#I'm just not clever enough to do cool titles | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

onceuponapuffin · 14 days

Text

Fanatic Intervention Part 2!

I'm so glad you all are as hyped about this idea as I am!! ^_^ So you know, I've been reading every Other Idea, every reblog, and I am going to use your input to inform my choices going forward. This is OUR fic, after all :)

//Edited to include title

Beginning || Previous || Next

***************

That FREAKING coffee. Your eyes narrow. Everyone is still in shock, no one has spoken yet. You use the hesitation to grab the coffee out of the Metatron's hands and chug it back all in one go. It's the perfect temperature for drinking. Because of course it is. You're vaguely aware of some sounds of protest from Metatron and Aziraphale, but they're monosyllabic, and don't need a response. That can wait till after you finish.

You pull the cup from your lips and exhale in an overly-dramatic fashion, and look at the Metatron. It tasted exactly like almond-flavoured coffee, and you still hate him. YUP. Good.

"I beg your pardon!" The Metatron gasps, his face glaring at you with fury behind his eyes. But, oh, you couldn't care less if you tried.

"Get. Out. Now," You say to him. Your eyes have figurative fire behind them, the rush of caffeine and adrenaline making you braver than you otherwise would be.

"Young person, have you any idea who you are ordering about? I think you'll find that you're of no authority to be making demands and that you would do best to see yourself out. Before you make any foolish mistakes," the Metatron's voice is cool like a spring creek, but you can hear the malice just below the surface; barely contained.

But here is the thing, my dear Reader, this is a self-insert fanfiction. And in this work of fiction you are brave and clever, and you have been grieving for everything this monster put our beloved Ineffable Husbands through for too long not to be very, very angry now that you have come face to face. And you are not about to let this go. Crowley and Aziraphale have spent so much time trying to defend the world, defend humans, defend those they don't even like! You'll be damned before you let them go undefended when you, yes you, with all your love for them and all your knowledge are standing right there. So defend them you shall. Someone has to. And right now no one else will.

"Do you," you begin after a moment, "have any idea who you are speaking to?"

For a moment, the Metatron looks taken aback. But only a moment, before his eyes grow cold again.

"I mean," you continue, "I just fell through the ceiling, and landed in front of you just as you were about to hand over that coffee. I don't know about you, but I can only think of one reason why that would have happened, and it has three letters."

In your peripheral vision you notice Muriel, counting on their fingers. Aziraphale chokes back a gasp. You can't see it right now, but you can FEEL Crowley's eyebrow from here. Metatron holds your gaze, not ready to give up just yet.

"If I were you, Metatron, I would pop on back to Heaven, and double-check a few things. Because, I mean, there must be a reason why I've been dropped here to interrupt you. Seems like your plan hasn't been...approved. Otherwise it would go forward as planned, yes?" Matching his arrogance is key here, and if you mess up, the consequences could be dire. You glance at your cuticles with an air of nonchalance. "Unless, of course, you presume to know better?" And to seal the deal, you raise your eyes in a sideways look that screams smug.

You've spent months reading meta analysis, character analysis, everything you can get your hands on about the final fifteen. You're pretty sure you have a solid enough grasp of the Metatron's character to pull this off. The main thing is to pretend you know what's actually going on, convince him that he doesn't, and buy some time.

Suddenly, your phone in your pocket buzzes four times, and your mouth tastes like salt. But, actually really pleasant salt. Like you just ate McDonald's french fries, or theatre popcorn. Something clicks into place in your mind.

"....Did you...just try to turn me into salt?"

Having spent months learning to read Michael Sheen's facial expressions, you see the Metatron's eyes shift through Surprise, then Curiosity, before landing on what you can only call Calculating.

So YUP for the salt. But apparently he can't touch you. Later, you tell yourself, we'll figure this out later. Get him out, and get him out now.

You take a step forward, herding him towards the door.

"It seems," you say to him, "That you have some things to clarify."

The Metatron huffs, and straightens his tie. "Indeed it does," he says, knives beneath the calm once again. "I shall return, Aziraphale, and when I do, I do hope we will have a chance to chat."

And so the Metatron leaves, as though it was his own idea. You follow him to the door. Oh, you shouldn't, but you just can't help yourself. And honestly, I don't think you should. You call to him as he walks away.

"And be careful with those questions, Metatron! We all know how THAT ONE goes, don't we?" And with that you slam the door.

While you're apologizing (very quietly and lovingly) to the bookshop door, you hear Crowley behind you.

"Nnnyeah, I have no idea what's going on, but I like this one."

You pull out your phone. There are five heart icons. Four that are full, and one that is just an outline. Oh. OH.

"FUCK," you say to yourself.

Now you look up. You're shaking like a leaf, but lucky for you, there's still a metric ton of adrenaline running through your system, allowing you to realize that you need to figure out what comes next.

Vote on This One too please (I'm only able to do one poll per post, so bear with me).

❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ 🖤

Beginning || Previous || Next

78 notes · View notes

pinkanonwrites · 1 year

Text

I don’t have a title for this one but here’s the ‘vash fingering the reader’ fic y’all have all been chomping at the bit for. I specifically had ‘98 Vash in mind for this one but left it vague enough for y’all to pick your poison

Vash/Reader, NSFW, 2,200+ Words, AFAB! Reader, GN! Pronouns for reader, cunnilingus, vaginal fingering, outdoor sex, male hands-free orgasm

As you knew him now, Vash The Stampede was a lot of things. A gunman, a pacifist, a bleeding heart, a man who had saved many and lost so many, many more. He was somber, yet cheerful. Clever, yet at times incredibly dense.

But if there was one thing Vash The Stampede wasn't, he certainly wasn’t the jealous type. At least, that’s what you had thought up until tonight.

You barely even remembered what you were doing before Vash had led you out of the small saloon and into the alley in between it and the neighboring building. The gentle buzz of alcohol still thrumming through your veins, you only vaguely recalled bits and pieces of the conversation you’d been having with the bartender. Whatever it was you were talking about, he certainly wasn’t flirting with you, at least not in any way that you would have registered. But Vash had appeared so suddenly, hand closing gently around your wrist. He hadn't needed to drag you, as you would follow him just about anywhere, and he led you quickly out into the cool evening.

"Va-mmph?!" Your voice was muffled by a hot mouth meeting yours, sloppy and tasting vaguely of beer. His tongue prodded into your mouth, slick and sweet as he crowded himself up against you as close as he could get. His broad chest pressed you into the siding of the building next door, bracketing you in and leaving no room for the chilled night air. He pulled away with a slick pop and a sharp gasp, and you placed a hand on his forehead to keep him from leaning in again. "What's going on with you?"

He whined audibly, squirming against your hand. As soon as you relented and put it down he tucked his head into the crook of your neck and mouthed hotly at your pulse point. A shuddery groan slipped from his lips at your hitched gasp, and he cradled your hips with both hands as he traced his sharp canines down the slope of your neck. "Mmh… Nothin'."

"Are you drunk?"

"Uh-uh. Jus' a little tipsy." Despite the scent on his breath, you believed him. He wasn't wavering or stumbling, the only slur in his words coming out because he couldn't stand to part his lips from your soft, sun-kissed skin, even for a moment. He mouthed hotly at the slope of your jawbone, cybernetic hand squeezing around your clothed hip. "Missed you, you didn't come dance with me."

You shivered, fingers tangling in Vash's spiky locks as he left a ticklish trail of kisses down the curve of your jaw and back to your neck. "I was-mmh… was just trying to finish my drink."

He let out a soft, petulant grumble, nuzzling into your neck and squeezing you tight like a child protecting their favorite stuffed animal. You chuckled, craning your head to press a kiss to the top of his ear and getting a little shudder in response that seemed to run through Vash down to the tips of his toes.

"I'm sorry, baby. I didn't mean to ignore you." You cooed. The pale skin on the tip of his ear flushed a lovely shade of pink. "Was Wonderboy feeling a little jealous?"

"You're so mean to me." He whined. "Left me alone, wouldn't dance, and now you're making fun of me." He blew a raspberry into the soft skin of your neck, making you burst into surprised giggles.

"Well… I'm here now. Want me to make it up to you?"

He nodded, fangs scraping once more down the dark spot he'd sucked into your neck. "Might've had a little something in mind."

Before you could even question him, Vash had already sunk to his knees before you with a soft thud. Fingers tightened in his hair as he pressed a kiss to the button of your pants and both hands came up to caress the backs of your thighs.

"Vash?!" You hissed, tugging at his straw-blond locks. Nuzzling his nose against the soft strip of skin between your shirt's hem and your waistband, he glanced up at you through where your hands had ruffled his hair into messy bangs. His eyes reflected the light of the moon creeping in at the end of the alleyway, glinting eagerly up at you. He took the hem of your shirt between his teeth, shooting you a playful wink as he did that caused you to smother a snort of laughter. "Fine, you dork. But you better not let us get caught. We'll never hear the end of it from the girls."

"I'll be careful." His prosthetic hand came back around to wrestle open the button of your jeans, Vash's cheek resting on your thigh the entire time. "I don't wanna let anybody else see you like this."

"I knew you were jeal-OUS!" The smug teasing tone in your voice trailed off into a sharp yelp when Vash yanked your jeans and panties down your legs in one fell swoop. He'd barely gotten them halfway down your thighs before giving up, pressing his nose into the thatch of dark, curly hair between your legs and sighing, almost relieved. "S-slow down! I haven't even showered yet tonight, so just… just take it easy!"

He moaned and it rumbled through your already-sensitive pussy, making your knees quiver dangerously. His warm hand was still clutching the back of your thigh, and you felt like even if your legs gave out he'd be able to keep you supported with that one hand alone. You spread your legs as much as you could with the fabric of your pants constructing your movement. The cool air caught the slick wetness that had already begun to pool there. Leaning in, Vash pressed a barely-there kiss to your swollen clit that made your hips buck helplessly towards his waiting mouth. He kissed you again, this time swiping his tongue upwards through your damp folds after he did, tongue slick and warm and so, so eager. He spread your lips and licked further into you like he couldn't bear to be away. Your balance pitched and shifted dangerously as your legs shook, but Vash kept you held firmly in place as he worshipped your sticky cunt with his mouth. In the back of your mind you vaguely recognized the insistent, longing motions as ones you would feel with his lips pressed against yours as he groaned into your open mouth and his hands palmed you anywhere he could reach.

It was that thought- the fuzzy but mostly coherent idea that Vash was on his knees before you, making out with your aching pussy, that brought a sharp, stifled cry to your lips. Your fingers twisted sharply in his hair, but it only served to further tangle his normally styled locks and pull a rumbling groan from the pit of Vash's chest.

"So good…" He moaned, more to himself than to you. "Feels so good, mayfly. Need more? I can give you more."

Your core pulsed eagerly in response, hips twitching subconsciously as they sought out more of his touch, his tongue, his hot breath against your sensitive skin. "Please. Please, Vash."

"I'm here, I'm here. I've got you." He nudged your thighs the slightest bit further apart with his cybernetic hand before bringing two fingers up to swipe through your sopping folds. Usually his prosthetic felt relatively warm to the touch, either by the sun or by the restless energy that seemed to thrum through him at all times. But against the unrelenting heat of your core his fingers were almost cold as he crooked the index one up and into your waiting hole. There was almost no resistance with the slick of his spit and your aching arousal, your walls fluttering helplessly around the welcome intrusion as you breathed in a shaky gasp through your nose. He began to pump his finger in and out of you, the steady movement against your walls making a wet squelching noise that made your face flush hot. Cheek pressed against your upper thigh, you could feel each hot pant of breath curling over your pussy as his pace increased. Hooking his finger upwards towards your stomach, the sudden and unrelenting pressure on your g-spot made you yelp as sudden wetness gushed down into the palm of his hand. You could hear slick spattering into his palm with every sharp thrust, dripping down with the sweat along your inner thighs before his tongue eagerly swept it away.

"More…" You sobbed, barely able to keep your upper body upright as your knees shook and buckled, supported by Vash's iron grip. "Please, jus' need another… please." His hand retreated for only a moment before he pressed two metal fingers up into your cunt and suckled your clit into his hot mouth. You wailed, voice echoing along the alleyway but you were too far gone to even care, fisting both hands in Vash's blond locks as you humped his perfect mouth. He moaned against you again, pleasure rattling up your body from your clit all the way to the tips of your fingers and toes, thrumming like a live wire as your upper body curled forward around Vash's head, nothing in your brain beyond the constant spark-storm of pleasure that came from grinding your cunt against his face.

Peering down past his kneeling form you could see his knees were spread wide, tight leather of his pants pulled taut around the bulge of his cock. With both hands supporting you and keeping you upright, all he could do was rut his hips pathetically against the open air, leather squeaking as he desperately chased a similar sense of release. He sucked your clit again, hard, tonguing the swollen bud as two unrelenting fingers pounded your g-spot until you were seeing stars.

"Vash I'm gonna cu-MMMH!~" You didn't even have time to finish your sentence before white-hot pleasure was wracking your doubled-over body. You writhed and shivered in Vash's steady hold as he worked you through it, pace slowing but never fully stopping as you gasped and sobbed and clenched around his ceaseless fingers again, and again, and again, your arousal pooling in his palm and dribbling down the seams and joints of his prosthetic.

Thank God it was waterproof, that would not have been a fun fix to have to explain.

Finally, finally, when the pleasure began to prickle on the edge of pain, only then did Vash remove his mouth from your clit with a slick sound, pressing a final kiss to the swollen, aching bud. Fingers slipped from your heat as your knees finally gave out on you fully, and his hands on the backs of your thighs guided you carefully down as you slumped into his lap, back scraping against the siding of the building behind you the entire way.

"There you go, I've got you. So good, so pretty…" Despite the slick still covering his lips and chin you let Vash pepper your cheeks with kisses, soothing hands massaging away the ache in your thighs. You swiped feebly at his damp chin, trying to wipe your own slick away only to have him chase after your palm and swipe it clean with his tongue.

"That was… God. That was fun." You finally wheezed out, making Vash stifle a bark of laughter. "Anything I can do for you? Gimme a minute to recover, but I could-"

"I'm, uh, I'm actually pretty good." He shifted awkwardly beneath you, knees spreading the slightest bit further. Only now did you realize you couldn't feel his straining cock pressing up against your butt through stiff leather. "Turns out I like getting my hair pulled, fancy that."

You rolled your hips experimentally, Vash sucking in a sharp gasp through his teeth when you did. "Did you… Did you cum? Just from eating me out?"

"I plead the fifth."

"Since when have you cared about the law?" You joked, unable to stop the smile creeping across your face as you watched his get noticeably redder beneath the moonlight. "Fuck, that's really hot."

He gave you a sheepish grin, leaning in to give you another soft peck when…

"WHERE THE HELL DID YOU TWO GO?!"

You startled hard, bonking your forehead against Vash's and both of you pulling away with a wince and a hiss.

"Aw shit, it's Meryl. Gimme my pants." You whispered, grabbing for the waistband and trying to wrestle them back up while still seated in Vash's lap. She hadn't seen the two of you yet, but judging by the echo in her voice she was pretty close by.

"What about me?!"

"Just try not to walk weird. You're wearing black leather, she's not gonna notice."

"But it's gonna get all sticky and gross." He winced as you squirmed against him, finally able to wrestle your jeans up enough to button them shut.

"Should have thought of that earlier. C'mon, the sooner we get back the sooner we can get back to the room and shower." You stumbled to your feet and took a few shaky steps towards the entrance of the alleyway before casting a sly glance over your shoulder. "I mean, unless you don't want to shower with me?"

Vash snapped to his feet in an instant, eyes gleaming as he fell into step right behind you.

"Woof!"

#vash x reader #vash the stampede x reader #vash the stampede #trigun #trigun x reader #trigun imagines #trigun stampede #trigun smut #my writing #long post

417 notes · View notes

davidwontstopwritingsongs · 1 year

Text

so in cantonese it's called 奇異女俠玩救宇宙. lets break that DOWN

the tweet i saw about it translated it as "wacky woman fucks around and saves the world". is that an accurate translation? well… yes and no.

let's start with 奇異. you'll also notice it in films like doctor strange (奇異博士). a rough translation would be wacky/weird, yes. or strange if you will. but it also has connotations to magic, the supernatural, interesting things, things outside the realm of reality. something singular, unique. and that fits with the film so well.

女俠 next. 女 means woman. not very much to say here. 俠 if you google it would mean something like brave, hero, etc. not a huuuuge amount to analyse in this part apart from the fact that 俠 is used in the title of every single superhero movie (spiderman is 蜘蛛侠, iron man is 鐵甲奇俠, so on and so forth) so i guess a cantonese person seeing this movie title would assume it was somewhat superhero-y. ("to be fair, it does have quite good action scenes" - my friend who had to have this post infodumped to them at 2am before i decided to post it on tumblr)

NOW THE NEXT BIT. THE BIT THAT INSPIRED THIS UNHINGED 2AM DEEP DIVE. 玩救. THIS IS WHERE THE FUCKS AROUND AND SAVES THE WORLD BIT COMES FROM. 玩 means to play. 救 means to save. so she's playing around and saving something. cool.

but wait, because this is actually an EXTREMELY CLEVER PUN. you see, 救 is pronounced "gou" in cantonese. you want to know another word that is pronounced "gou"? and not just after you fuck around with tones, but actually in the exact same pronounciation? 夠. now what is the significance of that you may ask?

玩救 itself is not a word/phrase. 玩夠, however, is. same pronounciation so it fits into the wordplay. 玩夠 means literally to have "played enough/finished playing". basically you're done, you're moving on. but that is the centre of evelyn's struggle! she doesn't think she's done anything with her life, she constantly rues the fact that she could have done so much more and she didn't! evelyn HASN'T 玩夠 life yet. she wants to do it all, to live all those lifetimes. and it is through living all those lifetimes and finding enlightment that she 玩夠, and thus is also able to 救 the universe.

and then 宇宙 is universe. like the whole universe. there's only one universe in this translation. i'm not quite sure how you would articulate multiple universes in cantonese.

anyway the person who made this title translation was IMMENSELY clever

#everything everywhere all at once #eeaao #cantonese #i wrote this when i was hyperfixating over the movie and only found it now because i'm writing another long thing in drafts #anyway hope you like this belated analysis

436 notes · View notes

nebmia · 2 months

Text

Reviewing every rpg book on my shelf: 5, Flying Circus

Flying Circus is a a game by Erika Chappell where you fly planes, have messy dramatic relationships, and find out who you are. Sometimes all at the same time. More specifically you fly *rickety planes from the dawn of aviation* and have messy, dramatic relationships, and find out who you are *in an essentially queer way*.

The first thing I love about Flying Circus is it's sheer audacity in taking pbta (usually deployed for low crunch storygame-y titles) and twisting it into a highly detailed and technical system for running dogfights. I think its really clever how Erika has taken the idea of a detailed combat system are re-appraised it from the ground up in the context of dogfighting.

There is no grid based movement here, it simply is not useful in the three dimensional world that planes inhabit. Instead your positioning is modelled through altitude and air speed, with each being tradeable for the other and spend able to perform maneuvers.

Honestly the whole system is rather intimidating (a fact the book freely admits). Each plane requires a little personal instrument panel sheet (and a few extra side sheets) that resemble somthing you would expect in a euro-game boardgame more than an rpg. The system goes as far as modelling how your plane performs as you use up your modelling fuel and with varying altitude. There are also a lot of fairly involved moves that it feels would be a little tricky to keep aware of while running a dogfight. However, from what I hear, the system works well and, once you understand it, isn't /that/ tricky to run. I think this isn't actually that crunchy when compared to your standard tactical battlers, it's just completely new (and working in a zone most people have less of an intuitive understanding of [although its worth noting that most peoples intuitive understanding of medieval style combat is dead wrong]) so we are unably to draw upon our preexisting assumptions.

You will notice I have to fall back on reports and intiitions here because I am yet to be able to play the game, which is honestly my biggest problem with it: it carves such a specific niche that I think I will really struggle to ever bring it to the table. Anyone I have talked to about the game has always responded to the effect of 'I don't think I'm into planes enough for this'.

I am also not half as into planes specifically as Erika Chappell is. But what I am into is getting deep into things in general, and this whole system excels at letting you get incredibly technical and nerdy about your plane (as far as things like exactly what radiator fluid it has, if you use the advanced rules) and making those choices actually matter in play.

ok, that's probably enough about planes (a phrase I anticipate has never once been uttered by the author of this book), what are you doing when you get out of the planes?

The game follows a cycle of mission and downtime, which you spend relieving stress (in healthy or unhealthy ways) and running upkeep on your company. This is where you do a lot of the character work and bring into focus the 'coming of age' narrative that the game intends.

Which seems a good lead in to talking about the playbooks. Each playbook is focused around a particular thematic idea or experience, which is helpfully spelled out directly in a 'themes' section for each one. This isn't a game where you play as a fighter because you want to solve problems by hitting them but rather one where you play as a Fisher because you want to engage with "a queer reclamation of the monstous", or a scion because you want to engage with "privilege and power, and what obligations come with it", or a believer because you want to engage with "a mindset that thrives on radicalism", or a survivor because you want to engage with "a metaphor for what it feels like to be a transgender person escaping an unwelcome or abusive situation".

Obviously, alongside themes you do also get a load of cool abilities to use.

Of the many games that claim to be ghibli-esque but I think Flying Circus hews closest on account of two things: understanding miyazaki's perspective on war and also due to being absolutely unhinged about planes.

#ttrpg #my stuff #Reviewing every rpg book on my shelf #Flying Circus #pbta

79 notes · View notes

minisugakoobies · 11 months

Note

Sunny! I’d like to request #5 on the dirty texts with anyone - smutty dealers choice!

Ooooh, dealers choice?? Hmmm… I gotta go Yoongi on this one, I have not (and will never) recovered from the D Day tour. 😵‍💫

This was supposed to be a drabble but it's well over 1k so… sorry about that!! 💕

Title: Out of the Bag Now Pairing: Yoongi x Reader Genre: friends to lovers?, a bit cracky, smut, Coworkers!AU Rating: M(18+) Warnings: accidentally dirty texts, misunderstandings, mutual pining, masturbation (m), almost turns into phone sex, reader is flustered af (in the best way!), ends on a cute note, prompt is highlighted in bold

You: Okay, so we have everything ready for the presentation tomorrow?

Yoongi: Yeah, we're good to go

Yoongi: Nothing to worry about, so try to get a good night's sleep

Yoongi: I know you didn't sleep before March's shareholder meeting

Glancing at the last text message, you sigh wistfully.

For over a year now, you've been madly in love with your coworker, Min Yoongi. Ok, love might be stretching it a bit. You're wildly in lust with the man.

He's everything you've ever wanted in a partner - cool, calm, collected, clever as fuck with an acerbic wit that always makes you laugh (while praying that you'll never been on the receiving end of its sharp sting). Plus, he's absolutely gorgeous, the kind of guy that people would use an example of "have you ever seen a man so beautiful you cried?"

Or maybe that's just you.

But he is strikingly handsome, and makes your knees go weak when he favors you with one of his rare smiles. They usually come out when he's being sweet to you. Like when he's making sure you're getting enough sleep.

So yeah, you're head over heels for him. If only you had the guts to do anything about it.

You: I'll try

You: But you too! No late night movie marathons again, Yoongi

You: Boss's orders

That's just a dumb joke between the two of you. You're colleagues, on the same level, but Yoongi had insisted that you take the lead on this project, since you had more familiarity with the product than he did. Another check in the "pros" column - he's a man who supports his other colleagues and isn't afraid to take orders.

Yoongi: Yes boss

Yoongi: You can't see it but I'm saluting you right now

He sends a few emojis through and you giggle. For the last few weeks, the two of you have been texting back and forth after hours. It's mostly shop talk, but lately the conversations have dragged on and on, drifting into the late night hours. As this one has. You've already finished your nightly skincare and have moved on to your dental routine.

Yoongi: Seriously though, try not to stress about tomorrow

You: Honestly, I'm not! I'm feeling pretty confident about this

Yoongi: Good. Then you can just relax tonight

You: That's the plan

You balance your phone in one hand while using your electric toothbrush with the other. Yoongi cracks a joke, and your response is a little mangled by your sole thumb's lack of dexterity.

You: Sorry abour any typos

You: I'm like typing with one hand

Three grey dots dance across your screen for a few seconds.

Yoongi: Oh shit, you're REALLY relaxing. I didn't realize it was that type of conversation

You spit into the sink, brow furrowing as you reread his message. What does he mean by that?

Then you scroll up and nearly scream. "I'm like typing with one hand"?? Oh my god, why the fuck did you say that to him? He doesn't know that you meant you were brushing your teeth!

Frantically, you start typing out a response, erasing and starting over a few times, trying to figure out the best way to say "hey no I'm a dumbass who was just brushing my teeth and not touching myself to you" even though the fact is that you have touched yourself while thinking about him, several times actually, but that's neither here or there -

and then a new message appears.

Yoongi: Hold on, let me catch up

Excuse me??

Your phone buzzes with an incoming call and you nearly throw it into the sink in shock when you see that it's Yoongi calling. It takes a few seconds for the command to answer the call to get from your brain to your finger.

"Yoongi?"

A happy sigh greets you. "Fuck, that's better. Wanted to hear your voice."

The floor seems like the safest place to be right now, so you collapse onto it, leaning back against the cabinets under the sink.

"You did?"

"Oh yeah. You've got such a pretty voice, YN. Bet it sounds even sweeter when you're coming," Yoongi rumbles, that's the only word for it, he rumbles in that deep-ass voice of his, and you slide until you're just lying on your back, staring up at the bathroom ceiling, waiting for death to claim you, because how the fuck are you supposed to go on living after this?

"I - um - thank you?"

Yoongi laughs, but there's a slight hiccup in it, and it dawns on you what he's doing right now while he's talking to you. He's catching up. Images flood your brain - Yoongi lying on a couch, or maybe on a bed, hand tucked into his pants, fingers wrapped around a hard cock - and you choke on your own saliva.

"You ok?"

"Yeah! Yes. I'm fine, thank you."

He chuckles again, and it's physically impossible but you swear you can feel the vibrations through the phone. "You sure? You sound a little flustered."

"Oh, I'm sorry." What the fuck are you supposed to be saying to him right now? You're pretty sure it's not apologizing, but that's what you do anyway.

"Don't be. It's really cute."

Well thank fuck for that.

"Yoongi," you steady yourself with a deep breath, "what I said earlier… I didn't mean I was touching myself."

Silence. A lot of silence. It's a relief when he speaks again, but it fades quickly as you catch the disappointment in his voice.

"Oh shit, really? I - fuck." Now who's flustered? "What - what were you doing?"

"Brushing my teeth."

"Oh. Huh." He sighs, sounding deflated. "Guess I just jumped to a conclusion that I… wanted."

"Oh," you echo. "That's…" Incredible? Unbelievable? The best thing you've heard since you were born?

"Listen, YN, I'm so sorry. This whole thing was just - fuck, just really inappropriate, and if I've made you feel uncomfortable, I'm truly sor-"

Sitting up, you wave your arm to stop him. As if he can see you right now. "No, no! Yoongi. Wait. It's not like that. I wasn't doing anything right now but… but I have."

More silence. You bite your lip as you wait for him to catch up, for real this time.

"You mean…"

"I mean, I've t-touched myself while thinking about you. Before." Clearing your throat, you cover your eyes with your free hand, hiding your face from an invisible audience. Somehow, it emboldens you to keep talking. "A lot, actually."

He exhales shakily. "Really?"

"Yeah. Yeah, really." Uncovering your face, you stand, propping yourself up against the counter as you stare at yourself in the mirror. Is that really you having this discussion right now? You start to laugh.

"I don't think I'm getting the joke," Yoongi says slowly.

"Holy shit, this is just so surreal, Yoongi," you inform him. "I never in a million years thought I'd be admitting that I - Jesus, that I masturbate to thoughts of you! Not over the phone like this. Maybe after like-"

"A date?"

You huff out another laugh. "After a dozen, maybe. This is… I'm extremely out of my depth here."

"Well, if it makes you feel better, I think you're doing a great job." He's laughing now, too, and it makes you grin so wide your cheeks actually hurt. "How about this - you let me take you on a date tomorrow night, to celebrate our successful presentation, and maybe by the end of the night, we'll know where we stand on the timeline for surprising confessions?"

"Okay. Yeah. Yes." You close your mouth to prevent yourself from continuously accepting his offer.

"Great. Then… I'll see you tomorrow." His voice drops to a soft whisper. "Sweet dreams, YN."

"Good night, Yoongi."

Okay, so you may have lied to him. Because there's no way you're getting any sleep tonight.

Masterlist 💜 Find me on AO3 💜

#bts smut #yoongi smut #yoongi x reader #bts scenarios #bts fanfic #min yoongi x you #min yoongi x reader #min yoongi fanfic

205 notes · View notes

firedjinni · 3 months

Note

what do u even call the slugcats cause they're "names" are fuckinfg BORING! "monk" "survivor" yap yap yap! thats why I call them flowerboy and ponyboy hunter is a cool fucking name but still WOLFBOY. is better I know theres... other slugcats the only ones ive seen are the fat one and the darker red one. and some weird... mutation looking slugcat... weird eyes... weird colors. whateverrrrrr ill enable the dlc after i do this damn wolfboy run 4 DAYs. LEFT.

okay, I understand this was probably not the intended point of this ask, but it is too late. you have activated my trap card. we are talking about Slugcat Worldbuilding Headcanons now.

(Spoilers ahead for… basically every campaign.)

For Hunter: I imagine "Hunter" is more of a nickname, and that NSH normally refers to them more as his courier or messenger. I tend to call them "Hunter" for writing convenience (even in their own POV, so far), but they don't really call themself that much. They have a lot of identity issues tied up in being created for a Very Specific Purpose and not really knowing how to think of themself outside of it; they're a divine messenger, but that's not really a name. Until their purpose is fulfilled, they don't think about themself as a person often enough to actually consider things like names.

For Survivor: I like the headcanon that slugcats (at least in Surv/Monk/Gourm's colony) are given simpler names as pups, and sort of "earn" a more descriptive title/adult name as they mature. In my usual read of them, they would have just been "white/pale one" when they still lived with their colony, and gave themself the name "Survivor" some time after their fall.

For Monk: their pup name, which they have during their campaign, is something like "yellow one", and they don't earn a title until later. Even then, they aren't ever "Monk" in-universe, as slugcats don't quite have an equivalent social structure or role for that term to translate directly. The name they take instead means something more like "pacifist" or "gentle/wise/peaceful one", though there are some loosely similar social connotations to early Ancient society's version of monkhood, with implications of spiritual attunement, insight, and vague otherworldliness.

For Artificer: I imagine this name to be a matter of in-universe translation jank. Their actual name is something closer to "crafter" or "clever one that makes things" (again, connotations are tricky to translate!), but those simply do not possess the same pizzazz. The Scavengers also call them "Red Death" or sometimes "Red Mother", which ends up becoming a sort of mythological figure later on, like a Scavenger boogeyman. Future slugcat colonies end up sort of adopting back the mythology of the Red Mother as a protective deity/spirit, so they mostly call her that in the future. "Red" was probably their pup name, too.

For Spearmaster: Seven Red Suns calls them "messenger" and "07" -- I like to think the former becomes a nickname (their character designer, Faeling, headcanons SRS calling them "Messy" as a nickname/diminutive which I think is adorable), but Spearmaster themself might have adopted the latter too at some point, maybe almost like a family name, because they like that it connects them to Seven Red Suns. I also figure that other wild slugcats might have various nicknames for them, especially since SM would have no easy way to introduce themself -- and the name "Spearmaster" might come from that, actually! But I also like the idea of a future folktale version of them similar to with Artificer, with various names depending on the opinions of the colony/culture in question: "Cousin Thorn-tail", "the Spear-sapper", "the Drinker", and so on.

For Gourmand: again, I imagine this as a case of translation jank, and whatever they're called has slightly different connotations, though I'm less decided on what it should actually be. "Gourmand" is just so… specific? I feel like whatever they've got going on should be equally untranslatable, though. It's something along the lines of "appraiser" and "crafter" and "skilled forager", with this implication of like… knowing about valuable/desirable things and how to find/make them, and also having a strong personal taste for them? "Connoisseur", almost? But not quite as fancy. Their pup name was just "big one", though -- pup Gourmie wasn't quite the absolute unit they are as an adult, but they were definitely always a big slugcat.

For Rivulet: I like the idea this really is just their name! Little-stream-of-water! It's actually their pup name, but they left their colony before coming of age (ran away to become an adventurer), and never really found a title they liked. They think Moon calling them Ruffles is cute, but it's definitely just a nickname.

For Saint: the name does translate directly, not because slugcats have a concept of sainthood, but because the title they gave themself is the literal term taken from the Ancients. I headcanon that they were raised by or around an iterator and know a lot of The Lore, and sorta borrowed some of these concepts for how they see themself… a sort of divine sufferer bringing peace to others, martyring themself for the sake of mercy. Their pup name was just "tongue" or something, though, if they had one at all.

#rain world #rw #asks #headcanons #not art

46 notes · View notes

darubyprincx · 11 months

Text

"You've died two times already?" Gem asked in disbelief, eyebrow raised, arms folded.

It was a beautiful summer's day, with clouds piled up like stacks of wool against the horizon and a faint sea breeze trickling in from the north. Fwhip's machines ticked along faithfully in the back, a constant hum that had helped him sleep since he'd gotten used to it, but the man himself was unfortunately nowhere near as composed. Under Gem's smoldering (perhaps literally if she got mad enough) glare, he fidgeted and kept his eyes on the ground.

"Maybe a little," he said with a weak grin, one hand pushing back his hair.

Gem was not impressed. "A little?" she asked. "Fwhip. We have been here for three weeks maximum and you've already died twice. That puts you on par with Jimmy of all people. Jimmy."

"Listen, okay," said Fwhip, squaring up and crossing his arms as well, going on the defensive although still clearly nervous. "I am not a clever man. You know this."

"I do," agreed Gem. She flicked one fiery strand of hair behind her back with a flick of the finger and a shake of her head. "I'm still absolutely amazed at your ability to mess up this badly, though."

"First time was... uh," said Fwhip, counting on his fingers. "I forgot."

"You died and then forgot about it," said Gem, deadpan.

"Yes. Now the second time," said Fwhip, putting another finger up and trying to ignore the heat rising around him, "I was a bunny. And then I lost my balance and hopped backwards off of a roof."

"What?"

"I repeat, I am not a clever man," said Fwhip, putting up both hands in defeat. "Some may even call me a grade-A idiot."

Gem snorted. "Is that your title now?" she asked. "Sir Fwhip, highest in the grade of idiots?"

"Yes!" said Fwhip, standing up on his tiptoes to better look her in the eyes and folding his arms again. "In fact, some may even call me a peer-reviewed idiot."

"Peer reviewed by who?" asked Gem curiously.

"Uh," said Fwhip, looking to the side. "Myself."

"And?"

"And the sky, I guess. Come on, Gem, we don't need to have an entire council voting on whether I'm clumsy or not!" Fwhip looked back at her, noting with relief that the air had cooled down once again. "We all know the answer to that one."

"True," said Gem thoughtfully. "I'll peer review it. You are an idiot." She patted his head, and Fwhip stepped back a few paces. "Easy on the touch," he said. "I've been working on redstone lately."

"I can tell," said Gem, wiping her hand off on her dress. "Your hair's greasy."

"And speaking of redstone," Fwhip continued quickly, trying to segue into another subject before Gem could berate him for dying so fast.

"No, let's not," said Gem with a cheerful smile, looking from the sky to back down at him. She knelt a little, and the summer air increased in intensity by about a million factors. Behind Fwhip, he could hear metal shriek and groan, and he shot a panicked glance backwards to see the metal casings and shafts of his crop farmer melting where they stood. Wires overheated and started to spark.

"If you die again," said Gem, just as cheerful, "I'll kill you." She booped his nose, and Fwhip winced. That was definitely going to leave a burn later. "Got it?"

"Gem, my redstone-" he said desperately.

"Got it?"

Fwhip looked in her eyes and nodded vigorously, just trying to get her to back off. "Yes," he said, walking backwards. "No more dying. Won't do that anymore. Nope." Gods, those machines were going to take forever to fix.

"Great!" said Gem, standing back up to her full height again. "Have fun with your redstone, Fwhip!" And with that, she walked off, leaving one extremely confused and incredulous man and a slag heap of melted alloys in her wake.

"Jesus Christ," Fwhip muttered to himself, taking his sweat-stained hoodie off and wiping his hair back from his eyes as he turned around to survey the damage. "That was like, a week of work!"

"Sucks to suck, I guess," said a smug little voice from somewhere nearby, somewhere probably near his feet.

"Shut up, Oli."

#ray's tag #mcyt #nlsmp #fwhip #geminitay #writing #keys' writing

96 notes · View notes

aurumacadicus · 1 year

Note

For the title prompt

Get off that table + tony and avengers team

I am once again terrorizing the Avengers team with Tony.

Get Off That Table

Steve stared, mouth dropping open a little in surprise. He closed it after a moment. He couldn't think of a single thing to say.

Tony stared back, fingers slowly reaching for the frame of the picture in front of him. When he realized Steve wasn't going to speak, he carefully lifted the frame off of the hook, turned just far enough to get clearance, and then chucked the picture onto the ground.

"DID YOU JUST GET UP THERE TO CHANGE THE PICTURE?!" Natasha bellowed from behind Steve, making him jump.

"It's less damage on the floors if I just use a step-up instead of the suit," Tony answered, as if this was reasonable or even barely normal.

Thor began to nod, apparently willing to believe his reasonable tone. Then he saw the "step-up" Tony was using. "Did you cut the coffee table in half and stack the pieces on top of each other?!"

"I'm an engineer," Tony explained helpfully.

Steve and Thor both took this as well as could be expected, which was to say: They were still too bewildered to speak.

Bruce came over to pick up the discarded picture, frowning when he saw it was one of the Iron Man in a Cubist arrangement. "I thought you liked this picture."

"I do," Tony answered, picking up the frame leaning against the wall by his legs. "But sometimes you gotta keep things fresh! Fun! Interesting!" He put the new painting up, then turned, gesturing at it with an excited flourish. "What do you think?!"

Everyone took a moment to respectfully inspect the new artwork. Finally, though, Clint asked, "Is that Iron Man with a Pearl Earring?"

"Yes!" Tony said cheerfully, and then turned and squinted at the painting. "Or, well, to keep in theme with the armor they made a pearl-colored bolt. I thought it was clever." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "From a distance it looks like a pearl earring though, which is also cool."

Natasha turned to slant Clint a suspicious frown. "You know Girl with a Pearl Earring?"

"They made a movie about it," Clint retorted.

Bruce turned from examining the new painting. "That was historical fiction. It wasn't real."

"Well I saw the finished picture anyhow? I don't understand the side-eye. I contain multitudes," Clint huffed, putting his hands on his hips. "I don't see why you're all giving me shit when Tony sawed his table in half to make a shitty ladder."

Tony sniffed at him imperiously, crossing his arms over his chest. "I used a laser, not a saw. And my engineering skills are impeccable." Then there was the sound of wood cracking, and he yelped as the table started to tip, tumbling off of it.

Steve and Thor both dove to catch him and mostly just ended up at the bottom of the pile of table halves and Tony, while he miraculously twisted in midair to stay on top, probably from muscle-memorized maneuvers in the Iron Man suit.

"I'm buying a step stool," Steve muttered into the floor as Bruce rushed to at least pull Tony off of them.

"So he can put it on top of the next shitty table ladder he makes?" Thor groused, pushing one of the halves off of them.

#ask meme #fic title meme #avengers shenanigans #team as family

104 notes · View notes

merakiui · 6 months

Note

MERA MERA HAVE YOU HEARD OF JUBYPHONIC'S COVER OF "LOVEIT?"??? the original song by biz is super cool but juby's english lyrics have me brainrotting like no tomorrow bc HELLO???? THIS SONG IS LITERALLY SO JADE LEECH CODED???

im going insane aaaaa i love him so much, especially sk! jade with this song!!!

:O YES YES!!!! That song is so Jade Leech. OTL Juby's lyrics are really amazing and catchy and I love the cover as much as the original song! Both are wonderful!!! >w< I listened to it and immediately thought of sk!Jade, especially the "I'm creeping into your flesh" line. AAAAAA IT'S TOO GOOD OMG...... funnily enough, I almost titled chapter three in DRU "meat-cute" as a reference to Reader coming home to find Jade in her apartment, but I wanted that chapter to focus more so on her interactions with Azul (hence the title "a warm, stifling sea"). But one of the future chapters will be titled "meat-cute" because I'm much too attached to the word play. (˘ ˘ ˘)

I adore how "loveit" (which can also sound like love-eat) uses cannibalism as a metaphor for toxic/abusive relationships. We all need food to survive, and so when you're stuck in an abusive relationship the world is so warped and everything you know is so twisted; you rely on the abuser because it's been engrained that without them you're nothing, you can't survive, etc. In a way, they are your food and sustenance. I think "loveit" portrays the horror of it very well: how with cannibalism you're losing parts of yourself (they're being devoured), and with abuse you're losing the ability to do things with those parts (you can't use your mouth to speak out, you can't use your legs to just walk away, you can't even use your eyes to cry sometimes).

Aaaaa I just love biz's music!!! It's so clever, and I like how they portray the dynamics of unhealthy relationships in their songs. There is also love eat -Dear Maia- (connected to "loveit") and recently they released another song: love cat! Both are very good!!! :D

Along with English covers, have you heard rachie's cover of "i am addicted"? It's so HBE!Azul vibes... T_T it brings back the pain tenfold... uuuwaaa,,, >_<

#twisted chit chat

32 notes · View notes

daddywright · 4 months

Text

20 Questions for Fic Writers

tagged by @samioli ! (late getting to it, happy holidays!)

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

44... so far :)) (not-so-secret: i actually have a second pseud for one-shots in very small, random fandoms, but i don't use it often.)

2. What's your total ao3 word count?

ah hah. 682,262. i didn't really publish much before the pandemic, but then suddenly all i ever wanted to do was write, and i found such a community online in different fandoms that i haven't really stopped since!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I've published (written is a different story, haha) fic for a few fandoms: namely ace attorney, different sherlock holmes properties, witcher, dragon age, good omens (before the show), and most recently, metal gear!

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

a badge of honor [ace attorney]

plumeria (new beginnings) [enola holmes]

pressure (pushing down on me) [ace attorney]

your heart is cold (but we will warm you) [the hobbit - the first Real Fic i ever published, when i was a kid]

if i woke up (next to you) [ace attorney]

flattering but not surprising that ace attorney is near the top, as far as kudoses go; i joined this fandom in 2020 and it's just EXPLODED since then. it's so cool getting into an older game series and being able to connect with a thriving online community <3

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I absolutely do! I miss one here and there, on occasion, but i try to say thanks as often as i can. i often return to the comment sections of my more popular fics on rough days when i'm convinced i'm the worst writer in existence kasd;jfalskfjf

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

hm... while i tend to avoid endings that leave readers in pieces, i do enjoy some angst now and then. i wrote a one-shot about john watson reacting to holmes's death in OG sherlock holmes titled 'when good men go to war' that definitely deserved the 'major character death' tag, even if it's one of the most famous fake-out deaths in literature LMAO. i've also written canon compliant lanamia, which just hurts. and a miles edgeworth christmas fic, which is self-explanatory. i also wrote a fic for the animated film Klaus a while back that made me cry writing it, which i don't often do HAHA

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

hmm. 'if i woke up (next to you)' is the epitome of cheesy fix-it for narumitsu, but i think the end of 'pressure (pushing down on me)' was written at a time, for me, when i most desperately wanted to read about a happy ending-- the whole series is a fix-it, but pressure in particular dismantled phoenix's disbarment and brought back characters i missed/wanted more of in a way that was utterly self-indulgent, so for me, that's probably the happiest ending i've ever written. :)

8. Do you get hate on fics?

No, thankfully. but i've gotten enough of unsolicited crit type comments to piss me off eternally-- though i've gotten better at deleting the ones that hurt rather than engaging. (I stopped writing a witcher fic i really liked because i got a comment that a chapter was boring, and it totally shattered me :///)

9. Do you write smut?

Sure! I have been known to enjoy and write explicit fics. I have an academic interest in sex and education about it, and I think some of the best character study fics in the entire universe are explicit. i also think the saddest fics i've ever read have also included explicit scenes, too.

10. Do you write crossovers?

I have! I love a good, clever crossover.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of. (knocks on wood)

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, several!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! Most recently (published, that is), for pacific rim.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

OOF. well. i have several, of course. i'll always be attached to classic sherlock holmes x john watson. for fandoms i fell into recently, the bangers are narumitsu, taibani (tiger&bunny, aka narumitsu lite), and newly, otasune (metal gear solid) is THE Moment. the MOMENT, damn it, PLAY METAL GEAR SOLID. and then DM me @solid-snaked because i want to TALK TO YOU ABOUT IT.

some more well-known ships i haven't published fic for over the years but still love: leopika (hxh), kakairu (naruto... YEAH. NARUTO.), kaishin (dmck), and superbat (dc). also, i tend to really gravitate towards platonic/gen fic for different fandoms as well, almost if not more strongly than shipfic.

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

ooooh. toss up between 'call me through thunder' (dragon age), because honestly while i loved writing it, i liked the original writing ideas that came from it more than the actual fic elements and 'when the way is dark' (witcher), because of reasons listed above.

16. What are your writing strengths?

i would like to say my dialogue?? i suppose? i really like writing dialogue and specifically, the framing around dialogue-- i like writing body language and trying to describe facial expressions and tone shifts so that people can hear and see the scene i'm trying to write.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

ahh, i'm definitely guilty of writing intimate/emotional scenes at the cost of pacing, and of favoring tone accomplished by dialogue rather than immersion via setting (i'm bad at like. window dressing and connective tissue between scenes, i think)

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

beyond my skillset, I'm afraid

19. First fandom you wrote for?

supernatural. mmhmm. i was a high school sam girlie. the first fic i ever read, also, was supernatural. destiel at age 13. life-ruiner. but i recovered.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

aaaa. overall, i'd say 'pressure' is a fic i'm quite proud of but it's the series overall that makes it my favorite as a writing and a community experience, one that got me through a really tough time in life. however, as far as my writing skill goes, i'm pretty proud of a fic i wrote on a time crunch for Holmestice, a sherlock holmes exchange, called 'the emerald circle', because i got to reference queer history in a way i really enjoyed while writing it.

feel free to pass along this prompt to yourself, fellow writers <3

#fic tag #narumitsu #ace attorney #apprenticeofdoyle #sherlock holmes #ao3 #writing #tag game #my fic

13 notes · View notes

antisocialxconstruct · 2 years

Note

Hi Charlie! Do you have any recs for some indie cyberpunk games? 👀

My god do I.... A lot of these, especially the proper deep cuts, are fairly short and fall into the IF/VN category, eventually if I have the time to go hunting through more of my to-play list hopefully I can recommend a wider variety.

I'll start with a couple more mainstream titles and then get into the real weird stuff.

Obviously anyone who's been around here a while knows I never miss a chance to profess my love for the Shadowrun games by Harebrained Schemes, although that's pushing the limits of "indie" lmao but for a worthwhile rpg experience that also does a lot to counteract some of my biggest gripes with the cyberpunk genre (particularly the way they handle mental health, addiction, and bodily autonomy), I really can't think of anything better.

Also in the "only indie in the broadest sense" category, for anyone who missed the hype train on Stray I do heartily recommend it. I think it's easy to dismiss that one as sort of a "gimmick" game with how much coverage focused on the pc being a cat and not a lot else, but the game definitely has a lot to say about like... human legacy and the steady march of time. It's hard to say much else about it without spoiling major plot points, it's fairly short but well worth the experience.

Another long-time favorite of mine is RUINER, although I'll freely admit this one is not what I'd call... deep lol. What it is, is absolutely dripping with edgy cyberpunk style and intensely fun to play. I think it does have an underlying commentary on like, the commodification and expendability of human bodies, but it doesn't really take a lot of time to invite you to meditate on that because there are big guns to pick up and sick combos to execute and so, so many people to kill. But maybe that's also part of the commentary 👀

Hacknet is a hacking simulator (go figure) that's very slick and stylish, and if you're not overly familiar with coding and command prompts and such it does a pretty good job of making you feel like you're doing cool hackerman shit without actually asking too much of you on a technical level. I like its sense of humor but I also like the way it occasionally drops a bombshell of a moral quandary on you in the midst of all your petty crimes. I highly recommend getting the Labyrinths dlc to go with it, especially because it'll give you some fun stuff you can take back into the base game.

Hypnospace Outlaw plays like a love letter to the web1 era (and to the power trip of being a community moderator before centralized social media lmao). It has a loose story about what's essentially a shared dream internet, and you're charged with enforcing community guidelines which unfortunately makes you a bit of an outside observer rather than a proper netizen. That provides some context and will carry you through to the conclusion pretty quickly, but ultimately its play/replay value is in uncovering secrets and just delighting in the nostalgia (or the novelty if you're not a 90s kid). The devs are currently working on a sequel(?) that looks like it will actually let you build your own website and interact with other characters in the world, which I'm very excited to see.

Broken Reality is a weird one, and feels a bit like Hypnospace Outlaw but for the early idea of VR. It's also fairly short, but I think it's exactly as long as it should be for the gimmick not to wear out. It starts out as essentially just a surreal walking sim and it's gonna feel like trippy self-referential vaporwave nonsense right up until the tone takes a hard left turn in the third act.

Vapor Trails is still in development, and I admittedly haven't played too much of it mostly because I'm very bad at platformers, but it's got a really nice aesthetic, clever character writing, and what I've seen of the story so far has me intrigued enough to keep throwing myself at it. One to keep an eye on, at the very least.

_transfer is... something very odd. More of an "interactive experience" than a game in the strictest sense, and intended to be played in many short sessions that build on each other bit by bit as you connect with a variety of other intelligences to recover memories about yourself and the world. I don't think I fully understand the story it's telling me and I'm not sure I'm even meant to, but I've played through several sessions and each one leaves me feeling kind of discomfited but fascinated. (I will say $10 may feel a bit steep for what it is, I got it in a bundle.)

Momotype....... okay listen. You're going to go look at this game and think "Charlie has clearly lost its mind, there's no way this is cyberpunk." I need you to just trust me and play it. It's free, it'll only take a few hours to get all the endings. It's Momo.

LOCALHOST is another short one with a fair amount of replay value for the surprisingly varied dialogue trees. You're tasked with wiping some damaged AIs off several hard drives, only to discover that they're all quite chatty, and now you have to decide what to do with them. This one also has a sort of unsettling vibe, and I like the variety of perspectives it has on how AI personalities might manifest.

Subserial Network is by the same developer as LOCALHOST. I've actually only just started this one so haven't gotten very deep into it, but I already find the concept pretty compelling. It's structurally similar to Hypnospace Outlaw, or maybe more accurately to something like Orwell, requiring you to comb through the internet archives of fellow citizens to incriminate them as "subserials": androids who want to forsake their human programming and become more machine. The language used to describe the serializing process has some pretty obvious parallels with both transgender healthcare and treatment for neurodivergence, so I'm really curious to see where it goes with that allegory.

A couple of honorable mentions that aren't really cyberpunk, but have a vibe that just makes me want to include them on this list:

The Magic Circle is essentially a game about game development, with a lot of commentary on artistic integrity and creativity, but the real novelty of it is the amount of stuff it lets you do inside the "game" of the game. It's really hard to explain but it's very open-ended and satisfying.

The Turing Test is, on the surface, a pretty standard "trapped on a space station solving a mystery" puzzle game, and I will say upfront the gameplay probably isn't going to be anything you haven't seen before. The puzzles are pretty good, if you're into puzzle games, but the real reason I'm putting it on the list is because this game was my first introduction to the "Chinese room" thought experiment, and it genuinely had a huge impact on my views and opinions on artificial intelligence.

#ask #merry-harlowe #game recs #rom speaks

69 notes · View notes

veliseraptor · 1 year

Text

December Reading Recap

I thought about trying to do some kind of 2022 reading summation/best of/worst of/whatever and I might still do that but right now I'm just going "too many booksahhh" so I'm just going to keep on going with month two of my "here's what I read this month" short reviews.

I read a lot this month, but unfortunately it involved several books that missed for me (but a few that I really enjoyed).

The Husky and His White Cat Shizun: vol. 1 by Meatbun Doesn't Eat Meat (Seven Seas Translation). I mean, as usual, even without knowing the actual quality of the translation as a translation I am still pining for a professional translator. And yet I'm still reading, because this is the way I have to read the thing as translated by an actual human, and I am enjoying it. This time around I am falling much more in love with Chu Wanning than I did the first time around when I was laser focused on Mo Ran as more nakedly ~my type~ but boy!! *pats Chu Wanning* this man can fit soooo many issues in him.

Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang. I feel like my relationship status with R.F. Kuang's writing should just be listed as "it's complicated" because I don't even know how I feel about this book, really. It's conceptually fascinating, it's doing so many cool things, the way she chose to end it is very bold and I respect the hell out of it, and something still just didn't quite...click for me in the way that I wanted it to.

I think it was that it felt a little heavy-handed with its metaphors. Which is fine, to be sure, and making your imperialism metaphors specifically about language and translation isn't something I've seen somebody do a lot with in fiction, but...yeah. I'm calling this one less a fault of the book and more a fault of the me, though; it definitely feels like a your mileage may vary situation.

Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke. I picked this up on a whim and it wasn't worth it. The book was very taken with its own cleverness; I was not.

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides. This was another one where the summary/description was more interesting than the actual book turned out being, which was, while readable and I was intrigued enough by the mystery to power through it pretty fast, underwhelming overall.

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots. Some people (me) keep picking up retellings despite at this point knowing better; other people (me) keep picking up superhero-comics-inspired books despite at this point knowing better, only this time I was actually surprised by how much I liked it. It was legitimately a good story! And you know I'm always going to be a sucker for a story that takes the villain's side.

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield. I have the creeping feeling that this book was too sophisticated for me and I would have liked it more if I was more sophisticated, which is an unpleasant feeling to have.

I wanted more deep sea horror from it than I got - not in the sense of ~creatures and tentacles~ or anything, but this was far more a book about grief and loss than it was horror, and it was billed to me as the latter, so I came in from the wrong direction and was a little disappointed. It was a good book, though, and beautifully written.

Everything I Need I Get From You by Kaitlyn Tiffany. Had I known that the title of this book was from a One Direction song (I didn't) I might have anticipated more how much it was about bandom and therefore less relevant to my interests. It was also lighter on the analysis than I expected/wanted, so ultimately this one was a disappointment too.

Beowulf trans. by Maria Dahvana Headley. This is the first translation of Beowulf I have ever actually read (!) and after reading it I kind of wished that I'd read at least one other translation to compare it to. But a lot of the things she was doing with alliteration and assonance and rhythm in the language were just spectacular. And it gave me the chance to read this one (by this translator) coupled with:

The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley. Adding this to my "books to read in pairs" list alongside the Song of Achilles / Silence of the Girls dyad. It's been sitting on my shelf for a while now, and I finally got around to it as spurred by reading the original Beowulf text, and...whoa. I'm going to be thinking about this one for a while and I want other people I know to read it so I can bounce off their thoughts about it. If you haven't heard of it: this was billed as a retelling (I know) of the Beowulf story set in a gated community but I feel like the fact that it's based on Beowulf is almost beside the point in some ways, and in other ways it's very much in conversation with that text and lives alongside it and maybe a little in argument with it.

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: vol. 4 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (Seven Seas Translation). I feel a little bad about how my reaction to this volume was a little bit "this was mostly a lot of Wangxian stuff so I was less excited about it" but there you go.

Siren Queen by Nghi Vo. I have to say, I read The Chosen and the Beautiful when it came out and was a little underwhelmed, but the synopsis for this one sounded interesting, and people kept raving about it, so I decided to give it a go, and I liked this one both (a) much better than The Chosen and the Beautiful and (b) just as a book without comparison needed. It also made me want to dig more into early film history. The way that this book is in love with (in a way) early film is also a delight to read, and while I can't call it subtle, it's eerie and beautiful in a way that really worked for me.

The Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp. I read a lot of horror despite the fact that I end up underwhelmed by the vast majority of it. I was slightly less underwhelmed by this one than I expected to be, but that is, as you might note, not exactly an endorsement. Part of the problem was that I found the main narrator just too fucking hateable in a very specific way to feel anything about his suffering but vague, detached interest in where it was going to go.

Heaven Official's Blessing: vol. 5 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (Seven Seas Translation). I just love this book so much and everything about the reading experience is difficult to judge in an objective way because my brain just kind of goes "look at them go! look at these little dudes go! they're so funny :)" in a very empty-headed sort of way.

This volume does sort of fall between my favorite bits, though (after end of Black Water Arc, before the Hua Cheng's Sculpture Gallery), so while it started digging into some of the Crown Prince of Wuyong lore it didn't quite hit the parts that are juiciest for me.

The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett. This book made me so mad about public health policy. Like, so mad. I'm mad about it periodically anyway but this just made it worse. It's really good, very comprehensive overview of some of the emerging diseases since 1950, including Lassa, Ebola, antibiotic resistance, HIV/AIDS, and others. It's long, and definitely a rough read if you've got any kind of disease phobia (she isn't...gruesome about the clinical descriptions but she also isn't mincing words), but worth a read if you feel like you can do it and are interested in epidemiology.

There's definitely outdated terminology and some bits that made me squint about the book's politics, but overall the author's clear message of the need for holistic health policies for everybody mitigated a lot of those concerns (particularly the way the author repeatedly underlined the links between poverty and deprivation and vulnerability to illness, and the vitality of giving people a way out of that situation as part of public health policy.

The Bone Orchard by Sara Mueller. The last book I read in 2022! I'm so fascinated by everything this book was doing. There was some very interesting world-building under the skin of what was really mostly a mystery with a side of politics. And I say that favorably. Ultimately I'm not sure that it'd make my favorite books of the year list, but I'd give it a casual recommendation; that is, if someone was eyeing it to read I'd say it was worth picking up.

I'm currently reading Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism by Michelle Goldberg, which was published in 2007 (during the Bush years) and I can already tell reading it now is going to be an experience.

#sometimes i read things #reading recaps #man i read a lot in december #i guess that's what i was doing instead of writing

40 notes · View notes

autumnbrambleagain · 11 months

Text

ultimately i think our real complaint with pathfinder wrath of the righteous is that its "difficulty" isn't so much "the enemies have very clever positioning and tatical advantages--how will you manipulate the situation to overcome it?"

it's not like the incredible oil refinery battle in Divinity Original Sin 2, where it gets WEIRD and you're fighting the environment and a new faction shows up and starts overrunning everything with weird resistances and forces you to outthink it, out-position it,

every single battle in Wrath of the Righteous is already decided long, long before the battle starts.

did you look your build up on metabuilds.quick? did you pick the Correct Feats and spells? did you reload the second combat started and then pre-buffed 30 different spells before combat began?

that's what defines the difficulty. is your build meta enough? did you read enough spreadsheets before this battle started?

i LIKED blackwater, I'll be honest. the super-high ACs meant i had to use spells i'd never used before, didn't NEED to use before, to deprive enemies of their AC bonuses! it felt like i was figuring out a puzzle, it was great, it was an outlier

im' on normal difficulty, which coddles and protects and forgives you. i'm on normal difficulty, and combat is either "i curbstop everything without trying, or i die instantly because i didn't get the gimmick right"

but on higher difficulties, there's no room to play with your build. in divinity you could be a teleporting assassin who dips into an elemental magic for extra fun, or a wizard just go full magic and you'll never be at a loss for things to DO. i put some levels of metamorphosis on my assassin just for the wings and tentacle slap, no problem. want a wizard who casts gun turret and then hits you with sword? that's fine.

in this shitty DnD inherited system you can't go "red mage". you can't casually dip. you can't do something Interesting. a sorcerer who spends a feat or two to use a cool sword? no. spell penetration. spell focus. you can't hit anything in melee after level 3 anyway so don't try. turn into a dragon? too bad, you still don't have the BAB to hit anything. you're a weak-ass nothing of a dragon.

the challenge isn't "here are all these pieces you can use--how will you use them to overcome the challenges before you?"

the challenge is "here are all these pieces. if you put them together in the right way you win. if you try to do anything fun with them you lose."

and for what? for what verisimilitude? ADnD had classes as CLASSES. you were a WIZARD. you had NO TIME to learn how to fight. your spells all had a dozen things to keep track of. you were a FIGHTER. at level 9 you literally get a Castle and a small ARMY as a class feature. as you leveled up you gained titles of nobility as a matter of course. you had to worry about taxes and harvests. of course multiclassing was hard back then--each CLASS was a career path. a druid leveling up had to do druid politics just to be ALLOWED to reach the next level. the fluff and crunch was INEXTRICABLE

but 3.x and 3.P threw that all out for the most part. just look at people talking about builds--they ALL talk about level 20 builds, and they're all ridiculous 3 rogue/1 monk/6 cleric/ 10 asshole builds that mix and match class features at will. i've seen it recommend that everyone take an entire level of monk just for the bonuses--ignore that it makes like, no sense everyone suddenly becomes an ACTUAL MONK. you don't just pick up the skills you pick up a level in the CLASS.

it so desperately wants to be a classless system where each level-up you pick what you get, but it can't escape its inheritance. it makes sense, to a degree--if you divide your time poorly in your study, you'll become not great at anything. a mediocre sword-fighter and a mediocre-wizard! but. but we're beyond ADnD aren't we?

why isn't it more gameified? I guess pathfinder 2 is more like that? i haven't played it, and i'm dealing with pathfinder 1 for WotR. taking a level of monk doesn't require you to add being a monk to your story--you don't need to find a cloister and dedicate time to it, you just pick the class to get the bonuses it gives you. why have it tied to classes at all at that point?

just like how multiclassing poorly leaves you unable to do anything well, picking both "classes are a career/lifestyle" and "classes are just a set of bonuses you get for this level" leaves the entire system poorly functional. you really can't do both.

why can't my sorcerer fight in melee when turned into a dragon? i don't have the BAB for it. how do i get the BAB for it? can i spend a few skill points per level to learn how to fight? no, i need to take a fighter class. retroactively all my experience is only into fighting. you can't multitask, you can't learn things outside your class--a sorcerer can't FIGHT with a SWORD! that's silly!

but a sorcerer can take a break for a level and become a knight, and a monk, and an alchemist, and a rogue. you can't be a sorcerer who sacrificed a bit of time mastering their magic to be competitive in a melee--that would make no sense! but you can be a sorcerer who stopped being a sorcerer and joined a convent for a short while and then became a squire for a knight for a week and now they can use a sword, sure. that's the option that makes sense.

just let adventurers be good at shit. let me block out two schools of magic in exchange for being able to fight in melee. let that just be a default fucking thing. you wanna make "classes" just a selection of bonuses you can freely pick from each level up, just let it be a la carte already. untie it from the canon. if everyone can take a level of sorcerer let magic just be something you can pick when you level up.

auroral oceans is a very different beast from a generic fantasy setting and the tabletop system im making for it is far from finished or perfect, but one of the base assumptions it makes is, if you're a player character, you're some kind of adventuring asshole enough that you can both: use a sword, and fire a gun, with enough competency that you can kill a person with it.

like yeah, someone who spends all their points on sword techniques is going to have more dice and way more options in a fight--a wizard with a sword just rolls their dice, a dedicated swordfighter has options to reroll a missed die or turn a point of damage into a disarm or a forced movement--but the wizard with a sword is still a dude with a sword and they can still fuck you up.

altho i guess it helps there's no generic "wizard" in the setting i guess the closest to wizard is worshipper of nirix who gets powers by virtue of emulating its example or like, a hwual channeler which is just a thing you can do it's fine

im off topic

my point is wow DnD fucking sucks and i wish it died from the meme pool already

#autumn rambles #pathfinder wrath of the righteous

15 notes · View notes

awigglycultist · 3 months

Text

Incorrect quotes except it's really just mine and @indigos-shits-and-giggles Hatchetfield rp characters & ocs and also @peterstankoffski & @atty-goldstein at one point and also this has been in my drafts forever so over half of these I put in here months ago

Toby: I only have two emotions: exhaustion and stress. And I'm somehow always feeling both simultaneously.

~~~

Arche: Yeah, I don't like people

Sunny: Oh, well now that's not fair Arche. Have you met all of them?

Arche: I've met enough of them. People. What a bunch of bastards!

~~~

Toby & Ted: *accidentally set the kitchen on fire*

Ted: We need an adult!

Toby: Ted, you are an adult!

Ted: We need an adultier adult! Get Kurtis!

~~~

Pete: You need a hobby

Ted: I have a hobby!

Pete: Hitting on Gary Goldstein isn't a hobby

~~~

Lily: Arche and I were crossing the street, and this man drove by and honked at us

David: What did you do?

Lily: They chased him to the next red light, and reached into his window, and-

Arche: *walking in* Who wants a steering wheel

~~~

Jas: A decision had to be made

Toby: And you fucked it up!

~~~

Arche: Do you always have to attack me with your words?

Neptune: Would you prefer me to use a brick?

~~~

Jas: I made lightly fried fish fillets for dinner

Alice: Jas, It's 1:15 am, what the fuck

Jas: Do you want the lightly fried fish fillets or not

Alice: Well, I mean yeah

Jas: So come downstairs while they're still hot

Alice: Wait, you just made them?

Jas: Yeah, I wasn't tired so I decided to make lightly fried fish fillets

Alice: Say lightly fried fish fillets one more time Jas

~~~

Kidnapper: I have your partner

Sunny: What? I don't have a partner...

Kidnapper: Then who just called me a lowlife bitch and spit in my face?

Sunny: Oh my god, you have Neptune

~~~

Alfie: You’re kind of a pushover, aren’t you, Lily?

Lily: …I’m sorry

Alfie: See!? That’s exactly what I’m talking about!

~~~

Ted: Look, I'm glad everyone's on the same page

Ted: But it's the last page in a book titled "we're all going to die".

Jas: That's not even clever

~~~

Arche, to Sunny: You have room temperature IQ

Sunny: What's room temperature IQ?

Toby: 73°

Sunny: Oh, okay

Sunny: How much is that in IQ?

~~~

Ted: Don't stay up all night, Toby. Last time you got this sleep-deprived, you tried to eat your own shirt

~~~

David: Knock, knock

Neptune: Who's there?

David: Boo!

Neptune: Boo who?

David: Why are you crying?

Neptune: I'm not crying

David: Hello notcrying, I'm Mr. Anderson

~~~

Ted: How the hell are you still alive?

Toby: Honestly, I'm just as confused as you are

~~~

Ted: I didn't drink that much last night

Pete: You were flirting with Gary

Ted: So what? He's my boyfriend

Pete: You asked if he was single

Pete: And then you cried when he said he wants

~~~

Sunny: Welcome to my very first vlog, in which I try different hair products!

Sunny: *sprays hairspray in their mouth*

Sunny: Well, right off the bat I can tell you this one is not very good

~~~

Wesly: Self-care is suppressing all your trauma until it comes back and hits you in the face with the force of 7 very large trucks.

~~~

Arche: I wouldn’t wish that upon my worse enemy!

Arche: Unless of course. . We’re talking about my enemy, Neptune. Fuck you Neptune, you know what you did!

~~~

Jas: I’m in love with you

Toby: We called off the prank war last night at midnight, dork

Jas: I know

Toby: Ah. Okay. Um. Cool. Neat. Very cool. Cool. Cool. Coolcoolcool-

~~~

Neptune: I’m in love with you

Sunny: We called off the prank war last night at midnight, dork

Neptune: I know

Sunny: Ah. Okay. Um. Cool. Neat. Very cool. Cool. Cool. Coolcoolcool-

~~~

Neptune, in a high voice, holding Barbie: Hey, Ken! I was thinking about going back to school and starting a career!

Sunny, in a deep voice, holding Ken: Nonsense, Barbie. You’re staying home and having my kids

David, walking back into class after printing out papers: What the fuck are you guys doing?

Neptune: Playing systemic oppression

~~~

Sunny: Look, I know you think my judgement's clouded because I like Neptune a little bit

Arche, holding Sunny's notepad: You doodled your wedding invitation

Sunny: No, that's our joint tombstone

Arche: My mistake

~~~

Wesley: I don’t think the therapist is supposed to say ‘wow’ that many times during their first session with a client, but here we are

~~~

Arche: Could you guys at least try to see this from my perspective?

Sunny: *crouches down*

Lily: *kneels down*

Neptune: *sits on the floor*

Arche:

Arche: I hate all of you

~~~

Alfie: ATTENTION: I HAVE BREACHED CONTAINMENT.

Alfie: DO NOT PANIC, I AM SIMPLY GETTING A SNACK.

#starkid #hatchetfield #incorrect quotes #hatchetfield oc

4 notes · View notes

forwantofacalling · 26 days

Note

hsr yanqing for 3, 7, and 14? and perhaps our girl katniss for 20 and 24? :3

:0 omg hi garnet

3) Least favorite canon thing about this character?

I'm going to be honest with you i rarely remember anything canon about a character if i dislike it unless its TRULY abhorrent. but if we're going with LEAST favorite canon thing...probably that we don't get to see him enough :( where is my jing yuan yanqing post-ghosthunter event closure.

7) What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

draw him small and excitable like a puppy. he's truly just a littol guy. im also a HUGE sucker for whenever someone draws him standing/sitting/flying on his swords i just think its so cool and fun. ALSO i think ALL THE TIME about that one comic in which he keeps calling jy General even when they're alone and at home. and the follow-up one in which jy keeps calling him ANY other title except for his son. theyre so cute.

14) Assign a fashion aesthetic to this character.

oh god are you TRYING to get me killed on tumblr dot com. i mean i think he looks great in wuxia/xianxia style clothes 🥺 i also think it'd be fun to put him in techwear for an au or something. but other than that i have no notes LOL

20) Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?

oh i swear i dont remember enough of the hunger games to answer this. wish i could give you a clever answer of "side character #41 and heres why" but personally im very soft for cinna and katniss's friendship,,, i think a lot about the fact that he requested his mockingjay sketchbook only be given to katniss if she decides to take up the mantle herself because he knew seeing his work would compel her to make the decision even if she didn't truly want to...wish we got to see more of them.

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

god i suddenly have never been in any fandom ever in my entire life. uhhhh. god i think i have to say margaret nearl arknights for refusing to win the Major and instead carrying her competition down the path to the champions hall together. she doesn't do a lot of ground work herself in the trenches but she uses her status as a symbol to lead the charge for other resistance groups in kazimierz. because she's a nearl. all eyes are on her when she steps onto the screen and she knows it. the difference between her and katniss though would be that she wields her identity as the Radiant Knight very intentionally and without outside influence. hm. lots to think about.

anyway thanks for the questions :)) this was fun!

#silver talks

2 notes · View notes