#Alexis Plays Games 2023

[alexilulu]

GAMES I PLAYED OF THE YEAR 2023, #2

(Previously: #1)

Razzies Award Runner-Up For Most Baffling Game Of 2023: Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (Respawn Entertainment)

(I know, I thought the colon was after Star Wars, too)

I didn’t know where Respawn would go after Fallen Order. I mean, obviously, they had to make more of it, they made a pretty damn competent video game. Fallen Order has a certain panache for combat, the feeling of being one dude against an army never being more clear than the fourth time I get domed by a Stormtrooper with a rocket launcher because I was too busy parrying the melee guy he’s gonna murder in the backblast to remember to force push it away in time. Playing on Jedi Master actually made me feel the same way that Dark Souls did, a feat so rare in the space now that we’ve expanded the universe of Soulslike beyond all comprehension that it was actually delightful to eat shit to some of those bosses.

Mostly.

But the ending of that game gave me so much joy that I couldn’t really fathom a second entry, at first. Sure, the expansion of the post-Order 66 era of Star Wars is continuing under the new leadership, but it’s a fairly small era (17 years, just about, thanks to the whole “Luke and Leia born after Order 66” thing). How much room do they have to play here, really? And what could really be told now, beyond the continued adventures of Cal Kestis and BD-1? 

Well…

They came up with something. It was an idea they had, all right. But maybe it should have stayed on the drawing board. 

Okay, if we’re gonna talk about this, I have to get this off my chest first. I’m a Star Wars dweeb.My favorite Star Wars movie is the Last Jedi, because of how it muddies the waters and says ‘hey, the Jedi were an anachronism in their own time, and the world has moved on’ and ‘the lines of war are not so clean in the modern era’ and ‘fuck, that shot of the hyperdrive crash was so sick’. My favorite Star Wars game is Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (Obsidian Entertainment)! I’m not like other girls! 

And I have strong opinions about the Post-Revenge timeline, or more specifically, how many Jedi survive Order 66. For me, this comes down to a thing I find really interesting in media, and how the world works: How people find direction when they aren’t given any way to go. 

Post-Revenge, the Empire is ascendant, having just won the fake war and successfully crushed every element of dissent in the galaxy under a swift military expansion that has given the evil man in power, George Bush Jr With A Skin Condition, unlimited power to rule the galaxy with an iron fist. The world is different now than under the Republic, and everywhere you turn, the Empire looms. What do you do to meaningfully oppose something you disagree with that is omnipresent and powerful beyond reckoning, besides oppose it and die trying to do anything at all?

Ultimately,There’s a lot of hay to be made here, but we’ll keep it simple so this doesn’t go crazy. The Jedi who survive Order 66 issue is pretty cut and dry, if you’re a movie purist: Yoda says that Luke will become the last Jedi in the galaxy when he dies in RotJ. It’s pretty simple! No more Jedi! Last of his kind, etc etc etc. But it’s been 30 years since that movie aired, and we’re a few hundred pieces of Star Wars media away from where it started, Legends canon or no. Some of them are even primary canon now, like Ahsoka Tahno, the erstwhile apprentice of Anakin Skywalker.

But how many Jedi are alive just in Fallen Order? And how many more make it to Jedi Survivor?

We have Cal Kestis, our ginger protagonist, a padawan who survived Order 66 with his Master’s lightsaber and hid for a decade to grow up, get found out and run around the galaxy fucking up. There’s Cere, the new master he finds along the way. There’s Trilla, the fallen apprentice of Cere, now Second Sister. There’s Ninth Sister, the big hulking one who you fight all of twice and survives the game. There’s a one-note fallen Master on Dathomir, who turns up out of nowhere and gets chumped. And there’s Merrin, the Dathomiri Nightsister who practices Magick (the k is important) using the Force, so she counts. And Vader comes in for a splashy send-off to the game in a brutally scary no-win fight and escape sequence in which you are carefully reminded why that guy is the scariest motherfucker in the galaxy. That makes 7. 

A bit more than the Last Jedi, eh?

Ultimately, this is a victim of the fact that they’re making a video game. You can fight stormtroopers with cortosis shock batons all day, but if you’re playing a Jedi game, you want to cross sabers with another Jedi/Sith. It’s just the order of the day. It makes sense! The Jedi fights in Fallen Order are good! I dismissed the one-note Master but he actually had a good fight in a Dathomiri temple that felt good to go back to every time i got fucking dumpstered.

It makes things more fun to have a Jedi thrown into this time of lawlessness and oppression, where the strong are taking the chance to crush the weak with the Empire’s tacit blessing; raiders on the Outer Rim are bleeding the territories dry, often at the Empire’s behest. Throwing the tattered Jedi remnants into that world makes sense instinctively with the world they’ve made, and with the influences Star Wars draws on.

The average person knows by now that Star Wars is drawing equally from Westerns that influenced George Lucas, but also the samurai movies coming out of Japan that influenced those Westerns. A world of fallen morals and people barely surviving gets so much more textured when the Last Good Samurai enters the equation. Putting someone with an unflinching moral code in a bad position and telling them not to blink is fun storytelling! Watching them contort themselves into knots to survive it is so fun! We love that shit! Hell, I love that shit, as much as I’m complaining about it!

So, in Jedi Survivor, we have Cal, Cere returns, Ninth Sister finally dies, Merrin returns with gusto (great expanded role for her here, though it baffles me that she’s straight), the High Republic fallen Jedi Dagan Gera (more on him later, but he dies), Eno Cordova (was dead in the last game, but turns out he wasn’t, but then he dies again, so okay), and Bode Akuna, the final deuteragonist-to-antagonist of the game. And Darth Vader again, in a what feels like obligatory role where he fights Cere to a draw. So…7, again. But…

The Hidden Path debuts here (OKAY, LOOK, the Hidden Path debuts in Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Disney+ show. But I fucking hope you didn’t watch that. I did. And I regret every minute of it I spent watching it), an underground railroad for Jedi. It’s basically not referred to beyond that Cere and Eno are running a cell of it and that there are other cells, but it DOES mean that there are enough other Jedi who survived that they are actively forming whisper networks to get Jedi out of bad places and into the dilapidated ruins they were meant to be living in (it’s their native environment). 

So we have 7 + (1±X, where X is the number of other Jedi in the galaxy, minus already-named characters) Jedi in Jedi Survivor. So basically, Palpatine is a fucking rube who didn’t even get his perfect felling blow right, I guess? So…not great, but fine. It’s…acceptable. The number even goes down significantly more in this one, because 5 of those original 7 in Fallen survive, but only 4 survive in Jedi Survivor! It’s a miracle, we killed 1 net Jedi! Maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on Palpatine, they’re clearly a fucking pain to make die for real.

Anyway. This is all besides how I feel about the actual plot of Jedi Survivor. 

Yeah.

The plot…is kind of stupid. Cal Kestis is working with Saw Gerrera, the Partisans (faction of the Resistance, not yet the Rebellion, natch) figure who went on to use a weird tentacle monster to brainfuck Riz Ahmed in Rogue One and then died when they fired the first Death Star test shot at him. He’s stealing info, and his op goes bad and all his boys get murdered besides newfound buddy Bode Akuna, a jetpacking charming rogue with two pistols and a lot of chest. Cal goes and gets into some hijinks with his old buddy who used to fly his ship until everyone parted under mysterious circumstances a few years ago (after the end of Fallen Order, when they swore to find as many potential Jedi as they could together). 

This is where the High Republic intrudes. Ancient ruins on the planet they’re on point towards a long-forgotten Jedi presence on this planet, with hints leading to another planet hidden in a nearby nebula that is considered unnavigable and a death trap. They learn that that planet was an abandoned Jedi temple in the High Republic, where Dagan Gera fought for a Jedi temple on a fount of Force power to be built until it was mysteriously raided by an unknown force that somehow also got to the lost planet. Cal wakes up Dagan Gera, who literally turns evil in front of you and runs off to complete his centuries-old evil plot to…go back to that planet and just live there?

A lot of this story is about the toll being A Survivor takes on you. Cal watches a bunch of really good buddies he totally knows a lot about die in the tutorial level on Coruscant, and he’s still got all his old hangups about surviving his master, being a Jedi in a galaxy ruled by the Sith, yadda yadda. He’s lost his drive to fight the Empire, having summarily abandoned working for Saw Gerrera in the interest of just taking a break, and into his lap falls the ultimate leave forever button in the form of this lost planet. He sees it and he can’t help but think “hey, I did my part, I sacrificed a lot for the cause, and I’m done”. 

Bode Akuna agrees on this! He’s a tough guy and he’s got a tough daughter and a dead wife and he just doesn’t want to deal with any of this anymore. He wants to bring his daughter home and create a life with her away from all this Empire shit. It gets where it wants to pretty quick here: This planet Cal found is the ultimate chance to just say No to everything and give it all up. Just live a clean, simple life away from it all, forever.

It’s an interesting thing, sort of. Fallen Order is a game so concerned with survival, that Jedi Survivor basically has to be about finding any meaning at all in a galaxy ruled by evil. It feels like it’s actually got something to say here…but it doesn’t, really. 

The turning point of the game is roughly ¾ of the way through, when Dagan Gera is defeated and you claim the mcguffin that will help you fly to Treasure Planet. But before that happens, you meet Cere and Eno and learn about the Hidden Path, the selflessness of the non-Jedi who are fighting to help them survive. And Cal, he’s a Jedi through and through, for better or worse. So he says to Bode, hey, we’re going to turn this planet into a safe haven for the Hidden Path, and we’ll bring everyone we can here to create a stronghold against the Empire.

This is when Bode (every time I think about his name, i think about (INSERT PHOTO OF BODE.JPG HERE) reveals that he is a former deep cover infiltrator Jedi who was undercover when Order 66 started, who avoided every bit of the Empire that chased him with stealth and subterfuge, until an Imperial Security Bureau he worked with outed him and he became their pet Jedi to do evil missions with. So he’s compromised every moral he has to survive, and will do anything to take his daughter back from the ISB and flee this hellish galaxy with her, so that she can be raised safe.

He’s the Jedi Survivor, not you (I literally said out loud to myself OH, HE’S THE JEDI SURVIVOR as he had his big heel turn speech).

This is when Bode kills Eno Cordova, takes the mcguffin, and flies there with his daughter after you have a big temper tantrum about it and unlock the power of the dark side for yourself a little bit. So you go hunt him down after some double mcguffin reacharound bullshit to get there, and you tell his daughter some nice platitudes and Merrin takes her out of the room so you can put him down like a dog.

The end of the game is him burning on a pyre while you, Merrin and his daughter watch. 

Ultimately, it was a game that at least had some kind of a semblance of a full story ready from beginning to end. It had plenty of things to do (the collectible quotient was WAY higher this time, to its detriment) and the newly added stances, a crossguard lightsaber that is straight up just Kylo Ren and a blaster-and-saber stance that i spent 100% of the game playing once acquired, were great fun to play around with.

I just don’t think it was very good, is all. I don’t know what in god’s name the third Star Wars will be, but I know it will be fought with lightsabers and blasters. 

(sorry. Sorry. I’m trying to delete it)

[dark-mnjiro]

[run] for your life :: michael kaiser & alexis ness

Author’s Note: welcome to week two of Kinktober 2023. I’m going to apologize in advanced for this one. I don’t know how we got here but…. Yeah. Enjoy!

Content Warnings: kaiser x afab!reader x ness, explicit sexual content, explicit language, primal play, predator/prey, captive/kidnapping, voyeurism, dubcon, cnc, dom/sub, chasing, threesome, established relationship, chase sequence, rough sex, blowjobs, choking, hair pulling, spanking, degradation, brat behavior/brat taming, name calling, slut shaming, minor yandere!ness, kaiser x ness if you squint, dirty talk, doggystyle, face fucking, breeding, unsafe sex, throat bulge, aftercare, overall - this is dark content. Please be VERY aware of the trigger warning. I hope I covered everything

“Run.”

Your eyes filled with horror at his tone. His blue-eyed gaze fixated on you. “M-Michael?”

“If I find you,” he commented. “You won’t like what happens.” He pulled on black gloves over his hands, adjusting the fingers. “I won’t tell you again, run.”

Swallowing, you quickly turned from him as you took off into the dark forest. What kind of sick game was Kaiser playing with you now? Did you finally take things too far with your bratty responses during his away games? Was it because you showed up at a game wearing a Lorenzo jersey when he played against the Ubers? Sure, you knew Kaiser had certain sexual tastes that only seemed to fuel some more bratty behaviors on your behalf, but this… This was more than what you had maybe bargained for… You didn’t have time to contemplate what was on Kaiser’s mind when he forced you into the car and drove you to the middle of nowhere.

Now, you were stripped down to nothing but your undergarments at his orders, running through a thick forest. Sweat was causing the dirt to stick to your skin.

“Run faster,” you could hear him yelling in the distance.

Cursing to yourself, you almost hated that you were dating a professional athlete. It seemed inhuman that he was this quick to close in on you. “Fucker,” you grumbled before ducking behind a tree trunk.

How long had you been running from him at this point? It felt like your chest was on fire…

“Little mouse,” he growled.

He was nearby.

Your body froze as you tried to push your body as far against the tree as you could. Biting hard on your lip, you tried to steady your breathing but failed so you covered your mouth with your hand. You just had to be quiet long enough for Kaiser to pass… Hopefully, he would not notice you.

“Little mouse,” he repeated, his voice with the same dominance as before. “Come out for me…”

The tone of his voice sent chills down your spine and immediately you felt heat pooling in between your legs. Your body tensed, this was not the time to fall victim to his commanding tone.

His footsteps began to fade into the distance as you finally let go of the breath you were holding.

“Oh my god,” you murmured before taking off in the opposite direction that Kaiser seemingly disappeared. You weren’t sure how you managed to escape him, or if he was merely toying with you, but you didn’t have time to think about that now.

You stopped for a moment, straining your ears before hearing what sounded like a few cars driving by in the distance. A road, you thought. There had to be one nearby if you could hear cars this easily.

Relief washed over you as you managed to make your way through the forest and find the road. You looked up and down the expanse of the pavement before noticing red lights in the distance. A car?

“They’ll probably think I’m a psycho looking like this,” you mumbled to yourself as you hugged yourself. You were covered in dirt from head to toe, wearing nothing but your bra and underwear which were equally as dirty now. Maybe if you explained to the owner of the vehicle that you just needed a ride back to Kaiser’s car and that you were both just messing with each other…

This game would surely end…? Right?

“...excuse me?”

You couldn’t see his entire face due to the hood he had pulled over his head that seemed to hide some of his features but his worried eyes widened upon seeing your state.

“I apologize, but my partner and I got separated… we were playing some jokes on each other and I could use a ride back to his car if you could take me?”

“Of course.”

A sigh of relief fell from your lips as you heard the click of his car doors unlocked. “I was just changing my tire, and had a flat.”

You climbed into the passenger side of the car before letting your shoulders relax. Your savior shut the door for you before sliding into the driver’s side and turning the key. The engine was a welcomed sound before you felt the gear shift into drive and the car move.

Your head rested against the glass. “Thank you again,” you whispered before your eyes began focusing on the road. “And I apologize for my appearance… we were sleeping and there was this noise-”

“…it’s not nice to lie, you know.”

Furrowing your brows, you turned to glance at the driver. How could he have possibly known you were lying without any evidence?

“You should be wary of strangers on the roadside…”

This time he spoke louder as your gaze adjusted to the sunlight from the dashboard against his face. Your stomach fell as the realization that you knew exactly who this was.

“…Ness?”

His lips curled into a smirk. You scrambled to grab the door handle but heard him tumbling.

“Oh no no no,” he commented. “Try that all you want but… we have to thank child-proof locks for bad girls like you.”

“Ness… I-”

The car came to a stop before you could finish your sentence. You turned to look out the window and found he had parked outside a small cabin in the woods. Confusion filled your eyes as you turned to face Ness again. Why on earth was he here… unless…

He tilted his head innocently before the dangerous glint in his eyes became more evident. “I would do anything Kaiser asked me to, especially when I get a reward in return-”

You felt your spine stiffen. Reward?

“Ness this is fucked up! Let me go! Michael is crazy, I just want to go home!”

Ness wagged a finger at you. “Nuh-uh,” he whispered, leaning in close.

You tried to distance yourself from him by pressing your back against the car door. Your hands shot up, pushing against his chest to try to keep him at bay. But, of course, Ness was also a professional athlete and his strength greatly outmatched your own. His hands encircled around your wrists.

“I’ve always admired how pretty you are,” he whispered, bringing your wrist to his lips and pressing a gentle kiss against your skin. “Kaiser promised, you know… if I helped catch you - I could have you too.”

Your eyes widened. “What?”

“You’re shaking,” he cooed. “Is something wrong?”

You swallowed thickly before trying to tug your wrists free of his grasp. While you and Kaiser had your rules when it came to some of your more perverse tastes - inviting Ness was never a part of the conversation. Was Kaiser mad?

His lips pressed against your neck, sucking on the flesh lightly before grazing his teeth. It was enough to snap you back to reality as it sent a pleasurable sensation pulsating throughout your body.

“N-Ness…”

“Shhh,” he cooed as his tongue lapped against the shell of your ear. “It’s Alexis here…”

Your thighs pressed together as a jolt of pleasure struck you at your core.

He tutted again using his free hand to spread your legs apart. “None of that,” he said before his hand snuck into your underwear. His fingers managed to find their way to your clit before rubbing soft circles and earning a moan from you.

Ness sucked on your neck again, causing another moan as you slowly glanced over at him. Excitement was beginning to pool between your legs as his pace quickened. How was this even happening? Why weren’t you trying to fight back?

“Ness,” you whimpered, bucking your hips into his hand.

He bit your neck. “Alexis…” he corrected.

“Ah-Alexis,” you cried out. “I’m sorry…”

“Sweet girl,” he said before removing his fingers from your underwear. His fingers slipped into your mouth, forcing a small gag before your tongue desperately tried to clean your juices off of his digits. “So desperate, huh? You’re soaking right through your underwear… guess we should just get rid of those…”

Ness removed his fingers from your mouth, allowing himself to slip off your underwear. “Open your mouth,” he said gently. “And close your eyes…”

You weren’t sure why you obliged his request but your mouth fell open as your eyes slipped shut. He was quick as he stuffed your underwear into your mouth and the car door opened.

Your eyes shot open as you found Kaiser at the passenger side door. He quickly snatched your wrists before you could react and drug you out of the car. You tugged against his grip, trying to scream but was muffled thanks to your underwear.

“Little, fucking slut,” he growled. “Were you going to cum for him? Letting me watch?!”

Tears brimmed in your eyes as Kaiser threw open the door to the cabin. Another muffled cry tried to escape but Kaiser practically threw you to the floor. He stepped inside with Ness following as Ness locked the door behind him.

You managed to pull the makeshift gag from your mouth, tossing the article of clothing aside as you flared up at your boyfriend. “What the fuck Michael!”

He kneeled, his face getting dangerously close to your own before snatching your chin in his fingers. “I see how you look at Ness and bat those pretty, little eyes,” he hissed.

“I want to go home!” you snapped at him before jerking your face away. “This is fucked up. Even for you!”

Ness stood behind Kaiser now, tilting his head. “You don’t want to spend time with us? With me?” He sounded like he was practically whining.

“I just want to go home…” you hissed.

“You’re not going home until I’ve ruined you,” Kaiser said, grabbing your face and forcing you to focus on him.

Your eyes narrowed before spitting in his face. “Fuck you!”

The spit landed on his cheek before he casually wiped it away with his thumb snatched a fistful of your hair and tugged it back, earning a cry of pain from you.

“I’m going to teach you a lesson about being respectful, you little bitch,” Kaiser snapped and before you knew it, his body towered over yours, holding you in place. “Bind her hands, Ness…”

Ness grabbed a hold of your arms before using a rope and binding your hands together. “Just be a good girl,” he cooed. “Just listen to him…”

Kaiser pressed his weight against your hips when he noticed your legs flailing. “Stop struggling,” he growled.

“Untie me!”

He grabbed your face again. “That’s not how we get things we want,” he hissed. “I think it’s time we fuck this attitude right out of you.”

Your eyes narrowed before Kaiser raised and helped you back to your feet and dragged you toward a couch in the center of the room. Ness took a seat on the couch as Kaiser bent you over the armrest.

“Ness please,” you managed to say. “Just untie me…”

His hand encircled around your throat. “Stop defying Kaiser,” he hissed, causing you to wince. His grip tightened, forcing your mouth to open to allow easier airflow but instead, you heard the rustling of his pants being pushed down and his erection springing forward, smacking your cheek. His opposite hand grabbed the base of his cock, before pushing his length into your mouth.

Your eyes widened as you tried to pull back but his hand left your throat to instead rest on the back of your head, grasping a fistful of hair. You felt his hips buck, forcing his cock further into your mouth as his tip kissed the back of your throat. Gagging, you felt saliva building up in your mouth, earning a groan from Ness.

“That’s it, Ness,” Kaiser said before his hand collided with your bare ass. “Make the bitch choke…”

Tears brimmed at the corner of your eyes as Ness continued to thrust into your mouth. You could hear Kaiser behind you undressing. You could hear Kaiser chuckling from behind you before his hands spread your legs apart.

“See what happens when you listen to me, Ness?” Kaiser almost purred. “You get a reward like this…”

Ness groaned before thrusting further into your out as Kaiser kneeled behind you spitting on your clit. A whine bubbles from your throat, making Ness moan again. Kaiser’s calloused thumb brushed against your clit causing your body to squirm.

“That’s it…” Kaiser whispered. “Look how wet you already are… Do you enjoy choking on Ness’s cock like that?”

You managed to pull away and glare at Kaiser over your shoulder. “No!”

“I think we’ve been too nice to you,” he said before smacking your ass again.

You hissed in pain until you felt Ness shift on the couch so that he was kneeling in front of you. You looked up at Ness again. His gaze darkened, fueled by desire. He pushed his length back into your mouth, earning another gag as you grappled for his thighs to stabilize yourself.

Meanwhile, Kaiser had planted himself between your legs as his tongue slipped inside of your cunt. Whimpering, you made a feeble attempt to move your hips forward and away from him. He smacked your ass again before snatching up your hair, tugging your head back.

“Don’t. Move.”

You whimpered again as you felt Ness push his length further into your mouth - his tip now teasing the back of your throat with each thrust.

“Look at those pretty tears…” he commented.

You managed to shoot him a glare through bleary eyes before ripping away from his cock to cry out at Kaiser’s sudden intrusion. “Asshole!”

He tugged on your hair again, causing you to wince. Kaiser merely groaned as his length pushed into you. His girth alone always made you struggle but from this angle… you were going crazy.

His hand let go of your hair before wrapping around your throat. He offered a harsh, but shallow thrust as he leaned over to your ear. “We won’t stop no matter how much you cry… beg… plead,” he hissed. “We won’t stop filling you up until your fucked stupid…”

His grip tightened around your throat as Ness slipped his cock back into your mouth. Kaiser glanced up at Ness. “Down her throat,” he ordered. “I want to feel it in her throat.”

You could feel a gag building up in your throat as Ness pushed the length of his cock as far as he could. Kaiser’s grip only tightened around your neck making it even harder to breathe. “Fuck Ness,” he growled. “I can feel it down my pretty girl’s throat…

“Y-Yes, Kaiser,” Ness managed to say as his body shuddered with pleasure.

“That's it, Ness,” Kaiser whispered, as Ness began thrusting slowly in and out of your throat. Every so often, Ness seemingly pulled out enough to give you a break and get a breath of air… but would immediately push his length back into your mouth.

Your eyes rolled back, unsure how much longer you were going to last before Kaiser thrust into you. A desperate groan vibrated in your throat with each thrust. His movements were slow at first, matching Ness’s pace. But you knew that Kaiser couldn’t last at that pace for long…

He slapped your ass before quickening his pace again, making sure to keep a hand around your throat. “Little fucking cum dump,” he growled. “Look at you taking us both…” His insults sent shivers down your spine. You were sure how much longer you were going to last as his pace quickened. Ness watched Kaiser’s movements, deciding to keep up with him. The tip of his cock kissed the back of your throat again, earning him to moan out your name.

“That’s it, Ness. Are you going to shoot your load down this pretty throat?” Kaiser hissed.

Ness whimpered in response as his hips stuttered and your nose pressed against his abdomen. You could feel the head of his cock slip down your throat before he came. The hot, sticky substance filled your throat, causing you to gag momentarily as Ness slowly pulled out, panting.

His wild eyes caught your exhausted gaze before pressing his lips against yours. A small whine escaped your throat as his tongue forced itself into your mouth before savoring the taste of himself on your lips.

“What a good job Ness…” Kaiser said, darkly. “You ready sweet girl?”

Ness swallowed another whine as you felt Kaiser increase his pace again. Your focus was fading as Kaiser’s grip around your neck tightened.

“Are you our little cum dump?”

You pulled away from Ness panting, desperately trying to find your words.

“I said…” Kaiser hissed. “Are you our little cum dump?”

His pace was unbearable now as his other free hand came to slip between your legs and rubbing rough circles on your clit. A gasp fell from your lips as your hips bucked at the added sensation.

“M-Michael!”

“That’s not what I asked.”

You whined in response.

“Answer properly,” he growled as his hips snapped forward even harder. You gasped again feeling the tip of his cock kissing your cervix now. “I’m waiting.”

“I’m your little cum dump!”

The words tumbled out of your mouth before you could try to gather your senses. Kaiser chuckled before finally letting go of your throat. His hand moved to steady your body, gripping your hip now.

“Are you sorry for being such an insufferable brat this past week?”

“Y-yes sir!”

“Did I give you more attention than what you deserved?”

“Yes sir!”

“Fuck!” Kaiser groaned. “You’re fucking clenching… you fucking love this don’t you? Fucking slut.”

Your eyes rolled back as your cries of pleasure tumbled from your mouth. He was right… you did love this… being degraded… like dirt.

“Michael,” you managed to get out. “Please let me cum!”

“Cum for me dirty girl…”

His hand collided against your ass as his thrusts became erratic. A coil in your gut was wounding tighter. You were so close. Your bleary eyes looked up at Ness before he planted another rough kiss. You desperately kissed him back as your tongue shot into Ness’s mouth, the intimacy alone finally sending you over the edge as you felt pleasure over your body.

“Fuck baby,” Kaiser groaned as he rode out your high. His arms quickly moved to wrap around your waist to keep you steady as your body shuddered. He moaned your name a few more times before hissing as he released inside of you. “…that’s my girl.”

Kaiser motioned for Ness to move before gently laying you back on the couch. He leaned over you and smiled. “Good job,” he whispered before planting a kiss on your temple. “Need anything?”

You looked up at him with half-lidded eyes as a tired smile curled over your lips. “No…”

“Ness is going to get a bath started for you. I’m getting you some water,” he commented. “You sure you’re okay?”

You nodded. “When can we do this again?”

Kaiser smirked. “Time and place little mouse,” he teased. “I love playing cat and mouse with you. Now I’m going to get that water.”

You nodded before your eyes slipped shut.

[kaiserposting]

BLUE LOCK MASTERLIST

Like Teeth | Shidou Ryuusei/Reader [19/12/2023] Summary: Of all people, the only one you seem to be able to tolerate is Shidou Ryuusei. Molasses | Michael Kaiser/Reader [06/01/2024] Summary: Once Kaiser recognizes your dwindling interest in him, he does what any rational person would and turns to the shitty shoujo manga you like for inspiration. On Your Knees | Michael Kaiser/Reader [09/01/2024] Summary: You’re grilling Kaiser about what he said to Isagi, but it leads you to an interesting discovery. Taming Demons | Shidou Ryuusei/Reader [14/01/2024] Summary: You and Shidou probably need medication more than you do professional football careers, but Sae isn't the kind of guy who lets common sense get in the way of his interests. Language Barrier | Michael Kaiser/Reader [21/01/2024] Summary: Much to your ignorance, Kaiser is trying to spit game at you. Red | Michael Kaiser/Reader, Shidou Ryuusei/Reader [24/03/2024] Summary: Kaiser and Shidou fight for your love over what your favorite color should be on national television. Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy | Michael Kaiser/Reader [17/04/2024] Summary: Kaiser annoys a doctor half to death. Pissing on Romance's Grave | Michael Kaiser/Reader [01/05/2024] Summary: Your boyfriend surprises you for your one year anniversary. And you have tons of fun! Mean | Michael Kaiser/Reader [05/05/2024] Summary: Your respective PR teams come up with the moronic idea of a fake relationship between yourself and Michael Kaiser. Things get weird and unprofessional. Stench | Michael Kaiser/Reader [16/06/2024] Summary: You try playing hero in the slums, but it doesn't go well. Nervous Like a Bad Dog | Michael Kaiser/Reader [03/07/2024] Summary: Kaiser tries to be romantic? Voyeur to Belonging | Michael Kaiser/Reader [13/07/2024] Summary: Vignettes about Michael Kaiser's life with the alien bothering him and your misconceptions about human society. How to Subtly Show Someone You're Interested | Michael Kaiser/Reader [18/08/2024] Summary: Kaiser doesn't know what to do about his feelings towards you, so he consults an article. Freak: Matched | Michael Kaiser/Reader [05/09/2024] Summary: You have a fateful meeting during community service. Liebevoll | Michael Kaiser/Reader [20/10/2024] Summary: The deceitful Michael Kaiser "teaches" you German. Birds Born in a Cage Think Flying is an Illness | Shidou Ryuusei/Reader [02/12/2024] Summary: All your life you've been trying to understand Shidou's freedom, but maybe that's not something that can be understood at such a methodical level. Scream Blue Murder | Michael Kaiser/Reader [25/12/2024] Summary: You and Kaiser have a fight and make everyone else uncomfortable during Bastard München's Christmas Day Trip for Unwanted Children.

The horrible polycule series (Chronological order of events):

Food Analogy | Michael Kaiser/Reader/Alexis Ness [22/03/2024] Summary: Isagi is sick of these godforsaken Germans. And of you, also, and of the way you interact with them. Dog Walking | Michael Kaiser/Reader/Alexis Ness [11/02/2024] Summary: Ness loves sticking his nose in places where it doesn’t belong. Fanned Out | Michael Kaiser/Reader/Alexis Ness [21/02/2024] Summary: Kaiser suffers deep humiliation (slight embarrassment) at your hands once again, so Ness decides to kill you with kindness. Dick Measuring | Michael Kaiser/Reader/Alexis Ness [07/05/2024] Summary: Kaiser takes an interest in your lower anatomy...? Ness cheers him on. Wardrobe Malfunction | Michael Kaiser/Reader/Alexis Ness [14/02/2024] Summary: Your uniforms get mixed up somehow. Ego Death | Michael Kaiser/Reader/Alexis Ness [28/03/2024] Summary: You come up with a new plan to get Ness on your side.

EVIL SMAUS:

#1: You don't mess around about Pokemon 😦😦 (Isagi, Ness, Sae, Kaiser, Shidou, Rin, Hiori, Nagi) [11/09/2024] #2: You try to shit talk him but end up accidentally messaging him instead of his friend 🥸 (Isagi, Kaiser, Shidou, Chigiri, Nagi, Reo, Sae) [12/09/2024] #3: Problematic autocorrect 😯😯 (Sae, Barou, Nagi, Ness, Kaiser, Shidou, Reo, Rin, Isagi, Bachira) [18/09/2024] #4: He has beef with your pet 😞😞 (Chigiri, Ness, Kaiser, Rin, Shidou, Sae) [04/10/2024]

[silly-honeybee]

What Blue Lock boys would get you for Christmas🎁

Edit: only old fic I’ll not delete as ppl seem to like this one lol

~🐝 Happy late Christmas my lovely sillies! I have been rlly busy lately so I haven’t had time to write💔 so I hope you enjoy this lil headconon on what the Blue Lock boys would get you for Christmas!

~~~

Characters: Bachira, Isagi, Chigiri, Nagi, Kunigami, Reo, Kaiser, Alexis, Hiori

Headcanon ~ Fluffy fluff ~ fem!reader ~ not proofread

Warning(?): mentions of bras and panties in Kunigami’s part. (don’t know if that makes anyone uncomfy or not so I’m putting this here)

~~~

start~~~🐝

Bachira Meguru

Silly things. He’d get you some silly and unnecessary things—

Like he’d probably get you a shirt saying “I love pizza” or something stupid😭

But he’d also get you some pretty cute things.

Anything matching, plushies, shirts, bracelets, etc..

He is indeed a goofball(we love him for that), but of course he knows how to give serious gifts(somewhat)..

The wrapping would be horrible, I gotta say that.. probably a bunch of holes basically revealing what the present was before you even opened it.. (he’s trying his best)

Oh well, whatever he gets you just know that he means it with a lot of love💕

Isagi Yoichi

He’d probably get you nice things for the winter, like a fuzzy sweater, scarf, boots..

Or he’d find a cute dress that he thinks would look nice on you, if you don’t like dresses then a cute pair of shorts or pants..

But, in general he would make sure to get you something he knew you liked, he thinks about you a lot, yk? ^^

(This is rlly short I’m sorry🙏)

Chigiri Hyoma

This man will spoil you.

You like Sanrio? Sanrio it is. You want makeup? Makeup it is. You want the full series of your favorite book? Books it is!

He never disappoints on Christmas, he knows what you like even if you haven’t told him—

Like he just noticed a certain detail of you having quite a few of this and that. He’d then proceed to Google about it and then find nice things from it🫶

Nagi Seishiro

He’d probably be a little clueless on knowing what you’d want.. (not in a rude way).

So what he does is probably look back on the comments you made on certain characters you two have played in a game or what not. And the ones you liked he’d find some merch of that character..

Kunigami Rensuke

He’d definitely be brave enough to casually walk into the woman’s section of Target and get you a brand new bra and panties.

Based on his sister’s at home, they always seem to complain about their bras becoming loose and slack after a year..

So he assumes that maybe that happens with you too? He wants you to be comfy at all times💕

(I love this man😭)

Reo Mikage

He’d also spoil you like Chigiri, but probably in a more *ehem* Reo way..

Like he’d get you tons of stuff, too much to count. This man has money💰🤑

Every. One. Of. Those. Gifts. Have been thoroughly thought through as he was buying them.

He wanted to make sure everything was perfect💝

Michael Kaiser

Probably getting you something fancy..

A fancy robe, shoes, dress, etc..

Would also treat you to a restaurant date, Egon or something idk 🤷‍♀️

Alexis Ness

He’d get you anything you want😭

He’s such a sweetheart about it too, he would wrap your gifts in cute wrapping paper.

Every one of the gifts having a little tag in the shape of a heart saying: “To my love, from Alexis💕”

He’s such a cutie istg😭🙏

Hiori Yo

You two probably played animal crossing at some point together, so he’d definitely get you a plushie of whichever one was your favorite character!

He probably would accidentally reveal the gift before you opened it.. oopsie💕

~~~🐝 end

~🐝 I’m so sorry if some of these were short😭 like idk how to write for Kaiser,I sagi or Nagi- and there is no Rin included here bc I have no idea how to write for him🧍‍♀️ anyway! I wish you sillies a lovely rest of 2023💕

See you guys next year😋🙏 (I’m so funny haha)

Also look at this Bachira plush I got for Christmas AAAAAAA MY BBY😭 MWA MWA💋💋💋

[leveloneandup]

Apart from stalwarts of the game like Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe, the USWNT squad is filled with young blood. One of the reasons why women’s soccer is so popular in America is because of the increased investment and focus on the sport. And it is only going to get better from this point. Recently, Christen Press who plays for Serena Williams’ Angel City FC made a few important admissions about women’s soccer.

She spoke about the importance of promoting the sport among local communities. The USWNT star then revealed that her NWSL club also shares a similar vision together striving for the success of the sport.

[alexissara]

THE Comics Of The Year 2023

I'm Alexis Sara, and if you don't know me then you should know I am an Eisner [among several other award] winning comics writer and I eventually kinda left behind comics because of a massive feeling of burn out and a lack of hope for the industry. However, I utterly adore the medium and I do enjoy comics still even if mostly in indie form or Manga. Manga of the year is a separate post since I just read more Manga and I wanted to talk about more comics overall so this section is all non manga stuff from Webcomics to graphic novels to single issue type deals, everything I read is up for consideration.

Extreme Venomverse #4 Necroko story 

This story makes me even more mad than I am every day about the state of the public domain. Stan Lee is dead, he doesn't need Spider-man money but Marvel will for many many many more years hoard the amazing ideas made by so many other people that relate to spider-man and even when Spider-man enters the public domain Disney will sue people for using any part of spider-man that doesn't come from the debut time and is still with in their copyright. So an amazing character like Nercroko is stuck at the whims of some editor to see if the creators can bring her back, for how long they can bring her back, they get to decide how gay she is allowed to be, how violent, if the story fits their brand image and if a random event has her erased from the timeline or something to fuel a mans pain or something. Which is to say fuck Marvel comics, don't buy their stuff but I read this story and it's really fucking good, 12/10 it's not really worth buying Extreme Venomverse cuz the other stories are mid but as fuck but this little short story if you could find it at retail value for a single issue of Venomverse #4 pick it up for sure. It's a venom magical girl who is gay, just great, perfect, brilliant, inspirational.

IDW Sonic 

You expect to see the sapphics from me and there here, for real, but I really enjoy this series in general. Whisper and Tangle are my main draw but I did enjoy Sonic video games a lot when I was younger so the characters, designs, etc are always something I just like seeing. The IDW comics bring a great consistent art style that makes the world of sonic feel very alive, stylish an cool. The new characters are all people I want to show up as playable in new sonic games and the story lines all feel like they would be exciting to see in a video game. These comics are really well done and while it could be more explicit in allowing it's original characters to be queer [I understand main game characters not being able to have romance to give the game devs space] it's still a good time.

Ladykillers

I love when the lesbians are on an adventure, when they are poly, when they are silly, and we got it all here. Ladykillers is a silly D&D inspired webcomic that has these cute little dumbasses go on quests and get into trouble. It starts pretty one shotty and eventually gets into a continuous narrative. If you loved Bauldr's Gate but wished it was just about like three homoerotic girls getting into silly trouble, this one is for you.

My Dragon Girlfriend

My Dragon Girlfriend every year is a top series for me. The release format of release makes each update a very small dose of a larger narrative but these little romances are all compelling and sweet and fun filled with silly little sapphics. While the newest couple added in is the one I am least compelled by I still enjoyed them. The art is really cute and sweet, the way emotion is portrayed is handled really well, Country really knows how to capture emotion within the medium and masters making good use out of all the little details.

Grand Slam Romance

I don't like sports but if lesbian magical girls played soft ball I would have to convert to being the number ones sports girly. The messy lesbian drama here is so good and the jokes are really great, when I grabbed this I kinda worried it be YA toned which typically doesn't sit well with me but luckily this is in fact adult fiction for adults that just has a strong sense of whimsy. It's a really great read and I hope a lot more people check it out because it's super good and even has a follow up book coming out.

SpellAstra

These lesbians have issues and I am so fucking here for it. We got a trio of queer witches casting spells, fighting monsters, etc who are all also teachers for a school of other witches. One of the party turns into a demon if her seal is broken which causes her to get all violent and feral, one has a magical artifact tied to a bigger play happening across the universes of the world and the final is holding secrets she doesn't want to share. From there their issues run into each other, they deal with new problems they cause, their love lives get complicated and we find out the truth of all the messy lesbian fun that is unleashed between them. The translation is sometimes a little wonky but if you can forgive a self published self translation to English for sometimes saying words a little wrong but still understandably then damn there just isn't really a story like SpellAstra I've read.

Mage & Demon Queen 

After following this series for so many years it finally finished. This action comedy yuri series is fucking amazing from start to finish a fun time with some of the best jokes across all of comics for nerdy little sapphics like me. I do think near the end of the series we spend too much time with the men of the cast who simply were not the draw for me at all but they got a lot of panel time but outside of that small preference so much of this series is so perfect it's hard to even fault the parts that are a little less great.

Pink Sugar 

What a fucking book, what a queer gift that this exists, that we live in a world where this is being released on webtoon [and a ton of other places] gives me hope for queer art and art in general. This story is lesbian in the deepest ways, with the diversity of lesbians that I want to see. Masc Non Binary Lesbians, bigger fem lesbians, trans lesbians, all falling in love with each other in these gloriously sweet ways. This series is truly queer in the most real sense. The presentation of the afterlife is innovative and fun. the comedy is great, the chemistry between all four of this polycule is great, the romantic moments are super sweet, the art's fantastic, the pacing is great and all of that lends to some really fucking heart breaking moments to as we get into the deep feelings of these dead women. This is one of the best stories being told right now and maybe ever. I love Pink Sugar, I beg of you to check it out. It's currently kickstarting a physical version if your reading this near release of this post then you should go back it. You can read it for free, if you like it, back it.

If you want to help me enjoy more art then consider checking out my Patreon or Ko-fi and giving me a little bit of cash so I can do more of this kind of writing but also like make lots of my own art, art is hard to make and costs money and like maintain my chronically ill and trans body also takes money so anything helps, thank you. If you want more details on any of these I do have reviews for many of the pieces of art above but you can also let me know you want more and maybe I'll write more.

[romirola]

Redacted-Tober (Days 14-31)

I was unable to maintain the once-a-day Redacted-Tober 2023 posting, so I wanted to make up for that and post the rest now! Thanks again, @autisticempathydaemon, for creating and sharing the game with us all! Full calendar here. Happy Halloween!

Day 14: Milo's night routine includes a snack, crossword puzzle time, calling his mother, tucking in Aggro, and watching Sweetheart to make sure they set their alarm for the next day.

Day 15: Avior's first post-hellscape date with Starlight is dinner and then a show at the planetarium.

Day 16: Vega is still confused by all the special days humans seem to faux-celebrate, such as International Cat Day, National Pizza Day, Groundhog's Day, and the various forms of Labor Day.

Day 17: Regulus has no drive or follow-through, so one day his listener will be safe. (Please?)

Day 18: One of Cam's favorite memories is seeing the victim of his first case smile for the first time since his vampire attack.

Day 19: (A treat for you, Lexi!) When Christian and Alexis bridge, he lets his wolf-brain guide his thoughts, and Alexis couldn't love it more.

Day 20: Aaron's favorite color is red because, as a very color-blind person, it's one he can see consistently.

Day 21: Blake has no friends on social media, yet he is always on social media.

Day 22: Sam loves the crisp air of an autumn night.

Day 23: William's favorite pub closed in 1823, called The Bourgeois Haunting.

Day 24: James loves a good office party, and always wears a light-up tie.

Day 25: Hudson is trying to pick up a new hobby: trick hula-hooping.

Day 26: Geordi makes his bed every day.

Day 28: Morgan tries to sing a new song every time he takes a shower.

Day 27: Guy often chooses to walk through the woods when he goes somewhere, opting for the scenic root over the quickest any time he has the chance.

Day 29: Anton is not one to get caught up in the past, but to look forward into the future.

Day 30: One dangerous "game" Quinn often "played" with the misfits he acquired was to trance them to help with their anxiety so he could think for them for a little while. Funny how coming out of the trance always left them with more anxiety, which led to Quinn insisting he'd need to trance them more to curb that pesky anxiety...

Day 31: One day, Hush will ask Doc to teach him to dance.

[horsegamesins]

New intro yey

Allu/Axxu│ 20 │ any pronouns

Asperger's syndrome & SNHL

Welcome internet people. I am a horse game nerd, what else is there to say?

(I am so bad at introductions gahh)

I like horses, used to ride every week until the beginning of 2023, and I wanna eventually become a saddler (or whatever you call someone who makes horse tack). My other interests include music, video games, and anime.

I have 4 sso accounts across 3 regions. My main is at level 23, and I have been playing since 2020. you can find me on: Carrot Cove: Alexis Lowpeak Spring Star: Phoenix Winding Night Sprinkles: Eden Serpentgarden

Sometimes I make hobbyhorses and fursuits.

I also do furry art, if you wish to follow my work you can find me on Bluesky & Furaffinity as @Axxstripes, but be aware that all of them contain NSFW material.

Tag guide: All horse games get tagged as themselves, e.g. #Star Stable Online #Tales of Rein Ravine #Ranch of Rivershine and so on, nothing fancy

#nonhorsegame - everything that isn't horse games #horsegame-by-proxy - games that have horse adjacent things/mechanics, like ridable creatures/horse-like creatures, or have horse characters that aren't horse shaped, like horsegirls #horseposting - horse pictures #tismposting - autism brr #personal - anything about me & my life #metatag - anything about this blog

#sso spoilers - sso story bits, horses, events, etc. that sse has released. #sso leaks - unreleased sso stuff from non-official sources

#Al's ssocs - my sso characters #Al's sso ponies - my in-game sso horses #my art - self explanatory #others art - ditto #pin - stuff I wanna come back to (but probably wont)

[dearfriendsinhigherplaces]

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆ 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙤 ⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚖𝚎 ‧₊˚ ⋅* ‧

•i’m alexis

•i’m 21 years old

•i use she/her and they/them as my pronouns, you don’t need to use them interchangeably in the same sentence, just use whatever honestly gender is hard

•i’m bisexual and i’m demigender (i usually just refer to myself queer and genderqueer)

•my shifting journey started in 2021

•i had my first shift in october 2023 (minishift)

•i want shifting friends

•send me asks i love them

•the main theme in most of my drs is friendship and found family

•i’m a subliminal creator and i’ve been listening to subliminals for over 7 years

•i sketch portraits (traditionally and digitally), sew, do tarot, play the ukulele and the guitar, and play video games

•i’m a northwestern wolf and crested honey buzzard therian, and im otherhearted with barn owls

•i’m in the mythical and nonhuman community

•i’m in an endogenic system and i have 3 headmates

•i have dyslexia

•i’m learning danish, jeg snakker og forstår lidt dansk men meget dårligt. and i’m also learning spanish

•i’m a very nervous person

•infp

•vampire lover

•my proudest accomplishment in life was beating the game getting over it with bennett foddy

•was there for unus annus

˚ · .

𝚖𝚢 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚜 ‧₊˚ ⋅* ‧

•music: the beatles, will wood, idk how but they found me, the smiths, james and the shame, the mountain goats, bo burnham, tim minchin, chappell roan, mother mother, the crane wives, aeseaes, lord huron

•movies: crimson peak, another round, a ghost story, nope, httyd, thor ragnarok, into/across the spiderverse, titanic

•tv shows: hannibal, barry, bbc’s ghosts, supernatural, good omens, ofmd, bridgerton, the great, all of us are dead, atla, hazbin hotel, love death and robots, the end of the fucking world, sex education, breaking bad, rita, the handmaid’s tale

•video games: bg3, rdr and rdr2, detroit become human, shelter 2, the sims 3 and 4, animal crossing, stardew valley, the isle, resident evil 7 and 8, minecraft

•books: the little prince, the handmaid’s tale, war of the worlds, high-rise, wings of fire, warrior cats, anything edgar allan poe

˚ · .

𝚖𝚢 𝚖𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝚍𝚛𝚜 ‧₊˚ ⋅* ‧

•bg3 (my main MAIN dr)

•bg3 isekai

•wizarding world

•dhampir (iwtv vibes)

•beatles

•camp half-blood

•bbc’s ghosts

•marvel

•supernatural

•detroit become human

•beastars

•waiting room

𝚖𝚢 𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛/𝚞𝚗𝚜𝚌𝚛𝚒𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚍𝚛𝚜 ‧₊˚ ⋅* ‧

•wings of fire

•botw

•lore olympus

•bridgerton

•adventure time

•steven universe

•the boys (gen v)

•mermaid dr

•sky: children of the light

•heal inner child

i’ve got some other random/smaller/one-off drs that i won’t include in the list. i’ve also got an entire made up realm that i’ve been making and doing world building for for years that i’m shifting to, it’s called Aurora.

˚ · .

𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚖𝚢 𝚋𝚕𝚘𝚐 ‧₊˚ ⋅* ‧

•i mainly post about reality shifting, but i also post about therianthropy and subliminals from time to time

•i post about my bg3 dr A LOT as it is my main one

•the drs that i’ve been trying to shift to the longest are bg3, wizarding world, and my beatles dr

•my wizarding world dr is a university, but i’ll always just refer to it as my wizarding world dr

•i deal with intrusive and obsessive thoughts (i have ocd tendencies but i’ve never gotten a diagnosis for ocd so i’m not sure if i have it), so if i make a post talking about those I’ll put a trigger warning

•i have undiagnosed social anxiety

•dni: if you are an anti shifter, transphobic, homophobic, biphobic, arophobic, acephobic, terf, transmed, racist, just a bigot in general, anti-Palestine, anti-Ukraine, against therians/otherkins, sysmed, anti endo

•while i don’t talk about being in an endogenic system (much), my account is still very pro endo. i’ve been in an endo system (more specifically a tulpa system) for over 5 years. i do not have DID and i would never claim to. my system was formed completely by choice and without trauma. endo neutrals can interact

˚ · .

feel free to ask me any questions about my drs/about my interests, i’m happy to share. you can ask about literally anything in this introduction, doesn’t have to be about shifting. happy shifting :-)

profile picrew by makowka.

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

[alexilulu]

GAMES I PLAYED OF THE YEAR 2023, #1

(Next: #2)

OR: How I Was Let Down By AAA Dogshit

Razzies Award for Most Baffling Game of 2023 Winner: Final Fantasy XVI (Square Enix, Creative Business Unit III)

Or: The Aristocrats, by Way of D & D (the Game of Thrones TV writers, not the tabletop roleplaying game)

Playing Final Fantasy 16 was an exercise that began as farce, then kind of morphed into tragedy, for me. This might be because of how I played it (my girlfriend played until the first Kupka fight, stopped playing when she saw the volume of sidequests that spawned after that, and I played the rest), or how thoroughly I felt that the game was doing something that was making me thoroughly depressed to see go where it did.

I think mostly I was hoping that the AAA, ultimate budget and engine that they gave CBU3 to run and play with, the indulgence from corporate masters to let them experiment and make something new that still rings with the Final Fantasy name, gave me Final Fantasy 14 with better skin shaders and shit.

I didn’t go into it expecting much on the politics; the magical underclass is ruinously powerful (they literally control the means of production with their bodies, villages are reliant on them for water because they don’t dig wells anymore) and simultaneously reviled, beaten and ultimately killed by their own power via crystallization. The world is divided by kingdoms…that all have agreed to a central banking standard that a merchant’s guild set and not a single one of them is doing wild debasement to? The planet’s dying, Cloud, but everyone’s way more focused on watching gay Bahamut cross cocks with Odin twice and then leave in the skies over another pointless battle? 

All of which is out the window by the time Titan’s dead in the ground, btw. The plight of the Branded is wholly forgotten the moment the plot really wants to be about the world-ending god who wants Clive’s body, and doing things about free will and predestination without even a look back at how those themes play into the abject chattel slavery that a significant portion of the world lives under. 

But somehow, it’s bizarre, disappointing and ultimately confused middle to final third aren’t really my biggest problem with the game, even if the finale was quarter-baked and vaguely infuriating. I can accept a fully vibes-based plot, even when it has pretensions towards a grand scale of movement and war (they really brought in a historian into the plot after the timeskip so they can pretend they have any cohesive idea of geopolitics going on outside of when you show up and the world starts ending somewhere immediately). I can even except the ‘fuck yeah humanity’ ass boring ending that’s supposed to make you feel like you read a fairy tale about the hero who saved everyone.

The combat brutally, terminally killed any semblance of care I could ever show for this game by the time I had all the eikons unlocked.

See, this is a thing that’s been a long time coming for final fantasy, ever since the first 13 game, when they introduced the idea of stagger and magic/physical damage, the idea of a high-damage state you put the enemy in and extend the duration of by applying elemental weaknesses that allows you to hammer them with physical damage. This was how FF13 worked and was designed around the 13-style turn-based ATB system, stacking up multiple moves on a bar, and it’s a little bit of how FF15 worked by way of Kingdom Hearts with a teleport button, but by FF16 the plot is lost completely.

You put enemies into stagger…by hitting them with anything. You get elemental-themed bursts you can intersperse between your sword strikes by learning a very basic one-two rhythm that speeds it up (because magic abilities do more stagger than physical damage, natch), and you have big flashy super abilities that are on a cooldown and are based on your eikons equipped. So you’ve got a pretty easy one-two of hitting them with basic combos and using your specials to tip them over the edge…

But wait. Your specials are also your biggest routes to high damage in the game. That’s where the big bad Phoenix wing swing is, one of the most simply effective damage moves in the game that isn’t Literally Gigaflare Beaming Their Ass. Do you want to use that for stagger…Or do you want to clear the fight in less than 20 minutes?

The stagger mechanic in 16 perfectly recreates the feeling of being in a DPS window in Final Fantasy 14 (for the luckily uninitiated, this is when you would all pop your party buffs at the same time, so that you all benefit maximally from damage amps and do your highest potency skills during to maximize your damage for the 20 or so seconds it happens during), to the point where it feels like they did it on purpose. 

So, you get them in stagger, and the dance of holding R2 and cycling through your special abilities begins. You can have 6 of them at a time, so there’s a real flair to chaining them together, and it can feel great to just go through your rotation perfectly and end the stagger window with some light chain comboing for good measure. It even pops your damage up at the end so you can be like yeah! I did that much damage! I’ll only need to do that 3 more times to finish fighting this interminably slow dragon!

It’s fucking boring. It has the feeling of feeling good. It’s a little dopamine hit for you to just optimally nail things down, but there’s literally nothing to it. It doesn’t feel like anything. The rhythm to hit so that you get a full 8 hit combo of sword and burst attacks numbs the senses. The extraordinarily forgiving dodge that rewards precision with bonus stagger damage on your next hit feels like a single Skittle thrown into my mouth for doing a trick right. 

I think that might be where I’ve landed on the game. Final Fantasy 16 doesn’t feel like anything. A moodboard of a video game, designed to death by a team that didn’t know any other way to make a game than to make more of what they made before (CBU3 are the primary minds behind Final Fantasy 14 before they split to work on 16 around 2020, with various parts of the team cycling in and out of Final Fantasy 14 in the ensuing years). Final Fantasy 16 is Final Fantasy 14 wearing Game of Thrones’ skin. 

I do mean that somewhat literally; Non-primary cutscenes are shot and directed in the precise manner that Final Fantasy 14 non-voiced cutscenes are produced, down to the angle of the camera above the player model and the semi-canned animations that you will see a hundred times throughout the story. It feels uncanny, especially after they stated directly that during development that they specifically abandoned plans for a PS4 version that would ‘not limit the team’s ambitions’. It feels like the scope was crushed down to something they could complete in the 3-4 years they had afforded themselves for development. 

Ultimately, it feels like a game that was built inside a box. I keep seeing all the ways they wanted to produce something grand, but I can feel how shoddy the set the actors are standing on really is. Final Fantasy 16: the off-Broadway production, coming soon to your Playstation Five Home Entertainment Console.

[bboyplankton]

R&B/Pop/Alternative Albums 2023

Dende - 95' Civic

Tone Stith - P.O.V. - EP

Arin Ray - Phases III - EP

Jungle - Volcano

Chris Brown - 11:11

Elmiene - Marking My Time - EP

Masego - Masego

Sam Smith – Gloria

Phabo - Don't Get Too Cozy

Ama Lou - I Came Home Late

Casper Sage - Synthesis+ - EP

JMSN - Soft Spot

Abby Jasmine - Growing Pains

Emotional Oranges - Still Emo

Vedo - 7

Kenyon Dixon - The R&B You Love

Kyra - as things grow

Rory - I Thought It'd Be Different

Mahalia - IRL (Deluxe)

RAAHiim - But if iiM Honest

Jessie Ware - That! Feels Good!

Victoria Monet - Jaguar II

Jorja Smith - falling or flying

Vedo - Mood Swings

Jordan Ward - moreward(Forward)

Austin Millz – Breathwork – EP

Azekel – Analyze Love

Teezo Touchdown – How Do You Sleep At Night?

Rum.gold – U Street Anthology

Sebastian Mikael – Phileo Deluxe – EP

Leon Thomas – Electric Dusk

Brent Faiyaz – Larger Than Life

Jacob Lattimore – Closure – EP

BJ the Chicago Kid – Gravy

Kiana Ledé – Grudges

Sabrina Claudio – Archives & Lullabies

Tay Iwar – Summer Breeze

The Teskey Brothers – The Winding Way

Adi Oasis – Lotus Glow

Ellie Ingram – Bad Behavior

Dende – Before We Crash – EP

Saint Harison – lost a friend – EP

Leonard Charles – Heaven – EP

Raheem Devaughn – The Summer of Love

Sy Ari Da Kid – Toxicity At It’s Finest

Omarion – Full Circle: Sonic Book 1

Jane Handcock – World of Women

Khamari – A Brief Nirvana

BLK ODYSSY – Diamonds & Freaks

Elhae – Forotten Flowers

Ambré – who’s loving you? – EP

Noah Guy – Who’s Taken Time?! (Act II) – EP

Chase Shakur – it’s not you, it’s me…it’s love

6lack – Since I Have A Lover

Burna Boy – I Told Them…

Majid Jordan – Good People

Cleo Sol – Gold

Alexis Ffrench – Christmas Piano with Alexis

Terrace Martin & Alex Isley – I Left My Heart In…

Baby Rose – Through & Through

THEY. – Nü Moon

Eric Bellinger – 1(800)HIT-EAZY: Line 2

Jozzy – Songs for Women, Free Game for Niggas (Deluxe)

Diddy – The Love Album: Off the Grid

Paramore – This Is Why

October London – The Rebirth of Marvin

Romy Dya – Transformation – EP

Buju Banton – Born for Greatness

Fall Out Boy – So Much (For) Stardust

Kali Uchis – Red Glow in Venus

Destin Conrad – Submissive

Mariah the Scientist – To Be Eaten Alive

Queen Naija – After the Butterflies – EP

Justine Skye – Dark Side

Maeta – When I Hear Your Name

Love Moor – Love – EP

Valerie Omari – Closure – EP

Mannywellz – Mr. Olúlala – EP

Xenia Manasseh – Love/Hate Pt. 1

Cedric Brazle – …What I Know Now – EP

Selah Sue – Persona (Deluxe)

Ciara – CiCi

Tinashe – BB/Ang3l

Idman – Risk: Reloaded

ATSN – Where Do We Go From Here?

Destra – Unchained

Chiiild – Better Luck In The Next Life

Biako – Feelings Happen

Jastin Martin – Miss Me Yet?

Daniel Caesar – Never Enough (Bonus Version)

Tink – Thanks 4 Nothing

Sekou – Out of Mind – EP

Roy Woods – Mixed Emotions

Terrace Martin & James Fauntleroy – Nova – EP

Forest Claudette – Everything Was Green – EP

Musiq Soulchild & Hit-Boy – Victims & Villains

Traetwothree – Long Story Short – EP

Kevin Ross – Midnight Microdose, Vol. 1 – EP

Lavi$h – You Made A Big Mistake

Chlöe – In Pieces

Cleo Sol – Heaven

Kaleem Taylor – Ember

Adrian Dzvuke – Don’t Worry About It Sweetheart – EP

Devon Gilfillian – Love You Anyway

Nonso Amadi – When It Blooms

Ellie Goulding – Higher Than Heaven (Deluxe)

Brandy – Christmas with Brandy

King Sis – Pendulum – EP

Ebony Riley – ebony – EP

Lojay – Gangster Romantic

Popcaan – Great Is He

Jean Deaux – Heavy

TheARTI$t – ARTchives

Cisco Swank – More Better

Winny – Winny

Yung Bleu – Love Scars II

Hamzaa & 1srael – Rush – EP

Tim Lyre – MASTA

Kevin Ross – Midnight Microdose, Vol. 2 – EP

Ed Sheeran – - (Deluxe)

Saleka – Séance

Gorillaz – Cracker Island

James Blake – Playing Robots Into Heaven

Joya Mooi – What’s Around the Corner

Safe – Safe & Sound

Dinner Party – Enigmatic Society

Yakul – Outlines – EP

T-Pain – On Top of The Covers

Omah Lay – Boy Alone (Deluxe)

Angie Stone – Love Language

Jon Batiste – World Radio Music

Summer Walker – Clear 2: Soft Life – EP

PinkPanthress – Heaven Knows

Amari Noelle – Take II

Cee-Lo Green & Jack Splash – Serious – EP

Ed Sheeran – Autumn Variations

Mac DeMarco – 5 Easy Hot Dogs

Sabrina Carpenter – emails I can’t send fwd:

Arlo Parks – My Soft Machine (Deluxe)

Laufey – Bewitched

Keke Palmer – Big Boss

Jayda G – Guy

Gracie Abrams – Good Riddance

J. Brown – The Art of Making Love

Wanmor – WanMor

[theultimatefan]

Fireworks, Community & Pop Culture: Ten Things to Know in the American Association This Week

The American Association of Professional Baseball (@AA_Baseball) season continues with a full slate of series this weekend, all available for free live viewing at aabaseball.tv.

Here are 10 (or so) Things to Know about the AAPB this week:

Because one fireworks show just isn't enough -- and maybe some Cleburne fans might miss the Biggest Fireworks Show of the Season on the 4th -- the Railroaders will host the Second Biggest Fireworks show on the 5th.

July 4th doesn't mean fireworks north of the U.S. border, but that's not stopping the Winnipeg Goldeyes from having a celebration of their own, and the team's Field of Dreams Foundation will benefit. Next Thursday is the first-ever Bike-In Movie Night at Blue Cross Park, where for $4 fans can ride their bike or walk onto the field for a screening of lsat year's film Next Goal Wins.

The Kansas City Star wrote about A.J. Alexy (Honey Brook, Pa), a two-year Major Leaguer with the Texas Rangers, standing out for the Monarchs. Alexy has struck out 12 batters over 6.2 innings in six hitless, scoreless appearances at press time.

One of the great things about the AAPB is that player movement goes the other way, too. Victor Vargas (Catagena, Colombia) who was signed by the Reds and assigned to AA Dayton, was 4-1 with a 2.11 ERA in seven starts with the Milwaukee Milkmen and picked right up where he left off, earning a win with a two-hit, four-strikeout performance over five innings in his debut vs. Fort Wayne on Tuesday.

Thomas Dillard (Oxford, Miss.) is on pace to shatter the AAPB record for walks in a single season for a player. The Cleburne infielder has drawn 50 free passes in 43 games at press time, which includes as many games (11) in which he has walked in multiple plate appearances as he has games (11) in which he has failed to draw a walk. TJ Mittelstaedt set league the record at 94 back in 2014 for Kansas City (then the T-Bones). Not coincidentally, Dillard tied the Ole Miss record with 135 career walks drawn.

Sioux Falls Canaries skipper Mike Meyer has 299 career managerial wins at press time, seeking to becoming the second Sioux Falls manager to reach 300, behind only Steve Shirley (Mike was Steve’s pitching coach with the Canaries for many years). Meyer has the team tied for first place (24-15); the Canaries had not been nine games over .500 at any point since finishing the 2010 season at 63-33.

The Gary SouthShore RailCats continue to work on uniting the local community in Northwest Indiana. The team will host NWI Chamber Night on July 17 at the SteelYard, with 14 chambers of commerce scheduled to attend. The goal of the event is to help the chambers in their aim to further the interests of small businesses in the community as well as provide education and networking opportunities.

Kane County infielder Josh Allen (Fort Meade, Fla.) has spent the majority of the last seven seasons in the AAPB, the last four with the Cougars after three in St. Paul. He is now four shy of 100 home runs in his pro career after hitting 12 last year, second best on the squad.

Lake Country was the perfect way station for Austin Davis last year, as the lefty who has played for four MLB teams, last with the Twins in 2022, finished out 2023 with the Dockhounds. It was enough for the San Diego Padres to take a flier on him, and he hasn't disappointed, moving in to the closer role for the AAA El Paso Chihuahuas, notching eight saves and fanning 37 in 29 innings at press time. The El Paso Times chronicled his comeback story.

Pop culture hits the AAPB with these fun theme nights coming up:

Tonight - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Night at Fargo-Moorhead

Friday - Seinfeld Night at Sioux Falls

Friday- Pirate and Princess Night at Gary SouthShore

Friday through Sunday - Classic Movies Weekend at Lake Country

Sunday - Minions at the Park at Milwaukee

[theuniverseawakens347]

Lee, mother “dearest”

I know you’re wondering a lot…

Like how I know the day you “met” Tristan when inspecting Howard’s truck for “purchase” ( which you sold to Tristan January 2024 and told Howard to tell me it was your friend…Jim who bought it )…you texted him that day ( before meeting) telling him to “pretend” to date me until September to “get my hopes up for our future” …

Then started paying him September to finalize us “separating” ..then paid him AGAIN Valentine’s Day to delete his instagram to look like he “got back with Daisy/ done with me for GOOD …and paid him to “live” with her 🤣 BITCH YOU DONT EVEN KNOW WHO DAISY IS TO OUR FAMILY LINE. A DEATH PET. TO THE WALLACE BARTON FAMILY.

…also you paid for his trip to Turkey knowing he wanted his hair procedure as a means of…bribery to “get what you want..in the long run”

( which is us to not get married ) …

Me knowing these VERY specific details KNOWING I haven’t physically talked to Tristan makes you question ALL this being in fact VERY MUCH SO REAL.

…my granny had a similar conversation with you for my 15th birthday confirming some family truths, and you thought she was absolutely bat shit crazy, which you told Howard,

Then AGAIN when I was 15 before my 16th birthday and granny, Dee, Jose, Alexis and Brandi came over for dinner..when Lexi, Brandi and I left the house to get something from the car, you AGAIN, were told some MORE truths about the wallace name which again..you thought my grandma and WHOLE family was a nut job, and you talked with Howard that night how to prove me crazy in the future …KNOWING granny was speaking truth because Ben from Equinox had already approached you in your “ secret society” telling you EXACTLY who I am.

And again you’re going to wonder after reading THIS how I know that, since you as well paid off Ben to 1. Get me hired at equinox downtown and 2. Paid him off August 17th 2021- my time at clarity to not tell me my own life truth/ purpose and AGAIN paid him off this year to not talk to me AT ALL since our last training session early October 2023 ( ironically when you left for your BIG trip) - NOW

And during that trip you paid Michael and Andre to stash paraphernalia all throughout my room to make me look like a VERY BIG ADDICT ( BITCH I DONT SMOKE BONGS 🖕🏽…if you gon lie, AT LEAST MAKE IT CUTE BITCH! ADONDI 👽🛸)

YOU’ve also been paying Howard off since you were married to conceal certain things, like knowing WHO I WAS WHEN I CAME TO YOUR HOUSE, PAYING OFF NIKKI AND ASKARI TO “SELL” ME TO YOU OFF A FUCKING BRIBE OF GETTING THEN THEIR CURRENT HOUSE IN SHERMAN OAKS..IRONICALLY DOWN THE STREET FROM PAUL MITCHELL SHERMAN OAKS …

WHERE WE “TRICKED” YOU INTO TURNING ME BACK OVER TO RIGHTFUL FAMILY. WHERE I FUCKING BELONG - BLOODLINE.

And now after reading this..you’re going to play the guessing game with yourself.. who are YOUR missing pieces…who amongst “YOUR SIDE” IS MY BLOOD LINE FAMILY WANTING ME BACK …

And again..no ONE CAN TALK TO ME FACE TO FACE BECAUSE YOU PAID THEM ALL OFF AND HAVE THEM ON RECORD..

SO HOW THE FUCK DOES CASHAY KNOW THESE VERY SPECIFIC DETAILS…

Well just recently , yesterday 4/3/24 I HAVE YOU ADMITTING in front of two people that you in fact DONT believe I am crazy and making up things about who I am/ the universe…

But you “cleverly” OMIT the truth of your end … like bribing Preston to move me to San Francisco ( knowing i wanted to move there since Aja and I went to pride when I was 17) ..your best acting job yet “pretending” like you TRULY hated Preston and paying Howard to “back you up” on that..you even admitted in from of Michell cauley ON RECORD that you and Preston have friends in common… you tried to say you didn’t want me to go in front of Howard to cover your ass but behind closed doors you’re pushing me to go…the EXACT DAY YOU BRIBED PRESTON WAS WHEN YPU READ MY FUCKING COMPUTER ..WHICH WAS RIGHT AFTER THE THERAPY SESSION WOTH MICHELL WHERE YOU TOLD ME YOU KNEW ABOUT HIS “secret love child” and my emotions around it…AGIN INVADING MY PRIVACY AND READING MY PERSONAL JOURNALS …LIKE YOU DID AGIN THIS PAST TRIP TO THE PSYCH WARD WHEN YOU “MOVED” things to my “Storage” unit.

“HOW THE FUCK DOES SHE KNOW THIS” is what you were thinking during yesterdays sit down with Vivvica and Howard…

BITCH I TOLD YOU I AM TELEPATHIC.

I let Cashay communicate her hurt to you, the part of me that wanted you as a mother,

AND I LET ADONDI MENTALLY FUCK YOU ON THIS BLOG LIKE YOU’VE DONE TO ME ALL MY LIFE LIVING WITH YOU.

And most recently after sessions with Amy Perry, I have you questioning, if YEA IN FACT YOU ARE DORRIS JEAN BENNETT AND HOW THE HELL THAT WOULD ACTUALLY WORK …well

Let ME CASHAY tell you this,

If you have an open and honest sit down with me AND TRISTAN, ADMITTING TO YOUR PART ( THINGS I ALREADY KNOW BC I CAN AND DO READ YOUR MIND AS WELL AS HAVE ALL THE RECEIPTS I NEED TO BACK ME UP IN ALL THE RIGHT PLACES )

I AS ADONDI, will “Gift” you…( as you like to call it for your FAT tax write offs ) THE TRUTH ABOUT HOW LIFE ACTUALLY WORKS ..how you are IN FACT DORIS HER SELF.

..I CAN hear you discussing with Howard RIGJT FUCKING NOW, “ how do [we] get out of this”

THIS IS THE ONLY FUCKING WAY OUT,

And if you continue to play me, YOU DROP THE BALL AND YOU’ll BE GOING DOWN LIKE DIDDY #JAIL.

From Doctors, therapist, teachers, family members , friends ..I HAVE ALL THEIR RECEIPTS.

I STRONGLY suggest your next move be talking with Cashay - ADONI / TRISTAN / FLORENCE

[zoeology31]

The 2024 regular season (for 28 teams) is nearly here! As we look ahead, hopeful for another division title, and pray for the body and soul of the Twins pitching staff, let's also look back at the highlights of a very roller coaster but memorable 2023. In celebration of the team that broke the streak, I've put together a countdown of the 10 best Twins games from last season.

(not counting the playoffs because of course the three wins would top the list)

Before we start, let's toss in a baseball-ified version of Jon Bois's somewhat arbitrary definition of a "great game" (from his excellent Minnesota Vikings documentary). A great baseball game should 1) end in a walkoff, extra innings, or with the tying run at the plate, 2) have both teams score at least 4 runs, 3) feature at least one lead change, and 4) end with one team winning.

And for the sake of this list, the Twins must win the game. We had plenty of objectively great games against Cleveland in '22, but all of them contributed to the permanent degradation of my soul. Other than that criteria, I'm selecting this for games that were exciting overall, not ones where the Twins crushed their opponents.

14 Twins games from last season met these criteria, from which I chose 6, then added 4 more that missed a criterion but still fit the spirit of a great game.

First, honorable mentions:

9/20: Twins 5, Reds 3. 9th inning comeback against Alexis Díaz after Hunter Greene struck out 14 Twins. Castro bunted, then stole 2nd and 3rd as the tying run in the 9th.

7/24: Twins 4, Mariners 3 (10). Jax blew the save by giving up a 2-run homer to Kolten Wong, then Kepler tied it in the 9th and Correa walked it off in the 10th.

8/15: Twins 5, Tigers 3. Twins fell behind early on Miguel Cabrera's last ever Target Field home run, then Wallner nuked an upper deck grand slam and got the season's first curtain call.

4/14: Twins 4, Yankees 3. Varland turned in a quality start after being ambushed early by solo home runs. Correa porched one to get the Twins on the board, then got the go-ahead RBI double in the 8th.

4/7: Twins 3, Astros 2 (10). Gray set a career high in strikeouts, but the lineup couldn't back him up until the 10th, when a messy inning set up clutch hits from Miranda and Farmer to walk off the defending champs and open the home half of the season on a high note.

10. 6/1: Twins 7, Guardians 6 A tight game swung hard in the Guardians' favor when Pablo López got BABIP'd to death by patented Guardiansball(tm) in the 6th, turning a 3-1 lead into a 6-3 deficit and magnifying the existing bad vibes of Buxton getting drilled in the ribs. But the Twins battled back in the 8th, and for the second time in his three games played, Lewis tied the game late, this time with a 2-run homer. Loading the bases with no outs in the 9th, the Twins managed not to choke for once, with Castro hitting a sac fly for the walkoff.

9. 8/27: Twins 7, Rangers 6 (13) This game was both epic and physically painful to watch. Amidst the only shaky stretch of his excellent season, Ober gave up a grand slam to Jonah Heim to put the Twins down 5-0 early. Keuchel went 5 innings in relief and combined with the bullpen for 9 innings and 0 earned runs. Lewis got the Twins back in it with his first grand slam of the season, then they tied it up off Aroldis Chapman in the 9th. Finally, after 3.2 innings of bad baserunning and bad swing decisions, Taylor drew the Twins' third straight walk to win it in 13.

8. 7/23: Twins 5, White Sox 4 (12) Aka the pink eye game. For the first 8 innings, this looked like a typical shutout loss as the Twins couldn't push runners across early and fell silent late. But then they rallied for 3 runs in the 9th and re-tied it in the 10th thanks to contributions from two players dealing with pink eye that weekend. Castro had a pinch-hit RBI double in the 9th, Gallo a pinch-run tag to score in the 10th when the right fielder fell down catching a pop fly (and then a bunt lineout because he couldn't see to swing the bat). Jeffers walked it off in the 12th to complete the sweep and move the Twins to 8-2 after the All-Star break.

7. 4/11: Twins 4, White Sox 3 (10) Pablo López's home debut got off to a bad start, as the first four White Sox batters reached and two scored. Then he locked it down, Buxton hit his 100th career homer to tie it and Taylor added another for the lead, and López proceeded to retire 23 consecutive batters. In fact, Twins pitchers retired 30 of the final 31 batters; unfortunately the lone exception was the Luis Robert solo shot Duran allowed on the first pitch of the 9th for his first career blown save. The first-pitch chaos continued in the 10th, when the Sox third baseman fielded Taylor's sac bunt and hit Taylor with the throw for the walkoff error.

6. 8/6: Twins 5, Diamondbacks 3 The Twins pitching staff behind Keuchel in his Twins debut turned in an interesting performance, allowing 11 hits, 6 walks, and 8 stolen bases but only 3 runs thanks to great defense and timely strikeouts. Meanwhile Zac Gallen faced the minimum through 5, but Correa redeemed his 2-GIDP performance with a 2-out, 2-run single in the 6th. Down 3-2 in the 9th after a Christian Walker home run, Kepler answered with one of his own off Paul Sewald as the broadcast discovered a "rally turtle" hat in the crowd. After a Polanco pinch-hit walk, Wallner smashed another home run to walk it off for his hometown team.

5. 8/24: Twins 7, Rangers 5 Fresh off a brutal walkoff loss to the Brewers in 110+ heat index, this game started off equally bad. The Rangers crushed López up and down the lineup to the tune of 5 runs, 3 via solo homers, in the first 4 innings. The Twins clawed back with solo homers of their own, including two from Taylor to tie his career high, while Winder turned in 3 clutch hitless innings in relief. Correa tied the game in the 8th, setting the stage for Jeffers, who'd been practicing against Will Smith's slider for two innings and smashed that very pitch for a pinch-hit, go-ahead home run coupled with a highlight-reel pimp job and bat flip.

4. 9/22: Twins 8, Angels 6 The Twins entered Friday with a magic number of 1 over the Guardians and Tigers, setting up the first home clinch since 2010. They loaded the bases in 2 of the first 4 innings against the Angels' opener and bulk pitcher, but came away with only 3 runs, which the Angels got back in a 5th inning flurry amidst López's otherwise solid start. Kirilloff hit a go-ahead homer in the 6th and the Twins loaded the bases again to tack on several more runs in the 7th. An 8th inning homer off Thielbar set up a roller coaster Duran save, ending on a nice play by Julien on a bases-loaded chopper up the middle. And with that, the Twins were back in the playoffs after a two-year hiatus.

3. 9/5: Twins 8, Guardians 3 A night after routing the Guards 20-6, the Twins had to keep the pressure on. Though they got on the board early, they faced awful BABIP luck against Tanner Bibee, and the Guards tied it via a Bo Naylor home run. They took the lead shortly after a blown review on what should've been a Polanco home run, but the Twins re-tied it on a solo shot from Vazquez. Polanco broke that tie with an 8th inning sac fly before Trevor Stephan completely imploded, walking/plunking the bases loaded and giving up a soft liner to Solano that bounced under Myles Straw's glove for a bases (and stands)-clearing triple. After a clean, cathartic 9th from Pagan, the Twins at last put the dagger in Cleveland's season.

2. 5/29: Twins 7, Astros 5 (10) The Royce Lewis comeback game was one for the ages. Making his season debut exactly a year after his ACL tear, Lewis predicted "something special is going to happen tonight", and he backed it up with a 3 run homer to start the scoring. Adding another chapter to the endless debate over Gray's mid-inning hooks, Stewart nearly managed to get out of their jointly created jam but instead gave up a go-ahead grand slam to José Altuve. One out from defeat, Lewis doubled up on that "something special" with a game-tying single off Ryan Pressly. Jeffers slammed the first pitch of the 10th into the Crawford Boxes, and Duran locked it down against the top of the order for the win.

1. 6/13: Twins 7, Brewers 5 This game didn't have the wire-to-wire tension of some others on this list, but the Carlos Correa signature moment has to take the #1 spot. A vintage Christian Yelich performance put the Twins down early, though they scratched a few back off Corbin Burnes to keep the game close. The sellout crowd stuck around for a rally, disappointed by a Gallo full-count bases loaded strikeout to end the 8th but rewarded with an unbelievable 9th. Against Devin Williams and his .42 ERA, Taylor homered, Julien walked, Castro pinch-ran and stole second, and Solano drove him in to tie it. There was no other way it could end but with Correa's first career *regular season* walkoff homer, complete with the watch pointing celebration and everyone's realization, for the 800th time, that Carlos Correa is a Minnesota Twin for life.

[alexissara]

Best Of Me Alexis Sara, 2024 Edition.

Before the new year ends it’s time to celebrate one of the things I love the very most, myself.  In 2024 I did a ton of work, a lot of which I wasn’t able to share because it’s part of bigger projects. I wrote two books [rough drafts] in the Love Beyond The Holy Light series and am working on the 3rd, worked on Thirsty Sword Lesbians next expansion, helped my GF with one of her own novels, worked on several other TTRPGs, got to work on Gales Of Nayeli, started working on SRPGs of my own and more. Most of which I am more proud of than the stuff that is here on this list.  However, this is about the best stuff I released this year not things I did so enjoy the stuff I did this year that you can in some way shape or form access this year I think is best. 

10. The Upcoming Sapphic Games Guide This is one of the projects I work on all year long. Since I started doing it in 2023 I’ve been doing my best to find and cover as many possible upcoming sapphic games as possible. This is a big passion project that I put hours and hours into playing demos, reading pages over and over again, looking through devs twitters, watching every game showcase I can, I really and honestly put everything I can into making sure folks know where they can support sapphic games that are coming out. I hope for a world where I don’t feel the need to do this cuz people just say there is sapphic rep and what kind of sapphic rep in their games and that is an easy thing to find but unfortunately it’s way harder than it should be so I am doing the work so folks don’t need to.

9. Why FE4 Remake Can’t Happen Since the release of Fire Emblem Echoes people have had “rumors’ that the next fire emblem game is an FE4 Remake. Ever since then it has been the next game for every single game releases and it was going to be announced at every Nintendo direct. Somehow, this hasn’t happened and in this article I explain why it won’t happen [and shouldn’t]. I’ve been meaning to do this for a long time and it was nice to finally lay it out. 

8. Pokémon Sun and Moon Fic - Lillie: To Stand By the Moon Part 2 

After a little over a year, I finally wrote the second part of my MoonLillie fanfiction. I really want to finish this story but I’ve been busy doing work and didn’t take a lot of time for fanfics in general. I am really proud of this second part explaining what was up with Moon during the events of Lillie’s story and leading into part 3 with Lillie. 

7. Sacred Stoners #1 One of the biggest pleasures of the year was getting to work with Actuallizard my favorite FE Youtuber for an episode of his new podcast Sacred Stoners, in fact on the debut episode where I got to talk about queer rep in Fire Emblem one of my favorite topics in the world. Lizard and Sequitur were so much fun to talk to and I would hang out again any time really. 

6. Dream Game: Pokémon Contest Legends 

The start of what I would like to be a series but likely will only just be this one article, I talked about my dream pokemon game, a Pokemon Contest forward pokemon game that is all about raising pokemon to do well in contests and dressing up and really focusing on the bound with pokemon. 

5. Drums Of War Review 

Drums of War is an amazing romhack and one of my best games of the year in 2023. I really want people to try this game, it’s better than most mainline fire emblem games even if it is a bit hard [I think they’ve added an easy mode since after i beat it]. It’s truly a great SRPG experience and I really do hope one day we could see what Parrhesia would do with a game they could actually sell and not just a romhack. 

4. Super Idols RPG Episodes 38 and 39 

While Super Idols RPG episode 38 didn’t come out this year, the part of the show I was more actively a part of episode 39 did debut this year and I am so proud of my performance on this podcast as Selena, one of my all time favorite OCs and putting her on that stage was really fun.

3. Fire Emblem Engage One Year Later 

To “celebrate” one year of Fire Emblem Engage and talk about how bad it is and how I kept finding myself disliking it more and more over time. Fire Emblem is my favorite game series and going over these feelings I think helps me place where I am with the series for the future which is, that i might not get a switch 2 because honestly, Fire Emblem is one of my main selling points for a Nintendo console but unless Tecmo Koei is making the next Fire Emblem game I honestly don’t trust it. 

2. Sierra Laider My Dragon Age the Veilguard OC Sierra is among my favorite things I made this year and how does she show up on a list like this well, I wrote a massive 31 day challenge of fics for her and I wrote another fic before that challenge for her and I’ve actually worked on more fics and stuff of her while I was playing Veilguard. Actually playing Veilguard I’ve mentally adjusted some of her lore while choosing to Ignore Veilguards shallow writing in other areas but I have a full canon of Sierra and Asher planned out now even going into some post Veilguard stuff. I don’t know if I’ll share their stories but I love Sierra so much and I think I wrote some fun little fics. 

1. Love Beyond The Holy Light Volume 1 Rough Draft 

While the rest of this list is not really order and the numbers are here to make it look like a structured list, number one is actually this, Love Beyond The Holy Light Volume 1’s rough draft now out on Patreon. Love Beyond The Holy Light is my novel project, started as a webnovel years ago, I hosted it on it’s own site and it’s a story I never moved on from, I was realizing every story I was making was Love Beyond The Holy Light, that since I gave up on it so I had to return. So I went back and rewrote it from scratch not borrowing any of my old writing and wanting to take it again from the top better than ever and I really think the story is finally the story it deserves to be. I am so proud of this and I really want people to read my story. I think Love Beyond The Holy Light is really special and folks should check out my story in which a couple of Catholic girls get down so bad for a pair of trans women they give up on their religion and end up helping with a revolution against a theocratic state. 

[linguistlist-blog]

Books: Board Games in the CLIL Classroom: Alexiou and Karasimos (eds.) (2023)

The present book explores how modern board gaming and language teaching can be beneficially combined to achieve optimal impact. Modern board games have a lot to offer language learners and teachers, and they should play a much more significant role in what has been labelled "Content and Language Integrated Learning" or CLIL. Modern board games require cooperation, problem-solving, active discovery, interpretation and analysis. Most importantly, modern board games allow students to explore a hyp http://dlvr.it/T3bsHf