#so my deck could probably use some tweaking

[raidraptor-strawberry-falcon]

Can Reiji stop being difficult and let me unlock him plz. like I would LOVE to unlock him and move on with my life but I can't because HIS STUPID D/D/D DECK BASICALLY KILLS HIM FOR ME-

Like bruh at least lemme summon the shit I need to unlock you before your stupid contracts succ the LP out of your stupid little bitchy twink body man. Fuck

[guillemelgat]

Language Goals 2024

Another year, another set of goals! This year, in the actual spirit of my very reasonable 2022 language goals, here are my plans for language study.

Catalan

First and foremost, my goal is to find Catalan friends in my new hometown, because I really need to speak Catalan with people at minimum once a week or I get very sad, and currently I’m not speaking it with anyone at all. This goal is pretty chill though—I just have to actually sit down and put in the time to find people.

My main goal is to read 30 books in Catalan. I’ll make a proper post about it with a list of books that I’m thinking of and how the challenge itself is going to work, but overall I’m trying to pick a mix of styles and genres, so expect anything from medieval literature to YA novels to academic texts. I have a lot of books that I’ve been meaning to read for a while, so hopefully this will give me a chance to chip into some of them. 30 books is less than other versions of this challenge that I’ve seen, but it’s also many more books than I’ve read in Catalan possibly ever and I think it’s more reasonable in conjunction with a full class load. Hopefully it ends up being just the right amount!

Welsh & Basque

This year I really want to work hard to actually get these two to an upper intermediate level, because I’m so close if I put in the work. For both of them, I have two main goals: (1) go through the textbooks/workbooks that I started going through casually last semester (Basic Welsh: A Grammar and Workbook by Gareth King and Standard Basque: A Progressive Grammar by Rudolf P.G. de Rijk) so that I can continue to review and learn new grammatical structures, and (2) watch one episode of a TV series each week in each language. For the TV series, I’m going to be watching Rownd a Rownd on S4C (which is available outside Wales/the UK! Huge win!) and Eskamak kentzen on EITB. If I have time, I’ll try to go through episodes more thoroughly and note down new vocabulary and such, but the main goal is to make a routine of it and watch consistently so I’m trying to keep it simple. I’d also like to use both languages with other people more often if I can, but I think finding a consistent language partner will perhaps be a goal for another year.

Malayalam

I’m planning to focus the first half of the year on Welsh and Basque, and then next fall, I’m hoping to be able to take the Malayalam classes offered by my university and to get into studying my home dialect (or rather, my extended family’s home dialect, since I didn’t speak it at home) as well. Since this will be later and also classroom learning rather than self-study, I’m not going to go into details, but overall, after my trip to Kerala (which I have stuff about, it’s on the docket!), I’m generally feeling much less alienated and much more motivated to study the language. I’m also looking forward to being able to take real classes, which I think will help keep me focused and on track.

Russian

This is a minor goal, but at my friend’s house over the summer, her mom was joking that if they just spoke to me in Russian while I stayed at their house, I’d probably be able to understand it by the end. That led us to concoct a plan where I study a bit of Russian vocab, then go there and do intensive Russian immersion for a weekend or so. This is more of a silly goal, but I’d like to try it because I think it could be fun.

Anki

This isn’t a language goal per se, but rather a general resolution to spend this year learning to use (and tweaking and configuring) Anki. Anki has a notoriously high barrier to entry, and from everything I’ve seen it should be treated as a long-term, intensive project—I’ll hopefully reap the rewards later if I take my time and set up everything right in the early stages. With that in mind, I’m hoping that by the end of the year I’ve figure out a set up for my decks and cards that really works for getting me to remember and be able to use vocab and grammar. I’ll focus on the languages here for the start, but I’m hoping that with habit and time, if I get a good system going I can use it with other languages too.

And that’s it! It’s been a bit since I was systematic about studying languages, but I’ve found that I really miss it and want to go back. I feel like I’m at a really good place with all of these, and I’d like to continue to make progress, so I’m really trying to focus on consistency and hitting the sweet spot of just challenging enough to get myself out of my comfort zone while not burning out. Hopefully I’ve set this up in a way to build habits and make me excited to keep immersing myself with these languages in the coming years, which is really the key to learning any language in the long term—I've realized that I speak Catalan so well because it's fully integrated into my life, and I'd like all these others to be as well. Here’s to a good 2024, and I wish all of you luck with your own goals as well!

[sharky857]

Now am curious how the other bachelors and bachelorettes would react when facing the Troy to their farmer. OvO

Ohh, this is going to be fun.

*cough!*

---

QUICK HEADS UP! I'm tweaking this a little, because my brain was low-key fried and the whole time visualised only a "male-coded" kind of Troy, completely skipping over the fact that there are also "female-coded Troys" out there. Once realised this "f-up", I decided to "update" this musing to include also that counterpart.

I'll be referring to the two versions as "Troy" and (even though it may sound so bad to my ears) "Troyette". INB4: Why would anyone have two different approach to the same issue? The answer is simple: it wouldn't be uncommon for Troy(ette)s to turn the table around so that they would look like the victim. Sadly, it appears that f"emale abusers "Troyettes" can have a small advantage in this than their male counterparts, especially when they try to frame someone of the opposite sex. I figured even our bachelors would know this all too well, therefore adjusting their reactions accordingly, while the ladies would just not give two 💩 and potentially go on a rampage all the same.

(Which also means that yes. Not all reactions are being tweaked.)

---

In no particular order:

Elliott: As per last fic uploaded, both with a Troy and Troyette he wouldn't be able to intentionally hurt thethem. He would still take advantage of the size difference between himself and the other to scare the livin' 💩 out of them (I'll die on the "Elliott is 6ft tall" hill), although being very careful to keep some distance between himself and a Troyette, just in case she would even think about trying to play the victim afterwards. Bonus point for being an active writer, therefore incidentally and constantly "training" himself on which words to use and when. ("The pen is mightier than the sword", after all.)

Sam: His (over?)protective instincts would instantly kick in and he would feckin' deck & pound the Troy on the spot. There might be need for a couple people to get his rabid arse off of that jerk too. He would try to keep the quietest demeanour as possible with a Troyette, partly because he knows how female abusers are underrated and partly because his parents (mostly his mother, probably) have ingrained the "boys shouldn't hit the girls, no amtter what" kind of belief.

Shane: Might headbutt the Troy in the mouth, without a warning. He might or might not also wield an empty glass bottle like a one-handed club. He would look intimidating doing so, but he would never dare to actually smash the bottle against the other's head. Maybe. When dealing with a Troyette he could put on his best unfriendly and unapproachable scowl while demaning the other to "fucking leave before I call the cops".

Alex: He's been training to become a pro gridball player, therefore he could knock the Troy out simply by tackling him to the ground. He might be later spotted dragging the barely conscious Troy to the train station to chunk his sorry bum on the first train headed to the city, as if "the fuckin' incel" was made of thin air. Which shouldn't be much of a surprise, considering how ripped Alex would be. He would probably turn the opposite way when dealing with a Troyette instead. Pounding "a poor woman" and potentially getting himself into serious troubles is definitely not advisable. Alex would try to reason with the other instead; if the Troyette started to be more hostile and try to hit him too, he would take every single blow in like a boss, only trying to put some distance and threatening to call the authorities.

Harvey: The doc seems the kind to despise all forms of violence and he also looks the exact opposite of intimitading. He would try a pacific approach at first, telling the Troy to kindly leave the town. If the other is persistent, Harvey might then threaten to call the authorities to have him forcibly removed from the town. If the other insists still, Harvey also has a vaste knowledge of the human body anatomy; the doc may hate himself afterwards for hurting another person, but in that moment he would give the other either a single kick or punch to some specific nerves (the thighs would be the perfect target), leaving the Troy on the ground in a fetal position for quite a while. There might or might be not an howling Troy too, depending on his level of pain tolerance, to the point of leaving the others to low-key wonder if Harvey had just tried to eviscerate the Troy instead. But no, it's merely a bruised quadriceps femoris muscle. Extremely painful but definitely not life-threatening. Y'all can chill, now. Things wouldn't change much when dealing with a Troyette. Same step-by-step approach, but eventually he would actually go for the phone call instead of trying to hit a nerve.

Sebastian: He's not exactly as imposing as some writer and also kinda scrawny. Theoretically he wouldn't look like much of a threat, but he has a secret ace up his hoodie's sleeve: a resting bitch face. The Troy may already cower at the sight of Sebby's (accidental) homicidal glare. Then the Troy would flee for the hills at the mere sound of the coldest "buzz the fuck off and don't make me hunt you down" ever. He might or might not really mean that latter part. He owns a bike and is also a tech wiz; theoretically it would be a piece of cake to track the Troy down with an online research and pay him a "surprise visit" back. But Sebby would also have this funny feeling that all that would be called "stalking". In the end he might feel tempted to take that kind of action, but would refrain from putting it into practice. Things stay the same in case of a Troyette. Seb simply wouldn't give two 💩 about the other potentially trying to get him into troubles. After all, he would also have a few witnesses on his side to prompty prove a Troyette's words wrong.

Leah: Similarly to Sam, she would go instantly and absolutely apeshit, be them Troy or Troyette. She wouldn't hesitate to make a blunt weapon out of the first thing she could rip off with her bare hands, be it a tree branch or a big rock yanked from the ground. There would be need for more than a couple people to hold her rampaging arse back. The same people would also be the ones actually and kindly suggesting the Troy(ette) to leave the town and never come back or so may Yoba help them next time.

Haley: Might first murderise both Troy and Troyette's eardrums with her high-pitched, bloody-murder screams. She might or might not also take off one of her pretty shoes and try to stab them with the heel (with a bonus of trying to rip chunks of hair off of Troyette's head, if it's long enough); it would take only one person to hold a furious Haley back.

Emily: Precious, little Emily. She would probably cry a waterfall, as if she had been the one personally hurt. She wouldn't try to hurt the Troy(ette) herself, but you can tell she and Haley are sisters from the volume of her yelled cusses. She might or might not need for a valerian infusion tea in the aftermath (and probably a few hours of relaxing meditation).

Abigail: Once her brain has processed the shock, she won't hesitate to keep the Troy(ette) at knife point. It would be merely a tiny, pocket knife, the blade might be a little dull as well, but it would be still enough to get Abby's point across quite effectively.

Maru: Would try to not let on how terrified she is, trying to think what Sebby (and/or her father) would do in a similar situation. She would then resort to grab her own phone, threatening both Troy and Troyette to call the autorities this instant if they don't leave immediately. She would even show the other the already dialed number, all she would need to do would be to just start the call. After the Troy(ette) would be gone, Maru would talk with her S/O about filing a restraining order. Just in case.

Penny: Initially she would look at the Troy(ette) as if they had just murdered her firstborn before her eyes. Then she might cry a waterfall while telling the other what a horrible person they are, how could they be so cruel with their own partner, that was so terrible, what if someone did the same to one of their friends or relative, they should be ashamed of themselves, and so forth. In an accidental twist of events, in the end it would be the S/O to try and comfort Penny first (Penny would still comfort her S/O back, as soon as she would regain control over her nerves).

PLEASE NOTE!

Inb4 someone may come and ask me something similar for SVE and/or RSV: I have not started those mods yet, so I'm not familiar at all with those other bachelor(ette)s. Sowwie. 😔

[callsign-magnolia]

I Hope You Dance // Ch. 17

MATURE CONTENT (18+)

A/N: This is cross posted to my Wattpad, so if this seems familiar that is why!

TW: Mental abuse, emotional abuse, slight physical abuse, death and loss.

Description: When Caila meets Rooster, sparks fly. But, she's already married, to a man who she thought loved her, and won't let her go. Rooster will fight for her, he just has to convince Caila to fight for herself.

Word Count: 6.3k

Chapter 16 | Masterlist

Monday rolled around fast, I was up at 0400 and ready to leave, my house by 0530. Rooster and I are definitely still keeping things quiet on base, not wanting to risk our careers, no matter how much he says he would give it up for me. I poured my coffee as I let Dahlia out one last time, not wanting her to have to hold it until I came home. I locked my door on my way out, tossing my duffel into the backseat and got into the drivers seat before heading off for base. It was a peaceful drive, still dark out and there was a chill in the air. 

As I got to base my phone started dinging again. I had to change all the privacy settings on my twitter, people have been blowing me up, tagging me, sending me messages. I'll probably deactivate it by the end of the day, tired of hearing about the trial and Aaron. "I had to shut mine down." Phoenix's voice rang through the locker room as I stared at my phone. "What?" She nodded. "Had to completely delete my twitter. People found me and blew it up, I couldn't stand half the shit said about you." I groaned and leaned my head on the locker. "I'm so sorry, Phoenix." She shook her head. "I like Instagram better anyway." She said, making me chuckle. 

"So, what do you think they have planned for us today?" I shrugged. "My new jet came in last night, so I have to test it out." She groaned. "Lucky, I'll probably be doing paperwork all day."  I shrugged. "I don't know, mundane sounds nice right about now." She scoffed. "You and mundane in the same sentence?" I quirked a brow at her. "No, it makes sense." I laughed at her words as we finished getting into our flight suits and heading out. As we did we saw Hangman, "Hey Bagman? We still on for drinks tonight?" I raised a brow at Phoenix. "That's new." She shook her head. "It's a group thing, we decided on it last night. We haven't told anyone till now." I nodded as he turned and smirked at us, waiting on us to catch up. "Yes, yes we are Phoenix." 

"Comin' Magnolia?" I nodded. "I could go for some drinks." They nodded as we walked out, Rooster and everyone else already there. "Good morning!" Rooster called and I rolled my eyes, "You're too chipper." He chuckled. "Not my fault I like mornings." I scoffed. "Mornings are gross." I said swinging the arm that held my helmet. He just chuckled at me as Mav walked over. "We ready for the day?" We all nodded and he pointed to me. "Magnolia, your jet is actually in mechanics and probably will be for the rest of the day. Want to go deal with that?" I nodded. "Bye guys! See you tonight!" I yelled before walking to the shop.

~~~

It was end of the day and I have spent all day in the shop testing my jet and tweaking things to make sure it was in tip top shape. I walked back towards the locker rooms when Rooster stopped me. "Hey, you coming to the hard deck?" I nodded. "Yeah, I'm gonna go home and feed Dahlia first and let her out. You going?" He nodded. "Yeah-" "Lieutenant Wilder." I turned to see Cyclone calling me. "I'll see you." He nodded as I walked towards Cyclone. "Follow me." I did as he asked, my heart thudding loudly in my chest. The air was tense as I walked behind him, but it was suffocating as we walked into his office, Warlock stood to the side a dark look on his face as he made eye contact. 

I stood in front of Cyclone's desk at attention, sweating from what he was going to say. He stood at his window, staring out for a whole five minutes. "Have a seat, Lieutenant." I slowly sat in the chair across from his desk, pulling on my thumbs as he sat in his own seat, Warlock still standing behind him. "I assume you've seen the news." I pursed my lips, nodding. "Yes, sir." He sighed. "When news reached a few certain higher ups, orders were handed down quickly." A few tears welled in my eyes. "They were calling for you to be dishonorably discharged." I bit my lip to keep it from wobbling as a sob crawled up my throat. 

"They also called for Lieutenant Bradshaw's immediate dishonorable discharge as well." I shook my head. "Roo-Rooster-he didn't." I choked on a sob, not knowing what to say. 'He didn't know' Of course he knew, we knew what we were doing. "But you have one hell of a lawyer." My head snapped up, brows furrowed. "He stated your case before the Fleet Admiral. He told him everything, which did make them see why you did it." I sighed, nodding. "Which is why they have decided for you to go on unpaid leave until this is cleared up, rather than give you a dishonorable discharge." I wiped under my eyes, choking on a sob. "Rooster will remain in his position, unchanged." I nodded, relieved that Rooster wouldn't suffer the consequences. 

"Lieutenant." I looked him in the eye, they held a sad look, pity almost. "You are one of our best pilots and I don't want to do this. But in the mean time, we need your wings." I felt sick, my throat burning from the bile that rose into it. Shakily I unpinned my wings, staring at them for a moment before laying them on his desk. "We know it may not help, but we are on your side even if it doesn't seem like it. If I had it my way, your position would be unchanged as well." I nodded. "Thank you, Admiral." He nodded as Warlock cleared his throat. "We look forward to you joining us again, Lieutenant." I smiled at him, offering a salute, which they returned before I turned and walked out. 

I cried the entire way to my locker and to my car. I also cried the entire way home, as I hit my door I all but fell through. My vision blurry, as Dahlia ran over, concerned as to why I was so upset. I managed to shut the door and slide down it, sobbing into my hands. Dahlia kept nudging me, and I just shooed her off, but she was a stubborn dog. So she stopped nudging me, and instead opting to lay in my lap, leaning against my chest. After a moment I felt myself calming down. "Since when did you learn deep pressure therapy?" She just groaned, making me chuckle. "Okay, let me get up." She stood, ambling over to her bed where she flopped onto her side, deer stuffy tucked between her paws. 

I marched upstairs grabbing one of Rooster's old UVA shirts out of the drawer, slipping it on. The smell of his cologne wafting around me. I threw my clothes in the dirty clothes basket, forgoing underwear deciding I was home alone and it was okay. I walked back downstairs deciding to toss a pizza in the oven and pulling out my half drank bottle of Riesling. I knew it would all be okay, but for now I wanted to drink and eat my feelings. I fed Dahlia as I drank my first glass of Riesling, taking my pizza from the oven and taking it to the couch with me where I turned on Harry Potter, deciding my favorite movie series would make me feel better.

I don't know how long this went on for, I lost count of how many glasses I had at five. I was on the second movie, full of pizza and I now had the tub of ice cream in my lap, drinking straight from my new bottle of wine. The end of the movie had me crying, which made me spiral into crying over my own situation. I fell back onto the couch, ice cream bowl in my lap and wine bottle in my hand. It wasn't fair, he makes these allegations and everyone listens. But when I tell the truth he pays everyone to look the other way. I know they say life isn't fair but this was crossing so many lines. The lies he has spun hasn't only affected me, but everyone around me and I think that hurts more than anything. 

I shook my head, "I's fin." I slurred as I got to me feet, swaying till I fell into Rooster's arms. "Okay. Let's get you to bed." I smiled at his words, leaning up to kiss his neck. "Fuck me, baby. Rail me into the mattress, please." I whined, trying to shift in his arms. "Stop." He said holding me still, making me pout as he laid me in bed. "I'm gonna get you some water, and an Advil." I whined as he walked out. My tags shifted on my chest, my hands wrapping around the cool metal, more tears flooding my eyes. "It's not fucking fair." I muttered as I curled up on my side, crying again. After about fifteen minutes I heard Rooster come back. "Hey, why are we crying?" He asked, bending down by my side of the bed. 

I had finished the ice cream and the bottle of wine, grabbing the third from the fridge. I stumbled back to the couch, falling face down on it as someone pounded on my door. "'s opem." I giggled at my words as I took another sip from the bottle. "Hey. Hey, Mags. What's going on?" I turned and saw Bradley standing at the end of the couch. I smirked and sat up on my knees, body swaying as I turned up the bottle. "Stop." He yanked the bottle from me, making me glare at him. "How many bottles have you had?" I laughed, falling back and in turn rolling into the floor. "Owie. Techinals, one and a half." I said holding up four fingers. "You were supposed to be at the Hard Deck three hours ago. I was trying to give you some time but I got worried, and it seems I had every reason to be."

"They took my wings." I heard the cup slam on the bedside table, making me jump. "They what?" He asked, kicking off his shoes, pushing me onto my back before crawling to my other side, pulling me close and holding me. "Aaron." Was all I managed to get out, in between my sobs. Rooster pulled me closer, kissing my temple. "I promise you, Mags. We are going to fix this." I grabbed his arm, turning to bury my face in his chest. "Don't leave me." I begged as he kissed my forehead. "I'd never dream of it, honey. Shh, try to get some sleep." He shushed me for awhile until I finally succumbed to the call of sleep.

I opened my eyes, seeing Rooster's face. My head pounded at his soft snores but they sounded so loud to me, I laid still for a few minutes trying to relax myself. But the saliva filled my mouth and I knew it wasn't gonna work. I threw myself out of the bed, sprinting for the bathroom, ramming myself into the door before making it to the toilet. "What the fuck?" I heard over the sounds of my retching. "Magnolia!" He yelled, rushing into the bathroom, grabbing what he could of my short hair and tying it back for me. "That's it, sweet girl. Get it out." He said as he rubbed my back. After I finished I leaned back on my tub, my head resting against the cool ceramic. 

~~~

Rooster got a rag and ran it under cold water. "Come on." He grabbed my hand, slowly pulling me up, he placed the rag in my hand, lifting me and taking me back to the bed. As he laid me down, I placed the rag on my forehead, over my eyes. "What do you need me to do?" I swallowed. "Migraine prescription. Medicine cabinet." He took off and I heard him rummaging around for my meds before coming back upstairs. "Here, honey." I took the pill and drank some water as he crawled back in bed, wearing nothing but his boxers. We laid there, me kicking the covers off because I felt like I was melting. 

"Hey, stop." Rooster said. He got up on his knees, gently peeling his UVA t-shirt off my body. "There." He said leaning down and kissing my forehead, then my temple, my cheek, my chin,  my nose, and next to my lips. "You'll be okay, pretty girl. I'll help you feel better." He laid back down, pulling me into him before reaching around and massaging my scalp. I hummed in pleasure as it helped relieve my migraine. "I got you, Mags." He said before kissing my cheek. Between his breathing and his heartbeat, it distracted me from the pain enough that I finally fell asleep. 

~~~

I felt the bed shift next to me, making me roll over to see Rooster. He was sitting up on the side of the bed, hands over his head stretching. I reached over, resting my hand on his back. gently running my nails down it. He leaned his head back before reaching around taking my hand, kissing my palm as he leaned back, his head landing on my lower belly. "Feeling better?" I nodded. "A lot better, thank you." We sat in silence for a moment before he turned to me, his hand finding it's way to my stomach again. "Did they really take your wings?" I nodded, managing to keep the tears at bay. 

"The higher ups called for my immediate dishonorable discharge." His head shot up, "They can't-" I held my hand out, resting it on his cheek and gently pushing him back down. "They also called for yours. But god bless Jerry Polinski, he managed to get ahold of the new fleet admiral. So they decided to leave your position unchanged and... they put me on unpaid leave." He sighed, thumb rubbing across my stomach. "They'll give me my wings back when I'm reinstated." He gave me a small smile. "Shouldn't you get over to your house to get ready for work?" He pursed his lips. "Yeah, but I don't want to leave you." I chuckled. "I'll be fine, my head feels a thousand times better. I'm just exhausted now." 

"Do you think it worked?" I raised a brow. "You think you're pregnant?" My breath hitched, my stomach fluttering at his words. "I-I don't know. I'm supposed to start my period in two weeks, we'll see then." He nodded and leaned up kissing my cheek, then my jaw, down my neck. "No time, you'll be late." He chuckled as he kissed down my chest, taking one of my nipples in his mouth, sucking gently before biting down on it. "Roo." I moaned out as he kissed down my sternum, before placing slow, gentle kisses on my belly. It was sweet, but I just hoped he wasn't getting his hopes up. I was so lost in thought I never realized he lowered himself down to my heat. He flicked his tongue against my clit, making me gasp. He ran his tongue up my slit, before sucking on my clit. My hands found their way into his hair, my knees coming up to rest on his shoulders. 

He worked me over and just as I was about to come, he stopped, pulling away. He leaned over to kiss me quickly before standing and grabbing his clothes. "I love you, pretty girl! I'll see you tonight! I'll be right over!" I launched my pillow at him as he buttoned his jeans, deciding to forgo his shirt. "Fuck you!" He chuckled and leaned over to kiss me. "Be good today and I'll take care of you when I get home!" He said before standing and walking downstairs. I bit my lip, rubbing my thighs together as I heard the door slam. I laid there for a few minutes before my hand slowly slipped down my body, till it reached my core. I rolled my clit in my fingers as my other hand slid up my body, pinching my nipple.

"Bradley." I moaned out as I slipped a finger inside me, curling it up to hit that ridged spot inside me. I moaned loudly as I hit it repeatedly, "Fuck!" I cried out as my orgasm hit, my moans echoing around the room. As I came down from the high I realized, my fingers just didn't cut it. I groaned and turned seeing Rooster standing in his room, adjusting himself in his khaki's as he watched me. I giggled as my phone buzzed with a text. 

That's not behaving, pretty girl.

Well it didn't cut it, I'll be waiting at home for you. See you tonight Lieutenant.

I smirked as he eyed me before walking out of his room. I looked at my phone again, seeing it said 0515. I could go back to sleep for awhile, the inadequate orgasm still making me sleepy. But before I did, I decided to lift my phone, taking a picture of my bare chest. My tags hung between my boobs as I snapped the picture, sending it to Rooster without a caption. I silenced my phone before rolling over, falling back to sleep pretty quickly. 

I slept for another two hours, waking up around seven. By eleven thirty I had gotten dressed in some denim shorts, a white off the shoulder shirt. I had eaten breakfast, cleaned the entire house, took Dahlia on a walk, and had my sheets in the washer. I picked up my phone and the glass of tea I poured myself, walking out onto the back deck with Dahlia, parking it in the swing. I dialed Jerry's office number, waiting for him to answer, which he did on the fourth ring. "You know, I have deep respect for people who give me time to settle into my office for the morning before calling." I chuckled. "Well, I'd hate for someone to call me as soon as I hit the door." 

"So I hope you don't mind, but I spoke with your fleet commander." I nodded. "That's why I called, to say thank you. You saved not only my career, but Rooster's as well." He sighed on the other end. "So they didn't give you a dishonorable discharge?" I shook my head. "They left Rooster's position unchanged, but they put me on unpaid leave. I had to turn in my wings." I shook my head still wrapping my head around this. "I'm sorry, Caila. I really tried." I nodded. "I know, Jerry and I appreciate it." I heard him rustling some things around. "I do have good news though." My ears perked up. "What is it?"

"The judge is sending out the subpoena for all your photos of your injuries and the camera footage at your old home." Tears sprung to my eyes, realizing this may actually go in my favor. "Are you serious?" I asked, voice cracking. "Yeah, so you may be getting a visit from some federal agents." I nodded. "It would probably be a welcomed visit." He chuckled. "I'll call you with any other updates." I nodded. "Thank you, Jerry." We said our goodbyes and I immediately called my mom.

"Hi sweetie!" She cheered, her happy tone bringing a smile to my face. "Hi mama." I could hear her moving around the kitchen, the familiar sound of pans moving around reminding me of home. "So what you got going on? Shouldn't you be at work?" I bit my lip. "They uh, originally wanted to give Rooster and I dishonorable discharges. But they left his position as is, and put me on unpaid leave." She gasped. "Because of what's happening?" I nodded. "Yeah, when that story broke it caught a lot of attention. Including the navy's attention." I tried to keep the tears at bay, but something about talking to my mama always made it hard to hide my emotions. 

"They took my wings, mama." "No, no, no. Do I need-" "No, don't make it daddy's problem. I'm-I'm tryin' to be okay with it, I can't expect daddy to fix all my problems. They told me I would get them back when this was cleared up and I was reinstated, anyway." She was still in the kitchen, but it sounded like she was banging things around his time. "I'm just glad this came after the last mission. If I hadn't been able to go, and provide air support I don't know if everyone would've come home." It went dead silent on the other end. "Mama?" "Yo-you flew?" I furrowed my brows. "I was spare. Kinda my job, mama." She sighed. "Okay, daddy was acting weird before the mission and now you are. What is goin on?" I heard the oven go off in the background. "Oh! Biscuits are done! I'll talk to you later! Love you!" With that she hung up, confusing me.

"Saved by the bell." I muttered as Dahlia ran over with her ball. "What the hell is up with them? Huh, Dahls?" She growled, thrashing her head around, wanting me to play with her. "Not like I have anything better to do." I said taking the ball and tossing it across the yard. After a few tosses my phone rang, Rooster's name appearing on the screen. "I'm a little upset with you." I answered and he chuckled. "Seems you took care of it yourself." I rolled my eyes. "And yet somehow, I'm still horny." I could hear the smile growing on his face. "Don't get all smug, you're taking care of this when you get home." I said as I launched the ball again. "How about you send me a few pics of what I'm in for then?" A devious thought ran through my head. "Mm, good idea." 

"Okay, don't take it too far. I don't need a hard-on at work." I smirked. "Don't worry, honey. I'll make sure they're appropriate." He chuckled. "I just wanted to check in and see how you were holding up." I nodded. "Well I'm playing with Dahlia now, but the house is spotless, bedding is in the wash, I've called Jerry and mom. I have great news, but we'll celebrate that tonight." He chuckled. "Sounds good, pretty girl. So, I'll see you tonight?" I smirked. "Sure will, see you tonight Roo." "I love you." "I love you too, Mags." We hung up and I smirked, tossing the ball one more time and rushing upstairs and into my room. I got up into my closet, pulling down the polaroid mom bought for me a few years ago. I never used it, I hated myself and didn't want to photograph any part of my life then.

But now, I was going to take all the photos I could. I stripped down to my bra and underwear, getting on my knees with my back to my mirror. Thankfully this polaroid had Bluetooth, so I was able to set the camera behind me and snap the picture. I looked at the picture on my phone, smiling as I saw my ass on full display in the thong. I turned and took the physical copy, setting it on my dresser. I propped myself against the bed, spreading my legs and snapping another picture. The third was what I was excited about though. I had stripped completely, touching myself, thinking of Rooster. 

I decided to snap the photo while I had two fingers stuffed in my pussy, my mouth hung open as I worked myself towards my orgasm. I finished, coming around my fingers as I gasped for air. It still didn't do the trick, I needed Rooster to get home and get home soon. I got dressed again, sending the first two pics and waiting a few minutes. Waiting for a reply, I was fixing lunch when my phone dinged with a text. 

My pretty girl. Don't worry, I'll take care of you as soon as I get home. Leave the bra and panties on.

I smirked, tossing my sandwich in the oven before sending the third picture with a smirk. 

Can't wait to have you inside me.

I never got a text back, he opened it and saw it but never responded. I don't know if that's good or bad, which worked me up even more. I loitered around the rest of the day, folding the sheets, doing little things like shifting picture frames. I couldn't sit still, mainly because if I did my thoughts wandered to Rooster and my hand wandered into my shorts. I smirked and jumped off the couch when I heard the Bronco. I watched as it whipped into the driveway, coming to a sudden stop. He barely put it in park before getting out and storming up to the porch. 

I swung the door open and he never missed a beat, stepping in a hard look on his face. What I didn't expect was his hand on my neck, yanking me towards him and his lips smashing into mine, our teeth clashing as my hands gripped the front of his flight suit, balling it up as his free hand grabbed a handful off my ass. I moaned as he let go of my ass, landing a harsh smack on it. "Do you know that everyone could've seen that last picture?" I bit my lip. "No. Did they?" Part of me grew excited at others seeing it, knowing he's they only person I'd ever send them too. "Mm, dirty girl, huh?" I nodded. "They didn't, but that first picture is now my background." I smirked at the thought. "Come here." I said taking the hand that was on my neck, leading him over to the couch as he kicked the door closed. 

I turned to face him, unzipping his flight suit and pushing it down to his calves. I ran my hands up his abdomen, taking the opportunity to feel his muscles ripple under my fingers. I pushed his shirt over his head, tossing it into the floor before pushing his shoulder for him to sit down on the couch. I bent down to my knees, unlacing his boots and slipping them off. "What are you doing, sweet girl?" He asked as I completely pulled off his flight suit. "Just taking care of you, before taking care of me." I said smiling at him before crawling into his lap, and pulling him into a kiss. "I missed you today." He said as his hands gripped my hips. "Mm, I missed you too." 

I placed kisses along his jaw, his hand slipping into my shorts, grabbing my ass again. "You left them on?" I smirked as I licked the scar on his neck. "Of course." I said as I continued kissing down his body. I slid off his lap, locking on to his warm brown eyes as I kissed down to the waist band of his boxers. I looked up at him, to see he had his bottom lip pulled between his teeth. "Go ahead, take 'em off." I smirked and grabbed his waist band between my teeth, pulling on them. "Fuck, Mags. The things you fucking do to me!" He groaned as I finished pushing his boxers down his legs. 

I flung them behind me somewhere, smirking up at him as I slid my hand across his thigh, gripping his cock squeezing gently. I smiled as his head tilted back, a moan escaping him. I ran my thumb over the tip, smearing the precum around before running my tongue up the underside. "Honey, please. Don't tease me." I giggled and decided to oblige him. I slowly wrapped my lips around the head, sucking as his hands found their way into my hair, gathering what he could in his hands. I slowly took more of him before pulling back up, bobbing my head slowly. He groaned, placing his hand on my cheek, his thumb running across my skin. I worked down him until my nose brushed against the happy trail on his pelvis. I held him there for a second and looked up to see him smirking at me. 

"I see the throat training has been paying off." I nodded slightly, reaching down to fondle his balls, making his groan. I started bobbing my head, elated that the noises escaping his throat were caused by me. "Look at you, so pretty with my cock down your throat." His words went straight to my belly, spurring me on. "Your so good for me. Trying to make up for not behaving today?" Holy fuck, I could feel the wetness seeping through my panties. I nodded and he chuckled. "You're doing such a good job, honey." I heard his breath hitch as I gave a hard suck, his balls tightening. "Oh, honey. You're gonna make me come if you keep it up." I pulled off him completely and smirked as I pumped him in my hand. "Come down my throat?" I asked and he chuckled. "It's whatever you want, pretty girl." 

I took him in my mouth again, working double time to make him finish. "That's it, little more." I sucked hard, making his legs tense. I placed my hands on his thighs, gripping as I took him all the way, his cock resting at the back of my throat. "Fuck." He moaned as he came, his seed falling down the back of my throat. "Such a good girl, so good for me." When he finished I pulled back, opening my mouth to show him the last bit of his release that rested on my tongue. He brushed his hand along my cheek. "Swallow for me." I did as he asked and held my tongue out again with a smile. He pulled me back into his lap, his cock growing hard against my thigh. "Such a good girl for me." I nodded as my hands ran along his shoulders. "Yeah, just wanna be good for you." He smirked, standing from the couch with me in his arms, my legs around his waist. "Let's go take care of you now." 

I giggled as he laid me on the bed, him crawling up my body and pulling my clothes off. It was some of the best sex we've had, it's like all the pleasure was intensified. Of course he found the polaroid camera, "You've been hiding this from me?" He asked before taking pictures, some of him inside me, one of the small bulge in my belly when he fucked me, he even got a really good one of my face as my orgasm hit. But his favorite was after we finished, it was me standing in front of my tall mirror, our mixed releases sliding down my thigh with my ass on full display. "Goddamn, I have to thank whatever god gifted you to me honey, because you are a literal blessing." He said yanking me back onto the bed, pinning me under him as he peppered my face with kisses. 

"Do you feel better now?" I nodded. "I don't know what it is, but nothing works me over as well as you." He smirked at me, kissing me gently. "What was the news you had?" I grinned widely. "I talked to Jerry earlier. He said that they sent out the subpoenas for the photos on my phone and the camera system at the old house." His jaw dropped in surprise. "Are you serious?" I nodded. "Yes!" He yanked me off the bed and into his arms. "That's great news, honey! You're finally making progress!" I giggled as his arms wrapped around my thighs. "We're making progress. I'm not just doing this for me Rooster. I'm doing this for you too, so we can be together without anything in the way." He chuckled. "Magnolia, I don't care what's in the way. Nothing is going to stop me from keeping you close to me." I grinned as I leaned down and kissed him. 

That's how our week went. He'd go to work, I'd get up and do some things around the house to occupy myself, he'd come home and we would amazing sex. My libido has shot up, all I want is him, all the time. I've been sending him so many pictures at work he stopped looking at anything from me during the day. Most days now he barely makes it through the door before I either have his cock in my mouth or I'm pulling him upstairs, to the couch, hell I shoved him to the floor once and rode him. He made it so easy to not be working, he kept me updated on the team, anything new they were doing. We still spent time with the team, including a small party Friday night.

"Bobby!" I yelled and he came running in. "Yeah?" I chuckled and handed him a glass of Riesling. "Could you please take this to Phoenix? She just keeps blowing up my phone because SHE'S TOO LAZY TO WALK IN HERE AND POUR IT HER DAMN SELF!" I heard a faint 'fuck you' from the living room, followed by laughs. Bob took Phoenix her drink as I grabbed some of the food, walking out into the living room. "I see you guys are enjoying Rooster's new tv." I said as I noticed the baseball game that was on. "It's your tv, Mags." I rolled my eyes. "It is your tv, that you put in my house!" He groaned. "Not this again." 

"What again?" Fanboy asked. "She's mad that I bought her the tv." I threw my hands up. "I was perfectly fine without it, I used it the night the took my wings and I haven't since. I made more progress on my to be read pile and now I'm fighting the urge to sit down and binge 911!" He smirked getting in my face. "Oh, and that's my fault?" I nodded. "Yes." I kissed him quickly. "Yes, it is." Coyote gagged at us. "You two are gross." I smirked and turned to walk around the couch, Rooster smacking my ass making me squeal. "She's insatiable." My eyebrows shot up. "We are not talking about our sex life." I stated. "Why not? I know about it." I furrowed my brows at her. "You are my best friend. Of course you know! I don't think we're all that close yet!"

"Is it freaky?" Payback joked. "I have pictures." I gasped. "BRADLEY NICHOLAS BRADSHAW!" He took off upstairs. "I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU COME DOWN HERE WITH A POLAROID I AM LEAVING YOUR ASS!" He chuckled and came back downstairs empty handed. "I'd never do that to you." He said grabbing my cheeks and kissing me. "Smart man." I said leading him back to the couch where we parked it between Phoenix and Coyote. "Swear to god Magnolia. You make the best food." I chuckled at Fanboy's words. "They're burgers, Fanboy." He hummed. "Very delicious burgers!" I chuckled at his mouth full of food as I grabbed my plate. "No beer?" I shook my head at Rooster's question. His eyebrows shot up and I caught his arm before he drew too much attention. "Not yet." I said as I leaned up to kiss his cheek. 

We sat for awhile eating and catching up. It really sucks missing work, not only do I miss flying but I miss my squadron too. Flying with them, hell just working with them. "So, any new interesting flight patterns going on?" Hangman nodded. "Yeah, actually." He dove into all the details and honestly I was hanging on every last word. So much so that I missed the knock on the door. "Magnolia?" Phoenix's voice pulled me out of my trance. "Are you not gonna answer that?" I heard the banging on the door again. "Oh, yeah." I got up, walking over and pulling the door open. 

Two man in suits stood on my porch. "Gentlemen, hi. I've kinda been expecting this." One guy furrowed his brows. "Mrs. Wilder?" I sighed and pursed my lips. "That's me... sadly." They nodded and held up their badges. "I am SSA Williams, and this is SSA Hawthorne." The black haired agent said as he motioned over to his blonde counterpart, I nodded at them with a smile. "And you're here about the subpoenas? Right?" Williams sighed while Hawthorne pursed his lips. "Uh no, ma'am. We're actually here about Melissa Montgomery." My heart sunk hearing her name. "Did you find her? Is she okay?" They looked to each other then back to me. "You may want to sit down, Mrs. Wilder." I stood still for a moment, that's never good. 

I opened the door wider for them, motioning them in. "We can talk in the dining room." I said motioning them past the squad in the living room, who all watched with worry. Rooster got up, following. "Hey, you okay?" I nodded. "Just wait in the living room." I said, taking his hand off my arm. "Uh, maybe you shouldn't be alone for this." I squeezed Rooster's hands at the words. "He's allowed to hear this?" They nodded. "It's already broke on local news back in Georgia, you guys would hear about it by tonight anyway." 

I sighed but nodded and grabbed his hand tighter, pulling him into the dining room. I sat at the head of the table while the two agents took the two seats to my right, Rooster opting to stand behind me, hands on my shoulders. "So you know, Ms. Montgomery has been missing for about four years now." I nodded. "Where was she?" I asked and Hawthorne pulled out a file. "Where do you think she was?" I bit my lip. "I honestly don't know. I hoped she ran off somewhere, that she was okay." Rooster squeezed my shoulders. "Mrs. Wilder. Melissa was found in the back yard of your old house in Atlanta." I gasped, truly shocked as Rooster hands moved to the sides of my arms. "Her body was in pieces under the azalea bushes you planted." I stared at them for a moment before the world tilted on it's axis, going dark as my body fell out of the chair. 

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Taglist:

@mak-32 @rosiahills22 @dhwanishah09

[gamersonthego]

Chase Koeneke's Top 10 Games of 2022

I think in general, I found myself wanting in 2022. While new games in some of my favorite franchises saw releases, very few lived up to the expectations I had for them. I also just completely missed games that would almost assuredly make this list (Hardspace Shipbreaker, Immortality, Pentiment, Coromon, Chained Echoes, the list goes on). But what did make the list? Let's find out.

10. Digimon Survive

Look, I promised myself this would be my token tenth slot, and it’s not because it deserves it. Digimon Survive isn’t very good. Its strategy parts are thin and tedious, plagued by low movement ranges and bad maps. And its visual novel parts go on way too long, yet rarely offer much depth. 

But dammit, there’s something here, and with some adjustments, a sequel to Digimon Survive could be really good (though I’m not sure it’ll get that chance.) The art style is excellent, the writing is solid (again, it’s an issue of quantity and redundancy, not necessarily quality) and outside of one or two of them, I ended up really connecting to both the characters and the Digimon. Other games deserve this slot more, but there was no other game I wanted to like more than this, and I think that accounts for something.

9. Platformer Toolkit

I love playing games, but I think I love analyzing them even more, which is probably why Mark Brown’s video-essay-inside-a-video-game appealed to me so much. Mark Brown’s YouTube channel, Game Maker’s Toolkit breaks down game mechanics, theory and psychology, and after he taught himself Unity this year (documenting his progress on the channel), he built a game that gave a tiny window into the the minds of game developers. 

Platformer Toolkit is a simple browser-based 2D platformer, but it controls like garbage. This is by design though! Mark walks and talks you through the physics of character movement, unlocks sliders and panels in a Mario Maker style design that lets you tweak everything from jump height and run speed to squash frames and coyote time. And once you’ve finished the short and free experience, Mark opens up a number of presets that lets you toggle through a group of classic platformer physics setups (Mario, Sonic, Celeste, Meat Boy, etc.) so you can compare and gain a greater appreciation for why those characters control the way they do. It was really compelling and I felt like a learned a ton.

8. Marvel's Midnight Suns

I’ve felt this way for years and I haven’t been shy in saying it: I’m fucking tired of superheroes. Throw them all in the bin right next to zombies and let’s find a new thing to obsess over please. But I do love me a turn-based strategy game, so when the makers of XCOM: Enemy Unknown announced they were making a game based on Marvel heroes, the pros outweighed the cons, and I checked it out. And while I’m not back on the MCU train (in fact, the writing is so, so, so Marveliciously awful, that I’ve started skipping cutscenes whole cloth), I’m finding myself addicted to the game parts of this game. 

Midnight Suns does not play like XCOM. At all. It’s an entirely new, card-based system, played in very small arenas. You’re always outnumbered and you always have a very limited numbered of actions available to you each turn. To overcome this, you have to employ clever strategy to make the most of every move, using attacks to bounce enemies off each other or parts of the environment, disabling the most vicious threats and finding the perfect opportunity to burn an action on achieving an objective. And while I never could thematically wrap my head around why these larger than life super-beings were all fighting in these cramped little spaces, the fact is, it’s just a really fun system to play around in. 

7. Vampire Survivors

More than any other game this year, Vampire Survivors justified my purchase of a Steam Deck. That sounds weird, right? I spent over $500 on a thing just to play a $5 game on it most of the time? But, uh, Vampire Survivors really is that good. This horde mode meets roguelike with a thick coat of Castlevania paint and a sprinkle of idle game sensibilities just kept sucking the hours right out of me. 

While the game on its own is fun enough, the real secret to the game’s success is, well, it’s the secrets. Finding the right combination of active and passive power-ups leads to special ultimate upgrades that turn you into an absolute buzzsaw of destruction against screen-filling masses of enemies. The more you play, the more fun, new toys you unlock, compelling you to try just one more run. A compulsion I would often give into. 

6. Citizen Sleeper

I was so hot on Citizen Sleeper when I first loaded it up. I’ve followed Guillaume “blackysan” Singelin’s work for awhile now, and seeing their work translated to a video game was really exciting. And the writing, my god, the writing! I hung on most every word. And its dice-heavy tabletop game mechanics and extremely limited resources brought in a satisfying combo of luck and desperation that gave me a real sense of scrounging and stretching for survival. 

And then I realized that the game rarely allows the player to fail, almost always throwing them a bone at the last minute, never fully committing to the survival tale the story would have you believe. And about two-thirds of the way through the game, the economy just falls apart completely, as any reasonably competent player can amass more than enough resources to live comfortably, even while the story tries to convince you otherwise. 

It was a real heartbreaker to me, one that partially led to me taking the first potential ending the game presented. But the more distance I get from it, the less I think about the busted economy and the more I think about my sleeper, and the choices and friends she made along the way. And thinking about that makes me smile.

5. Live A Live

Man, I wish Live A Live had gotten a western release back on the Super Nintendo. I know young Chase would’ve loved the JRPG-meets-turn-based-strategy combat, the amazing music and the fragmented story that stars multiple protagonists in different time periods. I know this because current Chase loved it, especially with this HD 2D touchup it got on the Nintendo Switch. Is it better than Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy? I mean…maybe? The fact that it’s even a question at all speaks to how good Live A Live is. 

It’s so inventive for its era. Heck, it’s still inventive today, playing with both genre and expectations to create something unique while wearing its influences proudly on its sleeve. More RPGs should’ve taken cues from Live A Live. And they still should. 

4. Triangle Strategy

Oh look, another turn-based strategy game. Oh, and it’s HD 2D too? Yup, I have a type, and Triangle Strategy almost fits it to a t. The game tells a grand story that genuinely gripped me (even though the voice acting often didn’t), and offered real, tangible choice leading to different story paths, character recruitments and endings. 

And while the battle mechanics weren’t perfect, there was enough depth and variety from the different characters that I took great pleasure in building each soldier up, unlocking new skills and equipping with new gear, looking for synergistic combinations. I love tactics games that make me care about my characters, and I fell hard for this cast of knuckleheads.

3. Tinykin

One of my favorite gimmicks in media is shrinking down and exploring a normal-sized space as a tiny character. I love the MacGuyverness of recontextualizing modern household objects as buildings, tools and transportation. And Tinykin has this in spades. In this miniature adventure, you explore kitchens, bedrooms, bathrooms and greenhouses as you collect Pikmin-like Tinykin — creatures that help you navigate the world and solve its objective-based puzzles. 

Tinykin has no combat, just chill, puzzling vibes that allow for curiosity and coziness to walk hand in hand. And as your posse of Tinykin grows, you roll deeper and deeper with your crew, until you are masterfully climbing, gliding and sliding about these creative spaces. It’s the perfect game to wind down with, and one I’d happily return to if another room got added as DLC.

2. Pokemon Legends: Arceus

Coming into 2022, this is not the Pokemon game I expected to make this list. Legends: Arceus looked awful in trailers: Empty worlds, lifeless combat, no real multiplayer to speak of. And none of those things changed once I got my hands on the final product. What did change though, was my perspective of the game in the first place. 

Legends: Arceus has you exploring an ancient Sinnoh region, in a world where the concept of Pokeballs and capturing Pokemon is just being discovered. Battling Pokemon isn’t all that fun with the new speed and strong style mechanics, but there’s hardly any battling in the game at all. Instead, Legends: Arceus is about the thrill of catching and collecting. It’s the first game in a while that makes “catching them all” feel like a relevant goal again. And the arrival of Alpha Pokemon (which are essentially bigger and rarer versions of their normal counterparts) added yet another layer of collection on top. In a year where Scarlet and Violet mostly disappointed me, Legends: Arceus is what kept me carrying a torch for my beloved pocket monsters.

Neon White

No other game made me feel as smooth, as cool, as fast and as clever as Neon White. Traversing this deadly parkour demon hunting time trial was my favorite experience of the year. I loved parsing out the fastest route through a level, discovering shortcuts and time saves along the way, before spotting a collectible and slowing down to a puzzling crawl to work my way up to where it was hiding. I loved taking on the challenge rooms that require precise and inventive ways of using your arsenal, not just for killing, but for traversal purposes as well, and then taking that knowledge back to the main game and seeing how i could implement it into my runs. 

Just about the only thing I dislike about the game is some of its writing and voice acting. Spike Spiegel himself, Steve Blum does a great job, but very little else of the cast is pulling their weight. 

But when a game makes you feel this damn cool, it just doesn’t matter what little hiccups you encounter. It’s my favorite game of the year, and one I’d probably love even more if I had a dedicated crew on my platform of choice to compete for the best level times. Neon White is a kinetic experience that turned me into a speed runner with every level.

[inventors-fair]

It’s Time to D-D-D-Dual Land Commentary

Hey everyone! A couple week’s back, I ran the contest for dual lands made for specific decks. I finally got around to the commentary for the non-winners and runners after finishing my finals, so let’s jump into it!

Infest Station by @wolkemesser​

First of all, *love* the pun in the name. The card’s definitely really good in -1/-1 counter decks and not all that great outside of them, so good job there. Though the floor is still just Savage Lands. And the potential of this land to come down untapped and add 3 mana is *really* strong. I think if this is getting played, it’s getting abused. As much as I do love jund -1/-1 counters, I think this may do better as a dual land- either BG or BR. (Personally, I’d go BR just cause green has stronger existing -1/-1 counter synergies so this pushes the rakdos and jund angles more). That way the floor of the card is lower, rather than being an already playable land, and it’s only a sol land instead of a Mishra’s Workshop. Even a sol land is abusable, but I think this may have enough restrictions to be okay. You might even be able to afford to lower the counter thresholds like this.

Deepwater Grove by @dimestoretajic​

Oooh this is interesting. I do love the idea of a land that can be a shrine for the shrine deck. I think you could even take this a step further and have it always be an enchantment land- shrine. But I don’t think this was quite the contest for it. Shrines are a five color deck, so it probably wants a 5 color land. Now if this was part of a cycle, that would probably be fine, but then that leads to the question of is there really a set that wants a whole cycle of shrine lands? And… maybe? But shrines tend to be pretty self contained- each set that’s had them has basically just been a cycle, they’re hard to do as a bigger theme, so a cycle like this wouldn’t really be doing a ton. But they are still dual lands that anyone could use, but then that means the shrine decks who really need them won’t get them. Basically, this card is mostly fine, but the things it implies about whatever set its in don’t quite work as well. And there are a few tweaks i’d make here too. Make it always an enchantment land- shrine, like i mentioned, and I’d see if there’s any way you could make a Shrine tribal effect to make it feel more like a shrine.

Salt Road Bulwark by @railway-covidae

Normally I’m skeptical of sol lands, but outlast costs are a pretty safe outlet for them. Outlast creatures a bit less so. Not by a ton, I doubt it would be broken, per se, but it really affects how outlast creatures are costed in an environment, and usually that kind of thing isn’t worth it for one card, it’s better to let the outlast cards themselves be costed more aggressively.

Wizard’s Tower by @misterstingyjack​

This just seems way too good a scry engine. I know you mentioned Path of Ancestry as a point of comparison, but there’s two things there- one, commander lands are *weird* powerlevel wise so they don’t make great points of comparison. And two, the addition of instants and sorceries really changes things. This would maybe be okay if it just worked with wizards, but this is a *powerful* control card when it works for instants and sorceries. Its so little investment, on a dual land

Meltwater Tributary by @demimonde-semigoddess​

So the intention is clearly some kind of draw-go esque land that lets you play it on your opponent’s turn. That’s a cool idea, though I question whether red is the best second color for that. I would put any of the others ahead of it, though UW the most. You missed a very important clause though- this really needs a limitation to only let you activate it on your opponent’s turn. As is, you could activate that ability on your own turn, and then play a land, and double up on the lands. That’s no good. I’m also not sure that activated ability works- it activates from a hidden zone, but doesn’t reveal information to reveal that you have this card in your hand. (Not while this is on the stack anyway). So you’d need additional clauses to account for that. I think this is a cool idea, but takes too much to get it to work that it just comes out extremely clunky.

Soul’s Monastery by @abzanhero​

This is just wayy too busto. Sol lands are always dangerous, and this does not have the precautions it needs to prevent that. I see you were trying to stop this a little with the “if ~ is untapped” clause, but you can still just tap this for mana afterwords. So it doesn’t stop you from using this as a sol land, it just makes it more funky and confusing to do so, and I’m not sure that’s an improvement.

Alchemist’s Retreat by @hiygamer​

I like this card, I really do, but it probably shouldn’t exist. It’s just asking for abuse, particularly by dredge. If you want to make a land to help out GU self mill, maybe something like “you may play ~ from your graveyard as long as there are seven or more other cards in your graveyard” or something more along those lines would be a safer way to do it.

Lithomancer’s Forge by @hypexion​

This looks remarkably safe, as sol lands go. It’s extremely restricted in what you can use it for, and it enters tapped so you can’t just turbo out equipment quite as easily. Two potential additional balancing techniques would be to make the sol mana colorless, CC instead of RW, or to only let it pay equip costs but not equipment. I’m not sure those are necessary; I’d just want to playtest those versions to compare. I think equipment are a good candidate for a sol land though, since they’re quite mana hungry. Nice work.

Multicultural Fair by @reaperfromtheabyss​

This is a pretty decent card, all things considered. It just feels a tad boring, I suppose. It gives you a generically useful benefit if you’ve jumped through the hoop, and enters untapped if you jump through that hoop, but it doesn’t really play into that deck’s playstyle at all. This doesn’t feel like the exciting reward for a theft deck it seems like it wants to be. I wonder if you could do some kind of sac outlet to work well with red’s temporary act of treason theft. That’s more of a black/red thing for sure, but I think it could work here, maybe a fling effect of some kind. UR, T, Sacrifice a creature you control but don’t own: ~ deals damage to each opponent equal to that creature’s power. This card certainly isn’t bad, don’t get me wrong, it just feels like it could be more.

Warren Opening by @shakeszx

The biggest issue with this card is that Auntie’s Hovel exists. If you wanted to go for another goblin dual land, by all means go for it, but I would have tried to differentiate this more. Maybe go in a bit of a more utility direction, with an ability either letting you sac goblins or creating goblin tokens. And on top of that, this has an issue that Hovel doesn’t- Goblins are a very cheap, low-to-the-ground tribe, but this doesn’t colorfix you to get your goblins out until you already have a goblin out. 

Lorehold Dig Site by @deg99​

I see two main issues with this card. The first is that I think its ability to produce colored mana is just too inconsistent. I’d rather this be something like “T, Exile a card from your graveyard: Add R or W” or maybe nonland card specifically if it needs to tone down a little. You’re still encouraged to do instants and sorceries cause of the activated ability, but I think the flexibility to have it exile anything in a pinch is important. And secondly, I’d simplify the activated ability. Instead of having X be equal to the number of exiled cards, just put an X in the cost to activate the ability and readjust the costs as needed

Personal Sudatory by @snugz

Looks great! Very simple and to the point, but it does exactly what it’s supposed to. It helps you colorfix for graveyard spells. It seems a tad on the weak side, it could probably afford some additional utility- probably some weak but serviceable in a pinch way to fill your graveyard. Like 3, T: Mill two cards or something. 

Alpine Lake by @i-am-the-one-who-wololoes​

Art direction: A calm lake is on a relatively large and flat part of a mountain. Around it are a lot of trees, flowers, bushes. A river feeds the lake, coming down the side of the mountain that continues up. On the other side of the lake, where the mountains starts to go down, another river drains the lake waters. There are no animals nor humans or other species in sight.

That downside just seems way too negligible for an untapped three color dual. There’s so much you can do to avoid it- play mainly creatures, play mainly noncreatures, only play one spell each turn, make sure you use this mana for the last spell each turn. It’s just way too easy to avoid.

Kessig, Wild and Pure // Kessig, Forever Free by @piccadilly-blue​

You really didn’t need to make this card legendary. That’s rarely a great balancing choice unless it’s super problematic when there are multiple out, cause you don’t want to leave it stranded in players’ hands, and I don’t think this is strong enough that it needs that extra balancing factor anyway. A land that introduces day/night is pretty risky- there’s a reason we didn’t see any one drops that do so and a land is even a step farther. If you play this turn one, you can skip casting any spell and it will be night, and even if your opponent is able to get a one drop off they still won’t be able to cast two. It gives you a massive advantage of all your werewolves coming down flipped. The difference between games where you draw this land in your opener and games where you don’t are huge. I also wonder if this can afford a little more power in the activated ability, especially on the backside.

Silent Mangrove by @izzet-always-r-versus-u​

This card is interesting, cause there’s a lot of color combos it could be, and they’d tell you something different. If this was UW or UB, it would indicate more of a draw-go controlly deck. If it was UR, I’d expect something a bit more spellslingery. UG is gonna be draw-go-ish as well, but with a lot more flash creatures. More of a midrange than a control. And I do think that’s the most interesting place for this particular card, so I’m glad you went with this version. This card doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles, it doesn’t have any utility function and I don’t think it really needs it. An activated ability could be useful, since it gives you something to do with mana that you hold up, but this might be strong enough as is; it’s quite good at fixing in the right deck.

Stillriver Cemetery by @squeezyboi​

This just seems too strong. Functionally cantripping on entry is *a lot* of value for any land, let alone a dual land. This does have a restriction on what decks can use it, yes, but I still think it’s just too much value for those decks. And undead batching mechanics like this always have weird edge cases. This includes Kami and any other nature-spirit-types, but excludes a lot of other traditional undead. So I’m just not sure there’s an intuitive set of what creature types should be undead, you’d get different answers from different people (though these are a pretty decent group, I will say).

Scorched Front by @bandswithblog​

There’s no fair use for this card. If you’re using it fairly, it’s bad, it’s just way too slow. If you’re playing this, it’s cause you’re looking to kill lots and lots of creatures to get a decent chunk of mana all at once. “Useless or broken” is just not all that fun of a place to be.

Thanks, y’all for your entries! Have a happy new year!

[swirlmup]

Well well welly well well....

Let's talk about the art I made for the finale and the last couple character designs revealed, shall we?

It was an all-hands-on-deck situation, and I was able to contribute to one of the final scenes. I hadn't gotten to draw Maria yet this volume, and so that's what I request for this final assignment.

After my last scene with Adam, I had foolishly believed I wouldn't have to draw the Atlas rifles again. Nope! xD I also kinda uh, just put whatever for the mermaid grimm, and wasn't super clear that they had a specific look, so i just sorta drew generally aquatic monsters, but it works out anyways and nobody called me out on it wwwww

The mech was also a bit of a pickle! Had to ask other sketchies for ref images, and I think the design of the mech was still in flux right up to the very last possible second. Still though, skyscraper-sized robots are always fun.

Maria was such a treat to draw, I love how she's simultaneously full of wisdom and also continuously very confused on how qrow and ruby are related.

We in this house don't believe in "cheating" in art, but we do believe in taking shortcuts. Plus it turned out bretty coo.

Got some help with this! perspective is a weak point for me, but felly sketchy Jayjaybase was able to procure a better ref image for me than what I was finding off of google, and it helped a lot for the overall look of the thing.

Serious Maria, giving her final words as a mentor to Qrow.

This was another fun shot to do. Yang waving with her stump is probably my favorite part lol.

Qrow's the kind of character where I always fret if I'll be able to draw him and his tricky hair right, but one way or another he always seems to turn out okay.

It was surprisingly tricky for me to find a good reference image for Qrow's running legs here, luckily posemaniacs came in to save the day.

This was a fun sequence to do, i always like imagining what a person looks like mid-transformation into whatever animal they turn into, the way their body and features must contort. I wonder if I'll get to do more stuff like that in the future?

Lowkey hilarious that Maria didn't have the slightest inkling that Qrow could turn into a bird until this very moment, and her reaction is just "neat!" Perfect note to end that scene on imo lmao

Now on to the last two character designs of the volume!

First up, worst girl, Cinder! There was quite a bit of debate on how to handle Cinder, especially since I personally actually quite liked her canon Atlas outfit, and didn't want to deviate too strongly from it. Overall though, it was decided that she should keep more of her red motif and a lot of the more classy elements from her previous designs. A soft gradient on her cloak helps tie in the colors from her feathers and keeps her legs from disappearing into the cloak. She feels a lot more like a mage here, with us wanting to lean more into her maiden status. As a rule I'm not fond of Cinder, but when you're doing character design, you kinda gotta find a way to sympathize and get in the character's head to find the roots of their personality to design from, and I like to think I was able to find an approachable middle ground with her.

Malachite's new outfit! For realsies this time and not just a cobbling together of her old outfit with her sister's!

Originally back when Malachite reappears and fights with Cinder, she was meant to appear in the casual!outfit shown in this sheet, her hair already cut to its new length. However, for various reasons, the artists for that scene ended up using her vol.5 cobbled design, and the casual!outfit was never used. A shame, I'm so fond of clothes that defy gravitate and look like they're about to fall off xD

But nonetheless! Malachite's Atlas outfit was largely inspired by a particularly eclectic gothic/punk lolita dress that was shared in the server from online, which got some tweaks and adjustments for dressing malachite in. We're dialing up the intensity of Mal's mental schisms here, two brains existing in one person and generally getting along, yet clashing even so. Gave her more simplified hand weapons, as well as increasing the size of her ankle blades to better match the size of her hand-blades. The main idea behind her was for her to be a blender in a cocktail dress lol. Very excited for her to do more stuff in the future of FRWBY!

And that concludes volume 6! Thank you all so much for watching and reading my art commentaries! Hope to see you again as Fixing RWBY continues! Fare well!

[brutish-impulse]

Linux gaming experiment

In the last two weeks, I decided to stop bitching about Windows 11 and see what Linux gaming has been up to. The last time I tried it was about 10 years ago and it seemed pretty hit-and-miss.

I've been trying it again on my new used MSI Bravo 15 laptop (CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800H; GPU: Radeon RX 5500M). The Linux OS I installed is Ubuntu 22.10.

I'm very impressed! Almost everything I tried just worked! It's also become much more user-friendly. You don't really need to mess around with Wine (the Windows compatibility tool on Linux) yourself anymore.

I'm probably still staying on Windows 10 on my desktop gaming PC, but it's nice to know there's an alternative.

More details under the cut.

Steam

I found Steam super easy. Some games already have a native Linux port. To install a Windows game, you first have to click the gear icon, go to Properties and then Compatibility. There you can select a Proton version to run the game with. (Proton is Valve's Windows compatibility tool, based on Wine.) The default is Proton Experimental which, despite the name, mostly just worked for the games I tried.

Lutris

Lutris is basically a universal game front-end that runs games for you with Wine or with an emulator. With Windows games, it installs the game for you and applies some tweaks as needed. You just need to select your game and give it the installer.exe for it. If it can be legally downloaded, Lutris can also just do that for you.

Games I tried

Guilty Gear Strive (Steam) Just works! Also no performance problems, even on the usual problem stages like L'oro Di Ilyria or Ajatar Hunting Ground. That's of course hardware-dependent, but it doesn't seem like Proton has a massive performance cost. I should note that there was a weird graphical glitch on the character select screen with Proton Experimental. It looked normal with Proton 7.0-5.

I have not tried it online because if I play on the wifi here, I'm gonna get blocked by the entire player base. Same for all other fighting games. I might try it For Science when I get home.

Guilty Gear XX Λ Core (Steam) Doesn't play the intro which is a shame because I really like the music. That's literally my only complaint.

Magic Arena (Lutris) Just worked, using the "modern" installer in Lutris. I got graphical glitches with the self-updating one.

Magic: The Gathering Online (Lutris) The only game that didn't work. It's unreasonably slow at the best of times, but this time, every game action just took forever to process. I lost by timeout playing a red aggro deck! Some people on reddit report problems like that on Windows too, so I don't know if Wine is to blame here.

Civilization 4 I installed the version from GOG using only Wine, just to see if I could still manage it myself. I needed to apply some tweaks suggested on WineHQ, but then it was fine.

I very briefly tried out some other Windows games on Steam without running into any problems: Planet Zoo, DNF Duel, Melty Blood, Resident Evil. I also tested some games with native Linux ports (Crusader Kings 2, Them's Fightin' Herds, Fantasy Strike) which all worked fine. Well, it would've been sad if they didn't, right?

[thewul]

design notes: so there we have it, the machines room set up with 2 no return ducts feeding air unto it, this whole set up is ceiling embedded

we can also see the air exchange platforms that we have mentioned, these connect to the floor of the deck above that would be Underdeck 02

likewise for the repeaters that we put in place in the main ducts it becomes feasible, and desirable to put redundancy in the IN system by placing other secondary, well actually primary fans at the mouths of the intake conducts beneath the air exchange surface

that surface is made of perforated steel, probably some kind of strong mesh

now in between the volume of that platform beneath the floor of Underdeck 02, and this other volume implemented beneath the ceiling of the machines deck we are actually dealing with a collection chamber, that has an actual sizeable, ie interesting, volume

and it is, in that volume, that the IN system collects its volumes of air, from Underdeck O2, O1, and the Upperdeck,

as in a stack of perforated floors along the area of these air exchangers, or collectors

this solution allows us to tap into the volumes of most of the ship as we have decks that so far have been connected only through the main lifts, and later on through the stairs that we have put in place in the back of Underdeck O1 and O2

maybe we should now see what takes place above the machine rooms collection, for clarity we are going to subtract the 2 no return ducts feeding into the machine room and focus on what is above them

so before we go over our second set up

no we are not splitting the fans for the machines room, and no the machine rooms is not going to take all of the output

first we are using flaps within the no return ducts for that room, second its volume is limited so how much air can it take, the area is the oval that we see in dark gray

second we do not actually need to ventilate it as often, no one lives there, yet, we only need to deal with diesel fumes build ups that can only become an issue in case we are not tidy, in checking regularly for leaks so forth,

and such issues would only materialize if the maintenance of the ship is floppy, and only after so many years, we do not expect to encounter such issues right away

so everywhere I looked online it said that space aboard a submarine is sparse, and it turned out to be a thing for the Cuba Libre as well

my first thoughts getting started on this HVAC project is where could I fit it with the existing, if at all, luckily we had those filter rooms in place and room for the HVAC unit itself, but what about the HVAC ducts

as we see here going through the inner hull to implement the main OUT duct within the Blueskin layer provided for neat workable solution

and going vertically to service all of the decks including the Sky Deck and tower decks, including dedicated IN ducts for used air collection

To my knowledge it is the first submarine fully designed and developed in Morocco, and I am quite proud of the turn things have taken, it took a while but the project is proposing a number of innovations in submarines

That's all we have for tonight

Thank you for having followed

design notes continued: the question of how air is exchanged in the machines deck, including the machines room stayed intact, leading to the implementation of no smell filters in front and separate of the main exchange platforms, these ducts, shown in black, connect to a compressor below that we need to tweak to also act as an air pump with possibly additional filters

whereas we needed to treat air for condensation and couldn't do so using main air exchange platforms causing a condensation build up within the filters room, so why let it arrive in the chambers in the first place

and so we implemented dedicated platforms for air condensation treatment on top of the machine deck air exchange platforms, using calcium chloride tablets and water tanks

to address the water build up in these, the solution was to implement a separate pipes for water, shown in blue, leading to pumps that we need also put in place in order to have an end to end solution for flushing that water out

the result is a dual use component acting as air moisture collector on top and as an air exchange also no smell filter below to service the machines deck

the plus was to add dual air moisture collector pipes to service the Sky Deck and maybe also the tower, connecting to air condensation collection platforms

basically the same set up as we see here using calcium chloride and water tanks, that we will seek to implement when we get there

nb. these new ducts for water condensation or for the machines deck IN air are equivalent in size to our main OUT ducts, and so these are very capable systems with centrifugal fans for air equivalent to the OUT fans of the system

why put these in place when we have compressors is that will be able to solicit our main compressors less often by splitting the solution in two

the aforementioned components for air collection, the water pumps should be equally capable, allow us to exchange collected used air through no smell filters, and pump collected air moisture out of the ship

the air cycle and compressor/air pump segment is key to the operation of of our diesel engines in the machines room through, ie submerged, turbine chambers as in it is the inception of our diesel fumes collection solution and how these fumes are compressed and evacuated through the turbines, ie submerged, chambers and so in effect the compressor/air pump will at regular intervals aspire air from the machines room, compress it and feed it to the diesel fumes collection ducts, at a compression rate sufficient to make its evacuation through the turbines chamber possible although water pressure surrounding the ship may be very important we find that the dual action of compression and the propelling action of the turbines in their chamber make this solution possible

[casuallyyoa]

ASTREA: SIX-SIDED ORACLE IMPRESSIONS

WHAT

Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles is a new roguelike from Little Leo Games, launched 21st September 2023 (22nd, for those of me in a different timezone). I’ve tried out the demo before, calling it something I’d prioritize among the many, many other games out there. Well, now that it’s out, it’s time for the Casual Impressions.

SETTINGS

The options menu is fairly spartan, but the game doesn’t have that much you really need to tweak anyway.

You have your audio sliders, barebones graphics presets, the ability to change battle speed up to ultra fast, skipping certain animations, a run timer toggle, controls between mouse and controller / keyboard, and miscellaneous options for screenshake, particle effects and data collection. 

Data collection is to send the devs gameplay data and error logs to assist in game balance and does not include personal identifying information. If you’re still concerned, you can turn it off regardless.

Text languages available are:

English

Brazilian Portuguese 

Simple / Traditional Chinese

French

German

Japanese

Korean

Russian

Spanish

While the Ultra battle speed sounds handy for maybe speedrunning and such, it doesn’t seem to affect the actual dice roll animations which while nice, is probably something you might want to skip when it comes to rushing through. 

Since I use the mouse, right-click is for viewing a die’s face. Maybe there could be a toggle for quick use when it comes to area of effect dice.

PRESENTATION

Astrea is mostly in this gorgeous blue, purple and gold trim colour palette. It quite reminds me of tarot, as you lay out the cloth and prepare your cards for a reading. The dice aside, the blessings you can get look like metal pins you could buy off Etsy - and could totally make for some kickass limited edition merchandise, if you get my drift.

The Oracles and the purifying they do are blue, while the corruption is in red. The corruption can morph pretty much anything into terrifying, dangerous entities; if they are sentient beings, they scurry off to the right side of the screen once you help them regain their senses.

I do wonder how much being colourblind can affect someone when it comes to playing this game. We can take visual clarity for granted sometimes.

GAMEPLAY

Gameplay wise, Astrea has not changed drastically from the demo. You have your dice with all their faces of effects that make up your deck. ‘Safe’ dice usually don’t have the biggest numbers, but you’re at least assured you wouldn’t roll something that could be devastating, unlike ‘Risky’ dice which generally have bombastic effects, both good and bad. Mostly bad?

With your dice in hand, you proceed from node to node, picking up more dice options, finding encounters, and what have you. You can have up to two Sentinels, your support buddies offering more dice to complement your chosen character’s playstyle. Their HP is pretty low and don’t all get the ability to attack, so they’re not the most reliable helpers if they don’t have the spread of dice you want.

You will need to balance between Purifying and Corruption, more so if you’re picking out risky dice. You can inflict Corruption on yourself to activate your spread of Virtues - the row of icons above your health bar - but too much, and you’d accidentally lose one of your lives. 

You can’t throw all the Corruption onto the enemies either; it will heal them and trigger Overcorruption abilities once they reach the threshold to immediately perform an action you probably would rather avoid. That’s not forgetting any potential passive effects they have. The least you can do is hover over the smaller icons and read up on what they do.

Once you’ve cleared a single run with a given Oracle, you can start ramping up the difficulty via Anomaly levels a la something like Slay the Spire’s Ascension. You will want to try out all the characters to level them up to unlock even more things for later runs, as you might expect.

One thing I found a little odd was that there wasn’t an Abandon Run option right now. As it happens, forfeiting a run means you don’t get any experience towards levelling up that character. So even if you’re in a run you feel is hopeless, you need to keep on going anyway otherwise you make no progress. I would have thought games like these usually give a nominal amount towards unlocks, but different games, different systems.

CONCLUSION

Well, is it much of a surprise I really like this game following from the demo? It’s pretty simple to grasp, though of course it won’t prevent me from yelling at unfavourable rerolls. I wanted to work on a 'review' once I managed to complete a run with a character which happened a little sooner than I thought, so there’s certainly more to be had. As it is, I already liked it, so Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles is a Highly Recommended.