#Shoutout to The Wrecking Collective

[isopod-lesbian]

In 2015, I played Life is Strange; I was 17 years old, and hadn't quite realized I was a trans woman yet. For me back then, LiS was a fantasy more than anything; not because I wished I had Max's powers, but because I got to play as a young woman falling in love with her best friend. Even before I could articulate why, I felt this deep ache of longing for what could have been. By the end of that year, I had come out to myself and my friends, and I still credit LiS for helping me figure things out that way.

When I first played LiS, I felt like the "Bay" ending was the most appropriate for Max's story. If LiS is a game about growing up, then sacrificing Chloe is a hard but necessary choice to make, and I believed it was the right one. I never questioned the idea that good people will sacrifice their own happiness for the good of society, or for the people they love. So, when I began adulthood, I did so with purpose, but without passion. I did all the things I needed to do to survive and make it out into the world on my own, and I was miserable for most of the time.

When I came back to the LiS fandom in the past couple of years, I got a chance to re-examine my favorite game with a new perspective. I immersed myself in fanfic, I indulged my nostalgia, and I began to reinterpret this work that shaped me years before. I looked at the "Bae" ending especially with fresh eyes; I started seeing it not as a selfish decision, but an unselfish one, a choice made out of love for a girl who was let down by everyone who was supposed to care for her before. How cruel it was to imagine Chloe's story ending with her bleeding out in a bathroom, still thinking that nobody cared for her.

Now, I'm 25. I'm an adult in every sense of the word, and despite everything, it seems like my life is...kind of working out. I'm almost a year into HRT, I have a job that lets me live a reasonably nice life, and I'm planning on moving in with my girlfriend. When I started True Colors, I tried to temper my expectations, and hoped that my nostalgia for the past wouldn't inhibit my enjoyment of a new entry in the series. So, 6 years after the first, I played a Life is Strange game; and, for the second time, it showed me exactly what I needed to see.

If Life is Stange is a game about growing up, True Colors is a game about what happens after. It's a game about starting over, about finding a place to call home and people to call family. Where Max's powers let her find the perfect way to get what she wanted or say the right thing, Alex's powers ask her to understand the people around her. Where LiS holds the threat of the Storm over Max's head, Gabe's death in True Colors is just a tragedy that Alex has to process. LiS' central mystery comes down to an evil man doing evil things; True Colors' is the result of an entrenched capitalist machine that operates not out of malice, but out of sheer self-interest.

When I finished True Colors, I was confronted with a choice that felt like the polar opposite of LiS' ending. After all the excitement and emotion, the question posed to Alex first felt almost incidental. Nobody's life hung in the balance, neither choice carried any real emotional consequences, and there was no way of knowing what the ultimate results might be. But as I considered Gabe's vision for Alex, I was struck by how real it felt. How it felt like the choices I was already making in life, and the choices I know are yet to come in my future. I think 17-year-old me would have jumped at the idea of a life of adventure, traveling the country with the girl I love. But now, I can't help but think of how many chances we really get to find a home. I doubt it's a high number. So I chose to stay. And I can only hope that, whenever I'm given that choice in my life, I am brave enough to take a chance on whatever place I've found for myself.

[gentlebeardsbarngrill]

03/07/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; David Jenkins; Samba Schutte; Dominic Burgess; Lindsey Cantrell; Rhys Darby; Fan Spotlight; Never Left Podcast; Cast Cards; AdoptOurCrew; SaveOFMD Crew; Love Notes; Daily Darby/Tonight's Taika;

I figure we could all use some normalcy tonight so I'm going to treat tonight like every other night and bring some news in-- Love Notes are where to go for commentary/love tonight lovelies.

== David Jenkins ==

All the photos from his Instagram Post Are listed here on Tumblr

Instagram Source

== Samba Schutte ==

Good news! Samba ISNT GONNA STOP POSTING BTS!

Samba BTS Videos

OFMD 2 Set Shoutout #2 Video Part 1

OFMD 2 Set Shoutout #2 Video Part 2

OFMD 2 Set Shoutout #2 Video Part 3

OFMD 2 Set Shoutout #2 Video Part 4

OFMD 2 Set Shoutout #2 Video Part 5

Rhys Wink Video - @kiwistede ty

#Crew4Life video

== Dominic Burgess ==

Being the upstanding gentleman that he is, Dominic is still out here supporting us.

== Lindsey Cantrell ==

Getting love from Lindsey regarding our loss. Ty so much hon.

== Rhys Darby ==

Look whose cameo is back 👀

== Fan Spotlight ==

== Never Left Podcast ==

The Never Left Podcast has decided to throw hands and I fucking love it. Balls for days. Never Left Podcast - A Message for David Zaslav and Casey Bloys

Art by: AmysBirdHouse

= Cast Cards =

Even with the bad news, our lovely @melvisik is still at it! More cast members to collect! Love it!

== Watch Party Reminders ==

March 8th - Next Goal Wins!

When:  8 pm GMT / 3 pm EST / 12 pm PST

Thank you @lamentus1 for the info! Now available to buy in the UK: £11.99 @ Apple (https://tinyurl.com/mr3p6bvm) and £9.99 or £11.99 @ Amazon https://tinyurl.com/2fwdmezz. 

(US fans can watch on Hulu, and Disney Plus)

Watch Party Hashtags:

#SaveOFMD

#OurFlagWins

Mar 4 - Mar 8: Wrecked Season 1

Don't have access? DM @iamadequate1 on Twitter or Tumblr

Season 1 watch from March 4th to March 8th. 

Times will be 10pm GMT / 5pm EST / 4pm CST / 2pm PST. 

Saturday there will be a re-watch for those who need to catch up (time TBD) .

Hashtags: 

#WreckedPirates

#SaveOFMD

#RhysDarbyFaction

== Adopt Our Crew ==

A message from our dear friends at @adoptourcrew

== Save OFMD Crew ==

Our good friends over at @saveofmdcrewmates also had a message for us.

== Love Notes ==

Hey there lovelies. Boy. What a day it's been, huh?

Never thought the clowning/honking would stop. I have to say, I'm glad at least that David saw all our commentary about "if he thought there was no hope he'd say something" and did in fact say something.

It's a bit of a hard pill to swallow, I know. We're all going through the various stages of grief right now. Some of us are already progressing on at a quick rate, others are still at the beginning.

I know I've said some of this across the platforms so I apologize if you've heard it already, but I think it's important to hear.

YOU DID EVERYTHING YOU POSSIBLY COULD.

Whether it was only signing the petition, or tweeting every day for a week, or just supporting your crewmates. Every little bit to every large bit you did--

You did EVERYTHING you could.

None of this is your fault. None of this is David or the Cast's fault, and certainly none of it is the fans fault. You did everything you could, and even if it feels like it it was all for nothing, it meant so very very much.

Every Cast and Crew member got to see how much they meant to you. Smaller cast members like our friends Wendy Anderson, and Damien Gerard, and Dominic Burgess have all gotten to feel so much love from us. They've come in and participated with us in our various fuckeries, and we've gotten to know them better because of it!

Every single streaming service we targeted got to see just how much queer media means to us. So many new fans got to join us on this journey because we were loud, polite menaces, and we made a safe space for them to join us. Not just streaming services and new fans, but products, and groups too! Fucking Astroglide did watch parties with us, squishables got involved! Q+ and Pink News!

News Media ALL OVER THE DAMN PLANET looked at us and commiserated and shared their distaste for our loss.

ALL OF THAT MATTERS.

If ONE streaming service picks up a true queer show (not just queer bait) because they saw our engagement, it was worth every single tear lost.

If ONE queer kid, years from now, gets a show where they feel represented because we fought for our silly little pirate show, it was worth EVERY SINGLE EFFORT.

IF ONE of your crew-mates felt included and decided to stick around on this planet a little longer because of it, IT WAS WORTH IT.

IT MATTERS.

It already matters so much, to all of us. I get to spend every day, feeling hope in humanity because of this fandom. Every single day I come online and I see just how creative, and kind, and accepting you all are, and it gives me so much hope for the future. I feel loved again, for me, not who I pretend to be in my day to day life.

We raised money for SO MANY charities. We made LITERAL differences in people's lives. People we don't know, and who don't know us. Do you know how incredibly powerful that is?

Do you know just how much those tiny ripples cascade over this entire earth? Kindness is one of the most powerful driving forces in this world. It is not quantifiable in any way, and yet it makes such an impact.

We have some of the most amazingly talented, and resourceful, and brilliant people on the planet in this crew. That's all of you. You are absolute treasures, every single one of you.

And you know what? You didn't fucking deserve this.

You deserved your show back. You fought hard for it, and you are allowed to be angry about it. You are allowed to cry, or scream, or lie on the floor and not get up for a while. You are allowed to grieve.

Some of you haven't got there yet. Some of you are still fighting the good fight, or trying to support others, and just know lovelies, we will all be there when you struggle too.

I've said it before, but grief isn't linear, it comes in waves, and no matter how each of us proceeds tomorrow, it's going to continue to take time to heal from.

Whatever YOU NEED to cope, do it.

Do you wanna "Fuck it we ball" and keep fighting? Fucking do it.

Do you wanna go cry in a corner and take a week off? Fucking do it.

Do you wanna go hug a fellow crew-mate and tell them a goofy ass joke so they laugh? Fucking do it.

Do you wanna go read fanfiction til you pass out? Make sure to drink some water, but go fucking do it.

Do you wanna draw, or sing, or write something that gets some of this awful energy out? Well? You guessed it--Go fucking do it.

BUT a gentle reminder lovelies:

Don't go hurt anyone, they don't deserve it.

Don't hurt yourself, YOU don't deserve it.

We've got discords, and tumblr, and twitter, and dm's galore. If you need support, reach out. I know so many of your crew are reaching out to each other to send love and support, and dole out all the hugs.

Lean on each other.

We are in this together.

We still have each other, and we will continue to.

This is not the end for OFMD. Whether it gets renewed in 10 years, or gets a movie, or graphic novels, or some other medium. This is not the end. It's certainly not the end of any of the cast & crew's careers. We will have so much to support them in going forward.

This fandom, these friends, don't end with this.

Keep making your fanfiction-- write and draw your own s3! Share it! Take this wonderful piece of queer art and joy that means so much to us and keep extending its infinite universes. Write meta and discuss and laugh and cry about it. We have lost the potential for s3, but we haven't lost what we already have, which is a glorious piece of media.

We have the cast & crew who continue to support and send love, and share our artwork and stories.

We have each other.

Now I'm gonna go mama bear on you and ask you to consider some things:

Have you had any water lately? Have you had anything to eat? Have you slept? Have you gone to the bathroom lately? Have you been outside, even for a moment?

Then finally, going with one last thing. This song helped me a lot today. Maybe it'll give you some love today too.

Just Begun by WILD

Not your vibe? Are you angry? @celluloidbroomcloset reminded me of this gem today:

This isn't the end crew.

This fandom is our home. We've just begun.

== Daily Darby / Tonight's Taika ==

I realize the vibe might be off for these gifs but you deserve dopamine inducing gifs, you can fight me about it later.

Rhys gif: @ofmd-ann / Taika Gif: @dallonismysavior

[titleknown]

I noticed a version of this depressing-ass post going around my dash, and I wanted to mention something like that I've noticed in a lot of Highbrow Leftist Critique that I'm really fucking sick of.

Namely, please don't fucking talk about it like it's inevitable and it's already happened rather than a thing we can stop, because People Won't Change It.

Like, as an autistic person who has A Complex due to being let down by people constantly in their life both personally and politically, it does not make me want to change things.

It makes me feel feel helpless and useless and scared, it makes me not want to bother doing anything, because why bother if the tools you use are going to be wrecked.

Not only that, it also makes me feel like the people don't have my back, because that's the underlying assumption I see behind most of them. That it is inevitable because The Horde does not want it.

This is an example of misanthropy posing as enlightenment. It is also fucking poison for any sort of collective action.

Like @headspace-hotel talks about a frustration with that in environmental movements too, and given digital stuff is near and dear to my heart too, I now know how she feels.

Like, I learned a new thing to panic about with the fucking Windows thing (here's how to un-mandate that fucking chip) but not much else!

But there are folks in the reblogs who're actually advocating shit to do about this, shoutout to @dominateeye and @aleran for doing good work, and I suppose that's my point.

Do better, don't let your pessimism become a social contagion, and advocate current action rather than predicting inevitable despair...

...Also; if you're in the US; call your congresspeople about killing these bad copyright bills and this bad censorship bill, because those are the major pathways that hypothetical DRM hellscape is going to use to get their hooks in.

[gilears]

feel free to say no but could you show whatever has the pins on it behind the riz card you showed it looks cool as hell

hehe thank you so much!! its my backpack, ive spent many years collecting and adding to it so i also think it is cool as hell. i will show you but some of the things kind of doxx me location wise so imma scribble over any of those JKLFKHHFJDLSGK;SFDG

highlights include: all my bad kids/dropout pins (duh, + special shoutout to @dimension20stuff who traded me the fifty one for my junkmother one <3); the GIRL HELP beads i sewed on and laugh at every time; the qr code patch i made myself w cross stitch that leads to this video; the several pins that sav @grasslandgirl has given me; and the W, R, and X pins because i love the wrecks a normal amount

more of me being regular about the wrecks with all the album cover buttons i made using my dear friend dani's button maker AND ALSO THE AMAZING BABY SNOOPY that lauren @mayodad did on linocut

and here the stars and hearts i crocheted myself!!! yipeee!! i got the brain fog button because i thought it was so fucking funny and also i suffer from horrible brain fog so much of the time we love being chronically ill

and also the bottom of the bag has this fabric that i have been wanting to use for like. i think honestly a decade ive been holding onto it lol but the bottom of the bag was starting to get some holes so i did this!! (also on the one pocket and some holes on the straps not pictured) and i love how well it goes w the original green fabric!!!

my bag is my Baby and i am always looking for new pins and buttons and patches and such (i have a bunch of buttons i made with danis maker + a cool patch i got in a local supply swap i still have to put on woops) and i get compliments on it every time i go out lol (very fun when i wear it with my patch pants AND patch jacket all at the same time) so thank you for giving me the opportunity to brag about it hehe 🧡

[pbear]

Fairy Tail 100 Years Quest Review - Episode 3

Some interesting stuff this episode. The start was a little anticlimactic with the Dragon Eaters being whisked away from a fight, but we got to it at the end.

This guy is hellbent on dying. I’m curious why he can’t control his own power. It doesn’t seem like it being stolen has anything to do with the problem either because he still wants to die after he gets it back. Also, what’s going to happen to the civilization he’s built when he dies? Sure, the town will go back to normal, but the Water Temple won’t have anyone to take care of it. All the good things he’s been doing are beneficial. And they introduced Karameel this episode. She’d be devastated if Suijin ends up dying. He probably hasn’t told her any of this.

Suijin also brought up another interesting topic, which is why Elefseria wants the Dragon Gods sealed. He assumed it could be a result of all the people he killed in the past, but are the other Dragon Gods this dangerous? Suijin also changed over the years, so I’m wondering if Elefseria really knows anything about the Dragon Gods. This is an old quest that’s been around for years, so what if he doesn’t know the current situation?

Touka becomes even more intriguing this episode. On the same level as Zeref? And she has Suijin’s power? I’m curious if she goes around collecting powerful magic which is what makes her so dangerous. The Dragon Eaters are also going after her now. Honestly, if they manage to find her, I could see her just wiping them out based on how she’s been built up.

I still don’t know why Jellal is after her. He confronts her at the end of the episode and I’m like, do you have a plan, sir??? You’re just going to walk up and say you know her true identity? Not going to tell Fairy Tail before this?

Also, Blue Pegasus and Mermaid Heel shoutout.

Okay, so Levy’s PREGNANT it seems? That dropped out of nowhere. She’s mad Gajeel isn’t picking up on that, but honestly, you don’t look pregnant and you should know by now that he’s not smart enough to pick up on that, so just tell him.

The fight was a good display of Diabolos' powers, although Fairy Tail gets absolutely wrecked. (Realistically, they should've stood a better chance. Erza and Natsu were the only ones that got nerfed. Lucy, Gray, and Wendy can hold their own.)

Kiria's so overpowered if she can just change people's personalities by cutting down their traits. I thought that was a little unfair to Erza. Also, how is this going to be undone? Either, they find a way to undo the magic or Erza's going to have to build her strength back up over time which will definitely hinder them a little.

Skullion was overpowered in a more believable sense. The scale of things he can turn to ash was crazy. He could literally destroy the whole world if he wanted. And then Armor Dragon guy just can't be hit because of how strong his defense is. Might need to get a little more creative there instead of just punching him.

I'm interested to see what will happen next week. Is Fairy Tail going to continue engaging the Dragon Eaters? I don't really have any other ideas for what they'll have to do next.

[carefulfears]

Saw your tags-- I noticed your 3 tagged fic authors share a beautiful, heartwrenching style amongst them; and that made me remember who my choice for delectably angsty yet wholly perfect was... and I wanted to share~!

@enigmaticdrblockhead is the one author that, bar none, always justifiably destroys me while somehow making me love humanity even more.

Mountains Crumble to the Sea, Darkness, and AliveDead were all S8 fics/AUs (AliveDead hits my niche of Skinner or Doggett or Scully finding Mulder returned from his abduction but wandering the streets.)

Ascension spilled my guts to the floor and made me shed actual tears (AU Colonization w/ Will.) The only other fic to do that would be @melforbes's seaglass blue and... one other one I forgot about.

And lastly,

Looking Forward to the Abyss is about a demonic Mulder who wrecked vengeance without regrets for Scully (Maggie's here, too.)

These have my whole heart in ways that other, darker fics struggle to capture (since my preference is not normally angst) and gives me a good "peering into the darkness to heal the soul, not embitter it" reflective reading experience.

Maybe you've already read them; but I had to give the author a shoutout. She has a coveted place in my collection. :DDDDD

thank you for the recs!! turning it right back around and encouraging everyone to check these out for my sunday fic list ❤️

[annamarabella-grumble]

My 7 Favourite Games of 2022

It’s so close to the new year now and I’ve been taking a little holiday from streaming, making new videos, and writing anything longer than my grocery shopping list, but there was one list I didn’t want to miss out on making: my favourite games of 2022. Since I started streaming every week in January of this year, I’ve played — and actually finished — a ton of games, and I’ve collected my seven favourites in this post.

They may be favourites for different reasons: having an emotional impact, a gripping storyline, or outstanding world building. Game mechanics tend to be secondary to my enjoyment of the story of a game, but there’ll be shoutouts to games whose developers clearly put thought into quality of life and what most respects players’ time.

Not all of these games were released in 2022, as I came to a few of them late, but I first played them all to completion in 2022.

Number 7: Gotham Knights

See, here’s the thing: I don’t care about 60 FPS, I really don’t. I understand that the PC version had some performance issues; I play it on the xbox series x, and it looks and plays absolutely fine for me. Second thing: I also don’t really care which version of canon or continuity any Batman game gets its characters or story from. Third thing: I enjoy the Arkham games as a viewer, not as a player myself. If you also don’t make either of these things your entire personality, keep reading.

What kept me playing the game was the mix of open world and linear storytelling. The main story, the additional rogue case files, and the Batkids’ own storylines gave the game a solid scaffolding to keep you going whenever you were tired of running after Freaks and Regulators and the Mob in near-endlessly procedurally generating chases and preventing small-time crime. But if you just wanted to dip in for a bit, especially to test out new abilities, the open world was yours to patrol for a night, wreck some shit, and go home.

Yes, that stuff gets repetitive, and if your brain isn’t wired in a way that enjoys that, I absolutely understand everyone who says they got bored of the main gameplay loop after an hour; that’s totally fair. For me, though, who likes checking things off a list and not having to think too much while cracking skulls? Perfect, I’ll do a hundred nights of patrol out in the streets of Gotham to collect shiny things.

For what it is, Gotham Knights is a perfectly solid and enjoyable game. As soon as you step away from a narratively linear game experience and into an open world, with online multiplayer mechanics to boot, the main challenge is keeping the player interested. Keeping up any narrative arc of suspense is difficult to do, and as a consequence, the final showdowns with the rogues can feel anticlimactic. The main final fight only happens after an exceedingly long section of sneaking and grappling through underground tunnels; in that same vein a lengthy chase through the sewers ends with a rather standard boss fight, too. Gotham Knights isn’t really about the set pieces. Still, there’s a large variety of locations and I like the neon aesthetic of the main streets.

I’ve played as each of the heroes over time, though I mainlined the story as Batgirl first, and I’m enjoying the variations in their abilities and fighting styles, while the mechanics are based in the same system to allow for an easy switch-over. There’s a ton of gear modifications to really bulk your character up, and it’s just fun to get together with a pal and run around mashing buttons. There’s less of a focus on the combo system from the Arkham games, which personally suits me fine.

Gotham Knights got the Batkids right, I feel. Yes, for simplicity’s sake there’s a strong, almost exclusive focus on some of each of their core characteristics to explore in the short cut scenes tied to memories around the city or the Belfry. But each of those is also tied to Bruce’s memory, and how he approached training and, for all of them except Barbara, raising them. (And even she would say that she got half her stubbornness from her father, the other half from him.) We get to know them in part because Batman knew them so well. And there’s a lot of heart in those moments. They were, for all their struggles to hold things together, a family, and that comes across really well.

In a game focused more on narrative or simply on only one of the main characters, those aspects as well as the rogue case files would have been more fleshed out and explored more deeply than Gotham Knights has room to do. But I appreciate the effort put into making Gotham City itself more lived in and vibrant than in previous games, though sometimes it still somehow manages to feel deserted? It’s odd. The real upshot for me was, though, that it doesn’t feel grindy. The presence of other case files suited for different level caps, and an emphasis on other contacts and side quests, makes it so you’re not just endlessly levelling up in order to be able to progress in the main story.

The game’s single greatest failing is that it doesn’t let me beat up cops wholesale, even though literally all of them will immediate open fire if they see a cape.

Number 6: Eternal Threads

Eternal Threads is a narrative puzzle game that completely took me by surprise during the summer. One long summer night without sleep turned into a treasure hunt of memories — and many of them sad, upsetting, or at least foreboding.

The story of Eternal Threads hinges on six housemates that all died in the same house fire. And you, the player, arriving from the future not to prevent the fire itself, but to save the six people trapped inside.

There’s a way to save all of them, and then there’s a way to help each of them resolve either past trauma or point them towards a solution for the challenge they see before them. You can stop once all are projected to survive, but you can keep going to find the best ending for all six characters. It does eventually feel like trial and error, trying to find the crux in it all that shakes the remaining puzzle pieces into place, but thanks to the narrative and all characters having relationships with each other that contributed to the mystery, and if you’re following those lines, it’s not just randomly turning over random pieces of the puzzle.

The visualisation mechanic felt familiar from playing detective games but with an added twist thanks to the visual timeline of events you can scroll through and tamper with.

Each of the characters led fully realised lives — some with tropes bordering on cliché, and sometimes the writing gets a little edgelord — but you come to care for each of them. I’ve written a detailed review of Eternal Threads, if you’d like to know more; including information on additional trigger warnings.

Number 5: The Excavation of Hob's Barrow

Hob’s Barrow is a stunning indie folk horror game inspired by English folk tales. I mean, apparently I’m cursed because every time I wanted to play the second half on stream, either I got sick or my PC stopped working somehow, so I had to finish it on my own. But at this point, that’s honestly part of its charm.

There’s things in that barrow Saxnot doesn’t want me to see.

Hob’s Barrow is a great blend of an emotionally affecting storytelling and classic point and click adventure games. Thomasina’s story is told in a classic framing narrative, along with flashbacks to her childhood, that keeps its final twist close to its chest. It’s a game that tells you from the outset, “you are doomed by the narrative” and then doesn’t stop for questions. There’s a solid mystery at the heart of the story, which is satisfying to unravel. And then, we ourselves unravel as we enter Hob’s Barrow, and everything we thought we knew was true is turned on its head.

There’s plenty of mystery and folk horror here, including references to the fair folk and the Lambton Worm, a real folk horror story. Thankfully, however, the game doesn’t rely on jump scares — they are present, but they’re not overused. Equally, its twist don’t rest on shock value. They’re foreshadowed well, and whether you piece things together with a bit of lead or just before it happens, they are shocking. Just not because they come out of nowhere, not because the game is more invested in tricking you, the player, than telling a compelling story. They’re shocking because they’re impactful, because there’s emotional weight to them.

The voice acting is incredible, as is the sound design and music — it’s delightfully Twin Peaks in places, which makes me very happy. (You can support the artist, The Machine, on Bandcamp!)

The protagonist’s voice actor, Sam Béart, in particular, does a fantastic job bringing Thomasina to life: from a troubled upbringing, to becoming a confident young researcher, to the tragedy and loss she eventually experiences.

Play this game! Play this game!

Number 4: A Little to the Left

There’s a full review of this game up on my channel already, so I’ll keep this brief, but I really cannot recommend A Little to the Left enough if you’re looking for a cozy puzzle game to while away a few hours with, and especially if you find putting things just in the right order satisfying.

The adorable art style and the way these puzzles fit together visually truly make the serotonin go brrrrr. Plus, when you’re done with the main levels, there’s a daily tidy to keep you engaged and exercise the little grey cells. The music is adorable, and it’s just so chill.

I have a more in-depth review here: 8 Reasons to Play A Little to the Left.

Number 3: Stray

This landing high up on this list won’t be a surprise to anybody: A+++ cat mechanics, no notes. The cutest cat game of all time, calling it now — with an absolutely devastating revelation.

Aside from being an adorable game about a cute cat, it’s also a powerful story about humanity, its foibles and strengths, and what’s left of us when, well. Nothing’s left of us. The world they forged outlived them in this story, and it outlived them so well that it’s as if they were still there, locked into Plato’s Cave, aka the domed city.

The Village is a place of light, because the humans that lived there used the light as an act of rebellion. They knew things were over, and they refused to live what little time they had left in the dark. The robots that lived with them, outlived them, continue to remember them. They don’t revere them as gods, they simply remember and take care of the things that mattered to them.

In this dystopia, the corporations that got them into this mess are long gone along with them. Perhaps, in the sprawling Outside, there is hope for new life. Give Earth to the cats. They’ll know what to do with it.

I have a more in-depth review here: 9 Reasons to Play Stray.

Number 2: Hades

Now, this game didn’t come out in 2022, and I was severely late to the party, but I picked it up for real and actually successfully escaped a few times over the summer, and I would like to thank everyone who psychically or otherwise bullied me into finally playing it.

If you’ve played it or, well, not lived under a rock since its release, then you’ll know why Hades is outstanding: the dialogue system, the voice acting, the soundtrack, the weapons and combat, the relationship mechanics, the roguelike…. ugh.

To borrow from the essay I wrote just after completing my let’s play of the game:

With Hades, I’ve learnt not to mourn the boon combo I lose when I inevitably die — I know I can make my own luck on the next run, and the next, and the next…

Zagreus’ complicated relationship with… well, everyone he’s ever met is by turns ready to pluck at your heartstrings, make you laugh, or ignite a blinding fury that will carry you through the next round on burning heels. In the Greek underworld, everyone’s queer and no-one is sorry (except they are so very, very sorry; sometimes, when you catch them in the right light). Everyone’s also punishingly hot, and it’s frankly unfair to make bisexuals play this game and expect them to get anything done without some sort of health warning.

You needn’t have spent your formative years soaking up Greek myth — though which of us hasn’t had something elgeebeetee happen to them whilst immersed in the adventures of Olympus, I ask you — to enjoy the story and the many characters’ idiosyncrasies and relationships.

I am perfectly content finding things out by the piecemeal method. Piecemeal is certainly all Father gives you, so settle in, folks, hope you’ve all packed your bags for the guilt trip. But don’t worry, you can make it all better by commissioning new rugs and furniture you’ll never once sit on because Zagreus. cannot. sit. still. Someone make that boy take a nap.

AND NOW WE’RE GETTING PART 2. BISEXUALS JUST KEEP WINNING.

Number 1: Cult of the Lamb

My GOTY is Cult of the Lamb. I love it, I’ve finished it and I still play it.

And here’s a variation of something that I originally wrote in that same essay about Hades, but which applies to Cult of the Lamb as well because both of them are roguelike games that I ended up loving after being scared of the genre for years — me being an absolute hoarder of stuff in video games.

The game acknowledges gains, motivating the player to keep going, ever on the quest for more, more, or simply to try out the new toys. This also lends support when you feel stuck, because you’re not being punished for not progressing in terms of region bosses defeated. Once you have, then, spicing things up through additional conditions and incentives means you still earn rewards for making it through again and again and again, giving the game the longevity it needs to keep players coming back for more to ensure that they actually see all the stuff that’s tucked away.

Cult of the Lamb is far from being as expansive in its story content compared to Hades. If you keep coming back it’s because you enjoy the familiarity of the main gameplay loop, or because you want to fully upgrade your cult base and deck it out with ALL the decorations. Or, because you’re cranking up the difficulty and using more of the drawback conditions on the fleeces; akin to Heat runs in Hades, to spice things up.

Speaking of decorations — and I shouted this out in my video review (Cult of the Lamb is my GOTY) — is that removing or editing buildings is so easy. In Stardew Valley, it’s a hassle, in Animal Crossing, it costs loads of money and it’s a hassle. In Cult of the Lamb, you can just pick something up and plop it down somewhere else, or remove it entirely, and it’s the work of seconds. Good news for all of us millennials who can’t commit to putting a new sticker on our laptops.

What were your favourite games you played in 2022?

[welcometoteyvat]

hi i love your grahpics :) they are very nice! what software do you use to make them? is doing graphics something you've done since young? i quite enjoy graphics as well. -- @apologems

omg!! thank you sm for the ask :) rn I'm a cheapskate so all I use is a godforsaken combo of autodesk sketchbook, photopea, and canva. been looking to pirate photoshop for a bit but there are too many steps and my time is getting a lot more limited w the start of school... also don't want to risk wrecking my computer at the moment lmaoooo

I started graphics only after """joining"" genshin fandom actually—the graphics community here is a lot more vibrant than my other fandom (they're just very different in general) and I wanted to make nice images like the stuff I saw lol (shoutout to koriyue, planetbefall, katistry, sumerun and 2734—all of their stuff made me go "i want to do that!" also shoutout to the source blogs for genshin, it's cool seeing so many different graphics styles collected in one place, and also a neat place to get inspiration from) I can't draw and haven't written a finished fic for this fandom, so graphics are how I contribute a bit of my thinking and love to the characters <3 sometimes it's just heehee hoohoo what looks pleasing to me and sometimes I put a bit more thought into what I actually want the edit/gfx to say about a character's themes/motifs and go from there. kinda hard not having drawing skills though lol

[pajama-nerd]

So, my friends and I are playing an irregularly scheduled, episodic campaign of Fallout. Which is a setting designed to hurt your feelings.

I knew this. This is not a complaint post. I love this campaign so much, shoutout to my DM, who has an account but is like... never on here, lol.

Anyway, the cast:

Scarlett: a sociopathic Vault Dweller who experiments on people and animals to try to mutate them into something interesting and also bring back spiders for some reason. Also a sniper.

Roy: A Mr. Handy Medic bot. Two eyes, three limbs, one of which is a boxing glove. Played by my boyfriend.

Rev: a former Brotherhood of Steel member who is traumatized by the things he witnessed and took part in.

Bam: our Eight-Foot-Tall Supermutant, wielding a piece of a billboard as a weapon and wearing a pink apron with applique daisies on it. She is clearly the heart of the team, and also (technically) a DMPC. (Our DM is an experienced RPGer who knows how to handle his shit, and Bam is not a main character. We do love her tho. Hard not to)

And Alexis: my character. A survivor. I designed her to be the charismatic face of the group, and by that metric, it was decided that Alexis was the one who found everyone and brought them into the settlement, which Alexis had named Hopestead. She affects a southern drawl and a 'butter-wouldn't-melt' persona that's pretty effective in a lot of situations. She is not actually from Appalachia. Her name is not actually Alexis.

And now for our NPCs! Because we needed some of those:

Elizabeth Owens: Officially the Mayor, although the others made it a running gag that for anything really serious, everyone goes to Alexis. It's just that Alexis desperately hates paperwork. Still, Mayor Owens cares about her community and was the second person that Alexis collected on her way to building Hopestead.

Robert: Our Brain in a Jar Bartender with a Porky Pig affectation (we know it's an affectation because it disappears in serious situations). As far as we've uncovered, he used to be a part of the Enclave and (somehow) ended up as a brain in a jar 'as a last resort' (whatever the hell that means, DM!)

Wilbur: Rev's Supermutant assistant. Super unsure of himself. Recently kidnapped, and on our immediate to-do list to rescue. (Not super relevant to the story, but not...not relevant.)

Adam: a member of the cult of Atom who proselytizes on the street opposite--

Martha: a member of the Mothman cult.

They could not more obviously be in love and using their soap box hours to make eyes at each other. It's adorable. They're not in this story, but I couldn't not tell you about them.

Damian Wayne: Exactly who it sounds like. We took Batman's hardass ten-year-old son and made him our Quartermaster. He is delightfully ready to gut whoever he's talking to. We adore him.

So the context, then:

In the first adventure, someone was trying to wirelessly transfer our consciousness into synthetic bodies to live in a perfect replica of Hopestead in a Vault nearby. He had also sabotaged our GECK. We stopped him, which ended with the termination of every synth in town, which was horrifying, because some of those transfers had completed. Very sad. But we swapped our GECK with the one in the Vault, so yay. Clean water. Crops. woot.

Then we used our sabotaged GECK to blow up a nearby Brotherhood of Steel outpost because everyone in the settlement is constantly worried that they'll catch wind of our peaceful settlement and come in and wreck our shit. (And then it turned out they were part of the less xenophobic branch and I felt real bad, y'all, but consequences is the name of the game. (Actually, the name of the game is...Fallout RPG. I'll stop))

THEN a few months passed, and we got more people in town. Yay! But then we noticed that some of our citizens were going missing, and that it was all the ghouls and supermutants and some of the synths (but not Bob or Roy). Our settlement is very inclusive. Alexis was not down for any type of segregation. So we investigated and found that some of the people who flocked to Hopestead were spies for The Top of the World, and that they'd kidnapped all our ghouls, and all our Supermutants.

Including Bam.

And obviously, this was not to be borne, so we mounted up and sallied forth, and Alexis talked them in and then they split up, and Roy and Alexis went after Bam, and Scarlett went to go blow shit up (Damian had given us a nuclear grenade. Where did he get a nuclear grenade? Don't ask questions). Rev was unfortunately not with us, because his player went on a cruise with his family.

Anyway, it turned out that the Raiders had been traded a bunch of munitions for the ghouls and supermutants, including several nuclear armaments, so Scarlett set a mine and moved on.

We found Bam. We beat some ass. We fucked off. And then the bombs went off, and took out the whole tower, which fell on the arena and killed a mess of folks.

Also we received a message from the Enclave via some...floating radios (I admit I am not as well versed in Fallout terminology as I would like to be. I've yet to sit down and actually play through the series). But basically, 'The President' called us out for being a nuisance and told us to stand down and submit ourselves to Enclave rule or be destroyed.

After knocking down the killer radios, we were able to fashion ourselves a radio tower, and Alexis responded to this ultimatum by basically saying, 'stay out of our way or you're next, kay?'

They were not pleased with this, as you might imagine.

So, while the main cast was at an amusement park, celebrating Bam's birthday, the Enclave unleashed 2 Scorchbeasts on Hopestead.

...

Which sucked.

But anyway, one day I was craving some emotional devastation, so I asked our DM if I could write up the aftermath, and he said, 'sure, why not?'

So I asked him who died in the attack.

Apparently none of the established NPCs perished in the initial onslaught, so yay, but that's not the only way a Scorchbeast can get you, so then he told me who caught the Scorched Plague.

SO ANYWAY, I WROTE THAT.

If you don't want to hurt inside, don't read this.

Seriously:

Trigger Warnings: Eye Trauma, Death, Gore, Semi-Graphic Depiction of Death by Shotgun, Assisted Suicide, Blood, Descriptions of the Scorched Plague Victims' Conditions, Burning Bodies, Suffering, War Crimes (Probably)

The ending is only vaguely hopeful

Otherwise, off you go:

Three Deaths

The moments immediately following the fight are chaos.

Alexis, half-blind from staring one-eyed down a scope as the Fat-Boy went off, leans against a rock, hissing and cursing as tears spill into the palm cupped over her blinded eye. She hears scurried footsteps approach and doesn’t even look up as Rev’s heavy hand grabs her shoulder.

“I’m fine, go!” she snaps, accent slipping as pain and worry cloud her mind.

There’s a moment’s pause before Rev’s hand leaves her shoulder and his footsteps carry him away.

Alexis tries to breathe. Tries not to see the cloud of Scorch Spores drifting down from the mutated bat-dragon onto her town. Tries to take solace in the fact that there’s no wind; in the knowledge that the spores will drop on the settlement and not much further beyond its borders.

It doesn’t help much.

Who’s dead? Is a thought that rings loudly inside her head, above even her own pain. Who’s infected? Is a thought she tries to block out, and failing, her stomach churns.

Minutes later, she manages to lift her head and squint one eye towards Hopestead.

Rev paces a couple hundred yards away from the South Fence, anxiously waiting for Roy or Scarlett or someone to bring him a hazmat suit so he can help his community.

Alexis ducks her head again and spits a curse at the ground before slowly, painfully, making her way in the direction of Hopestead.

She gets to where Rev has given up pacing – where he is standing, shoulders moving visibly with each heavy breath – and leans on the gun she’d been given to fight with.

The cloud is still visible in the air, mostly concentrated over the central cul de sac that they’d designated the ‘Town Square’. It’s difficult to see through the gaps in the houses. They only have the one avenue of sight down the main street. Even from a hundred yards away, they can hear crying and screaming, and they stand there in silence, hearts thundering.

After an interminable number of moments, Rev turns to look at Alexis, zeroing in on her closed right eye and rolling his own in irritation.

“...Are you fucking blind, right now?”

“Just the one eye, Rev, calm down. Nuke Flash,” Alexis drawls. Rev sighs, but reaches into his pack and grabs a length of bandage.

“Sit down,” he orders gruffly, and at first, Alexis shrugs off his command, only to find herself roughly sat on a nearby boulder. Her hat is plucked from her head despite her protest, and she glares up at Rev with her good eye, an act that he takes advantage of to start wrapping a bandage around her bad eye.

Alexis suffers the attention with gritted teeth, but looks up into Rev’s own clenched jaw and says nothing.

Neither of them do well with inaction. They can do nothing for their little village, and it is tearing them both apart.

She sits and she suffers, and she hopes that it does something to ease the pain of her friend.

It is an agonizing eternity before Scarlett marches out of the cloud, making her way over to them. She waves them back, and they go, waiting impatiently as she sets out two hazmat suits. She treats them to a brief blast with the flame thrower each, flipping them over to give the backside an equally brief burst.

With a thumbs up to both of them, she turns and runs back into the town as they hurry over to the suits.

**

“We’ll need to burn the dead,” Scarlett says, and Alexis sighs as quietly as possible inside her hazmat helmet.

“Carefully. Bam and her new friends will have to do all the work to that end, bein’ that they’re immune to the plague,” Alexis says, arms folded over her chest in her suit as she looks away. “Speakin’ a which...”

“Roy’s w-w-way ahead of you on that one, Boss,” Bob interrupts gently. She nods. “So far, only a c-c-couple of people reported in to the infirmary with symptoms, b-b-but now that w-we’ve got most of the spores burned off, Roy’s goin’ door to door, making sure no one who’s g-g-got it is hiding,” he says. She nods again.

The silence descends and oppresses. No one says anything. They barely move, the slip of hazmat material a sharp hiss that cuts awkwardly.

“Well...” Alexis starts, and then clears her throat. “I’m gonna head that way,” she says. Her swallow is convulsive and pushes bile back into her stomach. “Rev can’t bandage worth a shit, so I gotta see Roy about this eye, anyway,” she aims for a joke and falls short, but Rev still huffs.

“Fuck you,” he spits half-heartedly. Her smile is just as weak.

“Scarlett, take whoever can fit a hazmat and do a burn around the perimeter. Anythin’ looks infected, kill it,” Alexis orders, and Scarlett nods, leaving without a word. “Rev, see what you can do about our fortifications. I know you’re down an assistant, but maybe one of Bam’s new friends’ll be willin’ to help you out,” she said.

“I’ll ask,” Rev says, before leaving.

Alone aside from Bob, Alexis takes a moment to just breathe. She stares down at the hardwood table that she’d eaten at with so many members of Hopestead, and touches the top of it, broken inside at the thought of how many people will never sit at this table again. She swallows hard and blinks to compose herself, as a subtle whirring draws nearer. A cold, metal appendage settles over her hand on the table.

“You don’t gotta do this, Boss,” Bob says, and she takes a deep breath, looking at Bob through one tearful eye.

“You gain a lot of responsibilities when you put a family together, Robert,” she tells him. Then she takes another breath, blinks back the tears, and sighs. “And this is one of them.”

She puts her arm on his shoulder servo as she passes on her way out of the bar.

**

The clinic is crowded when she arrives, but not as disorderly as expected, and she stares at the two hallways that branch off the main lobby, both a low buzz of sobbing and chatter. She straightens her spine as she prepares to see to the final moments of people that she knows intimately, only to jolt in shock at the sight of Elizabeth, who parts a screen and then folds it back into place before hurrying down the hall.

She pulls up short at the sight of Alexis in her hazmat gear and one bandaged eye, and for a moment, the two of them are frozen in place.

Alexis is staring at Elizabeth’s bare forearms, where the skin was already a blotchy gray that stretched up under the folded sleeves of her blouse, and down to parts of her fingers. There are other darkening splotches visible at the collar of Elizabeth’s shirt, and when she looks into Elizabeth’s face, Alexis can’t help the look of betrayal she feels forming on her own.

Elizabeth sighs, looks down, and then straightens.

She’s the mayor, and her town is in crisis.

“We’ve got sixteen infected so far. I’ve quarantined them as best I can, but even if we manage to contain the spread from person to person, you’re probably going to have to burn down this building,” she reports in a strained voice, and Alexis can’t speak; can’t move; can’t do anything but stare at the woman who helped her build Hopestead from the ground up – one of the two people that Alexis had known the longest out of everyone. “I’ve had everyone who came in with symptoms shower in the decontamination chambers, but I don’t know that that does anything. I’m just glad those pipes don’t feed into the main water lines.”

After saying all of this, Elizabeth looks at Alexis, chin up, lips pressed into a thin, tight line to keep them from trembling.

“The onset is fast. Everyone here is in steadily worsening pain, but I’ve given them the minimum dose of painkillers according to some notes that Roy made. Some people aren’t handling it as well as the others; I’ve already euthanized John Peters and Gretchen Turner. We don’t have much time. According to rumor and hearsay, this takes days to kill you but it damn near drives you crazy from the pain first. I was hoping Roy would be back by now with the rest,” she says, before stopping. She puts her hands on her hips and blows out a slow, uneasy breath while looking away.

Alexis moves then, taking a single step towards Elizabeth, who immediately takes a step away, putting up her blackening hands and shaking her head.

“Don’t,” she says, and Alexis chokes out a sob.

“What do you mean, ‘don’’?” she demands.

“I mean don’t, Alexis,” Elizabeth snaps, before cutting herself off. She puts a hand to her mouth and looks down one of the hallways, but everyone else is too preoccupied with their impending demise to worry about their equally doomed mayor raising her voice. She looked back at Alexis, shoulders dropping. “The one thing I know for sure about Scorch is that it’s hideously contagious. One scratch, one microscopic spore on a split lip or a papercut… A sneeze could...”

She trails off and shakes her head.

“I’m sorry,” she says, and Alexis flinches, her trembling lips pulling back from her gritted teeth. “We saw them coming and I tried to get everyone to shelter, but I couldn’t...” She stops and shakes her head again. “I’m sorry.”

Alexis looks away, but not for long. Time has never been her friend – there has always been so much to do and never enough time to do it in – but it is her enemy now, and she has to fight for every second.

“How long?”

“It’s manageable right now. Mostly, I ache, and I feel as though I’ve gotten a mild steam burn over most of my body. I probably have a few hours before it becomes difficult to think, at which point...” Elizabeth says.

She trails off with a defeated shrug and Alexis nods.

“I...”

What?

I’ll fix this? That’s not true, this is beyond her power and they both know it.

I’m sorry? What good would that do?

I’m here for you?

I’ll stay with you?

I love you?

“I’ll do it,” she says, and her voice breaks as her heart does.

Elizabeth stares at her, eyes red and starting to gather moisture.

And then the door opens behind Alexis.

She moves to the side, clearing the space for whoever it is, and is momentarily buoyed by the sight of Roy’s orbicular form. She hears Elizabeth’s sobbed, ‘oh my god,’ half a second before she registers that Roy is herding a scared, huddled, six-year-old Alice McGregor, whose hands are black past the wrist, already cracking at the fingers to reveal red, weeping sores.

She looks up at Alexis and Elizabeth with tear-stained, black-smeared cheeks and gives a little sob.

“My han’s huwt,” she whimpers.

Alexis’ hands tremble, and inside, despair turns to rage.

She watches Elizabeth scoop Alice up in her arms, watches them walk away, and looks at Roy.

“Where are her parents?” she asks.

“It appears they were killed in the attack. When I found her, she was trying to shake them awake,” Roy reports, and Alexis turns away, raising a hand reflexively to her mouth and stopping just short of bumping her helmet.

Her hand clenches into a fist and lowers to her side, shaking.

“I’m going to kill every last fucking one of them,” she tells him. Her voice is low, and carries no trace of Appalachia in it as she stares into the middle-distance, imagining her vengeance.

Roy observes her for a moment and then hums.

“I will help you,” he says, before floating down the hall after Elizabeth. “But first I must see to my patients.”

**

Damian’s hands shake as he finishes the note, and he clenches them into fists, staring at the jerky last few letters. He considers re-writing it, and then shakes his head, grabbing the letter and the note and shoving them into an envelope. He seals it, writes the robot’s name on the front, grabs his shotgun, and slips out the back.

Outside, everyone is busy with cleanup, too preoccupied to notice Damian as he slinks through a few backyards and then scoots across an empty stretch of street to the house he rarely sets foot in. It’s one of the smaller ones, barely more than a trailer, really, but it’s entirely his.

He runs a lighter over the doorknob after he’s touched it and does the same with the inside knob after he’s closed the door.

Inside, he looks around, hands clenching on the shotgun.

This is the only house he’s ever lived in.

His entire life before Hopestead had been lived on the run, first with his parents, and then by himself. He’d been a self-sufficient survivor before Alexis found him and tried to convince him that he could belong here.

He’d known even as he had accepted her offer of ‘giving it a trial run’ that he’d never belong in Hopestead. He’d also known that without him, it would probably fall to pieces, and they’d all die. Alexis had been nice to him, and that had been most of the problem, in his eyes. It had taken him weeks to see the hard edge under Alexis’ drawl.

He wears violence on his sleeve like a badge.

Alexis hides hers under a smile and an extended hand.

These are both means to the same end:

Protecting Hopestead.

Protecting Hope itself.

He respects her. He respects the others, too.

He’s learned things from Rev, even though the man never knew he was a teacher.

He’s appreciative of Scarlett’s dispassionate disregard for the notions of morality, because in the wasteland, there’s no time for second-guessing, and no time for regrets.

He loves Bam like a sister.

He wishes he’d died in the attack. That would have been preferable.

But it isn’t how it is, and so now he’s going to see to it that he doesn’t become an infection vector for the town he’s sworn to protect.

He swallows the lump in his throat and goes to his bedroom.

He slaps a biohazard sticker on the door before closing it.

He draws the blinds and closes the curtains and then gets to work.

It’s easy to set up the shotgun, and he tests his trigger assist before loading it.

He doesn’t say anything throughout this process.

What would be the point?

Finally, he stands in front of his loaded, mounted shotgun.

He wipes his face. They aren’t going to find tears on his body.

His hands still shake as they pull the string around the trigger. His eyes squeeze themselves shut, and a choked off whimper of fear is heard by no one under a sudden, final blast of noise.

The obliteration of his chest cavity is swift and violent.

He feels nothing.

**

Alexis hovers at the entrance of the small, partitioned space as Elizabeth comforts Alice, who sniffles occasionally, bandaged hands curled into her chest. Despite Roy’s protests, once Alice is showered off and in an oversized scrub shirt, Alexis removes her helmet. She wants to keep Alice as calm as possible, and she knows the helmet is scary. She also knows that she is going to see a child die in front of her, and that there is nothing she can do about that except to limit the distress Alice feels in the meantime.

“Mayor,” Roy starts, and Elizabeth gives a groan.

“I think that’s about done, don’t you, Roy?” she says. Roy hesitates.

“Miss Owens,” he says again. “If you could hold her arm, I can administer the shot.”

Alice whines in protest, and Alexis can’t stand it any longer.

“Hey, now,” she says, stepping into the room and ignoring the way Elizabeth freezes. She sits on the bed and puts a gloved hand on Alice’s head, giving her as big a smile as she can manage. “What’s with the frowny face?”

“Don’ wike sho’s,” Alice whines. Alexis gives a sympathetic whine in return before sighing.

“Don’ I know it. Painful. Scary,” she says with a nod. “But you know what? Doc’s gonna give you somethin’ to take the pain away from your hands,” she says, still nodding slightly. “It’s gonna make you a little sleepy,” she stops to take a breath before smiling again, briefly. “And then it won’ hurt no more. Doesn’ that sound better?” she asks.

Alice sniffles, but nods, and Alexis nods too.

“Good,” she says, running her hand over Alice’s head and hiding her alarm at the way several locks of hair pulled away in her hand. “And if you’re a good girl, I’ll get Roy to bust out his lollipop supply, and you can have as many as you want,” she tells the child, whose eyes light up a little at the mention of Roy’s secret trove of (sugar free) treats.

“Reawwy?” she asks, and Alexis nods.

“Really. Hold out your arm, sweetie, it’ll only sting for a second, I promise,” she says, gently taking the child’s hand. Elizabeth supports the little girl’s elbow, and the two of them exchange looks of quiet devastation as Roy quickly and efficiently delivers death to his patient.

Once the shot is administered, his metal appendage finds Alexis’ shoulder and pulls her away with undeniable strength.

“I’ll be back with lollipops, I just need to speak with Alexis for a moment,” he says, before shutting the curtain behind them and pushing Alexis down the hall. On the way, he snags her helmet.

“That was reckless, and as a medical professional, I do not approve,” he says, using one appendage to efficiently brush away any of Alice’s hair that stuck to Alexis’ glove and then sterilize the glove with a spray, before pushing the helmet into her chest. It forces her back a step, and her hands come up automatically to take it from him. “You are not infected. Congratulations. Put the helmet on and do not remove it until I – your medical authority – authorize it,” he says, before floating back down the hall, already producing several lollipops.

**

It doesn’t take long for Alice to succumb, and Alexis closes her eye as Roy carries her little body, wrapped in a sheet, away to the pyre being tended to outside.

There’s quiet for several minutes before Elizabeth’s breath hitches, and Alexis looks at her.

Her brow furrows for a few extended moments, and her blackened fingers curl as she fights the urge to scratch an unending itch. After a moment, she settles, but does not relax.

“I’m sorry,” Alexis says, and Elizabeth blinks at her lack of an accent. Alexis stands from where she’d been hovering and moves to the foot of the bed, setting her hands on the footrest to stop herself from reaching out. “I’m sorry.”

Elizabeth doesn’t react for a moment, and then just tilts her head.

“For what?”

“Bringing you here,” Alexis says, ducking her head and giving it a shake. “Hopestead was a mis—”

“Shut up,” Elizabeth snaps, and Alexis’ head jerks up. “Just shut the fuck up. Whatever you were thinking of saying, whatever pity party you were about to throw for yourself, you can just can it,” she adds, before hissing in a breath and looking at the curtain partition separating her from the others. She lowers her voice, and stares hard at Alexis. “Hopestead is the best thing that has ever happened to any of us,” she insists. “You took 100 lonely, wandering souls and turned us into a community – a family – and you don’t get to regret this now just because some asshole is so scared of our happiness that he tried to take it away from us. Tried, Alexis. Tried and failed.”

“Failed?” Alexis asks, looking around and gesturing helplessly with one hand.

“Yes,” Elizabeth snaps. “As long as Hopestead endures, they will have failed.”

“Liz,” Alexis starts, shaking her head. Her one visible eye closes and when it opens again, it is filled with tears. Elizabeth sighs at the sight of them.

“I know.” She folds her arms and shrugs. “People are dying today, and it’s not fair. But we would all have been dead a long time ago if we hadn’t come together and built this,” she says. She leans forward to impress upon Alexis the importance of her words. “We built this. And we built it to last. And you are going to see that it does, because you started it, so you’re going to finish it,” she says.

Alexis shakes her head but doesn’t argue, and they lapse into silence.

“I want...” Alexis starts after a while, clearing her throat when the tears choke her. “I want to hold you,” she says.

“You can’t.”

“I know.”

“I’m going to help Roy see to the others,” Elizabeth says after a while. “And then you’re going to tell me why you suddenly don’t have an accent,” she adds.

She leaves, and Alexis sits down on the bed.

It doesn’t take very long at all.

Most of the citizens of Hopestead, once they are given the facts, take a quick and relatively painless death over slow, torturous transformation into something they can barely understand. Some want to take their chances, and Elizabeth orders Roy to render them unconscious before administering the shot herself.

Before very much time has passed at all, Alexis looks up to find Elizabeth standing at the entrance of the partitioned space, emotionally drained, physically exhausted from fighting through the pain. Alexis moves to a bedside chair so she can lay down, and then looks up at Roy as he floats through the curtain, holding a needle.

“Roy,” Alexis says, and he pauses. “I’ll do this one,” she says. He looks between her and Elizabeth and lays the needle down on the sterile instrument tray.

“I need to make another sweep of the town, to ensure there are no more infected,” he says, turning to float away before stopping and turning back to Alexis. “Do not remove your helmet,” he orders, and she nods.

“Yes, Roy,” she says. He stares at her for a moment, and then leaves.

Alexis stares at the needle, and Elizabeth stares at the ceiling.

“Are you really from Huntsville?”

“Vegas.”

“Your parents?”

“Never knew Dad. Mom was a showgirl at the Ultra-Luxe. Pretty successful, but miserable all the time. OD’d on pills when I was twelve. They decided I needed to be trained to take her place. I didn’t want that, so I ran.”

“That...sucks.”

“It did, at that.”

“The stories?”

“True aside from locations,” Alexis says, finally looking away from the needle to turn her eye to the ceiling.

“I knew you had secrets,” Elizabeth says, and then doesn’t say anything else, occasionally wincing or moving restlessly in a futile effort to ease her own discomfort.

“I’m sorry I lied, but I didn’t want that life following me around. I did...Liz, I did horrible things to survive,” Alexis says, but cuts herself off at Elizabeth’s laugh.

“What, you think I’m some kind of saint?” she asks, and then frowns.

“You never left anyone to die,” Alexis says. Elizabeth closes her eyes.

“Al, I just killed...fourteen of my closest friends and neighbors, including my God-Daughter,” she says, turning her head to meet Alexis’ good eye. “Your secrets don’t define you. I know who you are.”

“Fuckin hell, Liz.” Alexis hangs her head and shakes it.

“It’s...well. It’s not okay. But it needs to be done,” Elizabeth said.

Alexis nods, rocks, nods again, but says nothing, reaching over with shaking hands to grab the needle.

She is hyperventilating as she slips the needle into Elizabeth’s vein and depresses the plunger.

The moment it’s done, she throws the needle away, pulling the chair closer and desperately clinging to Elizabeth’s hand as tears stream down her cheeks. Elizabeth’s other hand cups the glass around her face and she holds it there.

“My name’s Zoe,” she says between sobs.

Elizabeth, eyelids drooping slowly, smiles.

“That’s who you used to be. The you that ran. It’s not who you are now,” she says.

“Yeah? Who’s that?” Alexis asks. Elizabeth closes her eyes.

“You brought us all together. You don’t run...”

She trails off and does not speak again. Alexis whimpers as the hand she’s clutching relaxes and the hand cupping her helmet goes limp. She presses that hand to the glass with her own and breaks in the silence of the clinic, sobbing and burying her face in Elizabeth’s chest.

**

It’s Roy who finds Damian.

Picking up where he left off and finishing his sweep of the neighborhood, he realizes that on his internal registry of citizens of Hopestead that he has been steadily checking off in his first sweep, he has not encountered Damian at any point. He floats to the Supply Depot, where Damian spends most of his time, and scans the area. The exterior will need to be treated with anti-fungal agents to prevent the spores taking root, but he doesn’t have much on him at the moment, and so he treats the door handle only before entering.

Inside is mostly untouched by Scorch, although Roy’s sensors pick up a low concentration making a trail to the main desk, which has small traces of fungus in a few places.

Also on the desk is an envelope, bearing spore laden fingerprints belonging to Damian.

On the front, in small, neat, disciplined script, is written, ‘Roy’.

He opens the envelope, already floating away from the desk as he inspects the contents.

He has three hands and two eyes. He can multitask.

Inside is a short note, and a larger packet of three folded-together pieces of paper.

The note reads:

        Roy. You’re the only one who can and will properly

disinfect these papers. Make sure you do that

before you give the letter to Alexis. Then come to

my house. Alone. There’s going to be a lot of blood.

The note is not signed, but as Roy reads it, he can see the slip of ink as Damian’s hand grew unsteady. Perhaps it was from the pain growing in his small body, but it’s just as likely that despite his fierce demeanor, he was still a ten-year-old boy who has realized he will never reach eleven.

Roy changes direction from the bar (Damian’s second most likely location) as he disinfects each page of the letter carefully, front and back, before tucking them into his storage cavity. Despite Damian’s wishes, Alexis is currently occupied with the grief of little Alice McGregor’s death and the current passing of her friend and (apparently) lover. He will give the letter to her later. Damian would understand.

He finds Damian slumped against the wall of his bedroom where the shotgun blast had thrown him. There is blood and gore everywhere, and Roy is careful not to touch very much of that as he gathers a few supplies.

He packs the chest cavity with towels to soak up the majority of what remains of Damian’s lifeblood before carefully wrapping his body in a thick blanket. He does this quietly and efficiently and then takes an uncharacteristic moment of silence to consider the small man in a child’s body. He knows that Damian is dead and cannot hear him, but he considers his experiences with the boy and composes a sentiment that he thinks Damian would have liked to hear before his untimely end.

“This was undoubtedly a difficult execution of a simple and practical solution. Doing this has certainly saved many more lives. I commend your bravery and regret it’s necessity.”

Silence meets his words, as he expected, and he simply hovers there for a moment before gathering the small, shrouded body, and floating away out of the house.

**

Bam and Scarlett are the ones manning the pyre when the Clinic doors open and Alexis carries out the body of Elizabeth Owens, mayor of Hopestead. Bam makes a noise like a wounded rhino and takes a few steps forward, but can’t quite bring herself to do anything more than impotently reach for someone who’d been her friend nearly as long as Alexis had.

Alexis looks up at her with one bandaged and one red, cried out eye, and then walks past her to the pyre.

When she steps up to it is when Bam snaps out of her stupor, stopping her from getting too close to the fire and gently lifting Elizabeth out of her arms.

Bam sets her near the top, ignoring the way the fire licks at her arms as she makes sure that her friend has the best spot on the funeral pyre.

The other Supermutants have taken the responsibility of making sure the fire doesn’t spread to nearby structures, spraying water from a hose on the outskirts of the fire.

Once Bam has settled Elizabeth, and Scarlett has bullied her with the fire extinguisher, Bam goes to Alexis, stooping down to give her the gentlest hug that she can manage while her arms still have fire retardant foam on them.

Alexis puts her arms around Bam and stares over her shoulder at Elizabeth’s corpse as it catches fire.

There’s nothing but the heat and the sound and the smell for several long minutes before the sound of Roy’s hover motor draws their attention.

There’s no reaction to the sight of Roy carrying a corpse shrouded in blankets, just a sense of weariness that settles over everyone. Roy, unable to set the body directly on the pyre, sets it at Bam’s feet, and the Supermutant frowns, reaching down to pull back one corner of the blanket.

“Bam, I don’t think that’s—” is as far as Roy is able to get before Bam roars in protest at the sight of Damian’s blank, sightless eyes. The Supermutant picks up the little body and holds it close to her, wailing in protest as fat tears roll down her cheeks.

Alexis turns her head, closes her eye and sighs, but has no more tears to give.

Scarlett stares at Damian, frowning.

Roy waits, and lets his friend grieve loudly for several minutes before setting an appendage on her shoulder.

“I am sorry, Bam.”

“He-he…He was muh…my friend,” Bam sobs, lower lip trembling as she looked up at Roy.

“I know. But he did a brave thing. And now it’s time for you to do a brave thing,” he says. She whines, ducking her forehead into Damian’s little concave chest before standing and reluctantly turning to the fire.

They all huddle around Bam after, as she cries, and watches Damian’s blankets melt around him.

**

It’s nighttime before Alexis has judged the fire to have burned down enough that they can leave it with Bam’s new friends.

“I don’t know about y’all,” she rasps, not bothering to clear her throat. “But I could use a drink.”

“Alcohol will only dehydrate you further. May I suggest waters all around?” Roy says as Bam lurches to her feet and shuffles in the direction of Bob’s bar. “May I also suggest that before there are drinks, there are decontamination showers?” he suggests in a slightly firmer tone.

Thirty minutes later, they sit, hair wet, hazmat suits cleaned, around a table in Bob’s bar, drinking water in sullen silence. Roy has fitted Alexis with an eye patch.

“Hard Day,” Scarlett says, and though her eyes are dry, she frowns.

“And it started off so well,” Alexis quipped without much feeling. “Bam won an eating contest, got that...mascot suit…” She trails off and then looks at Bam. “Hey,” she says, and Bam slowly lifts her head. “Where’s your mascot suit?”

“Got dirty; washed it,” Bam mumbles, and then goes back to staring at the floor, occasionally sniffling and hiccoughing. Alexis nods and silence descends again.

After they’d drunk a few glasses of water each, Roy emulates the noise of clearing his throat.

“Alexis, I know that it’s possibly not the most opportune moment, but I sense that you are suffering from a level of emotional exhaustion that makes it less likely you’ll be able to cry about this,” Roy says.

Alexis snorts, closing her eye as she shakes her head.

“What is it, Roy?”

“Damian left a letter,” Roy tells her.

Everyone lifts their head, turning to look first at Roy, and then at Alexis, who stares at the robot, drinks the rest of her glass in one go, and then gestures for him to hand over the letter.

It’s only a few pages, but that’s far more than Damian has ever had to say unless he was ripping someone a new asshole for improper handling of a weapon or misplaced shipment of supplies.

Alexis,

Words are cheap, which is probably why they’re your weapon of choice.

Alexis huffs despite herself, smirking briefly at the kid’s cheek.

I don’t have much to say, but I know that you need words in order to move on. Know that I do this solely for that purpose, because the thought of you moping around after I’m dead is fucking irritating.

I always knew that I would die here.

The world has been at war with itself since before it was set on fire, and people who think like you act – who think that peace can be achieved with a smile and an open hand – are always going to be set upon first. They’re going to be set upon by people who are absolutely certain they are wrong and despise seeing them make any progress. They’re going to be set upon by people who crave power over others and see the peace they’re building as a threat. They’re going to be set upon by people who see kindness as a weakness.

And kindness is a weakness, Alexis. Most people who are kind are not going to want to hear that, but it’s true. Kindness by itself will result in people taking advantage of those who share it too freely.

But you know that already, because you’re not just kind, Alexis, you’re smart.

Smart enough to know that Hopestead would need someone like Bam to scare away small threats.

Someone like Rev to build defenses against bigger threats.

Someone like Scarlett to take care of insidious threats.

Someone like Bob to warn you about threats you can’t see or don’t already know about.

Someone like me and my big ass arsenal, to take care of the threats too big for Bam and Scarlett.

And Someone like Roy to put you all back together afterwards.

You’re not kind for Kindness’ sake. You have calculated your kindness into a weapon.

This is why they’re not going to win.

This is why it’s okay for me to go.

You are going to take your kindness and twist it like a knife into that old bastard’s heart.

Maybe twist a literal knife in there too, if you can manage.

I have a present for you. A precaution.

Bam helped me move my shit to the bunker a few weeks ago. We used those tunnels, the location of which I weaseled out of Bam when she let slip that they existed.

The same tunnels you’re going to use to get everyone out of town and down to the bunker, so that the next time they send their attack dogs, there’ll be nothing for them to find. It’s the smart thing to do to keep our community safe. I don’t have to tell you that.

Do not mourn for me. That is a waste of time you no longer have.

Keep bringing in new people.

Keep being kind.

Keep making people care enough that they’d die for you.

Every person you turn to your cause is a poison to their ideology.

Make him choke on it.

                                                        Damian.

Alexis finishes the letter and sighs, passing it around to Scarlett and the others. Bam takes it last, but just stares at Damian’s handwriting for a while before folding the paper as carefully as possible and pressing it against her chest over her heart. Her big brows furrow and she closes her eyes and rocks back and forth slightly in her chair.

“He’s right,” Scarlett says, and Alexis looks at her. Scarlett shrugs. “Tactically speaking, the bunker is the best bet. In fact, if that’s what we’re doing, I’m going to want to get a head start on moving my laboratory equipment. Tunnels?” she asks abruptly, and Alexis sighs again, rolling her eye.

“When I found this place, I wanted to make sure there’d be a safe egress in case of...”

She trails off, gritting her teeth for a moment and tapping the table top.

“We’ll start moving folks out tomorrow. Quietly. If someone’s watching, I don’t wan—”

She breaks off as the door opens and Rev, still wearing his hazmat suit, rushes in. He stops at the sight of them sitting there, but Scarlett and Alexis quickly don their helmets before looking up at him. Roy hovers over to Bam to take the letter and keep it safe in the storage compartment.

“I hate to break up the funeral,” Rev says, and Alexis doesn’t comment on his assumption. It’s a safe one, given the givens. “But we have a problem,” he tells them. Scarlett rolls her eyes as Alexis just stares for a moment before getting to her feet.

There’s never going to be enough time to do what needs doing.

She sets her grief aside.

She has work to do.

[lazyboycentral]

Well holy shit, I actually finished a game from my backlog. I figured this one wouldn't take much time to polish off. It's a short ride (and unfortunately, not a really exciting one) but it was still a good time nonetheless.

What really grabbed me about this game is the pixel graphic design. Maybe it's because of my age but I'm a sucker for well-animated sprite art in modern games, and Flynn definitely delivers in that regard. Everything is almost needlessly animated so fluidly, it's almost at a Metal Slug level. The graphics were the only thing I was really impressed with, though; the gameplay itself, while incredibly solid and precise and what you should expect in any good action-platformer, felt pretty basic overall. Don't get me wrong, the game was still a good time and had plenty of challenge (especially some of the later bosses), but it all just felt very...familiar, if you catch my drift. You get new weapons and upgrades throughout the game, and even invest in a skill tree, but nothing this game offers really adds anything new to the table.

I'd give it a couple points, though. For one, there are lots of secrets in the game, like alternate routes, hidden treasures to collect, and bonus challenge hoard levels. Kinda gives off a Super Mario World vibe with all the hidden stuff you can find in certain levels. Also I gotta give a shoutout to Dex, your floofy dog companion in the game. Around the midpoint, you get to ride on her back and just wreck shit up with her incredible power and traverse areas of the level your on that you normally couldn't traverse on your own. Dex is really fun to play as, but you can only use her in designated levels (which is fair...she would break the game entirely if you could bring her everywhere). Still, seeing Dex being summoned in a level was always something to get me excited for. Not much else of the game did, to be honest.

Wish I could say more about this game, but that's honestly my reaction to it. This certainly doesn't sound like the most glowing review of Flynn, but I assure you it's still worth playing...maybe if you get it on sale. It's one of those "short but sweet" games; a very pretty game and quite challenging at times, but won't take too much time to finish and will feel like something is lacking when you get to the end. Perhaps this one wasn't the best start to tackling my backlog, but it is a decent start.

Next on my backlog is my first step to playing every Assassin's Creed game I can, starting with Assassin's Creed...2? Ehh, I'll get into that later.

[lorientours]

Shoutout to Kalr Five throughout Ancillary Sword. The most intense subterfuge and political drama is going down right in front of her and she’s getting her kicks from a) successfully convincing people that she’s an extension of an AI for the Prestige TM and b) being smug about her highly collectible dishes. Breq’s out here navigating ethnic tensions, coup de eats, and murder but she’s like “Well before you obliquely threaten someone, I see you’re very impressed by these dishes. Get absolutely wrecked - you do not have the class for these plates & stop talking shit about my captain”

[2goth2moth]

Until You Can't Stand (M!Werewolf x M!Incubus, NSFW)

Big shoutout to @xo-philia for beta-reading this for me!

Word count: 3476

Includes: Marking (biting and scratching to draw blood), mild possessiveness, pet names, knotting, scent kink (kind of), mild praise kink, non-human genitalia, self-lubrication

There was something Luke hated about being a werewolf: mating cycles. The slow, constricting heat that flooded his body every few months, the way he lost control of his shift, the oversensitivity. It interrupted every part of his life, and he hated it. The only solace he could find was the fact that it gave him an excuse to spend the week shut in with his incubus boyfriend.

He opened the door to his apartment, prickling nerves instantly soothed by the comforting smell of home. The small collection of rooms he shared with his boyfriend always smelled nice. They never could quite clean out the scent of spices and bread out of their kitchen, and it seemed to spread to all the other rooms easily. Now, however, with his senses being pushed to their limits, he could pick out all the scents that filled the small apartment: the milk and cardamom from their chai that morning that hung in the air, his own thick musk, his incubus’ clean, pleasant salt. It was stronger than usual, clearly coming from their bedroom. Luke smiled at the thought of Allius being home already. He took his shoes off at the front door, dropped his bag by the table, and went inside.

Their bedroom was small, like the rest of their apartment, and always kept cool (Luke tended to run warm). Allius was sprawled messily on the floor beside their bed in a nest of soft blankets, absentmindedly writing in the margins of a book.

He looked up at the sound of the door opening and smiled brightly. He sat up, keeping one blanket drawn around him, and reached out a hand to Luke.

“Hey, love. I wasn’t expecting you back yet.” Luke sat down on top of the blankets and took Allius’ hand gently. “Don’t you have work today?”

Allius traced his fingertips around Luke’s large nails. “Your mating cycle is starting today,” he said simply. “I wanted to be here for you. I know it’s rough to handle on your own. Besides,” he added, bringing his other hand to Luke’s face, pulling his lips back from rapidly growing teeth. “Can you really be so surprised that I want to be with the man I love right now?”

He chuffed at this, nuzzling into the hand at his face. He was shifting more now, quickly approaching the half-man-half-wolf that he would be for the days of his cycle. Allius continued toying with Luke’s hands and head as his jaw widened and extended, as his nails turned to thick, hard claws, as fur began to grow along his throat and arms. The blanket draped around the demon’s shoulders slipped down to reveal a grey shirt- one of Luke’s grey shirts- worn thin and soft in the washer. It was large on him, falling off his narrow shoulders. A low pang of want rumbled through Luke.

He nipped lightly at Allius’ fingers. “This is unfair. You look too good.”

“Really? This is unfair?” He feigned insult, gasping and dramatically putting the hand that was not being nibbled on over his heart. “And after I went through all the effort of dressing up for you!”

Luke laughed. “‘Dressing up’?” He ran a finger under the shirt’s loose neckline. “This is basically pajamas.”

“Well, you haven’t seen the whole thing yet.”

Luke’s mouth went dry at the idea of “the whole thing”. Allius must have heard his breath catch in his throat, because he kissed him once and backed away from him a little, rising to his knees. The blankets tucked around his legs fell away, exposing...holy shit.

The hem of the shirt fell clean past the middle of his thighs, hiding whatever he was wearing on the bottom, until he pulled the edge up to below his navel. Underneath, he only had black panties, cut high across the hips, with mesh on the sides. His cock was obvious, pressed against the thin fabric, and the sight sent a bolt of heat to Luke’s abdomen.

“Do you want to see more?” Allius asked, fiddling with the fabric in his hands. Luke nodded dumbly.

Crossing his arms at the hem of the shirt, Allius whipped it over his head. His human form was beautiful. Fine, dark hair covered his legs and arms, and ran down his belly to disappear under the panties. Tiny crystals twinkled at his navel and on both of his dusky nipples. He brought a hand up to toy with them one at a time, jaw clenching in pleasure as he teased each nub to full hardness.

Luke had to grind the heel of his palm into his cock to relieve some of the pressure building in his pants. “Holy shit.” He barely noticed the familiar bone-deep grind that came when a fluffy tail began sprouting from the bottom of his spine.

Stepping quietly, Allius settled himself in front of Luke again. He placed his hands primly between them and leaned forward on them to kiss the werewolf softly. A small tongue licked at the seam of his lips. He moaned, letting Allius slip his tongue in fully. Their lips moved together and Luke hummed in contentment at the feeling of that tongue trace over his sharp teeth. He sucked on it, then took Allius’ lower lip in his teeth and bit down, just hard enough to break skin. Allius pulled back with a smile and one last kiss to the corner of Luke’s mouth.

“So? How do you want me?” Allius purred, his form shimmering between human and reptilian, feathered and furred.

Seeing every one of his lover’s gorgeous forms was straining Luke’s already thin self-control. He couldn’t bear to wait another second. “You. Just... you. As yourself.”

Allius grinned devilishly, arching down into the floor as his true form rippled through his body. The skin at his hairline and on his hands and feet burnished to an inky black. Small, humanoid teeth and nails sharpened to fangs and claws, and short nubby horns sprouted from his forehead. A line of shiny, platelike scales grew down his spine, leading into a dextrous tail at the base of his back. He was perfect, every inch the demonic temptor Luke knew him to be.

Luke hardened even more at the sight, his own bushy tail lashing behind him in a combination of distress and arousal. A low, long whine came from the back of his throat. “Stop teasing.”

“Aw, puppy,” the incubus said, crawling to kneel in front of him. “Getting impatient?”

“You know I am,” he replied through gritted teeth. “I’m in my mating cycle, this is just mean.”

Allius’ gaze dropped to his cock, where it was starting to strain against the seam of his sweatpants. “You’re right. I’m sorry.” He leaned over, kissing Luke’s cheek, running his small clawed hands over the wolf’s thick thighs. The touch was electric. The air around them was heavy, musky and rich with the pheromones that Luke was putting out. “How quickly do you want to go?”

Luke buried his nose into the crook of Allius’ neck, breathing in, recognizing the now-present floral sweetness of his arousal. He ran a broad, flat tongue over his collarbone. Goosebumps erupted over Allius’ skin. It was getting difficult for the werewolf to remain coherent, but he fought his instincts. “You haven’t fed in a while. What do you need?”

This earned him a firm tap on the side of his head with the demon’s fingertips. “I feed on your pleasure, dummy. I’ll be getting my fill plenty over the next few days. You don’t need to worry about me right now.” His hands came to rest on Luke’s clothed dick. “Now, answer my question: how do you want this to go?”

The slight domineering tone sent a shiver through him. The honest answer was that he wanted everything. Everything Allius would give him, to give Allius everything in return. The short answer…

“I want to fuck you ‘til you can’t stand.”

Allius’ eyes widened slightly before he grinned again. His lips met Luke’s in a kiss, as brief and fierce as it was filthy. Nipping his bottom lip once, the incubus turned around and arched his back. The black cloth of his underwear disappeared between his asscheeks. His tail flicked slowly and playfully as he looked back over his shoulder. “What are you waiting for, alpha? I’m ready.”

Luke grabbed his hip hard in one large, clawed hand. “You know that’s not how it works.”

The demon in front of him looked pointedly at his still-hard cock. “Doesn’t seem like it’s ruining the mood though, does it?” He lowered his chest to the floor and spread his knees slightly, presenting his ass even more obviously. Luke could see the slick soaking through his panties. “Now come on, baby. I thought you said something about ‘until I can’t stand’?”

Licking his lips, Luke pulled the fabric nestled between his asscheeks aside to expose his hole. Slick, sweet-smelling and vaguely pink, ran down his balls. He lapped it up, heightened lupine senses relishing in the scent of his lover. It was intoxicating, and he licked up every drop he could, purposefully avoiding where he wanted to go most. The incubus below him was breathing heavily and pushing back against his face. A growl ripped loose from his throat as his teeth sank into a soft, plush leg. It was torture trying not to break skin, but healing in his demon form, although complete, was strenuous and cost Allius a lot of energy. Luke soothed the area with a slow drag of his tongue.

A high-pitched whimper came from the demon kneeling in front of him. Luke pulled back, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand. “Are you okay?”

A glance at his face showed Allius flushed and sweaty. Spit shone around his mouth where he had clearly been biting his arm to retain some composure. “You’re holding back.”

“Yeah, I know that…”

“Stop it. I want you to mark me. As much as you can. Even if it won’t hold, I want you to make me yours. Wreck me, Luke.”

This command, bitten out as Allius’ chest heaved with deep gasps and his tail lashed impatiently, snapped the remaining threads of his control. Luke snarled loudly and yanked his own pants down his thighs, freeing his cock. He kicked them the rest of the way off and tore his shirt from his body in a fit of impatience. Big, lupine hands dug deep into the meat of the incubus’ ass. Golden blood welled up around his claws and dripped in thin rivulets down the smooth skin of his legs. Allius moaned quietly, shoving his face down into the floor. Luke bent his head back down to lick over his hole again, trying to pull more noises from the demon’s throat. The ring of muscle was already soft and opened to him readily, letting him stick his tongue inside. A particularly strong flick sent the incubus rocking back against him even more insistently. Whimpers were now spilling from his mouth in earnest as he brought one of his hands to rub against his cock through the thin panties.

Luke pulled back from Allius’ ass, licking his lips. A mix of spit and slick covered the bottom of his face and had begun to drip down onto his chest, wetting down his coarse hair. Allius looked back at him again, eyes blown out, and Luke couldn’t help but follow a drop of sweat that ran from his nape down the length of his spine. “Come on, puppy, please.” He was whining at this point, arching his back more, slick still dripping down his balls and thighs.

Biting down hard on his asscheek one last time, Luke lined up the head of his cock, flushed red and leaking pre-cum, with his entrance. “Ready?” He said, leaning over to kiss Allius’ shoulder gently.

Allius tried to buck his hips back onto Luke’s cock himself, but the vice-like grip on his hips kept him from doing much more than wriggling helplessly. “Just fuck me already!”

More golden blood was leaking from where Luke was holding him, more slick coming from his hole. In one swift movement, he plunged into Allius until his hips were sitting flush against his backside. The thrust drove the demon’s whole body forward, chest skidding along the floor. The low grunt that Luke let out was drowned out by Allius’ high-pitched whine.

He was already panting hard at the feeling of Allius’ tight walls around him. A sinuous black tail flicked anxiously as he once again tried to push back on the cock inside him. This wasn’t enough for either of them. Keeping one large hand on the demon’s hip and bracing the other against his back, Luke set a punishing pace into his boyfriend. Each thrust sent jolts through his body as he was driven further and further into the floor.

“AH...fuck!” Wanton sounds of pleasure spilled from Allius’ lips even from where his face was hidden in the crook of his elbow. He was humping back against each stroke, trying to get even more stimulation. His tail was going crazy, winding around the werewolf’s wrists, ankles; even batting frantically at his hip. It took an iron grip around the hand braced against his back. The long fingers and claws spanned nearly the entire width of his waist. Luke pressed his fingertips experimentally into the soft flesh of his demon. Five pinpricks of blood rose to the surface. “Oh, shit. Keep going!”

Luke hooked his claws into the flimsy fabric of the panties that Allius was still wearing. In one rough swipe, he shredded them and pulled the remains off of him, leaving the incubus naked. Resetting His grip on his hips, Luke sank all the way into him before pulling out, leaving only the head of his cock, and thrusting in again. Allius moaned once again, the noise sweet and high-pitched despite how muffled it was. Luke had a problem with this.

He sank his teeth into Allius’ shoulder, tasting the blood spill around them. “Stop fucking hiding. I want to hear you,” he snarled into Allius’ skin. Wrapping his arms firmly around the incubus’ waist and chest, he wrenched him upright onto his knees. “I want everyone to hear you.”

The possessive words made Allius tighten around him. “God, you’re in a mood today,” he choked out, struggling to maintain composure as Luke rammed into him. “So- ahh- territorial.”

Luke dug in everywhere he was holding Allius, leaving bite marks on his neck and deep scratches on his belly and ribs. “You knew this would happen,” he said with a particularly rough thrust. He began pulling Allius’ much smaller body back into him with each drive of his pelvis.

Each stroke was reaching impossibly deeper inside him, and he was slack-jawed and drooling with pleasure. His tail wrapped around one of Luke’s muscular thighs.

“Hnng- ah- ahh...fuck!” Allius’ cock hit his own abdomen with each drive of Luke’s hips, and it left smears of pre-cum on his smooth brown skin. He brought one hand down to harshly stroke his cock. “Of- ah! Of c-course I did . Why- oh- why do you think I look forward to this so much?”

A violent bolt of lust and affection lanced through Luke. He loosened the grip on Allius’ torso to take his nipples in his fingers. He rolled the nubs between his fingertips, tugging on the piercings but careful not to cut the delicate skin. “You’re perfect,” Luke groaned against his neck, “But you already knew I think that.” The sentence was punctuated by another drive of his hips that sent Allius’ back bowing away from him.

Allius cried out again, the noise desperate and closer to a shriek than a moan. His walls clenched around Luke’s cock. “Do that again, puppy.”

Luke obliged happily, grinding his hips up into his lover, trying to hit that spot again and again. Allius let his head drop back against Luke’s chest, long past trying to hide his sounds of pleasure. He kept stroking his cock but the pace was stuttering and unsteady because of Luke’s vicious thrusts. His walls were fluttering in pleasure, and Luke could feel his knot start to swell. It caught on Allius’ rim with every movement. He made to pull out, but Allius moved his strong tail to encircle Luke’s waist, keeping him from moving back any further. He was panting hard, back sweaty and sticking to the werewolf’s hairy chest. “Fucking knot me, dumbass!”

Now this was new territory. Luke had never knotted Allius during his cycle, always pulling out and cumming outside, or knotting one of his toys. His brain was too cloudy to question this change, though, and immediately thrust all the way back inside. He rolled his hips into Allius, trying to make the most of his limited mobility. Luke knocked aside the hand that Allius was still jerking off with and replaced it with one of his own. His hand was larger and rougher than Allius’ own, and in moments the demon was cumming. Pearly liquid, the same pinkish colour as his slick, shot out, hitting himself in the chin, dripping down his chest and over Luke’s fingers. The way his hole clenched around his cock sent Luke over the edge. After a few more harsh thrusts he sank in to the hilt, and held Allius tight against him as he spilled inside. They collapsed, still locked together by Luke’s knot.

Allius looked thoroughly wrecked. He was covered in cum and that demonic golden blood, his whole body damp with sweat, with slick still leaking down his inner thighs and saliva dripping from his open mouth. He had claw and bite marks all over him, and the possessive side of Luke was already beginning to lament them healing smooth. “Fuck, that was so good,” Allius breathed out, craning his neck painfully in order to kiss Luke’s chest.

“You’re telling me,” Luke replied. He knocked his nose into Allius’ hair, running his fingers through to cum streaking the demon’s torso. “I don’t know if either of us can keep that up for the next five goddamn days.”

“Speak for yourself, puppy. I’m going to expect this every time you fuck me again. I’ll probably never have to feed again”

Groaning, Luke laved his tongue over one of the big bite marks one Allius’ shoulder. They kissed lazily, almost sleepily, with Luke straying away from Allius’ mouth to lick up the cum that had caught on his chin. Allius dropped his head to the floor after a few minutes, watching with half-lidded eyes as Luke continued dragging his fingers through the cum on his torso, licking the sweet-salty seed from his hands.

“Luke, can I ask you something?”

“Of course.” Luke rolled his hips into Allius once, both of them shivering with overstimulation. “It’s not like I can run away.”

Allius laughed once, breathless and joyful. He reached up to trace Luke’s hairline with soft fingers. “I…” He breathed in and out, clearly in an effort to centre himself. “I want to be your mate. Properly. If you’ll have me.”

Luke sat bolt upright as best he could while still being locked inside Allius. “You want to...pardon?”

“I know that it’s a big thing, and you’ll have to claim me as a human because if I’m in my true form the bite won’t hold. Also, I don’t know whether I would bite you too, or if we would form a pact, or…”

He was cut off by Luke locking his muscular arms around him in a bone-cracking hug. “Yes. Yes, of course I want to be your mate!” He attacked every available inch of Allius’ skin with kisses and nips. “Is that why you wanted me to knot you this time?” He asked after burying his nose into the velvet-soft skin behind Allius’ ear.

Allius nodded, wriggling further back into Luke’s warm arms. His tail wound affectionately around Luke’s ankle. “I don’t know why I’ve been avoiding it for so long. It’s not like I can get pregnant, and it feels so good. I feel so full.”

Luke groaned at the sound of that, gently headbutting Allius. “Don’t say that. I already want to fill you with my cum so bad, now I’m never going to want to stop fucking you.” He bit the demon’s ear with sharp teeth, hips bucking slightly. “And I know for a fact that I’m not willing to never let you top me again.”

“Ooh, so romantic,” Allius chuckled, “But no matter how nice that sounds, I want to go to sleep now. I’m tired.”

Luke nodded into the incubus’ nape, tucking them closer together and drifting off, surrounded by each other’s warmth.

[nny11writes]

For we will raise you, in safety and peace

Okay, tumblr ate the first attempt at this post, hopefully it doesn’t devour this one as well! Here’s the deal, I can’t seem to figure out a good ending for this fic to save my life and I don’t want it to languish in the pile of unfinished wips. So I’m going to post what I have here on tumblr to at least get it out there somewhere. If anyone has suggestions for an ending I am all ears! HUGE shoutout to @venn364 for helping me figure this fic out to this point and for helping me Horde-ify hush a by baby! 

Rating: Teen (for some cursing) Category: F/F/F Relationship(s): Glitradora (Glimmer/Catra/Adora) Characters:  Glimmer, Catra, Adora Warnings: None apply, this is a fluff fic Additional Tags: Multiple PoVs, fluff, happy fic, happy ending, crushes, idiots in love, dorks in love, young children, Catra deals with the curse of being cute, Adora is a massive dork but what else is new, Glimmer tries to flex on her crushes by singing, lullaby, hush a by baby, post war, post canon Summary: During the post-war reconstruction of Plumeria, Glimmer volunteers herself and voluntells her crushes to take care of the local children to keep them out from under foot. She just, didn’t expect the Horde to require childcare as part of their regular duties and rotation. Or Three Sapphics watch one another interacting with young children and go, “Well guess I’m somehow more in love, cool cool cool.”

Adora and Catra looked at one another and shrugged. “Yeah okay.”

Glimmer was relieved, don’t get her wrong, but that was…not exactly what she’d expected. “Just like that? That simple?”

It wasn’t like she’d expected them to just hop on board with her, even if she’d wanted this to all pan out.

Catra rolled her eyes, a bit too theatrically thanks, before answering, “Well, I mean, sucks to be doing Cadet chores again, but, whatever. Just a buncha kids.”

“I feel like I’m missing something,” Glimmer grumbled, rubbing a hand at her neck. “You’re not trying to act too cool, and you’re not freaking out enough.”

They shared another confused look before Adora spoke up. “I mean, why would I? We’ve done a bunch of rounds at the Infant Pods, more than our fair share in fact.” That last part she said with a pointed look at her oldest friend.

Catra stretched lazily, “I will not apologize.”

“Point is, we can do this. It’s pretty simple over all, especially with you there as a third!” 

Glimmer laughed, “Wait. Hang on, seriously? I’ve never babysat before but you two have?”

“Really? Weird. But, uh, yeah. Everyone in the Horde has some child rearing experience, it’s literally part of your Cadet chores and rotation.”

The galaxy must be on it’s side right now. The Horde, the EVIL Horde, had enforced babysitting chores. “Why?”

Adora shrugged, “Well someone has to make sure they’re clean and fed, doing their homework-”

“Not destroying property or getting in dangerous situations before we could send them to the meat grinder-”

“Keeping them out from underfoot, and getting their energy out too.”

“Also the whole, sometimes babies just die when you don’t, like, hold them enough thing. ...What? Did you think Hordak was at the Pods rocking them to sleep?” Catra laughed.

It certainly was an image. Glimmer giggled as she pictured Hordak overwhelmed by a literal wave of babies. “No, I just never thought about it I guess. You’ll have to teach me.”

They both grinned and Glimmer felt her heart skip a beat. It was, look, don’t judge, it was a really, really good look on them, okay? 

It only took a few minutes to arrive at the temporary nursery Perfuma had set up. While Plumeria was still being cleaned up, she’d wanted a safe place for the children to go, and only needed a few extra hands to help as she pulled her subjects to help redesign their homes. Not that she’d put it like that. Something about syncing their harmonies while reconnecting with their innermost roots? The point was that Glimmer had offered to help mostly to help and partially to avoid another extremely long and boring meeting, but one teleporting queen with no childcare experience was not ideal. Perfuma had been the one to suggest Catra and Adora, seeing as the reconstruction really relied more on Perfuma regrowing the homes in this particular space.

So, they were working with what they had. And apparently that meant Horde soldiers. Experienced Horde soldiers who knew what to do with kids. Weird!

~

When they arrived, it was chaos.

Catra couldn’t help the small grimace she wore, she’d never been fond of IPD. Kids are loud, they don’t have boundaries or respect for other’s boundaries either. She doesn’t know how many times some toddler or Junior Cadet had petted her or pulled her tail and ears with their mysteriously sticky little hands while covered in snot. But she could also say that the one good thing about it was, without fail, some baby was going to think you were the hottest shit ever. And it had done wonders for her low self esteem as a Cadet to know that she’d always collect a gaggle of kids who everyone claimed were impossible to handle doing exactly what she wanted.

It had actually been kind of hilarious out in the Crimson Waste to use some of the tactics she’d learned in the IP against grown gangsters and thugs.

Catra could also say that the very next best thing about it was watching Adora either slowly unravel into a total mess or watching Adora get all the other kids under her thumb. Not that Adora would think of it like that, the goody two shoes, but kids seemed to naturally either love the blonde or desire nothing more than to destroy her. 

Especially at the time, Catra could relate.

She was actually kind of interested to do this now just to see Adora go at it again.

And also Glimmer apparently had no experience with kids and Catra would kill to watch that skiff wreck. No, ugh, she had promised to help hadn’t she? Alright, no watching that skiff wreck unless it happened before she could intervene.

She snickered a little as, just like she used to, Adora gave the attention claps that none of these particular kids would know. Embarrassingly, the old rhythm still made Catra’s back straighten a hair just thanks to the amount of times she’d heard it. 

Adora’s voice rang loud and clear across the little fenced in area, “Atten-shun!”

The kids mostly stopped, but Catra had a feeling that was due to an adult shouting and not out of their training. Did rebellion kids have training? They had to get some kind of education for sure. Huh. Probably should look into that, like, now that it was post war and all.

“Hello, salutations, and greetings!” Adora started her old spiel as if she’d never stopped, putting on her ‘force captain’ voice which was almost a mockery more than anything else. Not that Adora realized that. “I am Adora, this is Catra, and this is Glimmer. Today we will be watching, caring, sharing, and not botching a wonderful day of enrichment with you. Starting now we will do our very best to educate, captivate, and celebrate without need to castigate! It is time to have fun and run, uh, under the sun! Can I get a hoo-ra?”

The part about their newly acquired sun was a nice touch, Catra mental gave Adora extra points for finally having learned to change it on the fly. Catra weakly lifted a fist to mutter ‘hoo-ra’ with a few confused kids. Oof. Rough, but not unexpected. These ankle biters hadn’t been trained to respond promptly and loudly to Horde commands.

Yet it still had about the same effect. The children were already split down the middle looking at Adora like she was a complete idiot or like she was the best thing ever. Soon more of them would think she was the best thing ever than not, kids loved Adora’s canned speech. It always got a few laughs. Kids were easily entertained by someone clearly putting on a show and rhyming. 

Adora put on an over the top look of bewilderment, putting her fists on her hips in some sort of quasi-power pose before asking, “What kind of hoo-ra was that? I want you to shout from deep in your lungs, you won’t sound dumb when it’s all in good fun! Now can I get a HOO-RA?”

Catra gave a slightly more enthusiastic call, and was delighted when Glimmer gamely screamed her head off and then blushed as the kids stared at her, because they had still not shouted. Alright, this had already paid off! Nothing better that watching Glimmer blush like that.

Adora was smiling warmly at the queen, that was always a good look on her. “I SAID HOO-RA!”

This time they managed to get most of the brats on board. A whole army of kids no taller than her waist who were thrilled to scream, a few even did it more than once. It was kind of nostalgic.

“THAT’S what I call a call! I am floored by this horde-” Adora’s eyes widened in panic as she tried to pivot her pre-written speech for a second time. “-o-of wards! Floored! I am floored!”

Aaaand twice was one too many alterations. As much fun as it would be to watch Adora fall apart over it, Catra knew it was mean. And she was trying to, you know, to be less mean.

“Ca-Adora,” wow this was harder than she’d thought. She hadn’t almost called Adora a Cadet in years. “Will be working with any of you who’d like to play a singing and marching game. Line up in front of Adora if you want to join.”

Catra grabbed Glimmer’s hand to pull her forward, which really was only for the benefit of getting to hold Glimmer’s hand. “Anyone who does not want to play a game can join us, we will be taking care of the infants so it’ll be quieter.”

She was not surprised when most of the children flocked to play. There were always a few quiet ones or nervous ones who would hang back, and she was counting on it. Sure enough four kids shuffled their way instead of towards Adora, who was already sorting her little platoon into rank and file, teaching them a quick sound off to learn their names.

Catra motioned between her and Glimmer, “You know our names, what are yours?” The kids shifted awkwardly, looking at one another to start. Catra smirked. “If you don’t want to say I will give you a nickname. For instance, this is now Sparkles.”

Glimmer glared at her, but Catra didn’t stop or let her get a word in edgewise. She pointed at the first kid with glasses, “You can be Specs, short for specification.” A bold faced lie if she’d ever told one. “Stripes, I like your shirt!” Less of a lie. “Flower Power just like Princess Perfuma,” she nodded to the boy with a flower crown. The last kid was nervously shifting hoof to hoof, “And Two Step you got some fancy looking moves.”

“And what do you all think we should call Catra?” Glimmer asked, grinning evilly, as if the kids wouldn’t just suggest kitty or fluffy or whiskers. Maybe tails if someone was feeling creative.

“Kitty!”

Catra chuckled, it was like clockwork. “How about Big Cat? It’s cooler than Kitty!” They nodded gamely to the change. “Cool. Now, does anyone want to help me with the babies? We just need to hold them.”

That was how Catra found herself leaning back against a tree with an infant sleeping on her chest after she’d situated Glimmer and the quartet. All while snickering at some of the concerned looks being shot their way as Adora got the platoon marching and singing. If they weren’t gonna get their asses in gear to manage all the hyper kids, then they could suck it up. Besides, it wasn’t even that intense of a song.

“I think that learning is cool!” The kids echoed after Adora. “Which is why I will stay in school!”

It was schlocky and dorky, if she’d been over there she’d have died of embarrassment already.

Still, Catra couldn’t help but melt a little as Adora exaggerated a high march and then kids behind her did basically whatever they wanted as she marched them around the nursery. It was nice. Even if it made Adora look really dumb, it also made her look happy.  Something Catra hadn’t seen a lot of from her in years. Oh no, she was getting mushy about this now? 

Disgusting. She needed a distraction stat.

“Anyone have a good story?” Catra asked and after a beat of silence, promptly ignored the kids as they started almost talking over each other to tell something about their day or who knows what. Thankfully Glimmer seemed interested even if a little stiff and awkward. Catra was grateful that her fur hid a sudden blush as she watched Glimmer holding a baby and being enthusiastically engaged in the kids' stories. 

Wow. 

She gets away from the Horde for less than a year, and now she’s getting sappy over Sparkles. 

Gross.

~

Adora, of course, had a plan. A good one with details and everything! 

She was using her patented IPPA (thankfully, things had to be going pretty bad for her to resort to Infant Pod Plan B) and so far things had gone well. She’d taught her platoon to march, even got them to make up some rhymes to sing for it (even if she’d had to backtrack after one of the boys said ‘butts’ and everyone then started to just scream sentences with little sense ending with ‘butts’). After a bit of that she got them doing some basic exercise with her. Jumping jacks and running, she’d then start a game of charge and was already wincing in sympathy pains as some of the kids hurled themselves full speed at the enemy team only to fold in half around their linked arms. Still, the point was to give them free reign here to lose their minds and wear out their bodies a little in preparation for a well earned nap or quiet play time.

After making sure that Catra had eyes on her group, Adora left to hunt down water for everyone, and maybe spent a little time making heart eyes across the field.

Catra, despite what she thought, was pretty good with kids. Especially little infants. Between her fluff, heat, and purrs she was an instant baby soother. Adora would know, she was once the only big baby that Catra would soothe the same way. When they’d been younger, Catra used to lose her temper during IPD, but the older they got the more she’d pull it together. There had always been something heartwarming about watching Catra sit down with a kid who was upset and listen to them intently. 

Then there was Glimmer. Gosh, she’d been so nervous going in, but seemed to be quickly becoming a favorite. Because Glimmer always listened to people, no matter their age, and her high energy responses appeared to be winning her fans. The more she integrated with the kids, the more she relaxed too. And there was something absolutely mind blowing about watching her bounce a little baby in her arms, while gasping in genuine delight at something a kid had scribbled into the dirt with a stick.

Adora didn’t even blush, didn’t feel a lick of shame as she quietly got affirmation that yes, girls.

“Ew,” one of the kids snickered after finishing their water, looking right at her before making a face. 

She smiled, shrugging and offered her best, worldly advice. “Girls are great.”

“Ew.” They repeated before giggling and skipping away to their friends.

Whether they eventually agreed with her, liked boys instead, like everyone, or even no one, Adora felt very assured in her assessment of wow girls pretty, so she let it slide.

Later, standing at the barrel and handing out gourds of water or helping kids re-apply their protective balms (the sun was nice, but the sun could apparently burn you which was insane), she did another check. Taking note of any particularly worn out kids to send over to Catra’s group, and was very pleased that no one seemed to be really injured. Man, this was way easier than manhandling Recruits who were about to be Junior Cadets. Maybe she could do this more often? Without all the jockeying for power and praise it was actually fun.

After another thirty minutes whizzed by according to her internal clock, Adora decided it was time to start her platoon’s cool down for water and snacks. Maybe a nap after that. It was all smooth sailing!

Adora managed to make eye contact with Catra, flashing a quick few hand signs they’d made up when they were eight and almost lived in the pods between Adora’s clumsiness and Catra’s random bursts of high energy. Catra nodded, both hands occupied as she bottle fed one of the infants, and Adora almost died. First of cuteness, because Catra was looking so cute! But also from laughter because Glimmer’s tongue was sticking out between her teeth in concentration as she carefully fed another infant. And also because she looked super cute doing it!

What a sight! It took her another minute to realize she was just standing there staring at them with a horrifically soft smile on her face. And Catra was staring back with an equally mortifying soft look. And Glimmer was now looking between them with her own embarrassingly tender look. 

So this is how I die, public affection.

For some reason this was the thing that set her off. Blushing as red as her jacket, Adora pivoted around to call the platoon to get some snacks and more water. Which, considering most of them were either still singing or making up marching songs, took a little bit to organize.

~

The snack and water break had been decently timed, they had just finished burping the last of the babies when Adora called all the kids over. Catra waited with Glimmer until everyone else had something to eat, before mingling as best she could. It was more second nature to keep her head on a swivel, making sure no kids were making a jailbreak and no one was beating someone else’s face in. Although that probably wasn’t a concern on the Rebellion side. Maybe she’d have to rescue a kid from suffocating under a bunch of hugs? 

She shrugged and got a gourd of water, barely finishing it before Two Step tugged at her hand. They’d only gotten more energetic the longer they’d been helping, so she wasn’t even surprised when they asked, "Can I pet your fluff!?"

Catra sighed heavily. This is what she got for wearing a crop top around children. She turned to look at the Two Step and smiled as best she could while also dying inside. If she didn’t let it happen following her own rules, many kids would simply find a way to make it happen anyways. Better to get it out of the way and without sticky hands. Seriously what do kids even do that makes their hands that sticky? "Sure, but only if I can touch your antlers, they look fuzzy."

They almost stabbed her in the stomach with said nubbly antlers in their excitement, apparently oblivious for at least a moment about how fragile they were. Two Step was still wiggling around the way they had the whole afternoon as they rushed to explain, "They are! They’re new and growing in bigger and my dad says that someday they’ll be HUGE like his!"

She ran a few fingers carefully along the warm velvet and nodded, it was softer than she’d actually expected it to be, and it almost seemed like she could feel the blood pumping in them? Or maybe her brain was messing with her? Either way, weird. "Neat. Your turn kiddo."

Catra did her best to not groan in annoyance when the girl simply leaned forward to rub her face on the fluffiest part of her belly.

"You said pet."

"I am petting!"

"Petting is done with your hands, not your face."

"Says who?"

Well shit, had her there. “...alright, well played.”

She glared as the trademark a high pitched whistling sound of cooing alerted her to Glimmer and Adora looking at her with hearts in their eyes and sparkles around their faces. Not literally, but she could picture it. The traitors. She could see Glimmer mouthing the words so cute and groaned. She was not cute! Ugh!

“Okay, I think that’s enough.”

Two Step grumbled but let go. “Thanks!” And with that they skipped away to hang out with the other kids. 

Oh yeah, definitely time to put the kids down for a nap if they could.

~

It had taken longer that Glimmer expected to calm down the kids. A small handful of them went tearing off around the field cackling like loons as Catra easily loped after them on all fours. Which of course resulted in more kids wanting to get chased for some reason, shrieking in delight each time Catra put on a hair more speed to tap their arms or legs. Eventually even they were exhausted and fell panting into the grass for Adora and her to watch while Catra continued herding. It was adorable and Glimmer was never, ever gonna let her live down her afternoon of being a sheep dog. If only Bow or Entrapta were here to take a picture!

Glimmer reluctantly left her post of watching and jeering at ‘Big Cat’ to help Adora get the youngest ones situated and sleeping rolls or blankets laid out. For the ones who refused to take a nap (whether because they weren’t tired or wanted to pretend they weren’t tired), Glimmer asked around to find a few decks of cards for them to use. She wrangled a promise from each group to be quiet so their friends could sleep, and by the time she’d finished that it was tempting to take her own nap.

Adora was efficiently sorting kids into sleeping spaces, and Glimmer smiled a bit at the way she let pairs and groups just pile up together. Having seen the impossible looking ways Adora and Catra could be found tangled up after a nap, she felt pretty confident that they knew what they were doing.

When Catra finally arrived with the last two kids, both of whom she carried under her arms as they giggled, Glimmer was grateful for the chance to relax a little with her friends. She nudged Adora’s side as they passed and whispered, “Maybe afterwards you can use She-Ra? You know, give them a climbing gym or swing them around.”

Adora blinked rapidly before breaking out in a huge grin and did a little over the top flexing before they made their way over to sit with Catra. And for a few minutes they sat in a peaceful silence, enjoying the sounds of the forest and leaning against one another. 

“Pssst,” Stripes rolled over to look at them, making huge puppy dog eyes before asking, “Sing us a lullaby?”

Glimmer’s eyes sparkled as she turned to watch Adora and Catra apparently debate the issue, because hello! Getting to hear them sing lullabies! They rapidly signed back and forth, faces squashing and stretching as they added emphasis to the conversation before they turned and nodded.

“Okay,” Adora said softly, “but you can’t laugh, we only know Horde songs.”

“The Horde had songs?” A little boy asked, popping up from his blanket with a huge smile.

“Yeah we did. To be fair, they’re not uh,” Adora faltered and quickly looked at Catra, which to be fair Glimmer hadn’t considered that the songs they knew might be inappropriate. She quickly decided that she also didn’t really care.

“Adults probably wouldn’t like them here.” Catra supplied with a mischievous grin, apparently knowing that the kids would all be desperate to hear them now.

“Catra!” Adora hissed in what was probably supposed to be a whisper.

“I want to hear!” Glimmer added fuel to the fire and snickered at the look of betrayal on Adora’s face. “What? I do!”

She threw her arms in the air before huffing in her fake annoyed voice, “Fine, I’ll sing a song!”

There was a moment before Adora shakily started to sing both a very familiar tune set to very different lyrics.

Hush-a-bye baby, your crying will cease For we will raise you, in safety and peace If the walls crumble, there’s no need to bawl We’ll burn the villains, princess and all

Glimmer sputtered, accidentally ending it before it even started, not just because the lullaby included a line about burning rebellion citizens to death including princesses. But also because her mother used to sing this to her! “Wait, wait, wait, that’s- that’s not how that song goes!”

“Wha- yes it is!” Adora huffed, arms crossing as she blushed, “I said you couldn’t be mean!”

“First of all, you said I couldn’t laugh and I didn’t! Secondly,” Glimmer cleared her throat to sing her version. She’d always loved singing, even took lessons when she was younger before deciding she’d rather do it for fun. But what was the point of being able to sing flawlessly under pressure if not to flex on your crushes?

Rock-a-bye baby, thy cradle is green; Father's a nobleman, mother's a queen; And Buckley’s a washer, who wears a gold ring; And Tambour’s a drummer, who drums for the king.

Not that she got any further than Adora did before being interrupted as well.

“Ew, it’s all princessy!” Catra jeered playfully getting a few giggles from the kids.

“Uh, yeah, my mom sang it to me when I was a baby!”

“Gross. Ours is better!”

Adora laughed nervously, apparently unsure what to do as their play fight went down in front of a room full of impressionable children. Which, really, was her own fault for not expecting it.

Glimmer puffed up and leaned forward, tapping Catra on the nose just to be a brat before issuing the challenge she knew would get results. “Prove it!”

Ah, the good old stand by of “prove it”, as equally effective as a double dog dare!

So Catra, looking genuinely affronted, took a breath and sang in a wholly and unfairly good voice.

Hush-a-bye baby, your crying will cease For we will raise you, in safety and peace If the walls crumble, there’s no need to bawl We’ll burn the villains, princess and all

Baby is drowsing, valiant and brave With Hordak’s power, disorder we’ll stave Though cadet’s sleeping, her dreams we all share For order and harmony’s, our duty to bear

Hush-a-bye baby, do not you fear Never mind, baby, your squad is right here Strong little fingers, but eyes must shut tight Stay sound asleep now, until morning’s light

“People sang to you as babies about Hordak’s power and burning people?” Glimmer asked, both perplexed at the Horde-ified version and slightly disturbed. No wonder some of their soldiers bought the Evil Horde’s propaganda if this was what they were taught from the cradle!

“Glimmer, I love you, and I say this with as much respect as I can,” Catra said without an ounce of respect in her body or soul, “We grew up in the Fright Zone under the eyes of commanding officers of the Evil Horde. What did you think they sang to us about?”

Well shit, had her there.

[suuupermetroid]

jess’s 2021 games masterpost

just stuff that has kept me company this year :) 

red dead redemption 2

a genuinely incredible game, and i think it takes the spot as my new favorite game ever. it helped me through a really tough time earlier this year, and even after finishing it i find myself back in the game time and time again just to explore the scenery and ride around the mountains :]

death stranding

ok so i never actually got very far through this, i just look back fondly remembering nights of playing this at 1am so my parents wouldnt know i didnt eat lunch for 2 weeks to afford this game. also shoutout to the guy who is now my coworker for selling this to a 17yo me without asking for id

uncharted: the nathan drake collection

all 3 of these games are just a good time. shooting army mfs while nate says funny one-liners. what more could you want. so glad my friend persuaded me into playing this series. started 4 too, which btw, absolutely fucks <3

gta 5 (fivem)

it’s ridiculous, but i actually became good friends with a couple of my coworkers through grinding for drugs and money when i first started at my job. we all made so many trips to pillbox together after wrecking cars or tackling each other to the ground and then we dragged more friends into it all and i made memories i think i’ll keep for a very long time :)

the last of us

it’s so hard to put into words why i love this. joel and ellie, i would die for you. spoilers, but at the end i did not hesitate when i walked into that surgery room.

the last of us: part ii

this game is yet another reminder of why naughty dog is my favorite game studio. the gameplay and visuals make it feel like perfection and the combat makes me feel like a god damn maniac. i dont know any other aaa game that has prominent lgbt characters, and although it has flaws it really does mean a lot to me. i watched someone stream the entire game last year before i got a ps4 and even though i knew the ending i still cried so hard my nose bled for an hour lol

splatoon 2

this game is one of the best multiplayer shooters currently available and you cant tell me otherwise

forza horizon 5

this was my my most unexpected videogame love this year. i may not be a good racer like my friends, or be invested in much of the story, but i’ve enjoyed just spending my time speeding over hills in off road cars like a maniac while listening to the in game radio

kirby’s dream land 3

started playing this on my commute to work every day and it’s just delightful. i grew up with kirby’s dream land on gameboy so having this game to play in the mornings on switch has been lovely :]

animal crossing: new horizons

feels good to play this at last! i’m a long time fan of the animal crossing series so playing one on a current gen console instead of cracking out my 3ds feels great

metroid: dread

whaaat a fucking masterpiece of a game. this is my favorite thing on switch so far, the whole thing is delightful and very difficult, and as always samus feels so badass to play as. looks very visually impressive for the switch too. absolutely my favorite new release of 2021.

resident evil: village

i watched this game about 5 times over through streamers this year so i built up the balls to play it myself over christmas. maybe i overestimated myself because it’s still terrifying to me and im still stuck in the cellars of castle dimitrescu

pokemon: brilliant diamond

my first new pokemon game :) i think the most recent proper game i owned before this is for gba, so it’s been really interesting to play through. sure, it’s not known for being the most high-quality remaster ever, but i’ve been enjoying it.

there’s a bunch of stuff i didn’t add to this list, like super monkey ball bbhd and red dead 1 :] but i just added my favs that i discovered this year and the ones that hold the best memories!

[gottagobuycheese]

tagged by @fremulon EVEN LONGER ago to list 10 favorite characters from 10 different fandoms (which shall henceforth be defined as any media consumed to completion and enjoyed), so here is an extremely overdue non-exhaustive list IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER: 

Han Yeo-jin – Stranger/Secret Forest 

What can I say, it was love at first awful doodle

Shoji Yuko – Unnatural 

To this day I still think about that legendary line with which she justified leaving work early and it still makes me cackle; I STRIVE to one day use it in real live, or at least witness it 

Calvin – Calvin and Hobbes 

The original agent of chaos and imagination, and an inspiration to generations of mini arsonists-in-the-making 

Chidi Anagonye – The Good Place 

 As a fellow indecisive wreck of a person, there was some real resonance here 

Maya Fey – Ace Attorney 

NEVER ENOUGH MAYA SHE DESERVES ALL THE BEST THINGS 

(But also an honorary shoutout to all the extras in the live action movie, they are collectively another favorite character and I would die for every single one of them) 

Toph Beifong – Avatar: the Last Airbender 

Need I explain this beyond LEGENDARY 

Kageyama Shigeo/“Mob” – Mob Psycho 100 

Everyone who’s met him has flipped or wanted to flip their life around to become a better person and honestly same 

Midna – The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess 

Someday the ending won’t wreck me but today is not that day

Kobuchizawa Shirase – A Place Farther Than the Universe 

If I ever do end up pursuing expedition medicine and actually applying for a job at one of the Antarctic stations it will be pretty much single-handedly because of her  

Gooigi – Luigi’s Mansion 3 

SOMEONE HAS TO SAY IT! GOOIGI! RIGHTS!! STOP REQUIRING PLAYER ONE TO DISSOLVE ME!!! AUTONOMY NOW! AUTONOMY NOW! 

Okay I still have to make lunch and pack my bags so I apologize if you’ve already been tagged @pachelbelsheadcanon, @averybritishbumblebee, @yeswevegotavideo, @internetkatze and anyone else who wants to!! I would tag more but the bus comes in like 40 minutes and if I miss that I miss the last train lol

[harrisonarchive]

George Harrison, Friar Park, circa 1990; photo by Terry O'Neill.

George's jukebox at Kinfauns has been explored by the Harrison Archive (and is available as a playlist here), thanks in large part to an article about it, published in the Record Mirror's 1 January 1966 issue.

George's jukeboxes at Friar Park, however, are a little more obscure. The following playlist of songs featured on the jukeboxes and mentioned in some way from 1970 onward is an approximate one only, based on doing some digging into print interviews, audio interviews, and written pieces by family and friends. (The tracks include information previously posted on the Harrison Archive. For - hopefully - easier navigation, I've also bolded the artists -- and tracks known for certain to have been either on the jukeboxes or George's favorites.)

"Stardust" (instrumental) - Hoagy Carmichael "Our son, Dhani, and I, like George’s friends, were spoiled by his rich and loving presence: from the morning wake-up call, which could have been (depending on our location and mood) a morning raga, a Vedic chant, a Mozart concerto, Cab Calloway’s ‘Bugle Call Rag,’ or Hoagy’s earliest instrument version of ‘Stardust'..." - Olivia Harrison [read more]

"Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" - The Four Tops "Rescue Me" - Fontella Bass

These tracks receive shoutouts in George's "This Song" (and the Four Tops were Sixties favorites, too, appearing on his Kinfauns jukebox).

"Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" - Cab Calloway Clearly a favorite by one of his favorite artists, covered by George for Jools Holland's TV show, and also released on his posthumous album Brainwashed.

"When I'm Cleaning Windows" - George Formby "September In The Rain" - Dinah Washington "Dizzy Fingers" - Zez Confrey

George was a member of the George Formby Society (and attended conventions with Olivia and Dhani), and became friends with another attendee, Ray Bernard, who recalled the latter two of the above songs as some of George's favorites. (The Beatles also covered "September In The Rain" for their Decca audition; I'm not sure if George preferred Dinah Washington's version to any other, but its release year is closest to when the Fabs covered it, hence the inclusion on the playlist.)

"A Shine On Your Shoes" - Fred Astaire

Covered by George in a home video shared by the Harrison Family in the Guitar Collection app and the deluxe limited edition of Living In The Material World (and, on 1 February 2020, by Olivia on her Instagram, where she explained that George was playing a Danny Ferrington Keoki ukulele).

"True Love" - Bing Crosby & Grace Kelly

George covered this song as well, for his 1976 album Thirty-Three & 1/3. As Olivia recalled on Dark Horse Radion in 2018: "We'd been watching ‪Bing Crosby‬ and Grace Kelly, watching that movie ['High Society'], and they do a duet, and just that little harmony thing they do, because she wasn’t known as really a singer; he’d play and then we'd sing it." [read more]

"Roll Over Beethoven" - Chuck Berry

A longtime favorite, George covered this with The Beatles, during his 1991 Japan tour, and during his 1992 Natural Law Party concert, where it became the last song he played live onstage at a concert in his lifetime. As George said, "there hasn’t been any rock & roll better than that." [read more]

"Hong Kong Blues" - Hoagy Carmichael

Hoagy Carmichael was a favorite of George's, and he covered this song for his 1981 album Somewhere In England.

"Barnacle Bill the Sailor" - Hoagy Carmichael

A favorite, associated with George by Dhani, and mentioned by Olivia. "He would go up at parties to the DJ and say, ‘I’ve got something really amazing.’ ‘Cause he was who he was, they would listen to him, and then everyone would just be bummed out, it would clear the dance floor. And then he’d come back later - ‘I’ve got something else’ - and he’d put it on again. You know, he would just do this until the DJ was like [exasperated]." - Dhani Harrison, la minute rock, Rolling Stone France, 28 Nov 2017 [read more]

"Midnight Special" - Leadbelly "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" - Hank Williams "The Great Pretender" - The Platters "Words Of Love" - Buddy Holly

The songs themselves might not be George's favorites or jukebox selections -- as yet, I haven't found any mention of actual song titles, so these are just personal choices -- but the artist were mentioned by George and Olivia; and "Words Of Love" was obviously a favorite, having been covered by The Beatles, and, according to Mark Lewisohn's Complete Beatles Chronicle research, initially having been sung by George and John.

"The Ying Tong Song" - The Goons "I'm Walking Backwards For Christmas" - The Goons

Both these tracks were mentioned by Olivia as having been on the Friar Park jukeboxes in December 1974.

"The Lumberjack Song" - Monty Python "Spam Song" - Monty Python "Layla" - Eric Clapton

These tracks were mentioned by Eric Idle as having been on George's jukeboxes at Friar Park. "The Lumberjack Song" was of course also performed at the Concert for George.

"Heartbreak Hotel" - Elvis Presley

Eric Idle also recalled early Elvis being on the jukeboxes; and of course, George named the song as his first musical root.

"Blue Suede Shoes" - Carl Perkins "The Bells of Rhymney" - The Byrds

These two Perkins and Byrds songs were mentioned as favorite songs by George in the March 1997 issue of Guitar World.

"Mauna Loa" - Gabby Pahinui

Another artist loved by George, although again, this track choice is just a haphazard personal one, since there doesn't seem to be any public mention of which of Pahinui's songs were George's preferred ones.

"Ooo Baby Baby" - The Miracles "I'll Try Something New" - The Miracles

George absolutely loved The Miracles, and Smokey Robinson specifically, collecting their records, and writing songs in honor of Smokey ("Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You) -- a nod to the first of the two Miracles tracks listed here -- on the 1975 album Extra Texture, and "Pure Smokey" on the 1976 album Thirty-Three & 1/3). As Olivia has recalled: "We used to sit around singing a lot of Smokey Robinson songs. That kind of sealed our relationship, I think. [George] said, 'You're the only person I've ever known who sang the high note at the end of "I'll Try Something New."'"

“Back On The Chain Gang” - The Pretenders “Brothers In Arms” - Dire Straits “Cold Day In Hell” - Gary Moore

The three tracks by The Pretenders, Dire Straits and Gary Moore were mentioned as favorites by George in the March 1997 issue of Guitar World.

"Long Tall Sally" - Little Richard

George was a Little Richard all his life, as various comments over the years show.

"Tandoori Chicken" - Ronnie Spector "I Am Missing You" - Lakshmi Shankar "Rebel Music" (live) - Bob Marley & The Wailers

Put down on tape during the "Try Some, Buy Some" sessions, "Tandoori Chicken" was an improvised song, as George recalled: "a 12-bar thing done on the spot with Mal our roadie and Joe the chauffeur." For Dark Horse Records, and featuring Lakshmi Shankar, one of [George's] favorite singers," another song for this playlist is "I Am Missing You." The Marley track was chosen from the setlist of the three 1975 Roxy show attended by George and Olivia, recalled by George as "the best thing I've seen in ten years. [...] I could watch The Wailers all night."

"The Rain Song" - Led Zeppelin "Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)" - The Beach Boys

"The Rain Song" was written in response to a comment made by George, and subsequently made it on one of the two jukeboxes. The Beach Boys song was on the jukeboxes, and -- like "The Rain Song" -- played at the wedding of Dhani and Sola, as reported by Vogue in 2012.

"Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours" - Stevie Wonder "Telephone Line" - Electric Light Orchestra "Come On In My Kitchen" - Robert Johnson "When The Levee Breaks" - Memphis Minnie

All four of these artists were mentioned as favorites by George in a 1976 interview. (The titles are arbitrary choices, since the interviewer didn't ask George for any further details. However, Johnson's "Come On In My Kitchen" was covered by George and band during rehearsals for the Concert for Bangladesh.)

"Maria Elena" - Ry Cooder "Concert in B (live in 1963) - Andrés Segovia

Two artists mentioned frequently by George as being favorites (Segovia first in 1963 -- hence the choice of a live piece from that year -- and up through the 1990s). The Cooder track was specifically mentioned by Olivia in the June 2018 issue of Songlines.

"Piano Concert No. 21" - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Olivia mentioned a Mozart concerto as being something George would play in the mornings as they were starting the day, so this is another random choice of a concerto.

"The Weight" - The Band

The atmosphere of the song inspired the Harrisong "All Things Must Pass," as George recalled in 1987 -- he also named it as a song he admired in that same interview. In a 1974 interview with Capital Radio, George deemed The Band "the best band I've ever seen."

"Farther On Down The Road (You Will Accompany Me)" - Jesse Ed Davis

A Harrisong was given to Jesse by George, and recorded by Jesse before it was released by George himself (but since "Sue Me, Sue You Blues," the song in question, is already on a collaborations playlist....); this Davis selection (written by Jesse and Taj Mahal) was covered live by George and Eric Clapton in December 1978.

"Isn't It A Pity" (cover) - Nina Simone "Backwater Blues" - Big Bill Broonzy "Changes" - Bix 'n' Bing

Nina Simone's cover of the Harrisong "Isn't It A Pity" in turn influenced the mood of another Harrisong; and Dhani recalled listening to Simone, Big Bill Broonzy (who is name-checked in the Harrisong "Wreck Of The Hesperus") and Bix 'n' Bing together with his dad (these tracks are once more personal choices).

"April Kisses" - Eddie Lang

The first song on this playlist, "Stardust," was "one of [George's] favorite songs," as Olivia has recalled; she also named Eddie Lang (though she didn't mention a specific title).

"Kalimankou Denkou" - Le Mystere des voix bulgares

George enthused about this Bulgarian choir in numerous interviews, and introduced this particular song during his interview on Rockline in February 1988.

"Taxes On The Farmer Feeds Us All" - Ry Cooder

"Later, after a lasagna dinner in his ornately paneled kitchen with his wife Olivia, their son Dhani (just home from his school year at Brown University in the States), and Olivia’s sister, Linda, Harrison takes his visitor upstairs to his Friar Park Studio. Picking up a nearby National dobro from the vast array of vintage guitars hanging from the walls, Harrison slips a glass bottleneck on his finger as he seats himself to strum 'The Farmer Is The Man Who Feeds Us All,' the traditional tune of 1860s America made famous in the 1920s by Fiddlin’ John Carson and later popularized on Ry Cooder’s 1971 'Into The Purple Valley” album as 'Taxes On The Farmer Feeds Us All.' 'That’s where I first heard the tune,”'says Harrison of Cooder’s interpretation, before he begins to sing: 'The farmer is the man, the farmer is the man/Buys on credit until the fall/Then they take him by the hand/And they lead him from his land/And the merchant he’s the man who gets it all.'" (Billboard, 19 Jun 1999)

"God's Own Drunk" - Lord Buckley

This particular Buckley piece was mentioned by George in a 1979 radio interview promoting his eponymous album, and the song "If You Believe": "Pray, give up, and it all recedes away from you. I don’t know if you… you must have heard Lord Buckley, you know, well, there is a thing he did called 'God’s Own Drunk.' I think it was that. Anyway, it was one of Lord Buckley’s things and he was talking about love. He said: 'Love is like a beautiful garden, you know, when you use it it spreads, but when you don’t -- it recedes.' And it’s true. It’s really that in its simplest form." [read more]

"Free Fallin'" - Tom Petty

As Dhani has said, he can remember "getting advance copies sent to my dad from Tom. He’d be like, 'You want to hear Tom’s new stuff?' And it would be the first time anyone’s heard 'Free Fallin'." (Premier Guitar, Jan 2018)

"Let It Be Me" - The Everly Brothers

Covered by George in a demo version after seeing the Everly Brothers in concert (George's cover appears on Early Takes Vol. 1).

"Clair de Lune" (cover) - Isao Tomita

One of George's favorites, as Olivia has recalled.

"México Lindo y Querido" - Jorge Negrete

Negrete was mentioned as a favorite by George, and Olivia recalled Negrete being on George's jukebox.

"Bugle Call Rag" - Cab Calloway

Recalled by Olivia in her introduction for Harrison, and as George's school wakeup call for Dhani.

"Cool River" - Maria Muldaur "Fear Of Flying" - Charlie Dore

Two more specific songs mentioned or covered by George.

"Sweet Leilani" - Bing Crosby

Mentioned as a favorite of George's by Tom Petty, and by Olivia.

"Every Grain Of Sand" - Bob Dylan

Named as one of George's favorite songs in his June 1999 Billboard interview: "I mean, you tell me one person other than Bob Dylan who has a moral message in a tune that's improved upon Bob's words in his song 'Every Grain of Sand.'"

"Kaliyuga Varadan" & "Ragam Tanam Pallavi" & "Gajavadhana" - U. Srinivas

One of George's favorite artists, as he, Dhani and Olivia have recalled; these three particular tracks were singled out by Olivia in the June 2018 issue of Songlines.

"Raga - Manj Khamaj" - Ravi Shankar "Guru Bandana (Prayer)" - Ali Akbar Khan "Abhogi" - Hariprasad Chaurasia "Kafi Holi (Spring Festival Of Color)" - Ravi Shankar "Enna Thavam" - Papanasam Sivan "Thumri - Mishra Tilang Raga - Addha Taal" - Sultan Khan "You And Me" - Zakir Hussain "Raga Chayya Nat" - Kala Ramnath

The eight selections above are mentioned by Olivia in the June 2018 issue of Songlines.

“México” - Mariachi Sol de Mexico

In 1998, George commissioned José Hernández - founder of Mariachi Sol de México - to translate and arrange the Harrisong "Dark Sweet Lady" in Spanish, as a special version for Olivia. While that recording is understandably a private one, mariachi music seems to have been a favorite of the Harrison family and the Arias family, as it's mentioned as having been played at family events held in California. And: "Last year I brought over a mariachi orchestra [Mariachi Sol de México] and we had a private concert at Friar Park because I got tired of waiting 30 years for someone else to do it. It was my way to let my friends experience that music – which was what George was always trying to do. He wanted people to understand and be moved by the music that he loved." - Olivia Harrison, Songlines, Jun 2018

"Last Thoughts On Woody Guthrie" - Bob Dylan "Bhoop Ghara" - Hariprasad Chaurasia, Shivkumar Sharma, Brij Bhushan Kabra

"George used to always say that if ever you are not feeling right, you should listen to Bob Dylan's 'Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie' and 'Call of the Valley.'" (Olivia Harrison) This track from "Call Of The Valley" was mentioned by Olivia in the June 2018 issue of Songlines: "[it was] something George had on our juke box. We played it as a remedy in our home if you were feeling a certain way. Kabra was one of George’' heroes as a slide guitarist, up there with Ry Cooder."

"Sarve Shaam" - Ravi Shankar

From the 1997 album Chants of India (produced by George), the song was also performed at the Concert for George, and was clearly very special to George, as Olivia remembers: "At the end of his life George said to me that all he could listen to was 'Sarve Shaam.' After all the sounds and sights and tastes you experience over a lifetime, it came down to the purity of 'Sarve Shaam.'"

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