusively for at the mo but I read in the MCU, Miraculous Ladybug, Young Justice (Cartoon), Doctor Who, Batman and Avatar.

Where you post: AO3, used to post on FFN and Wattpad (i know it's cursedddd but i was youth *shrug*)

Most Popular One-Shot (by kudos): 'What is a brother if not a fatal annoyance'

This was a gift from a prompt by SpiritusRex (secret identity or mistaken identity) and I just went immediately for DFO, but with a twist. I'm just a sucker for big brother Shigaraki lol. I don't know why this one of all my oneshots is the most kudosed?? I guess it just hit a lot of the right targets, mistaken identity and crack being a fun thing people like. Personally I think it's alright, I wrote it half-tired (as most of my crack is written half-tired lol) but ppl seem to like that???

Most Popular Multi-chap (by kudos): 'you can't help the things your heart longs for'

This is my longest fic, still ongoing. A kind of weird DFO set up where Izuku is dragged unwillingly into a parallel universe where he's in the place of Shigaraki, but also sort of not that because the whole universe is made from the combination of DFO and Izuku's desires, and the fic goes through Izuku finding his place in this world and the complications that come from this being made of their desires. I swear this fic is going to be the death of me, I love it so but why did I have to make it soo complicated for myself, *stares at outline* also Dabi and Hawks kinda shoved their way in there and I have to keep batting off the Dabihawks with a stick *it's staying gen goddamnit i made a promise I wouldn't put romance in this*. I think it's the most popular because it has a premise that is kind of different, and has DFO, while also not being too angsty.

Favourite Story I've Written: 'Dekunubou'

I just love Ella Enchanted AU's so I was wanting to write one a whileeeeee. I just love the horror type aspect of this type of the quirk being taken to the extreme, the complete stripping of agency and objectification of Izuku. Also figuring out how to beat it was fun, with the moment when Katsuki figures out how to use the quirk for his own benefit by (technically) joining the LOV being one of the first things I thought of for this.

Fic You Were Nervous to Post: 'A Whisper of a Dream'

Uhhh the tags itself may be self-explanatory... "Torture" "Mouth Sewn Shut" "Needles", Idk I'm just drawn to writing heavy angst and this was the first one of those so I was scared ppl might think it too much? After posting this one, I've gotten less nervous about what I write as I saw ppl didn't rlly care, and some actually liked it. So freedom in going wild, I guess lol.

How do you choose your titles: Either song lyrics or I get a friend to help me come up with it. I'm awful at titles. Every one is a quote from somewhere.

Do you outline? I do for my longfics, I don't for oneshots. I find them sooo useful for longfics as I struggle so hard without them (which is why YCH hasn't been updated in so long, I'm in the bit that was outlined less strongly). I sincerely recommend them to anyone trying to write longfics!

Complete: Only like 12% of my fics are incomplete, so I'm pretty proud of that. None of them have been dropped except for the two non-bnha ones because I cannot concentrate on anything past my current hyper-focus rofl.

In Progress: You Can't Help, Twisted Soul are the two major longfics I'm working on rn, I'm trying to finish Twisted before I start writing a lot for YCH, so YCH may take a while to get regular updates again. Sorry for anyone that's more interested in that fic lol.

Coming soon: Ahh I have too many one shots that i start, write 500 words for and just leave... but my current WIPS take priority. Oo but one that should be posted soon is one where Shouto is sent to a different universe to see a Villain version of himself to see what he could have become without the support of ppl like Midoriya.

Not started: Oof. Too many ideas. Some day i will write a proper Dbhwks long fic. Oo also one where Shinsou reluctantly becomes a villain. Another one which is like Into the Spiderverse but with Villain au's for class 1-a. I will get to them someday. Just not today. Rn is DFO brainrot rofl.

Upcoming Work You're Most Excited About: Wip wise, I'm really excited for what I've got coming up for Twisted Soul. It's probably my angstiest fic because i am just too mean to Midoriya. Really, someone should take him away from me. Far far away.

No Pressure Tags: Jaja got most of the people I would tag, so umm @thanks-butt-no-thanks i knoww you don't answer tags but for me??? maybe??? @firebirdnix @starcloud-nova uhh I think that's all my fic writing mutuals lo who haven't been tagged yet. Anyone else who sees this and wants to do it go ahead! I would love to see your answers!

#tag game #fic #mine #my fic

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ducktastic · 4 years

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2020 Gameological Awards

Over on the Gameological Discord, we have an annual tradition of writing up our games of the year not as a ranked list but rather as answers to a series of prompts. Here are my personal choices for the year that was 2020.

Favorite Game of the Year

I didn’t know what to expect when I walked into Paradise Killer. I knew that I liked the vaporwave resort aesthetic from the game’s trailer and figured I was in for a Danganronpa-style murder mystery visual novel with an open-ended murder mystery at its core. Those assumptions were… half-right? The game definitely plays out like the exploration bits of Danganronpa set on the island from Myst but with far simpler puzzles. What I didn’t expect was to fall so deeply in love with the environment—its nooks and crannies, its millennia of lore, its brutalist overlap of idol worship, consumerism, and mass slaughter. It makes sense that the world of Paradise Killer is its strongest feature, since the cast of NPCs don’t really move around, leaving you alone with the world for the overwhelming majority of your experience as you bounce back and forth between digging around for clues and interrogating potential witnesses. And despite what the promo materials indicated, there IS a definitive solution to the crimes you’re brought in to investigate, the game just lets you make judgment based on whatever evidence you have at the time you’re ready to call it a day, so if you’re missing crucial evidence you might just make a compelling enough case for the wrong person and condemn them to eternal nonexistence. Am I happy with the truth at the end of the day? No, and neither is anybody else I’ve spoken to who completed the game, but we all were also completely enthralled the entire time and our dissatisfaction has less to do with the game and more to do with the ugly reality of humanity. I’ve always been of the mindset that “spoilers” are absolute garbage and that a story should be just as good whether you know the twist or not and any story that relies on surprising the audience with an unexpected reveal is not actually that good a story, but Paradise Killer is a game about piecing together your own version of events so I feel that it’s vital to the gameplay experience that people go in knowing as little as possible and gush all about it afterwards. Just trust me, if the game looks even remotely intriguing to you, go for it. I’ve had just as much fun talking about the game after I finished it with friends just getting started as I did actually solving its mysteries myself.

Best Single Player Game

I honestly missed out on the buzz for In Other Waters at launch, so I’m happy I had friends online talking it up as Black Friday sales were coming along. The minimal aesthetic of his underwater exploration game allows the focus to shift more naturally to the game’s stellar writing as a lone scientist goes off in search of her mentor and the secrets they were hiding on an alien world. It only took a few hours for me to become completely absorbed in this narrative and keep pushing forward into increasingly dangerous waters. In Other Waters might just be the best sci-fi story I experienced all year and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys sci-fi novels, regardless of their experience with video games.

Best Multiplayer Game

Look, we all know this year sucked. 2020 will absolutely be chronicled in history books as a fascinating and deeply depressing time in modern history where we all stayed inside by ourselves and missed our friends and family. It was lonely and it was bleak. Which is why it made my heart glow so much more warmly every time I got a letter from an honest-to-goodness real-life friend in Animal Crossing New Horizons. Knowing that they were playing the same game I was and hearing about their experiences and sending each other wacky hats or furniture, it lightened the days and made us feel that little bit more connected. Sure, when the game first launched we would actually take the time to visit one another’s islands, hang out, chat in real-time, and exchange gifts, but we all eventually got busy with Zoom calls, sourdough starters, and watching Birds of Prey twenty-two times. Still, sending letters was enough. It was and still is a touching little way to show that we’re here for one another, if not at the exact same time.

Favorite Ongoing Game

Zach Gage is one of my favorite game designers right now, and when I heard he was releasing a game called Good Sudoku I was sold sight unseen. The game as released was… fine. It’s sudoku and it’s pleasant, but it was also buggy and overheated my phone in a way I hadn’t seen since Ridiculous Fishing (also by Zach Gage) seven years ago. Thankfully, the most glaring bugs have been fixed and I can now enjoy popping in every day for some quick logic puzzle goodness. Daily ranked leaderboards keep me coming back again and again, the steady ramp of difficulty in the arcade and eternal modes means I can always chase the next dopamine rush of solving increasingly complex puzzles. It’s not a traditional “ongoing” game the way, say, Fortnite and Destiny are, but I’m happy to come back every day for sudoku goodness.

Didn't Click For Me

With Fortnite progressively losing me over the course of 2020, finalizing with my wholesale “never again” stance after Epic boss Tim Sweeney compared Fortnite demanding more money from Apple to the American Civil Rights movement (no, absolutely not), I dipped my toe into a number of new “battle pass”-style online arena types of games, and while Genshin Impact eventually got its hooks into me, Spellbreak absolutely did not. With graphics straight out of The Dragon Prince and the promise of a wide variety of magic combat skills to make your character your own, the game seemed awfully tempting, but my first few experiences were aimless and joyless, with no moment of clarity to make me understand why I should keep coming back. Maybe they’ll finesse the game some more in 2021, or a bunch of my friends will get hooked and lure me back, but for now I am a-okay deleting this waste of space on my Switch and PC.

"Oh Yeah, I Did Play That Didn't I?"

I remember being really excited for Murder By Numbers. Ace Attorney-style crime scene investigation visual novel with Picross puzzles for the evidence, art by the creators of Hatoful Boyfriend, and music by the composer of Ace Attorney itself?! Sounds like a dream come true. But the pixel-hunt nature of the crime scene investigations was more frustrating than fun, the picross puzzles were not particularly great, and the game came out literally a week before the entire world went into lockdown which makes it feel more like seven years ago than just earlier this year. I remember being marginally charmed by the game once it was in my hands, but as soon as my mind shifted to long-term self care, Murder By Numbers went from hot topic to cold case.

Most Unexpected Joy

I was looking forward to Fuser all year. As a dyed-in-the-wool DropMix stan, the prospect of a spiritual sequel to DropMix on all major digital platforms without any of the analogue components was tremendously exciting, and I knew I’d have a lot of fun making mixes by myself and posting them online for the world to hear. What I didn’t expect, however, was the online co-op mode to be such a blast! Up to four players take turns making 32 bars of mashups, starting with whatever the player before handed them and adding their own fingerprints on top. It sounds like it should just be a mess of cacophony, but every session I’ve played so far has been just the best dance party I’ve had all year, and everyone not currently in control of the decks (including an audience of spectators) can make special requests for what the DJ should spin and tap along with the beat to great super-sized emoji to show how much they’re enjoying the mix. Literally the only times my Apple Watch has ever warned me of my heightened heart rate have been the times I was positively bouncing in place rocking out to co-op freestyle play in Fuser.

Best Music

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Only one video game this year had tunes that were so bumpable they were upgraded to my general “2020 jams” playlist alongside Jeff Rosenstock, Run the Jewels, and Phoebe Bridgers, and that game was Paradise Killer. 70% lo-fi chill beats to study/interrogate demons to, 20% gothic atmospheric bangers, 10% high-energy pop jazz, this soundtrack was just an absolute joy to swim around in both in and out of gameplay.

Favorite Game Encounter

It’s wild that in a landscape where games let me live out my wildest fantasies, the single moment that lit me up in a way that stood out to me more than any other was serving Neil the right drink in Coffee Talk. Over the course of the game, you serve a variety of hot drinks to humans, werewolves, vampires, orcs, and more, all while chatting with your customers and learning more about their lives and relationships. The most mysterious customer, though, is an alien life form who adopts the name Neil. They do not know what they want to drink and claim it doesn’t make a difference because they cannot taste it. Everybody else wants *something*. Neil is just ordering for the sake of fitting in and exploring the Earth experience. It’s only in the second playthrough that attentive baristas will figure out what to serve Neil, unlocking the “true” ending in the process. Seeing the typically stoic Neil actually emote when they tasted their special order drink? What an absolute treat that was.

Best Free DLC of the Year

It’s still only a couple of days old at the time I’m writing this, but Marvel’s Avengers just added Kate Bishop, aka Hawkeye, and THANK GOODNESS. Almost every character in the game at launch just smashed the endless waves of robot baddies with their fists and that looks exhausting and uncomfortable. Hawkeye (the game calls her Kate Bishop, but come on, she’s been Hawkeye in the comics for over 14 years, let’s show her some respect) uses A SWORD. FINALLY! Aside from that, I’m just having a blast shooting arrows all over the place. She and Ms Marvel are the most likable characters in the game so far, so I hope they keep adding more of the Young Avengers and Champions to the game, and if the recently announced slate of Marvel movies and tv shows are any indication (with America Chavez, Cassie Lang, and Riri Williams all coming soon to the MCU), that seems to be what Marvel is pushing for across all media

Most Accessible Game

Nintendo is, first and foremost, a toy company. They got their start in toys and cards long before video games was a thing, and they still do more tests to ensure their video game hardware is childproof than anybody else in the industry (remember how they made Switch cartridges “taste bad” so kids wouldn’t eat them?). This year, Nintendo got to rekindle some of their throwback, simplistic, toys-and-cards energy with Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics, a Switch collection of timeless family-friendly games like Chess, Mancala, and Backgammon, along with “toy” versions of sports like baseball, boxing, and tennis for a virtual parlor room of pleasant time-wasters. The games were all presented with charming li’l explainers from anthropomorphic board game figurines, and the ability to play quick sessions of Spider Solitaire on the touch screen while I binged The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix made Clubhouse Games one of my most-played titles of the year. Plus, local play during socially-distant friend hangs was an excellent way to make us feel like we were much closer than we were physically allowed to be as friends knocked each other’s block off in the “toy boxing” version of Rock’em Sock’em Robots.

"Waiting for Game-dot"

I get that everyone loves Disco Elysium. I saw it on everyone’s year-end lists last year. I finally bought it with an Epic Games Store coupon this year. This year was a long enough slog of depressing post-apocalyptic drudgery, I didn’t want to explore a whole nother one in my leisure time. I’ll get to it… someday.

Game That Made Me Think

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Holovista was an iPhone game I played over the course of two or three days based on the recommendation of some trusted colleagues on Twitter and oh my goodness was I glad that I played it. What starts as a chill vaporwave photography game steadily progresses into an exploration of psychological trauma, relationships with friends and family, and the baggage we carry with us from our pasts. In this exceptionally hard year, I badly needed this story about spending time alone with your personal demons and finding your way back to the people who love and support you. Just like with Journey and Gone Home, I walked away from Holovista feeling a rekindled appreciation for the people in my life.

#video games #holovista #paradise killer #animal crossing #animal crossing new horizons #spellbreak #good sudoku #fuser #dropmix #in other waters #marvel's avengers #avengers #clubhouse games #coffee talk #2020

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mybunnyparadenme · 4 years

Text

Truce

Summary: A late night conversation between Mysterion and Professor Chaos. A/N: New Snapshots chapter! This one’s silly, hope you guys enjoy~!

It was a peaceful night, unusual for this part of town given how late it was. There had been some heroic action a few minutes prior, but now two costume-clad teenagers were relaxing on the rooftop, leaning against the back of a billboard and deep in conversation.

"Wait, let me get this straight." Chaos said slowly, attempting to make sense of Mysterion's last sentence. "You're saying we have a... following? Of people who write stories about us?"

"Well, they're not exactly 'straight'..." Mysterion said, a wry smile forming beneath his mask.

Chaos couldn't help the laugh that escaped his mouth. "Okay, I guess that makes sense, since you said it was mostly the asian girls doing it. How'd you find out about it?"

"My sister found this website and showed it to me. I have it bookmarked here, look." Mysterion dug around in his pocket and pulled out his phone.

Chaos scooted closer towards him, peering down at the tiny screen riddled with cracks. "Oh, that's in real bad shape. Do you need a phone case? I've got a really nice one in my evil lair somewhere."

Mysterion raised an eyebrow at him. "I don't think a phone case would help at this point."

Chaos shrugged, his face carefully neutral. "It couldn't hurt though. And besides, it's purple. It would match your whole color scheme perfectly, Mysterion."

He narrowed his eyes at Chaos, though there was a sly smile starting at the corner of his mouth. "It kind of sounds like you're just trying to lure me into your evil lair, Chaos."

Chaos gave him an wide eyed look, way too innocent to be real. "I don't know what you're talking about, mister. We called a truce ten minutes ago."

The best part of a truce was the moment you could go back on it, but Mysterion wasn't about to ruin the fun by admitting what they already knew. Instead he turned his attention back to his phone and nodded. "Alright, I'll take you up on that offer. We can head over there after I show you these. Damn this is taking forever to load."

"This area never has good reception." Chaos said reassuringly.

"Nah, it's probably my shitty service. Ah, here we go." Mysterion moved so that they could both see the screen better. There were a few more stories now from when he'd last checked the page.

"Wow that sure is a lot!" Chaos leaned in closer, his arm pressing against Mysterion's. He didn't seem to notice as his eyebrows came together while he read through the titles. "Super Craig and Wonder Tweek Love Story... Wonderlust... Superficial, oh that one's kinda clever. Looks like a lot of these are about those two, huh?"

"Yeah, but it makes sense when you realize the writers are the same girls who drew all that yaoi fanart of them."

Chaos smiled. "I think it's sweet. It's like a love letter to their relationship. Oh here's one that's not about them. It's called... A World of Chaos?" His eyes widened. "Wait, is this one about me?"

Mysterion scanned the summary underneath the title and bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. "Yeah, it's your villainous backstory! Damn, check out that word count."

Chaos looked like he was fighting back a grin. "I can't believe people are writin' stories about me! I figured they'd want to focus mostly on the good guys, seeing as nobody likes villains."

Mysterion didn't bother hiding his laugh this time. "Dude, are you kidding? People cream themselves over a good villain backstory. Bonus points if the hero has a thing for the bad guy at some point." He gave Chaos a playful nudge and wagged his eyebrows suggestively. "Or the other way around."

Chaos turned pink underneath his silver helmet. "S-So they probably write about you an' me huh?"

"I've seen a few, yeah." Mysterion said, clicking onto the next page. His eyes lit up, a teasing edge lifting the corner of his mouth. "Though Chacoon's way more popular on here."

"Chacoon? What's that?" Chaos asked. He peered down at the screen, his curiosity slowly morphing into quiet despair as he read through the page. "Me and The Coon? Aw, why are they linking the two of us like that? I could do way better than him."

Mysterion grinned, taking just a bit of pleasure in the disappointment on his Chaos' face. "Yeah, I can think of at least three other heroes you'd be better off with. And if it makes you feel any better, I've seen a few stories with me and the Coon as a couple too. There was even one the other day with me and him fighting for Human Kite in a love triangle."

"Well that's just drama for drama's sake." Chaos said. He looked relieved to hear that though, and a small smile brightened his face. "Who ended up winning in the end, you or The Coon?"

"Hell if I know, I only skim the stuff." Okay, that was a lie. He wasn't actually invested in the love triangle! Redheads didn't really do it for him the way cute blondes with twangy accents did, but the writer's style was actually really good. He got caught up in the suspense and well, he was now eagerly awaiting the next update... He cleared his throat loudly, trying to hide the embarrassed flush creeping up his face.

"You okay?" Chaos asked.

"'m fine." He said, slouching lower against the back of the billboard. "Just feeling tired after the workout you put me through earlier."

"We were running around an awful lot, weren't we?" He reached into his pocket and pulled out an energy bar, holding it out to Mysterion with a cheerful smile. "Here ya go, it's not much but maybe it'll help?"

"Oh." Mysterion blinked at the colorfully wrapped offering for a second, then took it gratefully. "Thanks, dude. Hold my phone while I get it open?"

"Of course." Chaos scrolled through the rest of the stories on the page while Mysterion tore open the energy bar, humming a little tune under his breath. He didn't go snooping around like Mysterion had expected him to, and gave it back the second his hand was free again.

"Kinda weird that you didn't take advantage of that moment, Chaos." Mysterion said, scrolling down in between bites of his energy bar.

Chaos tilted his head curiously. "What do you mean?"

"I literally handed you an opportunity to do something chaotic." He said, gesturing to the phone in his hand. "You could've changed some of my contacts or deleted a few photos, or even let it drop into the alleyway."

Chaos frowned, his eyebrows coming together just under the line of his helmet. "But why would I do that?"

Mysterion didn't say anything. The energy bar was starting to taste less like blueberries and more like guilt. "Because that's what bad guys do?"

Chaos shook his head immediately. "Well yeah, but we're still in a truce, Mysterion! And well, doing something permanent like that would just be mean."

Right, the truce. Out of all of the people that still played this game of good and evil, he and Chaos were the only ones who would take breaks like this in between fights. Chaos was the only one he trusted enough not to get in a cheap hit, and here he was assuming things like an asshole. He sighed. "I'm sorry, dude."

"Aw, no need to apologize!" Chaos said, giving him a reassuring smile. "You're just following your heroic instincts, and it's always good to be wary around your enemies, truce or no truce."

Mysterion groaned, though the hints of a smile were starting to form on his face. "God, stop being so nice, Chaos. If you keep this up you're gonna make me look like a total dick."

"To who, the asian girls?" Chaos laughed, a light, contagious sound that quickly got Mysterion going too. Their voices echoed in the still night air, and it was a couple of minutes before it was quiet again.

"Hey, Mysterion?"

"Yeah?"

Chaos stared down at his shiny silver boots, dangling off the edge of the scaffolding. His face was serious now. "You mentioned before when we were looking at the website, how you could think of heroes I'd be good with..." He brought his hands together, tapping his knuckles in an all too familiar gesture. "Just out of curiosity, who were you talking about?"

Mysterion felt his shoulders tense at the pointed question. He cleared his throat, wishing he had some water to wash down the now too dry energy bar. "Ah, nobody in particular, really. I was just letting you know you'd have better options."

Aluminum foil crinkled underneath his hands. "Well, I could've sworn it sounded like you had specific people in mind. You were sayin' that you knew three heroes I'd be good with."

"So... are you asking me to hook you up with someone?" Mysterion asked, a heavy feeling settling into his gut. He'd been wanting to cheer Chaos up when he'd said that, and it wasn't like he was lying or anything. A few of his teammates in the Freedom Pals would sometimes look at Chaos the way Mysterion did when he thought no one was looking.

Chaos was quiet for a long time, a pink blush creeping up his face even as a nervous frown tugged his lips down. "W-Well, I... I kinda-"

He was cut off by a bell sound coming from Mysterion's phone. They both blinked down at the screen, and Mysterion felt a wave of relief go through him at the sudden distraction. He didn't know what Chaos had wanted to say, but right now he wasn't sure he was brave enough to hear it. He cleared his throat. "Hey look, a story's been updated!"

"The website gives notifications?" Chaos asked. He looked interested, but was also clearly relieved at the change in conversation.

"Not exactly." Mysterion said, his shoulders relaxing as he clicked on the story. "I'm actually following this one."

There was a teasing glint in Chaos' gaze, all the tension from earlier disappearing from his face. "I think you're more invested in these stories than you're willing to admit, Mysterion."

He couldn't really deny it at this point, no matter how embarrassing the truth was. "Fine, go ahead and laugh at me but this person's really talented! Check this out, they add illustrations and everything."

"Ooh, really?" Chaos leaned in so close he was practically in Mysterion's lap. His eyes lit up at the pictures that were scattered through the page. "Wow, this person's really good! I like the way they drew your costume, but they got your hair color wrong."

Mysterion grinned. "I think they gave me dark hair to fit that 'tall, dark, and handsome' vibe. Do you think I should dye my hair to match?"

"I think the color's great, you could definitely pull it off." Chaos looked away from the screen for a moment, his eyes settling on Mysterion's hair. "But you look good like this too. Especially now that it's not hidden under a hood."

Mysterion ducked his head, hiding the blush that rose to his cheeks at the compliment. "Too bad my head's always cold, huh?"

"Yeah." Chaos agreed, reaching into his pocket to get an energy bar for himself. His expression froze when he saw that the next picture was of him. "Oh gosh is that supposed to be me? I look like a rockstar!"

"They always draw you looking really cool." Mysterion said, smiling at how shocked Chaos looked. "I think the writer's a big fan of yours."

A huge grin lit up his face. "I'm so flattered! And I think the eyepatch is a great addition to the costume, I kinda want to start wearing one for real. Is there a way to talk to them on this website? I wanna tell them they're awesome!"

"Hang on, you don't want to risk compromising your secret identity." Mysterion said, careful not to scroll to far down to the comments section. He was willing to follow under a pseudonym, but he'd be damned if he was going to start a conversation with yaoi fangirls.

(Well, more damned than he usually was.)

Chaos looked disappointed as he took a bite out of his energy bar, but he nodded. "I guess you're right. But I could still wear the eye patch though, just for fun."

"And hide those big doe eyes?" Mysterion placed a hand dramatically over his heart. "Oh say it ain't so, Buttercup!"

Chaos jolted at the nickname, and suddenly the bite he'd just taken out of his energy bar became lodged in his throat. He started choking and it took Mysterion a few seconds to register what was happening. Of course he then immediately sprang into action, delivering several hard thumps on his back before Chaos finally coughed up the half-chewed mess onto his hands. They both winced at the mess, but Chaos flicked it out into the alleyway next to them and gave Mysterion a shaky smile. "Th-Thanks, you really saved me there."

"There's a plot for a love story if I ever heard one." Mysterion smiled back, but his heart was racing in his chest and his hands were shaking. Holy shit, that had been terrifying.

Chaos laughed, softer than usual after the trauma his throat had gone through it sounded no less genuine. "The hero saves the villain's life. That's not a bad idea at all, Ken."

Mysterion shivered at sound of his real name. They always stuck to their personas while in costume, but he'd gone and slipped up first and now Chaos... Butters was doing the same. He bit his lip nervously, heart hammering in his chest for a different reason. "Hey Butters, about before-"

"There you are Professor Chaos!" A voice called from the opposite rooftop. They both turned to see General Disarray standing on the ledge, waving a hand in their direction. "Are you okay? Do you need me to come over there and help you out?"

"I'm fine General, don't worry!" Chaos said waving back cheerfully. He turned to face Mysterion, revealing a smile that showed way too many teeth to be friendly anymore. "Looks like our truce is over for now, hero. Next time we meet we're enemies again. Oh, and I'll bring you the phone case tomorrow at school, okay?"

"Okay, looking forward to it." Mysterion said, not moving as Chaos stood and joined his sidekick on the other rooftop. He watched as they disappeared into the night, not bothering to follow after them at first. It was only fair to give the two of them a headstart, let them have a chance to actually do something villainous before he swooped in to stop them like always. His feelings could wait until the morning.

After all, tonight they had their roles to play.

#south park #sp bunny #butters stotch #kenny mccormick #bunny sp #south park fic #my fics #professor chaos #mysterion

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whumpasaurus101 · 3 years

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A Walk in the Park

Wow, I'm actually doing a follow up piece? Yuppp :D

CW: talking of breaking a pet / dunking head into water / thats rlly it i fink, just tell me if i missed somefingk! :D

Previous / Masterlist

It was cold outside. Asher felt the cold breeze brush against his face as he stepped outside the door. He took a deep breath and looked up at the sky, studying the dark grey clouds above him. He hadn't been outside since… he couldn't remember, it had been so long ago.

Rodger gently pushed him forwards by his shoulders and the pair of them started walking. Rodger had a firm hold on Asher’s waist, ensuring he couldn't get away. “Now, I expect that you have more sense than to even consider asking anyone for help, hm?” Asher was too busy taking in the place around him to even register what Rodger was saying.

The sky was clear blue and there were no clouds. The sun shone brightly and he heard a family of birds tweeting in a tree nearby. “Asher.” His head snapped over to face Rodger. “Did you hear me?” Asher bit his lip, “Erm, no.” Rodger sighed dramatically and linked his arm with Asher’s, forcing them both to walk, “Just don't even think about trying to ask for help because I will kill you right there and then, got it?”

“Mhmm.” Rodger was half pissed at how Asher wasn't scared but he continued to walk. The town’s village wasn't far away. It took them ten minutes for them to walk there. This confused Asher since Rodger’s house looked like it was in the middle of nowhere and even Rodger had said that, but maybe it was so Asher wouldn't run away. As they reached the gates to the park, Rodger smoothed down Asher’s coat -which he had forced on him- and brought Asher close to him, “Don't try anything stupid, lets enjoy this day together, okay?”

Asher nodded and they both entered the park. There was a grass area which was surrounded by a stone path on either side. They took the path to the right and started walking, arms linked. “Why are you doing this?” Rodger looked at Asher, “Doing what?”

“This, being nice to me. Also, not to mention, not making fun of me for how I acted back there.” Rodger cracked his neck and studied the trees around them both. “Have you ever heard of zoochosis.” Asher thought for a moment and shook his head. Rodger closed his eyes and sighed, “Of course you haven't. Alright, it's what animals in zoos can get when they are locked up for a long time and they start acting crazy.”

Asher glared at Rodger, “Are you seriously comparing me to animals right now?”

“Are you seriously just realizing that now?”

Asher’s eyebrows furrowed and he sulked. “Anyway, I realised you haven't gotten any sort of freedom which most owners don't believe in so you better count yourself lucky that I brought you out here.”

“I-I am.” Rodger looked at him again, shocked, “Asher, what's going on with you?” Asher looked at him, “What do you mean?” Then it hit Rodger, was Asher breaking? How come he didn't feel as joyed as he wanted to?

“No, it- it doesn't matter.”

Asher set his jaw, “So, are you going to tell me?”

“Tell you what?” “Tell me what you work as.”

Rodger chuckled, “Wow, I never thought you'd ask.” Asher sighed, realising how he could regret asking. “I work with WRU.” Asher looked at him quickly, “Like Aiden,” he spoke, barely above a whisper. Rodger smirked, “Like Aiden. But I work with the files and the sorting.”

“Fun,” Asher sighed sarcastically, earning him a thump to the side. Asher had to hide his yelp before he got any stares.

“See, I knew I shouldn't’ve told you, you're too fucking immature.” Asher made a sour face that made Rodger almost chuckle, “Oh jeez, I’m sooo sorry that I don't support you with your job of kidnapping and torturing human beings, how terribly rude of me,” Asher spat. Rodger licked his teeth, “Asher, you're on thin fucking ice right now, I swear to god. I brought you out on a nice walk and I even told you part of my personal life, and now I get this from you?!”

“Rodger, you are so fucking dumb and stuck up. Stop saying ‘oh my goodness, poor me, everyone feel sorry for me because my daddy didn't get me a broken pet!’ Its so fucking stupid and I hate it and i hate you and i hate e-”

Rodger quickly shoved Asher to the side, making him stumble and fall to his knees. “What the hell are you doing?!” Rodger ignored him, tightly gripping on Asher’s hair and dragging him towards the side of the lake. Tall grass covered them from the public’s eye and Rodger took advantage of it.

He brought Asher’s head close to the mossy lake. “Fuck! Let go of me! Thats fucking gross Rodger!” “Yeah? Well, you shoulda thought about that before you decided to run that mouth of yours, now, take back what you said!”

“Never! I spoke the truth and you knew it! I-”

He was cut off as Rodger quickly yanked Asher’s head forward and it submerged under the water. Air bubbles quickly flew to the surface of the lake as Asher yelled god knows what into the water.

Rodger quickly popped his own head up to look over the grass, ensuring there weren't many around. There wasn't. Only the occasional people passed by but most of them wore earphones or were too caught up in their thoughts to pay any attention to what was happening near them.

Rodger pulled on Asher’s hair, bringing the sputtering boy’s head up for seconds of air. “R-Rodger please I-”

“Take it back.” Asher felt a shiver run down his spine at Rodger’s sinister tone. “N-no! You-” Rodger rolled his eyes and submerged the boy’s head back under the water.

He took in the world around him, the way the sun reflected off of the lake, giving it a glistening effect. Ducks and swans peacefully glided on the water on the far side.-

He was cut off from his thoughts when hand suddenly flew up to his face, blindly attacking him. Rodger growled, taking the two scrawny wrists with his free hand and pulled the boy back up.

“Its really simple Asher, take back what you fucking said, I can do this all day.”

“Just- jus’ give me a- a fuckin’ second,” Asher panted.

Rodger simply didn't allow this and went to dunk Asher’s head again but stopped. “N-no no!! Wait! I take i- it back!!! Fuckin’ hell I take it back. Plea- n’more.” Rodger slowly smirked and pulled Asher gently towards him. He bridal carried him over to a free spot of grass and rested his back against a tree. He brought the half conscious boy’s head over to his chest and let the boy rest against him.

“Thank you.” Asher whispered, before slowly closing his eyes and lightly snoring. Rodger chuckled cruelly as his boy broke in front of him. He found one of his many weaknesses.

The trees above the two provided them shade but the sun slightly shone through some of the leaves, drying Asher’s hair. A sudden breeze of cold air was what woke Asher up. He sat up quickly and started coughing as he tried to speak.

Rodger laughed at him and ruffled his hair, “Well good morning sunshine!” Asher groaned and rubbed his throat. Then he shivered, soon being met by Rodger’s arm snaking over his shoulders. Asher leaned into the touch, he was tired, he allowed himself to do it but only for today.

People passed by them. Some couples passed, holding hands. Families strolled by. Asher zoned out, listening and trying to make sense of some people’s conversations. He wanted to know what people these days spoke about.

Rodger sat up and stretched. He then offered his hand out to Asher which was ignored. Asher simply pushed himself up and rubbed his eyes while yawning. Apart from nearly being drowned to death, he felt better. Maybe it was the fresh air, maybe it was seeing other people, normal people. He didn't care, what really mattered was that the weight and fog from his brain was slowly leaving.

It would take a long time for it to leave, but he’ll wait. He always will.

---

Taglist: @likeit-or-whumpit @milk-carton-whump @yesthisiswhump @as-a-matter-of-whump @appy-polly-loggies @happy-whumper @just-a-whumping-racoon-with-wifi @myst-in-the-mirror @tears-and-lilies

#whump #whump writing #Asher #Rodger #drowning #head dunked in water #i rlly dk whow to tag that lol

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innuendostudios · 5 years

Text

Thoughts on The Witness

[no spoilers... this game would be nearly impossible to spoil in text]

Where do I even start?

I guess one thing to know about The Witness is that you can watch the famous 9-minute tracking shot from Nostalghia - where Oleg Yankovsky tries to walk a candle from one end of a drained pool to the other without extinguishing it - in its entirety. (I think it’s the entirety, I left before the clip was over; yeah, Jon, I get it.)

How do we interpret this? I haven’t watched Nostalghia, but I know that scene. Every film major knows that scene. Tony Zhou cited it in discussing lateral tracking shots, how they emphasize environment and create emotional distance from humans in the frame, and how Tarkovsky uses this to make the sequence lonely and arduous. Kyle Kallgren cited it in discussing how YouTube makes critique of certain types of art difficult, and Content ID essentially decides for us what film as a medium is even for.

Jon Blow plays the clip in full with no commentary - or, rather, the game itself is the commentary. There’s a sequence in Indie Game: The Movie where Jon Blow expresses some pain about how his game Braid was received, how he felt no one who played it ever really understood everything he was trying to say with it. That feeling might be ameliorated if he weren’t such a constituionally obtuse motherfucker.

Perhaps the scene is meant to draw parallels between Yankovsky’s dedication to a task that is simple yet difficult and the game’s puzzles, built, as they are, around complexity-through-simplicity. Except, Yankovsky’s Andrei has a personal investment carrying this candle, one Tarkovsky has spent the entire film setting up. I was about five hours into The Witness when I found this clip - more than twice the duration of Nostalghia - and I still didn’t know why I was solving the game’s puzzles or what they were trying to communicate.

Perhaps the scene is meant to draw parallels between the patience it encourages in its audience and the calm, meditative mode all The Witness’ allusions to Buddhism are seemingly on about, to give yourself over to the time investment the game demands of you. Except, Nostalghia asks you to spend nine minutes thinking about one thing; zen Buddhism encourages you to think of nothing; The Witness asks you to spend between fifteen and forty hours thinking about a zillion things. It is not a game about clearing your mind, it’s about filling your mind up. There is little continuity between the thoughtless peace of meditation or Yankovsky’s emotional collapse and the game’s intended “aha” moments.

But the ambiguity, the contextlessness of the scene’s inclusion, means you can’t be sure whether it’s contradictory. If we assume it’s about dedication, and we find a flaw in that worldview, maybe the problem is that we didn’t assume it was about meditation. And vice versa. If it fails to communicate, maybe the problem is us.

The only thing this scene communicates for sure is that Jon Blow wants me to know he watches Tarkovsky.

Jon Blow wants you to trust he knows what he’s doing. That the game is saying something. He also never, ever wants to tell you what it is. (If he could just tell you, he wouldn’t have spent eight years making it into a game, I suppose.) But this operates on completely opposite rules to the puzzles. Puzzles in The Witness are maze-drawing panels with increasing numbers of rules, all conveying their rules nonverbally, through gameplay. You see a symbol you don’t recognize, or a shape you don’t know how to draw, and you try things out, you make assumptions, you fail repeatedly, and then something works, the panel lights up, and you know you got it right. Now you understand what the symbol means.

The theming doesn’t work that way. Whatever theory you have as to what the game’s about, there will be no moment of clarification. Blow has an incredible talent, in fact, for constructing imagery that is hilariously blunt yet still ambiguous. As with Braid, where he crammed a straightforward narrative about memory and regret with allusions to quantum physics and the atomic bomb, The Witness references Einstein, the Buddha, Richard Feynman, romantic poetry, tech culture, game design, and - most of all - itself.

I realize I’m dancing around the subject here, because what the gameplay is (or isn’t) in service of is far easier to talk about than the gameplay itself. The Witness is a big island full of touch screens where you draw lines on grids. That’s it. The island is dense with structures and biomes, impossibly having a desert, a swamp, and three different kinds of forest which appear to be in four different seasons. What it doesn’t have is any reason why you’re there or a justification for solving ~600 line-drawing puzzles other than because Jon Blow wants you to. I was wrong in my video from 2015 to call The Witness narrative-based; the game contains narrative but it is not a narrative game. The island is very pretty, meticulously crafted, and not trying in the slightest to look like a real place. It is Myst minus everything people like about Myst.

Absent a reason for my character - if I’m even playing a “character” - to solve the puzzles, why am I, the player, solving them? The short answer is, “Because they’re there. You knew what you were buying. You solve the puzzles because it’s a puzzle game, do I gotta draw you a diagram?” (No, you need me to draw 600 diagrams.) That is unsatisfactory because the island is clearly more than an elaborate menu system.

Do I solve them because they’re interesting? I mean, they’re not bad, if you’re into Sudoku or, like... cereal boxes. In and of themselves, they’re not my cuppa. People told me about a repeated sense of epiphany the game provoked for them, but that’s not the way I experienced it. Every puzzle is so carefully tutorialized that I never felt I was making an intuitive leap. There is no lateral thinking in The Witness, it is strictly longitudinal. You get a row of puzzle panels, and you take them one by one (you are, in fact, prevented from jumping ahead), each one building on what it taught you. And they get hard, certainly, but each is the logical progression of the one before. And each is a marvel of nonverbal communication, but that’s more Jon being clever than it is me. This is not to judge people who did get a feeling of discovery; one person’s “aha” moment is another’s “yeah, Jon, I get it.”

(Aside: I did get a proper “aha” moment when I came to a panel that could be solved two ways. It controlled a moving platform; draw one line, the platform moves right, draw the other and it moves left. And I thought, “Huh, I guess I get it, but those shapes seem kind of arbitrary.” But then, while it was moving, I realized the platform itself mirrored what I had drawn; the two designs were what shape the platform would take when connected with each endpoint! And I went “oh fuck, oh fuck, that’s clever, that‘s really clever.” My first epiphany. It was the most Myst-like the game got, it was clearly not the kind of experience Jon Blow was interested in recreating much, and it took place 7 hours in.)

Do I solve them because I’m compelled? In the first play sessions, I asked myself several times, “Do I even like this?” The game is often tedious and frustrating and I regularly muttered “fuck off, Jon.” But I kept playing. I got annoyed when people interrupted me. I got a hideous case of Tetris effect. They’re not the kind of puzzles you can spend the day thinking through, like you would with Myst or Riven; they’re too abstract to visualize without them right in front of you. And the world is pretty but it’s not a place I wish I could visit, like I would with, again, Myst or Riven. But I kept going back. I solved puzzles less because I found pleasure in finishing them than I found displeasure in them being unfinished. Jon Blow has given talks on how game design focused on being “addictive” is basically evil - his word, not mine. And yet... it felt more like I was playing his game because I was hooked than because I was enjoying myself.

Do I solve them because I trust Jon Blow? Because I believe this will all amount to something? Jon certainly expects me to trust him. The game blares PROFUNDITY AHEAD constantly. (I remind you it quotes the Buddha.) But, in the years since Braid, I have grown less impressed with Jon Blow’s “art game genius” shtick. One fun bit about playing The Witness so late is finally reading all the discourse, and, well before finishing the game, I had read the thoughts of Andrew Plotkin, and Liz Ryerson, and Andi McClure - all of whom are brilliant - so I had a pretty good idea of what I was getting into. What’s surprised me is, having gotten to the first ending - not the secret ending - what the game is up to still isn’t clear. There are enough allusions to heady ideas that you can infer some stuff, but the default ending - while pretty enough - adds nothing and reveals nothing. And getting the True Ending means completing the In the Hall of the Mountain King section, something many will never find and precious few will ever complete. (Debating whether I’m going to even try.) If Jon Blow wants you to trust that he’s going somewhere with this, he makes you wait a long time before finding out if it’s worth it. [EDIT: turns out the secret ending comes after a different set of obscure puzzles than Hall of the Mountain King.]

Which leads me back to my original conclusion: I am solving the puzzles because Jon Blow told me to.

I suspect the arc Jon wants is for me to begin solving puzzles because I want to know what they’re in service of, what point Jon is trying to make, and then spend so long on them that I forget about the destination and just wrap myself up in the work, and, after dozens of hours on the hardest of the hard puzzles, Jon will finally reveal that the point he was making was about the labor I have just done. That he couldn’t tell me what it was for until I’d already done it. That the labor was its own reward. And how much you like The Witness is going to depend on whether or not you feel ripped off.

The overall impression The Witness left me with was less of meditation than discipline. (I have joked that playing The Witness feels like being in a D/s relationship with Jon Blow and not knowing the safe word.) Jon presents a simple concept and then expects you to solve every. single. permutation. of that concept. You do the work to find out what it’s about, and then what it’s about is the work. That game is about itself. The subject of The Witness is solving The Witness. It’s about purity of design, about simplicity, about slowly mastering a set of skills. (That these skills are neither inherently pleasurable to perform nor applicable in any other context seems not to matter; the point is, you learned them.) It’s hard not to read a game fixated on the beauty of its own design as all kinds of smug.

I allowed myself to be spoiled on the True Ending, and it seems, in the eleventh hour, if you draw lines til your fingers bleed, the game makes room for self-critique, questioning whether all this dedication to design actually is, in any way, meaningful or useful to us. Which, just a little bit, smacks of an artist spending two years making a sculpture of himself, chiseled to make him look a perfect Olympian beauty, only to label it “EGOISM.” Ooo. Make you think.

I suspect, in the end, I played it to (partial) completion because I was curious. I didn’t necessarily buy Jon Blow’s hype, but his hype is intriguing. As a portrait of a certain mindset, a monomaniacal obsession with design for design’s sake, the folk-religion of salvation through technology, and the critique of same, it is fascinating. I know people - smart people - who genuinely love this game, and, if the above is any indication, I clearly love talking about it. I have no regrets.

But, word of advice: if you don’t a) love the puzzles, or b) love the discourse, just walk away. Everything will be fine.

#capsule review #Adventure Games #the witness

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