#but in most survival horror games it is just Something To Do I Guess

[mollypaup]

the struggle of wanting to play more horror games but hating survival horror

[hyperfixiation-station]

Hi!!

I am totally obsessed with your fics!!! Your writing 🤌💕

I just wanted to request a fic where the reader is new to the task force but she's experienced and tough. Vibez similar to Ghost to elaborate she's more scary than Ghost cuz of her past maybe she was experimented on or trained brutally....

Reader is working hard to prove herself even if everyone knows she's the most lethal person. So one time she gets injured badly while protecting someone from the 141( probably Ghost 👉👈) and she wakes up has an emotional moment Ghost comes know about her Trauma . More like hurt/comfort....

Happy Writing 💝

Guilt-Tripped

CW: Mentions/references of kidnapping, torture, canon typical violenece Part 2, Part 3 Hiii Anon!! First off, thank you! Secondly, I am so, so, so sorry for how long this took😭 I did make this a two parter, the first part is kinda like backstoryish and the second part will be the actual story. I was gonna wait until I finished both to post but you have been waiting for way to long so I'll give you the first part now instead of waiting, again I am so sorry! I hope you like it :)) Summary: F!Reader was a part of a special program(LMK if you can guess what it is) and once she was released she joined the military.

WC: 1467 As always, I didn't proof read so lmk if there are any mistakes :3

Life had not been kind to you. Ripped from your family at a very young age, you had never known the type of love and safety a nurturing home could provide. Instead, you grew up in the confines of a Russian base, with cruel instructors and a dwindling group of girls as your only companions.

From the moment you could walk, you had been told you were a weapon. A lethal force to be honed and trained, nothing more than a tool for others to use to further their games. Brainwashed, tortured, and trained into submission, a perfect puppet. Both your brain and body were sculpted into absolute perfection, a rigorous process most people did not survive. By day, they trained to be a lethal force, an unstoppable, unnoticeable, killing machine. At night, you were handcuffed to your bed, listening to the screams of students who did not make the cut.(to this day you sleep handcuffed)

You watched, at first in horror, then with a sense of detachment, as your friendsrivals bit the dust, unable to keep up with what the program demanded of them. It got better as you got older, less girls died from their tasks. But in some ways it got worse. It was a competition now, a fight to see who would remain victorious, to see who would come out on top. It was not a place for friendship and comradery, and you learned that quickly.

You stopped trying to make friends with the other students when you were forced to shoot your best friend in the head after giving her some of your dinner when she was being punished. You were 8. And you stopped trying to even just be friendly with the other girls at 10 years old, when the instructor broke every bone in your hands after your bunkmate framed you for something you didn't do. To this day your hands are not the same, always hurting and forever scarred.

Your world was kill or be killed, and you'd be dammed if you didn't come out on top.

And come out on top you did. You graduated top of your class, a position you had fought and killed for, won through bloodshed and pain. If you had a conscience, it would have been screaming at you for the things you had done to get to the top(You laid awake every night consumed by guilt and grief)

The program was disbanded(re: destroyed) when you hit 18, just two weeks after your 'graduation'. You were given two options: Join the American military, or face a life sentence in prison. 

You had a lifetime of sins to atone for, and knew there was only one way to even begin to ease your guilt. Two days later your background was sealed up and you were shipped off to boot camp. 

And you excelled. This was nothing to you. What was a six mile run when you used to run until you passed out, then wake up and keep going? What was surviving on four hours of sleep when sleep deprivation had been the norm your whole life? What was any of this compared to what you had been forced to do everyday since you were five? 

You scared your instructors. And the other recruits. And everyone else you came into contact with. And you were fine with that. You didn't like when people got close to you anyhow.

Love got you nowhere in the world. It was a lesson you learned hard and fast. You did not care for others, they did not care for you. And you liked it that way. Until you met the 141.

A woman named General Laswell came to you one day with a job offer. Well, not a job offer exactly, but more of a…transfer of positions. A small, (mostly)four-man team that she oversaw.

You had gotten disciplined for beating the ever-loving shit out of a recruit the week before, and Laswell had watched it all unfold. She went back to her office, read your full file, and decided you would make a good fit for John's team.

You took a look at your bunk, at the trunk that held zero worldly possessions, realized there is nothing for you here, and said yes. 

Price had not wanted a new recruit, and told Laswell as much. She simply said he had a penchant for picking up strays and left your file on his desk. It took him a week to actually get curious enough to read it. A paper copy, the only one in existence that had your full, undisclosed background. He pretended he didn’t see her smug grin when he hit accept on your transfer application. 

You had been trained since youth to fight and to kill, yes, but your true purpose was espionage. You were trained to study those around you, to lie, to mold yourself to the expectations of those around you. You excelled at fitting into your surroundings, at assimilating perfectly with your peers. It was all you were good for, in your opinion. So you asked Laswell for files on your new teammates. And she gave them to you. They were full of gaping holes and redacted information, but there was enough there for you to profile them. 

Soap would be the most receptive to you. He most likely would also be the one to not give up in trying to get you to be open with them. Gaz would be receptive as well, but you know that your sealed background would put him on edge, Ghost, well…Ghost was a lot like you from what you could piece together. Yet another person who learned that the world was cruel and unforgiving, who had learned the lesson that love does nothing but hurt. And because he was like you, you knew he would trust you the least.

You felt a small pang in your chest when looking at this masked photo that you hadn’t felt in years. Not quite sadness, but…pity? No. It was different, it was sympathy. It weirded you out. 

It was hard at first, joining the 141. You had court-mandated therapy you had had to attend, and you had slowly come to realize that some trust was good, necessary even, for life. You knew you wouldn’t be able to open yourself up to them, that you would never be able to feel the sense of brotherhood you had seen amongst other soldiers, but you wanted to try. 

It was harder than you thought it would be. Hard joining men who already had comradery, who had a bond that had been forged with blood, sweat, and tears. men who weren't sure how to fit another person, much less a female, into their group. 

As you suspected, Soap was the most receptive. He was fun, you thought. His Scottish accent and affinity for filling the silence made him a very pleasant conversationalist. You didn’t have to do any of the talking.

Gaz was wary of you, but did a good job of not showing it. As you suspected, he stopped inviting you out after you said ‘no thanks’ for the third time. 

Ghost didn’t like you. You could see it in the slight tensing of his muscles when you walked in the room, the way his eyes pinched when you spoke. 

It was a rough, rocky start, full of distrust and misunderstandings. Everything about you set his senses on high alert. They way you could sneak up on him completely silent, the way you could hold your own when you sparred with him, even the way you moved had his hair standing on end. It wasn’t until a mission that would have ended with Soap's death if you hadn’t risked your life to shove him out of the way that Ghost began to trust you. 

And then he began to notice something else about you. And the more he noticed, the more concerned he grew. He noticed the way you threw yourself into battle, what little regard you held for your own life. He noticed how you never instigated conversation, never gave away the slightest bit of information that could be used against you. Noticed that you always wore gloves. In fact, he's never once seen your hands.

His constant observations of you had an unintended side effect. The longer he watched you, the more he realized you were a lot like him, the more he was drawn to you. And vice-versa. 

You found yourself willfully seeking Ghost out, willingly sharing information with him. Nothing about your past, no, you would never tell anyone the things you had done. But little things, how you liked the food served this week, how your mission went, that your new pants were really itchy. And he told you things too. Told you really bad jokes, told you Soaps stupid Scottish saying of the week. And slowly you branched out, agreeing to go to the bar the next time Soap asked you, telling Gaz that you liked his new sunglasses. 

It was nice, having people who looked at you like you meant something to them. Having people who didn’t know what you’d done, people who didn’t look at you with disgust and distrust. It was nice to have…friends. 

So of course everything had to go downhill from there.

End scene :3 let me know what you think!!6 and be on the look out for pt.2, I hope you're ready for a buttload of angst >:) Also requests are open <3

[whitmore]

fitmc madagio lore full transcript under the cut bc it’s so so interesting and also for community archival purposes

FIT: I saw you 200 blocks away. You aren’t sneaky.

FIT: If you’re new, I have nothing for you.

FIT: Here, it’s every person for themselves

FIT: Now, fuck off.

FIT: Still there?

FIT: I guess you want to learn the hard way.

FIT: ??!????

FIT: … who are you?

FIT: … what is your name?

FIT: … where exactly did you come from?

MADAGIO: Do not be afraid.

MADAGIO: Allow me to congratulate you.

MADAGIO: An ordinary human would’ve been driven to madness in a place like this.

MADAGIO: A toxic wasteland, one of the worst I’ve seen.

MADAGIO: I can see it in your eyes.

MADAGIO: Your aggression serves to hide the pain of the unimaginable horrors you have witnessed, and judging by your looks, perhaps perpetuated?

MADAGIO: I’ve been seeking someone with your level of mental fortitude…..

MADAGIO: The ability to resist both madness and toxicity.

MADAGIO: I detected the remnants of a very powerful signal in this world, so I came to investigate.

MADAGIO: I guess it would be a good place to look for people like you and I was right.

FIT: Sounds like bullshit to me.

MADAGIO: Apologies. Allow me to introduce myself.

MADAGIO: I am known as Madagio. are used to live on an island. It was one of many… All connected together by the same system. The island that was my home well….. let’s just say… things happened. Ever since I’ve gained the ability to travel across worlds, in search of skilled survivalists and deceivers, people who can hide in plain sight in extreme conditions. Judging by your age, you’ve survived here for a very long time. Perhaps you are interested in a change of scenery. If you are, meet me at the location in that book. We can discuss more there.

[BOOK READS: Meet me in the ruins of the obsidian outpost to the south. / Look underneath the red beacon. / I’ll be waiting…..]

—

FIT: That sounded like an end portal! What’s going on??!?!?

—

MADAGIO: You’ve arrived quickly, excellent. I see you noticed my friends on the way here. They are my eyes and ears; an extension of me. Now listen carefully. I would like to offer you a job Fit. One of the islands in the system I spoke of earlier is named Quesadilla. It’s a beautiful place, but it hides many secrets. Secrets that I must have at all costs. They will soon be accepting visitors for the first time in many years. right now the only way onto the island is by train. Most of the tickets have already been given out. However….. I can arrange for you to receive one. To keep your cover, you will need to act like you are on a vacation. Once you arrive on the island, I want you to start collecting information. Player data, island statistics, the emotions of your neighbors… …and analytical data on how it all connects together.

FIT: Player data? Statistics? Why do you want that stuff?

MADAGIO: In time it will make sense. As you collect it, I want you to report your findings to me. It may be difficult given the island’s current isolation, but you’ll find a way. A wasteland nomad like you traveling to Quesadilla will be very unexpected. Which is why I want you to blend in. Become friends with your neighbors. You might even know some of them already, so it should be easy. But do not form attachments, it will only complicate things. You are there for a very specific purpose. While you are on Quesadilla… I will be elsewhere, making preparations for something very important. You will have exactly one year to accomplish this task. if you are successful, your payment will ensure you have an early retirement. If you are unable to complete it in that time, I may have to help you… But let me make something very clear. Should you disregard the mission entirely… Or attempt to cheat me… I will ensure you spend the rest of your life in this toxic and vile waste land. Doomed to wander, and die in obscurity… And anyone who made connections with on Quesadilla will suffer. This is not a game to me. These, as I have stated, are the terms of this contract. If you step through the portal, it means you accept. But there is no turning back. Shall we begin?

FIT: 10 years is a long time to be stuck in the same wasteland. You know what I need? A vacation.

—

FIT: Finally, I can remember your name.

FIT: I care about the people on this island. I’ll complete the job, but you better not be using their data to do harm.

[howlsofbloodhounds]

might be a controversial/unpopular opinion but i headcanon that any classic variant of sans has some sort of superiority complex going on. maybe not exactly that, but they're some flavor of self-righteous, i guess?

OKAY LISTEN. i'm not saying sans is a bad guy or anything (i love him very much i swear). canon sans is written really well in the sense that he's intentionally very vague and mysterious so we can speculate a lot on his past and intentions throughout the story. idk, maybe my reading is completely off but sans appears to me as a lovable asshole, especially to someone who is a child (frisk). he likes playing around with frisk - yeah it's harmless but still his advice tends to be vague, especially when it comes to battle tips lmao. just imagine in-universe how terrible his advice comes off to a child.

and like, the restaurant scene. sans is intentionally acting all blithe about letting a child die on his watch, under a promise - like i know it's supposed to be a funny off-hand comment to the player, but in-universe again he addresses this to a child. it's just- lmao this guy has some problems for sure.

i think being self-righteous is just tied to his role as a judge as well. he's always 'right' in his judgement, because that's what he is. i think it's just interesting to explore that particular aspect of sans' personality, that he acts in what he thinks is right, and he's always right, isn't he? maybe that's why i tend to enjoy undertale stories where sans somewhat assumes the role of the antagonist - it creates some fantastic dynamic with people around him who it seems like he never really connects well.

~ crowshipping anon

Crow!! Yayy!!

And I honestly kinda vibe with this interpretation honestly. I haven’t completely finished playing all the Undertale games myself (curse my lack of motivation 😭), but I watched a few playthroughs here and there, and it seems like something that could make sense.

Especially when he’s given such an important position like a being a Judge, his opinions and judgements are likely taken seriously by Asgore.

And the thing is, you can also make an argument for this with our most popular classic variants; the Murder Time Trio. Murder justifies what he does as being better that he does it instead of the human, justifies it with that he will eventually stop the human.

Really, he may even argue that his current actions don’t really even go against his job as the Judge; he has judged that the human must be stopped, and he has to do it because he’s the only one who can. I’ve even seen some ideas going around that maybe he views himself as the Angel from the Prophecy, having judged that the Underground will be free by death.

Horror is the entire reason his Underground started eating humans, and he is also the reason that the Core is damaged beyond repair. He didn’t want to sacrifice himself for the Underground, and he survived the event that took his eye, yet he still judged that Undyne and Alphys had to pay for their betrayal—and in doing so he decided that the rest of the Underground would be doomed to starvation or eating people.

He decided to trick Horror Papyrus into eating human meat even though Papyrus very clearly did not want to, and Horror doesn’t seem all too guilty about it—even as Papyrus goes out of his way to prevent Horror from eating humans at his own request.

I’ve even seen around by bigger Horror/Horrortale fans than me that Horror’s reasons for starving himself may not even be entirely selfless—such as for a moral reason or wanting others to have more food than him. But rather because he views it as beneath him and he won’t go “that low.” How canon that is, im not sure, but it’s interesting.

Then meanwhile there’s Killer. He sneers at Swap and threatens to kill him if he ever attempts to compare himself to Killer again, he holds the beliefs and mindsets of his human that were taught to him very closely and looks down on anyone who views things differently with contempt—especially if they attempt to “force” him to view things differently.

Things like mercy or kindness or hesitation are seen as weakness and things to take advantage of in his mind. Even himself is not free from this nihilistic, fatalistic, violence and apathetic driven worldview—-looking down on himself in Stage 1.

He will go out of his way to prove himself and his views right, even if that means doing exactly what Chara did and coercing/provoking someone into killing, attacking, hurting, etc, either themselves, others, or even him.

This is exactly what he was supposed to be, and it’s pointless to try and change or hope for anything more than what he or anyone else deserves. He probably finds Murder’s attempts to justify his genocides absolutely ridiculous. And Horror to be absolutely hypocritical. (Which is why Color’s specific way of approaching Stage 2, wanting to show him a better life—something new—rather than trying to change or fix him, worked so well.)

[roanofarcc]

PROJECT SUNSHINE CHAPTER SIXTY THREE → THE FREAKSHOW

summary: steve harrington x oc || Ao3

when another product of Hawkins National Laboratory escaped a long-survived nightmare alongside her sister, she crashed into one unsuspecting teenage boy and dragged him deeper into the dark mysteries that made up their hometown.

word count. 2.7k || masterlist || ocs moodboard

warnings: cannon typical violence, child abuse, horror, gore, and depictions of mental illness. parts of this story were written pre-season 4 release. cannon divergence.

previous chapter ← → next chapter

Tagged. @sattlersquarry, @leptitlu, @two-sides-samecoin

The subdivision was quiet that afternoon. A strange calm had settled over Hawkins that spring, but Steve had learned not to let his guard down anymore. Nothing was ever calm in Hawkins, and his nerves were already pricked with Sunshine a couple of hours away in Indy with her sister. He knew she could handle herself if she ran into any trouble, and he tried to convince himself that she wouldn’t run into any trouble, but there had been a knot of worry tied inside his gut since he was little. He worried about everything, all of the time. The revelation of other dimensions, monsters, and bad men only made that knot worse. But he did his best to distract himself. 

“Turn your elbow like this,” Steve said, moving his arm to mimic the motion of the kid beside him. “It’ll help your aim.” 

Lucas fixed his arm and shot the basketball, putting it right through the old hoop Steve had dug out of his garage. Since Lucas told Steve he was thinking of trying out for the basketball team last fall, Steve had been helping him practice. Between all of his high school highs and lows, basketball had been the only consistent thing for Steve, and something he still enjoyed. It served as a normal distraction for both of them, but especially Lucas. The kid was really good too and made varsity his freshman year. And while he most rode the bench, Lucas had too much potential to stay there forever.

The ball bounced against the cement and Lucas raced to grab it, dribbling it back down the driveway to where Steve stood. He was quieter than normal; Steve was the only person, besides Lucas’s dad, who the kid could have an actual conversation about basketball with. His friends weren’t interested in it, and Steve wasn’t sure of the last time Lucas had a full conversation with Max, to everyone’s dismay. 

“You all right, Sinclair?” Steve asked. 

He shrugged, eyes glued to the ball. “This game’s a big deal, right?” 

“A really big deal,” Steve replied. There were only a handful of times Hawkins High made it to the championship of anything. “But, you know, all you can do is play your best.” 

Lucas snorted a sarcastic laugh. “You sound like Sunshine.” 

Steve smiled. “Occupational hazard.” She had rubbed off on him, even more so since they were dating. Her sunny disposition and pep talks, along with her adoration of the simple things in life. He saw the world differently with her, and not just the bad stuff that crawled out of portals or gates. The world was a scary place, but it also held a lot of good stuff, you just had to look through the weeds and interdimensional vines to see it. 

“I know the pressure can be tough, but you’ll be fine.” 

Lucas held the ball in his hands, slumping his shoulders slightly. “It’s not just that. This game is important to me, but Mike and Dustin want me to skip it for the D&D campaign. I guess Eddie refuses to reschedule.” 

Steve rolled his eyes. He didn’t really know the guy, their paths rarely crossed in high school. Either Steve was running with Tommy and Carol, too busy to notice nerds like Eddie Munson, or he was sulking in his fall from grace and reeling from monsters and bullies. He’d heard of Eddie, in a small town it was impossible to not know everyone, whether you liked to or not. Rumor had it he was some super-senior drug dealer, and that sounded like the last person Steve wanted hanging around the party. But Dustin refuted the rumors and made Eddie out to be some kind of king of the nerds. 

It was embarrassing, and Steve hadn’t even admitted it aloud to Sunshine yet, but he was a little jealous of the Hellfire Club caption. Sure, on paper, he was probably the cooler person to hang out with in the eyes of Dustin because he loved the same game they did, but Steve had thought that he and Dustin were the ultimate duo. He was like Steve’s little brother, annoying and sometimes a pain in the ass, but someone Steve couldn’t see not in his life. But it seemed like Dustin was no longer interested in hanging out with him. 

It made Steve feel even more useless to the gaggle of teens, like he really didn’t have a place in the grand scheme of their monster-hunting team anymore.

“Your friends can’t miss one campaign to come watch you play?” Steve asked, shoving aside his own weird issues with some dude he’d never even talked to before. 

“Guess not.” 

“Well, what about Max?” 

Lucas sighed again, hugging the ball to his chest like he was trying to get some kind of comfort from it. “She still won’t talk to me. She hardly talks to Mike or Dustin. Every time I try, she shrugs me off with some excuse. I don’t know what else to do.” 

Max didn’t like change, which Steve figured out very quickly after getting to know Max. Moving across the country was one thing, but what she’d experienced since being in Hawkins was another beast. No one could blame her, they all just wished she’d let them help her. Sunshine seemed to be the only one who could get through to her somewhat. She shut the party out, caved in on herself. Lucas was the most distraught over it. 

“There’s not much you can do,” Steve said. “You can try to be there for her, but you can’t magically make everything better.” 

“It just sucks. We know people with superpowers and know there’s another dimension, but we can’t, like, fix any of the shit we’ve been through. We just have to take it and pretend like…like it’s fine.” 

It was beyond frustrating, but that had become their lives. Steve’s mind glazed over it, trying hard not to think too much about it until the world threatened to end again. 

“Look on the bright side, you’ve only got four more years here. Then you can play basketball at some D1 school, pretend like Hawkins was some fucked up nightmare or something.” 

Lucas laughed but it was mixed with a little scoff. “Yeah, if I live that long,” he muttered, and Steve’s gut turned uncomfortably. He didn’t like that, jokes like that were too real. “And if they ever let me off the bench.” He tossed the ball at Steve, who caught it despite being slightly thrown off guard. 

Dribbling the ball, back up the driveway, Steve shoved away the pit in his stomach and focused on the task at hand. “Hey, with my help, you might even get to play in the championship.”

“Yeah,” he replied, sarcastically. “I might even win the whole thing.” 

→←

“This feels…unethical,” Will Byers said, chewing nervously on his nails as he stood lookout for Leia. 

She stopped, turning her head to look at him. “Really? I could name ten unethical things that have been done to the two of us alone. This, my dearest brother, is good ole’ fashioned revenge.” She balanced a cup of red paint on the locker shelf with a fishing wire around it. Carefully, she threaded the wire through the slit in the door and fashioned it so that as soon as the locker was opened, the cup would be pulled forward and spill on the unlucky but well-deserving bully. 

“I doubt she’s even read Carrie. Angela and her friends aren’t going to get the prank.” 

Leia sighed, cautiously looking up and down the empty hall. “They don't need to ‘get it.’ All that matters is that Angela is covered in red paint. She deserves a lot worse for laughing at El’s project, but Joyce said we’re grounded if we commit a crime.” 

“Technically, I think she said we’re grounded if we’re caught committing a crime.” 

Leia paused before she shrugged. “If this doesn’t work, then I’ll think of something illegal. Until then…” She dusted her hands off on her paint-stained overalls from an art project gone slightly rouge and clapped Will on the shoulder. He had grown even taller since their move, Joyce said it was probably the sun that was making all of them grow like weeds, but Will still curled into himself and tried to make himself smaller among their new Cali-folk. 

While Leia probably should have been more wary about a new school, but she had a different view of it. She had never attended any kind of school, so she had no expectations. Bullies didn’t bother her because she was good at brushing them off. All of the teasing from Kali’s friends made her skin thick and she had a little voice in her head reminding her she had superpowers and they didn’t; it made her feel better. 

Will flew under the radar too. He was quiet and good at blending in, making himself a small target. Luke followed in his footsteps, spending most of his time tucked away in the library which most kids avoided besides the nerdy and quiet ones. It was El that caught all of the flack. 

By some unlucky chance, she had caught the eye of a blonde-headed all-American mean girl the second she stepped through the school doors. El was kind, she wanted to be friends with everyone but had a hard time picking up on social cues. And the second Angela got a whiff of El’s slight unusualness, she latched on like a hungry shark. How some freshman had a cult following of brightly dressed, rich friends who would do anything she said, Leia had no idea. It was like they stumbled into the set of a movie riddled with cliches that Leia thought weren’t actually supposed to happen in real life. Yet, there Angela was, laughing at El while she tried to present a project she had worked really hard on. Apparently cruelty earned you cheap laughs; Leia wanted to fry Angle to a crisp. 

She had to settle for ruining the bully’s outfit. 

The bell rang, singling the end of class. Leia and Will stood innocently at the water fountain and subtly watched as Angela and her clique waded down the hall, her blonde ponytail swinging with each step. She arrived at her locker, entered her combo, and yanked it open. Out poured the red paint, splashing down the front of Angela’s shirt. She let out a shrill scream that echoed through the hall, causing people to stop. 

Angela wiped her hands against the paint, smearing it into the fabric and getting a layer coating her palms and fingers. It looked like blood, but the smell of paint quickly filled the air, making the hall smell just like the art room. 

Leia hid her laughter under her hand while Will pressed his lips in a thin line, suppressing a smile. They watched as Angela’s friends surrounded her like a flock of birds. She swatted them away and turned out from her locker with her face nearly as red as the paint. Leia couldn’t hear what she said, but without even cleaning herself up, she took off toward the doors that led to the courtyard of the school. 

“Okay,” Will said with a laugh. “You were right; that was great!” 

Leia beamed. “I’ve got more where that came from.” 

He shook his head, a lightness in his tone that only came out from time to time now. “Come on, let’s go find Luke and El. They’ll want to hear about this.” 

Unfortunately, their two siblings did hear about the red paint stunt because El was the first person Angela assumed had pranked her. By the time Leia and Will entered the courtyard, El was sprawled out against the ground with her project in pieces along the sidewalk. Angela was standing the closest to El, her arms crossed and laughing along with the rest of her friends who stood on the sidelines. 

El’s face was grief-stricken, and that alone was enough to send Leia running towards her sister. She jammed her shoulder into Angela’s sending the blonde stumbling. El stood and outstretched her hand in a similar way she once did when she used to abilities; it was a reflex, one that would probably take El a long time to shake since she had lost her abilities last summer. Before El did anything to give Angela further ammunition, Leia grabbed El’s arm gently and pushed it back down at her side. 

Angela seemed satisfied with sending El and her project to the ground and turned to leave, her front half still coated in paint. A tear fell from El’s eye as she glanced at her broken project. With a gentle sigh, Leia tried to channel her anger into something more helpful for El; it was what Sunshine told her to do when she felt her anger gain control of her, fueling her abilities and asking for something bad to happen. Leia grabbed a hold of El’s shoulder, making her sister look at her. 

“Are you okay?” 

El frowned, wiping away her tears. She nodded sadly, slumping her shoulders. 

“It’s my fault,” Leia said. “I pranked Angela, but I should have known she’d think it was you. I’m sorry.” 

“It’s okay,” El tried to smile, but it was weak and turned back into a frown when her eyes landed on the pieces of her project. 

Will and Luke started picking them up, placing them back in the slightly crushed shoe box. “We can fix it,” Will said with confidence in his voice. He pinched a squirrel figurine in between his fingers before holding it out to El. She grabbed the squirrel and closed her fist around it. “We’ll all help, and it’ll be good as new, all right?” 

“All right,” El said quietly. She joined the boys on the ground while Leia scooped out the surrounding area in case any pieces went flying off of the sidewalk and onto the grass. She spotted a couple of popsicle sticks and gathered them before she turned around. Directly behind her was one of her classmates, who sat beside Leia in art class. 

Startled, Leia gasped, and the girl’s eyes widened before a sheepish smile fell across her lips. “Sorry!” Abby said. “Didn’t mean to scare you, I just found this.” She held out a small hat that El had made to resemble Hopper’s police hat. 

“Thanks,” Leia said, taking the hat with a small ache in her chest. Not a day went by where she didn’t think about Hopper; she missed him, but Joyce was doing everything she could to make the three of them feel a part of their family. It wasn’t the same though. They weren’t in that little cabin in the woods, eating Eggos and watching black-and-white detective movies. 

Abby shoved her hands in her pockets and rocked back and forth in her busted sneakers. She didn’t dress like most of the kids at school; her shoes were dirty and her clothes were mended with patches of different colors. Her hair was pin straight and black, with thick bangs cut barely above her eyes. She was odd but in a good way. Abby was always bouncing on her heels or tapping her hands against the tabletop. She spoke quickly but with so much enthusiasm it made Leia feel happy too. 

“Angela’s a jerk,” Abby said. “I’m glad someone finally did something, even if it didn’t end super well.” 

Leia pocketed the hat with a sigh. “I should have used real pig’s blood.” 

“You stole the pain from the art room?” 

“Guilty.”

Abby laughed. “That’s amazing! Oh, I would have killed to see her face!” Leia laughed too; it was impossible for her not to. Abby’s laugh was infectious, which often got them into trouble in art when they couldn’t spot giggling in the middle of class.

“Leia, are you ready?” Will called from several feet away. They had cleaned up El’s project and Luke was carrying it in his arms, probably in case Angela had any other ideas. Luke was a little taller and broader, harder to knock down. 

Abby gave Leia a smile before she said, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” With that, she turned on her feet and headed across the yard, leaving Leia with a friendly giddiness bubbling inside her chest. 

Leia rushed over to her siblings, handing the hat off to El. Together, they all walked back into school, El sandwiched between them. The Hopper-Byers weren’t a typical group of siblings, but it was as if they were destined to be family all along. Maybe they radiated the idea that they didn’t belong, slotted pieces of different puzzles that somehow fit, but there was no denying that they belonged together as a family. 

[toskarin]

So, I don't mean this in a rude way, but I genuinely don't understand the appeal of Fear & Hunger outside the fetishistic angle, and I was hoping you might be able to tell me what you like about it. Everything I've heard and seen about it seems to not be particularly scary, but rather just a sequence of gore and sexual assault related scenes that everyone assumes make a horror franchise because Bad Things are happening.

Oh? You killed someone? Well, congratulations, pal, you learned the masturbation skill! You lost a fight? Whoops, looks like that genie is going to fist your anus until you die! You're fighting a guy who tried to sexually assault your character? Now he turned into a horrible penis monster and is telling you to choke on his balls!

I know those examples are all from the sequel, but my impression is that the first one is very much like that as well. I'm totally willing to believe that I'm wrong, but from the outside, it genuinely looks like the fandom is a bunch of people insisting to each other that this is Actually Very Deep, when it's ultimately just weird porn that's honestly kind of sophomoric in its delivery. Again, I'm willing to believe there's something there, but I haven't been able to find it in anything I've seen of the franchise so far.

And to be clear, I'm not coming at this from the angle of someone criticizing people for being into weird porn, and I'm by no means unfamiliar with or against the concept of sexual horror. If people are into games where the penalty for losing is their character getting fucked to death, more power to those people. I guess what I'm saying is that it just feels like at least a portion of the fan base isn't being honest about what they get out of it. Like, if someone is really into the considerable amount of horny stuff in Fear and Hunger, that's fine, but own it.

I guess I'm ultimately hoping for either some clarification as to why I'm getting the wrong impression, or, like, confirmation that a lot of the appeal is the sexual stuff.

ramble below the break

so, before anything else, it should definitely be clarified: even through the lens of ryona and eroguro, Fear and Hunger isn't actually very much of a fetish game. it's got lots of gratuitous violence, a lot of which is sexual, but the actual content of the game is more like a splatter film than a guro doujin

it's a very silly qualification to pull, but I've got more than a passing familiarity with the other side of things and don't really think the game has that going on (I tried the game because I thought that's what it was lol)

a lot of it comes down to the fact that not only are those scenes unpleasant, but you also know they're paired with material consequences. kind of like how playing survival games in hardcore mode gives them an otherwise absent tension. you've gotta make hard choices, and sometimes those choices make you miserable

most players don't want to see those scenes, which is why it ends up being an effective (albeit absolutely not tasteful, no argument there) horror element. it has to be taken along with the restrictive saves, the harsh atonal music, and the fact that everything you run into in these games looks disgusting

the end result is a game where you have a number of saves that most generously can be counted on one hand with room to spare and spend your time running around a world where nearly everything wants to kill you, do something horrible to you, or some baroque combination of the two

Fear and Hunger's horror works because, unlike a lot of splatter horror, it forces the player to be in a prey mindset just as much as the protagonists are. it's really scary when you're rationing your saves, think you're almost in the clear, and then the game asks you to call a coinflip

if Fear and Hunger were presented in any other medium, I wouldn't think it makes for good horror. it's extremely silly to read about and is frankly either "Berserk with the labels sanded off" or "Majora's Mask but fucked up" depending on the game. the user-hostility of the mechanics turns those incoherent masses of scares into paranoid nightmare simulators

the abstract dread of "this character is about to have their arms twisted behind their back and their organs pulled out of them" becomes very tangible when the player is actively trying to avoid a consequence. the tasteless sexual horror lands in large part because it's using the mechanics to force you to take the threat seriously

when you've got an infection on your arm and know that you could theoretically treat it but that it also might kill you in the time you're trying to find the medicine, you feel like a hunted animal asking yourself "maybe I should just saw it off"

or at least that's my read!

[neonganymede]

[A scene from fyosiglai play until dawn, a hypothetical sequel to Bad Decisions

A link to the scene they're playing in Until Dawn. Warning for typical horror game violence! ]

“Well, that’s not an obvious death trap or anything,” Sigma muttered as he listened to the girl onscreen try to call out to the disembodied voice leading her the wrong way. “Just keep following Sam.”

Nikolai didn’t react at first, so Sigma glanced over to see if he’d dozed off. They’d been playing this game for a while, and he didn’t even want to think about what time it could be. Instead of snoozing, Nikolai wore a strange expression on his face, one that Sigma recognized as his I’m-about-to-do-Something-Stupid grin.

Immediately, Sigma’s stomach dropped.

“Nikolai, no.”

“Aw, but Sigma! What if that’s our friend down there? We have to investigate!” Nikolai insisted, his innocent tone completely at odds with the manic glee that brightened his eyes. He clicked on the decision to investigate the voice, and Ashley moved forward on the screen.

Sigma tried to stay calm as he watched Nikolai fearlessly march his character toward the voice, accompanied now by the jerking sound of someone or something pushing against a locked trap door. His heart lurched each time the wooden door did, frantic and violent, and Sigma’s attempt to swallow his nerves only ended up with the sour taste of anxiety clinging to his tongue. 

Nikolai paused in front of the door, taking a moment to snicker gleefully to himself. He turned his gaze toward Sigma, his smile mean and vicious, and Sigma had an immediate flashback to their playthrough of The Quarry, particularly the moment where Nikolai ‘convinced’ Fyodor to open the trap door even though it was the most obvious death flag in the game.

“It’s clearly a trap,” Sigma tried again, already resigned to poor Ashley’s fate. He was honestly surprised she had survived this long with Nikolai controlling her, but this seemed like it would be a particularly brutal way to go. “That’s not Jessica. You know that.”

Nikolai hummed to himself, rocking from side to side as he completely ignored Sigma’s plea to save Ashley from an unfortunate end. He clicked the button, and his character bent down in front of the trap door. “But it could be, Sigma! What if we’re killing poor Jessica by leaving her to die here?”

“It’s not Jessica!”

“It sounds like her!”

“You know these creatures can mimic human speech! It’s not her! Fedya, please tell him!” Sigma turned to Fyodor, expecting support from the least likely source.

Fyodor yawned, and Sigma could read clear boredom in his violet eyes. He seemed utterly impassive from within his blanket burrito, too tired for Nikolai’s nonsense or Sigma’s pleading. He likely didn’t care what happened here, likely hadn’t cared for a while, but maybe he would see reason and stop Nikolai’s antics before they got another one of their characters killed!

So when Fyodor leaned his head forward as though to listen to the voice and make a formal declaration, Sigma wasn’t sure why he was so surprised by the result.

“I think Nikolai’s reasoning makes perfect sense. That could be Jessica, or it could be a monster. We will never truly know unless we open the door… correct?” Fyodor’s eyes glittered with mischief, and his mouth curved into a devilish smile the moment Nikolai began cheering from the other side of the couch.

“Guess not! Let’s open the door!”

“Are you kidding me?!” Sigma grumbled, jostled back and forth by Nikolai’s incessant bouncing. He faced the screen again, his teeth caught between his lower lip as he watched Nikolai happily undo the latch to the trap door.

The door opened, and all went quiet. Then the creature burst through the opening, and Sigma yelped in time with Ashley. He watched in horror as the monster grabbed the girl by the face, but the screen cut away before he had to see her head ripped off. He still had to listen to the crunch, the thud, and he covered his eyes to keep from seeing her disembodied head falling into view.

“Oospie! Guess it was a trap!” Nikolai practically howled with laughter, and he kicked his feet out in unrestrained glee at the carnage he had caused.

“What do you mean, oopsie!? Of course it was a trap! Ugh! How is this game both better and worse than the other one?!” Sigma wailed, not looking at the screen again until he heard the trap door close with another resounding thud.

“Really? I thought The Quarry’s death scenes were so much better! More blood! More violence! And we got to chop somebody’s arm off!”

“I did like the werewolves better,” Sigma admitted as he hesitantly returned his attention to the screen.

The point of view had shifted to Chris now, so Nikolai happily handed the controller over to Fyodor, entirely oblivious to Sigma’s tired glare. Undeniably pleased with himself, he snuggled up to Sigma and began to cover the side of his face in a plethora of chaotic kisses.

“Aw, don’t worry, Sigma! I’m sure that won’t happen again!”

“It better not!”

“Listen to Kolya. Do you truly believe that this game would try to trick us with the same scenario when we just saw what happened to poor, sweet Ashley?” Fyodor teased as he followed the same path that Nikolai had.

To the same intersection. To the same pause, the same voice, the same decision—

Sigma sighed, defeated, as Fyodor’s click the option to investigate the voice. Nikolai’s feral giggles returned, and he leaned forward in anticipation of yet another gruesome decapitation.

And as Chris lumbered toward his own death, Sigma wondered why he’d agreed to play this after all the horrors he’d endured last time. Why had he expected this to be any different? Why hadn’t he learned his lesson?

“After all, what fool would make the same mistake twice?”

[char-lie-spirals]

I would like to learn about the rest of the aus you mentioned here:3

Okay okay so!! I talked about some of them, so I'll just put the entire list under the cut and either link to my previous responses or cook something up! And what I cook up can possibly include a snippet of my writing too :]

Also since this is a lot of AUs/WIPs I'll try to be brief, but feel free to ask about more details on them!

Terminus' Ritual

This is an AU I've had for like a year now, and it answers a very simple question - What if the End HAD a ritual? That its avatars complete between mag 159 and mag 160? Simple answer - Zombies. And also some deaths getting reversed because getting a quick taste of it should make people more scared, and it's hard to keep a zombie apocalypse going with too few people. (This doesn't match the End's values, I Know.)

I have some notes on different characters' situations, who comes back etc etc but honestly the storyline I focused on the most is Oliver seeking shelter in Graham's old flat only for Graham to also be there, Pretty Confused about the passage of time between his death and now. :]

Graham gets spat out AU

Sasha gets replaced, NotSasha picks up the tape recorder and goes to dispose of the tape. The Artifact Storage is silent, but not empty, as a man who doesn't recall his own name wakes up on the floor. Okay this already sounds a bit like a snippet so I guess you can have a proper one too:

It was all pointless, you only suffered longer -- but is that truly pointless?

This one is a WIP in which I just wanted to explore the idea that the only reason Graham lived for so long was because he was scared that entire time, to the point the NotThem wasn't in much of a rush. It's pretty angsty, but can be bittersweet too if you look at it at the right angle and I am a simple man with a lot of hope in my heart. I've not been making much progress with it, and I'm not sure if I'll end it on the title-question and leave it up for the reader to decide, or if I'll provide my own answer, but let me say here: I don't think it was pointless. Not to me.

Michael(s) experience confusion

Already talked about this one here!

Graham Lives WITHOUT Becoming

Graham survives the events of MAG 003 because Oliver gets there in time to help him, and the two of them try to navigate the aftermath together. They go through many ups and downs, Oliver ends up becoming an Avatar himself, but Graham just kinda,, doesn't?? It just never happens. No fear claims him. At this point a lot of people are convinced he's an Avatar because of how his life is intertwined with the Fears but nope. Just some guy who can bluff pretty decently, gets lucky a lot, and loves his End-Avatar fiance a whole bunch :] (yes they're engaged now)

Graham Folger Lives because The Eye Is A Backseat Gamer

One of my Eye Graham AUs :] The main one, you could say! In this one, The Eye backseat-games his MAG 003 experience, and he Knows where to hide, what to do, and how to survive. After that, he goes on to start working at the institute, becomes an Archival Assistant after Jon's promotion, and goes through the horrors! I also talked about it Ages ago, right here- hold on that was in MAY???? 2023????? 10 months ago???? This is messed up.

Anyway! here's a little something I have written about it so far :]

DeathNote intro

Just me trying to explore how Graham and Oliver might've met, grown closer, gotten together and stayed together for 6 years :] No clue if I'll ever publish this and if so, if I'll use it as a backstory/background for one of my AUs or as its own stand-alone thing? But yeah it's just the two of them growing closer and falling in love :] You can have this snippet of it, too! It's their literal first meeting!

Antique seller Graham

Talked about this one here! I will probably do so again soon! But you can also have a snippet, since I guess writing all this really put me in a snippet mood! This is from this AU's version of Amy's statement :D

Cockroach Graham AU

I don't think I need to elaborate.

[turian]

beloved gamer mutual & comrade @rhubarbspring tagged me to do a video game about me ( tysm for tagging !! truly loved reading all ur game thoughts. <3 ) explanations behind my choices under the cut.

(also, i had to cheat a little bit in the "you love, everyone hates" category, because i don't think people on tumblr hate da2, but one of my best friends despises it because of reused assets and combat designed more for consoles than pcs. and i can't remember any other controversial beloved games right now. the best i can do is games i love that i'm not sure anyone remembers? imagine ubisoft ballet? which, like. do people hate that. i don't think so).

tagging @cowsquirrel @malcriada @sakraya @ansburg @anoramactir + literally anyone i might have missed who wants to do this

favourite game of all time: so, look, i hate her as much as i love her. i always go back to new vegas even though i have a lot of criticisms of it - i had a realization recently after the release of the fallout show that while maybe i was projecting intergenerational trauma onto the game and using it to process some things, there is a lot in the game that is extremely imperialistic, even as it dabbles in anti imperialism. i can't get into all that here - better essays than i'm capable of have already been written on new vegas - but i also have to admit that new vegas taught me to see game writing differently, and helped me a great deal in improving my own writing. it's also just really entertaining playing later games by obsidian and picking out the new vegas elements. i think that new vegas gets praised too readily for being progressive when in reality it's only the most progressive game in the fallout franchise, and i think every time i return to it i'm noticing one more thing that'll kind of be making my eye twitch. but, yeah, i think it would also be dishonest to not include it here, regardless of my mixed feelings, because i keep going back, and because there are so many angles to it, and because i keep catching myself comparing other games to it.

i think a lot about like........... how so many themes i can relate to exist within the narrative of new vegas, but that doesn't feel entirely intentional. like, benny is so real to me because ! he was forced to assimilate into this culture that was not his to survive. and ulysses as well. and like!!!! yeah idk. going insane. i feel very similarly about dragon age elves tbh i'm like okay i feel seen but also this game is racist! kms :') will be projecting hard and taking so much psychic damage

many such cases tho </3 baldur's gate 3 and their treatment of the gur is always going to be a mix of relatable and uncomfortable to me

favourite series: soulsborne! i like how bleak it is, love the theme of death and rebirth, love how thankless the games can be, and i also love how the combat reminds me of muay thai. had a coach explain something to me using dark souls combat as an example once. i didn't really get these games at first, until i saw my best friend playing - she is ridiculously good at them - and then i sort of realized that they're just combat puzzles, and that like... they're kind of about honing patience, i guess? and after that they really became my favourite.

best soundtrack: honorary mentions: mass effect and dark souls both have some individual tracks i revisit on the daily, and skyrim's secunda is beautiful. but hollow knight doesn't miss, and i love how every track matches its environment.

favourite protagonist: i grew up in a really dysfunctional somewhat criminal family so like... lol. i feel seen when i look at arthur morgan <3 him and charles are both close to my heart. john can stay too ig

favourite villain: SO okay, maybe this is cheating a little, but. the reapers from mass effect. went into that game with zero spoilers, and finding out that they were in fact cosmic horror games was so <3

this would probably have gone to new vegas except benny (and also ulysses + i think he's more narrative foil than antagonist, as is benny) literally did nothing wrong in my eyes and after that point it's like... who is the main antagonist? the ncr and legion both? like yeah they're interesting but...

best story: i haven't actually finished pathologic on my own yet. kind of obsessed, though. just feels responsible to put it here. honorary mentions to new vegas, some fromsoft titles, twd, imagine ubisoft ballet........ (i love her and i miss her).

i feel like a lot of story games i've played actually have garbage stories with good characters, which is why they're not here. baldur's gate 3 and ME, for example. or like... ME has a great story at first but they fuck up the ending so badly that a popular theory i've heard passed around essentially boils down to "it was all a dream!"

have not played but want to: i was actually supposed to apply for a job with the team that made these games !! i didn't because it would have required relocation to the US, but. idk i feel like they keep showing up, always highly recommended, and i think i own one? so yeah, i should really get around to that.

you love, everyone hates: again, i cheated on this one. i don't think people on here hate dragon age 2.

you hate, everyone loves: skyrim, detroit: become human, stardew valley (because it's a weird little cottagecore colonialism game but also because i don't really vibe with the art style and i get stressed as fuck in it because nothing is happening... it is simply not for me), and fallout 3 and 4 (because they're masquerading as games with choices but they fully aren't, they suffer from bethesda writing, and they are super unapologetically racist and imperialist). i mean like... not mad at any of my friends who like these games i just cannot play them. i don't really think any of the games on my list are unimpeachable, tbf.

favourite art style: disco elysium !! it's so <3 like, i also love it for other reasons!! but every time i play it i end up wanting to draw.

favourite ending: new vegas has four endings. i feel differently about them all, but the independent ending is very much shaped by the infrastructure the player assembles during a playthrough, and while it is maybe imperfect and very open ended in some ways i like how it doesn't really reassure the player. also, i really like certain elden ring endings and the dark souls 1 ending. and pathologic.

favourite boss fight: hollow knight has a lot i've really enjoyed (particularly hornet's). for elden ring, malenia is the fave, tho <3 when i defeat her i tend to feel really disappointed. like, get up. let's go again. parrying her is extremely satisfying.

childhood game: we like... found out we had some cousins which is wild because this has been a tiny family since Certain Incidents A Long Time Ago and they also had nintendo ds access and they were not into this game. and like... look, i'm not saying it's great, but it had dark souls ish combat? like, you could lock on? you could roll? and i ended up replaying it as an adult and being like. huh. not that bad.

+ imagine ubisoft ballet ily

relaxing games: distance, injustice 2 (i main red hood & black canary but i like playing robin too. it's super imbalanced and they still haven't nerfed starfire !! and it's incredibly funny like good for her), dark souls 1, and elden ring.

stressful games: again stardew valley because i would play with friends and it was like oh god i need to leave. i do not know what to do, i am useless, i am understimulated

+ red dead online is not a good game to play without substantial backup . so glad i had horse insurance because if i hadn't my only friend in that world would be dead. that said, i did like to hunt in that game + play the fps levels with groups

games you always come back to: new vegas but maybe she'll release me someday. idk. also unfortunately i didn't include it earlier but i keep going back to the sims 4 and baldur's gate 3. and fromsoft titles because i sometimes just crave that combat.

guilty pleasure: new vegas again!!! i guess i kind of talked about my extremely complicated feelings when i first spoke about it, but yeah. there's just so much to unpack and i'm never going to forgive it for a lot of things. the horrors and the joys are both numerous but the joys will never not be tainted by the horrors

tons of hours played: elden ring + bg3 + new vegas + mass effect. i don't have the hours of new vegas and mass effect available tho as they are confined to a now dead xbox 360

[jester-dragons-aus]

Ah fuck I've done it again

Amalgam AI AU

I've seen some AUs about the humans being AI instead of Caine and I thought that might be the simplest way to get this monstrosity to happen with a massive glitch without abstraction playing a part.

I think I just really like horror AUs and doing stuff like that is just so fun so I made another one with a better title than "Horror House" cuz c'mon what the hell does that mean lol

The only characters I don't have designed currently are Zooble, Caine, and Bubble but I'll add them soon. Caine will be a human, Bubble could be something to help him out and what not.

Inspired by AUs like Sm-baby's and The Horror Circus AU, but like, different ofc.

Think this: the game wasn't originally supposed to be a horror game, just a game you go through for fun. Like Undertale, I guess? But not quite

[WARNINGS: LOTS OF EYES/ARACHNID IMAGERY, BODY HORROR, EYESTRAIN]

So first and foremost, I think people would wanna see Pomni, though Jax was the first to be designed.

Pomni is supposed to be some sort of anti-virus or some sort of protecting thing. Supposed to fix bugs and glitches and prevent viruses from getting into the game. Like a firewall, I guess? I tried to make her look like "right/wrong" esc thing. She was the last to be designed and it was like 1 am when I designed her. I had no clue what to do with her, I'll be completely honest.

Story wise, she'd be trying to find a way to undo this massive glitch and get the game back to normal before she can even rest. Once Caine pops up to try and fix the game from inside, as a dev himself, she does her best to protect him and help him fix the game.

No there is no shipping in this AU, they're just helping each other basically survive. They might become friends over time but nothing more. :V

Next up: Ragatha and Gangle! I actually really like Gangle's design but Ragatha definitely needs a few tweaks I think.

Ragatha, before this massive glitch, would have been an NPC that would help a player out at the start but end up getting lost after a certain point, like a tutorial. She was the most caring character in the game before everything went down.

Gangle used to be someone who ran a little theatre thing in the game, as I've seen from other AUs and took inspiration from, but she's usually nice no matter what mask she has on. More arms means she can help more people at once, right? Game mechanics wise she was like a little shop keeper for costumes if they're needed and she can help with newer mechanics on stage if something new is added. Friendly NPC, you know? Love her design, too!

Now for the first two to be designed, Jax and Kinger!!

So Jax was like a reoccurring villain, I guess. Always trying to make the player quit the game or just scare the shit out of them, despite him not being very scary himself. He's more played off to be a joke character, if I'm honest, always failing with his antics and what not. It's part of the code! I actually like his design, small lil paws and just so shapey over all.

Kinger was like a final boss, I guess? The scariest of all of them at that time. He was a king, ruling over his pawns and such, all of which were also bug themed! I love making Kinger bug related it's so fun. He's a big softie in reality but hits like a train if you ever went against him. He had terrible vision despite all of his eyes and was very slow despite the amount of legs.

Now for what everyone has been waiting for.

The reason for the AU title.

The MASSIVE glitch that caused everything to go downhill.

The Amalgam.

I still think it needs a few tweaks here and there but this is one of four concepts I've had for it.

One time all four of these characters were together, which was relatively rare but possible, a glitch happened in the game. Pomni doesn't know where it started from and none of the game devs understand how it happened, but it did. Some devs think there's a hacker. A massive glitch pulled those four characters together into one terrifying being, always hostile and destructive. All the code of the characters were merged into this thing and somewhat scrambled. The game has now been broken to where once you're in, you can't escape until it's fixed, yet no one knows it, which is why Caine went in.

So much has happened and it's still being fixed, but a hostile blob of characters constantly attacking whenever it's near? It will be hard to fix.

It seems to be guarding something.

Concepts for the amalgam:

You can see in the first one I was going to put Zooble there but I still need a good design for Zooble. Let's see what they'll be.

[stormikins]

I'd love to know more about Saren/Garrus Omega meetup! <3

SAREN/GARRUS MY BELOVED!!! from this ask game

SO basically saren survives the citadel fight bc of Reasons (that i havent defined and potentially arent important) and like a year after Shepard's death, Garrus quite literally falls from the sky in front of him in an alley. For more Reasons, Saren drags his unconscious ass to a clinic and dumps him there. Garrus then tracks him down to thank him and potentially recruit him into his Funky Bunch of vigilantes. Saren is of course, resistant to this but the two of them keep running into each other bc Saren is trying to track down black market reaper artifacts so they're paths cross.

This fic will have the following tags: Garrus learned how to domesticate criminals from Shepard, and it is unknowingly applied to Saren, to both their horrors it works,

ALSO the ENTIRE TIME garrus doesnt know its saren bc hes hiding his face. it gets revealed LATER when FEELINGS are already involved THEYRE A MESS and i love them

heres a snippet of the rough draft:

Quietly, but not quiet enough, his follower lands on one of the fire escapes. Saren prepares to fling up a barrier and turns to face them head on. Garrus Vakarian stares back. “Given your latest excursion on balconies, you should avoid them.” His mandible swings out in a charming grin. “I’m not good at doing what I should do.” Saren’s eyes flick up and down his form with disdain. He got new armor. Skirmish by the look of it. “Is that why you’re on Omega?” Vakarian shrugs. “Something like that.” He rubs his thumb over the butt of his pistol and Vakarian clearly spots it. “Why are you following me?” “To say thank you.” At Saren’s silence, he cocks his head to the right a little. “That’s what you’re supposed to do when someone saves your life.” “Yes. And you’ve done so. Goodbye.” Swiftly, he turns on his heel and continues down the alley. Boots against metal and the splash of a puddle tell him that Vakarian follows. “Hey, wait!” Saren does not wait. Vakarian hastily comes in front of him, and when it’s clear Saren won’t stop, walks backwards with ease. “I just— I guess I wanted to know why? Most people who find another in the gutter here rob them,” he spits out. “Or finish the job.” “My motives are my own.” “They don’t have to be!” That stops Saren short, and he regrets it when Vakarian looks pleased.

[kimbapisnotsushi]

sou !! hello !! this is also random and specific but i saw the datekou headcanon post and i was wondering. might you have any inarizaki road trip hcs?

i didn't until you asked me so LET'S GO

oh god you thought dateko was bad??? they were only stuck in the car for thirty minutes at MOST

(or something idk i haven't quite mapped out their geography yet but miyagi is a coastal prefecture and sendai isn't like SUPER far inland, so i'm just making assumptions out here)

but anyways. kurosu is driving obviously as much as he moans and groans about it

shoutout to the coaches btw they are CARRYING these headcanons

realistically i guess they'd road trip to another school for a training camp or like idk. maybe hot springs for some r&r bc inarizaki def has the budget for it but in my heart they road trip to suna's hometown during one of the breaks so suna can see his family <333

i guess it also kind of depends on WHERE in hyogo and aichi they are but we could get a solid 4-5 hours of driving if it was from, say, asago to tahara

kita makes a list of all the snacks everyone wants and rounds up aran, oomimi, and akagi to help him raid the market/convenience store like the old hunter-gatherer days

they end up with two massive tote bags of drinks, chips, cookies, and other miscellaneous snacks and one cooler for things like puddings and cakes and whatnot

oomimi sits shotgun because kurosu needed someone to help with directions and everyone else was on "make sure the miyas don't kill each other before we get there" duty

they all thought that kita was brilliant for making atsumu sit in the back and osamu up front because even tho they're separated the twins will NOT stop bickering and trying to throw random pieces of trash at each other. poor riseki gets caught in the crossfire the most often

they all converged to make one giant road trip playlist so you've got the weirdest mix of pop rock/bubblegum/k-pop/city pop, lofi, indie soft rock, show tunes and soundtracks, and more

(i named those genres with certain charas in mind so like. have fun figuring that out!)

nobody's willing to take a nap in fear of what the twins might do to each other when they're not looking

they play really stupid games like the alphabet-chain game and i spy and even try for a few rounds of truth or dare because, hey, there's nothing like being stuck in a car with your fellow teenagers for four hours to set the mood for emotionally vulnerable bonding time, right?

anyways. everyone learns that gin is afraid of heights and all sorts of horror movies, akagi would like to get his ears pierced some day, kosaku got rejected in middle school in front of his entire class and has refused to fall in love since, and suna takes pictures to capture the memory of a place he does not want to forget

(sorry i'm being emo about suna missing home again i'll stop)

kurosu is sweating BUCKETS in the front seat btw. "oh my god what do i do with this information am i supposed to talk to them i'm their TEACHER i'm supposed to guide them i do NOT get paid enough for this - "

a shame, really, considering inarizaki could definitely afford to give that man a raise

it's okay they get some really funny dares like daring gin to text his crush a totally random and weird question

(and thank god atsumu has his phone tucked away in his bag)

there's not a whole lot of dares they can do in the car tbh so they get really creative like daring osamu to eat this absolutely evil concoction of mixing tiramisu pudding into a bag of spicy chips and eating the whole thing

he does. nobody knows how he survived it

and then riseki dared both osamu AND atsumu to shut up and sit down and not even so much as GLANCE each other for the rest of the trip

this was at, like, the 1.5 hour mark btw

and okay he didn't say it EXACTLY like that because riseki is a sweet respectful underclassman but that WAS the closest to snapping he's ever gotten

they do stop occasionally here and there to get out and stretch their legs, but this makes their trip even longer bc it takes like thirty minutes each time to wrangle everyone and get them back in the van

also akagi is trying out his most terrible pickup lines. or antipickup lines. either one works

akagi: "are you lactose? because i can't tolerate you ;)" aran: "PLEASE, MAKE HIM STOP"

the only reason aran feels like he isn't completely suffering is because gin is sitting next to him and gin is kind of soothing like a cute pet would be. not that aran is thinking of gin as a pet nooooo ahahaha that would be weird

meanwhile gin is wondering why aran keeps trying to feed him crackers

they finally get to suna's hometown after being on the road for SIX AND A HALF HOURS

and while everyone is happy to be outside soaking up the sun and fresh air, they're all going to miss the bonding of being stuck in a van perhaps just a little bit

it's all right, they've got the return trip to look forward to

(made 100x worse when akagi busts out a drinking game and proclaims they should play with juice boxes, but that's a story for another time)

[ga-yuu]

WARNING! The story contains violence and child abuse

-----Part 1-----

Sueharu: "After I broke up with Morinaga and left town, I just couldn't help but feel miserable."

Sueharu: "Without money, you can't even be equal with a friend. I had to learn that the hard way."

Sueharu: "So I took the chance getting into a get-rich-quick scheme that just happened to come along."

Yoshino: "Get-rich-quick scheme?"

Sueharu: "I joined a group of thugs who's job was to attack rich people and rob from them."

(Eh....)

Sueharu: "They ambush passing oxcarts on deserted and unsightly roads and rob them of their money and goods."

Sueharu: "That's what they hired me for."

Yoshino: "That's...!"

(Of course it is wrong to be complicit in wrongdoings, but)

I couldn't even blame the young orphan who was trapped with no other choice.

Yoshino: "...Did you succeed?"

Sueharu: "At first, yes."

Sueharu: "But then one night, we attacked a big merchant's oxcart, and got our asses kicked."

Sueharu: "While most of the thugs were killed by the bodyguards of the merchant, I, a child was kept alive as a slave."

Yoshino: "...! Slave!?"

Sueharu: "Or to be exactly, a 'chicken'."

(Ah.....)

Blood drained from my face, as I realised he was referring to the cruel bet called cockfighting.

Yoshino: "That big merchant forced Sueharu-san to take part in a cockfight?"

Sueharu: "Yeah. And----"

Sueharu-san's eyes became dark and cloudy as if he was sinking into the memories of his past.

-----FLASHBACK-----

----The enslaved young Sueharu was taken to a 'gambling den' with other children.

In that place, killing and entertainment mean the same thing and life is far lighter than money.

Orphan 1: "Ngh. No. I don't want to..."

Orphan 2: "Please...please let me go..I'm scared..."

Kidnapper: "These brats are crying again. If it wasn't for tonight's show, I would have beaten them up."

The kidnapper who dragged the orphans out of the cell, clicked his tongue in annoyance.

Then the child who was sitting in the back of the cell with his head down reacted to the voice and looked up.

Sueharu: "....What are you going to make us do?"

Kidnapper: "Huh? What's up with that one?"

The child Sueharu, was the smallest and thinnest child out of all the kidnapped orphans.

However, his eyes were shining strangely in the darkness.

Kidnapper: "Whatever. Can't you guess by looking? These people are going to put their money on you."

Sueharu: ".........."

Beyond the kidnapper, there was a huge stage surrounded by a fence.

Two large men face each other with weapons in their hands.

Commentator: "Come on, come on everyone. All of these men you see here are thugs who have caused quite a stir in the city."

Commentator: "Only one person will survive tonight. It's up to you which one you want to bet on!"

Outside the fence, the audience on the couches shouted enthusiastically.

Sueharu: "...That's."

Kidnapper: "Those men were supposed to be executed of murdering people, but they were secretly enslaved and made to fight."

Kidnapper: "The nobles have bad taste, don't they? This is the only way we can make money."

Sueharu: "....So are we going to kill each other too?"

Sueharu held his breathe and glared at the kidnapper, who simply shrugged.

Kidnapper: "You're out of luck. This cockfighting is supposed to be a spectacle of one-sided slaughter."

Kidnapper: "Tonight, you will be fighting prisoners who have won previous fights."

Sueharu: "Ngh...."

----Part 2-----

Kidnapper: "Tonight, you will be fighting prisoners who have won previous fights."

Sueharu: "Ngh...."

Kidnapper: "Well, it's not something a kid a can win anyways. I'm here waiting for the time you brats die."

The orphans' faces gradually turn pale.

Commentator: "First game begins!"

The men's angry shouts and the sound of deadly blades striking each other echoed in the night.

The orphans clenched their eyes shut and cried out in horror.

Sueharu: "I don't..."

Sueharu: "I don't wanna die. I don't wanna die. I don't wanna die. I don't wanna die..."

Only one person...Sueharu, trembling at the sight of cruel wager without blinking.

-----FLASHBACK ENDS-----

Sueharu: "....That was the start of my nightmare."

(How cruel....)

I let out a long breath that I have been holding in.

My nails dug into my clenched fists, causing a dull pain.

-----Options------

Why did Sueharu-san have to go through all that...

I still can't forgive them.

Normally, I'd be scared....

-------

Yoshino: "Why did Sueharu-san have to go through all of that?"

Sueharu: "Fate is often like that. Those who are not born with luck, will never taste it anyways."

Sueharu: "I still remember the ugly faces of the rich people who reveled in the death of others."

Sueharu: "I knew then, from the bottom of my heart."

Sueharu: "The true terrible darkness is within us, humans."

Yoshino: "Sueharu-san...."

Unable to find words to say, I bit my lip and fall silent for a while.

Sueharu: "Don't look like that, Yoshino."

Sueharu: "Look. I survived the cockfighting---except I had to sacrifice my eye."

Yoshino: "How did it...?"

Sueharu: "It was because of my selfishness. I didn't want to die, even though I knew I would be living a shitty life..."

Sueharu: "So while the other children closed their eyes....I kept mine open."

Yoshino: "Open?"

Sueharu: "To examine how the prisoners fought, what weapons they use, their movements...."

Sueharu: "It was the only thing a helpless kid could do, at that time."

(Even adults cannot think calmly in that situation)

(How scary it must have been and yet, the young Sueharu-san was...)

Sueharu: "Then, when my turn came to fight the chickens...."

----FLASHBACK----

Kidnapper: "Hey kid! It's time to go. Right....let's get that cheeky brat to die first."

Sueharu: "....!"

The kidnapper forces Sueharu to stand on his feet and take the stage.

Kidnapper: "I'll let you have whatever you want, just in case. You can resist at your own leisure and entertain our customers."

Sueharu gripped the rusty little sword that was pressed against his chest tightly in his trembling hands.

Prisoner: "Hehehe....Come on now, I just have to kill this kid? That's easy."

Kidnapper: "Don't kill him so easily otherwise it won't be exciting."

Audience: "Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!"

The voices of the audience filled with ferocious excitement surrounded Sueharu and the prisoner.

Kidnapper: "Poor thing. There is no one here taking your side."

Sueharu: "............."

Gritting his teeth, Sueharu murmurs softly.

Sueharu: "Ever since I was born, I was alone."

Kidnapper: "Huh? Did you say something?"

Without saying anything, Sueharu slowly walked towards the centre of the stage.

His thin legs were trembling with the fear of death.

Commentator: "Betting starts now!"

One after another, the biggest sums of money Sueharu had ever seen were deposited into the box.

Sueharu: ".....Tch."

-----Part 3-----

Sueharu: ".....Tch."

Soon after, he swears.

Commentator: "Let the show begin!"

The vicious-looking prisoner brandishes his sword.

Prisoner: "Well, I'm going to kill you, you fucking brat."

Sueharu: "Ngh.."

Barely avoiding a slash, Sueharu rolled over and ran.

Prisoner: "Tsk! You little!"

Sueharu: "...I'll live no matter what!"

He pushes himself breathlessly into the prisoner's bosom and raises his small sword.

Prisoner: "Gahh!? Ngh.."

It was difficult for a skinny child to stab deep enough....

The prisoner punches Sueharu away.

Prisoner: "Die!"

Sueharu did not avoid the sword as it slashed at him again this time.

Sueharu: "AAAAAHHHHH...!!"

He screams in intense pain and one side of his vision is clouded with red.

Sueharu's small sword pierced the prisoner's chest this time without stopping.

Prisoner: "Ah!? ARGHH...!"

With a thud, the prisoner's body falls to the ground.

Sueharu: "Haa....Haa...."

Covered in blood, Sueharu was standing on his two legs unsteadily, trying not to fall.

Commentator: "Y-You..."

Sueharu: "Did you see that....you shits?"

The audience which should have been noisy, fell silent.

Sueharu's consciousness stopped there,

-----FLASHBACK ENDS-----

Yoshino: "The injuries sustained during the incident left Sueharu-san with one eye injury..."

Sueharu: "Well, yeah. I was treated minimally, but my left eye never saw the light again."

(....I didn't know. I didn't realise that Sueharu-san's past was this violent...)

In the twilight-tinted room, Sueharu-san's lips twisted into a shape of smile.

Sueharu: "Yoshino. Don't get me wrong. They didn't take my eyes from me."

Sueharu: "I won the bet of a lifetime. I gave up my left eye myself so that I could win."

Yoshino: "Sueharu-san..."

The intensity of the light emitted from one eye pierced my heart.

Sueharu-san playfully brushed my hair as I lost my voice.

Sueharu: "Do you want to continue?"

Yoshino: "....Please."

Sueharu: "The big merchant who enslaved me, liked me so much that he took me under his wing after I had caused a frenzy at the cockfight stadium."

Yoshino: "You mean, as his subordinate?"

Sueharu: "I was forced to do all sorts of dirty work, from spying on people to killing them."

Sueharu: "And of course, I had no right to refuse."

(From such a young age)

Yoshino: "...Did you ever thought of running away?"

Sueharu: "If I did, there still wasn't a place for me to go. I will end up dying of hunger."

Sueharu: "On the other hand, working for a big merchant means I can steal his knowledge of trade."

Sueharu: "So I decided to learn how to make money, even if I had to hang on to him."

(That takes a lot of determination...)

Yoshino: "But he was a merchant who was complicit in dangerous betting involving children, right?"

Yoshino: "It must have been tough working under him."

Sueharu: "Yeah. He wasn't a good person to begin with."

Sueharu: "I wasn't allowed to fail at work, and there were plenty of times when I was punished until morning that I couldn't sleep."

(....Mm)

Sueharu-san talked about it as if it was nothing, which made it even more painful.

Sueharu: "But I persevered nonetheless and in a few years I had grown to the point where I was known as the right-hand man of a great merchant."

(Sueharu-san's natural ability must have been so high, but it was also the fruit of his blood-soaked effort)

Sueharu: "So one day, when I turned fifteen..."

Sueharu: "I brought him down and gutted him of his business."

----Part 4----

Sueharu: "So one day, when I turned fifteen..."

Sueharu: "I brought him down and gutted him of his business."

Yoshino: "Eh...."

Sueharu: "Now that I think about it, that was long time ago."

Sueharu: "And that's how I won my second bet and won a lot of money, I'd never....won before."

The darkness hidden in Sueharu-san narrow-eyed smile sends shivers down my spine.

Yoshino: "And....after that?"

Sueharu: "With that money, I was able to expand my business in all sorts of direction."

Sueharu: "The more money I have, the better. So that I would never be trampled on by anyone ever again."

(That's why Sueharu is)

The night we met again in Kamakura.

I recall the conversation we had that time.

-----FLASHBACK-----

Yoshino: "Now Sueharu-san is going to run a trafficking business on behalf of those people?"

Sueharu: "What if I am?"

Yoshino: "....I can't allow it. No one deserves to be bought unreasonably by money."

Sueharu: "Is that so? But the reality is different."

Sueharu: "Everything in this world depends on money. If you don't want to be miserable, money is the most powerful weapon you can have."

----FLASHBACK ENDS-----

(I wonder how Sueharu-san felt when I said those words)

I am now touching the contours of Sueharu-san's heart in the darkness, which I could not understand at the time.

Sueharu: "To tell you the truth, Yoshino."

Sueharu: "As I endured my days as a slave....I often thought about Morinaga."

Yoshino: "....! Morinaga-san...!?"

Sueharu: "To keep myself from going insane in the darkest places..."

Sueharu: "I clung to the presence of Morinaga, who glowed annoyingly in my memory."

(That's how much Sueharu-san's time with Morinaga-san meant to him)

Sueharu: "That's why I hate him."

Sueharu: "Even as an adult, every time I see that intense glare, I think back to those miserable days."

Yoshino: "That's how you think...."

Sueharu: "I can't help it. Memories always haunt you. No matter how much you think you've thrown it away."

Sueharu-san changed his sitting posture and leaned to one-side.

Sueharu: "So, as soon as I'm in a new place, I get restless."

Sueharu: "I do business, sell, play etc etc ....and finally when I empty myself, I come back to this mansion."

(How can I....make Sueharu-san feel at ease?)

Questions I can't answer stick in my mind like thorns and I can't get rid of them.

Sueharu: "All I believe in is myself and money. That's not compatible with your way of life, right?"

Sueharu: "For you, who became a pharmacist to help others, and believed in love and lived your life..."

Sueharu: "You don't really know how I feel..."

Yoshino: "....Nn."

(Even so, I)

The image of Sueharu-san surrounded by orphans he had protected came to mind.

(I want to think that the face smiling under the light is also Sueharu-san's real face)

Yoshino: "Can't we just believe that, even if we're not compatible we can still be together....?"

Sueharu: "...Yoshino?"

-----Part 5-----

Sueharu: "...Yoshino?"

----I was so moved by emotions that words just fell out of my mouth.

(But)

(I don't want to trample on Sueharu-san's heart unkindly)

Yoshino: "This thought is my selfishness."

Yoshino: "So if it's uncomfortable for Sueharu-san to be approached by me, who doesn't know how you feel, then...."

Yoshino: "I'm giving up on getting to know you any further."

Sueharu: ".........."

Sueharu: "You've jumped over all the lines I've drawn so far without any difficulty. How do you do that?"

Yoshino: "What?"

(At first, I wanted to understand him because he was my enemy. That wasn't a lie, but...)

(Since when did I want to know Sueharu-san's true nature, regardless of whether he was friend or a foe?)

Sueharu: "Your unwitting tactics."

Yoshino: "Hm?"

Sueharu: "It's not fair when you suddenly try to walk away with a lonely look on your face. It makes me want to hold you back even more."

(....Are you teasing me again?)

But unexpectedly, the eyes that looked at me were serious.

Sueharu: "When I get close to you-----"

Sueharu: "Sometimes, I feel like I'm being slowly traced over by an old scar."

Sueharu: "I feel uncomfortable, but somehow I can't shake it off."

(Why?)

Sueharu-san extended his hands towards me...

Yoshino: "Ah."

He grabs my wrist and pulls me closer.

The distance between our breath and our eyes were so short that it made my heart pound.

Sueharu: "I'm confused. I don't know what to do with you now."

Sueharu: "Hey, Yoshino, you tell me."

Sueharu: "What do you want me to do?"

(I..)

I took a deep breathe and decided.

I made a wish with an unknown impulse that was rising in my heart and opened my mouth.

Yoshino: "Can I take off your eye patch?"

Sueharu: "........."

Sueharu: "Of course. If you want to."

Yoshino: "...Thank you."

I gently put my hand on Sueharu-san's eyepatch and untied it.

I was exposed to his torn scars.

Sueharu: "It's ugly, isn't it? I don't know why you want to look at it all the time."

(Don't say it like that)

The suppressed sadness overflowed in an uncontrollable gush.

I bit my lip to force it down and swallowed again.

Yoshino: "....There's nothing ugly about it."

Sueharu: "Yoshino?"

My body is hot with a jumble of frustration and sadness at my inability to communicate well.

I kissed the scar over his left eye, wishing my warmth would be transferred onto him.

Sueharu: "...Mm."

I could feel Sueharu-san's shoulders shaking just slightly.

The back of my eyes became heavy and my vision blurs.

Sueharu: "...Why?"

In a somewhat sad voice, Sueharu-san muttered.

Yoshino: "This is a proof of Sueharu-san's strength to survive."

Yoshino: "It's the most beautiful scar in the whole world. That's how I see it."

I reply with a poor answer in a voice that is almost snuffed out by emotion.

(Please, don't deny yourself of this)

Yoshino: "No one can take away Sueharu-san's pride."

Sueharu: "............"

Sueharu-san slowly cupped my cheeks in his hands.

Sueharu: "What have you done to me?"

Sueharu: "The past can never be changed. Even you, a pharmacist, can't erase these scars. And yet...."

Sueharu: "I wonder why, seeing your tears right now, feels like something is being forgiven?"

Chapter 20

[alienfangs-mov]

Hey uhhhhh Konami?

Can you make something original for once?

Can you do SOMETHING good with one of the TITANS OF SURVIVAL HORROR THAT YOU HAPPEN TO OWN???

Literally copy Capcom. Make remakes and original SH games. Or better yet, fucking sell the rights to Capcom because that section in RE8 did Silent Hill better than you could ever hope to do.

Stop draining the life from SH2 and putting it into a garbage "game" like Ascension.

I am only holding out hope for the SH2 remake because Ito and Akira are involved.

But Jesus Christ guys. This "game" is the most predatory shit I have ever seen. Just make a TellTale version of Silent Hill if you wanted audience choices to be canon.

I am so fucking agitated right now. You fucking canceled Silent Hills and left the franchise to rot for 8 fucking years just so you could revive its rancid corpse for profit.

This thing has piss poor writing. Piss poor voice acting for the most part (I'm sorry to the VAs, I really am, I know they have a bad script to work with). Piss poor animation. And a piss poor execution.

I just... ooooooofgjgjgj. Fuck man. It hurts to see a beloved franchise screaming out in agony like this.

At least the concept art is cool. I guess. Ugh.

[non-un-topo]

11, 18, 21, 24, for Nicoletto

Hellooo, thank you! My boy... <3

11. Would you date this character?

Honestly, I would not. Even in some alternate universe where he's not with Joe, it would still feel like cheating lol. Plus, he's Catholic (I kid -- kinda). I would steal his gender, though.

18. How about a relationship they have in canon with another character that you admire?

In canon, I really like his dynamic with Andy, and I'd love to see more of it. There's something about the way he calls her by her name when the others mostly call her "boss," and how Andy hugs him in the beginning. There are definitely no favourites, I just think each of the members of the guard have their own different dynamics, and Andy and Nicky make me feel both soft and insane. I feel like, while Booker is on Andy's level of grief and self-medicating, Nicky can challenge her. We don't get much about Andy and Joe's dynamic in canon, but I wish we did! Other than that, y'all know I'm a Nicky & Booker brothers advocate. I've written a good chunk of the tag on AO3 lol, and I will not stop.

21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?

My absolute favourite thing to write with Nicky is horror and philosophy. Kind of everything that falls under that umbrella, like body horror, existentialism, weird dream-like stories, survival horror, ghost metaphors, etc. I can't explain why I feel like it matches him so well, but there's something about it. Maybe because he's a very philosophical and vaguely ominous guy. I also love comparing him to an animal, but not necessarily in the "go berserk" way. Something I don't like, hmm... Even though I have, I don't really enjoy writing about him in the Crusades era, mostly because it's such a delicate topic and there are too many fandom interpretations of him from this time I just don't vibe with. Medieval Nicky is kind of my forte, but I tend to write him a few hundred years in.

24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

This is a fun question because I didn't expect to be so stumped! I used to say, like, Garrett from Quest for Camelot ASDFGHFDS even though I can't really explain it, but I was writing my mystery series where Nicky always had long hair at the time okay. I guess, because I'm on an FMA kick right now, Alphonse maybe. Something about the brave heart, always wanting to do good and help people. But I think Alphonse is a lot sweeter than Nicky most of the time. Like, he wouldn't kill a room full of people like Nicky would lol. He is also a child. I don't have a lot of fandoms, as you can see.

Character ask game

[rhersimp]

Rating Every Monster in the first Fear and Hunger on how Hard they Fuck:

For the sake of simplicity, I'm specifically using this list only to talk about Fear and Hunger's Monsters. Gods both new and old won't be included, but humanoid or formerly human beings like the cavedwellers or Pocket Cat will be. Got it? Cool. I’m only making a part two if Miro sees this and demands it of me.

 _______________________

1) Maneba - Something something tentacle sex monster joke yada yada. But for real tho, you'd probably get the same amount of sexual satisfaction jacking off into a plastic grocery bag in my opinion. Plus, talking to them reveals that they aren't very passionate creatures overall, so foreplay would probably suck. 4/10

2) The Guards - Probably some of the most intense dick game you're ever going to get in your life, provided that you survive it of course. Otherwise, they're pretty graceless, they can't dirty talk you, and you might lose one or more limbs. Not a great package deal for most. 5/10

3) Ghouls - Probably your most sympathetic option. The fact that they were once normal humans can abate some of the horrors if you're into fucking corpses. Not to mention that showing them love through marriage to become a more powerful being entirely. Truly a romance endorsed by Sylvian. Just keep in mind the corpse smell is there forever. 7/10

4) Lizardman – A beast for the scalies out there. These guys fight hard and fuck hard, but it's probably a little crude and simplistic. If you're a human, they're probably going to skin you alive at some point, though preferably after the sex? Don't overestimate the lizard tongue thing tho, it's not worth the hype. 5/10

5) The Night Lurch – There are just a lot of rapists in the dungeon aren't there? Like it's not just me? The dungeon must just be primo real estate to these guys I guess. Anyway, their spiny cock is probably a masochist's dream, and the extra prehensile cocks are def a nice touch, but unless you're a biastophile, they might come off a little too pushy in the long run. It would probably be a one-and-done and he wouldn't kiss you goodnight. 6/10

6) Cavedwellers  - Despite the weird, semi-racist implications of their origin, I think these guys are real gentlemen underneath it all. They're likely very practiced from having nothing to do but fuck all day to stay busy, and they'd make sure that you got off before they finished. They've also got some incredible endurance, so they can wait out the long game if you need to. So long as you never attempt to have a conversation with them they'll probably love you long time. 6 or 7/10

7) Miner Spectre and Other Spectres– Something tells me that the combination of existing only as ethereal beings plus the downside of being in a constant state of bitterness and agony isn't a recipe for good head. 0/10

8) Mumbler – This is a case of 'don't judge a book by its cover'. It's sad too, cause they're constantly erect and they've definitely got the goods, but even without the explosion hazard they're pretty unwieldy and hard to smash, plus fucking them is just an increased chance of brain-eating syphilis. Also, they're just terrible kissers. 2/10

9) Greater Mumbler – Now this is a creature of charisma, of elegance and joie de vivre! Unlike their counterparts, they've really got everything going for themselves: supple bodies, sexual versatility, free will from the god of the depths. I really don't think you get much sexier than that. Yes, there's still the explosion risk and the brain illness to consider, but also consider the depthussy. High 7 to 8/10

10) Scarab – I mean, if you can talk to them it might be down to clown. They're pretty reasonable manners wise, so they'd probably try to make sure you were having a good time. There's just no real way to do anything other than hands and mouth stuff, and you can't even get them off as a thank you so the whole affair just feels one-sided and awkward (unless maybe they cum acid?) Don't get me wrong, it's okay if you do tap it, but if I were you I wouldn't brag about having done it, you know what I mean? 4/10

11) Moonless Guard – Considering that the reason this thing exists at all is because a guard convinced a moonless wolf to a marriage is probably a sign of what you're getting into here. Trying to fuck this thing looks like it comes with more downsides then up ones though, mostly thanks to a giant mouth that cannot suck or smooch you. Is the half-animal half-guard dick good enough to risk the endless track marks and the very possible limb loss? Eh. 4/10

12) Body Snatcher – This thing knows the human body inside and out for sure, and it can use its multiple arms to tickle your ass into willing submission. Additionally, as a follower of the depths, it can probably hit your prostate/g-spot pretty fast and hard. If anything, this guy is probably a show-off with how much skill its got. The only turn-off comes from the fact that it's more insect than it is a doll/humanoid puppet figure, and that's more of a matter of perspective than anything else wouldn't you say? 8/10

13) Lord of the Flies - They've good a lot of strong qualities for sure. Big and burly, fluffy, Gordon Ramsey's face, ect. They could also manhandle your ass real good to be really domineering if that's your thing. It's too bad that they're insanely smelly tho, cause unless you get hot for the smell of wet dog rot, you're probably gonna puke all over him and that might kill the mood. Still, if you can stomach the smell, they might be worth it, provided he doesn't just kill you on sight or whatever. 7/10

14) Uterus – You know, I thought these things were called mannequins before looking more into their origins. That was a simpler, kinder time of ignorance. These things were created by a very bad person for extremely niche sexual reasons. Yes, you can sex it up, but know that if you do fuck it, you've earned every bit of judgment and revulsion that comes your way babe. 5/10

15) White Angel – Now this is hunk, pure and simple. Not exactly everyone's first choice what with the lack of genitalia and their dopey-looking arms, but just look at the fucking build of this thing! This guy's prime material for rutting up against on a cold night for sure, and who says hand stuff is off the table completely? He looks like he's got a couple of malformed fingers he could stick up your holes. The whole 'him being born out of your grudges' thing is also incredibly sexy all by itself like c'mon. 7 or 8/10

16) Lizardmage – With the proficiency of the yellow mages and the lizardmen's strength you've got something special on your hands if you manage to swing one of them. It'd be an interesting challenge to make out for sure, but this is probably the closest chance you're going to get to suck and fuck a magic dinosaur. Don't you dare tell me that you'd pass that up just because 'you can't get into a comfortable position' or 'the whole affair feels a little too close to having sex with a horse' or whatever. Pussy excuses! I will actively mock you if you turn down this incredible opportunity. 7/10

17) Cavemother – If you tell me that all you want in life is to smash your frothy sex organs up against the Cavemother, my only response to that will be 'Good, about time'. This poor creature lives for the sole purpose of getting laid and if you make it your mission in life to help them fulfill that goal I think that says a lot about your good and moral character. However, this is definitely a charity project, cause I get the impression smashing this creature probably just feels like rubbing yourself down with beef jerky before you get crushed under their weight anyway. They do have nice tits that can be milked, however. 5/10

18) Crow Mauler – Easily everyone's first choice, and how could you blame them? This dude's got train engine hips that can body you in a minute and abs like a garage door. The fact that he stalks you through the dungeon determined to decapitate you in a single blow is just the cherry on top of it all really. Honestly, your chances of getting laid before he kills your ass are fairly low, but it really comes down to the kinda bets you're willing to take. If you manage to pull it off and still have a pulse you're a goddamned sigma chad beast. 10/10

19) Molded – If you've got a thing for fucking raw meat I guess these are your guys. The whole thing does vibe on like an ero guro type level or whatever. I just feel like you'd also have to be aroused by misery too though, cause these things are sad to just look at for fuck's sake. No hands, arms, dicks, or even a decent fighting strategy, they're truly pathetic. I mean idk dude, feels a little mean-spirited to entertain the thought even. 3/10

20) Blights – They're literal god dinosaurs that can fly around and eat your face off. You could probably manage a much more viscerally graphic and sensual 'magic carpet ride' scene if you were seeking romance beforehand. I'm not seeing much in the way of 'fun stuff to stuff your genitals in' however, and what's more, they kind've have a similar texture to the molded which is kinda ehhh. A unique choice and it'll give you an interesting story, but I don't see it developing into romance or much else after the deed's been done. 6/10

21) Cavegnomes -   The cavemother's kids, but lord are they hella dumb. They seem so unenthusiastic about doing basic shit like even just engaging with you that I have a difficult time understanding where the apple fell in relation to the tree. If you manage to track one down and put your hot bod anywhere near them it's probably not going to last longer than a few minutes and you'll have nothing to show for the wasted effort. Good job genius, you basically just tried to fuck a bird. 2/10

22) Butterfly – Honestly fuck the cockroach king, what a fucking loser. The butterfly is sweet and has an earnest goal they're working toward. If the prospect of becoming their final form came through the two of you fucking they'd likely be down, but I somehow doubt the God of the Depths is that good-natured. If you're anything like me you'll probably want to baby him and make the whole affair very sweet, especially rubbing his lil wing nubs a bunch as you kiss his proboscis. If you are anything but gentle and sweet to the butterfly I will hunt you down myself. 7 or 8/10

23) Human Hydra – Now I know what you're thinking, 'Isn't this thing basically already just a big orgy ball of people as is? What will adding my weight actually do in the long run?' The answer is nothing! It's virtually useless! You'd have a better time losing yourself to the Sylvian bunny cult, cause at least they're not going to taunt you with COD lobby-level insults about your mom or whatever. 1/10

24) Black Witch – Just your average working-class gal living it up in the dungeon. Probably into some freaky pain-play magic stuff thanks to Gro-goroth so if that's up your alley then you're definitely in for a good time for sure. Not gonna lie tho, her lips look hella chapped and while I can completely sympathize (chapped-lipped girl gang for life), it does raise the question of how much bodily maintenance she's up kept to this point. Then again, you're fucking monsters in a dungeon so like…why am I even bringing this up? Whatever, she's got a mad sexy laugh. 7 or 8/10

25) Iron Shakespeare – The Statue of Liberty's sexy serial killer cousin. While kissing is probably off the table unless you like the taste of rusty coins, it looks like it'd be a lot of fun to spank his iron butt armor just to hear the 'PTUUUUUUUNG' sound that would come out of doing so. The fire is a bit of a hazard, and maybe you don't want to get too serious in the throes of passion as a result, but grinding up on some semi-warm metal probably isn't too different from your average night alone amirite y'all? 7/10

26) Trotur – This guy was definitely banned from most BDSM munches and it really shows. The dude does not have a safe word and does not care about whether or not you get off or not. Just a really horrible dom all around and I would not recommend giving him your Fetlife account. Like yeah, I get that there's someone for everyone out there, but I promise you that endurance is a finite resource and eventually this dude's 'I'm going to torture you past your human limits' act is going to get old. 3/10

27) Skin Granny – I'm just thinking that if that's what it'll do to your face imagine what it'll do to your foreskin amirite? 1/10

28) Salmonsnake – It's got good voring potential, and I imagine that its skin is probably very self-lubricating which gives it some points. The tongue also has some interesting capabilities, but truthfully, it comes across as a monster you'd have more fun eating seasoned than eating out. Then again, there's no rule saying that you can't do both, just make sure you tell people you fucked something closer to a dragon than an axolotl so that people will be more impressed. 6/10

29) Double-Headed Crow Mauler – I wish I could say that there's never too much of a good thing, but in this case I feel like you're not going to get a double dose of all the good stuff if you know what I mean. Still, it might be nice to have a partner coax one of the heads into some heavy petting while you go nuts on it from the other end. He'll definitely murder you both once you're done so it's absolutely worth the effort imo. 9.5/10

30) Red Man – Poor little guy, fuck Ronn Chambara's sadistic ass. This dude just needs some kisses and loving whispers and he'll be super sweet on you. It'll probably be the first pleasurable experience he's had in a long time, so don't take it too personally if he tries to smash you with his big fists at first. It might be kind've brutal foreplay, but patience and care will turn this angy boy into a gentle pile of salami.  7/10

31) Nameless – This guy is very much about quality control, so he's not going to let just anyone slob his knob. I like to imagine that he holds the exact same trials to bone him as he does to pass through the Golden Temple. Suffice to say the man (golem?) has high standards, very much so for what ultimately boils down to fucking a giant rock. Also, unless you're really into the taste of grit, this might be a make-out session worth skipping. 4 or 5/10

32) Old Guardian – A big ol' Alll-Mer simp, he's definitely going to play hard to get. Still, I don't see why that should restrict the guy from getting some game on in the meantime. Aside from his amazing fashion sense, I imagine that he and the Nameless are probably alike in many ways, the biggest of which being that they're both sentient rock people who probably fuck like rocks and have very high standards. The main difference between them is the patience of the Guardian, so chances are you can stand to fuck up a little more moves-wise around this guy and he'll be less judgemental. Well, you know, hopefully. 5/10

33) Harvestman – ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) 10/10

34) Lady of the Moon – Normally I'd just chalk this up to being a Maneba on classy mode, but there's genuinely some sexual provenance here. She's got three very kissable faces and I imagine it would probably feel really nice to run your fingers through her tentacles. Sure, she might ask you to commit some child trafficking, but that's just the sort of trade-off you have to decide is worth your while or not! How far are you willing to go to get sloppy toppy off one of Rher's finest minions? And is anyone really gonna blame you for falling into the temptation? Probably, but fuck 'em. 8 or 9/10

35) Pocket Cat – Speaking of Rher's finest minions and all, I'd be remiss not to include the man, the myth, the legend himself. He's a gentleman, a man of consent and good standing and good breeding! It's too bad that you're probably too old for him in this go around, but again, I'm sure that for the small price of child abuse he'd be willing to give you a little peck on the cheek. Is it worth it? Yes. 10/10