#a lot of it is clearly ‘yeah this game has woke but i LIKED IT so it’s not as bad’

[j-esbian]

god the Woke Content Game List is stupid for so many reasons, but it’s also just CLEARLY subjective lol

FNV lets you have gay sex with several characters but it’s only listed as yellow, even though that’s a dealbreaker for other games. original Baldur’s Gate (extended edition) is red but BG2 is yellow, because there’s gay romances in both but only the first one has a trans character. what the fuck is “pro-DEI messaging” because I legitimately don’t know and that’s listed in a lot of notes. are you really so upset about a single line in passing from a Skyrim NPC that you needed to include that. these games aren’t even listed in alphabetical order.

[notoriousmasc]

this is true! i don't expect better from them tho

[nthspecialll]

Is Bonnie flirting?

I was shocked when I started looking at rdr1 content and saw how many people said that Bonnie was flirting with John, because I did not see it like that. I am autistic, I miss many social clues, so this post is not me trying to answer if she is flirting, but rather me explaining how I saw the "flirting" scenes and asking if others can explain the whole flirting thing.

Their very first scene together where John says "Mr Marston. John Marston" and Bonnie replies "Bonnie MacFarlane. Miss Bonnie MacFarlane." People say she is flirting?? Is that not just an introduction?

At the end of the previously mentioned scene, Bonnie also asks John to come join her to patrole the area, people say that is flirting too, but I find that one to make a lot of sense without flirting.

I want you to imagine you found a guy shot outside the base of a violent gang and you saved him, would your first instrinct not be to find out more about him? Asking him to join her is a way of putting them in a situation where you kind of force them to talk and tell whether or not you should be expecting the worst criminal in years to come finish the job.

Later, same mission, Bonnie offers John to come inside the house and rest. Yall ever heard of, hospitality? Or once again, trying to find out more about this person who is dodging questions left and right, clearly hiding something?

Or when Bonnie wants to race John, how are we flirting? Bonnie is just a woman in a man's world as John himself says, she likes to have fun. "Oh but she jokes with him," yeah but it isn't like she only jokes with John, she also does with Abigail.

The last scene with Bonnie though, where she shuffles her feet, I found that one weird, really weird when I saw it. There is also when Abigail says "you made her flush red" and John said "I have that effect on women." Which, again I found weird because I didn't see John and Bonnie as flirting, so it felt very off to me.

There is also the fact that John replicates Bonnie's energy and he is not flirting, he is cannonically not flirting. Several times in game it is said that John respects the ideals of marriage, one time when he is talking to his guide in the first mission, once by the strange man and then several times when NPC's try to hit on him. So they are acting the same and John isn't flirting, why is Bonnie?

Bonnie is also a very no-nonsense or bullshit kind of person, that ain't just my opinion but also written on the fanwiki, and her falling in love with a random dude she found shot before he even woke up or she would be able to find out whether or not he was a threat to the farm she has taken reponsibility over, sounds very strange to me.

This next paragraph is just a precaution but I tried to explain this to someone once who replied "oh you just don't like it because it is straight" and to that I say, that is not true. Straight ships can be good, but like any other ship they need to be written well, like John and Abigail, but John and Bonnie? If that was a romance book I would give it zero out of five and to be honest my expectations for romance books is pretty much anything that isn't Collen Hoover or Icebreaker, so it shouldn't be that hard.

Again, this is not me saying "omg she 100% never flirted!" No, this is me showing my prespective and hoping that maybe someone will show me where the flirting is because I know I am outnumbered when it comes to this and I feel like I am missing something.

[romeowriting]

Love and deepspace Zayne x Male reader / self insert. (A few moments there's male pronoms but not a lot.)

Need comfort and I'm lonely sooooooooo yeah has been in my head for a while to calm down mostly during panic attacks.

English isn't my first language, I'm transgender, I haven't played this game for a long time.

Tw: Faint, panic attack, Mention of sickness... Zayne takes care of y/n after a panic attack that made him faint.

You're maybe a hunter, maybe you're able to fight big creatures without any issues.

But when it comes to going outside and being around people. It's another thing.

You are more than just unwell, you can't go outside without headphones or something to calm you down when everything is getting overwhelming.

And it doesn't help when half of the time, you get to go to the hospital.

Even if you have a friend over there, it doesn't mean you are insensitive when it comes to those white and lifeless walls, or that smell that lingers in your clothes of air freshener and discomfort from traumatic memories.

But proud of yourself (and mostly because you decided to go without being fully awake). You were able to get out of the bus and arrived in front of the hospital like a pro.

Walking towards the big garden, you check your phone. Your appointment with doctor Zayne was a bit delayed. You know he was often called for emergency so you didn't mind. Now you have some time to kill. With that you went to take a small breakfast at the cafeteria, the stress made it impossible to eat that early in the morning and you started feeling dizzy.

You repeat yourself the tea and the little croissant that you want and by the time you passed, you stuttered but was able to get them.

Finally, after a long 45 minutes from where you looked either at the beautiful garden where kids were running and some were taking in this sweet fresh air. While trying to eat without your brain getting anxious over nothing, you finished your food.

Finally, a cold nurse asked you to sit down in the waiting room, saying you'll still have time to wait.

Sadly, your brain and heart start doing shit.

Like always, your anxiety took over your rational brain and by the time you noticed the symptoms, it was too late. You were having a panic attack.

Hopefully no one was in the waiting room. Not even a nurse. So before you could faint, you get off the chair and sit on the floor. Curling up while hesitating to take off or not your headphones.

Your ears started to buzz, so you took them off, putting them out of the way in case you fell unconscious, your heart rate went too far and before you could think of it.

You blackout.

You woke up like always with difficulty. Feeling like dying or suffering from this painful feeling. The time you took to understand you just passed out. You could hear the deep but calming voice of your friend Zayne. Calling you out.

“Y/n… Y/n can you head me? Tell me if you hear me. Make a sign.”

He kept asking you questions, until you were fully awake or at least enough to move your hand. Tapping soundless on the cold concrete. Your body is totally paralyzed. He sighted while you tried to talk even with a big migraine.

“I…I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry…”

Like always, the first thing you feel like saying isn't “I'm not feeling good” or “I'm awake” But how sorry you are to bother the others.

He didn't answer that right away, you noticed while being unconscious, he put you in the safety position and now.”I'm going to lift your legs while you gain consciousness ok ? Tell me. Can you hear me clearly?”

You nodded, not a very smart move when you have a bit of a migraine and you had the consequences the seconds after. Groaning at the overwhelming feeling of a headache and of sickness. He cooed.”chuu… you don't have the strength to talk y/n ?” You softly said under your breath. “I don't know…”

After all, you didn't know what to do now. You were here for a basic check up after a mission. So it was supposed to be normal. Why does this happen everytime you know you can't handle it? Why… “Why is it happening to me ? Why can't they know what it is …?”

He stayed silent. Zayne was a very good doctor, you know he was one of the best. But he was as lost as you.

Maybe it was neurological ? Maybe it was a heart condition? No doctors could say. Even when like here. You fainted in a medical place. They don't seem to know the reason behind those episodes.

“It's fine Y/n, listen to my voice now. Ok ?” Said the doctor, trying to make you think of something else. While holding your legs up to let the blood go down, he looked at you so you murmured a small yes. He started to instruct. “Breathe in…. and breathe out… good. Breathe in… breathe out. Good job y/n.”You saw a soft smile on his face. He wouldn't admit that it happened.

After taking your conscious back and your heart at a normal rate. He put your legs down and let you choose to be held or to walk. With the few strength you had. You hold at his shoulders and with his help. Walked to his office. You didn't remember the moment he had you laid down on the couch, a cold patch on your head, your legs a little bit lifted up by the couch handle and your head on your favorite and comfortable pillows, your shirt a bit above your torso feeling like it had always been made for that. The faint scars on each side of your torso were like ornaments on your strong body.

He started taking your pulsations and heart rate. He knew you dislike silence as you hate noises. So he put soft but noticeable relaxing music in the background. He knew your taste, it was those video game’s osts you often put in your home to not hear the outside world.

“Zayne, I'm sorry for bothering you with that…” you said abruptly, he glared at you, but… you noticed his eyes were full of worries, of sadness and mostly:

“Don't say sorry for something you can't control. Y/n you did great by sitting out of your chair the moment you started feeling it. You did great by letting yourself in a place you were familiar with. Darling…” he put a hand on you forehand and let it softly caress your face. “I'm proud of you for doing everything you did until my arrival. I'm the one who should be sorry for letting you wait.”

You couldn't help it but started feeling guilty. After all, it wasn't his fault too if he had a more urgent patient. You are not the only patient. You…”you are overthinking again y/n. Don't think about it right now. The most important thing now is to take care of you. Right ?” Zayne tenderly assured you. Cutting your thoughts out of you.

You tried to suppress a cry but failed, letting all the overwhelming feelings crawling on you, out.

The gentle, protective form of Zayne sat down on the place you made him on the couch so he could pull you in an embrace. He started murmuring soft praises. Knowing you loved them.

“Good boy… you did great chuut. Look at you. There's nothing to fear. It's only you and me. No one's going to judge you.”

He softly put a kiss on your head. His coffee scent starts to make you feel at ease. He lets you snuggle against his neck while he shields you from the world.

--------🐦‍⬛

Thank you for reading. I made this so I can't let out my thoughts. Sorry if it's a bit ooc for Zayne. I haven't been able to play the game since around 5 months because of my phone but I wanted to do something.

[faislittlewhiteraven]

Tower of Dormont ISaT AU

Had a weird dream I figured would make a great ISaT AU if anyone wants to take a swing at it so umm, general idea:

Instead of the House being taken over by the King, instead the Favor Tree is warped into an evergrowing tower reaching up, up, up into the heavens.

Instead of the King's Curse slowly making its way across the land and Mirabelle being the 'Chosen One' to collect the orbs to stop it, it's time freezing Sadnesses raining down from the top of the Tower all over Vaugarde and surrounding countries, with heroes from all over (Euphie, Claude, various Defenders, people from other countries, etc) heading into the Tower to figure out what is happening only to never return...

And well. It looks like the end for Vaugarde, Mirabelle (having finally hit the 'I know what Euphrasie said but I've got to do something' point) has recruited Isa, Odile and Bonnie for a last ditch effort to try and stop the world from ending by Tower and...

Within the first few floors (which keep changing but kind of look like... The House of Dormont? No, that bit there looks like Odile's family home, and that room there is just like Nille's???) they find an unlocked bedroom and in that room an exhausted, terrified and near hopeless Siffrin who can barely remember anything from his life before being imprisoned here (even takes a bit to recall his name over the now despised 'Bright One') but after a bit of coaxing they admit they know a LOT about the floors ahead and might be willing to help the party reach the top of the Tower where they can put a stop to the madness going on outside but in return they must not let the King catch them (not again not again not again)...

Party are actually pretty cool with this (you know, aside from general 'is this person legit or actually an enemy?' concerns) but well, it's hard not to notice as their guide goes from barely able to fight beyond weak scissors craft and buffs to healing and every craft type under the sun. From claiming they don't know what's behind a certain door or above the next floor to explaining in detail that the prisoners in cages on the next floor are all Sadnesses, or that 'the King is coming, he hasn't realised I've left the room yet but I need something, anything, to mask my scent' (and later gets everyone to leave false trails down halls via jars of sugar and honey they picked up a few rooms previous). From claiming that the party are the only other people they've ever seen here to having near breakdowns over finding books or paintings with imagery and words that seem eerily familiar (think a book that reads like 'Claude wonders why Euphrasie and their amnesiac guide are so fussed about the walls here apparently being covered in stars? Why do stars matter anyway?'), etc.

Oh and they glow more and more with each floor which er, is probably going to make hiding from the King (who is VERY DEFINITELY after them judging from all the "Bright One, you know you are not supposed to leave you room. You do not want me angry again do you Bright One?" roaring) increasingly difficult.

...

And yeah. I don't actually know what is going on in this story beyond cool imagery due to the whole 'Literally woke up with this in my head because dream' but...

Been thinking it's kinda like an 'end game Persona series' situation where a chance friendly meeting/talk between Sif and the King right before the King's rampage would've started, led to the King to realizing he could use his Wish Craft to force the people of Vaugarde to 'wish with him' (see: escalating brainwashing madness), forcing a terrified Sif to go along with it (no brainwashing for the Bright One no, not when they were clearly sent by the Universe to be the King's guide ignore the Bright One's screams that this is wrong, that they want nothing to do with this; clearly oracles only relay the Universe's intent not share it themselves), and the current 'raining time freezing Sadnesses/Sif clearly being stuck in some weird looping variant' stuff being the result of Sif's 'Please protect Vaugarde and restore our home' wish said at the King's orders being heard by the Universe as "please Universe do whatever you can to stop all of Vaugarde- No, the world from falling under the King's control! + Someone, anyone save me! + 'immense amounts of self loathing and a desire to known and held accountable for inadvertently sparking a man made apocalypse' + Universe I wish I had people who actually cared about me/who would never only use me as a tool to save the world" and er well. The Universe had a way to 'protect everyone from the King' that would also kind of fit the King's wishes, a whole heap of power from all the brainwashed people the King was leading plus the 'meant to be repurposed' freezing all of Vaugarde in time ritual the King crafted to work from Dormont and... Yeah. Add to that people all over Vaugarde and possibly other countries 'adding' to the 'please save us' wish bank after Sif had already accidently centered it all around himself and basically both Sif's loops and the Sadness hell storm are being powered up by everyone everywhere in one huge ball of 'Hmm, I wonder if this all ends with the King getting killed or is there gonna be a big old morality question thingy post King killing at the end where Sif, upon remembering that "this is all my fault" tries to get the others to kill him which other heroes may have done (and thus triggering the loop, sending Sif back to the start possibly missing memories of them to hide away in shame/terror/etc) whereas Mira, Isa, Odile and Bonnie have gotten far too attached to this tragic, self sacrificing idiot and were willing to let the rest of the world be fully frozen for the rest of Sif's natural lifespan if it meant he could finally be free (not happy about it mind you, but like, just the 5 of them living in a quiet world until everyone else is safely freed after Sif's natural death is better than murdering someone who went through an eternity of horrors to protect a world they couldn't even remember and who's death might not even be the true answer anyway)'.

Oh and the King should basically be treated like a yandere version of the Reaper or something throughout the story (dream had way too many 'and then the King was suddenly there killing someone until Sif slashes their throat -no tears to use in this Tower alas- and from the party's perspective basically has a 'vision of the future' and/or freakout for seemingly no reason in the middle of Snack Time), while each of the many many floors of the Tower are basically due to being altered to match the minds of everyone (frozen or not) in the Tower, kinda like a Palace or P4 dungeon, due to well, Sif unconsciously wanting to learn more about them, wanting to remember/forget, possibly on some level wanting the King to how horrible this all actually is IDK (snack rooms, like the bedroom Sif was in are basically P5 saferooms but less 'area weak in cognition' and more 'Sif wishes for there to be places safe from the King and all the Sadness so there are some even if he knows he can't stay in them forever least they become prisons for him'). ...Might be nightmare floors as well? To represent Sif's terror of bad things happening to anyone he becomes attached to and wanting to be able to protect them so basically, they are accidentally making their own opposition (possibly based off of what they hear the others being afraid of/the desire to be useful to them) and I think Slay the Princess might make for great inspiration there if you need an idea of how crazy that might go~ XD

...So. Yeah. If anyone wants to use any of this for any fanfic ideas, please go ahead as I kind of would like to focus on my Selkie Au and fics for other fandoms more than this weird dream that basically took over my brain and said SHARE in caps so loud I've been stuck thinking about it ever since.

[reilleclan-blog]

They are just dancing ur honor

YEAH THE DANCE WITH DEATH or OF DEATH

um i genuinely love this series i think the devs made a game not to "hype up" their main character which a lot of games and story telling does, but they made a game about changing and perspective and I respect them a lot for that. B/c these are just ppl trying to survive not superheroes or op characters. Not that there's anything wrong with stories like that i just think stories like that have gotten old.

So yes Ellie changes Abby changes but I still love the characters a lot , at times I wished Ellie stayed with Dina but I'm like maybe that's just what she needed to do to finally change/let go of the past and further more forgive Joel. It was heartbreaking to see Ellie leave Dina cause I loved their dynamic and how often does unrequited love work out lol. But I don't blame either one for their choices I was upset with Ellie but it is what it is. It makes me think like "yes this person has changed but they are still the person I knew. So do I want to keep them in my life or let them go" kinda thing.

And all power to the audience but I think ppls discourse of the game was a little biased. Everyone hated Abby which yes she killed Joel. (Oh yeah and everyone was being transphobic and homophobic in general) and then a lot of ppl were mad Ellie didn't kill Abby(this is just a lot of shit I saw ppl complain about when the story was first released) but no one really talked EVER about a lot of the symbolisms or "coincidences" that happen thru the game.

Like the switch blade and little Ottie the elephant(i think that's its name) symbolizing the innocence of a child and showing Ellie whos changed and had to kill over the years

Or the fact that Abby is shown in a Halloween store on the "Seattle day 1"(when showing Abby after Joel's death) reminding me of the left behind dlc and they play around in a Halloween store . Or the parallels of Owen and Abby's relationship to Ellie and Riley when they were younger. And one friend wanting to explore but the other is trying to go back home.

Ellie and Abby both having tank tops on during their final fights lol not that important but yah. There's more but that's all I can remember right now I gotta play the rest of this game on grounded I know I'm gonna get my ass kicked playing that shit. I ususally play on story mode cause I want to enjoy the story lol but sometimes I know I can play on normal I just don't be feeling like it.

I'd honestly give this series a 10/10 it was amazing to experience very heavy subjects and topics talked about mostly is revenge worth it or how much are u willing to change for it.

Also Abby being so caring for the two young Seraphites was so nice to see her being "motherly" and sweet to them but also gruff with the way she talked. And honestly I got a soft spot for Abby idk is it the muscles? Lol and I saw someone say Dina carried her relationship with Ellie I'd say "yes and no" I think they had a lot of "let's clear the air" but never did that b/c Ellie probably didn't want to talk about it and/ or they weren't ready to talk about it. And Ellie was trying so hard to act like nothing was wrong but it clearly was wrong. So yes they were happy together but couldn't let go. I said this already but Ellie was like a warrior that couldn't leave the battlefield cause that's all she was used to. But she didn't really "try" to be happy either. All the killing and murder and brain trauma I doubt a couple months would cure u of the fucked up shit. Trying to heal from trauma takes tim on e but she didn't really give herself that either .. so idk

Also I woke up to a pic of Ellie's leather strap shotty having 20 ppl interact with it so thank u I didn't think much of the post lol I did like the pic a lot tho. I think it's just tlou stuff is super popular either way thanks

This is a lil jokey joke but THEY HAD TO NERF ABBY JUST FOR THESE MFS TO EVEN STAND A CHANCE AGAISNST HER THAT IS SO FUNNY TO ME. ELLIE GOT A DAMN BLADE FIGHTINF A MALNURISHED ABBY BRUH. Lol Abby was just so cold and cool I loved her bruh. But on god if Dina had died cause of Ellie idk if I could've forgiven her character lmao.

Also please I don't care about shipping ship whoever u like I really don't care I don't want to see ppl arguing about ships please. I liked Dina and Ellie but that don't mean I wasn't sad for Jessie losing his girl he clearly still liked Dina lol. I'm just saying I'm very neutral when it comes to shipping characters don't argue with me argue with ya mama

[rivilu]

You know. Now that I've finished it I can say with some confidence that about 90% of the criticism this game faces that I have seen (not counting the anti-woke crybabies- those will die out in time. as they have with every installment of this series.) is sort of. Not missing the point, but missing the reasoning as to why some choices were made?

Heavy spoilers ahead for everything pretty much.

[And also I mean I'm going to speak as an inquisition hater here so in case this breeches my tiny bubble on this site you can stop reading if you enjoy any tiny aspect of that game at all. I am not kind.]

Yes. This game is not Origins or 2. This Thedas is very wishy washy about the core topics they tackled. Some things are straight up not mentioned at all when they REALLY SHOULD BE. Being an elf has you facing 0 negative interactions in TEVINTER for example. But. A lot of these choices were clearly made as a patchwork. Because of how much inquisition shat the bed. Yeah you can't easily bring back the chantry in a critical way when the last game spent 100+ hours bootlicking it against your will. There is a tiny nod to the mage- templar conflict being one sided and cruel in a side quest? But you can't elaborate and examine mages and how they're treated when the last game had a very clear bias and set them up as unreasonable/ pathetic/ willing to shell out to slavers etc. Similarly with elves how the fuck are you meant to move on from. Anything at all inq set up. Without wiping the board on a few to many places.

I'm looking at you, "the Dalish abandon mage kids above a specific count" NPC.

And the gods themselves. Solas himself. I still consider the most absolute dogshit, stupid, horrible, downright deplorable on a coding aspect writing decision in the series. One that I thought was impossible to create ANYTHING of value around before I got to this game. And. Let me tell you. For once the retconning is the glue that holds this thing together instead of being the thing tearing it apart. - Because it leads the game to feel like an au- in a decently good way. It's not recognizable as the Thedas we know - but it's close enough if you squint, and LEAGUES above the inquisition, which also felt like au fanfiction but in the "religious imperialist 100k essay on why minorities are suckers and the status quo rules actually" sense

Yes. We sort of elaborate on the nature of the blight here and the arch demons being?? Essentially lich phylacteries for these blighted gods. Which directly contradicts established information from awakening of the archdemons not being blighted by default. But I played through that and didn't blink because frankly none of this world feels anything like the one awakening takes place in. And the plot point works for the purpose it serves so really? It's fine. Or something like Bellara being able to do what Merrill spent 7 years attempting in a day or so. It works in a self contained way, but if you're trying to view this as a whole- it creates a dissonance.

An that's the thing. It's not a whole. Trying to view it as such is setting yourself up for failure. The devs said that this would be sort of a blank slate- a reset installment. But it isn't.. quite? Inq was. Inq was the one that decided to change the entire genre from dark to high fantasy, botched the transition, and watered everything down until it was an unrecognizable centrist pile of slop (at best). This is working with the horrible decisions made there- and trying to make something good out of them. It is a VALIANT effort. And I do think they mostly succeed. For what it is- it's good. I don't think it's fair to this game that's been in development hell for 10 years to blame it for not keeping things that its predecessor ruined just because they were handled better in origins or two or whatever. Trust me. Origins is still my favorite and always will be. But if you want origins, give bioware- which is currently half laid off- a break, and start barraging EA with interest for a faithful remaster/remake (i'll gladly join). Or do literally anything other than complaining about this not being that. It helps no one.

[fishys-still-writing-smut]

✏️Chiaki can pretend to be as disinterested as she likes, it won't change the fact that she was clearly jealous upon learning that Hajime and Mikan once woke up in the same bed together. Speaking of which, did learning of that incident motivate her to be a bit more bold around her precious player-two going forward?

Warning: Lewd Content Below

(thanks for the ✏️, means a lot <3)

“First place again. You really are too good.” Hajime sighed, but not in sadness. Playing games with Chiaki has been his main way to end each night on the island. Though he had to take a small break when he was sick, he's glad to be back in his best friend's room. What could he say? He felt more at home there than anywhere else.

“You've gotten rusty. You sure you aren't still sick?” Chiaki asked. She was currently wearing a onesie that hugged her curves a little too tightly for Hajime’s liking (the thought of another guy seeing his best friend like this made him several different kinds of weird that he didn't want to unpack). So he had to avert his eyes whenever he spoke to her.

“Uh, yeah, I think I'm just not as good as you haha. Mikan gave me the all clear. Should be right as rain.” Unfortunately, if Hajime would look at Chiaki, he'd notice her clear look of jealousy whenever he talked about other girls.

“...she could be wrong.”

“Huh?”

“Nurses make mistakes all the time…I think?”

“Oh well, you know Mikan. She's a really good nurse. Not just because she's an ultimate. Plus, she tends to go a little overboard when confirming people's health. She wouldn't even let me sleep by myself.”

“...what?”

“Yeah, she slept in the same hospital bed as me to make sure I didn't have any convulsions while I slept. Was totally embarrassing.” Hajime chuckled to himself as he recalled the story, even blushing a bit. However, Hajime still couldn't see Chiaki's facial expressions, nor explain that his blush was just embarrassment from being babied so much while recovering. As such, he didn't witness Chiaki's absolutely furious stare, and near controller smashing grip. She stood up and stared at the talentless student, determined she needed to make her move before it was too late.

“...but if you're still sick, I need to care for you too, even if I need to sleep with you too.” Chiaki got closer.

“N-no, it's fine, you don't have to do that.” Hajime backed away.

“...is my outfit making you uncomfortable?”

“H-huh. W-what, noooooo?” Hajime struggled to lie as his head was still turned away from his crush friend.

“It's fine Hajime…I've already changed.”

“Thank go-aaaaaaah!” Hajime, for the first time, turned to face her. Unfortunately when he did, Chiaki had already taken off her tight-fit onesie. And put on nothing else! She fully flaunted her naked body in front of him. Her double d cup tits were practically in his face, while her big fuckable ass seated on his leg. “C-chiaki!”

“You've been driving me crazy with your words, mister. So now, I'm going to drive you crazy.”

“C-chiaki…” Hajime's jaw was on the floor. His brain struggled to keep up with his body. She was his best friend. He couldn't.

“C'mon, let's ruin our friendship~”

Fuck it.

[The following morning]

*RING RING! RING RING!*

“H-hello?”

“Oh Chiaki! I didn't know you were with Hajime this early in the morning. Could I speak with him right now?”

“N-no! He's…busy at the moment.”

“Oh, I see. Sorry, I was just checking up on his condition. As a nurse I take my job very seriously.”

“Well I'll tell him tha- oh don't you dare put on that condom!”

“W-what!”

“I-I, uh, I said d-don't you dare put down the phone! I-I can tell Hajime anything you tell me…I think?”

“Really? Thank you so much Chiaki!”

“No- FUCK!. S-sorry, I meant no problem.”

“Just please tell him to get at least 9 hours of sleep each night.”

“Mhhhhhhhmm.~”

“And to take his medicine once every 6 hours.”

“Yes. Yes yes yes oh fucking yes!”

“A-and make sure he eats primarily hot meals.”

“Uh-huh, uh-huh! Yes, more!”

“Wow, you really care about healthcare too Chiaki?” Mikan spoke on the other side of the phone with sparkles in her eyes.

“...I fucking love it~”

[positivelybeastly]

X-Men #4

On time for once!

Let's do this.

Hmm. Not quite sure how I feel about this? Admittedly, Illyana is a character about whom I know relatively little in the grand scheme of things, but given that she's been fighting for control of Limbo for a while, been a protege of Scott Summers, and was a War Captain on Krakoa, I would think her tactical skills would be up to snuff enough that she could be half decent at chess?

That being said, the trope that tactical ability can be measured by chess ability isn't one that I think has to be followed. It's as much a test of logic as it is of tactical planning and forethought, and between Illyana's more chaotic nature and her lack of formal schooling, maybe it's just the case that she would rather show you how good she is in the field than go on about chess ability. And I can think of a good reason why she would choose to play chess with the person she has blocked, rather than any other game.

Anyway!

Trevor Fitzroy isn't allowed his weird little gremlin bro-pal possible love interest guy Bantam anymore, because of woke. (I know fuckin' nothing about Fitzroy, incidentally, this is based off of their weird relationship in that one X-Men: TAS episode I watched.)

And yeah, what WAS Krakoa all about, huh? Where DID all those babies that got abandoned go?

. . . Well, anyway!

Hank, chairs are for sitting on, not perching on . . .

It's interesting that we're doing split team issues - clearly, this run is taking cues from New X-Men not just in terms of some of its plot points, but also some of its structure; there were multiple arcs that focused exclusively on Charles and Jean, or Logan, Scott and Fantomex, with the rest of the team in the ether. It's not a bad way to tackle a team of this size, and given the news that both Magik and Psylocke are getting ongoing solo series, I'm less worried about them getting focus in a team book now.

Where is the Marauder, incidentally? I can't imagine you need that for a psychic rescue? Unless Max is using it, I suppose. Something that'll come up in #5, I imagine.

It's a sign of just how poisoned the discourse about Hank McCoy is that I saw multiple comments on Reddit saying that this scene heralded a return to evil Beast, because he also didn't like to go out on field missions and would regard his work as more important.

That being said, this reaction was weird to me, given that this Hank comes from an era where he was at his most pro-active, heroic, and willing to fight for people he didn't know - until I read the Infinity Comics, which made it all make a good degree more sense.

Hank isn't being cowardly or showing a case of poor priorities; no, instead, he appears not to trust himself, and he'd rather not place what he perceives to be a volatile, potentially morally untrustworthy element (himself) into a live situation. Working on Magneto's illness is a cut and dry net good with no downsides, so it makes sense he'd want to keep working on that, especially if Hank has reason to believe a similar condition could affect any one of them at any time.

Not sure I love Illyana's antagonism towards Rogue here? Feels kinda like it came out of nowhere and is just being done to foreshadow the upcoming 4 part crossover where these two teams come to a head. Scott's frustration with Rogue's attack on Graymalkin in #3 felt a bit more naturalistic than this.

Idie icesliding like that really does make me wonder if MacKay also wanted Iceman for this team but he was earmarked for Eve Ewing's Exceptional book. I doubt it, just because MacKay's done some really good, pointed work with Idie, which continues in this issue, but the visual parallel is just hard to get out of my brain.

I missed this Hank, a lot.

Also, good time to note that we do have a different artist here! Netho Diaz's style isn't a million miles away from Ryan Stegman's, so it's not a very jarring shift, and I do like how Diaz renders a lot of these characters - less heavily stylised, but heavily styilised isn't always to everyone's taste, so I feel like this was a good pick of fill-in artist.

Man. Have I mentioned I missed this Hank, a LOT? That happy little smile on his face in the bottom right panel really does delight me.

Still not quite the bouncing effervescence of Defenders Hank, but this is still very solidly 90s Hank, who I do rather enjoy, especially when he's in the hands of a writer who knows when to really let his loquacious qualities out to play, and when to let brevity be the soul of wit.

Idie's really come a long way since Wolverine & the X-Men, and I'm really, honestly, very happy to see it. She's coming from a place of real experience and wisdom and the struggle of loving yourself in what can feel like a loveless world, and I hope MacKay continues to showcase her maturation and development. Considering how worried I was that she'd be wallpaper in this series, this is encouraging stuff.

If you had asked me which member of this team of X-Men I expected to give what amounts to a really popping Batman speech, I would not have picked Cain Marko, but this feels real and earned in light of his genuine Krakoan redemption. The elevation from avatar of destruction to protector, to bodyguard, to living target, is fucking awesome.

Yeah, work that pole, Hank.

That being said, this dialogue does still sound kinda weird for Hank. This feels a little more like X-Force Beast than anything else, so I'm wondering if this is a seed of something, or if Hank is just kinda frustrated that what feels like a side quest popped up just as he was about to progress the main quest and enter act 2. God knows that if I woke up in the morning and found out I had to tangle with Trevor Fitzroy and the Upstarts, I would also be a little annoyed - this feels a little bottom of the barrel for the X-Men.

The X-Men fandom at large just heaved a great sigh and said, in unison, "Oh, this fucker."

Not the AoA geneticist I would have wanted to see in this book, but I'll take it, I suppose. Hopefully we get an explanation about where this guy came from, because I was fairly certain he was dead? Not that that's ever stopped anyone before, but just, you know, so we can put it on the Wiki and all.

Laksa! Apparently a spicy noodle dish, usually made with thick rice noodles, with toppings such as chicken, straw, or fish - that being said, given we were told that Glob is a vegetarian and that he therefore only cooks vegetarian, I have to imagine this might be a coconut soup laksa that might include eggs, deep-fried tofu, beansprouts, and herbs, or some variation thereof.

Hank definitely seems to approve. :)

God, please tell me that Colossus is going to join the team, I would absolutely love for Jed MacKay to get to work on our beefy Russian lad, he deserves some TLC after the trauma conga line that was Krakoa and the years before that.

Interesting that he's a blocked number and yet they're still interacting, but then again, I have a browser extension that blocks Reddit on my computer, and I still go on Reddit, so maybe that rings truer than I'd like to admit.

This leads me to my guess as to the reason of why chess - it's playable long distance, and doesn't require any elaboration on moves. You just say the piece and where you're moving them to. Something easy to play with someone who doesn't feel communicative. A way of talking without really talking.

All in all, a decent issue, but it definitely feels more in line with #2 than #1 or #3 - I almost have to wonder if the edict to double ship issues came down, and MacKay felt more able to decompress things and spread them out across multiple issues as a result, especially since I think that, if this were paced more tightly, we'd be progressing through the plot fairly quickly.

If we're taking New X-Men as the blueprint, Morrison would absolutely have squished the last four issues into two - but they weren't double shipping, so.

If we're looking at odd numbers being the plot heavy, characterisation heavy issues, and the evens being action and a bit more 'filler' issues, then I don't think that's an awful structure - I just think that, in a world where single issues cost $3-4 a pop, people might start skipping the even numbered issues in an effort to save money. This might read better in trades, which feels A) bad to say, and also B) increasingly common about modern comics. Not sure how I feel about it.

[princess-of-the-corner]

Amnesia!Dabi: K, Mimi asked me to elaborate on 'Dabi joins the LoV cause he's out of options', & like. I'm not sure what else there is to elaborate on? Like, say we use his CC age. He dies at 19, wakes up 'early' (so, what, six months later? A year?) & spends the next few years tooling around trying to figure out who he is, but like. He's still covered in burn scars & staples. He has no documentation, no records. He doesn’t trust heroes or the government, even if he can’t explain why.

Honestly he might assume he was some sort of villain before.

Like he woke up in a sketchy as fuck clinic where the staff had immediately tried and failed to sedate him when he woke up, vs. what /should/ happen to a 'good person' of waking up in a decent hospital with staff that are immediately checking on him and only sedating him if he got violent and/or was in a lot of pain.

Then after he wanders off he'd look in the news and like. He doesn't show up on any kind of news story of 'coma burn victim wakes up and wanders off from clinic'. So clearly no one's missing him, whether it be family or the doctors.

His reflexes would have some sort of combat skills in there, and he does seem to have some knowledge of how criminal things operate even if he doesn't remember why.

Combine that with a distrust of Heroes and all....

So he might assume he was a villain at some point and that going to the police would wind up with him in jail for crimes he can't even remember committing. So better to stick to not doing that.

And yeah he doesn't have any legal paperwork and he'd have to find some villains to get fake paperwork if he wanted to start over. So for now it's a game of unfortunately stealing to stay alive until he can figure out what to do.

Joining the LoV would be a combination of things. One would be the above paperwork issue as a 'hey I can find someone to make me a fake identity and then get the fuck out of dodge'.

Another would be the fact that joining the LoV would mean more solid access to food and shelter. He's been doing okay-ish living on the street, but it's a lot and he'd much rather have somewhere to go and eat.

Thirdly, and probably the biggest reason: he still wants to know who he is. He thinks he might have been a villain before. Doing this might trigger the memories of who he was before, might bring him back to himself. And while he may not currently /want/ to be a villain, he'd still rather know. And he'll decide again when his memory is back.

Ofc that doesn't happen but....

[w1ngedv01d]

You mention a lot that the other life seasons existed in other universes as trials for gods

are they the same gods as the wild life god au, just different versions, or different gods entirely?

also what where the different trials like, in your aus? do you have any idea what those other worlds look like, or just what matters in terms of the scarian plot [no judgement! genuinely]

[shaking with violent enthusiasm] you would like to know about the other seasons' god aus? i can- i can do that! heck yeah!!!

Okay, so, question one: Different Gods entirely. The Engineer, Zookeeper, etc? Don't exist in the other universes, or at least, are not the gods there. They can just see into those worlds

Question Two: What were the different worlds like? Well.

3rd Life was, technically, not a Trial, in the traditional sense. The other worlds all had gods initiating these death games where people only died in this manufactured realm, and woke up fine, and it was engineered and planned by actual deities. 3rd Life, however, was a story of a group of people all stranded on an uninhabited continent and things getting... out of hand. It wasn't a game created by any god. The reason it counts, however, is that Grian's grief at losing Scar was so great, and the release of magic after Scar's death was so powerful, that when Grian died, it was enough power and emotion to ascend him into Godhood. 3L!Grian was the only God in his area at the time of his ascension. (Author's Note: If asked about the 3L AU -esp Scarian- i will tell you about it because i think it is making me a lil insane XD)

Last Life was created by the Boogeymen, a group of very young gods who were messing around and finding out. They wanted to see what would happen if they made a bunch of people live in a realm where they couldn't access anyone else, and forced them to betray each other before it was time for blood. Whoever won basically got the job of babysitting six godly children with no parents to speak of (Sorry, Scott)

Double Life was a trial made by two gods, the Gods of Freedom and Duty, basically trying to see if the people involved would value their "duty" of being committed to their soulmate like they were "supposed to", or a "freedom" of valuing oneself over the person they were bound to. It was a Trial with little reward, as it was basically a way for the couple to try and win their argument against one another. No one ascended to Godhood in this world after the trial, because that wasn't really the point. The Ranchers did hunt each other down outside of the Trial and live on a farm together after everything, though.

Limited Life is the one where I went a little crazy funky stupid with the lore and emotional plot, especially and specifically with the Clockers and the Bad Boys. I have so much lore about all of that, and that universe, and the mechanics there. I'm insane about them, oh my lord. You think I talk about Etho a lot *now*? That has NOTHING on the LimLife God AU. Clockers My Beloved- (Now, the Bad Boys lore is one where people may go "why is that the lore??" but that's okay. I love it and it's good To Me) Anyway, the Limited Life situation takes place over a much longer period of time that one would expect. Unlike Wild Life, where everyone was clearly informed before being flung into the Trials, these people were just sorta picked up and plopped into a realm where the rest of civilization simply... didn't exist, and they had to rely on themselves for survival, shelter, everything. Jimmy, Scar, and Bdubs literally grew up in the realm- they have absolutely no memories before they were kidnapped by the god/s. Grian and Joel weren't even legal adults yet, and tried to act tougher than they were even though it was so obvious that they were scared kids. And while the players were aware that at least one divine presence brought them there, they never met these Gods in person, and they have no idea if it's just one god, two, a whole pantheon... It was all very mysterious. But they do know that at least one God involved was very fond of clocks

In Secret Life, well, the Secret Keeper was the God who brought them there. But the punishments for failing a task were harsher than the irl canon, and almost all the players in this world had been born into a group that worshipped the Secret Keeper, and they were trained to be part of this Trial since they were little kids. Some of them were very literally born for this. Scar, on the other hand, wasn't involved in this religion and got involved mostly on accident. But he was the only one never able to leave...

[blackaleycatt]

Ordinary Things: Chapter 1

AO3 link: Here

5 times Aviva and Koki were clearly a couple + 1 time the guys realize.

Title named after Ariana Grande's song "ordinary things".

1

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Each member of the Wild Kratts crew has their own room in the Tortuga. Usually, they slept in their hammock in the Tortuga’s main room but on the weekends they liked to have little hangouts in each other's rooms. It was a way for them to bond outside of work.

They would watch movies, play board games, play some of Jimmy’s video games, listen to music, and Aviva liked to do everyone's makeup sometimes. Martin, in particular, enjoyed having his makeup done by Aviva, who was practically a pro at it.

Tonight they were in Aviva's room for a mini spa day. The weekend was coming to an end so Aviva suggested doing a “Sunday refresh” to prepare for the start of the weekday. Aviva prepared customized face masks for each of them, taking into account their skin types including retinol for Jimmy’s greasy pizza face and high SPF for Chris and Martin, who spend a lot of time in the African savannah creature adventuring. Koki had her own supply of face masks too, as she and Aviva had been doing spa days with each other since college.

As they relaxed in Aviva's room, the soothing aroma of face masks and incense filled the air, and the gentle hum of "NewJeans" played in the background. They chatted and laughed, enjoying each other's company, and the warmth of their friendship. It was moments like these that made their adventures all the more special. The boys absolutely loved having a spa day and were sad when it came to an end. They were already planning the next spa day as they were leaving Aviva’s room. It was getting pretty late and they had to get up in a few hours. Koki stayed behind, which wasn't surprising since Koki and Aviva spent a lot of time together in each other's rooms, even more than the guys.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

The next morning the crew woke up feeling rejuvenated and relaxed. Martin couldn't help but comment on how amazing the spa treatment was, "That spa day was incredible. My skin feels so rejuvenated and fresh," he said while rubbing his cheeks. "Mine too. My face was so clear this morning I almost didn't recognize myself," Jimmy said, rubbing his hand on his now less pimply forehead. Chris turned on the electric kettle to prepare hot water for everyone's morning beverages.

"I'm glad everyone enjoyed it," Aviva said as she stretched and went over to the counter to prepare her coffee. However, as she sat down at the table, the boys noticed several red blotches on Aviva's skin, going from her jawline to her collarbone.

Jimmy drops his fork and starts panicking. "Aviva, you have a rash on your neck," he says while covering his mouth. He looks like he is about to pass out or something. He's so dramatic.

Martin stops eating and looks at them. He gets up to examine her. "Yeah, you do. It's all over your neck. Are you feeling alright? Did you come in contact with anything?"

Chris soon joins them to look at Aviva's neck too. It had to be serious if it made Jimmy and Martin stop eating.

Aviva looks at them, worried and pulls out her phone to look at her neck. She did have reddish-purple blotches on her neck, but it wasn't a rash. She knew exactly what or who caused it. She covers her mouth, and her face turns as red as Lost and Found, their baby red panda friend. She stutters, trying to come up with an excuse. "Uh, it must be from a product I used last night or the new detergent in the laundry. Um, I'm sure it's fine, guys. Please don't freak out."

She tries to calm them down. She didn't want them to look too closely at the "rash" before they realized it was not actually a rash.

“Hold on, I have some ointment in my first aid kit,” Chris said before rushing out of the room just as Koki walked in.

“What’s wrong, guys? What's with all the commotion?” Koki asked. Aviva was covering her neck, and Jimmy still looked scared as he replied, “Aviva has a weird rash on her neck, and we don't know what it's from.” Koki immediately knew what this “rash” was that they were fussing about, but she tried to hold back a laugh as she approached.

“Koki, why are you laughing? This is serious. She might be dying!” Jimmy exclaimed.

“Jimmy, please calm down. She's gonna be fine,” Koki reassured them, with a grin on her face, both from Aviva’s embarrassment and the way Jimmy was acting.

“Yeah, Jimmy. Freaking out is just gonna make her more scared. Look at her,” Martin motioned towards Aviva, whose face was still red with mortification.

She covered her face and groaned, “Guys, please.”

Koki tried to comfort her by resting her arm on her shoulder, but Aviva glared at her. Chris ran back to her with some ointment. He took a handful and rubbed it all over her neck and chest. Aviva wanted to curl up into a ball and die.

Chris finished applying the cream. “There you go. It should go away soon, but I think you should lie down until it goes away. We don't want you to get any worse.”

“Guys, I'm fine, seriously.” She protested.

“No, Aviva. I think you should rest a little bit. As much as we don't want to, we can go a day without a new awesome creature power if we have to,” Martin sighed sadly.

"I'll take a day off if it'll make you guys feel better," Aviva sighed and finally gave in.

"I can watch her and make sure her rash doesn't worsen. I think Jimmy still needs to calm down," Koki assured the brothers.

The brothers nodded in agreement. "Okay, sounds good. We'll get the dishes cleaned up and head out in a bit. Keep us updated."

Koki smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry, I will," she said with a smile on her face.

Aviva glared at Koki once again and headed towards the bathroom.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Aviva stands in front of the bathroom mirror. Koki comes in after her. “What are you doing?” Koki can see that Aviva is scrubbing the ointment off her neck and chest and has a bottle of foundation and concealer on the bathroom counter.

“This is all your fault,” Aviva snaps, ignoring Koki’s question. “You left this huge mark on my neck and then you had the audacity to laugh about it.”

Koki bursts into laughter, “I'm sorry. I thought you knew I was gonna leave a mark.”

“I didn't know it was gonna be that big. I've never had a hickey before,” Aviva complains.

“The guys must have never had one either. I can't believe they didn't realize it wasn't a rash.”

“Me neither. But I'm just gonna cover my 'rash' with some makeup so they won't be concerned anymore,” Aviva answers her question, holding up the foundation and concealer.

“Yeah, because Jimmy is acting like you have some kind of deadly disease.”

Aviva chuckled lightly. “Yeah, I guess it was funny. But next time be more careful.”

“OK, ok. I'm sorry,” Koki says as she hugs Aviva from behind and kisses her cheek.

"I guess I'll forgive you this time." Slowly turning around, she leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on Koki's nose.

[gust-jar-simulator]

Take this thing in media res from a concept I'm working on. Ganondorf woke his husband up and made a comment about how Vaati owes him. Game start.

TW suggestive? Honestly it's a lot of threats happening but. Yeah.

~🌺🏜️🌙🏜️🌺~

"Oh, Ganondorf..." Vaati stretched languidly in the sheets, considering his husband through the bleary daze of jasmine and sandalwood, the intricate loops and bands of gold across dark skin. Grey fingers caught at the scars beneath fine chains, and the other man's brow arched as he went with Vaati's silent demand.

The wind mage rolled onto him like a snake hoarding a basking rock, dagger-slim and dagger-quick, hands that could break the sky wrapped delicately around the king's throat. "You think I'm your consort because you saved me?"

"I think you're my consort for many reasons, mage," his king hummed, voice rumbling low in his stomach, in Vaati's thighs. He made no move, but the brand of his gold eyes was enough, attentive to be a touch in their own right.

Good.

"I am your consort," Vaati murmured with predatory silk, "Because no one else can match you." He leaned in, ran a finger through Ganondorf's endless jewelry like a scalpel down the lines of a dissection. "You might have been born to rule everything you touch, son of sand, but I took everything I have from the jaws of the gods. I'll tear the heart bloody from your chest, husband, if you underestimate me."

The velvet violence in his tone was somewhat contrasted by his careful attention to the ornaments in Ganondorf's hair, untangling them from his braids with the ease of long practice. His king thought about moving, clearly, arms shifting to perhaps place hands on a whip-thin waist.

Vaati's spine locked up, teeth bared in the start of a hiss, and Ganondorf smoothly redirected to drape his wrists against the pillows with a quiet hum.

Vaati's only response was a growl he wouldn't dare call fond, and he draped himself across his husband's chest to drink in the magic clinging to his skin, chasing the chill stain of darkness the way a Hylian maiden might chase her lover's lips.

"Fight," he rasped against obsidian pendants and emerald drops, "Struggle, hate, grow. Become more of yourself, and let me hate you for it, look at me and see something worth killing. Know, my king, that I am the greatest threat to your life at all times, because I made myself into what you were born to be." His fingers twitched, once, on the muscled breadth of his husband's neck, and he felt the shift there when Ganondorf smiled.

"I have nightmares, sometimes," the king thought aloud, "of coming home to a wife that speaks only kind words, and has never held a blade. I don't know how the Hylians do it."

"Their men are also worthless. I have bested many of them with a sword, and I detest swords."

Ganondorf's laughter rumbled through them both, warm and relaxed.

[u3pxx]

I know a lot of people dislike them, but 5 and 6 are really good games! Spirit of Justice got me into Ace Attorney, what with how friendly the game was to new players while still having a compelling political and legal-centric storyline. And going back to 4 to see how Apollo's character arc was clearly designed specifically around the legal aspects of the story was amazing! It's just kinda disheartening to hear how much people hate them, especially with how happy I am to see them getting rereleased.

good for you anon! glad ur happy abt the releases <3 i'm not really the biggest fan of the games themselves bc when i did experience them, the writing didn't really have that same feeling or tone of the trilogy games and it's smth that i neither liked nor disliked abt em, i just got bored in the middle bc of it adfgdgf

but yeah! doesn't mean i despise em! doesn't mean i won't get attached to the characters! even if i'm sad and kind of bitter about them not being able to continue with a lot of what aa4 has set up (gavin bros, jurist system, the siblings) and idk! there are definitely some lovely parts of that game that i personally do enjoy like i mentioned, most of the characters, and lots of moments from turnabout academy and turnabout storyteller and it's just, whatever im rambling here i just woke up adfsghd

[whetstonefires]

I love the implication that King of Retail is Too Woke™ because of non-white people having red or blonde hair. Nothing else. Just the hair.

LMAO yeah.

Like, these kinds of pseudo-intellectual takes are always effectively slightly in code, because they want to convey things like that the mere presence of Minority as part of Normal People is an off-putting issue with a work of fiction, but know if they say that completely straight out with their whole chest rather than just implying it really hard they will get themselves shunted off to the margins, excluded from being taken seriously by a much larger subset of people.

So I'm fairly sure the intended takeaway there is in part that you can tell by this that the game designers included POC in a halfhearted lazy way, because they didn't bother to add rails to their program that would prevent an improbable rate of blond black people being generated.

Which is not actually the worst argument as far as it goes, tbh, there's some basis for drawing that conclusion, though it's not actually proven; there's lots of other possibilities for why it's like that, including that no one on the dev team felt red-headed Ms Yeung or whoever was issue enough to put in extra work to prevent it.

But that doesn't matter in this framework, because this guy feels it's proven and understands that as being, further, decisive evidence this inclusion was 'forced,' rather than an organic part of the game about retail work, and therefore a matter of representation and Diversity and Equity initiatives, and the issue is that the POC were there at all when the developer clearly wasn't all that personally invested in them. And therefore this is a clear example of why deliberate representation in media is 1) tyrannical and 2) inherently stupid and deserving of ridicule. See how stupid the outcome is? Because Forced Diversity makes things harder and worse, not realistic.

But since he's speaking in shitty dogwhistle code for an in-group, he has left out all those middle rungs and skipped to the end, causing himself to look way more ridiculous.

[faith-alhazred]

well, here we go!

get some tea and snacks, it's going to be a long story.

Antique Mask is my ttrpg scenario based on one of Mystery in the Air episodes, and there also a lot of references to Peter Lorre movies. i've run it twice, for two different groups already, who not into old movies and radio at all - and still, they liked it. i'll try to tell how it usually goes.

it starts somewhere in Vienna during 1930's. player characters are some kind of good guys, investigators.

so it's autumn evening when one of them gets a phone call from Herr Paul Fenning, who introduces himself as an antiquarian. he wants to hire them to find one very valuable thing. in that place obviously the investigators asks him to visit their office, but Fenning asks them to visit him at "Jacob Berger's Antique Shop" where he works, because he can't in a fact go anywhere. he's paralysed.

so the team go to "Jacob Berger's Antique Shop" - and it's actually my favourite part of the game - and find it dark and closed. the only knock and a man opens them door without saying anything. it's tall gloomy black haired man with a messy beard and burned scar on his face. turns out, his name is Boris, as Fenning's voice commands to let the investigators in.

the antique shop is all neatly polished oriental goods, mirrors, candle light and cigarette smoke. Boris locks the door and return to his task - polishing horrifying curver indian sword.

and here the players meet Fenning - short man about 40, with a big dark eyes, constantly smoking and looking so harmless and tired. he is paralysed except his head and right hand, so his has blanket covering his body across the left shoulder.

i love this character. Paul Fenning does his best to be polite, but you clearly can hear irritation in his voice. he hates to be paralysed, to have to deal with a bunch of idiots, and he considers everybody around are idiots and morons - but right now he needs help, so he behaves himself, but still has that loveable vibe "if i could stand up i'd crush you skull".

according to Fenning's story, he works for the business owner, the importer of oriental goods, and his job is to buy antiques from all over the world. his latest task was the most unique and expensive item - golden posthumous mask from Greece. unique as it's woman mask, and very ancient. so, mask's owner, man named Aristide Zweig after a few rounds of negotiation agreed to sell it to Fenning. Fenning came to the Zweig's wax museum at evening, but after he went out he got shot in the back. he woke up in the hospital, paralysed, without money and the mask, but with Boris on his side, who brought him there, as far as he knows. and oh, yeah. about a week ago Zweig's museum burned down and Zweig himself disappeared.

and so, Fenning hires the investigators to bring him a wooden box with the mask, but they shouldn't open it - as a mask is so ancient, it must be opened only in special conditions, to avoid corruption. he pays generously of course, as its a matter of life and death for him.

here the investigation starts. and, well, obviously almost everything Fenning tells is a huge lie 🌿

will tell more in the next post 🌿