#see this is the kind of quality content i find when i play these games in japanese

[theresattrpgforthat]

I'm so giddy! I've been waiting impatiently for the askbox to open! Okay, okay, so... could you, please, recommend some free TTRPGS about vampires having fun and vampire adventures/shenanigans in general? VTM is the wrong kind of existential for me, so I need vampires being monsters and having a good time while at it. Also I have problems with purchasing things abroad (not from an English-speaking country), hence the "free" thing. I really love your blog and reading your recommendations, keep up the fantastic work! ❤🎃

THEME: Affordable Vampire Shenanigans.

Thank you so much for your kind words! Let’s see what kind of vampire games I can find for you.

All the Damn Vampires, by Ringo Stalin.

All the Damn Vampires is a TTRPG for vampires who just want to have fun, without the stress of being slain, or having to put on a masque.

This game is an unabashed power-fantasy for the disenfranchised, the marginalised, and the weird folks who always felt out of step with the rest of the world.

All the Damn Vampires uses four basic stats (Vigilance, Astronomy, Motion, and Presence), as well as a resource pool called Deadline to represent how much energy your Vampire has left. Your stats are better if they are lower, as you have to roll above your set number if you want to succeed.

Many typical vampire weaknesses aren’t built into your characters in this game; you can eat garlic and bathe in holy water, although you still can’t survive a wooden stake or a beheading. You also have a number of various vampire abilities available to you, some of which are ’nascent’, or “beginner” abilities, while others can be gained as you grow. If you want a power fantasy that lets your vampires go out and party with just the odd hunter or two trying to take you down, you might like this game.

All the Damn Vampires is currently pay-what-you-want, so you should be able to download it for free if you need to.

Vampire Friend-Group Needed, by SteelWhale.

In this party game, players will first create their very own vampire, and then try to convince the other players why their vampire is a perfect fit for this very exclusive vampire group. 

This game combines all kinds of vampires, from the cartoony Count Chocula to the original Count Dracula. You are all vying for a spot in a special vampire friend-group, and trying to impress your potential Vampire friends. There’s not much when it comes to playing this game, mostly role-playing through the initial conversation, and then voting on whose vampires are the coolest - or the un-coolest, if you want to play it that way. The designer recommends trying this game out as a prelude to another vampire game.

As with most of the games on this list, this is also pay-what-you-want!

VUMPIRE!, by dozens.

Play Baseball. Drink Blood.

You are umpiring the championship game and you are also an ancient undead vampire. You are here to steal some oxygen-rich, elite athlete blood. And also to enforce the rules of baseball and uphold the spirit of sportsmanship.

VUMPIRE is all about infiltrating a baseball game to get high-quality blood. It’s got plenty of roll-tables to make character creation interesting, as well as a few tips on setting up a baseball league of your own. Judging by the table of contents, it looks like you’ll mark some kind of progress over the game; probably both how well the teams are doing as well as how much blood you’re able to procure from your antics. If you want a combination sports-game and vampire game, this might be the game for you.

VUMPIRE isn’t free, but there are community copies at the time that I write this post, so you should be able to pick up a copy, or perhaps ask the creator for a copy if you can’t afford one.

Flesh + Fangs, by FrogmentSoul.

You are the followers of Count Dracula, and he has put you in charge of taking care of his castle while he takes a well-earned retirement. But it just happens that the day the Count is going to do his routine performance check, odd things begin to happen that make you look incompetent! It's time to right these wrongs before you lose Dracula’s respect!

Flesh + Fangs is a hack of John Harper's Lasers & Feelings based on the Dimension 20 season Coffin Run, serving as a way to further the story beyond its end. This is a game of undead havoc, macabre drama, and trying to make your boss proud for once.  

I’ve talked about Lasers and Feelings hacks a number of times before, but the basics is this: minimal character bookkeeping, little to no GM prep, and great for lighthearted, fun times. In this case, you’re all doing your darndest to impress Count Dracula, and failing horribly.

If you’re the one running this game, I recommend writing up a list of potential obstacles beforehand, maybe even writing up some possible room descriptions if you have enough time. These kinds of games are pretty heavy on improv, so having a few things to pull up when the players do something unexpected is a good idea.

Flesh + Fangs is pay-what-you-want, including if that payment is zero dollars.

Vikings vs. Vampires, by CartwrightShop.

Vikings Vs. Vampires is a rules-light role-playing game suitable for all ages created by Ben Cartwright and Jon Merrell. A big inspiration for Vikings Vs. Vampires was the wonderful game Honey Heist created by Grant Howitt.

Only half of the playgroup in this game are vampires, but the premise certainly feels goofy to me, and in a good way. I think it’s interesting that your Viking stats are different from your Vampire stats; the core of each of these character types are different, and therefore they act a little differently. Even though this game is goofy, keep in mind that the Vampires and the Vikings are at odds with each-other, and are designed to go head-to-head.

This is a very lovingly crafted game, and probably the most illustrated out of everything on this list. There’s plenty of backstory to set up the moment where your characters meet, although I don’t know how repayable the game is. It’s also pay-what-you-want: yay!

You Installed the Wrong DLC And Now You Must Fight Mathomagic Dracula, by kumada1.

For long ages, the arch-vampire has slumbered inside his geometric coffin. But now the seals are broken, the formulae are smudged, and Dracula is loose.

As a creature of muddled mytho-historical origin, Dracula is not confined to any one setting or story. He can leap from reality to reality, claiming victims where he will.

And as a creature loosely associated with a pun based on tallying up numbers, Dracula also wields fell power over the nature of mathematics.

Unless he is stopped, he will rain untold terrors down upon the multiverse. Which is where you come in.

This isn’t really a tabletop game on its own, but rather a funny way to warp another tabletop game that you are already playing. “Install” Dracula into another game system, and he will slowly skew the system’s math - you must defeat him before he renders your game entirely unplayable! If you want a goofy game where the fiction jumps past the fourth wall and generates havoc with your table, this might just get you there.

And of course, the game is pay-what-you-want.

Other Vampire Games

Step Into My Coffin, Babe, by Super Sardine Burial.

Bubblegum Vampires, by Gormengeist.

Bloodlite RPG, by HiddenSky Estùdio.

My Alternative Vampires Post.

Fangs, Fangs, Fangs Rec Post.

[phoenix-downer]

Happy Anniversary to Kingdom Hearts 3 ft. Nomura Yozora Puns

I decided to replay KH3 in honor of KH3's 5th anniversary, this time in Japanese.

(I had grand plans to do some beautiful long reflection/analysis post today about the game's anniversary, but life got in the way as it often does)

Anyway, here's my contribution for the anniversary instead:

JP: まもなく 夜空の惑星が一直線に並ぼうとしていたー

Romaji: Mamonaku yozora no wakusei ga itchokusen ni narabou toshiteitaー

EN: At long last, the time had come. The planets were edging into perfect alignment...

TR: At long last, the night sky's planets were about to align (lit. line up in a straight line, hence the "perfect alignment" in English)

NOMURA SNUCK A YOZORA PUN INTO THE FIRST FIFTEEN MINUTES OF THE GAME DURING THE START OF THE OLYMPUS SEGMENT I'M CRACKING UP IT WAS THERE ALL ALONG

Screenshot is from here.

[bambi-slxt]

lovelanguage!triplets:

✨a concept✨

🍊𝕔𝕙𝕣𝕚𝕤🍊

acts of service

he's a problem solver. “chris i can't get the dishwasher to work, can you-” and he's already ordered a new one, set up the installation, and made sure you'll be home for it. he hates the idea of you floundering alone, and is always quick to take on whatever tasks he can, even if it's as small as running a bath for you before you get home.

words of affirmation

chris is the type to look for things about you that other people don’t seem to notice and compliment you on them. “you’re so well-spoken, like the way you word shit, it's just incredible.” he also likes to hear about your goals and how you're achieving them, and enjoys affirming your choices in life.

quality time

he's SO BIG on quality time. chris loves to be near creativity and one of the ways that manifests is with music. lil skies drops a new album? chris is gonna call you first so you guys can listen to the whole thing together and yap about it.

gift giving

he has such a squirrel brain. chris will see something at the store that reminds him of you and put it in the cart, forget about it, do another lap around the store, see it again, and put it in the cart. he just wants to make you happy.

physical touch

chris doesn't feel the need to be possessive. he shows his physical touch kind of love through soft touches on your back when he's walking behind you (“i'm here, don't get startled”), tapping your thigh in the car to the beat of his music, and standing so close to you when y'all brush your teeth that your hips graze each other.

🦋𝕞��𝕥𝕥🦋

acts of service

matt doesn’t like showing off the things he does for you, so often you’ll find that things get fixed or chores get done in the quiet background of your day. he fixes the leaking sink when you’re out shopping, and cleans up the kitchen before you get back so he can help you put groceries away, all without bringing it up once. he enjoys helping you out and taking some of the mental load off of you, but hates the idea of being appreciated for it - matt feels that it’s just his job as a partner.

words of affirmation

he’s big on writing notes. since he doesn’t have a typical 9-5, he’ll make your lunches and put a little post-it note on the inside. “i’m so proud of you, you’re gonna have an amazing day.” on your birthday or anniversary, he always has a hand-written letter for you along with any gifts or celebratory activities.

quality time

matt likes to body double, which means that the two of you don’t necessarily have to be doing the same thing to be engaging in quality time. he’s perfectly content to work on his personal brand or account while you read or play his games while you’re doing homework. he also loves teaching you Fortnite and other FPS’s, or trying new things together like cooking or making crafts.

gift giving

he enjoys giving practical gifts, things that will help make your life easier. it’s his way of saying he notices you’re struggling and he wants to help however he can. this also connects back to his words of affirmation - matt knows that words are powerful, and many of his gifts involve written sentiments of love, pride, vulnerability, or compassion towards you.

physical touch

matt was never big on physical touch. he’s always very aware of his body and someone else coming into contact with it only exacerbated the problem. but soon he came up with a solution for the two of you - ‘three taps means i love you’. soon he taps you all the time, even in his sleep.

👾𝕟𝕚𝕔𝕜👾

acts of service

nick is never afraid to confront your problems head on, and he feels no apprehension taking time out of his day to do things for you. one of his favorite ways to perform an act of service is to help you manage your days and be as productive as you can be - he wants nothing more than to see you succeed and achieve your dreams.

words of affirmation

he doesn’t always show love this way, but when he does, nick could talk about you for hours. he calls attention to all of your wonderful traits, cute quirks, and special interests, making sure to bring up how amazed he is by all of what makes you, you.

quality time

quality time with nick can look like a lot of different things depending on his mood. some days he wants to go get aćai bowls, thrift, go on a walk by the harbor, and visit the farmers market and some days he wants to stay in bed and talk or watch movies until 3pm.

gift giving

nick is incredibly good at getting gifts. he tries his best to pay attention to everything you like and all the hobbies and interests you have so he can go look them up later and find you presents based on that. he also really enjoys diamond paintings, crafting, or any other artsy, homemade gift he can give you, because to nick, those feel the most authentic.

physical touch

he’s always been a bit jumpy when other people touch him and he’s not expecting it, but once nick knows it’s you, he doesn’t mind at all. when he’s in the mood for it, he loves detangling your hair, hiding his hands in your hoodie pocket, or just brushing up on you as much as he can. 

thanks for reading!

bambi <3

request to be on the taglist under this post right here

tags: @pinksturniolo @malirosee @st7rnioioss @nonat-111 @cindylcuwho @evie-sturns @h3arts4harry @fanficsbymia @dazednmatthews @sturniolo-rat @mattsmad @sturniolo04 @bellasturn @blahbel668 @yomamaslays4lyfe @stasiesturn @pleasantlycrazyworld @solarsturniolo

[honeytonedhottie]

HONEYS IT GIRL MAGAZINE february edition⋆.ೃ࿔*:･🎀

this is a new thing im doing on my blog that i think you'd all like very much called honeys magazine/catalog. basically like a monthly inside scoop on data that i've collected, things i've learned/started doing, and just general info like that organized in kind of a teen-magazine inspired fashion. a magazine for it girls ✨

i've had so much fun putting together the february catalog and i'd love to hear feedback of things that you'd like to see in the next edition. and now, please enjoy the it girl magazine ✨

FEBRUARY FASHION ;

february is full of silks and lace. feminine muted colors like beiges, whites, and pinks. this february i've rly been into tweed dresses. accessories that i've been loving this february include pearls, stockings, and ribbons.

a lot of the clothes that i've been eyeing are things that are more light in fabric and in color. such as cute camisoles with lace trim and i've rly been into the chic look this february as i've mentioned before.

when it comes to jewelry and accessories i always love to layer and be excessive and even though during february i've been obsessed with the chic look, i always add lots of accessories. if not something huge like bracelets or necklaces, i'll be excessive with rings or something smaller.

in general HYPERFEMININE and super cute and girly clothes have been my favorite thing in february especially cuz of valentines day. the theme is soft-wear. shimmery, sheer, and showered in flowers.

cute earrings (preferably the smaller ones) like studs, pearls, or cute spherical earrings

hair clips and barrettes

bangles

tweed dresses

pearl necklaces

remember those dress up games you may have used to play when u were little? when dressing this february, thats what inspired my february fashion. fluffy lashes, cutesy accessories and heels.

i read up a lot on CHANEL bcuz i think that her brand embodies the chic look perfectly and here are some fashion tips from coco chanel (this is my source)

look for the woman in the dress, if there is no woman then there is no dress - basically means dont let your clothes wear you

it is always better to be slightly underdressed - coco's understanding of chic was subtle glamor and lush fabrics

fashion changes but style endures - some clothes are timeless like a little black dress (aubrey hepburn) a quality handbag and a crisp white shirt

WHAT IM LISTENING TO LATELY ;

my favorite album of this month is kali uchis's orquídeas. i absolutely adore her music, energy and vibe. and the whole album is just MWAH. my favorite songs from the album are ;

te mata

igual que un ángel

perdiste

another album that i've been obsessed with this past month is the twicetagram album from twice. i just love the energy in the songs. my favorite songs from that album are LOOK AT ME and LOVELINE. and lastly, just songs that i've enjoyed listening to this february ;

yes, and? - ariana grande

never lose me - flo milli

wonderboy - GWSN

scenery - red velvet

angels in tibet - amaarae

FOR THE BLOG ;

since its going to be march and were kinda transitioning from the winter season -> spring, you can expect to see lots of spring related content from me. another thing that i rly wanna set up for my blog is membership if thats something that u guys'd be interested in.

and also after doing the valentines day challenge, i had so much fun with it and i kinda wanna do more challenges. so if i end up setting up membership i think services like those would be provided.

lastly, since im an advocate for not over consuming the law, i won't be answering inbox questions about the law so that then u guys can focus ENTIRELY on ur manifestations and not over complicate it bcuz the law is easy and you already know how to do it + if u have any general questions i've answered plenty of questions about the law in my blog ANYWAYS. the reason im doing this is so that then you can focus on your manifestations 🫶🏽 and i hope that you guys find it helpful.

HONEYS BEAUTY CORNER TOPIC - HYDRATION ;

when your skin is hydrated, you GLOW on such a deeper level and i absolutely love looking and feeling like a little dew drop so here's some hydration beauty tips

vasline is an occlusive, that simply means that the moisturizing ingredients that create a physical barrier on the skin to prevent transepidermal water loss and lock in hydration. after brushing ur lips to exfoliate, u can just go in and put some vaseline on ur lips and your lips will be HYDRATED.

using a body oil + a body lotion has taken my hydration game to new HEIGHTS. the key to this is to make sure the scents match or have similar notes at least, and moisturize DAMP skin so that then it can absorb better. walk around with a hand lotion, and lip moisturizer ALWAYS.

the key to a dewey makeup look is having a good base. its all about preparing the skin before u put the makeup on. use a good creamy moisturizer and use a glowy spf and then use a good primer.

FOR THE WELLNESS GIRLIES ;

hormone balancing tea blend that i tried and loved ; raspberry leaf tea with spearmint and dandelion root tea. i drink mine with honey a couple days before and during my period and my cramps have been so minimal and my hormones have been so balanced.

hydration ; to follow the trend of the beauty section lets talk hydration. the optimal amount of water to drink is 2.7 liters a day. if u wanna up your hydration game, use some liquid iv or another hydrating powder so that then u can get the most out of ur water. if u dont have anything like that, adding a pinch of salt into your water can also help to improve hydration.

frequencies and vibes ; i've been interested in frequencies lately, simply bcuz i think that they're so interesting. i'll go deeper into frequencies in the next section. but here are some frequencies to listen to for wellness ;

174 hz - reduces physical and energetic pain

285 hz - heals tissues and rejuvenates

432 hz - restores well being and releases emotional blockages

528 hz - love frequency, induces inner peace and repairs DNA

supplements that are geared towards beauty ; find a specific hair, skin and nails supplement or vitamin that includes a blend of powerful antioxidants, minerals and vitamins. some examples of this are ;

fish oil (omega 3 and fatty acids) helps to protect skin against inflammation

collagen (for skin hair and nails) promotes healthy dewy and glowing skin

turmeric (anti inflammatory effects)

PROBIOTICS

RANDOM THINGS I LEARNED ;

something thats caught my interest this month is sound healing. the power of sound is truly amazing, and i was curious specifically about frequencies. sound healing has been around for years by yogis for thousands of years. nowadays sound healing is practiced with something called sound baths.

a sound bath is a deeply relaxing experience where the listener lies down on a mat or blanket, with as many cushions or props as they need to feel comfortable, and is then ‘bathed’ in the sound vibrations. benefits of sound baths include ;

reduced stress, pain and anxiety

better sleep

lower blood pressure

fewer mood swings

balanced hormones

healing through sounds was practiced by ancient egyptians, greeks and chinese physicians, who also used sound healing in their practices to promote digestion, sleep, and emotional disturbances.

if learning a bit about sound healing interested you and you wanna learn a bit more about it, this is the source i used for this section.

FUN QUIZZES, VIDEO ESSAYS, RECIPES AND GAMES ;

valentines day aesthetic quiz - buzzfeed - i got daughter of aphrodite

consideration is the highest form of love - manifestelle - food for thought

good boyfriend quiz - seventeen

which romantic music type am i - buzzfeed - i got r&b enthusiast

valentines day cupcakes recipe ;

1 1/2 cup of flour

1 cup of butter milk

1/3 cups of oil

4 large eggs

mix it all together and add it into a lined cupcake tin, bake at 350° for 15 minutes. for the frosting...

1 cup of softened butter

6 cups of powdered sugar

1 tsp of strawberry extract

4 tbs of milk

CRUSH STORIES ;

SUBMISSION ONE : ANON : 💝

idk if this counts 😭 but my crush is an older guy (dw it's very legal) and he's so sweet, I manifested him liking me using your help!!! We're not together yet but he's been talking to me for literally hours a day, and just offered to buy me A NEW LAPTOP aaaah I'm crying. Ily honey your perfect

HBDSJHDJ YAYY. i wish u guys all the happiness and i hope u enjoy ur new laptop ✨

SUBMISSION TWO : ANON : 💝

technically not a crush but my ex boyfriend cheated on me (i broke up w him very quickly after) w my best friend and got her pregnant. he tried to make amends with me but I turned him down. i think i dodged a bullet there thank god 🫢

OH 💀. you def dodged a bullet, they went behind ur back and then got pregnant... 😭

thats all for this months catalog, there will be a new edition each month with new content and it'll be updated on a monthly basis so if thats something that interests you or if you like these kinds of posts pls let me know, till next month girlies✨

[dangerouslyknown]

Hiromi Higuruma Headcanons 🌻

A/N: Ughhh I have been having literally 0 motivation for writing, kind of like an art block. I wanna write so much but something just prevents me lmao... But this man, I swear. He just sparked my will to write and hopefully also work off the requests and one trade with a friend I have been working on. Also I just haaaad to get these out of my head

Contents/warnings: Random general headcanons, relationship headcanons & NSFW headcanons. I am just writing about "his S/O" and referring to S/O with they/them. Doesn't contain spoilers from JJK story, just Higuruma and his existence

General headcanons

He listens to Modern Talking. Don't ask where this comes from, I just feel like he'd like their music. Also somehow I was thinking he'd like Bon Jovi, too? He isn't like a crazy fan for either of them, just likes various of their songs. Could see him listening instrumental music as well, like game/movie soundtracks

Surprisingly enough he isn't a huge drinker. He enjoys an alcoholic drink every now and then to refresh, but he knows his limits. He knows when it feels good and when it goes overboard

He doesn't have visible muscles for the most part, I'd like to think him having a bit of body fat which hides them. My man is an attorney, he hasn't been focusing in training or being physically fit all that much. He does like to keep himself in decent shape though, because healthy body equals a healthy mind

He's not tall per se, more like average height, definitely under 180 centimeters

He's a minimalist. He doesn't have anything "extra" in his apartment, just the necessities

Speaking off, his wardrobe probably isn't huge either. Maybe a basic suit or two, so he can wash the other and still have the other one wearable. Otherwise his wardrobe is filled with mostly casual comfortable clothes. He values practical clothes, too

If he ends up having time to play games, he'd definitely mostly be into single player, story focused games. Not into fps games. One of his favorites are, funny enough, Ace Attorney games (he also likes the soundtrack)

SFW relationship headcanons

He doesn't strike me as a person who would be into dating all that much, but if he finds so called a right person, he might consider it. He doesn't really sleep around with lots of people either

He values the personality of a person more than looks. Forming an emotional and a mental bond is what matters him the most when it comes to a relationship

He doesn't even have a type, really. He thinks he is capable of finding anyone attractive if their personality hits him

And while we are at it, I bet he would love to have conversations with his S/O about anything. He'd love to discuss anything, silly to serious to deep thoughts with the right person. He wants to hear his S/Os thoughts and share his own

He'd also love to have playful, sarcasm filled banters/debates with his S/O

Either quality time or physical touch are his love languages

Quality time, because he is often doing long days and working a lot so he might not be around as much as he'd like. But when he finally is around his S/O, no matter what they do, he is going to be very happy. He likes to do the most basic, mundane things together with his S/O. Having breakfast, watching TV, showering together, cooking together, sitting together in the same room...

And what comes to physical touch, he just loves to get touchy with his S/O and most of the time not even in a sexual way. It is like a way to make up for all the time he hasn't been around. All the little touches and kisses he exchanges with his S/O makes him feel so loved

Oh, and one thing he'd absolutely love is to get a massage from his S/O. He would literally melt to their touch

(NSFW under the cut)

NSFW relationship headcanons

I think he is pretty vanilla... But he is very open to try new things and kinks for his S/O and for his own curiosity. He'd also be pretty gentle overall, but he loves his sex passionate, with an intimate, personal feel to it

He is a heavy switch when it comes to dynamics. He can top, he can bottom. But I have a feeling he'd have a tiny little submissive side in the sheets. He isn't opposed to being dominative either, but like I said, he is mostly vanilla so these kind of dynamics aren't exactly what he desires in the sheets

He prefers to do all the sexy stuff mostly in somewhere private, only him and his S/O... but he can't deny that he has thought of taking them in his office. Something about the though of him fucking them on his desk turns him on

He would definitely love having sex with clothes (mostly) on. First of all, he can be a bit tired after long days (and lazy, too) but, like, just having his dick out of his fly... or both of his and his S/Os pants just slightly lowered. It's all just so hot for him

Oh, and he'd love to fuck his S/O anywhere (privately). On the floor, on the sofa, against a wall. He isn't picky, he just wants to feel good

I still feel like bed is his to-go, because he is often tired to do anything extreme and it's just overall more comfortable to get down to business in the sheets

Previously mentioned that his love language is physical touch which applies to this aspect too. Sex is also a part of that for him. Sex is also a way for him to feel deeply connected with his S/O, physically and emotionally

Sex with his S/O is his favorite stress relieving method

I'll say it: I never thought he'd have a big cock. Recently, I came across Kyo-00´s Headcanons of the dicks of JJK men, and I agree on her take of Higuruma. I had previously thought he'd be more like average sized or so

He doesn't need to have a huge cock though, because he knows how to use what he has. He also has his mouth, his nose and his hands to make one pleased

This could probably go without saying, but he loves when his S/O shows him that he is desired and cared for. He would get so excited if his S/O initiated intimacy and slid their hand to his pants to play with his still limp dick, stroking it while giving his neck and face soft kisses all over... (Consensually, of course. He isn't always in the mood for that stuff either) Anyhow, that just sends a message to him which turns him on. Who would even want to have sex with someone who doesn't seem into it?

I believe he wouldn't want kids, so he 100% would get a vasectomy especially if his S/O is a afab/female so there isn't a need to worry about pregnancy

[allyeardepression]

@jegulus-microfic | may 11 gentle | words: 573

part 1 | previous part

I don't know what's happening to me, so I'm pouring it all on James (i’m sorry)

tw: implied child abuse in the past, anxiety, dissociation

James sat at the dinner table, playing with his food rather than eating it, trying to silence his thoughts by concentrating on the conversation Sirius was having with Marlene about the next Quidditch game. Unfortunately, he was losing the battle between him and his mind—he couldn’t remember most of the time spent in the Great Hall, yet the one thing he remembers vividly are the silver eyes looking at him almost the whole time from across the room.

He was thinking about his last meeting with Regulus often—how the younger boy held him, whipped his tears more than once, and how he listened. It wasn’t much, but it meant the world to James.

And yet it still made him feel uncomfortable sometimes—what if Regulus used that knowledge against him? What if he was too scared by it all and went to Sirius and told him about it? Or even worse—what if he reached out to James’ parents to warn them?

He was overthinking again—James knew that. If the other boy did any of those things, he would know immediately what’s with Sirius’ straight-forwardness and his parents’ concern. And still…

The spiral in his head went on and on until he found himself at the Astronomy Tower again. He doesn’t know how or why he got there, but the moment he came back on earth, he sat on the cold stone, looking up at the night sky.

He was trying to find the northern star when the door creaked slightly and Regulus sat right beside him. The boy reached out and placed his hand over James' knee in silent question. In response, the Gryffindor just nodded once. Regulus lowered his hand and immediately started rubbing small circles on his knee with his thumb.

After a long moment of silence, Regulus’ gentle voice came to James’ ears.

“How are you feeling?”

“I’m feeling like I’m in some kind of trance or something, like—I don’t feel like I’m in my body feeling my emotions. It’s more like watching a movie in shit quality,” he answered quietly, resting his head on Regulus' shoulder. For some reason, the other boy's proximity, his touch, and the smell of strawberries and cigarettes on his body helped James calm down. “But it’s not always like that, you know? Normally, those thoughts aren’t so loud, and I don’t feel overwhelmed by them—they’re there, but I can live with them. But lately… I don’t even know what is happening; it has never been so bad.”

Regulus didn’t respond. He just perched his head on James’ and kept caressing his knee.

“You know you’re not too much, right?” he asked at last. “If it wasn’t for you, Sirius was going to die in that house. I can see the way you treat younger students, and not just Gryffindors—all of them, regardless of which house they are from. And you’re not doing it to rub it into others’ faces. Yes, you are loud and obnoxious—“

“Well, thanks,” James chuckled from where he was still lying on Reg’s shoulder.

“—BUT your heart is so pure, and each and every person in this castle can see it,” the younger boy finished, reaching with his free hand to the other boy's head to stroke his hair. James let out a content sigh at the feeling of slim fingers tangled in his curls.

“Thank you,” he whispered, closing his eyes and letting himself enjoy the moment of peace for some time.

[musashi]

honestly though if you want a really good technique for avoiding annoying people in fandom, get attached to a widely hated character! or, if you can't make yourself do that? just pretend you are. pick the WORST character. the nastiest, most despicable, most vile character. or the most overhated and misunderstood one, who might not have even done anything wrong. what matters isn't the content of their character, just that they generate discourse. i'm talking your vriskas. find the vriska. pretend they are your favourite if they're not.

then, early on in any given interaction with a new fandom person, mention that they are your favourite. and watch how the person reacts.

i have two characters i do this with. the first is fi from the legend of zelda. her heinous crime that swaths upon swaths of gamerboys decided to froth with rage over for years is that she makes them feel emasculated because she likes to infodump. she is handholdy, she is helpful, and she is blunt and robotic and lacks any semblance of charisma or sex appeal. therefore she is nothing. and she is my favourite video game character of all time. i mention this early on and study the reaction of my conversational partner.

fi weeds out the kind of people i want to avoid in that fandom: misogynists. smug gamerbro types who make you spew novels of lore before they respect your opinion. no one like that is going to like fi, they have nothing to gain from her and everything to hate about her.

the second one is manfred von karma. he orphaned a child and then framed that child for murder 15 years later just, like, for fun. just 'cause he was having a hot girl moment. aforementioned orphan is the traumatized autistic darling of the fandom who all the twitter girlies love to project onto and hate to see any form of nuance in. mvk is cartoonishly evil and has no redeeming qualities. he is unpleasant to be around. he is controlling and cruel. and he's an old disabled man so basically no one besides faggots with good taste find him hot. when talking with ace attorney fans i bring it up as soon as possible that he's like my blorbo of all time. my silly rabbit. i talk about him like he's the fucking sun in my sky and i call him 'papa' because my cringey fictionkin ass does what they want and i watch people squirm and writhe and unperson me for it.

like fi, mvk very specifically roots out a very specific subset of this fandom i dislike: fanon-poisoned twitterbrained AA fans who "play the games" through fanfiction and incorrectquotes. they all think mvk is a child abuser (because evil, evil mean abuse kids, cannot be complex, all evil do a child abuse) and so they point their fingers and call me an abuse apologist because that's activism to them or whatever. they can do whatever they want as long as it doesn't hurt anyone, of course, but they're annoying and i want them to leave me alone. and because i love this monster they've created, they do.

the throughline here is: anyone who gets this fucking worked up over made-up pretend people is probably severely online, and uses fandom discourse as a personality replacement. what ever flavour of severely online it is, it's generally best not to associate with people like that because 9/10 times they are fucking deranged and are just waiting on you to cross them in some meaningless way so they can unperson you.

so, my advice to you: find the vriska. find the vriska, love the vriska, do it as early as possible. it will save you SO much time. weed out the people who respond with screeching and wriggling. keep close the people who say things like "haha whaaat? alright, explain that for me!"

[cloveroctobers]

DECEMBER PROMPTS 🧊 — 4. NERON “CREEPER” VARGAS

A/N: idea inspired by a required outing for me and encouraged by @darqchilddaydreamz 🤭 this is so unserious but not at the same time? I also don’t like how I learned to appreciate creeper after the fact? This is my first time ever writing for the man with a heart of gold. Smh. Him and Coco deserved better and in AU…Creeper & Coco would be the true besties. This is also somewhat that. Enjoy!

Synopsis: As a pizza chef you’re bound to keep your house just as stocked as your restaurant. However with a ice storm heading your way in two days…you persuade your husband, Neron to take you to the store to grab just a few extra things but soon find yourself in a battle with another shopper, who doesn’t know the first thing about personal space.

ADDED PROMPTS FROM HERE + I’m using: 3.) Shopping + 6.) “You’re really making me wear matching pajamas with you?”

WARNINGS: language + “reader” is given a name but not physically described yet I always have a black or woc in mind. + a sexual/steamy moment towards the end ;)

⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅*̩̩͙‧͙ ‧͙*̩̩͙❆ ͙͛ ˚₊⋆ ⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅*̩̩͙‧͙ ‧͙*̩̩͙❆ ͙͛ ˚₊⋆ ⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅*̩̩͙‧͙ ‧͙*̩̩͙❆ ͙͛ ˚₊⋆ ⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅*̩̩͙‧͙

What was supposed to be more of a in and out kind of thing, turned into at least a thirty minute adventure. Sure Mariatu could blame it on the tasteful playlist the grocery store was playing—currently, “let it snow,” by Boyz II Men & Brian McPetty but she’d take the blame when she got back outside to her husband.

The original plan was to run in and get five items: a pack of mineral water full of electrolytes for Neron, a pack of cocoa powder, eggs, toilet paper rolls, and disinfectant wipes.

With the way prices are in this economy?

Mariatu knew it was probably best for Neron to run in grab everything but he suddenly got a call from Coco that had to do with business—which the founded brothers always stood on—so she did the honors of slipping out. She honestly didn’t mind, shopping was always thrilling to her because she knows regardless of what she picked up—whether she needed it or not—the items would always be put to good use. Mariatu was never one to let anything go to waste, it was something her parents always instilled.

Perhaps that’s why the carriage was getting heavier as she explored every other aisle, ending up in the international section, just for some lady to eye the contents of her carriage before settling her judgmental eyes on Mariatu. Their eyes connected but one was less friendly than the other, which was enough for Mariatu to pick up the speed. The previous aisle was more of a game of “chicken,” since one boulder of a man thought the aisle was a one way, the frozen section had one of its fridges leaking onto the floor and the constant call to, “clean up aisle 21,” seemed to go unheard, and just from entering the store a mother had to excuse herself and her screaming child who thought it would be best to start knocking over one of the displays.

Those should have been enough signs for Mariatu to do what she was supposed to do. Although the upbeat Christmas music was enough motivation to just make this a speed round, Mariatu couldn’t help that she spent longer than expected; even if she had a mental list of what they needed. Soon she found herself making a circle in the store towards the organic and produce section.

Eyeing the pomegranate seeds, Mariatu makes a bee-line for the fruit. Parking her carriage upwards from herself, she picks up the container eyeing the expiration date and then the quality of the red toned fruit. From her peripheral she sees someone leaning by the front of her carriage. She thinks not much of it figuring that they’re simply looking at a item that aligns with the end of her carriage. Silently debating over the snack for a moment longer, she opts for the larger pack instead before adding it to the carriage.

Seconds after, the handle of her carriage digs harshly into her stomach as the customer pushes their hip into the end of the carriage to reach for a bag of jumbo grapes. Mariatu blinks to herself in astonishment as the man holds the bag up to the light and moves his hips to do the same movement again!

This time Mariatu yanks on the carriage and goes around the man but not without muttering, “this is how you say excuse me,” on her way as she continues on up ahead. Eyeing the bag of baby spinach, she decides against it after grabbing a few green juices not long ago and just as she goes to push away from the section, she can hear the irritating sound of a broken carriage wheel pushing behind her.

Ever since Mariatu was a little girl she had great senses. Some may call it a gift while others maybe oblivious but she’s almost always right in judging distances and sensing presences that may or may not physically be there. In this present time as Mariatu is briefly glancing from the cart to make sure she’s not forgetting something and watching where she’s going, she can feel and hear the carriage behind her getting too close for her liking. Just as she’s reaching the corner, she peers over her shoulder to the pale as ice skinned man with a beanie that barely covers his thin salt colored hair and in that moment they come to some sort of understanding.

His shoulders relax, his lips pursed, grip still strong on the handle, he seems to slow down as his eyes connect with Mariatu’s. The side-eye game was always strong and she whips her head back, ringlets of curls bouncing with her underneath her beret as she does, a satisfying smile begins to grace her lipstick painted lips while she gets ready to turn the corner.

That’s short lived as a bump of the carriage from behind pressed into her backside first, thrashing her forward, followed by the knocking wheel which clips her ankle. A yelp escapes her lips, gaining the attention of a cashier who’s handling the handicap section and Mariatu has to exhale the steam that’s probably seeping from her eardrums.

Rubbing at the stinging skin above her ankle socks in her trainers, she glares at the older man who looks sheepish at the fact that his carriage actually interacted with his target.

“What’s your problem? You bump my carriage out of the way instead of using your manners, which you clearly lack and now you wanna play bumper cars with my ankle?” Mariatu questions the man who lifts his shoulders nonchalantly.

“I needed grapes,” the man started, “you could have done what I did and placed your carriage to the right so that way you’re not blocking other items that fellow customers need.”

Mariatu scoffs in disbelief, “well I’m not you and the proper thing to do if you need to get something is say excuse me or patiently wait until I’m done.”

“Sorry…but no?”

“No?” Mariatu felt her eye twitch and just to think, she was having a pretty solid day off, considering it was only twelve in the afternoon but still!

“Yeah,” the man continued, “you’re in my way and I have places to be too. Don’t know if you know this but a ice storm is coming and I need—

“Excuse me, I don’t give two shits what you need. Everybody that’s in here needs something, so honestly you can take that entitlement and shove it up right your ass, Mr.” Mariatu stated to the man without raising her voice but her brows definitely did, which means she meant that shit, “and happy holidays.”

With that she sorta limps from the man, enjoying that she had the last say and that his presence was no longer felt as he scrambles to go to one of the other aisles instead of to the self-check out area, which Mariatu was headed to.

Mariatu braced herself heading back into the breezy sixty degree weather, slowly letting out a sigh to herself as she crossed through the parking lot. She spots Neron waiting outside of her bronco and jumps into action as he looks up in time. “Ten minutes huh?” He teases with a shake of his head as he unlocks the trunk.

She scrunches her nose at him as they maneuver around the cart, taking turns adding the bags into the back. It doesn’t take Neron long to pick up on the way Mariatu is walking different once they get down to the the last few bags. “What’s up?” He asks.

Mariatu shakes her head as Neron points at her leg, “I’ll tell you in the car.”

The hoodie wearing man dips his head and takes the task of bringing the carriage back to its spot after opening the door for Mariatu. Neron doesn’t miss a certain man looking over in his wife’s direction as Neron crosses the parking lot one more. Once he gets into the driver’s seat, it’s Neron’s turn to have his eyes in slits as the strange man starts tossing his bags into his station wagon.

“That man with the pedophile car…you know ‘em?”

Mariatu hums, looking up from her phone to follow Neron’s trail and immediately scoffs, “oh yeah, we got friendly not too long ago. That’s the man who tried to run me over after I told him he basically needs to learn some manners.”

Neron flicks his eyes to his right, “what happened?” He pressed and Mariatu has no issue giving her husband the quick rundown of what just occurred.

He’s rubbing at his lengthy beard in slight irritation but also pride. “Put your seatbelt on,” he commands and Mariatu tilts her head to the side at this.

However the hardened stare Neron shoots her way and then back out the window shield was enough for her to listen this time. The tatted man places one hand on the steering wheel, tightening his grip and sitting up straight—which was always enough indication that someone was about to float their ride…so Mariatu braced herself.

Rightfully so.

As soon as she blinked, they were across the parking lot blocking the man’s path from completely backing out from the parking space.

“Neron,” Mariatu hissed as he pressed his brimmed hat further down on his head then flung the door open, leaving it wide open as he walked in between the cars to get to the man’s driver’s side, knocking on his window.

Mariatu couldn’t exactly hear what Neron was saying to the strange man as he was crouched over, talking to him in a manner that would send a chill down anyone’s spine. Her heart rate picked up as she saw Neron reach into the rolled down window, possibly snatching the man up by the throat and then shoving him forward that his horn announced his face made contact with it.

With that Neron sniffs as he turns back to the bronco, holding a bag now as he climbs back into the driver’s seat. He plops the bag of grapes into Mariatu’s lap and says, “Poe Cramer sends his apologizes. Eat up.”

“Neron, what did you do that for? I thought I told you that I handled it.” Mariatu brings her eyes up from the fruit in her lap to the profile of her husband’s face who begins driving through the parking lot.

Neron dips his head, “and I’m proud of you, Cariño. But he assaulted you so I returned the favor. Roughed him up a bit, he’s lucky that’s all he got and that’s out of respect for my lady being somewhat a witness…that I didn’t take it further. got his name from his license—just in case you run into him again and he decides to start some more shit but I doubt it. I clocked his ass—that’s all. No harm, no foul.”

“I can’t,” Mariatu snorts resting a hand against her edges, “I love you and I don’t need you locked up before Christmas.”

“I’m just contributing to society so I know Santa would forgive me,” Neron shrugs with a slow smirk appearing on his lips.

Mariatu laughs, “Oh that’s what you want to call it?” Before kicking her ankle up and over her opposite knee to examine, “don’t know why some people get so shitty during the holiday season, especially if you didn’t do anything wrong to them! They just feel like it’s okay to take it out on strangers. Like? What you say fuck me for?”

“You don’t even gotta worry about him no more, trust me,” Neron laughs at the joke, “you good though?”

Mariatu nods reaching over to feed Neron a grape before pecking his cheek, “always with you by my side, baby.”

“Likewise,” Neron winks over at the woman he was ecstatic to call his wife, resting the palm of his hand on her thigh.

Back in the gated, yes gated! suburbs of their coastal mobile home after unloading and packing the groceries, the married couple made it their mission that today would be a easy day. They rarely had days off at the same time so Neron and Mariatu wanted to take advantage of this with Mariatu persuading Neron to go shopping today rather than putting it off for the busiest day—Saturday. Now they had the rest of the day just to be up in each others faces, spending quality time together.

She’s in the bathroom, tending to her night time skin routine, already solidifying they were in for the rest of the day, while Neron’s perched on the edge of the bed tuned into the weather channel. The bathroom door’s wide open as Neron says, “you know your pa is trying to get coco and I to come out to Wyoming, huh?”

Mariatu frowns, “that’s where he snuck off to? The hell is he doing out there?”

The woman knew exactly what her father was doing out there. He made it a mission to travel more after the lost of his wife three years ago but…Wyoming? Really? Very Kanye coded but a lot less unhinged.

“Starting a new business adventure. Plans to do something either with construction or a food truck for a rest stop…he’s weighing his options based on how those meetings go.” Neron informed, “he sounds real determined and said he’ll keep me posted while also sending his love to you.”

Neron and Johnny had their own business together that consisted of mechanics and all things restoration, computers and guns, you name it! After things went terribly south (she often found it hard at times that they both made it out alive) with the club, they figured this would be their best option and Mariatu couldn’t be more supportive of the two. In whatever way she was often confused on her father bringing up his multiple business ideas to her husband and good friend. Neron and Coco seemed quite comfortable making their roots here and not all over the place like her father commonly did.

Yet of course she understood networking being a business owner herself…she just couldn’t picture Neron or Johnny elsewhere now that they were secure here and out of the tainted Santo Padre.

Mariatu rolls her eyes at this, loving how Neron threw that in there but she knew this was true with the way her father’s brain was constantly running with ideas. He’s always been a hardworking, successful man but he also didn’t know when to slow down. He was getting older and it’s like Mariatu was always fighting to have time with him, she valued that considering the lost of her mother but perhaps this was all his way of grieving?

You tend to do that sometimes at the end of the year they say.

“Will he back for Christmas? Kwanzaa, maybe?”

Neron wouldn’t lie and he knew how important Mariatu’s relationship was with her parents, which he did not receive personally but he always had his sisters so he understood to some degree, “he didn’t say honey but I’m sure he’ll try.”

“Right,” Mariatu is quiet for some time before starting up her spin brush again for a few minutes before rinsing her face and continuing the rest of her work.

The room is thicker now with Mariatu’s inner feelings about it all but Neron knows not to push it. They were similar in that way, holding everything in but Mariatu was better in letting it out when she was ready while Neron struggled with his own issues of people not hearing him when he did speak. However he knew not to feel that way with his wife, they confided in each other countless of times and felt seen being vulnerable with each other. It’s what drove them forward through the hardships.

Neron’s not sure how long he’s dazed off but a pair of pants smack across his face, followed by a snort of laughter that belonged to no other than his wife. He blinks, gripping onto the printed pants and scowls as he eyes the same print that Mariatu is sporting. Except her’s are shorts and he gets to eye her smooth legs in them.

Licking his lips Neron rubs at his beard, fighting to keep his thoughts clean as she slips a printed long sleeve set over her camisole, “You’re really making me wear matching pajamas with you?”

“Uh huh,” Mariatu nods her head with a smile, “we’ll be cozy and cute.”

Neron mumbles, “And lookin’ like the elves on the fucken shelf.”

Mariatu cackles as Neron shakes his head in disagreement. She stands before him, resting her hands across his shoulders, massaging them while staring down into his tense but loving brown eyes. Neron doesn’t hesitate to wrap his solid tatted arms around her waist, while she gets comfortable locking her legs right around his hips so they’re face to face now.

“I think you need a little more persuading and a thank you.”

“A thank you?” Neron ponders as Mariatu nuzzles her nose against the man’s, who breathes her in.

Mariatu pecks his lips, then trails those kisses along his jaw and up to his large ear, whispering, “for always looking out for me and especially for today. Will you let me take care of you?”

She can feel Neron shudder against her and she knew that Neron just wanted to be loved in return for the love that he gave out. Mariatu had no problem providing that and the confirmation of his fingertips digging into her waist was all she needed to make their lips collide. The scratch of his beard against her chin, the weight of her clung to his body, the force of shoving him back against the sheets, scrape of her stiletto nails that greeted his skin briefly as she helped him out of his tops, kissing of his wounds that were buried beneath his tats, the trick of her tongue against the round of his raised flesh which contained a hooped piercing that always evoked a breathy moan from his lips, the teasing and pleasing to his lower region with only her mouth was enough to bring joy right out of Neron’s heart.

Mariatu took the reigns but Neron couldn’t let that slide without getting his hands on her in the way he wanted and the way they both needed as well. A shower and clean up routine later, both now sporting red festive wear, they’re lounging against the headboard together, container of pomegranate seeds placed in between them while the skies in San Didacus continue filling in with a gray haze.

Neron and Mariatu both meet each other’s eyes after the dark haired man settled on, one of his favorites, “Krampus,” (2015) after finding one of the cheesy romantic Christmas movies to be too corny for their tastes.

“Ready to keep the festive spirit going?” Neron asks, wrist draped over Mariatu’s shoulder while she curls into him, leg tossed over his torso.

Mariatu covers her yawn, “yeah I am, I don’t know about you but I don’t want any demons hunting this house, especially once some kids come along.”

“Nah, krampus don’t got nothin’ on me.” Neron tells with a grin, “he better ask Poe and check my resume.”

“I haven’t even seen that resume.”

“I’m keepin’ it that way. Like I said when we took those vows, you don’t got to worry about nothing on that end. Just the restaurant and the good parts of life that we’re building together only.” Neron reassured in which Mariatu nodded with a smile.

Neron leans forward capturing Mariatu’s lips in a brief kiss before brushing his lips against her forehead then tunes back into the movie.

One thing is true, this holiday, equally the pair hopes this season brings further blessings to their table after growing what they both went through. The little moments mean just as much as the big ones and when they frequently stare into each other’s eyes…maybe in the end they can always say that’s the best gift the universe could have ever gave them.

⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅*̩̩͙‧͙ ‧͙*̩̩͙❆ ͙͛ ˚₊⋆ ⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅*̩̩͙‧͙ ‧͙*̩̩͙❆ ͙͛ ˚₊⋆ ⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅*̩̩͙‧͙ ‧͙*̩̩͙❆ ͙͛ ˚₊⋆ ⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅*̩̩͙‧͙

Continue the rest of my~5 days of Xmas~December anthology prompts here.

[theultimatemercenary69]

Sonic and Infinite are so fucking GRAUGHHHHHHHH I want. To study them in a lab. I don’t know how to convey the emotions I feel for this dog and hedgehog so please bare with me

Before I start my bs I just wanted to say this post actually goes out to @neurotypical-sonic and uh @beloved-user (and maybe a few other people but those were the only 2 that I saw had said anything at the time of writing this) because they wanted to see this content in the world so shoutout to them for giving me the courage to post about these cringe fail mobians (I am the sonic and infinite psychoanalysis anon btw)

there’s so much under the cut please be careful also please be nice it’s 2 am and I’m very emotionally fragile

The fact that sonic and infinite are 2 sides of the same coin yet also thematic foils to each other is just sending me over the deep end I can’t take it ARGHHHHHHH (I am willingly taking it)

You’re probably asking “what the actual fuck are you going on about dude” and to this I raise you all of this entire post (you’re gonna regret asking)

A few things before I start, this is obviously gonna be Forces bullshit because I Bear The Curse™️also I’m only gonna be talking about the English version of the game because sadly I have not been able to play or see the japanese dub yet, I’ll do that later though 

Also if there’s photos with shit quality, sorry, that’s on me

Ok autism activated let’s go

Let’s start with our obvious main man Sonic, the blue blur. I’m gonna start with something that irked a lot of people, and that is the fact that Sonic seemingly came out fine after being tortured for 6 months.

The thing is, he was absolutely not fine, at all, it was just so subtle that it was genuinely hard to tell, but once you notice, you continue to notice. The first thing you can see is that he is acting a lot more brutal I guess I could say??? 

I mean, look at the end of the Zavok fight, he beats the ever loving shit out of Zavok with his hands, not a few homing attack or spin dashes, his fucking hands, I don’t know how often that happens outside of games where the actual gimmick is hand to hand combat, but it seems pretty weird to me how he just keeps hitting Zavok and he just stares at him as he falls, panting and out of breath from how relentlessly he was attacking him

Second, he’s constantly talking about how he wants and will get revenge for what happened, he doesn’t let up that he’s going to get revenge, and I was actually kind of shocked when he started saying that I was kinda like “woah calm down buddy” (note, one of these screenshots is from the wiki because I couldn’t get the image from the game, also, these 2 are just from the cutscenes I could find, there’s so much more, this hog can hold so much malice and rage)

Third? Now this one is my favorite to talk about, because it really shows just how drastic Sonic and Infinite really are, the scene it occurs in is during the infinite fight with sonic and the avatar character, during the first stage where it’s just sonic

You may say “ok what’s special about the reskinned metal sonic fight?” sarcastically but this is a very important fact to me, and the fact is that Sonic just straight up implies to Infinite’s face that he’s gonna murder him!

 The line he says is played off as a kinda joke, but the way Sonic says it is so genuine that it’s a little bit disturbing, it’s a fridge horror kind of moment where you look at the line, maybe giggle, but after a quick google you realize just how fucked the line is because of the inclusion of one word, one single word.

The word being “Epitaph.” An Epitaph being the phrase or words written on someone’s tombstone in memory of them.

Now, you may know what line I’m referring to if you’re like me and reply that fight alot, but if you don’t know the line that’s fine, I’m gonna explain it either way because it’s very important to me!

So the fight starts and the first lines said are these;

Infinite: What would you like your epitaph to read? How about “Here lies the blue buffoon”?

Sonic: Why not “Here dozes the masked clown”? Might as well make it for the person who needs one, right?

I think you can see where I’m going with this point, let’s move on now to the other point I wanted to make, which is also kind of a major tone shift from the point above

This point ties in with the “2 sides of the same coin” bit, but the point I want to make is that Sonic needed companionship to win. (Take a drink of water every time I write the word “companionship” or anything similar starting now, see how hydrated you get)

He needed the avatar character to support him throughout that fight, he needed the avatar & classic to help him defeat the eggman and ruby as well, he needed companionship. 

This theme of him needing support and a companion is echoed through the very song that is the theme of forces, I am, of course, referring to Fistbump

AGGHHHH I LOVE FISTBUMP SO MUCH IT’S SO GOOD THEMATICALLY AND IT’S ALSO JUST A GOOD SONGi want you to know I’m snarling and biting and growling like a rabid animal but in a good way I’m sorry I just needed to say that real quick back to the point I was trying to make

Now, the first indication that Sonic needs companionship is that Fistbump is literally him “speaking” to the avatar character, the lyrics portray this perfectly, but I am going to stop myself before I go on a tangent about this song for too long, so next um dot point

The second indication he needs companionship using Fistbump is that it plays whenever he double boosts with the Avatar and during the level Null Space, the double boost is self explanatory, it’s them working together, they’re being friendly friends!

What people may not completely get is me bringing up Null Space, because, once again, there’s seemingly nothing special but there is. There is to me. In my heart. I love Null Space as well as the other stuff mentioned here because it ties into this insane bs I’m concocting for my viewing pleasure that just so happens to get to be on tumblr too!!

Null Space is a level where Infinite sends Sonic and, accidentally, the Avatar character to the level’s namesake, Null Space. Null Space is devoid of substance or life, it is the loneliest place you could ever be, but here Sonic and the Avatar are, the complete antithesis of such a concept, they are together, they are safe with each other, they are going to get out of there together.

And so they escape, and what is playing in the background as they do so? A version of Fistbump dedicated specifically to that level.

Before I can make the rest of my points, we have to talk about the elephant, er… jackal, in the room; Infinite.

Let’s start with a general thingy like we did with sonic, now, I’m not gonna go over his actions in game, they speak for themselves, I will, however, be talking about the implications of his actions; his morals, his values, all of that

First off let’s collectively discuss and by discuss I mean go ‘what the actual fuck is wrong with this dude’

It’s very clear that he’s just not a “good” person, he does morally frowned upon things like being a mercenary, of course, that’s one of the big ones, but the one that really fucks with me and makes me really wanna pick his brain is that despite Shadow being the one who hurt him, he immediately clicks to Sonic and the best way I can describe it is him going “i NEED to beat the ever loving shit out of that kid right now.”

Like, even during Episode Shadow, he still mentions Sonic with this personal malice that you don’t expect, stating that Sonic won’t be able to stop him, and it’s honestly just kind of weird tbh??? 

So he hates Sonic from the start, he gangs up on him, beats him to the point of unconsciousness, kidnaps him, is indirectly (at least) the cause of 6 months of torture, beats him again, tells him he’s not even worth killing, tries to kill him and the entire resistance by throwing the sun at them and then tries to kill him personally before Sonic can finally get the revenge he wanted.

So I’m sensing a lot of initially one-sided hostility between him and Sonic.

Another point is that his theme seems to be directed towards Sonic, it is mocking him, trying to tear down everything he establishes in Fistbump, stating that friendship will get you nowhere when you rely on it too much, asking who is going to save Sonic from Infinite when he is alone?

This is once again shown with how he interacts with Sonic, using Silver and Infinite’s little tussle as a comparison, yeah, Infinite throws an insult, but it’s as a collective, he says he’s happy to crush a hero to keep the “rabble” (the resistance) in line, but when Sonic appears it becomes very personal

He’s immediately on him, stating that Sonic is “back from the dead”, calling him the “little blue savior” and insisting he can smell Sonic’s fear, glad he’s left an impression, noting that Sonic is “still thrashing around”, in his own words.

He speaks to Sonic so personally, hell, he waits for Sonic to quit talking before tossing Sonic to another part of the jungle to fight him alone. He very well could have gotten rid of Silver and then dealt with Sonic, but he instead decides dealing with Sonic immediately is more important than Silver is. He even says that he will meet Sonic again after that fight.

he also threatens to smash Sonic into blue jelly. I just wanted to mention that because it’s funny that he specifically said he would smash him into BLUE JELLY

So it makes me wonder, what is this dude's issue??? Why is he so obsessed with Sonic? And then it kind of hit me. Sonic is the antithesis of everything he values and believes in, of course he’d be intrigued.

Or, alternatively, he’s intrigued because Sonic is just like him.

Yep, It’s the moment we’ve (me) all been waiting for! We’re finally discussing the “two sides of the same coin” point!

Sonic and Infinite are exact opposites but they are also the exact same! They both so desperately need support and companionship (I’ve covered Sonic’s need, but we can see how Infinite needs support and companionship with how he handles the loss of his squad), they both have the same kind of goal (change the world to be a place they would want to live in, good or bad), they’re both associated with the same people (Shadow and Robotnik)!

They are the exact same but they are exact opposites! They are each other’s foils but they complement each other so well, they are two sides of the same tarnished, damaged coin!

I LOVE SONIC FORCES SO MUCH WHY AM I LIKE THIS

Sonic and Infinite are what they could have been based on how they responded to their own struggles. Infinite could have very well been just like Sonic, dedicated to helping people because of what happened at Mystic Jungle, and Sonic could have very well been just like Infinite, lashing out and hurting everyone in his way because of any of the copious losses he’s been forced to deal with.

But they don’t, they become the person they are because of how they respond to their own struggles, trauma, losses and wins. And that’s the beauty of their characters. 

Sonic and Infinite are foils to each other, it’s a point you can’t argue, but the reason they are foils to each other is because they are the same in some weird, messed up way.

But I wanted to add one more thing before I finish this off.

Infinite very well left an Impression on Sonic. Like it or not, somehow, someway, Infinite’s concepts and ideals imprinted on Sonic and it made him and his own problems worse. So much worse.

I won’t go into too much about that because that links to other things outside of solely Forces, so yeah, tangent done. Thank you for listening

[moomingitz]

Been thinking about this recently, when it comes to how people have view games in the Sonic franchise and their expectations of them even all the way back in the 2000s. I honestly believe the price the games originally retailed for has a lot to do with it. I'm saying this as someone who came in late to play the most prominent "dark age" Sonic games, and the games that came after them. And I'm only referring to the console games here, not the handheld ones.

The first time I played Sonic 06 was back in 2013. I bought it brand new and still sealed for $10, and I did it because I wanted to get an actual informed opinion of the game, and as a strange curiosity in general. The game is definitely unfinished and very buggy. However, I did get some enjoyment from it(even if not for the intended reasons), I actually liked the cutscenes for most of the part, and I do see some redeeming qualities underneath it's scuffed to hell surface. But, again, I only paid $10 for it, so not really a loss for me. But when it originally came out, it was not only $60, it was also this big grand anniversary game, meant to be a drastic new direction and refresh of the franchise, and it was released on then-next gen consoles. So I think you can start to see a more full picture of what I'm trying to get at, here.

Same thing also applies to the games that I think are good, or at least better. Sonic 06 wasn't the only Sonic game I played for the first time around that time. Before 06, I bought and played Colors in late 2012 for around $15. While I still believe that it's a good game, it's very short and doesn't have much else to do after you beat the main story. I don't think it has enough content to justify the price it originally retailed for.

The lack of a significant amount of content offered outside of the base games is honestly why I miss games like Sonic Adventure 1 and 2. Whether these games have actually aged well or not, there was so much you could do on the side. I would play these games religiously growing up, wanting to find and unlock everything I could do. I even %100 completed SA2 at one point. Sonic Adventure gives you hub worlds to explore and mess around in, and the Gamecube port even gives you the Gamegear games to unlock. In SA2 you could unlock costumes/skins for characters in 2 Player VS. mode and unlock other characters to play in it, among other things you could also unlock by completing missions and getting emblems. SA2 even had a timed boss rush. And, of course, both games had the Chao gardens.

It might be something of a meme to demand the Chao Gardens make a return. But fans, me included, want them back for a very good reason. Not only is it fun and relaxing to raise Chao and customize them to your liking, but the Chao gardens incentivize you to replay stages in order to find things like certain small animals to use for your Chao, or to scrounge up rings to buy things at the market.

As someone who played both Sonic Adventure games, when both their Dreamcast and following Gamecube ports originally came out, I really do feel like both the base games, and the amount of content provided outside of them, made them worth the price tag they had during their initial releases. The only games that have been able to scratch that kind of itch for me afterward is Unleashed and Generations. And before anyone asks; I can't comment on Frontiers gameplay wise because I still haven't played it yet.

[markrosewater]

Not really a question, just sharing from the perspective of someone selling out and moving out of magic for a time, possibly forever.

Magic feels like its “not the product for me” anymore. It’s not really one thing; it’s changes that have chipped away what i do like about MtG over time. The thing that I wanted to share is that there are… anthology, I guess? games? Like Fortnite, Smash Bros, Kingdom Hearts, etc. where a selling point is that you mash all of these characters from these other IPs together and tell a story or play a game. And thats popular, I get that - but it was never for me. Magic adding other IPs like this takes it from an IP that wasn’t about this in some sense and turns it into a way that (apparently, will be?) about this. That’s the biggest thing turning me off from Magic as a whole at this point.

I get the concept that it’s a win for the (for example) Warhammer player who wants to play a card game, the Magic player who likes Warhammer, and saves the potential risk of creating a Warhammer Card Game that will inherently not reach a wide audience relative to magic. I just…. I just don’t enjoy the idea of playing Magic cards against Warhammer cards against Godzilla cards against Fortnite cards, or whatever is likely to end up happening. The flavor and power tuning mismatches bother me, and really the fundamental idea of trying to compare power levels of things from different IPs doesn’t appeal to me.

I hope this is useful feedback; i’m not really mad, just processing letting go of a game that I’ve played a very long time.

I get asked a lot why Magic players stick with the game as long as they do. The average length of a Magic player (now well over ten years) is longer than the average game exists. Why is that?

I believe the number one reason is the game’s evolution. It isn’t a game that sits still. It’s constantly adapting. It’s not the game I initially fell in love with in 1993. But then, my wife is not the woman I fell in love with back in 1996. In both cases, they changed and got even better.

One of the most endearing qualities of a trading card game is that the constant creation of new content allows the game to push into areas it hadn’t before. It lets the game grow. It allows it to adapt to the needs of its playerbase.

There’s a common misconception that R&D decides how the game changes. That we’re the arbiters of what the game should be. The reality is we’re just responding to what we’re hearing from the audience. Not necessarily what’s being said about what the game should be in social media posts, but more in watching how the game is played and talked about when the players are just enjoying it.

When Aaron first suggested Universes Beyond, it came from him watching the audience connect Magic with other IPs of their own accord. For example, one of the most popular pastimes on Blogatog has been people getting me to identify what colors characters from other IPs should be. Aaron wasn’t trying to make the players change to accommodate Magic, he was trying to make Magic change to accommodate the players.

I understand that as Magic constantly evolves, that it might shift away from what you, as an individual, most enjoy about the game. Trust me, living in a world focused on eternal Magic causes me all kinds of headaches, but I get it’s where the gestalt of Magic players want it to be. And I’ve learned to embrace and enjoy what others love about the game.

Every major shift scares some portion of the playerbase, because change is scary, but history has shown that when players give new things a chance, most grow to enjoy it. But not everyone. People drift away from the game for all sorts of reasons, and that’s okay.

I just suggest that some time in the future you peek your head back in and see where Magic is at. We’ll keep adapting and growing it, and maybe when you check us out again, like the game, you might be in a different place, and you’ll find a connection as you did when you first found the game.

Thank you for all your years of playing. I hope one day to see you again, but even if I don’t, I’m glad Magic was able to be the game you loved for as long as it was. Hearing that means a lot to me.

[snapscube]

I played FFXIV a while ago but had a hard time getting into it at the time, and I'd like to give it another go but don't really feel attached to my previous character and want to start fresh. Do you have any advice on getting really immersed in the game? I feel like you mentioned going through something similar before it really clicked for you so just wanted to ask! Hope you're having a good day :)

ABSOLUTE MOST IMPORTANT TIP: Take your time. Settle into the world. Create a character that you really like, and remember: it’s a role-playing game! Certain aspects and mechanics of the game you gotta do a little extra mental legwork to fully appreciate from an immersion standpoint. So roleplay! Take in the sights! Talk to NPCs if that’s your jam! But above all, pay attention to the story and the in-game tips. You don’t have to 100% understand everything right away. I sure as hell didn’t. But you’re only going to get out of the game what you’re able to put into it. It’s gonna be a long journey, so pace yourself and don’t try to rush through to The Good Parts. It took me like 2 years, no exaggeration, to get to Shadowbringers. It doesn’t ACTUALLY take that long to do the MSQ if you’re fast tracking it, or hell even just prioritizing it haha. I know of plenty of people who completely caught up with the story in a matter of a couple months or so. But that’s the beauty of it. I took my damn time getting there. I took MULTIPLE breaks, some for months at a time, and only ever came back when I was ready and the game seemed like something that would hit. And I still got an incredible experience out of it that remains my favorite game and one of my favorite stories ever. So, yknow, I would say in the early hours of the game you might find yourself a little bored or lost. Those are the moments where you want to make sure you’re playing enough that you find a HOOK for you to latch onto. Experiment with different content. Pick up as many blue quest icons as you can, the ones that unlock features & content, and see if you come across something fun. In my experience, it only really takes one or two mechanics or jobs that you find enjoyable to push you into sinking some serious time into the game. And once you’re giving the game your time, you’re likely going to realize that the game in turn really RESPECTS that time, and tries to make the most of it. A lot of features feed into each other, and if you’re enjoying something like, say, crafting really early on, that’s gonna snowball into a million other things you can do later down the road. Once you hit the point where you’ve found a rhythm and you’ve discovered what’s fun about the game to you, it’s all about the journey from there. So relax, give it your attention, and take it at whatever pace you find comfortable and enjoyable.

Here are also a few stray ideas you can take with you:

- I am one of the many who will insist that the game’s writing gets MONUMENTALLY better from Heavensward (The first expansion, included in the free trial of the game) onward. And when I tell you that the change in writing quality and the approach to appealing dialogue and pacing is nearly INSTANT, I really mean it. I would say, if you want to really understand why the story is revered as much as it is, you need to at least push through to Heavensward and see if the improvements to pacing and dialogue appeal to you. If they do, I assure you that (in my opinion) it only gets better and better from there. I can not actually express how good Shadowbringers and Endwalker’s stories are. It’s the kind of thing you NEED to experience to understand.

- There is a wonderful list I’ve linked here that will actually help you track what kinds of content you can unlock in-game based on whatever level your character and MSQ progress are at. It’s extremely thorough and if you need help finding stuff to do, this is a great resource.

- In a similar vein, the official FFXIV YouTube account has a really cute and genuinely well made/helpful starter guide series you can watch if you want some starter tips directly from the team

- Do not worry about the subscription cost for a while. I assure you, if you need to, you can get literally hundreds upon hundreds of hours of content out of the free trial. It took me over a year to get to the point of the game where the free trial gets locked off in terms of MSQ and character level, and even then I hadn’t even done like half of the available content.

My fingers hurt cause i’ve been typing this on my phone so I’m going to stop talking now :) Let me know if you have any more specific questions though and I’d be happy to answer and/or give my take on stuff! I love love love talking about this game.

[dekarios]

what mods do you plan on playing with?

ok so im a pretty heavily modded kind of person. i dont know when to stop, i know of many mods i adore for sdv, and i have about 11 pages of view by 20 tracked mods i would like to put in my 1.6 save. that's quite a lot... i don't think i'll use all, i'm sure many won't work, and i'll change my mind on a few... i do wanna try and be more vanilla this time so less gameplay altering mods.. i tend to go heavy on qol... i love alternative texture mods so much so lots of those.

i plan on making a list of every mod i am using and sharing that with everyone when i'm finished modding for my 1.6 save.. i'll likely make it a tumblr page and share it as im working on it so people can add what i currently have then check for new additions.. it will not be finished today. as far as i know there are some mod authors who want a week or two to push their mod update fully, but will get code updates in asap and i'm unsure exactly what i wanna do there..

like for example diverse stardew valley is a mod i wanna use this time for sure.. the code will be updated either today or tomorrow, but the art won't be for a week or two or three iirc. and i know for a fact that they're adding my favourite harvey mod to it officially (which is pour-over sweater) and i REALLY want to see that yknow... it'll probably work on an existing save i don't see any reason why i wouldn't. but i am also insane and might be willing to wait an extra few weeks just to see harvey in a sweater. this is the kind of person i am

to try and tldr answer ur question i'll give a small list of mods i will 100% have WITHOUT. FAIL. i will not include shit like content patcher or alternative textures lol

ui info suite 2 - i literally can't play without this. 6 hours ago they dropped an alpha for 1.6, so i'm feeling hopeful they'll be ready soon for a full 1.6 release!

thunder and frogs sounds - dare i inform you that the weird frog sounds during thunderstorms in stardew valley scares me more than playing a silent hill game? cuz it does. it really does. MANDATORY mod for me, and updated for 1.6 already. i literally told the author about the 1.6 changes to modding and he jumped on it immediately to update this mod. you can all thank me hehehe

cjb cheats menu / item spawner - cheat mods that i think everyone should have ngl. esp the cheats menu. like cheats menu is so full of STUFF u can even just use it to make ur walking speed faster. its so fucking handy and perfect. and i like item spawner cuz man sometimes i just wanna spawn a fucking rug for my house. i don't fucking care

lookup anything - this should be a vanilla functionality imo. fucking wiki in the game. perfect mod. no notes. get it

event lookup - basically the same as above but so u can see what u need to get an event and where it is and shit. fuck looking up the wiki to see where someones 5 heart event cuz u havent triggered it. turns out it needs fucking 11pm rain in the woods or some shit fuck sake.....

chests anywhere - to me this is just a beautiful, BEAUTIFUL quality of life mod. i dont wanna run around to fuck to find shit. all there at the press of a button. u can even balance it if u dont wanna tempt urself to use it in the mines or w/e

i'll stop there but i literally will definitely have these. and i think everyone should highkey or lowkey idk. i love them ^_^

[flymmsy]

Hi! It's been a few days since I've found your blog but I wanted to thank you for your headcannons, writing and your mods (your blog in general has been a treasure trove for Durge, Orin and Gortash content)

Based on some of your Orin and Durge fraternal twins post, do you have any headcannons or thoughts on Durge not as a direct creation of Bhaals made from his own flesh but rather a Bhaalspawn more akin to Orin with their own family?

Awww thanks, Anon! I just like having somewhere to put all my thoughts and I’m glad that others can get enjoyment out of it too. ❤️

I like your question! I don’t have any pre-existing thoughts on a non-Bhaal-flesh Durge because I typically try to operate within the parameters of the game (I like restrictions and find that they can really prompt creativity) but if we suspend those parameters for a moment, here are some thoughts.

I think what is most important narratively is that if you make Durge not of Bhaal’s own flesh, you need to replace that with something. Either some outside force that otherwise marks them as “special” or some extraordinary quality they possess - something that makes sense for them to have been given The Urge.

Some possibilities:

Their parents were the most dedicated Bhaalists ever (could be cool if the two dead bodies you find in the temple from the wedding were Durge’s parents.)

Their parents were notably extreme anti-Bhaalists (similar to Shadowheart’s origin.) This is fun because you could really play with deities here and makes for a nice set up of a Durge growing up under a different religion. Some people do this with Durge anyway because of the adopted family and I love to see that. I also love the idea of having to hide this terrible thing within them from their family.

They were caught in a bhaalist ritual as a baby. Meant as a sacrifice, but then “possessed” by Bhaal himself and marked as His Chosen ever since.

They were extremely, extremely devout. A “regular” Bhaalspawn who just reached heights of worship that were unseen (which is a HIGH bar to surpass - and I don’t have the answer to what that would have to be, but I know someone could come up with it.)

And for my last idea - they murdered the original Durge before The Urge manifested. The Urge then transferred to them when it was meant to manifest in OG Durge.

What I like about all these possibilities is, like the original concept, they all allow for Durge to either accept The Urge or to undergo redemption and/or rejection of The Urge.

One thing that I really like to see for Durges who undergo redemption - and I think would carry over into these concepts - give them somewhere in their life they learned kindness. Even if it was small in comparison to whatever darkness they went through.

I hope that’s sort of what you had in mind, Anon! Thanks again for listening in ❤️

[gascon-en-exil]

(Further) Beyond Dream Daddy: A Year of More Gay Dating Sims

Last year for Pride I made a video sharing my thoughts on a selection of gay dating sims, among them Dream Daddy - by far the most well-known title in that genre. My opinion of that game was rather unfavorable, to say the least, but nonetheless I had a lot of fun discussing the topic. Dating sims rarely get any significant analysis or consideration, so it was a novel experience on that basis alone.

Recently, a patron of mine expressed a desire to see me talk about dating sims again. To save myself some work on a project when I've already got so many others going on at the moment, I've opted to do so here on my blog rather than on my channel this time. This also has the added benefit of giving me more latitude to discuss the NSFW qualities of these games without needing to censor myself. When the majority of the titles in this space are explicitly erotic, that's kind of a big deal.

Anyway! Here's a selection of games that I've played in the past year that I thought were worth looking at in some more detail.

Dear Monster

As the title suggests, this one is for the monsterfuckers out there.

This is, sort of, the second time I'm discussing a project by Y Press Games. I've touched on an earlier game of theirs, To Trust an Incubus...but I found it so unimpressive that I never bothered to review it in-depth. In several ways you can tell that Dear Monster comes from the same creative team: there's a similarly large focus on plot with a bunch of variable endings including some very dark ones, all the characters are vers despite many of them playing into familiar top or bottom archetypes, and most obviously the main theme is monsterfucking.

In this case the selection is much broader, as instead of a single species of pheromone-emitting aliens you get your pick from a variety of fantasy creatures. I say "creatures" because Dear Monster isn't afraid to shy away from furry/scalie erotic content for certain scenes, although most of the time the love interests stick to their humanoid forms. There's

a Western dragon as the violent bad boy love interest;

an Egyptian-flavored god of the dead, whose alternate form resembles Anubis and who plays the standoffish tsundere role;

a kitsune for the mischievous and overtly sexual option;

a unicorn who comes off as the caring submissive choice...mostly;

and an orc, who's had a route announced as free DLC later this year but who currently exists only as a recurring NPC

As I said, like To Trust an Incubus there's a noticeable focus on plot here, with the protagonist being a young man newly introduced to the world of the supernatural and trying to locate his mysteriously vanished grandfather inside an obviously magical mansion. Also like their earlier game, there are some unexpected plot twists that I won't spoil here, and overall I'd say this game pulls them off more effectively even if the ending feels a bit unfinished currently. Maybe they're waiting for the orc character's route to properly tie off the story? In any case, Dear Monster is better written than its predecessor and comes with an appreciable variety of kinky scenarios, and despite the lack of voice acting (a very hit-or-miss topic when it comes to dating sims, as I've discussed) the production values are overall quite good. The animated character portraits have been advertised as a highlight but frankly don't contribute to much, and they have a tendency to slow down my computer. Luckily though, they're easily turned off.

Favorite route: A hard call. They all have their highlights, and I'll probably enjoy Slagathor (the orc) when his route comes out. Hikmat (the god of the dead) probably comes out a bit ahead of the others both for his story and for some unexpectedly adventurous sex scenes, like one that incorporates a variant of tentacle porn - points for creativity there. Faeryn (the unicorn) is the one I find least appealing sexually, but on the flip side his route has some of the most unexpected twists and is probably the most helpful for understanding the game's premise as a whole. There's not really a bad option here.

UPDATE: Now that the final route has been released, I can talk about it. It's fine enough, following similar tracks for its good, neutral, and bad endings. Slagathor is vers, just like every other guy in the game. As for the main plot, it does have a resolution once you've gotten satisfactory endings with all five characters, but because it has to be integrated into all of those route endings and doesn't actually impact any of them it feels rather inconsequential as a result. A bit of a shame, really, but I do respect the boldness of some of this game's narrative chioces.

Camp Buddy

Oh, dear. There are some things I need to make clear with this one from the start...stuff I definitely couldn't talk about on YouTube.

To state the obvious first: yes, the characters are all 18+. It's in their in-game profiles, on promotional material online, and on the disclaimer you have to click on whenever you boot up the game. The main character and all his love interests are specifically stated to be 18-20 years old. However...that doesn't always bear out in the writing. The premise is that they're all campers at a scout-themed summer camp, i.e. not something you'd expect of legal adults, and more than half the time these characters are written with the emotional maturity of boys in their mid-teens. That doesn't extend to the sex scenes, beyond most of them being virginal and clueless but somehow still capable of having mind-blowing sex with no lube and simultaneous orgasms and so forth - all of which is pretty standard for these sorts of games. It doesn't consistently affect their storylines either, as they range from adolescent issues like anxiety over losing a close friend to more young adult material like deciding on career paths and moving on from a bad breakup. Having spent a good bit of my own adolescence in an all-male environment, I found most of the character behavior relatable for that demographic. Outside the sex scenes, Camp Buddy is a sweet and sometimes heartwarming story about friendship and making good memories...but the sex stuff is still there, and I can understand why this game isn't listed on Steam based on the premise alone. It is not, as some online have hyperbolically dubbed it, a "child porn" game, but it can be awkward all the same, and if you, like me, are not into twinks/twunks those scenes aren't going to do much for you.

Leaving that aside, it still took me a while to get into Camp Buddy. I was mostly interested in its sequel, which I'll talk about later in this post, but I wanted to play CB in case I missed out on any context with the second game. This one does feel like a first project; the artwork isn't as clean or varied, the voice acting has some standouts but is overall just average, and the script occasionally reads like it was written by someone whose first language isn't English - where the writing isn't incorrect, exactly, but rather worded in ways that don't sound natural. Not all of the scenes are fully voiced, but I really have to wonder how some of those that are got through all those people without anyone realizing how inorganic the dialogue sounded. The humor at least is pretty consistently good, with a highlight being the one major female character who is an affectionate parody of yaoi fangirls leading to a lot of fourth-wall-breaking jokes. As I said some of the storylines work well, even if the main plot is a clichéd and sometimes treacly "save the camp" routine for most of its run. If you can accept the handwave on the characters' ages for the sexual content, it's not a bad time. Given my familiarity with Fire Emblem and its love of underaged-looking dragon girls, and knowing that there are surely far more dating/porn games that use a similar handwave for female characters, I can give CB a pass. I've never cared for how media directed at straight men never warrants more than a moment's worth of moral outrage while everything else gets endlessly scrutinized.

Favorite route: Yoichi is the twunk-iest of the love interests, and his route is easily the darkest as well. Surprisingly he's not the sole total top option...but the guy who is barely grasps of the concept of masturbation and needs to "research" sex after he fools around for the first time. I suppose someone must be into that. Taiga has the most distinctive route as it was added last and has the largest amount of story variance as well as both topping and bottoming variations, but I find the emotional beats of his story (both in and out of his route) to be paced a bit too oddly for me to give him first prize.

Camp Buddy: Scoutmaster Season

This is why I played Camp Buddy, because I saw its follow-up advertised on Steam and was impressed enough by the production values to check it out. I still bought it from developer BLits's website though because certain scenes are removed in the Steam version (for reasons similar to why Camp Buddy isn't there at all). Anyway, Scoutmaster Season is in just about every way a vast improvement over its predecessor:

Most obviously, the characters here look and act unambiguously like adults. Their storylines are also more mature, as is that of the main plot which concerns the camp expanding after it received a new wealthy investor at the end of CB. This maturity extends to the sex as well. These characters aren't experimenting adolescents but rather men who've been casually involved with one another for some time already (heavily implied in the first game) and whose romantic development thus concerns their relationships becoming grounded in emotional support instead of only hot NSA sex.

Camp Buddy is a decently kinky game in its own right, but the sequel takes advantage of its older characters and really runs with the concept. There's bondage, leather, voyeurism, softcore daddy kink, public sex, several varieties of costume role play including two that verge on pony play, threesomes, and a few types of size kink thanks in *ahem* large part to one of the love interests having such a comically oversized cock that in some encounters it can be seen distending the main character's stomach during penetration. I'm...pretty sure that's not physically possible, but I know it's a fantasy that exists. SS is just as unrealistic when it comes to things like (lack of) lube and refractory periods, but that's to be expected at this point.

I didn't talk about CB's minigames because they're frankly not that impressive, but SS's are both a bit more challenging and, in the case of the foreplay minigame, hotter and more interactive.

The writing is much improved, and flows more naturally. The voicework is overall of a higher quality as well, even with many in the cast reprising their roles. Particularly, the same voice actor plays the main characters of both games, but he sounds much more natural as the deeper-voiced lead here, in contrast to CB where he has to work to sound like a teen. The comic relief is about on par, so it's as entertaining as usual. There's even a yaoi fanboy in this one...who funnily enough never actually gets laid during the story, although the artists threw him a bone or six with a bukkake party crack scene in the extras.

SS's antagonist is both more compelling and more entertaining even though she never becomes a romance option - as should be evident from the pronoun alone. I predicted where the story was going to take her arc the first time I played, and while I was proven right the game didn't follow that thread to its logical conclusion. A bit disappointing, but I imagine that that would have obliterated the tone for the rest of the game and prevented it from ending with fluffy romance or celebratory sex.

There are enough small callbacks to CB that I'm glad I played the first game, but not so many that a newcomer would feel completely lost. As this is the only gay dating sim sequel that I can even think of, I appreciate the attention to continuity.

BLits is currently working on a third game called Jock Studio, unrelated to Camp Buddy but already looking to be an evolution of what they've learned from their first two games. The athletic university premise appears to be a self-indulgent excuse for porn - but I'm more than okay with that seeing how much the quality of their work has improved.

Favorite route: There's only two here, so naming one would be suggesting I dislike the other. In fact, both routes are really solid. I would say that Aiden's story hangs together a little better and feels stronger in its emotional moments (helped greatly by the best vocal performance in either of these games), whereas Goro's route appeals to me more based on raw sex appeal. He's a kinky daddy, what's not to love? Either way, SS is a ton of fun, and of the games in this post it's the one I recommend the most strongly.

Errant Kingdom

I'm of two minds about including this game. I really wanted to have one that would be drastically different from the others I've selected, but at time of writing I haven't done everything there is to do in Errant Kingdom. That's not for lack of time, as it's been released in chapter increments ever since last autumn or thereabouts and finally finished up in February. I've currently completed two of its stories so I feel like I have a solid grasp of what's on offer, but I realize that I haven't seen everything yet.

However, I had to keep pushing myself to play this one. It just doesn't have a very strong hook, in my opinion, but let's talk about the positives. If your main complaint about Dream Daddy is not the lack of hardcore gay sex but rather the inauthenticity of its representation then Errant Kingdom will be more your speed. Your character can be male, female, or nonbinary, and there are two love interests of each designation available. (That both nonbinary options are supernatural non-humans might arguably be a bit of a copout...but I'm not really in a position to judge.) There are also two options for poly relationships, as well as asexual dialogue options although the way the story is set up does still lend itself toward monogamous romance with occasional, vaguely-described (and never visualized) sex scenes. I'd also note that unlike every other visual novel with romantic elements I've ever played, dialogue options are explicitly marked as being romantic, asexual, or poly when applicable. This does make it much easier to get a specific outcome if you're looking for one, but in my view takes away some of the fun of these sorts of games.

Errant Kingdom's story is quite linear regardless of which if any romantic relationship(s) you choose to pursue, with the largest variance coming not from your choice of love interest but from your choice of one of three origins when you're creating your character: an ambassador, a knight, or a nomad. Having played through two of these, this decision greatly impacts the game's opening chapters but ultimately leads into the player characters being three different points of view on the same story, with all the same major set pieces. Errant Kingdom is occasionally clever about this, with the other two PCs popping up in each other's paths every now and then...unseen of course, because this is a game where the main character's physical presence is left entirely up to the imagination. On the other hand though, the different perspectives converging toward a single climax has the clunky side effect of dropping certain NPCs into the story lategame and acting as if you know who they are even if you've never met them in that playthrough.

The story itself isn't terribly fascinating, being a medieval fantasy conspiracy plot involving gods and magical weapons and an 11th hour Chosen One reveal (that isn't the player character, shockingly). If we're talking pseudo-medieval/early modern romantic visual novels, I find I prefer the Chess of Blades approach where each love interest gets his own storyline and so there's more overall variety and less tangled continuity. I've read in places that the later chapters suffered from deadline and creator burnout issues during development, which wouldn't surprise me with how much the pacing speeds up after a certain point.

Favorite route: For origins the ambassador angle suited me better and would probably be my pick overall. The choice of love interest is, as mentioned, actually not all that important, but disgraced former knight Erik hits most of my buttons. It's a shame his poly option is with a woman, because while Maja is my preference of the two female options I wouldn't be invested in her like that. This is the trouble for me with stepping outside the bounds of strictly M/M games.

[docholligay]

The House in Fata Morgana: Intro

I have never reviewed a visual novel before, but @iscahwynn made me a very generous offer and a long line of patience, knowing that we are trying something very new. To that end: Please don’t spoil me for the game at all! If you are reading this, I have only gotten through the part written above, and I don’t want to be corrected, even if I’m wrong, even if I’ve missed something, i don’t want to have anything confirmed or denied, and I don’t need any trigger warnings or extraneous explanation. Iscah would like my pure, naive experience of the game. Thank you!

So i’m going into this game, and i have no idea what to expect. I am not very visual novel savvy: i have played a hardful of them, but not enough to say that I know them well. Largely, I have assumed that they would never be more for me than “fun,” which is a perfectly fine place to exist, but not on the scale of where I would put my favorite pieces of media. 

I have no idea where this visual novel is going to come down, but I will say in the intro, it has my attention. 

Before I go any further, I want to say I do have one assumption going into it, based on my knowledge. Fata Morgana. A fata morgana is an illusion, often specifically a castle upside down, generally above water, and it is a natural phenomenon, but I deeply suspect that ‘natural’ has nothing to do with anything ehere, and so I focus instead on the qualities of illusion, specifically illusion of nobility, and also that fata morgana is based on Morgan LeFay, the evil fairy-sort-of-depending-on-the-version queen that opposes King Arthur. So the DESTRUCTION of nobility, of good faith, of honor, of all that, is bound up in that idea. So, I don’t know jack or shit about visual novels, but I do know about fatas morgana.

First thing I see when I open the game is this: 

Now, we love a strong disclaimer. I love potentially disturbing content, and I love that people are so stupid In These Times that you have to specifically say, 'Just because I wrote

a character doing a bad thing does not mean I necessarily believe in bad things.’ Because anything where you say ‘You may have to excuse me’ usually means that we are going to push things, this is not going to be an easy romper room kind of game, that we are going to toy with the edge. And I love that! I am grown, and I want grown games. 

The second thing i see is this: 

And I think, “Oh, this game is going to try and scare me. Cool. I’m in.” And immediately put on my headphones. 

I don’t yet know if the game is in fact going to try and scare me, but I will say that the sound layering in this game so far is absolutely fantastic, the song that they sing in the intro I can’t pick out the language of, and that may just be a failing on my part, but it adds to the mystery for me, I, like the Master, have no idea where we’ve come from or where we’re going. I really love, personally, that the game is not voice acted, as I have discovered that tends to make visual novels more immersive for me, versus how voice acting takes me out of the moment. I think i’m very much in the minority there, and that’s fine, but I found myself in the moment, reading the story rather than having to hear it. 

So we are the ones that are carried across time, back to the house again and again, the ones ‘crucified’ and now that was an intersting choice to me, because obviously this game is dabbling in some Christian and I think specifically Catholic garb, but crucifixion, is, historically, punishment for a crime. So what is it that we’ve committed, here? What can it be that we are not even allowed to die, but God brings us back again and again? 

Speaking of which, i find it really interesting the way that “You”--the story is mostly told in second person--is capitalized, like the name of God. Is that a mistake in the translation (again, PLEASE do not tell me) or is that meanignful and I’m meant to be paying attention to it? What is the master of the house but a little god?

 Having just read Rebecca, I’m thinking a lot about masters and servants and strong masters and strong servants, and it does strike me particularly in that vein when she says “If you cannot remember who you are, then who am I to serve?*” because if he cannot be master than she must become it, right? She is our only guide throughout all this, she is the one who leads us down the darkened hallway, and we don’t even know her name. But she holds all the power. 

I do think I might have fucked up the very first choice because I didn’t realize it was a choice! The game so far has some really glorious background and text styling, but because of it I had no clue what I was actually looking at and I didn’t say good morning. I doubt that has fucked the whole game but it frustrated me ahaha. But now I know what it looks like and I think I can make better choices. 

I am so glad they cleared up the mirror thing instantly, they saw the hole and closed it up, my very first idea was to go look in a mirror and see what I look like, who I am. I love that it is totally lost to us, we aren’t allowed to deal hint at who we might be. I suppose the only indicator given is that we are a man, since Master is used, instead of Miss or Mistress or Madam, depending on one’s leanings. But the game could be taking the assertion that the masculine form is neutral, as with actor and aviator and such things, no matter how much I hate it. I could be wrong here. 

In general, the story’s hook is absolutely working for me. I am so excited to move onto the door and see what the hell it is that has gone on in this house, utterly devoid of love or light or life. 

*I broadly think that line is correct. However, my one complaint with the game is it absolutely will not run windowed so I can reference it while writing this. Very very annoying.