#Horror and Dust agree that Cross must be his favourite

[somegrumpynerd]

Hc that the boys sometimes joke about one of them being Nightmare's favourite or discuss who it would be even after he tells them he doesn't have one. They think he's saying it in denial like a parent saying they don't have a favourite child, but really he refuses to let himself favour one of them over the others because he knows exactly how it feels to be not the favourite

[reallyhatethiswebsite]

Hark! I submit an official request for Raphael and someone (dealer’s choice) getting hit with the old Sex Pollen. It could be a trick by Haarlep or a plant/mushroom releasing pollen/spores in Faerûn during one of his visits. I leave circumstances to your brilliant imagination.

I love the sex pollen trope and would love to see you write it :) As always, feel free to make him or both of them as tame or unhinged as you like! Thank you! 💕

❤️

Raph gets pollened ☺️

Read on AO3

-

There was a lot of strange stuff to find laying about in the ruins of Moonrise Towers. Most of it caked in dirt, dust, and other unidentifiable substances. The kleptomaniac in Tav had her poking around, putting her mitts on everything before those little tiefling gobshites stripped the place bare.

She was enamoured by something: a big round vial that contained some viscous liquid which, when Tav cleaned the bottle a little, glowed an ominous dark purple. The stopper was wedged too tight to open. It had been fermenting for a long, long time. Tav had discovered the bottle in a box with a decrepit occult codex of some kind and a burned out incense holder. Bizarre findings that warranted further investigation – after she’d raided everything else of value, of course.

“Well, well. Where should I find the mouse but scurrying about in a ruined old attic? Apt.”

“Shit!”

Tav nearly leapt out of her skin. The bottle went flying, shattering on the ground. A thin, noxious violet gas began to seep from its shattered corpse. The smell was pungent, stomach-churning; like rotten eggs and swamp water. Tav coughed and gagged, eyes wet, glaring at the devil who’d startled her so badly. He stood there innocently, unassuming, a single eyebrow raised at her display of drama. So much for finding out what that potion did.

“Do you enjoy getting the jump on people, devil?” She said waspishly, moving further away from the mess. “Gods, that stinks.”

“Sometimes. Mortals are much more likely to agree to certain things when they’re frightened,” Raphael purred. He tilted his head, taking a small whiff of the gas. “Hmm…it smells like peaches to me.”

Peaches, sure. “What do you want?” Tav crossed her arms. Never turn your back on a devil. Especially this one.

“Merely to see why my favourite future client isn’t celebrating with the rest of her merry band,” said Raphael. Tav noticed he was surreptitiously inhaling deeper sniffs of the potion, like a dog that had caught an interesting scent on the wind. He may not have realised he was doing it. “After all, you freed the angel. You struck down the avatar of a God. One would think a hero of such calibre would at least raise a glass or two in victory, no?”

“I don’t like crowds,” muttered Tav, keenly aware he was mocking her. He was always mocking her. Raphael shifted his feet, coming just a bit closer.

“Yes, I know,” he said, his voice dropping an octave. “I know a lot about you, Tav. I know the kinds of people you used to do business with before the mindflayers took you. I know the kind of work you did. I know where you came from, and where you were going before all of this.”

“What?” Tav stared at him, aghast. A mix of horror and, inexplicably, intrigue squirmed in her belly. How did he know these things? Why did he know these things? Something was off, though. Raphael seemed, for a brief moment, as shocked by his words as she.

“All that is to say…” He adjusted his collar. Loosened it. “Hells. Why is it so damn warm all of a sudden?”

In a crumbling tower, battered by the chilling miasma of the shadow curse, the only warmth came from the Infernal himself. “It’s cold up here,” Tav said slowly. A bead of sweat rolled down Raphael’s temple in contrast. “Are…you okay?”

“What a stupid question,” the devil snapped. He was becoming flustered, a fetching flush spreading across his harsh cheeks and the bridge of his handsome nose. “I must return to the Hells. Goodbye.”

He clicked his fingers, intending to disappear in a burst of hellfire as usual, but nothing happened. A mere sputtering of sparks from his fingertips fluttered and died. Outraged, Raphael clicked them again, harder, as Tav watched with mounting anxiety. No portal opened. The devil went nowhere.

“Foolish little bint,” he snarled at her. Revealed his pointed canines when he sneered. Tav saw his pupils were rapidly expanding, consuming the sweet brown of his human irises. “What was in that bottle you dropped?”

“I don’t know,” Tav bit back. Always aggressive when she felt cornered. “And you’re the reason I dropped it in the first place. Maybe this will teach you to stop needlessly scaring people, though I bloody doubt it.”

“If you don’t watch your tongue when you speak to me, I’ll pluck it out of your filthy mouth,” Raphael threatened, low and throatily. He tugged his collar open completely, revealing his neck and some teasing wisps of chest hair.

“Oh I see, the devil’s feeling a bit poorly so he finally shows his true colours,” crooned Tav. “It’s about time. I was getting tired of your gentleman act, you know.”

“Ah…to have your skin hanging on a hook in my foyer would be such a delight…” Rumbled the devil, almost absently. He began to unfasten the buttons of his jacket.

“What are you doing?!” Barked Tav. He didn’t answer. Tossed his coat aside and moved onto the buttons of his fancy white shirt. It was damp with sweat – and this was when Tav noticed the bulge between Raphael’s legs. His cock, hard and proud, strained in the fabric of his trousers. A hot spike of desire shot through Tav’s body. “Oh, shit…”

The potion must have been some kind of demented aphrodisiac, made potent enough over time that just a few inhales was all it took. It must’ve been pretty strong indeed if Raphael was crumbling under its influence so fast. Except it wasn’t affecting Tav. She could admit – only to herself – that her tingles of arousal looking at Raphael’s big, deft, tawny hands work the small buttons of his clothes, at the glistening, hairy skin of his chest as he opened his shirt, at his puffy dark nipples, at the trail of fuzz going down his soft middle to vanish below his belt, at the outline of his erection, at the wet spot its leaking head made on his trousers…they were on Tav alone. She’d been attracted to the smarmy devil from the start.

Figuring all this out, Tav had one thing to consider as Raphael reached for his belt: what did she do?

Indulge, of course. An opportunity like this only appeared once in a lifetime. A street cat like Tav knew it better than most.

So she bit her lip, breath baited, as Raphael freed his cock and balls, both fat with need. Ogled as he furiously, shamelessly, rubbed his prick, squeezed its swollen sticky dark pink head, his tight scrotum bouncing with the force, staring right at her as he did. Sighed when he came in moments, grunting, cum spilling on the ground, all over his knuckles, everywhere. His expression was stormy, devoid of relief or rapture, his cock refusing to soften.

“It’s not enough,” he hissed even as he milked more cum from himself in oozing pearls that lazily trickled between his glans, teeth bared in frustration. “It’s not enough.”

He looked furious, frantic, frayed, and so, so fuckable.

“Come here, then,” said Tav, distantly aware of how breathy she sounded, “let’s try something else.”

He was on her in a second. A waiting predator pouncing on its prey. Tav could barely gasp before he was swallowing her mouth in harsh, biting kisses, one hand fisting the hair at the back of her head, the other holding her hip with bruising strength. Tav greedily put her hands all over him, yanking his silky too-perfect hair, scratching his slick chest and stomach, crushing handfuls of his pliant backside. He was like a furnace, radiating stifling heat. He smelled like cherries and musky sweat. So human, but for the hint of sulphur he simply couldn’t hide. His tongue tasted like wine and fire when he forced it into her mouth, hungrily licking behind her teeth. He was a man unravelling, so much desire pressed beneath the surface just waiting for an excuse like this to burst free, and Tav wanted to see it all.

“Wretch,” Raphael spat when they broke apart. The ribbons of saliva connecting their lips were tinged red. He’d bitten her bloody. “Invading my thoughts…my dreams…and now my body…”

“Your fault,” Tav retorted, crying out when he jerked her head back, rolling his aching prick against her clothed sex.

“Inside,” he growled, losing coherence, “need to be inside…”

He manhandled her, pushing her onto a nearby broken desk. With one hand, and in one yank, he pulled her trousers and smallclothes down to her ankles. Tav heard fabric rip but couldn’t find the will to care. The eerie, twisted moonlight coming in from jagged cracks in the stone, the cursed lands’ grotesque long shadows – these things stretched and warped Raphael’s silhouette into the monster he truly was. Tav swore she felt claws, fangs, horns, saw the glint of yellow eyes…but he was still a man, driven and desperate, who pried her thighs open and stuffed her full of his cock, who rocked up on the balls of his feet to get as deep inside her cunt as possible.

“Fuck,” she groaned, raking her fingernails down his back. She was wet and willing, but it had been a while, he’d entered her without preamble, and his cock was thick. He was unforgiving, selfish, searching only for his own pleasure. The stretch, the burn, as he used her, fucking her hard, fast, violent, was hideous and exquisite. She clenched her cunt around his cock and he came immediately, snorting into her ear like a rutting bull. Filled her womb with hot liquid release. She could feel it spurting out of his cock with every throb. He had so much to give, and still he didn’t stop. Couldn’t. Much to Tav’s delight.

There would be Hell to pay when this was over.

[theluckiestwitchatblackwell]

Operation Secret Garden

Good morning and a happy holidays to my @mlsecretsanta​ recipient, @amlbfan​!! I hope you enjoy it~ 

Also on AO3 and FFNet!

“Are all the flowers planted?” Marinette heard Alya mutter into her earpiece. On the other lines she could just hear her friends give their signal.

“Perfect, go Rose!”

“Uh, me?”

Marinette could see Alya roll her eyes in her peripheral vision before replying, “No, the other Rose!”

Rose made a sound of confusion as Juleka chuckled, and pushed her cart forward.

After a few seconds of silence, Juleka’s voice crackled in their ears, “The rose has no thorns. Sunflower, you’re up.”

Marinette giggled softly as Alya grinned. She was so glad Alya roped them into this. Mylene squared her shoulders and, looking both ways, crossed the street to Officer Raincomprix.

“Ah, young miss, I believe you’re in my uh, my daughter’s class! What can I do for ya?”

“Monsieur, there is an illegally parked car across the street!” Mylene exclaimed, pointing towards the Gorilla’s car. Officer Raincomprix looked in the direction she pointed and narrowed his eyes.

“Thank you, mademoiselle, I’ll take it from here!” He marched off towards the car, and Mylene spoke into her earpiece. “The sunflower has shone! Tulip, you’re up!”

“Marinette, are you excited?” Alya left her microphone off and turned to face her best friend.

“More nervous than anything! What if something goes wrong? Or he actually does have his phone on him? Or-“

“Girl! It’s gonna be-“

“The tulip is… uh… I’m in place!”

“Perfect timing, Tulip! Buttercup just finished! I’m going to go hide, Lotus. Head around the corner! But don’t make it seem like you were waiting for him! I know you haven’t finished that dress design Rose was after!”

The two girls stood up and ran; Alya hid behind one of the pillars and Marinette sat on the steps by the rickshaw, taking out a sketchbook and flipping the pages to a half-drawn dress as Alya told her to. She idly moved her pencil around the page, half-assing strokes as she listened out for Adrien’s footsteps, feeling hyper-aware. Slowly, light pitter-patters made their way into her eardrums and she began to feel nervous. What if he wanted to wait for The Nanny to get back? What if he didn’t want to go with Marinette? What if-

“Marinette?”

“Ahh!!”

Even though she was expecting him, Adrien’s voice cutting into her thoughts still managed to spook her. She shot up, almost tripping over and Adrien narrowly dodged her head from breaking his jaw, which definitely would not have pleased his father.

“Oh, no, I’m sorry…”

“Don’t worry, Marinette! What are you drawing?”

“Oh, it’s a Rose for dress! No, uh, a dress for Rose! I felt a little crowded at home so I came out to get some fresh air! All your posters- uh, your dad’s fashions were uh, I see them every day so-“

“Haha, I get it! I wish I could get out of the house so freely like you!” Adrien’s gaze moved from Marinette’s face to the cars by the kerb, scrunching up slightly in confusion.

“Where’s…”

“Is everything all right?”

“Yeah, it’s just, my bodyguard should be here by now…”

Marinette heard a whisper behind her and turned her head a little to see Alya mouthing, “Ask. Him,” in her direction. She turned back to face him, counted to three in her head, then stuttered out, “Uh, hey, how about we rickshaw take home together this? Wait, no-“

“Sure, okay! Can I borrow your phone to text my bodyguard? I left mine in the car.”

“Oh, sure! It’s-“ She clicked the button on her phone but the screen did not light up. “It’s dead. Sorry, Adrien.”

“If we’re quick it should be fine! Are you ready?”

“After you!”

Adrien stepped into the rickshaw, holding his hand out to help Marinette in and soon the tall buildings of Paris moved past them as the rickshaw driver began to pedal.

“My house is the big one with a wall and gate around it, across the Seine and near Francis Dupont School, sir,” Adrien told the driver with a smile.

They reached the river after a short while when Marinette pointed out, “H-Hey! There’s Andre’s ice cream cart, you want stop do to- uh, do you want to stop?”

“Uh, sure! It shouldn’t take too long, right?”

“Yeah! Stop here please!” At the latter sentence, Marinette turned her direction to the rickshaw driver who smiled and nodded, slowing the rickshaw to a halt. Marinette hopped out of the rickshaw, feeling the warmth of Adrien’s hand leave hers and realised with a panic that he never let go.

“Marinette and Adrien, two of my favourites! I’ll fix you up, I hope you’ll savour it! Mint for his eyes and blueberry for her hair, and topped with cherry for their lips!”

Marinette’s face burned bright red as she glanced over at Adrien, who was just as red.

“Uh-“

CRASH. SCREAMING. MORE CRASHES.

Adrien and Marinette turned to the direction they came from and to their horror, buildings were toppling over, sending dust into the air. A large, blue, gorilla-like being was standing on all fours behind it, growling and stomping through the streets.

“Is that-“

“It’s my bodyguard!”

Adrien shoved the ice cream back into Andre’s hands, grabbed one of Marinette’s and ran back across the bridge.

“Ah-h-h! Adrien, what are you doing?!”

“We need to go!”

“Yeah, let’s hide, but not towards the akuma!”

“I think he’s akumatized because of me... I need to show him I’m all right.”

“Adrien, listen to me.”

He finally stopped struggling against Marinette’s grip and turned to face her.

“Let Ladybug and Cat Noir handle this. I don’t want you to get hurt trying to handle this, your fault or not! Okay?”

His eyes softened, “Alright.”

They both turned, still hand in hand, and ran for the other end of the bridge. Alix skated past them, leaving a small trail of flower petals behind as she shot off and turned left at the end of the bridge.

After running for a few minutes, they ended up in front of the Dupain-Cheng bakery. Marinette ripped open the door and shoved Adrien inside.

“Stay here, I’ll hide somewhere else! He won’t suspect you hiding here!”

“What about you?”

“He doesn’t know me, Adrien! I’ll hide out at Alya’s!”

“Okay, stay safe!”

Marinette ran a block before hiding in an alleyway, letting Tikki out of her bag when she was hidden.

“Marinette, you really should have thought this plan through!”

“This wasn’t my plan, it was Alya’s!”

“But you agreed to it! And you’ve seen how protective that man is of Adrien!”

“I know Tikki, I’ve learnt my lesson. Now, spots on!”

A shimmer of red light washed over her but Marinette barely gave a thought to the magic as she threw her yo-yo and flew away.

Swinging over the rooftops back towards the bridge, Ladybug found Cat Noir already running, and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Cat Noir! Have you heard anything about the akuma?”

“Nope, what about you?”

“I heard on the bridge that it’s Adrien Agreste’s bodyguard!”

“You were on the bridge?”

“Uhhh,” Ladybug cringed internally. She couldn’t give away where she was without raising suspicion about her identity. “N-No, Andre the Ice-cream Man told me when he saw me at the start of the bridge!”

“Oh, okay! So what might the akuma be?”

They were now in the air, flipping towards a rooftop and bounding over it, closing in on the buildings that had been knocked down. The Gorilla was further down the street and had not yet noticed them. Ladybug squinted her eyes and looked carefully at him.

“I can’t see anything obvious... maybe in his pockets?”

“Do you reckon we could get close enough for that?”

“We’re gonna have to trap him. Lucky Charm!”

She threw her yo-yo, which transformed into a cell phone, and she sighed.

“Who am I supposed to call? What does this me-”

Ladybug paused and glanced over at the Gorilla, then Cat Noir. Her Ladybug vision lit up on their beings.

“Apparently, the magic is telling me to call him. Well, that’s the akumatized object out of the way!”

Cat Noir frowned. “How are we supposed to call him? How do we get the phone from him?”

“You need to run over there when I say so and grab it from his hand as he takes it out. Ready?”

He nodded and turned towards the Gorilla.

Ladybug pressed a button on the polka-dotted phone. It began to ring, and the Gorilla’s phone rang loudly in his pocket. He paused and began to reach for his phone.

“Now!”

Cat Noir pushed off and ran towards the Gorilla, leaping through the air and grabbing the phone from his fists just as he lifted it to his ear. Once safely on the other rooftop, he broke the phone and the akuma flew out of it.

“No more evil-doing for you, akuma. Time to de-evilize!”

Her yo-yo swung out and grabbed the butterfly, purifying it.

“Gotcha! Bye bye, little butterfly. Miraculous Ladybug!”

She threw the spotted phone into the air, spreading the magic of Creation around Paris and restoring the fallen buildings. Ladybug swung down to the ground near the restored Gorilla as Cat Noir descended on his staff.

“Sir, are you okay? Did you lose someone?”

He merely grunted, and showed a picture of Adrien on his phone.

“Oh, I’ve seen him! He was heading back to the mansion near Francis Dupont School with a friend! If you head back now he should be there soon,” Ladybug replied with a smile. “Don’t worry, we won’t tell your boss!”

The Gorilla grunted again, the hint of a smile on his gruff face as he entered his car nearby and left.

“So, pound it?”

“Pound it. Lovely working with you again, Bugaboo!”

Ladybug smiled before turning and leaping back towards the bridge again. She swung over the rooftops and landed in the alleyway near her house. De-transforming, she opened her bag for Tikki before she ran back to the bakery, colliding hard with Adrien as he opened the door to leave.

“Ow!” “Oof!” They proclaimed at the same time, cradling their heads briefly.

“Are you okay, Marinette?” “Sorry, Adrien!” They spoke again simultaneously then giggled, breaking down into laughter.

“Only I’m this clumsy, I must be rubbing off on you! Anyways, did you stay safe in the bakery?”

“Yeah, and Alya’s was safe too, right?”

“A-Aly- Yes! Yes, I was there, safe! Safe, yep.”

“It’s too bad our ride home got cut short with the akuma. I guess I should head back home now so he isn’t angry again.”

“Can I walk you home?”

Adrien smiled softly, replying with, “Sure.”

The short walk from the bakery to the mansion was quiet and Marinette glanced over at Adrien a few times with a blush grazed along her cheeks. Arriving at the Agreste mansion came far too soon, in her opinion.

“Y’know, despite hiding from the akuma, I had a good time with you, Marinette. Let’s do it again sometime!”

“Y-Yeah, sounds like good plan! A good plan! Haha, you’re good, uh, a good friend! Yeah…”

“Yeah… I’ll see you at school?”

“See you then, Adrien!”

Marinette watched as he approached the mailbox, spoke to the camera that popped out and soon enough he was through the gate. He stopped to wave back at her before heading inside. Marinette waved back then headed around the corner and squeaked, sliding down the wall.

“Tikki, did you hear that? We’re gonna hang out again!”

“I’m so happy for you, Marinette! You should tell the girls!

“Y-You’re right!”

Running back to the bakery, she sent a group text to the girls.

“Operation Secret Garden was a success!”

[entergamingxp]

a transformative VR odyssey • Eurogamer.net

Years ago he made a game called Another World, but even now Eric Chahi’s stuff always comes from another place. He’s thinking about the same things other game designers think about – physics, cinema, AI, and VR in the case of his latest – but I guess he’s thinking about it all in a fundamentally different way. He loves nature, but he also loves change, the juddering forces that disrupt and transform. He loves myths, but he also loves volcanoes, tidal waves, the engines of ancient memory. His gods can do astonishing things, but they ultimately have to work within the taut confines of elemental rules just like the rest of us: fire burns, water sweeps away, earth and air can be both finely grained and terrifyingly powerful.

Paper Beast review

Developer: Pixel Reef

Publisher: Pixel Reef

Platform: Reviewed on PSVR, PS4

Availability: Out now on PS4

I am wary of the idea of the auteur, and Chahi always works with a decent-sized team, but there’s no questioning that distinctive themes run through all of his games. They feel personal, these games, like someone returning to a favourite thought – and they often move the thinking on a bit. Back with Another World he created a hero who’s sucked through a computer screen into an alien landscape. With From Dust, he charged you with progressing across a series of inchoate environments by manipulating earth, water, air and fire. Paper Beast feels like a convergence, and a reduction. There’s less of everything – there often is with VR – but the flavours you’re used to are also richer.

Put on the PSVR and enter Chahi’s version of cyberspace – a place you are thrust into when a simulation you’ve been running goes a bit awry. This place! It’s prickly and lavish and extremely colourful. There are Dali deserts and Sega skies. There are crags and mountains and dunes. And jeepers! The world is alive, noble Jurassic beasts with bones made of paper and gems, origami almost-tigers and almost-horses, other things that are just ragged mops of newsprint, or maybe they’re neurons shuddering around in a mass of dendrites. These animals! Their folded-paper planes beautifully invoke the jagged polygonal creations of the early days of Chahi’s career.

The first one of these things you meet is a silent giant, tall and wide with bleached bracken bird’s nests where its head should be. Instantly in love, I looked up and watched as it strode over me, the vaulted cathedral ceiling of its rib-cage encrusted the way Gaudi used to encrust his buildings – bits of glass and pottery scrabbled together to create something that feels like coral, that feels like it built up out of glittering sediment and took centuries to do it. Is it animal or architecture? How could I ever forget this gentle loping monster?

It’s overwhelming at first. You’re dropped right into the middle of a wasteland. But movement is easy – I played with the DualShock and that’s teleport on one trigger, quick-turn on a thumbstick – and the design is very good at leading you without making it obvious. A splash of sunlight encourages you to move forward. A mountain looms above asking you to look up.

Interacting is easy too. Unless a beast is very big you can pick it up with the other trigger and hold it to inspect it. Using face buttons you can bring it in close or send it arcing out into the distance, and there’s physics to it all too, so you can grab something close and really chuck it, or you can see something on the horizon and zip it to you. In From Dust, God was a vacuum cleaner. Here, you’re not quite God anymore, and this time you’ve been given a fishing rod.

Ultimately, though, Paper Beast continues to explore the themes and practicalities of From Dust, which was a game about getting your followers from A to B across deadly terrain – lowering mountains, cooling lava, stemming floods. In From Dust you did that by being powerful. In Paper Beast you do it by being canny, by making use of the animals that surround you. And while that means shifting them back and forth and getting them to do what you want them to do, it also means first taking time to watch them and understand them and their relationships.

It’s transformative – a game for your inner Attenborough. A typical Paper Beast level isn’t complicated. There will be a hurdle to get across in the landscape, and there will be creatures nearby creaturing about. This is my favourite moment of each sequence, I think, working out where I want to get to and what’s blocking me, and then just watching the wildlife, waiting for its patterns and moods and talents to make sense.

Sandbox mode is wonderful but I’m still scratching the surface.

I’m going to spoil an early one. I’m deep underground and the path ahead is blocked by a sand dune. Nearby there’s a creature that’s covered in strands of papery hair – a sort of benign horror-show Dougal from The Magic Roundabout. After a while I notice that Dougal’s hair tends to dig through the sand when he moves – he’s leaving a trench behind him. Can I lure him to the dune that’s blocking my path? Can I get his hair to act as a huge brush and clear the way?

There are wonderful creatures here – a sort of hovering lamp, a dung beetle but for sand, a length of pipe with two mouths and a real gift for peristalsis. They all work for you, ultimately, but none of them feel like they just work for you. They all have a bit of character to them, whether it’s an initial unwillingness to move where you want them to, or a skittish nature that sees them missing the mark.

You have to use these animals in the course of the game, and you’ll think about that quite a bit. Not because the game forces you to agree with its manifesto, but because it creates scenarios where you sometimes simply have to ponder what you’re willing to make other things do to get you what you want. For me, Paper Beast is a game about burden and the odd things people prioritise, and most of all about interconnectedness. Ultimately, you’re never really thinking about one creature on its own, but a whole biosphere of them. You’re thinking about them in the context of the environment: how can I get these papery guys past heavy wind? What do these beetle things feel about water, or ice? Why do I suddenly have the power to dig trenches, and how can I get those hump-backed fellows to stop leaving sand-dunes on a path I need left open? (There’s a lovely sandbox mode included with the game, but the whole thing is a sandbox TBH.)

In one level, I stole a creature’s infant because I wanted it to change its direction and follow me. Did it work? Tough question. Technically, yes it worked – the creature started to follow me. But I couldn’t live with what I was doing, so I reloaded and tried something less horrific. That’s a pretty impressive thing for a game to do – I am at my laziest when I’m trying to solve a puzzle in a virtual space. To make me do something a little more time-consuming without imposing any explicit in-game consequences is quite something.

Because it’s VR, you really live with these creatures. They are right there in the same space as you. When they’re tethered and you free them, you’re really the one doing the freeing. When you’re up high and the path is treacherous, it really feels treacherous. This is a landscape full of fantastical surprises, but VR helps to make it feel substantial and convincing. As the game progresses you get to see this world from some surprising vantage points. This is a game with a keen eye for a sense of wonder.

What an abused word, wonder. In Chahi’s world wonder is never empty or trite – it is never simply awe, which can bludgeon with mere scale or volume. Chahi’s games take you from A to B because they are about the tyranny of time passing and conditions changing irrevocably. They are about things that live alongside one another but will not blend – fire and water, the analogue and the digital, stuff that cannot compromise, that must simply coexist in fighty stalemates. He loves the natural world with a reverence that contains a healthy amount of fear.

It staggers me, frankly. Those creatures and that world have left me subtly different. I will not forget them, or the sense of fascination in nature and attentiveness to one’s own actions and behaviours that is at the very heart of this game. Blink at times and Paper Beasts could be mistaken for something like Journey – you cross a landscape and are transformed. But there’s none of that sense of focus-testing I always got from Journey, none of that sense of beats that have been crafted purely to extract a certain response as smartly as possible. Paper Beast certainly made me feel things, but I could take you through the whole muddled thought process the game allowed for. It made me think, but it crucially allowed me to reach my own conclusions. In its final sequences, it left me profoundly unsettled, which is a very high compliment, I think.

I have played astonishing things in VR, and with the best games there’s a certain sadness to it. These games are so transporting, so transformative, that you want everyone to play them. But part of the reason they work so well and do so much is that they understand the nuances of the technology – they need to be VR, which means, alas, that they are going to be niche. You should do what you can to play Paper Beast though, the same way it’s worth braving a not-very-good port to play From Dust on Steam, the same way it was worth eleven hours in Economy to see the Bradbury Building. Chahi has always done things his own way. In VR, he’s met a kindred spirit.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/04/a-transformative-vr-odyssey-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-transformative-vr-odyssey-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net