#beyond the game

[beyondthegame]

DEMO (coming soon...)

The referee brings the whistle to their lips, ready to kick off the game…

There’s no easy road to becoming an athlete. You of all people will know that. Now you’ve finally got your chance. From playing football in a muddy park during a rainy afternoon to signing the professional contract you’ve been dreaming of — the road to stardom is here. You can imagine it all now: being an athlete that jets across the world, having fans that wear your name on the back of their shirts; gaining sponsors and money, and… fame.

You’ve put pen to paper in London and now the ink has dried. It's official. You are an Inter City FC player. You’re starting your career as a professional footballer with a club that has objectives of their own. Winning the league. To the new club you’ve signed for, you’re the missing puzzle piece to their success. 

But, the beautiful game is more than just a mere ball at your feet. It’s more than just your manager and teammates. It’s the media, the opposition, the rivals and everything in between.

There isn’t anything you want more than this. To make a name for yourself on and off the pitch. To press your lips to the shiny trophies you’ve worked so hard for. To hear fans chanting your name in the crowd. To have a club that feels like a family.

Nothing can get in the way, that’s been your motto since you first started playing. Surely the beautiful game won’t ruin you when you’ve given so much to it. 

You just wonder whether it’ll be worthwhile.

Let the match commence…

This is an 18+ game due to explicit language, sexual themes, mention of sexual themes, mental health issues and more.

Customise and play as a male, female or non-binary; straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, graysexual, demisexual, asexual, footballer w/ the choice of your own pronouns.

Choose your footballer’s position: goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, or striker.

Pick your footballer’s public persona. Will the media adore you? Or will you keep them on their toes? Will they love or loathe you?

Did you make it due to hard-work or sheer talent?

Manager your social media presence.

Decide your footballer’s playing style and strengths: a player with flair? Or a no nonsense baller with physicality?

Play as a person of colour (this choice can have an effect on the story). Your gender can also have an effect in game. 

Travel the world with your football club that will become a family.

Romance any of the five romantic options; four of which are gender-selectable; male, female and non-binary. The ROs are: the rival, the teammate, the best friend, the idol and the heir — these romances will get the rumours starting…

Develop meaningful friendships, relationship… or even hook-ups.

Take the sporting world by storm. Do you play football for the fame? Or for your love of the game?

THE RIVAL

It didn’t start off as a rivalry. But you and Nikita/Navarro/Nevada Tallon weren’t the best of friends either. The two of you started at the same football academy, and whilst you were signed for an extra year, they were rejected. That was their first loss. For a while, they lost their dream. Forever: they lost you. Now it’s different. They’re all grown up and they’ve found a football team to call their own — A.C. United — the football team that happens to be the rival to yours. Football is full of history, it’s full of emotion too — and you and N have plenty of that to give, both on and off the pitch. Their one goal is to win. The two of you are, once again, fighting for the same crown. To be the best footballer in the city. Maybe even the world.

Maybe things will be different this time around between you two. The stone-cold glares and the snide remarks could dissolve into something else. Into something real and something beyond hatred.

THE TEAMMATE

You’re the newcomer. You’re waltzing into a team that’s somewhat established already, so having a teammate like Léa/Lando/Lakelyn Santos (their gender matches your mc's) to ease you in is always welcome. They’re the captain of Inter City and they’re a bit of a media darling. Graceful on the pitch, and even more graceful to the press. They’re confident, assured, calm and collected. But, beneath all that lies something else. It’s been a while since someone’s seen the real them. They were burned in the past, all because of a well documented break-up that took a lot out of them. Since then, L has been sworn off of falling for another athlete again, and they're keeping everyone at an arm's length. Beyond football, it’s not easy to get close to them.

But if you did, what a powerful couple that would grace the footballing world.

THE BEST FRIEND 

You know how hard it is to be an athlete. Milan St. Clair knows it too. Since becoming best friends in your late teens, you know you’ve both had the same goal. Whilst they are trying to conquer the tennis world and you’re making it in football, they’re the one constant that remains. The one who is familiar and comforting. Maybe the two of you could’ve been something more, or maybe your passionate personalities for your sports just got in the way. Milan’s rising through the tennis ranks now, they’re becoming more known. Their game continues to improve more than anyone ever expected. They have Grand Slams in their sights.

But you are right in front of them. You could both cross that line, take that next step and become more than friends…

THE IDOL

Cypress de Vera, known for their precise and thunderous tackles — Cypress is footballing royalty. Their potential was high, their talent was even higher — they’ve set records for the ages. But, their career came to an abrupt end after tragedy. Despite all that, football is still their life, they live and breathe the sport. They are always going to be idolised. You idolise them and so does the press. The media still want to know what the great Cy de Vera is going to do next — and now they’re at Inter City. Back at the club that gave them everything, to steer them to success, only this time it won’t be as a player.

Stern and hard to impress, Cypress de Vera only has a championship title on their mind. But sometimes you need to lose focus, let your guards down and just feel something more than a ball on the tip of your toes.

THE HEIR

Estelle/Evren/Everest Acevedo. They’ve been involved in football all their life, but not in the same way you have. Their father is your new manager. E has riches, fame, and a powerful last name — but take it from them, it’s not all its cracked up to be. They’re in a world that’s entirely their own, they model, sing and now their passion has shifted to wanting to write a bestselling novel. Their life has been a whirlwind, and honestly, if the world came with an off switch they’d hit it immediately. But they like to have their fun: their sharp tongue, constant media presence, and attraction to chaos means they ignore their father’s footballing legacy and will continue to make a name for themselves. E has been branded as trouble and it's a current name they quite like.

There’s more to E than meets the eye, and they’re desperate for someone to see it. Give them a chance, peel back the confident persona. You’ll be pleasantly surprised…

[picturesofthearsenal]

A plane flies a banner over Selhurst Park reading Kick Rapists Off The Pitch ahead of the Premier League match between Crystal Palace and Arsenal FC at Selhurst Park on August 5, 2022 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Charlotte Wilson/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)

[griffin-wood]

— pov: bereal-ing with your bestie.

eden chan and ivy meadows, for @beyondthegame & @merrycrisis-if

(template)

[theophagie]

I thought I was losing it but no, kh1 Sora's fast swimming animation really does change after you've been to Atlantica. It's a small detail, but also a cute and smart one 🥺

[danyllura]

Katniss in the first book is so funny because beyond her being absolutely wrong in nearly every assumption she has of Peeta. Every other chapter she’s like “two can play that game” about him being deceptive and then she utterly fails at it. 

[artilite]

stuck... forever?

drew this right after finishing act 4! had a day of intermission before going on and finishing the game so this ending really got to soak with me...

[basedlida]

Doomguy teaching Frieren a new spell

[stil-lindigo]

I have so many thoughts about how, in a world where so many in-game companions are barely tolerated or even outright hated, kim kitsuragi is universally beloved. How much it speaks to us that in our worse moments, we all hope to deserve the begrudging kindness he provides. He will not coddle you. He will tell you to get your shit together. But he will support you when you sing karaoke, off-key and mournful. He will play a board game with you in the middle of a murder investigation. He may dance with you inside a church. And in the end, when you leave this waking dream of an investigation to face the smoking wreckage of your life, he might go with you.

[prokopetz]

So: it turns out that – regardless of whether it was the original plan – what Homestuck: Beyond Canon's third writing team in five years is going with seems to be a cosmic battle between a godlike asshole who thinks transformative fiction has a moral obligation to engage in thematic and structural fidelity with its source material, and a godlike asshole who thinks transformative fiction shouldn't exist at all. It's an interesting direction, if an obvious one. In fact, it's so obvious that the Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy is treading the exact same ground at the exact same time; it's going to be pretty fucking bizarre watching to see which of them – if either! – manages to stick the landing.

[hope-ur-ok]

She had the crowd sing part of the final chorus 🥹

[beyondthegame]

Update 4. — 22nd November 2023.

I haven't posted on here in a while but I promise I am writing. Right after I had to battle a cold and couldn't even function on one of the days in the past week, all whilst tackling university in November because it's exam season and I chose a difficult degree...

Anyway, even though it took longer than I wanted to I finished E's first scene. I wrote up their first set of flirt options and they were very fun to write. I think the setting that they and the mc were in was pretty cool too.

The mc's customisation options are coming in too, so far I've written up the skin tone and height options. Also, I've written up the bit where the mc is able to choose their position on the pitch; as mentioned in the intro post: goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, or striker.

Anndd, I've started writing up the mc's first press conference. I feel, up until this point, writing wasn't as fun and imposter syndrome set in. But now, with the press conference and being able to showcase the mc's various personality options a little more makes it enjoyable...especially when you end up talking to difficult journalists who try to rattle you :)

The demo so far, and this chapter as a whole, is soo much bigger than I anticipated it would be. I'm at the word count that I expected the whole demo to be at, and we're still not halfway through writing.

That said, I really wanted this demo out in November but I feel the only way I could do that is to burn myself out, not revise for my exams, stay up at stupid o'clock and make myself ill again...which I don't want. So, maybe not a November release, but I don't think it'll be the end of December either—maybe in the first two weeks, so still not a long wait.

When this demo is out, I'm hoping it'll be a super fun read and worth the wait. I do keep promising that the wait won't be much longer and I'm really pushing for that, so stay tuned.

PLANS

Finish press conference scene.

Finish chapter one.

WORD COUNT

40.0k (9.5k)

[picturesofthearsenal]

Arsenal's Brazilian midfielder Gabriel Martinelli holds up the shirt of Arsenal's Spanish defender Pablo Mari (recently injured in a stabbing incident in Italy) as he celebrates with teammates after scoring the opening goal of the English Premier League football match between Arsenal and Nottingham Forest at the Emirates Stadium in London on October 30, 2022. (Photo by Ian Kington / AFP)

[qrowscant-art]

i think the fallout ghoul should have been a narsty looking butch woman instead of a rather smooth looking man

[wintuvern]

Meet Lorna McKee, the striker for Inter City FC

[darkblueboxs]

Glass Onion Spoilers - Foreshadowing and Among Us

I’ve seen a few posts dunking on glass onion for being “cringe” because of the Among Us scene and a few praising it for accurately reflecting the fact that this is all everyone was playing in 2020, but I haven’t seen anyone really talk about how brilliantly Among Us works as a foreshadowing/storytelling device.

On the surface - as the film itself points out! - the game is a neat little parallel of the island: one murderer hidden among us, with the objective being to find them out. But this comparison goes far deeper than the basic premise of the film.

Firstly, Benoit appears as the game’s imposter, and then, it is later revealed, is literally an imposter, arriving on the island uninvited under false pretences - one of the first major twists of the film spelled out to the audience in the opening act. And he isn’t alone - just as two imposters generally work together to deceive the other players, so Benoit and Helen work together to infiltrate the group. BUT, and this is the bit that really drives me wild, the endgame format of Among Us perfectly reflects the endgame of the film. The way to win Among Us isn’t necessarily a case of killing everyone or surviving every round - the way to win is by convincing your fellow players to believe you, and to vote accordingly.

During the trial Andi loses because the imposter - the billionaire impersonating a genius - convinces the other players that she should be voted out; she is as effectively thrown out of the airlock as she is the business, and then literally killed to protect the [fortune of] the “crew.”

But, Andi was not the imposter, and so the game continues.

The imposter kills again, and when Miles confesses to causing the lights to go out, this is another excellent hint - only the imposter can sabotage the lights!

Then, with all the characters assembled much like an “Emergency Meeting,” we reach the climax of the film: Miles burns the napkin evidence, and immediately the ensemble is back to the voting booth as Helen, like her sister, fights for the players’ support in voting out the imposter. Any Among Us player will recognise the infuriating feeling when you literally just saw them vent for the love of god you were all there vote them OFF- and that frustration - of speaking the truth and not being believed - is evident in this scene.

But these players don’t care about the truth; they care about surviving (ie staying rich), and so they will vote off an innocent person to placate the shark. Which is absolutely not how you win the game.

Then, then, the game’s final round: the imposter has lost his tools, is revealed for the useless fraud he is, and it’s when he has nothing left to offer the other players that one more vote is held - the characters literally raise their hands as they pledge their support to Helen, in part to give the appearance of swearing in upon the witness stand, but also in part to give the visual of a literal vote... such as that of an Among Us emergency meeting vote.

And it’s when Miles is finally, rightfully ejected that at last, the game is won.

Among Us is a game of social engineering, of lying and convincing others of your lies to prolong your survival, deception, and the malleability of truth. Presenting this game in the opening of the film is more than a gimmick or scene-setter: it illustrates the social structures at the heart of the story.

TLDR: Among Us foreshadows the film’s premise, but also plot twists, character choices, and significantly the film’s resolution by way of group vote.

[retrocandyart]

Frieren x OMORI for a trend