#my first time trying to catch the underwater horror vibe

[tryingtimi]

When Everything Has Lost PART I

@aschlindartroom here's another one from the lovely prompts! Even though it's not really going between frenemies or anything like that, becaues the character I could imagine the line is just straight out good friends with the other. But still. Fair warning: this one got veeery long lmao. Also huge thanks to my love @bloodlessheirbyjacques for beta reading for me! ❤️ Previous snippet to this ask | Prompts from this list

YOU BROUGHT ME ALONG BECAUSE I CAN DO THINGS YOU CAN'T HANDLE. SO JUST LET ME DO MY PART THEN, YEAH? | ADRAN COHREN | THADDEUS HOLTZ | EERIE UNDERWATER MISSION | WC: 2,475

Adran’s Deep Sight suddenly shut off, leaving him with nothing, but his own eyes to navigate in the Everocean’s endless depths.

“Thad, the… “

“Yes, I know. No Sight, no Vision. Even Zynx doesn’t answer, something might be blocking her signals.” Thaddeus needed to be close, because Adran could slightly feel the swaying of the water through his suit. “I don’t like the look of this, Captain.”

Adran couldn’t help but agree with his comrade’s crackling voice through the microphone. Somehow, even the sounds got confused, making the other’s voice feel distant and machine-like. They’ve met nymars that could perplex their devices for a little while, but the one they’ve escaped from wasn’t that kind. Which meant the only thing that could mess with them was their objective – that lonely, lightless cave that’s circular, yawning entrance reminded Adran of a black hole that Dane showed him in a picture a long time ago.

“Me neither, but that’s why we’re here. It turned into a Blind Mission then, that’s all. If we stick together we should be fine, as always,” he said, while his hand found his pendant under his suit. He needed to trust the Almighty’s guidance on this mission. They were no more than any man this time.

Buzzing and whirring made Adran grimace; he could best interpret the noise as a scoff, before a big hand grabbed his forearm. The faint light of their swimming suits shone bright enough to reveal Thaddeus’ slowly wrinkling face.

Their closeness made the sounds even worse for both of them.

That meant one thing.

“Communication off.” The words rolled off of Adran’s tongue heavily. All the connection broke in a blink of an eye, making place for that sightless, deafening silence the soldiers were trained for in the practice chamber. Sunken in a weighting liquid, trapped in a too open space. Feeling, hearing and seeing nothing, but their own projection of things they’ve expected to find.

There was no practice chamber, however. The threat was real around them somewhere, which if they wouldn’t want to bring upon themselves, they couldn’t use any more light then the suits’.

Thaddeus slowly blinked, signaling his agreement on Adran’s decision, then looked at the direction in the dark where they’ve seen the cave’s entrance the last time. It was unmistakable; a restless, unsettling pull emitted from it which might have felt insignificant if they would just swim by it.

But not this close, not this time.

Adran knew Thaddeus felt it too, he needed to. There was nothing like that feeling. And that was why he needed to know what’s inside that cave. Everything he’d done so far, those terrible things he was suspected with – all of it led to this place.

After setting a rope on his and his comrade’s belt, they began to swim towards the objective.

Without the sight of any rock, seaplant or sea life, Adran’s focus never wandered, so he could notice the difference when they finally were inside. The sensation of the pull became stronger, while the darkness somehow turned even darker. He experienced a completely blind state before, but not this thick, oily blackness that not only surrounded them; it swallowed them whole.

Guide me. He saw the cave outside, it was deep, but straight. There was no other sign, only that and only there. He needed to go forward, no matter what.

As much as the strange feeling felt as a pulling, Adran never met water this heavy, this… resistant. It almost seemed as if they tried to swim against a current.

Forward.

His helmet’s weak inner glow let him see his reflection on the translucent part of his gear. The face he saw had deep wrinkles on the forehead, lips forcefully pressed together, eyes desperately trying to find something to look at. He couldn’t see the ears, but he could feel and hear the pumping of the blood in his eardrums. That look on the reflected face and the sound of his own throbbing blood flow reminded Adran of someone who was afraid.

He almost stopped from the realization. He couldn’t remember the last time he felt fright in the water. No, of course not. This was his job, his domain. He knew the Everocean as someone knew his own home. He's been on Blind Missions a million times now, and however unusual this sensation felt, there was nothing he couldn’t handle. He needed to remember his training.

If you can’t see, you listen.

And so he listened. The murmurs of his and Thaddeus’ gear almost sounded calming despite their distant echoing. Echoing. There was no such thing like that underwater.

Shiver ran through Adran’s spine when the temperature dropped. There was no transition, one second to another, he just found himself inside an ice cold darkness with no room for the heating layer of his suit. A thousand ants scuttled around on his skin, their hurried steps hurting more and more as the cold bit into every inch of his body. Then, it was as if something had brushed past his arm.

Adran tried to turn on his Frost-Vision by squeezing his eyes, while his hand automatically pushed the water farther from himself.

He did not get back his sight, nor he encountered anything in the water. Nothing attacked him.

But he couldn’t be sure.

Adran panted in his helmet, blood loudly drumming in his ear, while the cold tried to trick his mind again. Or something was brushing past his body every second.

He needed to remember his training. He's done similar things hundreds of times now. He couldn’t fail now.

Adran pulled on his rope twice, not slowing, nor stopping to let his helmet clear from his breath. The rope almost immediately moved twice again with a little force to pull him backwards.

Thaddeus was still here and okay.

The captain closed his eyes, as he always did in the chamber too. He needed to feel. He felt the brushing on every part of his body, an attempt to scare him, make him change direction. He felt it. It wanted to… guide him.

All the constant crawling on his skin wanted him to let his resistance go. This thought made Adran very aware of the pendant pushing into his chest. He squeezed his eyes even more together, holding onto the holy symbol, and then, he let everything go.

Guide me.

The sensation embedded into the strange pulling. They made Adran feel dizzy, his stomach hurled back into the pit of his core and twisted so tight, he could sense bile rising up in his throat. It lasted for seconds or minutes, he couldn’t tell. Ghostly pulling sensation swayed him left, then right, to every direction it wanted to. His throat began to dry out from the freezing cold, he was gagging, choking as if every air would have left the suit.

Then, the coolness started to melt away with a faint, dim light that hit his closed eyes.

He did not open them, so long as he finally felt the pull release his bones, scamper out from under his skin and let him reach the surface.

Adran emerged from the water so quickly, he almost fully leaped out from it. His eyes shot open as his helmet pulled back into his suit, and he hurriedly gulped down air like he’s tasting it for the first time in his life. He did not look around so long he could hear the throbbing in his ears and feel the bits on his skin.

A short time later the rope loosened on his belt and Thaddeus arose from the water beside him.

He reacted the same way, jumping out as if something was chasing him. So he felt it too.

Adran couldn’t deny the relief of not being the only one, while he scrambled towards his comrade, grabbed him by the neck of the suit and with a powerful yank, he helped him get out of the water before he followed him.The movement came to him instinctively, not caring what they crawled up onto.

Both of them breathed heavily, laying on the ground, trying to collect themselves.

Thaddeus looked up at Adran, leaning on his hand beside him.

“This is no simple Blind Mission, Cap. That path was worse than those grosslings’ inside. Are you sure you want to proceed?” His face seemed to be made from shadows under the strange, blue-orange light that lit the space. Adran gave this a little thought, but he already knew his answer. He nodded eventually. “Fine. Don’t waste any more time then.”

Thaddeus was clearly deeply concerned, which Adran understood completely. He had a lot to lose if something turned out to be dangerous. He, unfortunately, was also the only one who the Captain could fully trust to make this mission through with him. Adran debated a lot to include him, but he also knew if Thaddeus wouldn’t be here, then he could never find out the truth about all the confusing things recently – and about himself as well.

They both gave themselves an extra moment, before they got up and took a good look at where they were exactly.

The place seemed to be a round cavern, water pooling inside where they came in. The water’s crystal blue texture let Adran see the glowing of some kind of organism close to the surface, which apparently also brightened the whole place. It stuck to the rock formations… or it was part of them. There was no way to tell.

It shone in a faint blue-orange colour and unfolded a tunnel before the soldier’s eyes, as Adran realized little patches of the organism were trapped and attached to the walls in glass bulbs.

The walls also had a very unusual appearance. Adran thought what surrounded them was a stone he hadn't seen yet. But he soon realized, he saw no stone; not even close to any kind of rock.

What he faced was metal.

“What the hell is this place?” Thaddeus’ rumbling, deep voice echoed through the tunnel, while he frowned at the other side of the place, keeping a fair distance from it.

“I don’t know, but it’s sure far from natural.”

The two exchanged glances. Adran reached for his laser blade on his back, at the same time Thaddues grabbed a grip from his belt and let the massive Blastergun build up piece by piece, then fall into both of his hands.

Whatever layed far inside this place, better to be prepared.

The captain signaled with his free hand, what his comrade acknowledged with a nod before he began to creep forward. Adran mirrored him sticking close to his side of the wall, while he also brought up his arm to glance at the popped up holo screen. All the emergency bombs were intact on his suit, and the oxygen level in his tank barely dropped down. Which meant whatever he experienced in the water wasn’t caused by lack of air.

A familiar, sickening sensation pulled on his bones.

Adran jerked towards Thaddeus and he could see the big man tensing up everywhere. Something was wrong.

As they prowled inside carefully, this feeling only deepened. The cave – or more like a hallway appeared to be endless and empty. Yet, the pulling made it feel…full. Full of… something.

Little rocks rubbed against their feet, quietly crackling underneath. Adran stepped on a small pile of them one time, causing a slightly louder noise, when movement coughed his eye on his right.

Hand gripping his blade, he glared at the metal wall beside him. It beared the colour of bronze and gold, but the blueness of the glowing organism hasn't shown on it. In fact, when Adran inched closer, it seemed as if the orange part of the brightness was coming from the wall. But, what dried his throat out was the surface of the metal… which was waving.

Like water.

Adran felt sick. His mind tickled as if a finger just tenderly would have caressed it. The longer he looked at the wall, the stronger the pulling in his bones grew. There was something deeply unnerving staring at it. The colour, the material, the structure. The hue. Sinister, black hues gathered around where the light hit the metal.

Wrong. This place felt nothing, but utterly wrong.

“Captain.” Adran spun on his heels, striking down on the one who called after him. Thaddeus immediately leaned back and grunted while he caught the captain’s hand in mid-air, iron grip closing over the arm. There were mere inches between his face and the buzzing blade. “What are you doing?”

If he hadn’t been a much bigger and equally trained soldier, Thaddeus would be only half a man already. The hardening concern on his features, the shock and warning in his voice snapped Adran out of his state. Confused, he stopped resisting and let his comrade forcefully bring his hand down from before his face.

“It’s just… I don’t know. I got surprised by you. I was inspecting that wall and…”

For the Almighty’s holiest name, why did he do that? Was it instinct or a reflex because he called for him too suddenly? He couldn’t remember, nor could he feel anything else beside the shiver running back and forth on his spine and the wild rhythm of his heartbeat. Or that profound unease in his mind.

Whatever was the reason behind this, it just didn’t make sense. And it was dangerous.

Thaddeus’ frown deepened, yet he let him go.

“Right. Look, it’s okay, I believe you, but you’re clearly not well. I should probably carry the blade for you,” before you start a rampage again. The words hung in the air like lethally sharp spikes over one’s head.

“Those weren’t me. It’s just this place… something is not right here. If we stumble upon anything dangerous with me being unarmed…”

“Then I’ll pass the blade back to you, or deal with it myself. It’s not like you couldn’t fight without a weapon, either way, you brought me along because I can do things you can’t handle alone. So just let me do my part then, yeah?” Thaddeus said, then extended his free hand.

For all the resistance in his body, Adran knew his comrade was right. He knew how his recent doings looked and even though Thaddeus believed him not killing innocents for no reason, caution was the best he could offer. Reason. It was hard to grasp for Adran what that word meant at the moment.

“Here.”

He handed his weapon to Thaddeus anyway, who kept it safe on his back in the same way Adran would do it. Then, the big man put a massive hand on his shoulder, squeezed it reassuringly and nodded to their left with his head.

“I’ve found something over there.”

[realcube]

YOU GOT: YŪ NISHINOYA 

matchup for @scftfairyking

‘I use glasses (LMAO BC IM BLIND). I'm an Aries , im bi and a ENFP.’

♡ it would be bold to assume that nishinoya has a ‘thing’ for glasses just bc he liked kiyoko and kiyoko wore glasses but it also wouldn’t be insanely far-fetched as his type isn’t really elaborated on. either way, he’d definitely find your glasses charming - like sometimes he’d steal them from you if you ever set them down and he’d hold them above his head like ‘if you want them back, you have to go out with me ( •̀ .̫ •́ )✧’  except his plan goes to shit bc you’re like 6 inches taller than him so you just snatch them from his hands lol

♡ HE’S AN ARIES TOO! i’m no horoscope expert but that seems compatible to me

♡ a google search claims that nishinoya is an ESFP but that is only a headcanon bc he does seem very similar to an ENFP 

♡ either way though, there is only one letter between you two; N (Intuition) and S (sensing preference) - which means you prefer to look at the greater picture when trying to solve a problem while noya tends to take a step-by-step, factual approach (which is arguable)

♡ that doesn’t really seem to hold too much value in a relationship though; especially considering how similar you both are despite that. you are both extroverted, energetic, chaotic, somewhat unpredictable but you both possess the capacity to be serious when you need to 

♡ that is power couple vibes tbh- like you are probably the fuel to noya’s flame- while others are telling him not to get a buzz cut bc he’ll regret it, you’re cheering him on 

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

‘I usually am pretty shy when I first meet someone, but when I start to get comfortable enough, I tend to be really chaotic and fun to be around with. I'm pretty loud and very open but only with my closest friends, and I tend to be a really sarcastic sometimes. My love languages are physical touch and words of affirmation.’

♡ noya would not mind if you were shy at first, as long as you weren’t uncomfortable. bc he’s persistent and lil gremlin stalker man so considering that he’s gonna sit next to you in class, try sit next to you at lunch and offer to walk you home, you’ll probably get used to him pretty quickly

♡ going off the assumption that you and noya are gonna get close very fast, he thrives off your chaotic energy and matches it. he likes to turn everything into a competition and before y’all actually start dating, he flirts with you in the most cursed ways possible- like he send you (tw/ choking) this image at 3AM with the caption ‘this could be us 😩’

♡ he deals with your sarcasm pretty well- he just pretends like you are being serious and rolls with it >:) 

♡ ex. he tries to throw a piece of popcorn in the air and catch it in his mouth but he misses and he lands on the couch. ‘wow, noya, that was so cool.’ you murmured monotonously and he just whipped his head around to show you his smug smirk, ‘i know!’  

♡ he shows his love through gift-giving and physical touch but he prefers to receive affection through your love languages; physical touch and words of affirmation.

♡ like he was asking for your hand and marriage after you called his rolling thunder ‘badass’

♡ also i’ve said this before and i’ll say it again; noya likes to find rocks on the ground that remind him of you so whenever he takes you on dates, the first thing he does is show you all the rocks he collected while explaining why each one is similar to you

♡ ‘ok so look at this one, it has little brown specs on it and it’s the exact same color as your eyes! look!’ then he’ll hold the rock up next to your face and take a picture so he can show you the comparison while you just stand there like 🤠

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

'Some of my hobbies are: skating, swimming, reading, writing, listening to music, learning new languages, gaming and watching movies.’

♡ omg 🥺 skating dates with noya- if you mean ice-skating/roller blading, i can imagine him being somewhat of a natural so when he first steps into the rink, you’ll probably have to hold his hands to guide him for a bit until he finds his balance but then - in the blink of an eye - he’s suddenly doing advanced tricks, skating elegantly and rapidly

♡ but if you mean skateboarding, then he demands that you teach him how to do random tricks he’s heard of in his video games and half of them you’ve never even heard of; ‘(y/n)! please teach me how to do a 360-ollie-back-flapjack-bananasplit-kick!!’ ‘noya, i don’t think that’s a real thing.’

♡  he loves swimming with you! he’s no professional but he can frontstroke really fast. so he likes to race with you and have competitions to see who can hold the breath the longest underwater

♡ pfft i firmly believe that the only book noya has ever read for pleasure was the diary of a wimpy kid series when he was like 8 - but if you read to him, he’d really like that 👉👈

♡ he likes to listen to music too- like while he is cleaning, studying, exercising etc and if you make him a playlist, he will literally forever be in your debt 🙏 he makes you playlists too but he mostly listens to latin music, rap, r&b and random songs he found on tiktok so that’ll be what his playlists consists of 

♡ FKDAGHR post-timeskip he travels so ofc he likes to learn new languages too so you both do lil duolingo sessions together where you just sit on the app and test each other on your vocabs- and sometimes he’ll just ask you random house questions in a foreign language for a challenge 

♡ you just hear his voice echo through the house like ‘OU EST LE LAIT?!’

♡ obviously he games too- and whenever you play first-person shooters with him and some random guy in the lobby tries to hit on you, he goes feral. like you’ll never see more protective than when he is in a COD lobby with you 

♡ movie nights with noya? movie nights with noya. y’all watch everything from sharknado to star wars like he’ll literally watch anything as an excuse to spend time with you :3 when it’s his turn to choose, he picks either a comedy (bc he loves hearing your laugh 🥺) or a horror (because if you get scared, he wraps you in his arms like ‘don’t worry babe, i’ll protect you ( •̀ ω •́ )✧’)

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

‘My favorite food is carrot cake and i dislike snowstorms or anything that has to do with storms ^^’

♡ his favourite food is gari gari kun which i think is a sort of icelolly so i hc that he has a sweet tooth- also he has the third largest appetite in haikyuu!! so i’ll bet my teppanyaki grill on the fact that nishinoya likes carrot cake too!

♡ speaking of which, i bet he takes you out for dates at dessert places rather than restaurants bc sharing a plate of chocolate waffles is way more romantic than eating separate dishes with a lame ass candle in the middle 🙄 

♡ ok i imagine that nishinoya is fine with storms considering his signature move is literally called ‘rolling thunder’ but he’d be such a sweetheart if there was a storm while you were round at his house; like he’d hold you in his arms and refuse to let go until the storm was over and he’d blare your favourite songs on his speaker to drown out the sounds outside 

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

for @scftfairyking​: ok so when i read your request literally the first person i thought of was nishinoya- especially bc y’all have matching zodiac signs :o like that’s soulmate energy

[booksandtea]

Video Game Recommendations| #Blogoween So I wanted to do a post on horror games to fit into blogoween but I realised I haven’t really played that many. Or at least many that people may think of when thinking of horror games.

You have the big names; the Amnesia series and Slender: The Eight Pages games that shot pewdiepie (one | two) into the spotlight and which for me at least are when horor games became more popular. I tried both of the games named but neither really did anything for me.

Much later we see the rise of the Five Nights at Freddy’s series which I also tried at the height of its hype and wasn’t fond of.

It wasn’t a case that any of these games were too scary to play, they just didn’t offer enough for me to get invested in them. If I were to return to any of these games it would be Amnesia as its a lot more story focused.

But fear not. Or do fear! I do have a small list of games that I can recommend in the horror genre, or at least have horror elements to them.

RESIDENT EVIL 5 (2009): “The Umbrella Corporation and its crop of lethal viruses have been destroyed and contained. But a new, more dangerous threat has emerged. Years after surviving the events in Raccoon City, Chris Redfield has been fighting the scourge of bio-organic weapons all over the world. Now a member of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA), Chris is sent to Africa to investigate a biological agent that is transforming the populace into aggressive and disturbing creatures. Joined by another local BSAA agent, Sheva Alomar, the two must work together to solve the truth behind the disturbing turn of events.”

I probably played this back in 2009 or 2010 on the XBOX and its actually the only Resident Evil game that I’ve completed all the way through. I actually really enjoyed this game and at the time the hardest thing I found was keeping an eye on my health.

Lots of zombie fun which means its kinda gorey! But yay to weird mutations.

RUSTY LAKE HOTEL (2016): “Welcome our guests to the Rusty Lake Hotel and make sure they will have a pleasant stay. There will be 5 dinners this week. Make sure every dinner is worth dying for!

Rusty Lake Hotel a unique puzzle-escape game with a surreal, strange setting inspired by David Lynch’s TV series Twin Peaks.”

I love the Rusty Lake series, I’ve only played Hotel but I do also own Roots. Both of these I’ve seen Dodger play through but Hotel is probably my favourite of the two.

In RLH you have 5 guests staying and for 5 days you have to procure the ingredients for a meal by doing tasks and puzzles for one of the guest. In the evening everyone sits down and eats a meaty meal that they can rate depending on how many of the ingredients you were able to get. The puzzles can be pretty challenging at times and none of the guests ever seem to care that every evening there is one guest less…

I highly recommend you check out any and all of their games and the best thing is many of them are on mobile and they’re not huge or powerful games so I would imagine most PCs can handle them. I also think the horror in this is tame so if you’re a fan of puzzles they’re definitely worth it, my only complaint is theres no achievements.

YEAR WALK (2014): “In the old days man tried to catch a glimpse of the future in the strangest of ways.

Experience the ancient Swedish phenomena of year walking through a different kind of first person adventure that blurs the line between two and three dimensions, as well as reality and the supernatural.

Venture out into the dark woods where strange creatures roam, on a vision quest set in 19th century Sweden. Solve and decipher cryptic puzzles, listen for clues, and learn about mysterious folklore creatures in the built-in encyclopedia as you seek to foresee your future and find out if your loved one will ever love you back.

Mysteries and clues await everywhere in Year Walk, but to fully understand the events that took place on that cold New Year’s Eve, you will have to delve deeper than the adventure and lose yourself between fact and fiction.”

I’ve also completed Year Walk and I really enjoyed it, the art itself is super cool and at times very pretty. The story itself is rather sad too but you learn a lot about this Swedish phenomena.

This game does have achievements which is great but I will say it can be tricky to navigate to each area so if you can have the map pulled up elsewhere that makes it easier – also will help you get an achievement.

This is definitely a fairly straight forward game to play but it is on the spookier side of things, both story wise and because there is a jump scare or two. I know at least one of them can be avoided.

LAYERS OF FEAR (2016): “You take another drink as the canvas looms in front of you. A light flickers dimly in the corner. You’ve created countless pieces of art, but never anything like…this. Why haven’t you done this before? It seems so obvious in retrospect. Your friends, critics, business partners—soon, they’ll all see. But something’s still missing…

You look up, startled. That melody… Was that a piano? It sounded just like her… But, no—that would be impossible. She’s gone. They’re all gone. Have to focus. How long has it taken to get to this point? Too long, but it doesn’t matter. There will be no more distractions. It’s almost finished. You can feel it. Your creation. Your Magnum Opus.

Dare you help paint a true Masterpiece of Fear? Layers of Fear is a first-person psychedelic horror game with a heavy focus on story and exploration. Delve deep into the mind of an insane painter and discover the secret of his madness, as you walk through a vast and constantly changing Victorian-era mansion. Uncover the visions, fears and horrors that entwine the painter and finish the masterpiece he has strived so long to create.” I picked up Layers of Fear the other month when … humble bundle? was offering it for free. I figured why not! I dont play many horrors and this seemed interesting.

So far its mostly a walking simulator where you explore a mansion that evolves over time. Its very atmospheric and creepy, theres no real guidance as to what time line you’re in but you slowly get to know more about the people who live here. I’m very excited to see where the story goes.

As I’ve not finished this game yet I can’t fully say how scary it is but the bit I’ve played there are definitely the odd jump scare here and there and overall a very eerie vibe.

ABZU (2016): “Immerse yourself in a vibrant ocean world full of mystery and bursting with color and life. Perform fluid acrobatics as the Diver using graceful swimming controls. Discover hundreds of unique species based on real creatures and form a powerful connection with the abundant sea life. Interact with schools of thousands of fish that procedurally respond to you, each other, and predators. Linger in epic seascapes and explore aquatic ecosystems modeled with unprecedented detail. Descend into the heart of the ocean where ancient secrets lie forgotten. But beware, dangers lurk in the depths. “ABZÛ” is from the oldest mythologies; AB, meaning water, and ZÛ, meaning to know. ABZÛ is the ocean of wisdom.” Okay, so technically Abuz isn’t a horror game. For the most part its very pretty and tranquil, but there is a part full of exploding bombs whic is a bit tense. Additionally the full story of Abzu is one of horror and warning as at its core its a commentary on how we’re destroying worlds and pollution.

Rather than going into full depth on its story you can read up on it here as I think its a very important and powerful game. Plus if you don’t like being underwater then this might have a layer of fear for you!

And thats that for horror video games I think you should play. Of course honorable mention to Until Dawn but with that being a PS4 exclusive its a lot harder for people to play – instead try watching a playthrough of this game on YouTube perhaps? This has a lot of gore, jump scares, and Josh is my favourite character in that game as realistically we all need to protect him.

Please note: all images were taken from their own Steam store pages.

Have you seen played any of these games? Are there any games that you’d recommend?

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5 Horror #VideoGames You Should Play | #Blogoween Video Game Recommendations| #Blogoween So I wanted to do a post on horror games to fit into blogoween but I realised I haven't really played that many.

[cancatervation]

favourite music 2017

The affording of enormous weight to barely concealed fragility and vulnerability; when I pore over the contents of my iTunes from the last twelve or so months it’s plainly apparent that this is the hill I’ve elected to die on. Almost all the albums I found myself infatuated with at some point or another in 2017 meditated upon desire, the transience of romance, and the anguish that often accompanies its pursuit.

I’m acutely aware of how oddly this contrasts with my own life, which for the past almost-two-years has been romantically fulfilling in the way that my previous 25 absolutely weren’t. On this, I would say two things. First, that stability is elusive even (maybe especially?) for the most outwardly rose-coloured of us, and that maintaining relationship hygge takes compromise and is not easy, and for those reasons feelings of vulnerability are never far from the front of my mind; and, second, that it’s testament to the skill of certain songwriters and performers that their work was able to make this gay-ass conventionalist really feel something every now and again last year.

I wouldn’t want to suggest that I only just worked out that the theatrical presentation of desire is something I’m drawn to, but certainly there were some things in the past year that I really did begin to understand. Theatricality is often used in a critical sense as pejorative; something that is too extra, that goes too far, that is all tell and no show. Despite its predisposition towards excess, musical theatre has, for instance, always played out as sterile and spurious to me. (Sorry. And look at it this way, you don’t ever need to worry about getting me tickets to Hamilton). It’s so dramatic that it becomes too dramatic; your self-awareness isn’t allowed the chance to be suspended, even for a moment. An album like Lorde’s Melodrama makes its intentions apparent before you’ve even heard a note of it, but its theatrics (and there are many - think of the wailed chorus of “Writer In The Dark”, the gory car crash of “Homemade Dynamite”, the bridge in “Supercut” that accelerates like you’re on a bike rushing down a hill) are as easily consumed by sitting silently in tears as they are dancing, or walking, or lifting heavy weights, or running up a hill (to make or not to make a deal with God), or lying in blissful supta baddha konasana. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that hyperemotional vulnerability is for all seasons and for all hours of the day and I am now happy to welcome it into every aspect of my life.

I wrote over fifty blurbs for various songs on the Singles Jukebox last year. Some I loved, some I hated, what’s new. I wrote a blurb for “Praying”, Kesha’s first solo single in nearly five years, which turned out to be both the highest scoring song on the site for 2017 and the champion of my personal “list”. I sort of said all this already on the Jukebox, but my love for “Praying” lies nearly entirely in the way Kesha leans so heavily into her aphorisms, finding new ways to bring profundity to ostensibly simple lines like “I’m proud of who I am”. (Contrast this with most of Taylor Swift’s 2017 work, which forewent specific detail in favour of portentously loaded maxim, but forgot about nuance and came up mostly dry). When Kesha punctuates her sermon with a thunderous kick drum, it’s basically game over. As the stories of survivors of sexual assault, abuse and harassment began to dominate news media in the second half of the year, the song only gathered further resonance.  

Lorde’s album held court as my favourite for most of the year. A promo image released by Kelela at the beginning of August threatened a coup. The odds shortened a few days later upon the release of its lead single and the arrival of the full album at the beginning of October marked the tangible takeover. Take Me Apart is all juxtaposition, which when applied to albums is often code for jumbled quagmire, but here there’s too much attention to detail, steadfastness of narrative, and, er, feeling, to get mixed up in anything like that. It see-saws between playful flirting, introspection, self-acceptance, control, loss of control, falling slowly through the sky, and falling fast through the abyss. I love it so much. It’s also very queer and very Black. Support Black queer art! Especially when it’s this well crafted.

Aside from all THAT, my favourite things in music last year were Moses Sumney’s Tiny Desk Concert, attending the Lorde show in the Botanic Gardens,  the line “every single day I fight another war; every single night I feel more powerful!” in Rina Sawayama’s “Take Me As I Am”, and Rihanna telling Diplo his music sounded like a “a reggae song at an airport”.

My ten favourite songs of 2017 were:

1. Kesha “Praying” - as above and here;

2. Lorde “Green Light” - see here. The score given, however, is wrong. Add another point.

3. Sigrid “Strangers” - see here. I can’t wait until she’s everywhere and everyone knows her; her potential to me scans as “unlimited / infinite / fucking enormous, if it must be quantifiable”.

4. MUNA “I Know a Place”. The album version is acceptable but I’m also partial to this live one, which involves some changes to the lyrics.

5. Tove Lo “Disco Tits”. Like a wonky, filthy Kylie B-side played underwater.

6. Kelela “Turn To Dust”. Refer also to the first set of songs below. She didn’t play this at her concert this week, which is lucky, because otherwise its title may have proved prophetic.

7. Nilüfer Yanya “Baby Luv” - see here. See also dirgey diatribe above re: vulnerability.

8. Rae Morris “Do It” - I’ve become more and more besotted with this as time has passed and am not sure whether I’m most impressed by a) the wordplay b) the ping-ponging percussion in the second verse c) the subtle yet giant switch-up halfway through d) the soaring vocals or e) managing all of the above in less than 3 and a half minutes.

9. Rina Sawayama “Alterlife” - it did not take me long to request for lamination of a stan card for a popstar who loves key changes and here deftly incorporates influences as diverse as the Need For Speed soundtrack, Samantha Mumba and Madonna at her glassiest.

10. Tove Styrke “Mistakes” - see here. I’m ready for her to run away with 2018, in or out of a wedding dress.

Aside from those, here are some other songs I enjoyed in 2017, variously categorised and (with the “top 10″) collected in a Spotify playlist, located here:

Songs that can make you feel like you’re floating slowly heavenward

Björk “Arisen My Senses”

Charli XCX “Track 10”

Julie Byrne “Natural Blue”

Julien Baker “Appointments”

Moses Sumney “Quarrel”

Rae Morris “Do It (Nico Muhly Dance Remix)”

Sampha “(No One Knows Me) Like The Piano”

Sevdaliza “Loves Way”

Slowdive “Slomo”

St. Vincent “Slow Disco”

Susanne Sundfør “Undercover”

Dance music that I barely pay any attention to throughout the calendar year and then become unusually enthusiastic about come end-of-year-list season

Bicep “Vale”

Gerd Janson x Shan "Surrender”

Honey Dijon “Catch The Beat”

Jad & The “Strings That Never Win”

Kink “Perth”

Minor Science “Volumes”

Octo Octa “Adrift (Avalon Emerson’s Furiously Awake Version)”

Shanti Celeste “Make Time”

SW. “Untitled B2”

The xx “On Hold (Jamie xx Remix)”

Yaeji “Raingurl”

Songs for the summer gloaming

Charlotte Day Wilson “Doubt”

Daniel Caesar “Blessed”

Frank Ocean “Chanel”

Jessie Ware “Stay Awake, Wait For Me”

Ladi6 “Guru”

Rachel Foxx “Happen To Me”

Sampa The Great “Bye River”

Sevyn Streeter “Before I Do”

Syd “Body”

Tyler, The Creator “Garden Shed feat. Estelle”

Plaintive songs for grey afternoon walks

Alvvays “Dreams Tonite”

Amandla Stenberg “Let My Baby Stay”

HAIM “You Never Knew”

Kehlani “Advice”

Khalid “Winter”

Lana Del Rey “Love”

Laura Marling “Next Time”

Paramore “Forgiveness”

Perfume Genius “Die 4 You”

St. Vincent “Happy Birthday, Johnny”

SZA “Prom”

Taylor Swift “New Year’s Day”

Best bangers

Amber Mark “Heatwave”

Charli XCX “Lipgloss feat. Cupcakke”

Charli XCX “Porsche feat. MØ”

Charlotte Gainsbourg “Deadly Valentine”

Charly Bliss “Glitter”

Drake “Get It Together feat. Jorja Smith & Black Coffee”

Dua Lipa “New Rules”

Haiku Hands “Not About You”

Ibibio Sound Machine “Give Me A Reason”

ionnalee “Samaritan”

J. Balvin x Willy William “Mi Gente feat. Beyoncé”

J. Hus “Did You See”

Jessie Ware “Your Domino”

Jorja Smith x Preditah “On My Mind”

Kah-Lo “Fasta”

Kelela “Truth Or Dare”

Kendrick Lamar “LOYALTY. feat. Rihanna”

Kllo “Last Yearn”

Leikeli47 “Miss Me”

Lorde “Sober”

Maliibu Miitch “4AM”

Miguel “Banana Clip”

Nite Jewel “2 Good 2 Be True”

Paramore “Hard Times”

Phoenix “J-Boy”

Rina Sawayama “Take Me As I Am”

Ronika “Better Than Ever”

Rose Elinor Dougall “All At Once”

Sigrid “Don’t Kill My Vibe”

Stormzy “Big For Your Boots”

The Horrors “Something To Remember Me By”

Tove Lo “Shedontknowbutsheknows”

Whethan “love gang feat. Charli XCX”

Wolf Alice “Don’t Delete The Kisses”

Finally, here are thirty albums I loved last year. Onwards and upwards!

1. Kelela Take Me Apart

2. Lorde Melodrama

3. SZA Ctrl

4. Fever Ray Plunge

5. Charly Bliss Guppy

6. Wolf Alice Visions Of A Life

7. Rina Sawayama RINA

8. Jessie Ware Glasshouse

9. Tove Lo Blue Lips

10. Charli XCX Pop 2

11. MUNA about u

12. Moses Sumney Aromanticism

13. Sevdaliza ISON

14. St Vincent MASSEDUCTION

15. Susanne Sundfør Music For People In Trouble

16. Ibeyi Ash

17. Sampa The Great Birds & The Bee9

18. Kink Playground

19. Daniel Caesar Freudian

20. Bicep Bicep

21. Sophia Kennedy - Sophia Kennedy

22. Miguel War & Leisure

23. Laura Marling Semper Femina

24. Ibibio Sound Machine Uyai

25. Jen Cloher Jen Cloher

26. Dua Lipa Dua Lipa

27. The xx I See You

28. Honey Dijon The Best Of Both Worlds

29. Kesha Rainbow

30. Leikeli47 Wash & Set