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iloveyouinred · 4 months

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Should have bought Oversize. | ft. Itto, Alhaitham, Kaeya

Asked by @coreakin-sakarat

𓇬♡ | Warning: NSFW, heavy on size kink, etc.

Alhaitham will be very careful. He knew his size is a bit.. over the standard. So he prepared you earnestly. Eating you out and fingering your cunt until it becomes a little bit too much. You think you have loosen up enough. And your mind is a mess already. You are begging him to put it in. To just fuck you here and now. And his pent up self doesn't really help with the face you were giving him.

Itto tried to deny your plea but seeing your lustful eyes, voice a little too desperate calling his name sweetly. Devoured by lust, he releases his throbbing length and rubs it on your labia. You choke on your own breath. A small gasp escaped your lips as you watched his true size pressing against your gaping hole.

“W-wait-” You chirp, nails pressing on his back. Scratching it as he pushes the thick length slowly. It's hardly in. Only the tips and few cm of the length and you already crying and mumbling ‘too big.. ‘s too much’ repeatedly like a prayer. Kaeya cooed at you and kissed your tears away. Singing you praises and trying to distract you by playing with your other part.

They will refrain themself from moving too much. Letting you adjust with his length, patience is key. He will train your body to handle his size. After all, if you can take him then no other man can pleasure you the way he did, right? When your soppy cunt becomes more relaxed and a little bit too wet from all your arousal, from him playing with other parts of your body, he slides in a little more easily. Although the thick length dragging along your wall leaves you gasping for breath. It's surely much better than not moving at all.

Once the entire length is in(it might be not for Itto part😞), with the tip pressing against your cervix nicely. He hummed in approval. Not moving just yet, the man will takes time. Strangely patience with the process, though you know how excited they are from the throbbing cock inside you.

Itto will be the first to lose the patience game and start pounding into you. He tried to be gentle, he swear. But he might be overcome with his own lust and drive you over the edge. You might be both in sitting position before, but once he loses his patience he will be grabbing your hips and moving your body to meet his thrust. You might want to hang your hand around his neck, mindlessly crying out his name. Babbling incoherent words when his ridiculously huge cock slamming into you, penetrating your inside with overwhelming pleasure. The size of it, which might have a rigged texture, hits your spots perfectly with a new feeling. This will also bring trouble because he could be one of the types who continue to swell. So once it's inside you won't be able to get it off. Not like you have the power left anyway. The way he hits your cervix will certainly make your mind go blank.

Alhaitham has a ridiculous amount of patience. He spent time working you up. Still playing with your breast. Leaving kisses and marks on it. Just about the right time when you call his name his hips snaps. You could be laying on your back one moment then being rolled to your stomach the next round. He loved watching your face twisted in overwhelming pleasure. Hanging by the thread to keep your sanity intact as he pounds the life out of you. But taking you from behind excites him also. For he could see your honest body language. Squirming under his touch. Your back arch back when his thrust went to the right spot. His hand is playing with your nipples while his mouth works on your back. Leaving love bites here and there. The aftermath of being fuck by Alhaitham, beside the limp(it implies to all the man here), you also will be left with a hell bunch of love bites which is hard to cover even if you wear a proper shirt.

Kaeya on the other hand is a tease. It's in his nature to leave you wanting him. Helplessly clinging to him when he play with your clit while still trying to pushing himself in and out your cunt. The stimulation is overwhelming. He might have been edging you for a while with his skillful hand. And with once or few thrusts you have come on his length.

“Easy there. You are quite an eager one, aren't you?” He will chuckle teasing you knowing damn well he is the one that make you come fairly quick with his hand playing around your body. While Alhaitham is focusing on training your body to accommodate his size and shape, Kaeya will toy around with you. Man know damn well he is big and he will fuck you mad. Then make you beg for it. He will be teasing you for annoyingly long enough but in the end he will fucked you mindless. Might be for his own pent up lust too. You will hear him degrading you and praise you in one second difference. Though every time he slammed his cock to your cervix your mind will become dumber and dumber.

Over all if you do get stuck, Kaeya will toy with you, making you move to get him off yourself only to slam you back in. The amount of back and forth in his play is crazy. Alhaitham will continue to fuck you(his reasoning is he will get smaller once he is finished, which leave you laying there trembling with his cum dripping down your hole). While Itto, honestly you will pass out first before he is done(from his stamina as an oni). Which you just realised he is stuck in you the whole night when you wake up the next day. And he will continue to fuck you until you are loose enough for him to pull out *sad Itto sound*.

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filthyfluffyfantasies · 6 months

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✧ ˚ 　· 　　 . DL;DR - this fic is not meant for anyone under the age of 18 as it contains the following: unprotected p in v, teasing, oral sex, use of petnames for reader/you, breeding k!nk related dirty talk, semi public foreplay, marking, oral sex. writer does not give permission for her works to be reposted, with or without permission. ✧ ˚ 　· 　　 .

prompt thirteen - creampie / breeding kink

character | fandom - rockstar!eddie munson | stranger things

reader | original character - female reader, groupie turned girlfriend & non -or vague, description.

words - roughly 4.4k

tagging -< taglist here >

✧ ˚ 　· 　　 . you and Eddie have reconnected after the one night stand that brought you together years before. bonding with his daughter has made him realize just how much he wants to be a father and he can't think of anybody else he wants to have his kids.. ✧ ˚ 　· 　　 .

Hawkins, Indiana, December 1996

You smile softly to yourself as you pause in the door to Rosie’s bedroom to find Eddie seated on the floor, Rosie seated between his legs as Eddie tries -and fails, at French-braiding her hair, the landline phone cradled between his neck and shoulder.

❝ I’m doing that, Emerson. It’s not workin. Hold on..❞ he turns his attention back to Rosie’s braid and swears to himself as he shakes his head. It’s crooked again and he was trying so hard to get it just right for her. He laughs as he starts to talk to Gareth again, ❝I was trying to braid Rosie’s hair for her. Can’t get it right. Poor kid has my hair, man. It’s too fuckin thick t’ do anything with.❞ Eddie’s statement is enough to make you giggle softly as you step into the room.

Eddie’s face lights up and he ends the call with Gareth, pulling himself off the floor to make his way over to you. Rosie is squeezing your legs, talking non-stop about how she spent the whole day with daddy and he taught her how to play some game called Dungeons and Dragons.

Eddie chuckles, scooping up the 5 year old as he gives her a peck on her freckled nose. ❝ Your ma was a nerd, sweetheart, she doesn’t know what that is.❞ -and he’s teasing, you know it. You pout a little and give his chest a light smack. Then you smirk. ❝ Since you think I’m so nerdy, Munson..❞ you dig around in the pocket of your leather jacket -his leather jacket, and find the tickets you stopped by the theater in town to pick up, ❝ Then I guess that means you don’t wanna go see Scream with me and the baby bat..❞

❝ Daaaaddy, you hafta say yes. I’ve been waitin a thousand years t’ see it. Please?❞ your daughter is looking up at Eddie, giving him those big begging eyes. Eddie pretends to think it over, both of you know damn well he’d never turn down a horror movie or your daughter’s begging.

❝ Are we sure she should see this, sweetheart?❞ Eddie’s just being a shit now, you laugh softly and Eddie rubs his chin as he continues, ❝ I mean.. This is Wes Craven. It’s gonna be a blood bath.❞

You laugh. ❝ Yeah but it’s also not real. Our daughter’s smart, she knows that.❞ you step up into Eddie a little more, your hand finding purchase in the front of his old Hellfire t-shirt. He’s distracted, staring down at your hand. You clear your throat, ❝ I bumped into Nancy earlier… Apparently, Will is taking both of Rosie’s best friends to see it.. With Mike.❞

Rosie’s really begging now.

Eddie pouts and pretends to be upset. ❝ I thought we talked about this, sweetheart. You were gonna marry daddy, remember? Now you wanna go see a movie with those dumb boys?❞ but Rosie is insisting. She pretends to gag when Eddie mentions the fact that she may or may not have just a little crush on little Johnny Byers or Argie, his best friend.

❝ Eww, daddy! I really meant it, they’re my friends. And if I don’t see it now, Argie’s a blab. He’s just gonna spoil th’ endin.. Pretty please? With cherries an’ chocolate?❞

Eddie snickers. ❝ Yeah, that tracks for him. Okay, alright.. What are we waiting on, huh? Let’s go see Scream.❞

As Rosie runs off to find her favorite jeans and change, you melt against Eddie and wrap your arms around his neck, your lips crashing against his in a long and deep kiss. His hands wander,settling on your ass.

❝ Dungeons and Dragons, babe?❞ you pout at him just a little when the kiss breaks a few seconds later. You’re honestly not upset, you’re just teasing him a little. Watching them together always makes you happy but lately.. Lately, watching him with Rosie has your biological clock ticking all over again. And earlier, when you were talking to one of the girls at work, she mentioned the fact that she thought she might be pregnant. And naturally, that got you daydreaming about another little mini Eddie running around. It made you stop and think too.

Everyone is always asking when you and Eddie will have more -and you do want another kid but honestly, you’ve been afraid to bring up the subject because things are still so new. The two of you only just reconnected. And there were definitely more than a few hiccups, - considering that you had no way to tell him about Rosie until last year, when your paths crossed again for the first time since 1988- and you’re just trying to enjoy everything the way it is.

Besides, you think to yourself as you hug against Eddie and breathe in the scent of his cologne and the faintest hint of those cheap cigarettes he still smokes, what if Eddie doesn’t want another? Am I really willing to mess up everything between the two of you? I’m in love with him and I just found him, I just got him back..

Eddie pulls away to look down at you and snickers at the dazed look on your face as he gets you looking up at him. ❝ What’s got you so spaced out, huh?❞

He doesn’t say it but.. He hopes that maybe it’s the same thing he’s spent a lot of time thinking about lately. At first, he thought it was regret, longing to see what he missed out on when you were carrying Rosie. But then, while you were snuggled up in the bed reading The Shining to her, as he stood in the doorway watching the two of you, it hit him like a ton of bricks.

He wants more kids. He wants you to be their mom. He wants a big family and he doesn’t want Rosie to be an only child like he grew up. He wants her to have the actual younger siblings that he formed Hellfire specifically to find for himself back in high school.

The problem is, he’s afraid that bringing it up now, that’s going to be too soon. And he’s driving himself crazy over it because the harder he tries not to bring it up, the more he almost does.

He almost blurted it out this morning over breakfast. Twice.

You’re the one laughing now, cupping his stubble lined jaw to get him looking down at you. You’re biting your lip as you stare up at him. Every cell in your body is dying to say something, to bring up the subject and see how he takes it but you’re also a little scared.

❝ N-nothing.. I wasn’t the only one spaced out, Munson.❞ you mumble, swallowing hard as you melt into him just a little more. ❝ Where were you at just now, hm?❞ you’re turning the whole thing around on him because you know if you don’t, you will blurt it out.

He chuckles, a ringed hand caressing your face before kissing your forehead. ❝ You’re spacing me out, woman.. If we’re gonna go see this movie..❞ he drops his voice to a husky whisper, ❝ you might want t’ go get ready.. Before I change my mind and take you to bed..❞

You whimper quietly as he drags his tongue around the shell of your ear. Reluctantly, you pry yourself off of him and make your way down into the bedroom you’re both sharing to change.

Eddie takes several shaky breaths and leans against the wall. ❝ Emerson doesn’t know what he’s talkin about. It’s not like I can just blurt out the fact that I wanna knock her up, that I think she’s even more sexy when she’s pregnant and I wanna have more kids, there’s a time and place t’ say that shit..❞

Laughter from the doorway of Rosie’s bedroom has Eddie wanting to disappear into the floor. Rosie’s looking up at him, big doe eyes shining in mischief. She pushes the door closed behind her quietly.

Eddie tries to act as if she probably didn’t just hear every single word he said. ❝ You uh.. We all ready now, baby bat?❞

Rosie nods. After a little digging, she finds the pair of Vans she’s currently always wearing, red and black. She holds them out to Eddie. Eddie goes down on one knee, slipping the shoes onto her feet, pretending that they’re a glass slipper, making a fuss when the shoe fits her foot perfectly. She throws her arms around his neck and he breathes in the sweet and clean smell of his little girl. Every time he thinks he can’t possibly love her more, he’s proven wrong.

Even when she’s being every bit as hard-headed as he is.

The hug breaks and Rosie giggles. ❝ I wished for a little brother on my birthday candle… Remember when you were askin me what I wished for?❞ Rosie goes quiet. She’s fiddling with the sleeve edges on her favorite black longsleeve. It’s a Corroded Coffin shirt from the last music festival Eddie tagged you and Rosie along to before Corroded Coffin finally declared they were done, they were retiring to go out on a high note.

Eddie lightly grips his little girl’s jaw. ❝ You did, huh?❞ he asks. Rosie nods quietly. Drops her gaze and shuffles her feet against the bedroom floor. ❝ It’s just.. I’m glad you’re my daddy and I love mama but.. I don’t have anybody t’ play with when Argie and Johnny are being stupid.❞

Eddie nods. Fluffing at his daughter’s hair as he chuckles. ❝ Well, it was a birthday wish. Those do have a lotta power, baby bat.❞

Rosie smiles and throws her arms around him again, you step into the room just in time to watch the little moment. To have overheard the little conversation between father and daughter. Eddie’s reaction was so vague that you’re not sure whether it’s a good idea to tell him Rosie isn’t the only one who wants Rosie to have a baby brother or sister.. You study the two for a few seconds and laugh. ❝ Okay, you two conspiring against me already?❞ you joke and Eddie smirks. ❝ Maybe we were, babe.❞

❝ I’m gonna go play with my Legos in th’ living room. Can I watch MTV?❞ Rosie asks. Both of you nod and Rosie goes into the living room to play. This leaves you both alone together in some thick tension.

At first, neither of you seems willing to shatter it. But Eddie can’t take it a second longer and this results in him, exploding in a passionate rant as he paces the bedroom until you think he’ll pace a hole right through the floor.

You choke on air when you hear him say that while he thinks you’re sexy, he thinks you’d be even sexier if he knocked you up but then he throws up his hands and swears in frustration because he didn’t mean for that to be the first thing he blurted out in regards to having another kid, wanting a small army of kids with you. You’re stunned. Jaw dropped, eyes wide as you watch him have his little rant and stay quiet because you’re still frantically trying to process.

❝ And I just… I never thought me, I.. Eddie Munson, would be sayin this shit. T’ anybody. Ever. But damn it,❞ Eddie trails off, going quiet as he takes a few deep breaths, ❝ I can’t even look at you lately without imagining you pregnant. All our kids rushing around the house, chaos every morning.. I want this and if you don’t..❞ but you cut off his words by climbing into his lap as you cup his face with both hands and kiss him until you feel his mind starting to quiet down, his hands roaming all over your body. When he squeezes your ass and rocks you right over the way he’s strained almost painfully against the faded jeans he’s wearing, you whine against the shell of his ear, ❝ You’re not playing very fair right now, Eddie..❞ and he just chuckles. You lean into his ear, melting against him as you mutter softly, ❝ I want all of that too.. You were saying you want to fuck a baby into me later, I didn’t hear you wrong.. Right?❞

He growls quietly. Groaning as you bare down against the way his cock is hard enough to push against the zipper of his jeans. He nips at your neck roughly and his hands settle on your ass, squeezing. He’s guiding you back and forth over his lap and you whine, nipping at the way the tip of his spider tattoo just barely peeks out over the neckline of his t-shirt. ❝ That feel like a misunderstandin’, sweetheart?❞ he asks quietly as he stares up at you. You bite your lip and whine, the friction you were getting has slowed down drastically and you want it back. You’re desperate to get it back.

❝ How soon?❞ he asks a few seconds later. Your hand fists the front of his shirt and you pull him against you, your mouth just barely grazing against his as you laugh softly. ❝ Tonight. I.. I wanna start trying tonight.❞

❝Fuck.❞ he groans out as you rock yourself against the way he’s strained at his jeans all over again. His breath catches in his throat and he grabs your ass roughly just to slow you down because if he doesn’t, he’s going to make a mess of himself right here, right now. He leans into you and nips at your neck after he’s nosed some hair out of his way. ❝ It’s a date, sweetheart. Think you’ll be able t’ keep your hands off me ‘til then?❞ and the gleam in his eye tells you that this is a challenge.

That you’re in for it, Eddie is going to do everything in his power to make you cave…

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ ･｡ﾟ ───

It’s just getting to the part where Billy’s about to reveal the truth to Sidney when you feel the cool metal of Eddie’s rings against the inside of your thigh. You can feel your entire body as it heats up. You shoot him a little pout and some side-eye, but he smirks. Slips his hand off your thigh to grab himself some popcorn after he mumbles ❝The bucket is in your lap, woman.. You expect me to control myself?❞ and pouts right back.

Rosie is sitting in the row right in front of you both with her friends, their eyes glued to the screen, a hand paused midway to her mouth to take a bite of popcorn she hasn’t taken in over three minutes.

Eddie’s hand creeps higher, a finger dragging ever-so-slowly right up your center. He chuckles when you squirm and shift around just a little in your seat. As his finger drags over you again, your legs clamp together, holding his hand between your thighs.

Your ears feel like they’re on fire. Eddie bites his lip when the two of you lock eyes, two long fingers pushing the soaked fabric to the side as they make contact with your bare cunt. You shiver before you can stop yourself. Shoot Eddie a dirty look and nod to an usher that’s just wandered in, flashlight in hand.

Eddie leans into you, breath warm against the shell of your ear as he whispers quietly, ❝Fuck.❞ breathing heavily as he raises the fingers he just had buried in your dripping cunt to his lips, licking them clean as he holds your gaze. You bite back a whine and he leans back into you, whispering quietly, ❝I can’t fuckin wait to fill up your pretty little pussy when we get back home, babe..❞ as he grabs your wrist and guides your hand to his lap, letting you palm at the way he’s strained through his jeans. You bite back another whine, helpless.

❝Eddie.❞ you whine, helpless. Soaked through in seconds. He chuckles. Your hand ghosts over the bulge strained against black jeans and he bites his bottom lip. Both of you glance at the seat in front of you to make sure Rosie is okay. She’s arguing with Argie in a hushed tone about who the killer is, throwing her hand in his face when he insists a second time that it has to be Randy. She thinks it’s Billy, Sidney Prescott’s boyfriend.

After you’ve made sure Rosie isn’t too scared, Eddie turns his attention back to teasing you. Bucking himself up into you as you continue to clumsily palm at the bulge in his jeans. His head falls back against the seat and he bites back the urge to groan as you drag a finger over the zipper of his jeans slowly. He leans into you to whisper ❝Fuck, sweetheart.. All this teasin me is only gonna get you in real trouble.❞ against the shell of your ear. You lean into him to mumble back quietly, ❝Oh? Maybe I like the sound of that, Eddie. Maybe that’s what I want.❞

The movie is coming to an end. Rosie’s triumphant outburst from the seat in front of you when the killers reveal themselves -and Johnny Byers arguing with Argie about her being right all along, is accompanied by snickering from Will, Mike and Jane. As the lights begin to come on, you pout a little to yourself but you pull your hand away from Eddie’s lap. You don’t even mind that you both missed huge parts of the movie, your heart is racing as the two of you file out of your row and wait by the door leading out of the theater room for Rosie and her friends to come out so the two of you can take Rosie home.

❝Can’t wait to get you home, sweetheart.❞ Eddie laughs quietly as he scoops up Rosie when she starts to yawn and then slips his other arm around your shoulder, pulling you into his side closer. You look up at him and bite your lip suggestively, squeaking just a little when Eddie’s hand wanders down, giving your ass a little squeeze.

As Rosie drifts off to sleep in the backseat of your car, Eddie takes a hand off the steering wheel and skims it right up the inside of your thighs, growling before he can stop himself when he feels just how much slicker your thighs have gotten. You slip your hand into his lap and he bucks against it as you palm at the way he’s hard enough to break through his jeans and only getting harder. You’re five minutes away from home but it might as well be five thousand years and it feels like the drive is only getting longer.

Eddie’s fingers brush past the soaked barrier of your panties and bury inside of you and you give the inside of his thigh a squeeze as you just barely gasp. ❝Almost time, sweetheart..❞ he chuckles quietly as he turns down the street you live on..

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ ･｡ﾟ ───

You’ve both just finished tucking Rosie into bed. Eddie turns on Rosie’s Scooby Doo nightlight and tucks her favorite stuffed animal into bed with her. As the two of you step out into the hallway, your back meets the closed door with a soft thud as Eddie’s restraint vanishes in a split second. His hands are all over you, finally settling on your ass as he lifts you up. You wrap your legs around him and he rocks himself into you, making you whine.

❝Ready for bed, sweetheart?❞ he asks the question in a breathy whisper as he nips his way down your neck. You whimper and rub yourself against him, needy. His mouth finds yours as he carries you down the hallway, navigating forgotten toys, a box or two from his old apartment in California and other obstacles that crowd the hallway with ease. He kicks the bedroom door open carefully and steps inside with you. Clothing that litters the top of the dresser is swept off and he sits you down in the space he’s just made, eyes gleaming as the kiss breaks, a strand of saliva between your mouths keeping you connected. You’re rocking against him and moaning out his name, shaky hands tugging the old Hellfire t-shirt up over his head as he strips off your crop top and slips his finger beneath the back of your bra, unhooking the clasps with ease and speed.

The clothing settles in a pile on the floor and he leans into you, pushing you up against the wall behind the dresser, his mouth moving down your body. He pauses at your belly button to stare up at you, tugging down your panties. You reach out and work the jeans and boxers he’s wearing down and he steps out of them, kicking them to the side. That cute little denim mini skirt you’ve been wearing is pushed up to your hips as Eddie gets caught up in the moment and decides that he can’t wait another second, he has to taste you now. He sinks down in front of you, your legs settling over his shoulder as his mouth moves up the soft dough of your thighs, licking clean the mess he’s made. Your hands tug at his hair and grip the edge of the dresser as he pushes your legs apart a little better and buries his tongue and three fingers inside your drippy cunt. Groaning as the taste of you fills his mouth. ❝C’mon, princess.. Pull harder.❞ he moans out against your sex, fingers pumping into you as his tongue swirls. You rock yourself towards his mouth and he chuckles. ❝Thatta girl.. Gettin’ nice and wet for me..❞

You can feel your orgasm building, prepared to wreck you and you tug his hair a little harder. Eddie pauses and you pout. He stares up at the way you’re about to come completely apart for him and bites his lip, ❝You’re gonna be so fuckin cute all knocked up, princess.❞ he mutters quietly and you whine, begging for him. ❝Eddie,❞ you plead, ❝I-I.. I need you now.❞

❝Not until you give me what y’ know I want, princess.❞ Eddie’s permission to get off needs no further explanation and your orgasm rips through you, soaking his tongue and fingers as he growls quietly, the taste of you filling his mouth. He raises up again, his mouth conquering your mouth as he ruts into you while scooping you off the dresser to toss you gently onto the bed. He follows suit, your bodies tangled.

Touching. Biting. Kissing. He’s marked you up, hickies and bite marks litter your skin from neck to cunt, there are even a few sore bruises lining up the inside of your thighs.

He lines his cock up with your throbbing cunt, dragging the head down your center. When you shiver because it feels so good, he chuckles against your ear. ❝I’m gonna fuck a baby into you, sweetheart. You gonna be a good girl and take it f’ me?❞ his voice is sex, gravel and velvet all in one as he asks the question. It’s so different than the sweet things he usually says that you’re whimpering, begging him to do it, to take you already.

He thrusts into you slow. It’s an agonizing pace and you can feel every single inch, every vein that runs through his thick cock as he pushes into you. His hips beat against yours hard enough to bruise and he’s got you caged in beneath his body, his mouth all over you. You meet every one of his thrusts eagerly and when he comes to a stop, you whine about it.

❝You feel so fuckin good, sweetheart. Your pussy clenches around me so fuckin tight.❞ Eddie growls out, ❝Can’t wait t’ fill you up.❞ as he fucks into you slower. At one point, he has to reach out an arm and push the headboard against the wall so it’ll stop banging at it. But the way you squeeze him feels so good and you’re so wet that a minute or two later, he’s fucking at you faster and he’s used his grip on your hip for leverage, angling your hips upward just a little, bottoming out. You’re seeing stars as another orgasm builds, stopped at the brink every single time Eddie feels you tense and dig your nails in his back.

❝Fuck, princess. –ah shit, I can’t..❞ he groans out against your neck, ❝I’m gonna cum, shit. You feel too good, sweetheart.❞ and you whine, begging for it. It’s so hot that Eddie’s thrusts speed up, fucking into you faster and deeper, hips stammering as his orgasm shatters through and biting at your neck as this prompts you to pull him even deeper inside by wrapping your legs around his waist. His forehead finds your own as his thrusts slow down and he presses soft little kisses against your mouth and cheeks. ❝I love you.❞ is said in unison, the two of you laughing softly in the dark about it because if there’s one thing you’re both good at it’s doing everything perfectly right BUT.. completely backwards.

Eddie’s still fucking into you, slow and steady. ❝Don’t wanna stop, princess. Your pussy feels sooo fucking good wrapped around my cock.❞

When he’s finally finished fucking the seed that leaked out back into you, he rolls the two of you so that you’re on top. You’re both yawning now, sleepy kisses are landing against each other’s skin as he removes one of his hands from your ass to cup your cheek, dragging his thumb across. ❝Wanna go t’ sleep just like this.❞

❝Me too, baby. I love the way you feel inside me.❞ you drawl, sleep making you stumble over words, making your voice all dreamy as the two of you drift off…

#eddie munson #eddie munson fanfiction #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x y/n #eddie munson x you #☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟғᴏʀ ᴛʜᴇ ɪɴsᴘɪʀᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ᴏɴʟʏ #🔞ɴғᴡ. ᴍɪɴᴏʀs ᴅᴏ ɴᴏᴛ ɪɴᴛᴇʀᴀᴄᴛ ᴀɴᴅ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴏᴡɴ ʀɪsᴋ.#( ᴛʜᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴅᴏ ʟɪsᴛ ✓ )#lazyghoulskinktober2023 #( ᴍɪɴɪ sᴇʀɪᴇs ; ᴘᴛ ᴛᴡᴏ ᴏғ ᴛᴡᴏ )

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chemicalbrew · 3 years

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Longest answer possible 😎😎😎😎😎😎😎- brandish anon

in response to this and this, I assume (just realised someone removed credit from that post. that sucks! but it wasn’t me, at least)

The short, clinical answer is this: Brandish is a series of four dungeon crawler / action RPG video games originally released in 1991-1996 by Falcom on the PC-98. The long answer is under the cut.

First things first: you’re probably curious about what prompted me to tag that post full of gorgeous pixel art as I did. Well...

...okay, this last one is a bit of a stretch, but I’m not sure if I can find what I’m actually thinking about...

The first two games were ported to the SNES (and Koei did a really horrible job with these ports, to be honest, but these were the only versions available in English before 2015). The fourth game was re-released on Windows in... ‘97, I think?... with seemingly minimal changes aside from the interface and remade soundtrack available in MIDI and WAV (I can’t speak for sure since it’s pretty much impossible to find information\footage, and while I do have access to the original version of the game, I do not feel compelled to check it out).

The first game also received a full remake in 2009 on the PSP called Brandish: The Dark Revenant, with enhanced... pretty much everything, most notably a very welcome change from 2D to 3D environments and a re-arranged soundtrack. This game specifically will always be one of my biggest favorites, and just about the only flaw I can find in it is the slow (compared to the original release) movement\game speed.

Only two of the four games are available in English: TDR was localised by XSEED in 2015 (with all text translated by one person, this was obviously a passion project!) and Brandish 2: The Planet Buster received two fan translations, one for the SNES version done sometime in 2009 by a team that, IIRC, called themselves Synchronicity Productions, and a much superior one for the PC-98 version released by Gu4n and his team (mostly composed of those on the Geofront project) in 2017. A partial translation of Brandish 4 (with the added subtitle Tower of the Sleeping God) made by the same people is also available, but it literally did not work on my end, leaving ~80% of the supposedly translated text still in Japanese. :(

The first three games make up a trilogy and share a loosely interconnected plot with reoccurring characters (in theory you could play out of order, but you’re likely to misunderstand games’ reference to each other this way), while the fourth one is a standalone (it was meant to be a wholly original IP called Victim’s Tower before it was decided that it resembled the trilogy enough to be tethered to it, hence the name of its initial release - Brandish VT)

The trilogy’s main character is Ares Toraernos, a bounty hunter and murderer on the run from both (presumably) authorities and a powerful sorceress Dela Delon, whose entire goal is to get revenge on our hero for killing her mentor. The first game starts off by showing their initial showdown...

*side track: yes i am aware her entire design is for money and/or titty grab. I figure this is a small price to pay for how good pretty much everything else is

...but we are destined to never see the outcome of it.

Dela’s fierce and impulsive attack causes the ground to split apart, making them both fall down into the ruins of an ancient kingdom. It is said that long ago, its people lived in prosperity, with a powerful dragon guiding and guarding them from its tower. However, the kingdom’s late ruler wanted to slay the dragon for full control and power. He ultimately failed and was punished for it in two ways: a) he was fused with the dragon and cursed to spend eternity in this hideous form; b) his kingdom and the tower sunk far below ground to be forgotten and forsaken.

Legends and rumors about that occasion have spread enough to attract a fair share of people wanting to try their luck at the kingdom’s riches, but some make their way down here in a fashion similar to Ares. Regardless, none are said to have made it out of the underground alive.

(Well, if you persevere enough to beat the game, Ares and Dela will be the first, with Ares having saved Dela’s life near the end of the journey and her sparing his in exchange. You CAN, of course, choose to ignore her peril, but that’s not the canon choice and on the PSP version there is virtually no indication that you have an option to walk away. That was a great discovery for me, even if it didn’t bring about any meaningful change. After beating the main story, an extra mode opens up, letting you make your way through some of the most devious floors in the whole series in Dela’s shoes! It’s about half as long as the main game.)

I don’t really want to cover the rest of the plot, less because of spoilers and more because a) all the second game ultimately does is use Ares’ all-powerful sword (*drumroll* the Planet Buster) as a plot device, and, frankly, I don’t remember the structure well enough aside from the gorgeous opening; b) the third and fourth game’s plots, despite being ultimately simple as well, aren’t entirely clear to me due to having to abuse machine translation. (real awkward, ain’t it?) I do know almost enough to feel satisfied with the trilogy’s ending, but I’d feel terrible trying to recount it as plainly as this.

The series’ main gimmick when it comes to gameplay, is, of course, perspective. It may technically qualify as top-down, but there’s one major twist — the world turns around you, not the other way around. I think it’s easier to show it in action instead of describing... See how much difference an extra dimension makes? Personally I’d argue that the 2D games aren’t that much harder to get accustomed to, but I wouldn’t blame anyone for disagreeing; as much as I love the games, I can certainly admit that they’re not for anyone prone to motion sickness and such. Brandish 4 uses a more comprehensible isoteric perspective, though!

If you aren’t one to get sick from all that turning around, though, you’re in for a deluge of levels with excellently designed puzzles (okay, some of them in the second game are a little obtuse, but the first is pretty much perfect on this front!) and a fine sense of progression! The freedom to save at almost any point (even during the boss fights, which arguably removes all tension, but nonetheless is an option — just make it out of the boss room alive first) makes for a great anti-frustration feature as well.

Lastly, I want to expand on something I said previously and talk a little about the series’ music. I... don’t really know how to describe it other than special. Of course it has its hits and misses, but that doesn’t change the importance Brandish music holds in my eyes!

Here’s some screenshots/official art from the games I have on my hard drive for an awkward wrap-up:

#zero.txt #brandish #i hope this is sufficient cause usually when i try to talk about how much i enjoyed these games i devolve into a fit of jshdjsdshjGHJSFGHDSD

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mamfaplier · 6 years

Text

Nerve — Chapter One

Are you a Watcher or Player?

Prompt: Roll Up by Fitz and the Tantrums

1940s Bucky x Reader

Word Count: 1,811

AN: This is my personal adaptation of the film Nerve (2016) that I’m submitting for @green-eyeddragonfanfiction‘s 3K Creative Content Challenge. I’m so happy to have been allowed to participate in this. So obviously my prompt is that song above but I’ll be using it later in the story so sorry if that throws you off! At first, I thought this was going to be a one shot but I watched the movie again and decided I’m going to make a series out of this!!! Our boy Bucky probably won’t come in right away but don’t worry ;) Also the film is based on seniors in high school (I think) so just imagine all the characters used in this as younger versions of themselves. Like for example, Bucky as young 1940s Bucky instead of a grown adult man who failed more than a few times and is still in high school with a metal arm :P Anyways, congrats on 3K Dragon! <33

Warnings: Mentions of death

(Y/F/N) = your first name (Y/L/N) = your last name (Y/C) = your city

Next Chapter

Welcome to Nerve. A game like Truth or Dare….minus the Truth. Watchers pay to watch. Players play to win cash and glory.

Are you a Watcher or Player?

ARE YOU A WATCHER OR PLAYER?

As you sit down at your desk in your room, you get comfortable and open up your computer. The oh so familiar startup tune softly rings out welcoming you back. (Y/F/N Y/L/N) appears on the screen as well as your favorite selfie from the summer in a small box, swiftly prompting you to enter your password for login. You’ve had to have entered it in a million times by now but still, every once in a while, you still seem to forget.

After the second attempt, your computer finally lets you in bringing you to your desktop. The smiling faces of you, your brother, and your mom together are plastered in a puzzle like collage on the background. As everything slowly loads up, the corner of your mouth smirks up into a small smile like it does every time you remember the moment you took that picture. You press on the Spotify app and begin scroll through your suggestions. To your surprise (or discomfort), a playlist called ‘Only Single Friend Left’ appears with a small, sad kitten as the playlist cover art. With a shrug and a slight roll of your eyes, you click the play button. Can’t Get Enough by Basenji starts playing through your computer's speakers.

You open up your internet browser and almost too quickly open up your email. Among the top of the hundreds of read emails sit two unread emails. One from DAILY CAT PICS and the other from the college of your dreams, subject reading URGENT: Admissions Reminder. Never in your wildest dreams did you think you would ACTUALLY get accepted but here you are. Hesitantly, you open up the email.

It reads:

Dear (Y/N),

Congratulations again! This is a reminder that your reply is due tomorrow. This could be the first day of the rest of your life. Click accept and join the class of 20**!

You sigh as you bring your mouse over the bright red CLICK HERE TO ACCEPT button in the email. This has been one of the hardest decisions in your life, but you scroll to the bottom of the email and press reply.

To whom it may concern,

I regret to inform the admissions board that I must decline…

You pause and yet again let out another sigh as you glance over at your brother’s and mom’s faces on your desktop background. You continue.

…because I’m a spineless loser and I’m too scared to tell my mom the truth which is that I want to move out and leave (Y/C) foreverlasjdhflajhsdljfaljdshflhadsjafhlf

In your distraught state, a Facebook notification brings a welcome distraction.

Chris “Thor” Odinson tagged you in a post.

Your heart skips a beat and you quickly click on it and with a soft giggle see that he’s posted the picture you took of him reminding everyone of the pep rally today. As you go to press the like button, your best friend Natasha Romanoff rings you on Skype. You roll your eyes and accept her call.

“Good morning. Whatcha doing? Besides stalking Thor, of course.” She greets you in her common teasing tone.

“I’m reading the news, thank you very much.” You gently respond to her jab as you scroll over to the Huntington Post quick link you have on your browser’s bookmark bar.

“Oh? You’re reading the news? You’re such a good liar!” Natasha jabs back again seeing right through you. She is your best friend of course.

With a chuckle you glance back at her through your computer screen, “Seriously, how do you know I’m stalking Thor?”

“Because I know you very very well.” She tussles around in her beside table placing things on her bed, a big bright N glowing right above it. “Oh wait! Did you tell your mom about your dream school yet?”

“Yea! I told her! She’s super excited for me to move across the country and go to a really expensive school.” Sarcasm very evident in your tone, yet completely goes over Natasha’s head.

“Really?”

You laugh. “No, I just haven’t found the right time to tell her and…”

Natasha abruptly interrupts you. “OH! Nerve is starting. Sorry, this is really important.”

“What’s Nerve?”

“It’s a game. Here, just click on the video.”

You open up your Facebook messenger and click on the link Natasha sent you. After you finish watching the short clip, you click back to Skype. “This looks very sketchy. Is this legal?” You ask and laugh nervously.

“Well, no. Probably not but who cares. Sign up and watch. Times a-tickin'!”

You playful pretend to sign up typing your fingers on your imaginary keyboard in the air. “Ok signing up. Look this is me signing up to watch you.” You say dryly.

“(Y/N/N)!” Natasha exclaims. “You have to sign up and watch me! It’s very important that I have watchers!”

“I gotta go. My mom’s home. I’ll sign up after breakfast!”

“Thank you! I love you. I’ll see you in a little bit!” You both bid each other goodbye with your signature flick of the nose and click off of Skype.

You run downstairs from your room to the kitchen, greeted with the delicious smell of pancakes and bacon as well as your mom’s smiling face. You both begin talking about how Natasha still hasn’t gotten into any schools yet and seems to be carefree. Your mother disagrees and reminds you that Natasha will always have a trust fund to fall back on. A hard jab to your best friend but nonetheless, still the truth. You, on the other hand, do not have a trust fund. You have drive and knowledge and a scholarship to a local college. Definitely not as exciting. But to your mom, it sounds like the perfect plan. You can’t afford to stay on campus but you get to have your mom as your cool college roommate. That’s awesome, right? Wrong. But you can’t tell her that. Instead, you offer to help her fix up your late brother’s room and post in on Airbnb. Maybe it would be a good time to go through his stuff and give some of it to goodwill? Maybe you could give her some space? She would like that, right? Wrong….again.

“I just want you here, (Y/N/N).” You mom responds sadly. To say it’s been hard since you lost your brother Peter is an understatement. You love your mom to bits but you’re getting older and just want to branch out. But now, more than ever, all your mom wants is to stay connected to you and you don’t have the heart to deny her of that.

“Ok, yea. I’m totally down for commuting. I can do my reading on the train.” Disappointed, you look over to your mom who makes her way to the table and press your lips together.

“That’ll work, right?”

“Yea.” You state simply, resting your cheek on your hand as you take a bite of your pancakes.

After breakfast, you run back up to your room. You grab your 2 most important things: your camera and your phone. Tossing on a light jacket that matches with your striped tee and jeans, you lug your backpack over your shoulder. You press shuffle on Spotify, starting Kamikaze by MØ before you hop on your bike and head on your way to school.

As you get to school, you immediately meet up with Steve Rogers, your yearbook partner in crime. Your school’s football team has a game today and it’s your mission to try to get as many pictures for the yearbook as you can. You both walk to the locker room, handing Steve your extra lenses. The team is gathered together, getting a pump up speech by Coach Wilson before the pep rally. You sneak behind some of the players to get some more up close shots of them but you may or may not have taken one too many of the captain of the football team and your crush, Chris Odinson. Everyone calls him Thor because he plays like he’s an almighty god and of course, he has definitely taken to the name. He looks at you as you’re snapping away and gives you the cutest smirk you’ve ever seen, making you want to melt to the floor.

You quickly walk over to Steve to grab a different lens for your camera and he chuckles. “Wouldn’t it feel a little unbalanced if every single yearbook photo is of Thor Odinson?”

“It’s not MY fault he’s on the team.” You snap back nervously. Are you really making it THAT obvious? Steve shrugs his shoulders before briskly grabbing your hand to pull you out of the way of the 30+ football players barreling your way. You gently pull away as you get in between the players running out onto the field to get the best shots you can. Nothing ever stops a good photographer from getting good shots, even if your minutes away from being trampled to the ground. All the while Steve is right behind you, guiding you through the crowd as you run backward taking your shots.

You take a couple more shots before all the players run out onto the field through the cheerleaders. Students fill the bleachers all the way to the top, shouting and cheering for their beloved football team and dressed in your school colors. The band is playing and the cheerleaders are in formation, Natasha the captain of the cheer squad, leading the way.

You and Steve stand off to the side as you see Natasha run over to her friend Sharon in the bleachers. You see Natasha hand her phone to Sharon and much to your surprise, Sharon starts to record her. You can’t hear what Natasha is saying to her phone, but she looks over to you and flicks her nose. Smiling as she runs back onto the field, you flick your nose back and watch in confusion. Sharon stands from her seat to get a better view, still seemingly recording. You look to Sharon and back to Natasha and shake your head, picking up your camera to take shots as the cheer squad goes through their routine. As they finish up, Natasha decides to pull one last stunt. She turns her back to the crowd and lifts her cheer skirt up, revealing her bare ass. The crowd gasps unanimously and Sharon bursts out in laughter, all the while recording the whole thing. You turn to Steve to show him the shot you took and you both laugh at the image of Nat’s ass front and center of the cheer squad.

Next Chapter coming soon!

#Dragon's3C3K #bucky x reader #1940s bucky x reader #marvel #my og work #nerve film #nerve #thor odinson #thor #natasha romanoff #sharon carter #steve rogers

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ciathyzareposts · 4 years

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Realms of Arkania: The Long and Winding Road

Taking a mountain trail between two cities.

I spent most of this session wandering the sea lanes, trails, riverways, and mountain passes between various towns, on what has become a clear quest to collect various map pieces and other bits of intelligence about Hyggelik’s resting place. In its outdoor explorations, the map recalls Curse of the Azure Bonds, where you had fixed travel routes between towns (some of them interesting, some of them boring) which you selected and watched your party move on its own, and upon which various events could divert the party for a while. I gather that Arkania offers a mix of fixed and random encounters whereas Curse‘s were mostly fixed.

Arkania‘s encounters tend towards the type of text-driven interface that I complained about in Tunnels & Trolls (and did not, perhaps paradoxically, complain about in Darklands). There have been a couple of occasions in which my progress along the road was broken by the discovery of a cave or dungeon, but most of the time I’ve been asked to read a few paragraphs and select my options from a list. I won’t know until later in the game whether I think it used text for too many encounters, as Trolls did, or whether it achieves a better balance.

The game offers a lot of these textual encounters as you cross the map.

One of the things I like about Arkania‘s system is the palpable tension that these encounters engender thanks to the limited saving system. As we’ve covered, the game docks every character 50 experience points when you save outside of a temple, and in between towns there are limited opportunities to even take advantage of that penalty. When you haven’t saved since the last temple an hour ago, you’re a lot more careful in your choices. You start to sweat some of the skill- and attributed-based challenges, as well as (of course) the combats. When I was writing about Camelot, I forgot to discuss the delightful sense of fear the game imparts when you’re exploring a level or two above your head. Arkania evokes some of those same feelings.

Combat has gotten a little easier as I understand the tactics better, as I leveled up, and as I poured spell points into the “Fulminictus” offensive spell. I concede to my readers who argued that the keyboard interface works well once you get used to it, although I still don’t see any excuse for not mapping each distinct action to a unique key, nor for the inability to attack on the diagonal, nor for the way that the arrow keys work differently depending on whether you’re moving or attacking. I’m also having a unique-to-me colorblindness problem where I find it hard to distinguish party members from enemies (especially when they’re standing in a cluster) or even see the thin outlining on the floor tile when it’s selected.

Fighting some goblins. The battle wasn’t too hard, but it’s hard for me to distinguish what’s happening in that blob of characters and enemies.

But the worse problem is that combats are just too frigging long. Enemies and characters should both hit and damage each other more often. Even in the rare cases in which the outcome is a foregone conclusion and I use “computer controlled combat,” I mostly just sit there and watch for a quarter of an hour as the characters and enemies bang against each other to no avail.

I confess that I have been a bit spell-lazy. The spell system in Arkania is one of the more complicated ones that we’ve seen, with virtually no overlap with, say, Dungeons and Dragons. In fact, the creators of The Dark Eye system seem to have deliberately created as opposite a system as possible. Making things worse, the manual is extremely sparse in this area and doesn’t describe the effects of the spells. (Yes, I know there are external resources.) There are 12 spell categories (e.g., “Combat,” “Demonology,” “Movement,” “Illusion”) and four spell “lore” categories (magician, elf, druid, and witch), and about 80 total spells. It isn’t as simple as druids are good at “Demonology” and magicians are good at “Combat.” Rather, within the “Demonology” category, druids specialize in “Banish Spirits” and “Conjure Spirits,” magicians specialize in “Blood and Furor, Deadly Fate” and “Heptagon and Eye of Toad,” and witches and warlocks specialize in “Summon Crows.”

But theoretically any spellcasting character can cast any spell, if they put the points into it. Every character has an individual rating with each spell that can be increased during level-ups. The manual suggests that if a spell isn’t in your “lore” category, it can’t be used in combat, but I know that’s not true because everyone seems capable of casting “Ignifaxus Lance of Fire” in combat and that’s a magician-specific spell.

A lot of spell names are impenetrable: “Solididrid’s Rainbow Hue,” “Witch’s Knot,” “Odem Arcanum Sensum Such.” The game manual encourages you to “experiment,” but here we run into the final issue: spellcasters are nerfed more in Arkania than any RPG I can remember. Even at Level 3, I can cast maybe three spells per combat before my characters are out of spell points. And spell points regenerate much more slowly than hit points–only 2 or 3 per night’s rest. Spellcasters need to be melee fighters, too, to pull their weight. Because of all of this, I’ve only been slowly experimenting with new spells, spending most of my points on “Ignifaxus Lance of Fire,” which I know does its job.

Fighting a druid, harpies, and direwolves. Bramele is nominally an elf, but her magic has almost run out, so now she needs to be a fighter.

Most of my characters have leveled up twice now, which is an interesting and long process. First, you get to increase one of your “good” attributes by 1. Then you get to try to decrease one of your “bad” attributes (avarice, acrophobia, etc.) by one. None of the bad attributes have been much of a bother yet, so I’ve just been decreasing the highest ones. It fails about 50% of the time. The game then randomly rolls for boosts to your magic resistance, health, and magic points.

My dwarf tries to take the edge off his natural greed.

Then you get to assign about 20 skill points to your various skills, but there are a lot of restrictions. It seems that each weapon skill can only be advanced once per level-up (very annoying) and most other skills can only be advanced twice. I’ve been using the process to make each character stronger at his strengths rather than trying to improve his weaknesses, but even under that philosophy you end up sinking extra points into questionable skills like “Carouse” and “Train Animals.” Attempting to increase a skill fails about 33% of the time and it’s always annoying when it does.

Magic-users also go through a phase where they get 20 or 30 points to advance their various spells, but again the same rules are in effect by which you can only increase each spell by 2 points per level-up, no matter how low it is to start. Some spellcasters–or maybe just one; I don’t feel like checking the manual–have the ability to swap skill boosts for spell boosts or vice versa.

My elf gets better at a combat spell. Notice how poorly she takes to the warlock’s “Terror Boom.”

Failing your increases is so frustrating, and the random rolls for health and mana increases are so variable, that there would normally be a huge incentive to save-scum the process. In practice, that would be really hard. You’re prompted to level-up as soon as you cross the experience point threshold, so you’d have to save before the battle that gave you the experience in the first place, then fight it again with no guarantee that you’d do better the second time. Thus, I’ve just been accepting what happens. I do generally like the process and feel that the characters are getting notably stronger.

A nice reward for the druid battle.

I have been disappointed in my progress when it comes to weapons and armor. This seems to be one of those “realistic” RPGs where once you’ve purchased your base items, they don’t change much unless something breaks. In 10 hours of play, I’ve only had a few item “upgrades.” I wasted time chasing a tavern lead that “this Tulamidian in Overhtorn, Kherim Al Sherammi, only stocks the finest quality [weapons and armor],” but I didn’t find anything spectacular when I visited his shop.

There’s a “survivalist” element to exploration that I have mixed feelings about. Very often, I’m faced with an encounter that requires some kind of skill or attribute check and/or some kind of inventory check. For instance, we reach a cliff face that’s climbable if every party member has a rope or sufficient skill in “Climbing.” Or we’re sneaking up on a party of enemies and can either trust our “Sneak” skill or the “Silentium” spell. Or we’re crossing a high rope bridge and someone misses an acrophobia check and begins to freak out; we can either blindfold him or cast “Bambaladam” to make him trust us long enough to lead him across.

Climbing a cliff face. Either my skill or my rope is responsible for my success.

These occasional inventory checks have made me paranoid about what I’m not carrying. I have some ropes, a couple of pry bars, a hammer, and blankets and extra shoes for each character. But the general store sells fishing hooks, climbing hooks, drinking horns, recorders, cutlery, flasks, shovels, nets, throwing hooks, oil, mirrors, rope ladders, quills, scrolls, hoes, and dishes among other things. Do I really need to load up with all of these possibilities? Even worse, I suspect every character needs some of these things for action to be viable.

Which of these many items do I need to buy?

There are a couple infuriating parts of this skill/spell/inventory check system during encounters. First, the game often asks me who will do something without giving me any ability to check and remind myself who has the highest skill or spell level in a particular area. I can barely remember who’s what class, let alone who has the highest skill in “Camouflage.” Second, the game often requires the lead character to have the necessary skill or item. That’s not a huge problem (although it’s still annoying) when you’re in town or a dungeon and you can easily re-arrange the characters. But you can’t change the order of characters on the road. This led to a ridiculous situation in which the slain Gorah left a locked treasure chest behind, but I wasn’t able to open it because the character who had lockpicks (and lockpicking skill) wasn’t in the lead. I had to abandon the chest and go all the way back to the nearest town to swap the party order and then go back to Gorah’s lair, spending about 5 days in the process. At least the chest was still there. In contrast, it has not been a big issue (so far) to manage hunger and thirst. A good meal at an inn or tavern refills both meters and lasts for a couple of days. Only a few trips have taken longer than that, and a few backpack rations easily manage the remainder. The game keeps giving me opportunities to hunt for dinner, but I haven’t really had to explore that option yet. Perhaps later there will be more extended wilderness trips.

Camp options at night. I’ve never needed to “replenish stocks.”

I had ended the last session in Felsteyn, which was at the head of its river. My furthest-north lead was in Vidsand, so I thought I’d go there and then make my way back south. The path out of Felsteyn led through the mountains to Orkanger. On the way, I ran into problems. A fixed encounter has the party find the corpse of a traveler slain by brigands. On his body, they find a document.

A fixed encounter between two cities.

While they search, a group of brigands attacks. There are options to flee and bargain, but they didn’t work well for me. I found myself in an inevitable and difficult combat. When it was over, it was followed immediately by another combat. Then (before you’ve had a chance to save or even read the document), the game has you stumble upon the brigand camp. Yes, you have an option to sneak away, but it just doesn’t feel right.

The resulting brigand battle in the narrow mountain pass.

I know that my obstinacy isn’t the game’s fault, but the end result is that I beat myself against it until I finally won those three combats in a row, which took more than half of this session’s length. The final victory led to my first round of level-ups.

As for the document, it said:

The unicorn knows many ways to help you. He can even recover lost items, if he himself believes them to be of importance. In doing so, he is faster than the wind.

(This led me to a mental digression about unicorns, because they seem prominent in German games specifically. I didn’t actually research the matter, but I thought of the various ways that unicorns have been portrayed in media, and it made me think that in Anglo culture, we’ve basically infantilized them, making them delicate, fey creatures voiced in lilting, worried tones by Mia Farrow, whose horns are a combination between hood ornaments and magic wands–whereas portrayals in continental culture seem to retain unicorns as, first and foremost, horses, with horse strength and horse appetites–carnal beasts whose horns are metaphorically penises and practically lances. Am I on to anything or is it just selective memory?)

The game grew a bit insidious at this point, having me next encounter a cave. I know now that I could have continued on to Orkanger, saved at a temple, and then turned around to go back and explore the cave. But at the time, I thought it might be a non-repeatable encounter, so I checked it out. It led me to a small dungeon map with several random and fixed battles with goblins, who thankfully aren’t that hard. Still, I started to get nervous about how long it had been since the last temple, so I sucked up the 50-experience point loss and I saved. Thank the gods. Moments later, the party was torn apart by some “giant stagga” (they look like giant ants) and I had to reload. I avoided that combat–I hate not being able to fully clear an area–looted the goblin’s treasure, and returned to the road.

This is not the sort of option you want to see when you’ve won three battles in a row and haven’t saved in an hour.

Backpacks bursting, we arrived in Orkanger to find that the small town had no weapons shop. But the inn was welcome, and there was a temple to save. We continued on the trail to Clanegh, which also had the same paucity of retail. We finally found a weapons shop and unloaded ourselves in Tyldon. From there, we followed the road to the coastal town of Vidsand.

In Vidsand, we met Ragna Firunjasdotter, who after some conversation showed us her piece of the map to Hyggelik’s tomb. She wouldn’t give us the piece, just show it to us. So later, when we got a third piece, Ragna’s piece did not appear on the resulting map image. I don’t know if that means it was a waste of time or not. In real life, I’ll be able to make a composite of the map from the various images, but I’m not sure if the game will require me to have the whole thing.

With another piece of the map.

Ragna gave me some more names, one of which I’d already visited (Isleif in Felsteyn). This made me wonder if all these NPCs aren’t supposed to have maps, and perhaps whether they show or give them to you is a result of skill checks for various social skills. It thus made me think I should perhaps have been saving before each encounter and better ensuring that I had the right party member in the lead. On the other hand, perhaps the game is generous in the number of NPCs who possibly have maps, thus giving you a chance to screw up one or two of the encounters. I wouldn’t mind an explicit hint in this area, because if I’ve put myself in a “walking dead” situation, I’d like to know.

I wonder if I’ve made the wrong decision in places like this.

From Vidsand, I hopped on a ship that circled a little bay: Vidsand to Liskor to Tjanset. After a wasted visit to the armorer in Tjanset, we took a mountain path to the town of Orvil, where we had a lead on an NPC named Unbrik Sevenstones. Outside Orvil, we saved a shepherd from some direwolves (easiest combat in the game so far), and the shepherd told us of a “foul druid” named Gorah who has been charming wild beasts and sending them against the people of the various towns.

I think Baldur’s Gate II re-uses this plot.

In Orvil, Unbrik would only help us if we agreed to kill Gorah and return with his rune bone. Unbrik told us that he was about a day outside of town but didn’t specify which direction. We tried south, on the way to Skjal, as we had to go to Skjal anyway, and we got lucky along the way and found Gorah. (Or perhaps Gorah lies along whatever road you choose.) We approached his lair with the “Silentium” spell and attacked him with his group of direwolves.

What I wouldn’t give for a “Fireball” right now.

We defeated him without too much trouble even though he summoned a couple of harpies to join the battle. Most of the party leveled up a second time. We had to return to Orvil and come back again because the only character with lockpicks wasn’t in the front of the party. From the druid’s chest, we looted the rune bone as well as some other herbs and potions.

One day, I’ll have to learn what all those herbs do.

Unbrik had another piece of the map and a couple more names. From Orvil, we turned around and went to Skjal, where Jurge Torfinsson gave us yet another map piece. Unfortunately, we were unable to find Swafnild Egilsdotter, a pirate who I heard hangs around the Skjal port.

On an overland path from Skjal to Ottarje, we found a faint trail heading off into the forest. Something appeared to have been dragged along the path. We followed it to a cave blocked by a giant spider’s web, which we cut to gain entry. I had to stop playing at this point, so I sacrificed the 50 experience points to save at the mouth of the cave. I’ll explore it next time.

As I reached the end of this session, the list of places and people to visit has grown to:

Ottarje: Hjore. I realized while I was composing this entry that this is the name of the shepherd I rescued outside Orvil, not far from Ottarje.

Some port or another: Swafnild Egilsdotter, a pirate

Brendhil: Tiomar Swafnildsson (are they related?)

Phexcaer: Gerbald

Hjasingor: Algrid Trondesdotter

Miscellaneous notes:

I didn’t record what the game was asking me to confirm at this moment, but it’s fun to speculate on the possibilities.

I don’t know why the developers made travel routes dependent on specific exits from the town. It doesn’t add anything to the game except time.

Because favored weapons have a decent chance of breaking in combat, it’s a good idea to carry more than one weapon and to have each character specialize in more than one weapon type–that way, you’re more likely to be able to press a looted weapon into service.

In any given city, about 80% of the houses are just regular citizens’ houses. About half of these have an angry citizen who throws you out. The other half are unoccupied, and the game gives you a chance to burgle them. For role-playing reasons, I haven’t been doing that, but after a recent save, I decided to try to see what happens. The answer is nothing. In about 8 attempts, I simply found empty rooms. I wonder if this option ever becomes necessary or lucrative.

A completely uninteresting game option.

One area of the game that I’ve left completely unexplored is herbology. I occasionally run into an herb-seller in town, I have a character high in the “Herb Lore” skill, and the game gives an option to search for herbs when you camp at night. Despite this, I’ve only just now bothered to scan the manual for what these herbs can do.

A couple of wilderness encounters have led to the party sneaking up on enemies and observing them from afar. These encounters have offered the option to “rain a hail of arrows on the enemies”–which I think has been effective despite the fact that I haven’t been keeping bows and arrows in the party.

I’m pretty sure I don’t have a bow, so unless I’m arranging the arrows on the ground to spell out “HELLO,” I’m not sure what this option is doing here.

My takeaway from this session is that I haven’t really been enjoying Realms of Arkania but it’s mostly because I haven’t been fully engaging it. I’ve been playing it like it’s a different RPG. I need to take time to learn the spell system and the herb system, find a more effective way to manage my inventory, and re-read the manual in general.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/realms-of-arkania-the-long-and-winding-road/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

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thesydneyfeminists · 5 years

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Women in and of Historical Fiction: A Review of Sharon Kay Penman’s “A King’s Ransom” and “Here be Dragons”

Historical fiction faces a good deal of pushback in multiple different circles. There are those people who insist historical fiction is among the “lesser” genres, not on the same “intellectual level” as literary fiction and the canon classics. There are also those people who claim historical fiction is a defilement of “true” history, that the very categories “historical” and “fiction” are at odds with one another. At the same time, the genre has faced increasing popularity over the last decade. One has only to look at the top trending films and TV shows to realize historical fiction means something to and in the Western imagination. As one blogger reports, reading about the past “shaped my ability to empathize with cultures and people … reading historical fiction has colored my decisions and changed my actions” (https://lithub.com/historical-fiction-is-more-important-than-ever-10-writers-weigh-in/). How people consume history, and what kind of history they consume, can alter their perceptions of their own present.

Image Description: A row of old, ornately-bound book spines in different shades of red, brown and black. Some date from the 16th and 17th centuries.

Source: https://www.panmacmillan.com/blogs/history/best-historical-fiction-audiobooks

Like the author above, reading historical fiction has considerably changed my life. I grew up reading historical novels about the American Civil War, notably Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone with the Wind” and Jeff Shaara’s “Gods and Generals.” Although my taste in books has changed drastically since then, I still believe historical fiction holds great potential for learning and, even more so, unlearning. However, making historical fiction accessible to everyone is an important next step for the genre. Women authors have been present in the field for decades - Toni Morrison is a modern American classic who writes novels deeply steeped in history. Still, as professor of English literature Diana Wallace writes, “Literature is a very powerful thing … so it’s really important that the literature we make available to students includes books by women as well as men, and equally that different races, classes, nationalities and sexualities are represented” (https://www.southwales.ac.uk/courses/ma-english-by-research/40/what-can-womens-historical-fiction-teach-us/). The shift away from historical fiction written by, about and for white men is a critical part of feminist movements.

Image description: A blurred photo of Sydney harbor, including the top of the opera house and left side of bridge. The quote “History tells us what people do; historical fiction helps us image how they felt” by Guy Vanderhaeghe in a blueish circle over the sky and a banner that reads #HistoricalFictionWeek.

Source: https://www.writing.ie/guest-blogs/historical-fiction-week-on-goodreads/

I began to formulate the basic premise of this article after finishing Sharon Kay Penman’s “A King’s Ransom.” This massive and stunning novel spans the later years of King Richard the Lionheart’s reign, after his return from the Crusades. After a few week’s break, I’ve just completed a second book of Penman’s titled “Here Be Dragons.” This story focuses on King John and the Welsh Prince Llywelyn ap Iorwerth. Both books are compelling, and I flew through the 800 or so pages of each. Penman is a skilled author and a painstakingly detailed researcher. The worlds she paints in her novels are somehow both easily accessible to people reading in the 21st century and still attached to their historical origins. They bridge the spatial and emotional distances between the past and present and allow readers to draw connections to their own lived experiences. Although both the books mentioned above revolve around history’s more traditional heroes, Penman’s female characters truly captured my heart.

In her novels, Penman breathes life into a multitude of complex and three-dimensional historical women. “A King’s Ransom” inspired me to learn more about the infamous queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, a monumental woman who quite literally changed the course of English history. “Here be Dragons” instilled in me a love of Princess Joan of Wales, wife to Llewelyn the Great and daughter of King John, who wielded great political power over two warring nations. As Greer Macallister suggests, “The very act of centering a novel on a woman’s story, of giving her the same respect and attention men’s stories have traditionally received, can be feminist. The women of the distant past may only appear in sepia-toned photographs today, but when they lived, they lived in full color” (https://themillions.com/2017/07/how-can-historical-fiction-be-feminist.html). In Penman’s novels, women of the medieval period are painted in brilliant color. She exposes the complicated and often conflicting decisions women were forced to make. In doing so, she asks readers to reflect on the similarities and differences of our own lives.

Image Description: Tomb engraving of Joan, Lady of Wales. Stone carving depicts a woman’s face and palms held up to her chest. The details are blurred with age.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan,_Lady_of_Wales

Image Description: Tomb effigy of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Stone statue depicts a woman lying on her back on a table draped in red cloth, reading a book. She is wearing a crown, white veil and blue dress distressed by age.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine

I won’t pretend Penman’s novels are beyond reproach. The sex scenes between King John (in his 30s) and his child-bride Isabelle (12 at the time of their marriage) were, to me, overdone. I understand the author’s desire to be “historically accurate.” At the same time, I believe there are ways to convey the customs of the time without glorifying them. Penman’s treatment of Isabelle and a few of the other child-brides caused me to squirm at several points, especially her emphasis on Isabelle’s sexual appeal to men three or four times her age. These descriptions bordered on casual acceptance of fetishization of youth, if not now, then in a time when it was considered “standard.” True, readers have access to the thoughts and feelings of these young girls in a way typically blocked from more conventional historical documents. Still, Penman’s description of Isabelle and John’s relationship is bound to make many feminists uncomfortable.

Additionally, Penman’s novels unashamedly center European history. This fact alone is not necessarily a condemnation of Penman’s work. I do think a better understanding of how England formed and functioned in its early years is necessary to dismantle the power structures created by and continued through colonization and imperialism. However, Penman leaves little room in her novels for readers to make connections to the world outside European boundaries. Although the Crusades are mentioned repeatedly in both novels, the people and cultures of what is today known as the Middle East are notoriously absent. Similarly, Penman mentions the horrific treatment of Jewish people by King Richard once in “A King’s Ransom” and obliquely in “Here be Dragons,” but so briefly it barely registers. Such a tight focus on English royalty is severely limited in its ability to push back against power imbalances, even if it is centered around women.

Despite their shortcomings, “A King’s Ransom” and “Here be Dragons” were influential books for me at this moment in my life. They motivated me to think more critically about “English history” and my own heritage, as someone with ancestral ties to both England and Wales. They also reminded me why I chose to make a career out of studying the medieval period and how much work remains to be done on the intersections and margins of history, literature and identities. Finally, as another blogger so eloquently wrote, they prompted me to think about how “historical fiction and feminism can work hand in hand” (https://themillions.com/2017/07/how-can-historical-fiction-be-feminist.html). Penman does not claim the title of “feminist,” as far as I could find. Still, her contribution to historical fiction as a woman writing about other women illuminates the possibilities of the genre in retelling and relearning the parts of history that are so often shielded from common knowledge.

Author’s website: http://www.sharonkaypenman.com/

Editor’s Note: This is a review and not a paid promotion.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of the Sydney Feminists. Our Blogger and Tumblr serve as platforms for a diverse array of women to put forth their ideas and explore topics. To learn more about the philosophy behind TSF’s Blogger/ Tumblr, please read our statement here: https://www.sydneyfeminists.org/a

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