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defectivevillain · 3 months

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every tomb, every sea (spit the blood from your teeth)

pairing: Hannibal Lecter/Reader

summary:

Your head throbs and you bring a hand up to your temple, frowning when your hand comes back spotted with blood. Your ears are still ringing and a dull ache travels through your cheekbones and across your jaw. ALERT: This PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) has now rebooted in emergency mode with one directive: to keep you alive on an alien world.

The reader's race and gender are ambiguous; no pronouns or physical descriptors are used.

word count: 7.5k | ao3 version

author's notes: This was supposed to be Hannibal-focused, but Subnautica quickly took hold of my brain and didn’t let go. Sorry not sorry. This is super self-indulgent and I am not ashamed.

This will not be canon compliant, because I haven’t finished the game yet. (Please please please don’t spoil it for me, I will cry.) PDA messages (except for the last one) are taken directly from the game! And to maintain biblical accuracy (haha), I wrote the beginning from the game’s opening scene.

warnings: mentions of cannibalism; blood/violence, ocean exploration (swimming, strange creatures); prolonged isolation; derealization, depression, hopelessness, survivor’s guilt, and contemplating life and death; panic attacks, hyperventilation, dry heaving; and some spoilers for Subnautica. Just… the trauma of crashing on an alien planet…! Being alone for so long..! It’s so crazy!111!

During your time on the Aurora, you never expected it to malfunction. And maybe that was optimistic of you but… hell, it’s a brand new-ship! As an employee of Alterra, you were privy to the majority of the ship’s construction process. The organization was unusually methodical with this particular ship’s development, ensuring that everything was up to regulation before dispatching the vehicle. You suppose you can understand that—after all, there were about 150 passengers designated to the ship. Even a commercial giant like Alterra can understand the potential fallout of losing that many lives—especially ones tied to the company’s inner workings.

Safe to say, when you first heard the alarm sound off, you thought it was a drill. That notion was quickly dispelled, however, when you noticed how your companions scrambled about to ensure their safety. It seemed that this was no drill. A voice coming from the comms urged you to abandon ship, striking fear into your heart and forcing you into motion. You raced down the hall and towards the nearest escape pod, climbing down the ladder and finding the nearby seat before pressing the button to launch the pod. Restraints immediately swept down over your shoulders, anchoring you to the seat. Immediately, you felt the pod shake as it separated from the Aurora; when you glanced up, you could catch a glimpse of the ship through the hatch in the ceiling. For an awful moment, everything seemed to fall to a horrible silence. Frozen, you watched through the hatch as the sky was suddenly overtaken with a rusty crimson—loud booming sounds confirming your fears that the Aurora was exploding. You grasped at the restraints with sweaty hands as the pod continued to tremble and shake around you. The fire extinguisher wrenched its way off of the wall and the cover for the control panel flew off, bouncing around the space as the pod hurtled down through the sky with increased speed. Alarms blared and red lights flashed menacingly. You could hardly take a breath before the metal lid of the control panel suddenly rushed towards you, sending a harsh pain through your head and submerging your vision in an overwhelming darkness.

The first sensation you register when you wake is an uncomfortable heat stinging your skin. As you blink your dry eyes open, you realize that you’re still strapped into your seat—restrained as fire roars along the pod. You frantically press at the button to release you, and it takes a few moments before the device finally lifts from your shoulders and leaves you to get off of the seat. Smoke has already settled in the air, and the flames have overtaken nearly half of the pod already. You don’t think you have much time. Coughing, you make a grab for the fire extinguisher—which lies precariously near the fire—and attempt to extinguish the flames. Within a minute, the flames have died down—leaving you to take in the tarnished lifepod around you. The control panel is shooting sparks and the smoke is slowly fading from the air. Taking a deep breath, you pull out your Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) and tap on the screen with a shaking finger. Immediately, the screen turns blue and displays a message:

[BOOTING IN EMERGENCY MODE]

[LOADING…]

100%

PDA ALERT: You have suffered minor head trauma. This is considered an optimal outcome.

You blink dazedly and grab at the ladder in the middle of the pod, needing to regain your balance. You’re not sure how long you stand there, the far too calm programmed voice of the PDA droning in your ears. Moments later, when spots stop dancing before your eyes, you regard the PDA in your hand and read the alert.

PDA ALERT: This PDA has now rebooted in emergency mode with one directive: to keep you alive on an alien world.

Back on the Aurora, you mainly used the PDA to monitor your health—while occasionally glancing at the Databank feature to do research on your intended destination. You never explored the device at length, because you didn’t think you would need to. Of course, you regret that now—as you’re scrolling through the device’s interfaces and attempting to learn how to use it. As the alert mentioned, it appears that you’re stranded on an alien planet. Dread coiling in your chest, you finally glance up at the hatch on the ceiling of the pod. You spot a flash of movement—likely a bird of some sort—but it is quickly lost in the overwhelming canvas of blue sky.

PDA ALERT: Please refer to the databank for detailed survival advice. Good luck.

You huff a wry laugh. You’re going to need all the luck you can get. Shaking your head, you swallow hard and start climbing up the ladder. While you’d like to hide in your pod forever, you know that you’ll need to survey your surroundings for resources. The pod has a radio that is definitely damaged; one fabricator for crafting raw materials into items and another for medical kits; and a limited amount of rations—with only two bottles of water and two nutrient blocks. It’s abundantly clear to you, in that moment, that the pod isn’t meant for long-term habitation. Taking a deep breath, you ascend up the ladder and stand on the ceiling of your pod, only to find vivid turquoise waters all around you. You look around frantically, only to realize that there’s no land in sight. The only disruption from the crystal waves of the ocean… is the fiery, crumbling wreckage of the Aurora. Smoke billows from several areas of the ship, and flames race across the surface. You feel something tighten in your throat and you choke on a breath, tears falling down your cheeks as you try to come to terms with the horrible reality you’re faced with.

PDA ALERT: The Aurora suffered orbital hull failure. Cause: unknown. Zero human life signs detected.

Zero signs of life. You fall down to your knees and grasp at the wet railing at the top of the ladder, fighting for breath. Your chest feels tight, your eyes burn, and you’re overcome with emotion. One thought cuts through all the static in your mind: you have no fucking idea what you’re doing. You can hardly survive in optimal conditions! How in the hell are you going to survive in the middle of the ocean, with no food or clean water in sight?

You desperately scan the horizon for other escape pods, but all you can see is the ocean. There’s no sign of any human life, except for you. The thought is nauseating enough to make you dry heave. You cough and hack until you regain your breath, then get to your feet once more and attempt to push away your spiraling thoughts. Sitting around and moping won’t do you any good. You suppress the urge to curl into a ball and descend down the ladder of your pod to survey its condition. Besides the broken control panel and radio, everything appears to be functioning properly. You decide to look through your PDA again, paying special attention to the section titled “Survival Package.” You read through the attached “Survival Checklist” and attempt to remain calm, despite everything in you screaming that you aren’t ready for this.

It’s a good thing first aid is listed as the first item on the list—you had entirely forgotten about your head wound. You take a first aid kit from the medical fabricator and apply it, successfully getting rid of the pulsating feeling that was concentrated in your temple. The steps after that are fairly self-explanatory, but it’s nice to have a formal list to hold yourself accountable. Feeling a bit overwhelmed, you take a deep breath and look around the pod. There are a few existing blueprints on your PDA—one of which is a repair tool that will supposedly fix the radio. The radio is probably your priority right now, although you have a gnawing feeling deep in your chest that a rescue party won’t arrive. Unsurprisingly, you need several materials to make the repair tool—titanium, silicone rubber, and cave sulfur. You don’t have the faintest idea how to get any of those items, but you suspect they must be contained in the seemingly unending ocean you landed in.

Heart racing, you climb down the side of the pod and take a deep breath, before submerging yourself under water. Thankfully, it looks like your pod landed in a relatively safe and shallow area. There are sand banks that rise and fall in peaks and cliffs, with brightly colored coral scattered about their surfaces. You spot a grey-brown rock nearby and swim up to it, surprised to find that it yields copper ore when you strike at it. The moment you receive the copper ore, your PDA scares the life out of you by providing commentary.

PDA ALERT: Copper is an essential component of all powered equipment. Your probability of survival has just increased to unlikely, but plausible.

You shake your head in disbelief, gritting your teeth and swimming back up for air. Thankfully, you were provided a standard oxygen tank. Unfortunately, it doesn’t last very long—forcing you to return to the surface rather frequently to regain your breath. Now that you have copper, you just need titanium—which is supposedly a common resource here—and silicone rubber. The silicone rubber can be crafted from creepvine seeds from the nearby plants, and you manage to swim over and grab some without disturbing the scary creature that resembles a crocodile. Along the way, you find scraps of metal that can be converted into titanium. By the time you’re back in your pod, the sun has set and you have all the materials you need to make the repair tool. It takes you a few minutes to craft everything correctly, but soon enough, you have a repair tool.

The device is rather cool, you have to admit. It stitches things back together at an atomic level, which is pretty fascinating to watch. You don’t have much time to devote to admiring its power, however, as you focus your efforts on sending a distress message through the newly-repaired radio. Once that’s done, you eat a bit of one of the nutrient blocks and sip on some water. Soon, food and water are going to be your biggest problems. While you remember the Aurora having a rather large cafeteria, the food was likely destroyed in the fires.

You’re soon torn out of your thoughts by a blinking red light on your radio. Hope brewing in your chest, you jump and immediately press the button to play the message you just received.

RADIO: This is Aurora. Distress signal received. Rescue operation will be dispatched to your location in 9….9….9….9…9 hours.

You stare ahead at the radio in disbelief. A helpless, disbelieving laugh wrenches its way out of your throat. Surely that must’ve been a glitch. There’s- there’s no way help will take that long to arrive. Right? You bite the inside of your cheek hard enough to taste blood, before deciding that you’ll save that problem for the morning (whenever that is). From what you can tell, the planet has periods resembling day and night. Admittedly, you’re exhausted. And, if a small part of you hopes that this is all just a dream, and you’ll wake up in your bed on the Aurora…

You dispel the thought and take a seat, before breathing in through your nose and closing your eyes. Despite everything that has happened—and the practically unquestionable fact that your chances at survival are horrifyingly low—you fall asleep.

In the days following your landing, it’s easy to lose track of time. You have no idea how many days you’ve spent on this planet… and you find that you don’t really care to keep track. You’ve been forced to focus on your own survival, especially as you slowly but surely make your way out of the biome you landed in and explore nearby. Once you craft a Scanner, you’re able to get blueprints from fragments of technology you find on the sea floor—in addition to scanning flora and fauna to learn more about them. The Scanner is very helpful, as you’re able to learn what plants and fish are edible without testing them yourself.

You’ve crafted some other useful items with the help of the fabricator in your pod, including a rebreather to conserve oxygen, fins, and a radiation suit; a flashlight; and a waterproof locker for increased storage. Ultimately, you haven’t had much time to focus on crafting items—you’ve been busy ensuring you have enough food and water. Not to mention, since you repaired your radio, you’ve received a few transmissions from other life pods—which has led you to explore the waters as you search for survivors.

The first lifepod you come across is Lifepod 3. They shared their coordinates through the radio, expressing the desire for someone to rescue them. Fortunately, their pod isn’t far from your own—and you swim over to the area with the guidance of your PDA, only to realize that Lifepod 3 is completely underwater. It rests innocuously on the edge of a small cliff. As you swim down, wary of the Stalkers that explore the waters nearby, you feel inexplicably apprehensive. It isn’t until you’re at the pod’s level that you discover the source of your apprehension. Lifepod 3 appears fine from above, but one side of the pod has been torn apart. There is no one inside—absolutely no sign that anyone even inhabited it, aside from the abandoned PDA resting on the ground and the metal scraps scattered throughout the sand. Needing air, you grab the PDA and swim up to the surface. Breathless, you tread water and look through the abandoned PDA, only to find a voice log from the two inhabitants. They were discussing a Seaglide—one of the forms of transport that you only have half of the blueprints for. There was a clear sense of fear in their voices, even as they evidently attempted to remain calm.

You don’t know how to handle this revelation: the utter absence of any survivors (or even their remains)… the giant hole in the Lifepod, as if it had been swiftly ripped apart by some large creature… You feel sick to your stomach. Somehow, you manage to make it back to your pod. Honestly, you don’t remember swimming back from Lifepod 3. The wreckage is burned into your mind’s eye. Every time you blink, you see the pod getting attacked by a Leviathan—a class of organism you recently learned about after seeing the Reefback Leviathan in all its massive glory. Thankfully, the Reefback Leviathan—a positively humongous creature reminiscent of a squid—only feeds on plankton. You have an awful feeling whatever attacked Lifepod 3 had a much more voracious appetite.

Against all odds, you manage to keep moving forward in the wake of what you saw. It certainly isn’t easy, and you’re sure that the feelings you’re compartmentalizing will come rushing back eventually. But you have no choice. Survival on this planet takes up nearly all of your energy. You don’t have time to think about all of the death and destruction. You can’t slow down, can’t stop even for a moment. Otherwise… you fear you’ll lose yourself in the tragedy of it all.

And just as you think things can’t get worse… they do. You’re forced to watch from afar as the Aurora experiences quantum detonation, sending the reactor into a critical state and releasing radiation into the nearby area. Soon you’re crafting a radiation suit and proceeding as if things are normal. According to your PDA, the radioactive fallout from the ship will have irreversible effects on the ecosystem. Even worse, there’s nothing you can do right now. You would need a hundred fire extinguishers to quench all of the flames on the ship. Not to mention, when you do attempt to get close to the Aurora, you’re intercepted by a Leviathan organism. You have no idea what it is—all you know is that it’s extremely long with four pincers, deep, soulless black eyes, and sharpened teeth. You just barely manage to escape the thing’s grasp by swimming along the surface of the water… but you take some damage in the process. The creature bites your arm before you can swim out of range. Even after you’re safely concealed in your pod, your heart is positively pounding out of your chest.

You’re beginning to find that you’re very lucky, for a variety of reasons: your pod’s landing at the surface, first of all; not to mention, you sustained minimal injuries in the crash. The other survivors weren’t nearly as fortunate, you slowly learn. With each new radio transmission, you adventure out to the depths and find another Lifepod utterly wrecked and torn apart. You have yet to find a single living person. Instead, you’re forced to chase after ghosts—scavenging the wreckage and collecting the abandoned PDAs.

At some point, you have to wonder: is any of this worth it? Is all of this effort really worth your survival? Moreover, why are you the one who has survived so long? What supernatural force decided that you get to live, while all of the other passengers you’re finding are banished to increasingly cruel fates? The survivor’s guilt you feel only increases with each empty Lifepod you find. The names begin to blur together. You can’t even count how many pods you’ve come across at this point—the thought is just too soul-crushing. And try as you might to avenge each person in your continued fight for survival… sometimes you just feel as if it’s all pointless and hopeless.

That guilt is only exacerbated by a rescue party’s arrival into the atmosphere. You reach a nearby island where they’re supposed to land, only for alien technology to attack the ship upon its entry into the atmosphere. You’re forced to watch once more as a ship of innocent people explodes before your very eyes.

Ultimately, you find yourself getting trapped in a never-ending routine. First, you find a clue that points to something that could help your chances at survival: a blueprint for some device or weapon, another Lifepod, a promise of rescue. Then, you investigate—only to realize that the device isn’t as useful as you thought, that the Lifepod is just a tattered shell, that rescue isn’t coming. Then grief wins. Eventually, something in you fights off the sadness and pushes you to keep going. You find hope in something new… and the brutal cycle continues.

Somewhere along the way, though, you start to lose the feeling of hope altogether. After all, there are only so many times you can hope for something that will never happen. It’s a devastating blow to your psyche to constantly have the promise of survival ripped away from you. To protect yourself, you stop hoping for the best and start expecting the worst. This leads you to become some sort of husk of your former self.

Even the prospect of a new island isn’t enough to trigger any positive feelings in you. You just feel… empty. The beautiful scenery doesn’t provoke any sentiment in you. You don’t feel anything as you trudge up the hill that almost appears to have a worn footpath. You don’t feel anything as you enter a base and find an empty desk, an indoor growth bed, and a fabricator. You don’t feel anything as you search through the abandoned PDA and listen to the voice logs of more people who likely died in the time since the recording.

Then a shadow passes across the floor at your feet, and the void of emotion in your chest is swiftly replaced with bone-deep fear. You tried to be cautious as you explored this island—looking around at the nearby wildlife to ensure there wasn’t anything that could hurt you. Was there an unseen predator lurking in the shadows? Your PDA did say that there were subtle signs of life here, but you had dismissed the message. Your heart thundering in your chest, you slowly turn around—only to find a shadowed figure in the doorway of the base.

You flinch hard, hitting the wall behind you as you instinctively backpedal. When the figure takes another step closer, you immediately brandish your survival knife and hold it up threateningly. In the first few days since the crash, you wouldn’t have seen a need for the survival knife past retrieving samples from coral and creepvines. However, it’s been a long time since then—and you aren’t so foolish as to think that this alien planet will welcome you with open arms. You don’t belong here and you never have. Each day in this world, in these crystal waters, is an act of defiance against the aliens that reside here and the creatures that roam the dark depths.

The figure takes another step forward and the light from the base illuminates their face, revealing… another human. The two of you stare at one another in shock and disbelief. The man stares at you, eyes roaming up your body before finally settling on your face. You scrutinize him in the same regard, taking note of his unruffled appearance. He’s wearing a dive suit just like yours, but his hair is perfectly coiffed—as if he hasn’t gone underwater in several days. His eyes are a warm brown, with flecks of crimson. There’s something in his expression that you can’t quite pin down—and it unsettles you enough to hold your knife out in an attempt to keep the distance between you. “Don’t come any closer,” you warn him.

PDA ALERT: Your vitals are rising past normal levels, despite your stationary position. Take caution and move to distance yourself from the stressor.

Curse your PDA and its unfortunate timing. The stranger only seems amused by the commentary, as he holds his hands up in mock-surrender before posing a question. “How did you get here?” He asks, eyes flitting about the base as if looking for signs of your forced entrance. It takes you a few moments to realize that he’s asking about your arrival to the island in general—not necessarily his base.

“I swam,” you respond sarcastically. Very little of your frustration is pointed at him, but venting about your situation to another living, breathing human takes some of the pressure off. You take a deep breath and try to summon some better manners. He’s the only human you’ve come across so far—and he may be the only one you ever find. You need to make a decent impression if you want to collaborate with him. “From my pod.” You explain.

“You landed in the ocean,” he states, his brows climbing up his face in evident disbelief.

“The flotation device was activated, so I landed on the surface.” You answer. You’re not sure why you’re telling him so much, especially when you don’t exactly have a reason to trust him yet. Of course, you want nothing more than to have another human to work with—but this is a matter of life and death. And hell, you haven’t met the aliens of this planet yet. Maybe they have shapeshifting abilities. The thought sounds rather ridiculous, you have to admit.

“Are you from the Aurora too?” The man questions, confirming your suspicions that he was stranded due to the ship’s crash—just like you.

“Yes,” you admit. Really, the crash is the only logical explanation for a human’s presence here on this planet.

“I’ve never seen you before,” the man continues, staring at you intently. He seems surprised that the two of you didn’t cross paths on the Aurora. But there were more than 150 people on it, after all. You tell him as much and he seems to accept that explanation. Although, secretly, you’re wondering the same thing.

The man’s gaze flits down to your knife, nonverbally questioning if you still need to be pointing the weapon at him. You shrug, not making a move to lower it. Instead, you gesture at him expectantly. “What’s your name?”

“Hannibal Lecter,” the man answers. Somehow, that name seems to fit him. “And yours?”

You tell him your name and he hums, staring at you as if trying to fit your face to your name. Eventually, you grow tired of his staring and continue walking through the base. Surprisingly, within a few moments, you hear Hannibal following behind you. You try to ignore him, but it grows increasingly more difficult.

“Might I ask what you’re looking for?” Hannibal asks calmly. At least, you think he’s trying to sound calm—but there’s an air of annoyance veiled within his tone. You continue surveying the space, looking for anything that could be useful. You’re not going to take anything from him—you just want to ensure that you’re gaining all of the necessary resources from this island.

“Anything, really,” you remember to respond, after you turn around and nearly crash into him. You quickly take a step back, beginning to suspect that Hannibal enjoys these small displays of intimidation. You really can’t be bothered by your own pride, so you decide to let him have them. “Is this your base? I saw others…” You trail off, crossing your arms over your chest. Something about this conversation is making you feel more vulnerable than normal. You attribute it to a lack of human contact.

“This one is mine,” Hannibal replies. You can sense he’s nearing the end of his patience, so you eye the door and plan to walk out of the base. Hannibal doesn’t move from his position in the doorway of the multipurpose room, forcing you to brush past him as you walk by. With your back turned to him, you roll your eyes and walk back outside.

But again, he’s following you. At first, you pretend that you don’t notice. But your patience is quickly worn thin, and you turn on your heel to level him with a wary glare. “Why are you following me?”

Hannibal remains silent, but somehow, you can sense what he’s thinking from the minute signs written across his form: the furrow of his brow, the pull of his lips.

“This isn’t your island,” you feel the need to assert. “None of this is yours. We’re not meant to be here—you should know that.” So stop following me around, you think to yourself. But even this harsh dismissal is not enough to dissuade Hannibal, as he instead smiles an infuriatingly patient smile and continues to follow behind you.

Eventually, you give up on trying to get him to go away—and the two of you manage to strike up a conversation (albeit an awkwardly stilted and tense one). You both recount your descents from the Aurora, your crash landings on this planet, and the ensuing efforts at survival. Hannibal had landed near the island that the two of you are standing on now, which provided him with a safe haven from the sea monsters that lurked nearby. You trade blueprints and stories with him, finding his presence to be comforting. It’s been so long since you’ve had someone to talk to. And even if Hannibal seems a little off for reasons you can’t quite pinpoint—even if he is kind of a smug bastard—he’s still someone to talk to. Plus, he seems to warm up to you once you’re done exploring the bases on the island. The two of you even catch a few fish and cook them up for dinner.

“You should stay,” he suggests after your shared meal, “It’s late.” His eyes flit to the water and you immediately understand what he’s trying to say. You don’t want to test the creatures that roam the night. You take a shuddering breath in, pushing past the inexplicable stab of fear that strikes at you, and decide to take him up on the offer. Hannibal seems strangely relieved after you agree, as if he was genuinely concerned that you wouldn’t survive the night. That’s an entirely fair concern to have, of course. You’re just surprised that he’s worried about you in the first place. You didn’t exactly get the impression that he liked you.

Since you decide that you’re spending the night, you create a simple outfit using the fabricator in his base and remove your dive suit. Despite its efficiency in the water, the suit is incredibly uncomfortable to sleep in. With that in mind, you’re quick to change into your new clothes: a simple tank top and sweatpants. Hannibal returns moments later, only to stare at you silently for several moments. Growing self-conscious, you ask him what’s wrong.

The man is still quiet. Then, suddenly, he lurches forwards—breaking the distance between you and looking you up and down. The thought sends a shiver down your spine, until you realize that he’s cataloging the scars littered across your arms. Hannibal seems to take particular interest in the bite mark on your shoulder—from the Leviathan creature that you later learned to be aptly named a Reaper.

“How did you get this?” He breathes, his hand coming to grasp your shoulder. You barely resist the urge to flinch. You’ve grown to forget casual human contact in the wake of the crash. Physical touch since then could only be categorized as harmful: fish biting at you with sharp teeth, serpentine creatures brushing past you…

“A Reaper Leviathan,” you respond after a second. His eyes are fixed on the mark with worrying intensity. “I was trying to get close to the ship.” At his silence, you continue. “...It’s kind of ugly, I know.” You grimace.

Hannibal’s thumb brushes along the mark and his eyes meet yours. “It’s beautiful,” he murmurs, before turning his attention to the scar once more. “A mark of your continued survival.” You’re not sure why he seems so fascinated by it. Maybe he hasn’t seen a Reaper before? You can’t be sure. You suppose you’re just fortunate that he didn’t seem disgusted by the scar.

“If you say so,” you choke out, lost for words. A prolonged silence settles over the space.

“I don’t have a spare bed, I apologize,” Hannibal then says, his eyes falling to the room down the hall. It must be his bedroom, you think. This notion is confirmed when he motions for you to follow after him, as he leads you into the room. It’s a fairly nondescript room, with a desk off to one side and a bed in the corner. You must’ve missed this room when you were exploring before.

“It’s fine,” you say, when you remember the conversation. “I can sleep on the floor.” That’s really the last thing you want to do, but he doesn’t need to know that.

“Nonsense,” he says with a shake of his head. “You can sleep here.” He says, moving to sit on the right side of the bed and leaving the left half for you.

You stare at the space he’s left for you for a long moment. Eventually, your fatigue wins against your apprehension. “...Okay.” You acquiesce, moving to sit next to him and tugging the covers over you. For a moment, the air falls silent. As you’re closing your eyes, you’re struck with the urge to maintain some semblance of mundanity. “Goodnight.”

“Pleasant dreams.” He responds, his voice sounding weirdly thick. You’re not so deluded to think that the emotion in his voice is because of you. But, regardless, you think you understand the sentiment: the confirmation that you aren’t completely alone in this world is reassuring and overwhelming in equal measure.

Despite these thoughts and countless more musings, you manage to drift off in no time. When you open your eyes that morning, you find Hannibal staring at you. You freeze and stare at him back, unsure of what to do. After a moment, you inch backwards slightly and he lurches forward, his jaw suddenly snapping open to reveal rows of impossibly sharp teeth. You scramble backwards with a scream caught in your throat…

…and fall to the ground, jolting awake. Your mind still can’t tell the difference between the waking world and a nightmare, and you feel yourself backing up to the corner of the dark room—holding your hands in front of you in a futile attempt at protecting yourself. Your chest is rising and falling with frightening speed, making your vision blur around the edges. You blink and suddenly Hannibal is kneeling before you, slowly inching his way closer until he’s wrapping his arms around you. You desperately want to resist the gesture, but your pride and dignity went out the window the moment you crashed on this planet. Relenting, you tilt your head down and close your eyes; Hannibal’s hand comes to bracket the back of your head as he presses you to his chest. You’re clutching at him, desperate for the sole reminder of your humanity.

You’re not sure how long Hannibal remains on the floor with you. All you know is that, at some point, your back starts to hurt. You murmur that the two of you should probably get up, and Hannibal tentatively backs away and pushes himself up to his feet—before offering you a hand. After he pulls you up, the two of you head back to the bed. You’re briefly hit with embarrassment, but the feeling fades when Hannibal reassures you that it’s alright. You have no choice but to believe him as you close your eyes and fall asleep once more.

Despite the events of that first day, your time with Hannibal on the island is rather uneventful. You’re lured into a false sense of security by the lush plant life, the calm breeze flowing through the trees, the sparkling waters, and his glittering eyes. You start to think that maybe, just maybe, things will be alright. You find yourself spending more time on the island and less time at your pod (although you do return whenever you need resources)... But it isn’t all good. There’s still one glaring problem: you can’t sleep well.

You were sleeping just fine back on your pod and at your base, but here, you spend hours lying awake as Hannibal sleeps next to you. There’s something in you that just doesn’t want to let your guard down in front of him—some irrational part of you that sees him as another predator, just the same as the ones in the ocean. And at least those monsters are straightforward—they have sharp teeth, so you know to avoid them. But humans are entirely different. They’re all appearances. Hannibal looks non-threatening, but you just can’t shake away that initial wariness. It’s cruel of you to doubt him, after he went out of his way to comfort you that first night. But you can’t quite suppress your skepticism—especially considering it’s a survival mechanism that has gotten you this far.

Wariness, coupled with a restless energy, leads you to step out of his bedroom late one night. You don’t really have an endgame—you just want a breath of fresh air and a break from the shared darkness that always seems to be watching you. Outside, the air does feel nicer. A blanket of stars covers the sky and the waves gently lap at the shore. You rub a hand over your face, turning on your flashlight and navigating down the admittedly treacherous and unstable hillside. You’re not sure where you’re going; you just want to keep moving. Being stationary is dangerous on this planet. To survive, you have to be moving constantly—whether that’s swimming through the water or prioritizing the tools and devices you need to make with the fabricator. If you’re not making progress, then you’re convenient prey.

You soon find yourself near the main base of the island and, after a moment’s hesitation, you decide to explore the multi-purpose room. Back when you first arrived, Hannibal kept a very close eye on you as you investigated. With him breathing down your neck, it was hard to concentrate. Now that you’re alone, you find that you can really take everything in. As you look around, you remember the abandoned PDA you first found on the island, which contained a voice log from the Degasi Crash. The three survivors built the bases around the island (including the one you’re exploring right now). You weren’t able to glean anything else from the voice log, as it mainly contained recordings of the three of them bickering. You would’ve found that humorous in a different situation.

Regardless, that’s the extent of your knowledge regarding the island. But as you remember how Hannibal ushered you through the bases with puzzling rapidity, you have to wonder why he was so eager to get you out of them. Did he think you would stumble upon something incriminating? You contemplate the thought as you look around the space, eyes catching on an abandoned PDA near the far wall. You download the data and listen to the attached voice log, which only makes your heart thud against your ribs quickly.

[DATABANK]

Degasi Voice Log #5 - An Unwelcome Guest

PAUL: There was a new arrival to the island yesterday. He says his name is Hannibal Lecter.

BART: He says he came from the crash. He’s a little…

MARGUERIT: Suspicious. He’s very suspicious.

PAUL: Eccentric is probably a better word.

MARGUERIT: No, he seems dangerous.

BART: How do you know?

MARGUERIT: Trust me, kid.

BART: I’m not a fucking kid!

PAUL: Settle down, you two.

PAUL: We’ll take him in. He could have valuable information.

MARGUERIT: I don’t like this.

PAUL: Frankly, I don’t either. But we don’t have much of a choice, do we?

MARGUERIT: Are you fuckin’ kidding? Of course we have a choice! We can just march down there and take him on! Three on one, no way he’s winning.

PAUL: (sighs)

The transmission clicks off. You stare at the wall in front of you in disbelief, your stomach stewing with anxiety. That gut feeling that something was off… You think you know what it is now. After all, the voice log posits that Paul, Marguerit, and Bart were the first ones on the island. Hannibal arrived after them. That timing is extremely significant. Assuming the three didn’t leave the island, there is only one explanation: Hannibal did something to the three survivors. After all, you haven’t caught even a glimpse or trace of any of them in your time on the island.

Despite your misgivings, you decide to give Hannibal the benefit of the doubt. Maybe the three survivors went off on a sea expedition and encountered a Leviathan or a predator. That is certainly possible—although you think they would’ve mentioned a departure on the voice log if they truly planned to leave. You contemplate the thought as you explore the remainder of the main base. When you turn the corner into a new hall, your eyes catch on a murky crimson-brown stain splattered across the wall… and all of your excuses fade into obscurity. You’re forced to accept the truth: Hannibal killed the three survivors from the Degasi Crash. And judging by the utter lack of remains, he either buried them, threw their corpses into the ocean, or… ate them.

You contemplate running away—heading for your escape pod, taking your Seamoth and moving as fast as you can. But you know you won’t be able to escape Hannibal. The two of you have the same blueprints and nearly the same resources. He has a Seamoth too—and it wouldn't take him long to notice your absence. Plus, there are countless organisms throughout the seas that could kill you in the blink of an eye. The ocean isn’t exactly any safer than this island—and that’s truly a terrifying thought.

And there’s a notion that’s even more frightening: do you even want to escape him? Hannibal is the only other human you’ve come across in your time since the crash—and you’ve discovered countless pods scattered across the sea floor, in varying states of disarray. The chances of finding another survivor are astronomically low. You’re sure you would be able to get by on your own—you survived before him, and you can survive after him. But would that be good for you? There’s only so long a person can go without social interaction.

“What are you doing?” You nearly have an out-of-body experience at the sudden noise. Heart racing, you freeze in place and keep your back turned to Hannibal—attempting to hide the abandoned PDA you’re holding from his view. “It’s late.” He says.

You study the expression on his face and decide you’re too tired for mind games—too exhausted to attempt to conceal your knowledge from him. Perhaps that’s a stupid decision, but you can’t find it in yourself to care. If he kills you, he kills you. You don’t have much to lose—or live for—at this point. Knowing that, you turn around and meet his gaze head-on. “You killed them.” You say, your voice eerily calm. “Are you going to kill me too?”

Hannibal tilts his head curiously. Despite the fact that he’s blocking the doorway, he doesn’t seem to be holding any weapons. There is no outright violence in his posture—only defensiveness. “No,” he promises. There’s nothing but sincerity in his expression, but you still can’t trust it. Besides, he completely ignored your accusation—which is essentially a confirmation that he did murder the Degasi survivors who found this island before him.

“How can I trust you?” You decide to voice your thoughts.

His brows furrow. The muscles work in his jaw as he contemplates the question. “I find myself craving your companionship,” Hannibal eventually answers. Judging from the way he’s looking at you, he desires more than your companionship. But, in an alien world with no realistic promise of rescue, that’s the least of your concerns.

“And because of that, you won’t kill me?” You ask, not bothering to hide your doubt.

“I have only my word,” Hannibal says regretfully. He takes a few steps forwards, effectively breaking the distance between you. In the blink of an eye, he’s pressing a survival knife into your hand before pulling your hand—and the knife—to rest against his neck. “But, should I go back on it… you may end my life.”

You can feel Hannibal’s pulse—steady and unyielding, even when faced with the truth. His posture is open and honest; there is no trace of deception anywhere to be found. Somehow, that is just as frightening as his lies of omission. Your heart thunders in your chest as you come to terms with what he’s offering you. It’s not what you want. You don’t want to kill him. After managing to shake off his grip, you return your hand to your side and level him with a cautious look.

“I’m not going to kill you.” You say. Your voice sounds foreign. And your word is binding—you don’t plan to kill Hannibal (even if it would be karmic). You need him and he needs you: a symbiotic relationship like that of the Reefback Leviathan and the plants living on its back. The thought is distressing. You don’t want to have to rely on anyone else—don’t want to have to let down your mental defenses, only for your trust to be swiftly broken.

It would be extremely stupid of you to kill one another, and you both seem to know that. That recognition sinks into the air between you, clinging to your clothes and sending a prickling feeling across your limbs.

As if coming to an unspoken agreement, Hannibal nods and turns on his heel, evidently retreating back to his bedroom. Somehow, you can sense the intended meaning behind the gesture: he trusts you enough to let you explore on your own. You poke around the base for a bit longer, but at some point, you have to accept the inevitable and return to Hannibal’s bedroom.

When you return, you find Hannibal’s eyes are closed as he lets out calm breaths. Swallowing hard, you try to be as quiet as possible as you move to take the left side of the mattress. After a few moments dominated by indecision, you pull the covers over you and recline back against your pillow. Left to the rushing waves and your racing thoughts, the loneliness you’ve been fighting off suddenly comes rushing back, leaving you to feel terribly alone as you lie next to the only other human on the planet.

endnotes: Oh, you thought that being stranded on an alien planet meant you were safe from cliche tropes like sharing a bed? Mwahahhaha… never!!!

I know clothes aren’t a thing in Subnautica, but just let me have it… I just wanted unresolved tension and scars and intimacy… don’t look at me like that.

Sorry not sorry for the somewhat uncertain ending. I tried writing a happier one, but it just felt off. On the off chance that I do write another chapter (no promises), I wanted this to be realistic. I felt it wouldn’t be right if the reader just brushed off the fact that he killed three people. That’s a big deal! They need time to process that.

thanks for reading! <3

check out my other works, sorted by fandom.

general taglist: @its-ares @excusemeasibangmyheadonawall @kingkoku @the-ultimate-librarian @gayaristocrat

friendly reminder that i don't give permission for my writing to be shared to other sites, stolen, copied, translated, or used in any way. thanks!

#defectivevillain #can you tell im completely obsessed with Subnautica rn #I even talked about it at work #and I never talk about my interests at work #that's when you know it's bad #anyways #gn reader #male reader #transmasc reader #nb reader #subnautica x reader #hannibal nbc #hannibal x reader #Hannibal Lecter x reader #hannibal x gn reader #hannibal x male reader #you get the idea

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ahandfullofreviews · 1 year

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Review: subnautica

Overview: you play as *checks notes* non essential systems maintenance chief Riley Robinson.

Your duties consist of

Restocking the vending machines on Deck 12

Unclogging the non-existing toilets

Fixing the microwave

Surviving

The game starts out as all good games do.

A concussion

You exit your lifepod and discover an ocean.

That's it

That's all there is

2 square kilometers of W A T E R

Also a crashed ship.

After awhile you receive an alert on your radio.

Surprise. It's somebody who survived the crash

NOT

Instead you find a destroyed lifepod

Repeat this process exactly 4-5 times

Eventually, you get a signal from another ship coming to rescue you. They'll be here in an hour. When you reach the rescue rendezvous (that should not be how you spell that) you find a very big structure.

You go inside and discover through the magic of backwards compatibility that this facility is belonging to an advanced race of creatures called precursors. Like a scene from history they aren't native to this planet, and when they got here they immediately started fucking things up for the natives. A virus got released and the planet is dying. You try to deactivate the QEP but you're infected with the bacterium.

Sunbeam gets blown up.

Eventually after exploring you come across multiple more alien facilities. One of these being a containment facility designed for

Friend leviathan

The only creature in this game that doesn't want to turn you into a snack

They need your help to set their children free

You need to create a hatching enzyme that also happens to be your cure

And so, as you "launch" your rocket, a pretty decent game ends as all good ones should

Crippling debt

My actual thoughts:

It's perfect. It knows what it needs to do and it does it well. To think a game that started out as something similar to IRON LUNG could evolve into this is baffling. And subnautica has had fan input since day 1. We quite literally would not have some of the memorable moments we have in subnautica if it wasn't for the game devs actually looking at what people were doing. The only other game devs I know of that have done that are valve (feel free to prove me wrong in the tags).

However like sunbeam says "there's no bad without the good, no good without the bad"

Subnautica has its bugs and has quite literally taken the scary factor out of fallouts mirelurks.

But, it's a perfect game I wouldn't change a thing about

Final rating: 9/10

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playstation-lichenthrope · 6 months

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Welcome to Playstation Hydrangea

Hello! We go by Eddie Hydrangea and Hyde Lycan.

Our pronouns are It/Its, He/Him/His, and Xe/Xim/Xir. DO NOT USE THEY/THEM FOR US. Some alters may use those but most of the system is uncomfortable with those.

We're a DID Polyfragmented System of many. Don't know what a system is? This carrd explains it!

Our DNI is on this carrd but we'll just block you if you match it.

Please check out our Art Blog, @hydrangeas-art

We're in a relationship with LoveCoreClownz, and are Super Best Friends with EvilNeo!

We LOVE asks!!! Please ask us things! And feel free to correct us on stuff. We're very open to change.

We have many interests and reblog/post a lot about them! If you want to know what we're into, look below!

Thanks for dropping by! o/

Our fandom interests :

The Life Series / Life SMP Hermitcraft HLVRAI HLVRV / Y2KVR / TFSMT / HLVRAI RoleSwap etc... Ratchet & Clank 1 MineCraft Little Shop Of Horrors They Might be Giants Yu-Gi-Oh (OG, GX and 5ds) Red Dwarf Half Life Spyro Ghibli Movies (Specifically Nausicaä) The Last Unicorn The Muppet Show Empires SMP Crash Bandicoot Subnautica Twisted Metal PBS Kids Shows The Matrix Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! Craig of the Creek SOS SMP The Sims Vocaloid

Our special interests (Non-Fandom) :

Speculative Biology Old PlayStation (1-3) Y2K Aesthetics Diseases and Plagues Music! We like most genres :3 Only iffy on country due to bad association Ecosystems Interior Design and Architecture Flower Associations MineCraft Modpack Making Stimboards Tarot Grunge, Punk, Goth, Emo, and Scene fashion Fursuit making Color Palettes Language Video Editing Lost Media Coding (We are very inexperienced)

There's more interests we have but we couldn't think of them while typing this so... lol BYE :3c

#pinned 3

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andrehm22 · 3 years

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Thoughts about playing Subnautica

Over the last few months I've been playing a lot the sandbox style of videogame. Mostly because I find it relaxing the idea of building structures and exploring new places or getting items to improve my journey, all by myself. There is a whole variety of games with this style aside of the classic and most popular game, Minecraft. You have Terraria which is basically a more 2D style of Minecraft, Valheim (which I made a review a few weeks ago), No Man's Sky (which I want to make a review later on), Skyrim, Fallout and one I'm really looking forward soon called Among Trees.

This time I will review one game that in a way helped me develop facing my fear of the ocean: Subnautica. Developed by Unknown Worlds Entertainment and released in 2018.

It is interesting to note that this game has 2 types of game: Creative and Storyline and, as the name suggests, it follows towards a whole plot rather than just the classic "do whatever you want". I played both versions and had a lot of fun but was more into the storyline game.

In this campaign or plot settled in the 22nd century, where humankind has explored the galaxy and colonised planets, you are one of the very few survivors of an accident where your ship gets hit and lands in planet 4546B. Almost everything in here is covered by sea and your mission is to find a way to escape the planet but in doing so, you also have to discover new places and try to solve some mysteries.

As I mentioned, I had a lot of fun playing this game and barely felt any pressure or difficulty. It is somewhat relaxing but also makes you want to explore everything althought there were some scenes which were annoying due to the creatures and also because I didn't have the specific object I needed. One of the biggest challenges are of course, dealing with the Leviathans who are most of them aggresive and scary.

And now the good and bad things:

The Good:

- Amazing atmosphere: There are several biomes in this game, each with their own resources and creatures which makes you want to explore and analyze each one of them. Yo have from the basic one to the scariest ones that are pure darkness.

- Creatures designs: I loved every creature in this freaking game. Even the most simple fish looked cute and even the Leviathans looked powerful and scary like the Reaper or the Ghost one.

- Multiple items: It's not like Minecraft where there is like, an infinite amount of items you can use. But it sure has the stuff that can help you a lot when dealing with new biomes or creatures. One of my fav ones was the seamoth (second best ship in the game).

- Customization and building system: This applies mostly when doing the creative mode since the campaign requires a lot of resources to build something. It's always fun to create a base either in the first biome or in the deepest ones.

- Lore: The plot in the story starts as something simple. Last survivor of a crash who wants to go leave but turns out you get infected by a disease and need a cure while also discovering deep secrets like the original mission of the crew, helping the Sea Emperor and discovering more about the ancient alien civilization that made experiments in this planet. You can also read a lot of other stuff like the structures of some of the wildife!

The Bad:

- Lack of voice actors: I find it odd that most of the characters have the same voice actors and actresses. For example the captain of the Aurora has the same voice as Paul Torgal and I found it very funny why they didn't call for another person.

- Getting lost easily: Sometimes you need to find a specific place to settle your base or an object to build but since the map is so big, you need to remember where you saw it. I know there are ways to help you like the scanner room or the guides but it gets pretty annoying sometimes.

- Annoying recharge time: This is one of the things I hated most during the campaign mode. Whenever I wanted to build something or getting batteries for my ship, I had to wait that the base had enough energy and it can take some time and had to build a lot of energy sources like the sun panels or the thermal reactors.

- Some glitches or bugs: It's not bad per se but, sometimes it can get a bit messy.

#review #Subnautica #videogames

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logicgunn · 4 years

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Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 favourite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc. ) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

Tagged by @bunny-bopper, thank you babe.

I’ve only been writing since the end of June last year and I already have 23 works because I’m enjoying it so much. Here are the 5 works I would pick to showcase.

The Long Dark

John and Rodney crash land on a remote island in Northern Canada. Based on The Long Dark by Hinterland Games, but you absolutely do not need to have played the game to read this fic.

This is my biggest fic, comeing in at just under 45k over 12 chapters. It was an absolute joy to write; despite the apocalyptic theme it’s really just 11 chapters of the boys falling in love and 1 chapter of angst. It’s probably the fic I’m most proud of, I feel like it’s my one truly original idea.

B’mbhi

In which both Rodney and John get a little jealous.

This is a fic about insecurity and jealousy. It’s short and funny and I wrote it over a single evening. I really enjoyed writing this one because it literally just flowed out from my brain and through my fingertips. My original plan was to have Ronon in it, but Ford fit a lot better so it’s set in season 1. It was my first time making up a group of Pegasus natives, and I thought they were pretty cool. I might use them again in the future.

Noncompliance

“They’ll take away your comforts one by one to wear you down.”

I wrote this someone who asked for some Rodney kneeling. I couldn’t quite hit the full request, but I’m proud of this one regardless. It’s very short but it packs a punch. Every word has earned its place in this fic. My most whumpy fic.

And All The Rest

“After you, Rodney,” he says.

“If this is some ladies first nonsense, Colonel, you can shove it up your-”

“It’s procedure, Rodney. Don’t make a scene.”

This was my first multi-chapter fic. It’s an accidental sex swap fic in which Rodney’s body is transformed by an Ancient device, very cliched but I think I bring something new to the trope. I loved writing Ronon in this in particular. It started out as 6 chapters but I had so much to say it ended up being nine. It’s the one and only time I’ll ever do a WIP because I found having to post to a strict timetable kind of stifling, but I’m pleased with what it became.

Subnautica

The deep space carrier Aurora went missing on a routine supply run to an outpost on P7X-824. No trace of the Aurora or it's crew was found. 35 years later, audio transmissions were picked up by a satellite on the edge of the Pegasus Galaxy.

This document contains transcripts of the recoverable audio logs.

This is my least popular fic, which is no wonder considering the major character death tag, but it’s one of my favourites. I wrote this for me and it shows. It’s entirely dialogue, both the boys and the escape pod’s AI. It’s based on the titular video game, an excellent indie game I love to play, and I like how well I merged the SGA and Subnautica worlds together. It was a challenge to portray a budding relationship in a survival situation through dialogue alone. I’ll probably do another of this type in the near future.

Tagging: @buffycuddlespigs @drscalvin @ami-ven @inthractus and anyone else who wants to do this because all of your work rocks my socks.

#5 Fics #Shameless self-promotion #McShep

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blessuswithblogs · 6 years

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2018 Game of the Year Top Ten List I guess

2018 has been an interminable mire of exhausting miasma and quite frankly I feel like it has been longer than the entire stretch of 2010-2015 combined. I also didn't play many games released this year because, like last year, I'm still poor. I'll see what I can dig up.

10. Sunset Overdrive PC edition: It's a fun open world game by insomniac. The PC Port is actually balls but like. It's a good game with a unique emphasis on how you traverse the game world, where you can grind and bounce on just about anything and indeed to do so is the only way to not get totally chewed up by the hordes of mutants and scavengers and robots you have to fight. There's also some pretty fun and out there weapons to use, like a gun that shoots vinyl records or one that deploys little auto-turrets kept aloft with propellers or one that shoots out a bowling ball at terminal velocity. The base game didn't actually come out this year (I dont... think it did...?) but it was an XBone exclusive so I didn't play it then. It's got some weird problems with narrative tone and some kind of out of the blue racism but the M rated Nickolodeon toy commercial aesthetic is charming in a weird way. I guess.

9. The Forest: I think this got an official release this year? I don't know I can't fucking keep track. Speaking of a game with weird problems with racism, if you can look past the garbage "main quest" and really deeply uncomfortable racial politics where you murder and steal from cannibal mutants, The Forest is probably the best cool treefort building simulator I've ever played. This game has a love affair with lumber and I respect that. Shouldn't you be looking for Timmy, you ask me? Shouldn't you be shutting the fuck up before I put this airplane axe in your skullmeats? Gazebos are nice. I guess.

8. Spyro: reignited trilogy: haven't actually played this yet but let's be real the spyro games were fucking dope back in the day and giving them an HD coat of paint and packaging them all together is a real standup thing for insomniac to do in between slinging webs and making questionable pc ports. Also its like Dark Souls so it has to be good, right? Everything old is new again. I guess.

7. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: haven't played this one either but like. I know that I am a smash-enjoyer. I even liked Brawl. This is the biggest, smashiest one yet and it's also on the switch which means it could also be portable if I decided I never wanted to leave my bed again. I'm probably going to find some money to get it soon. Should be fun. I guess.

6. The Quiet Man: look no game that is THIS hysterical can be all bad alright? Didn't play it. Won't play it. It's awful. But it's so fucking funny like oh my god. Still better than Fallout 76. I guess.

5. Dark Souls Remastered: was this even a good remaster? I don't fucking know. It's Dark Souls. It's better than 90% of released games by default. I miss Solaire of Astora. I guess there's Shadows Die Twice to look forward to. I guess.

4. Subnautica: I wrote a lot about this actually. Subnautica is great. Just fantastic. A wonderful, visually stunning (mostly) (when it works) journey under an alien ocean to unravel an ancient mystery behind a deadly plague. Building seabases is so much fun (when it doesn't hard crash your computer) and the peaceful playstyle you adopt where you really only kill things for food until you can grow your own, much more efficient produce is a welcome change of pace from everything else. Leviathans are scary, especially now that your cyclops is mortal and not indestructible. This game actually Came Out this year so it deserves to be on the spot. I guess.

3. Dragon Ball Fighterz: Honestly I'm hell trash garbage at fighting games that aren't smash but this was a very well put together, visually impressive as all hell fast paced tag fighter where you can have 3 gokus on the same team fight 3 other gokus on the same team. Goku density alone makes this game worth recommending. The eSports scene that has popped up around it is fun too. I guess.

2. Dead Cells: Another game that gets to be on the list by virtue of it actually coming out this year. Wait, was this on last year's list? Let me check. Ok good it wasn't. Early access is a fucking trip. It's fun, stylish, challenging, has a great deal of variety in ways to play, might have erased my entire save because it became obsolete and I'm definitely not bitter, and it has that classic rogue-lite replay value to give you some bang for your buck. There was that one review plagiarism scandal. I guess.

1. Monster Hunter World: If you really want to know what I think of this game my previous piece on it is a good place to start. In addition to everything said there, MHW is just a fun game. The loop is satisfying and, later on, quite challenging. The combat system takes some genuine getting used to and some monsters like Nergigante actually literally cheat but for the most part the game's unique fighting style, spread across several unique weapon types, is rewarding to learn because it demands some effort be put into it and the dividends of fighting well are very cool, like just knocking a flying monster on its ass with a single mighty swing of the hammer. When a game is hard in any capacity games journalists get dollar signs in their eyes and start drooling uncontrollably because they can immediately declare that Farm Sim 2020 is the next Bloodborne because they somehow managed to roll their tractor into a ditch, but MHW is actually quite similar in style and execution to deliberate Souls combat, but the comparison is made in reverse. Dark Souls is quite similar to Monster Hunter, the first game of which was popular and a couple of years old before Demon's Souls was even a twinkle in Miyazaki's eye. There's a lot of parallels between fighting a big ol' rathalos in monhun and going for the toes against a dragon in Dark Souls, but I think MHW actually does that kind of fight better. There are a lot of modern conveniences present in MHW that are a godsend to newer players, making the game pretty easy to get into if you're willing to try. It was my favorite game of the year that actually came out in 2018. I kind of wanted to put Warframe in this list but it's been out of early access for years now. I guess.

There were a lot of games this year that I wanted to play, but couldn't. I don't think 2018 was a weak year for video games. It wasn't as strong as 2017 but it had some hits, I just couldn't afford to play them all. Maybe next year I'll be able to give a better list. I think that the whole industry is in for some hard choices and major restructuring of how things get done and how they look at the end result. Stocks continue to trend downward - not just for Bethesda but for most mainstream, prominent AAA developers like EA and Take2. Given the well documented volatility of "The Shareholders", I imagine that they would be most displeased by downward trends even if they were still making a modest profit.

The situation has been likened to an economic bubble ripe for bursting. Games as a cultural institution have come a long way since the catastrophic days of Atari's warehouses of unsold copies of E.T., and I don't believe that we're in any danger of a complete collapse of the institution, but the fact absolutely remains That Something's Gotta Give. The increasingly predatory practices that game developers put in place as they pathologically attempt to Make Every Money Ever are intrinsically unsustainable. People are willing to forgive and overlook the now ubiquitous microtransaction if a game is good enough to overlook it, or if it's the game's only real way of actually making money. Warframe's microtransactions, for instance, are reasonably priced, platinum is often heavily discounted as a login bonus, and you can make large amounts of it without ever spending money thanks to the game's surprisingly robust trading economy. So. Yeah. They get a pass. Warframe is also good on its own merits, despite being free to play. They also listen to their community about pricing. Go check out Warframe. It's free. It's free!!! Warframe is my unofficial top spot.

Sorry I got a little bit distracted. So there's only really two instances where people will tolerate microtransactions and lootboxes in the contemporary sense: either a game is good enough and polished enough and the lootboxes are unobtrusive enough that you can just sort of shrug your shoulders and say "it sucks but what are you gonna do" or it genuinely relies on those microtransactions to support itself. When these tenets are violated, people WILL get mad. People raised absolute hell about Battlefront 2's scummy monetization schemes, enough to get EA to back off. Fallout 76 is getting lambasted in no small part due to its utterly overpriced "cosmetic" shop where you pay ten real dollars to get your power armor to look blue. You can buy fullfeatured, critically acclaimed games for half that price and you already dumped $60 on this lemon of a game. Destiny 2 got into hot water for being cagey about how its exp values were calculated and how the previously free and user-friendly shaders became one-time use items you could only get from rolling the dice. The public is getting positively irate about all of this nonsense, and if Fallout 76 (and evidently battlefield V?) is any indication, we are fast approaching a breaking point where shareholder demand for profit will outpace the consumer's ability to provide it and the developer's ability to skinner box it out of us.

Of course Nintendo continues to march on to the beat of its own drum seemingly unaffected by all of this garbage. Not out of any moral superiority, I imagine. More likely it's just a consequence of that company still being in the process of being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Maybe a few years down the line when everyboy else has abandoned microtransactions Nintendo will pick them up, put a cute Mario motif on it, and we'll be back to square one. Time will tell. We're in a volatile time for games and the timebomb keeps ticking. I just hope the explosion isn't too messy. I guess.

#goty #2018 #monster hunter world #subnautica #dead cells #gamedev

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januaryisnotanartist · 3 years

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so after many weeks? months? of waiting, Starsand is finally out for early access. I’ve been looking forward to it since I saw some youtube playthroughs of the demo a while back.

While running in a desert marathon, a sandstorm causes you to become lost and disorientated. Despite the fierce winds and sand trying to tear you to shreds, you manage to make it to a small seemingly abandoned hut before passing out.

When you awaken, things are no longer the same.

The hut you found is now half filled with sand, strange carvings mark the walls and a stone altar is poking out of the ground.

But things outside are stranger.

Though they appear normal at first while you find an oasis, and begin trying to survive, as night falls and the two moons rise, it becomes clear that you are further from home than you thought.

Worse yet, an ancient and hungry force is awakening in these strange desert sands.

So far I haven’t gotten past the opening ‘run into the hut scene’ because my game keeps crashing.

I ran into the hut three times before I tried reinstalling the game, but even now the loading screen which should take me to the alien desert, instead kicks me back to my desktop. ;A;

I think I figured out the problem though:

Do you see that in the minimum requirements?

Minimum RAM required is 8 GB.

Let me show you the RAM from my computer which I specifically got to play games on:

suffice to say I think I see the problem, since everything else seems to meet the (maximum) requirements, and am once more contemplating a Desktop instead of a Laptop for future gaming endeavors.

I just don’t know what to do at this point.

I mean, I can play Subnautica and Below Zero just fine, is it really that much of a difference?

You know, I really wish my highschool computer teacher hadn’t been such an arrogant ableist prick who’s memory still makes me break out in a cold sweat whenever I think about learning more about computers and programming.

I just want to explore alien pyramids in the desert damnit!

.·´¯`(>▂<)´¯`·.

#starsand #.january plays a game #or tries to at least #gaming fails #why are computers so hard?#it might actually be worse to find out this isn't the problem?

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ithisatanytime · 3 years

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one of the worst examples of this is a game called subnautica, that game is a flawed masterpiece, and its also an example of this weird truism where sometimes you really do need some kind of interloper stepping over an artists vision. subnautica is the story of the lone survivor of a space ship crash in some distant future, and as the lone survivor you have to explore an almost completely aqautic planet to collect resources and escape. and its a beautiful game, the underwater environment they created is incredible and its amazing to explore, the main artist had a vision and the world building is phenomenal except for one thing, the story. scattered throughout the world are these little futuristic tapes essentially and you pop it into your little pip boy style device and theres these voice acted skits that tell this long overarching story, and one of the characters is this totally bad ass babe, shes like a salty sea captian and the story culminates into this mono e mono batte between herself and some giant underwater creature in which she harpoons it and its implied she dies a warriors death (or did she?) and i gotta tell you, its some of the most cringe inducing shit ive ever come across. the main artist, the dude with the vision, was kind of a fag, and we benefit in some ways from that, only a fag like him could have come up with such a spectacular vision of an alien ocean, but there wasnt anyone to reign in his fagginess during the games development which leads to shit like this bad ass lady having a harpoon battle against some underwater leviathan, while you the player character dont really have any offensive weapons to defend against the giant undersea creatures, you will spend the majority of the game running from these creatures when their encountered. it doesnt sound like a big deal, but it does matter, in a game like doom, where the men are extra masculine in a stylized way, that salty sea bitch would be a forgivable character i guess. honestly i just hate the bad ass female trope, it stopped being a twist in the early fucking eighties and has long passed the threshold into cliche, its practically a requirement now in art, but especially video games.

its just obnoxious because lets face it, it isnt believable, and if you find those characters believable i hate to be the one to tell you this but you’re fucking retarded or such a massive pussy that the huge gulf between men and womens temperament seems non-existent to you i dont know. you can write strong female characters without making them macho men. a great example is in the film le samourai, i wont spoil it, but a woman does something amazingly heroic and she doesnt resort to violence at all, because thats ridiculous. ah fuck it im gonna spoil le samourai so if you ever plan on watching it and you havent yet stop reading, i cannot recommend this movie enough, when i watched it i realized that this movie was the source text for every “cool” movie ever made and it did it better somehow than all of its predecessors. its a stylish brooding movie about a hitman living in an empty dingy apartment with his bird, we see his lonely life, hardly a word is uttered throughout most of the film adding to the sense of loneliness. a job goes wrong when hes spotted leaving the scene of a hit and the rest of the movie is a cat and mouse game where he desperately tries to avoid both the police and the wrath of his employers who blame him for being seen and attempt to have him killed. describing the plot points like this does not do the movie justice, its incredibly atmospheric and stylish. there are two prominent female characters in the film, one is one of the protagonists associates, he goes to her after his hits and establishes and alibi with her and then leaves, and like with all of the other characters in the protagonists life, it appears that they have a very business like bare bones relationship, but later in the film when the main character becomes more desperate, some cracks begin to form and you start to think maybe theres a little something more, certainly the woman has some feelings for him, but while he shows an uncharacteristic amount of warmth towards her very briefly, its clear the relationship is mostly one sided. so later in the film when the murder detective is hunting our main character down shows up at her house and starts picking apart his alibi with her, you are made to feel pretty certain shes going to crack. the detective start threatening her with prison time, and despite the protagonists earlier spurning her romantic advances, she doesnt sell him out. it sounds so minor, but the film is so well done, everything is so perfectly executed its this incredibly triumphant moment, and you feel this deep sense of respect for the character. i mean it was pretty good, but i wish when the detective threatened her with being sent to prison, she did a spinning kick to his face and her stilletto heel got stuck in his eye socket and she said something bad ass like “suck my crotch, bitch!” but no movie is perfect.

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helenofsimblr · 2 years

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Elita: Things were not looking good for us guys up on the station. Dad was down, Lyra was handcuffed, the godsdamned thing was picking up speed, and we could feel it getting hotter inside as it skimmed along the atmosphere! The hull of the station was quite heavily armoured so the odds of it melting in the atmosphere were pretty much zero. We were going to ride that motherfucker all the way to the ground. It was too late by this point to get it back into orbit...

San Myshuno and the District, were running out of time. Fast!

#ts4 #ts4 story #sims 4 #sims 4 story #The Tomorrow Men #KSU #Crossover #The Axiom Conclusion #Sparkiemonkey #gif warning #tw bad language #tw swearing #tw profanity #subnautica crash scene #great game #I recommend subnautica to anybody

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4e7her · 3 months

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also i am working on that compilation thing and i think the reason i don't care so much for some of these fics so more is the fact that the mcs feel more like someone that things 'happen to' then someone who is guiding the story

this works well for like. fcubed for example where the mc just crash-landed on an alien planet. but for a stardew fic like vapor it really doesn't make sense. like avele moved to a farm. the story is in his perspective. somehow the start still makes it feel like he doesn't have a choice over any of these things and that he's being dragged along in contrast to wyn in something in the water where the prologue i set up for it gives you much more insight and just feels better overall

also i think i've developed my writing style a lot over the last few years which makes older fics feel just a bit skewed

i do really like how i wrote the yandere perspectives in vapor - i think they come across very well and were definitely a key point in developing my writing further. like i think i'd separate my writing in stages. rambling below the cut

there's my two discontinued obey me fics - that was me getting back into writing. they were fun and cute and self-indulgent and i liked writing them but i probably wouldn't write something in a similar style again

then there's miss me which is kind of a jumping off point for me style-wise, which i burned myself off on by focusing on drawing for the mc for, but lead to little panther and vapor. i put those two in the same category because that's where i introduce yandere characters and think i grew while i was writing (especially as i started tumblr around the same time) and wrote way too long oc sheets for. like. i think they were around at least 5k words each? it was. a time.

and then i focused on drabbles for a while, but after that came fcubed. and fcubed gets a category all on it's own

i started it when i had a great big Health Event that changed. a lot of how i look at the world and how i am physically able to interact with it. i won't get into details but functionally between the Health Issue and the Coming to Terms i was out of it for like. honestly probably more than a year. i decided my major wasn't for me and dropped college and moved pretty far shortly after that and a lot of life then was detaching myself so i wouldn't have to Come to Terms

fcubed was actually, a good portion of it, written in a haze of being bedbound after said Health Event. i think around the first ten chapters? were written in like two - three weeks after but before i realized that there would be lasting issues from the Health Event. however much i posted of it before i took like a year long break on it.

and the thing with fcubed is that it expanded my horizons a lot with writing. you'll notice if you've read some of these older fics that they were a lot more guided by the source material - i was too scared to stray very much from in game scenes, though i had tried my hand at it in vapor. with the source material for fcubed being subnautica, it was. a lot like literally throwing myself in the deep end. the source material is literally an open ocean. i had to make the scenes myself, besides a few key events and some audio from like logs the player recovers

after that like month or so of fcubed i more or less dropped off the face of the earth for like, six months, i think. towards the end of that time is when we moved and i think that's when i started checking tumblr again. i had been working on fics in that time, but i hadn't posted anything - i try not to post fics unless i have at least three chapters done to make sure they're Established because i have ideas i don't go through with pretty often. i have a few sitting in my drafts that are just like one chapter stories - looking at you genshin impact, dca, and our life fics

i posted something in the water and i think that was very... cathartic for me? the prologue was about leaving and just getting away and being unbound. and i liked that a lot. you'll see that as a theme in my stories honestly

then there was rip and tear and embracing what's around you - i'd say that those are in the same category as something in the water. they're both shorter at the moment, though they do both have almost-done chapters in the drafts. these two actually aren't yandere fics - everything else above this besides miss me, the obey me fics, and fcubed (though that one has some yandere undertones) are. i'm not actually entirely positive why rip and tear isn't? i think i was planning to go with undertones again but not full yandere, but i know what's around you isn't because that one's more lighthearted. it is ohshc after all

and then, around the start of this year, i started vault. and i really, really like vault conceptually. like. i love borderlands so much and i've always wanted to see more fics for it but somehow never thought to write for it

plus i could literally just play borderlands and call it research. i have almost a full chapter in the drafts for that one too - i need to get back to working on it, i just got distracted by a drop of silver in a sky of stars. i think my current writing style, which i'm really happy with, shows in these two the most. you can definitely tell a difference compared to my earlier fics

both of these two are probably my current focuses, though that might change after i finish going through all my fics. the intro i have written for fawn response is just so good it is Tempting Me

none of this mentions any work i've done on unposted fics (again, all less than three chapters), but trust me there are. many. too many. an exorbitant amount. i'll get around to them eventually

#i talked way too long. this is more for me to look back on than anything else but here hello some behind the author stuff #i should probably make a big thing of all my fic concepts sometime #idk i like having these things but i don't want to be annoying with them #going to update a drop of silver tmrw morning before work woo

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jelliclesong · 6 years

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I’m going to Jacksepticeye’s show in August, and dragging along a friend who doesn’t watch him, and so... crash course. (This list in no way represents the “best” videos; just the ones I personally enjoyed. Under the cut because I am going to get rambly as fuck.)

Probable Reference Points - Happy Wheels (useful largely because it went on for four damn years. There’s a hundred episodes, but you can totally jump ahead randomly if you choose to; mostly this is on here as a good “Watch the Channel Shift” type thing.)

- Subnautica (Also goes on for ages. If you just want the proper game [a lot of things happened in beta] that playlist is here. I love this one.)

- The Jacksepticeye Power Hour (Genuinely entertaining, and also happens to be where most of the egos get introduced, for what that’s worth.)

- Night in the Woods (A Very Important Game for the channel. I love the art style on this one.)

- All the Way/What Is My Life (Songs made from things Jack’s said. Better than this description makes it sound.)

-Tour Vlogs (For some idea of what to expect? They’re usefulish, anyway, and contain some fun behind-the-scenes type stuff.)

Collabs With Other People

- Farming Simulator 2013 (One of the older things I’m linking. Partially because it’s funny, partially for proper Irish accent and general failure to play the game as it’s meant.)

- Human Fall Flat (Starts out as just Jack, eventually adds Robin. One of my favourite things on the channel.)

- Astroneer (Also with Robin. Dorks in space.)

-Portal 2 (With Bob. Contains much “accidental” killing of one another.)

- The Escapists 2 (With Robin. Jack plays through it once first, but... Robin. He’s important.)

- Sea of Thieves (With several people over the course of the videos. All comedy gold. This series makes me Very Happy.)

Funny Shit

- Goat Simulator (Everyone’s played this at one point or another. Doesn’t get old, doesn’t get less stupid.)

-Baking Simulator (Frustratingly difficult to play, apparently, but a great deal of fun to watch.)

- Job Simulator (VR nonsense.)

- Japan World Cup (...I’ve no fucking clue what this game is. Features Jack doing a fairly impressive old-timey announcer voice, though, so...)

- LA Noire VR (This is a Very Serious Game to be taken Very Seriously. xD [Side note. Griffin McElroy also played this, and it is exactly as good as one would expect.])

- Chuchel (The world’s cutest fever dream.)

-Passpartout (Art game featuring what may be the Worst French Accent I’ve ever heard. I love this way more than I should.)

Long-Form/More Serious Games (roughly in order of my favourites, with run times included for planning purposes)

- Fran Bow (Love the art style of this one. Fairly creepy story, great characters, and some fun voices. About six hours total.)

-Slime Rancher (This game is insanely cute. Eventually gets around to a pretty good storyline as well. 11ish hours total, mostly non-story related, but soothing to listen to.)

- Bendy and the Ink Machine (Quasi-horror game. Awesome art style, not overly jump scare laden. In-game voice acting. About three hours so far.)

-Pinstripe (Deeply cool, pretty damn creepy. In game voice acting [Dan’s in this one!] plus some voices from Jack. Three hours.)

- What Remains of Edith Finch (Very beautiful, very very sad. I really hated to see this one end. A game of stories... About two hours.)

- The Last Guardian (A less tedious [sorry] companion piece to Shadow of the Colossus. Has the unfortunate side effect of making me really want a giant cat-bird. Eight/Nine hours.)

-Ben and Ed (It’s about a zombie trying to protect the small boy he’s befriended, and it’s awesome. About two and a half hours.)

-Spyro 3 (Lots of rambling about nostalgia and childhood. About nine hours.)

- The Final Station (I love the art style here. A bit sad, the story, but overall fascinating. About six hours.)

- Life is Strange (Heavy heavy themes in here, a beautiful art style, and some very cute girls. [also an Amanda Palmer song in one of the episodes.] There are sequels, but I haven’t gotten around to them. About 11 hours.)

- Neverending Nightmares (Horror game, with some deeply weird imagery. Very very cool art style. Contains jump scares, but nothing too terrible. About an hour and a half.)

Live Action Type Things

- Septic Art #2 (But only from 16:02-16:34, if you want the bit that’s relevant to me. I am Very Important, damnit.)

- A Day With Jack!/It Was Closed!/I’m Terrified of Heights!/It Snowed In Brighton! (Vlogs. Useful if you wish a better idea of the person behind the channel, plus they’re quieter than the edited stuff...)

- Playing Deadpool with Ryan Reynolds (Watch a person we look up to meet a person he looks up to and struggle not to dissolve into a puddle of awkwardness! Yay! [Also it’s Ryan Reynolds, who is always a win, even if he is terrible at video games.])

Miscellaneous Whateverthefuck

-ABZU (An hour and a half or so of beautiful underwater shenanigans. I love it.)

-Richies Plank Experience (Watch a man who is terrified of heights try to walk out on a narrow plank 30 stories up in VR. It... doesn’t go well.)

-Banished (A nice pleasant little resource management/town builder game.)

-Once Upon A Coma (Just a demo for the moment, but I love this game. [Also, Dan’s in this one too!])

-The Boss (A fan-made game, my favourite one so far. Full of references and awesome things. Six/Seven hours long.)

#jacksepticeye #If you ask me for something I will procrastinate for weeks and then put Way too much effort into it.#How Did We Get Here? tour.#For future reference.#Tiny Cthulhu.

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madegeeky · 5 years

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Giftening 2020: Obligatory Vote for These Post (spoiler version)

Want the non-spoilery version? Seriously, though, super spoilery for main plot points for a lot of these. Skip the ones you don’t want to know about.

Ones with * are my nominations, so you know where my biases lie. :P Ones in bold are my top pick for the categories. I did not include things that don’t need the boost (like Utena).

ANIME

Aggretsuko - A tv show about an unassuming shy red panda woman who works in an office building and deals with the stress of it by going to karaoke and screaming out death metal. The show largely deals with her making friends with two women who she admires and a dude who likes her. The dude who likes her is actually a geniunely interesting storyline because at the end of the first season (which I’ve not seen beyond), he basically admits that he’s built this image of her in his head that isn’t real and he wants to know the real her. (Which, fuck yeah.)

Fushigi Yuugi* - This is a story about two teens who used to be friends fighting over a man which is literally the antithesis of everything Jet is. And yet, Jet watched the whole damn thing. Watch her squirm as she has to deal with that in a liveblog format. You can get a preview of some of that in Doc’s liveblog of it that she did for Jet.

NON-ANIME ANIMATED

Archer* - This is an animated parody of James Bond made for adults. It's offensive as fuck because Archer, the titular character, is a James Bond stand-in and that character can also be offensive as fuck. In fact, one thing to appreciate about this show is that all the characters are shitty, awful people and the show never attempts to excuse their shitty, awful behavior. Plus, it's one of the few shows where half the main characters are women. I am a tiny bit hesitant to rec this for a liveblog due to the offensivness however, as far as I can tell it's not popular on tumblr, and those are generally the ones that cause the most trouble so...

Daria - The story of a misanthropic teenager, her family, and her best friend. The characters are specifically meant to appear to be tropes before slowly being unveiled as three dimensional people. It's got a dry sense of humor that I think Jet will enjoy. I actually didn't know until years after I watched this that it was a spin-off of Beavis and Butthead (which I hated) so don't let that dissuade you.

LIVE ACTION

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - I haven't seen past a certain point because it starts going super deep into exploring depression and that is one of my main triggers for a depressive episode, so I cannot speak of later eps. However, this show starts out funny and silly and evolves into a show exploring how toxic the main character actually is and how unhealthy her coping mechanisms are. It's amazing to see a character type whose actions are usually excused or written off as funny instead be specifically called out as being awful and toxic. (It was a Shit Show is still one of the best songs I've ever heard and Mr. Geeky and I sing it to each other whenever shit hits the fan.)

Hannibal* - If you know of Hannibal, you know the basics premise is that of a man who eats people and is chased by the FBI. The writing in this is some of the best writing I've ever had the pleasure of seeing in a piece of media: it's subtle, smart, and trust its audience to follow along without having their hand held. However, what's really great about the TV show is that it's not afraid to do its own thing. It constantly fucks with your expectations and deconstructs and explores tropes in ways I've never seen before. I haven't seen the ending yet but I highly doubt it's going to end in a place where Silence of the Lambs will happen. The acting is fucking great and even though Anthony Hopkins gives an amazing performance as Hannibal Lector, after seeing Mads Mikkelsen play him there's no going back to Hopkins. In general, if you're looking for something original (which is ironic considering it's based on a book and there are several movies) and smart, I cannot recommend this enough.

Russian Doll* - (Doc, please skip this one, as in 5 years when you're done with Two Storms, this is one of the things I'm considering nominating should I ever win a liveblog again.) I don't really know how to explain this show because it's so fucking weird and is so focused on character and ideas that the plot is both super simple and extremely complicated. It's a story about a woman who starts to relive the same day over and over again except, instead of the typical thing where it starts over when she falls asleep, it's only until she dies (so sometimes she lasts for hours, other times for a couple days). However, almost immediately there are signs that something else is going on, that something outside of the main character's repeating day, something has gone horribly wrong. (Count the fish.) It's a very thoughtful, character-driven show, more about exploring ideas than plot which I, personally, didn't mind at all. Another one I highly recommend overall with much less blood and gore than Hannibal.

Xena - IT'S FUCKING XENA PEOPLE! Okay, but just in case you don't know what the show is about is through cultural osmosis, Xena is a show about a woman who used to be a truly horrible murderous bitch and her continual attempts to make up for the wrongs she has done. The main relationship in the show is between Xena and her (girl)friend, Gabriel, and although the show can be ridiculously silly (time is made up and history doesn’t matter!), it also explores deep, dark issues. One of the best things this show explores is the idea of redemption and forgiveness and that perhaps nothing Xena does will ever get her those things.

LIVESTREAM

Crank* - Jason Statham plays a man who has been given a poison that slowly cuts off his adrenaline, meaning that eventually he'll die. He has to do increasingly ludicrous things to get his adrenaline pumping overtime to make up for it slowly being cut off. It's one of the most fucking bananas thing you'll ever watch but is just a bunch of fucking fun. (CW: Public sexual assault. I only mentioned because it’s a scene that last for a bit. It's a complicated scene so I won't get into it here but send an ask if you want more details.)

Dale and Tucker vs Evil* - Dale and Tucker, two hillbilly best friends, are going into the woods to fix up their vacation home when they stumble across some college kids. Random circumstances make the college kids think D&T have kidnapped their friend and so they decide they need to attack D&T to get her back. Hijinx ensue. I don't want to say much more because there's a moment that is, to this day, still one of the funniest fucking things I've ever seen, largely because I did not see it coming.

GAMES

Doki Doki Lit Club - This is a game about games. You play a guy in a dating sim. Your first playthrough everything seems normal enough. You join the literature club, meet and talk to girls, and then one of the girls commits suicide. And then game restarts and the girl who committed suicide just... doesn't exist anymore. Your replay the exact same days but it's as though she never existed. Things only get weirder from there. This game does a great job of turning dating sim tropes on their head, as well as exploring games in general. (Content warning for a lot of things. Let me know if you want more details.)

Slime Rancher (stream) - There's really not much to spoil here. You play a woman who is in charge of a ranch full of slimes. There's some messages you'll find, left by the old owner, telling story about their romance. There also some messages between you character and a deliberately gender-ambiguous significant other. And that's about the closest to story you get. Otherwise it's just catching and ranching slimes.

Subnautica* - Fucking fuck I love this game. When this game first starts it appears to be your typical survival game with no real direction other than what you want to explore. But then you find an alien structure. And you realize that your spaceship didn't randomly crash. And you find out that there's no way get off this planet except to explore deeper and deeper and find out what the aliens were doing on this planet. A genuinely beautiful story, told mostly through entries in data pads and voice messages left behind, this ending is one of the most moving ends I've ever experienced and I never ever would have expected to be able to say that about a survival game.

We Happy Few* - In this alternate universe, the Germans invaded Britain during WW2 (although, through exploring the world, you learn that the differences started well before that). When the story starts up, the Germans have left Britain behind and Britain, for unknown reasons, appears to be cut off and/or abandoned by the rest of the world. The majority of the country is constantly hopped up on a drug called Joy, which is specifically used to help them forget something horrible that happened in the past. (I have theories.) The story starts when your character goes off his Joy and gets kicked out of society. There's a general sense of unease about everything and the more you learn the more that unease grows. The art style is great and the world building fascinating.

MISC (there’s nothing spoilery here but it feels weird to not have it)

Interactive Horror Story Livestream - Doc has talked a bit about this in at least one of her Xmas streams and it sounds amazing. Not only is Jet hilarious with horror stuff but knowing Doc’s writing skill, it will be something that we’d never want to miss.

Bean Boozle When Failing a Hard Game* - I am a sadistic bitch, I admit to this, and I love watching people eat Bean Boozle, the jelly bean of horrible flavors. One of my favorite videos content creators has done is playing an incredibly difficult game and then being forced to eat a random one every time they fail.

#giftening 2020 #giftening recs #spoilers for jetwolf

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onlyonecanbeking · 8 years

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The Persuasion Show

Written by Yours Truly, ask-sadisticdark. I have promised a story at 1,000 followers, and here we are! I am ever so glad that you all decided to remain with me, a blubbering and rambling mess of a Figment. Without further ado, here we begin.

WARNING: This story details a stressful situation with mild (very mild, only mentions of blood), mocking, and vulgar. If this does not appeal to you, I urge you to not complete this story. Thank you.

The night never used to effect you.

For some points in your life, you never even noticed the change of the day. The computer screen blaring its blue light right into your eyes made it hard to realize that at some point, sunlight failed to gleam its way past your window curtains. But things change.

And your fears changed with them.

Darkiplier’s return hadn’t struck you much when it first occurred. You had been excited and enthralled by the momentum of it all, but there was no true fear. But as it was said... things change. And things changed very drastically on one particular blustering, lonely night.

You remember it vividly. It was dark, the wind was crashing like tidal waves against the panels of your house, but you paid almost no mind to it. It’s desperate warning howls against cold and bitter air never seemed to register its way into your head. You were busy, far too busy, to listen. Instead, your attentions were eagerly set upon one particular youtube channel, and to one particular youtuber, who’s smile and stubble always seemed to burn a piece of you even brighter. Every time his video started, your entire body always relaxed. Every time his voice rolled from the speakers of your computer, you were already fixated.

“Hello everybody, my name is Markiplier and welcome-”

Another horrible gurgling sound of the wind smacking against the tree branches almost drowned out the sounds of Mark speaking. But you were determined to listen, you were an avid lover of the Subnautica series, after all. It started as usual, Mark had his character standing out into the empty abyss of the sea, looking towards the horizon and blabbering his thoughts about his loneliness and plans to rebuild a base somewhere deep underwater. And you loved every second of it. You loved his goofy childish fear of the creatures bellowing from beyond. You loved his ambitions and truest, deepest, desire to learn more about the secrets hidden bellow ocean waves.

That is when everything went horribly wrong.

It was about ten minutes into the video. Mark had his Seamoth floating into the endless chasms of the trenches of the deep, darkness surrounding him, eery music screeching beneath his words. There was an abrupt beeping sound that sounded much like a computer error note, and the youtube video was cut off, glitched into place in the midst of Mark’s opening mouth.

The sudden file that abruptly popped up in the center of your screen made you jerk in your seat. Leaning back after realizing how closely you had been leaning, your eyes stared upon the digital manila envelope that sat right smack in the middle of the youtube video, innocent but very, very odd. In bold black letters beneath the folder, it read

“Read Me.”

Instead of feeling fear, you scowled in annoyance. Damn bots and their malware. You quickly clicked away from the envelope, and it brought you back to the youtube screen, where you were able to begin the video again. In just mere moments, you completely forgot all about that strange, random digital file.

Mark’s humorous statements, and the surprising calm of the wind battering the window pane, caused you to begin relaxing again. When the loud bling sound arrived for the second time, only about five minutes after deleting the first file, you almost gave a gasp in surprise. The file, in all its small digital glory, popped back up onto the midst of the computer screen, sitting patiently, quietly, unassuming. But the words bellow had changed. In that same bold font, rigid and black, it read;

“I Said Read Me.”

This one caused your attention. This one, you could feel, caused for your stomach to awkwardly flutter in a mixture of nervous curiosity. This was definitely no malware, no bot had ever sent another message after being declined with such demand. Your hand on the mouse, suddenly becoming slightly slick, slowly pulled the cursor over the file, highlighting it in preparation to click. But you hesitated.

What if this absolutely fucked up your computer? Implanted a virus or some type of device to stalk you while you slept. You had heard of the stories before, those horrible nightmarish instances where someone was kidnapped by a freak viewing them from their computer screen.... But this felt... different. Somehow, this felt... safe. You had no explanation as to why, and you rarely ever trusted your judgement. But without another pause, you tapped the file to beckon it open.

The file disappeared, and into another quick moment, a blank empty page took its place, only taking up about half of the screen in a small rectangular shape. The page, in same bolded black, only read a few words.

“Mind Or Body?”

And beneath those words were two empty boxes, one with an M beside it, and the other with a B. They were waiting to be checked.

At this point, you were beyond puzzled. What did the question even mean? Was this some sort of advertisement? It couldn’t have been, advertisements were never ones to be mysterious. They immediately wanted you to know their name and they motives. This was just... bizarre.

“Mind Or Body?”

You removed your hand from the mouse, and slowly rubbed the cold and sweating fingertips of yours across your cheeks, desperately trying to understand what it was initially asking. Was it based off attraction? Perhaps that was it... intelligence or beauty, perhaps, was the underlying cause. You had to assume so, because it certainly wasn’t giving any further clues.

Your tongue clicked against the roof of your mouth, scowling in an attempted concentration as a slow breath drew from you. On top of trying to discover where this file had come from, and why, you were also trying to choose between the two options.

What did it matter, really anyway? What type of strange poll was this, and how did it affect anything?

In a fit of “I don’t care”, you wiggled your cursor across the screen before randomly choosing one of the options. You think you ended up clicking on Body, but you weren’t completely sure.

The page disappeared in a silent blink, leaving the canvas of the youtube page up to its fullest colors. But despite the eagerly awaiting adventures that were going to occur in the deep, you failed to start the video again. You merely stared, blankly, unseeing of the bold red outline of the webpage. You were too intensely in thought, and too intent on finding out what that file had exactly done to the likes of your computer.

You ran a malware check, a virus check, and a few treatment diagnostics, almost certain some type of disruption surely had made its way to the database. But, the computer seemed certain that all was well, as certain as it was that it couldn’t find the source of that file, or the history of its appearance.

Satisfied, only partially, that all was well, you shrugged off the experience and assumed that whatever poll you had just taken was going to some sort of research facility, somewhere in the world. A strange, mysterious, unknown facility, but a facility nonetheless. Your hand fell upon the mouse again, and you moved your cursor across the screen in order to reopen your page again.

You only got about half way.

The entirety of your screen froze, or at least, that’s what you could determine. No matter how aggressively you swiped your mice across your desk, around in circles, back and forth, zigzagging and cursing under your breath, the white little cursor simply remained stuck right in the center of your computer screen.

“Dammit you stupid lagging piece of trash.” Your voice growled in disdain as you lifted the mouse in your hand, beginning to twist it to check and see if anything had blocked off the sensors down bellow. It was then that the familiar, horribly familiar, bling from the computer resounded in your ears again.

Your eyes lifted back towards the computer before you, and there, in the center of the computer, directly bellow the cursor with the same cream manila envelope, was another file.

“View Me.”

You were unable to move the cursor in order to hover over the words, the entirety of your screen had obviously completely crashed. So, in one last effort, you pressed your finger against your enter button. The file glitched into uneven shreds, ditching across the screen as a scratching noise, like fuzz and screeching nails, echoed in your ears for a moment or so, before all was quiet again. Calmly, a much larger rectangle assumed its place, but it was empty, and black, and a small play button sat in the center. It was a video. It began playing with you urging it to start.

The scene it faded into caused the depths of your chest to rise into your throat.

The dark concrete room was barren, lacking substantial light and seeming to be aged and worn. Deep cracks were in the floor and wall that connected together. Dark stains, mud or... blood... or whatever else... were randomly splattered against the surface. You could almost smell the musky scent it most certainly wafted.

A man sat directly in the center, head drooped lowly, the black raven tresses of his hair cascading over half of his face. The chair he sat in was large, awkwardly large, metallic and rigid and surely not comfortable. You could see that his eyes were closed, but it lacked anything that would describe that he was peaceful. His hands were stuck awkwardly behind his back, elbows protruding outward enough to make you believe his wrists were most likely bound.

“Mark...” The words barely left you, your voice was having a difficult time being used. What in the hell was this? Why were you being shown something like this? What did it mean?

You were desperately attempting to process the horrid display, when suddenly they entirety of the scene jostled and wiggled, blurring the figure in front of you. Someone was adjusting the camera pointed in Mark’s direction.

“Mmmmm....” There was a light growling sound in the depth of an unknown figure’s throat, whoever was behind the scene. Behind the camera. Behind all of this mayhem you were looking upon. There was a few more seconds of jostling and incoherent muttering, before there was a loud click, and a sound of praise.

“There we are.” The voice was rich, flowing and gentle, almost calming if any different situation was occurring. A man, burly and tall, surprisingly pale, strode into the view of the camera.

You suddenly realized just how thirsty you were. All you ever wanted, at that moment, was a tall glass of water.

Dark turned himself around in order to burn his gaze into the camera lens, staring directly into you with a smile that arched unnaturally. His arms that lay at his sides swung out, beckoning in a gesture of prideful welcome.

“Lovelies, ladies and gentleman, one... and all. I am most pleased to find you here with me. Welcome, all of you, to my first ever, official, Darkiplier episode.” Dark clapped his hands together and hugged them close to his chest, snickering and smiling in a giddy fashion.

“It took quite a bit of effort, I must admit. Days worth of planning, aggravation, sweat and tears and blood, quite literally, in order to make this possible. I set up the scene, of course, with the skills that I wield. But the final piece, the final push to truly... get this episode rolling, was something I required from you.”

Dark stood directly in front of Mark’s body, who remained unmoving, locked in some type of trance, or fretful sleep, looking like a long passed mannequin. Dark didn’t even seem to notice Mark’s existence, his entire attentions focused to the screen, and he continued talking.

“All of you received a poll, just minutes ago. The question, as I’m sure you all can recall, was ‘Mind or Body?’ Did any of you ponder what this may entail? Hmm? Did any of you suspect any ill will when you responded? Well, whatever curiosity you have faced in these last few moments, my friends, it will finally be quenched. Your responses determined the actions that will be bestowed upon my perfect little subject here with me, today. Some of you may know him from his video channel, some of you may have no recognition of him. I simply call him Mark.”

Dark stepped to the side only slightly, and twisted his shoulders to show off the shadowed figure of poor empty Mark, hanging in his seat.

“Perhaps ‘The Little Wench Who Ruined My Existence’ would suffice as a more suitable nickname, however. Don’t you agree, Mark?”

After another pause, he turned back, and jerked his hands against the hem of his vest, straining the fabric. He continued as if he hadn’t interacted with the unconscious man at all. As he did, his smile shifted, only slightly, something laying beneath his skin that grew darker, less friendly. He seemed to be staring directly into you, and you alone.

“Some of you may believe that this is for Mark alone. But you would assume incorrectly. Don’t you see? I tried to play nicely. I tried to be the wonderful, perfect Figment they all assumed me to be. But still... you doubted. Adoration turned into comfortableness. You all became fearless of me. You sought me out because you thought I was fUnnY, OR cuTE, or soMEtHING to brINg you AMUsemenT. You all believe that I am.... am incapable..... of what I KNOW.... I can do. You all believe that I am weak, pathetic, and that I am simply some... imagination. Some... tHinG. Well... I am here to remind you, Lovelies, that I am not some wandering decision. I am a concrete REALITY. And now... well... I will prove. What I. Am capable of.”

TO BE CONTINUED?

Oops! I may have not completely fulfilled my promise. Did I fail to mention I would only be providing HALF of the story at 1,000 followers? How disappointing. It must have slipped my mind.

Do you desire part two? Perhaps I will continue at 1,500. Or perhaps not. We’ll see where the wind takes me.

#darkiplier #dark #askdarkiplier #ask darkiplier #ask-sadisticdark #part 1

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