#and when it escaped the game it was still trying to recreate the games by killing as an afton persona

[puhpandas]

this is probably yet another issue that boils down to SBs state but I think mimic would have felt 100% better if they focused on the layers of security it has. like, mimic is just a rusty ass robot and has somehow survived this long and people refuse to try and kill it and trap it instead but right now it just seems frustrating bc it's a frail old robot. but I think if they would actually focus on how like, mimic KNOWS how fragile and vulnerable it is by itself so it created all those layers of security in the pizzaplex and glamrocks and vanny and rab to protect itself but keep doing what it was doing. I think thatd be so much more interesting if they framed more plots as stripping away that security instead of just "nobody has killed this thing yet and all its victims refuse to kill it for seemingly no reason"

[nina-ya]

When You Fake It (Law x Reader NSFW)

A/N: Idk what came over me when I wrote this but here yall go! I'm thinking of turning this into a series I already know what I want to do for zoros next Pairing: Law x AFAB!Reader CW: NSFW MINORS DNI Oral, reader receiving WC: ~1.3k

Law’s breath was hot against your skin, leaving trails of kisses along the inside of your thighs as he worked his way to the core of your desire. He settled between your legs, his fingers gently parting your folds as his tongue flicked out to taste you. The sensation sent a jolt of electricity down your spine, and the room soon filled with soft sounds of pleasure and the wet, sinful noise of his mouth at work. Despite the scene unfolding between your legs, your mind was elsewhere, distracted by thousands of little thoughts that refused to be quieted. 

You faked it. An unconvincing performance at best, hoping it would be enough for him to move on without a comment. You moaned loudly, back arching off the bed, thighs tightening around his head, but there was no true conviction behind it. 

As soon as the faux moans escaped your lips, Law’s movements paused. Piercing eyes rose to look up at you, brow furrowed in thought as if he was piecing together a puzzle. 

“Really?” he asked, an eyebrow arching, his voice laden with disbelief.

“What do you mean?” you replied, trying to maintain a facade of breathless satisfaction. You hoped your voice carried the illusion of genuine pleasure, but the edge of your desperation seeped through. 

Law’s contemplative gaze remained on you. “Right there, that little performance of yours sounded like something out of a porno– you’re not fooling me,” he said, his tone almost challenging you to deny him. 

His fingers still lingered between your legs and began to move gently, tracing your body with an almost clinical interest. “Don’t try to sidestep me,” he murmured. “If you’re not feeling it, I want to know. No more pretending.” 

You shifted uncomfortably, embarrassment spreading across your features. “I’m just not really in the mood right now,” you admitted, your voice wavering as you tried to avoid the gaze that bore into you. 

Law’s eyes narrowed, curiosity flashing in his eyes. “Was it something I did?” he asked, genuine concern threading through his voice as he continued, “I need to know so I can fix it.”

You sighed, frustration creeping into your voice as you responded, “Law, I really don’t want to play this game right now. Can we just–”

“No, no,” he interrupted. “We’re getting this right. Trust me.”

He returned to the task at hand with a renewed focus. His tongue lapped at your clit with a hunger that bordered on ravenous, swirling and tracing patterns. It was a delicate assault on your senses, each stroke of his tongue a hot, wet caress that had you twitching and mewling underneath him. Inked fingers dipped between your folds, pressing and probing with an intimate knowledge, the digits on a mission to seek out every sensitive spot inside of you. 

“You’ve always been a terrible liar,” he murmured against you, the low, gravely vibrations rumbling through you. “I know how you react when you’re close. Your breath catches in this specific way, your thighs start to tremble and shoot out as if you’re possessed, and your voice, that’s not something you can recreate unless you’re really feeling it.”

You struggled to steady you being, anticipation and frustration swirling within you. “I didn’t think you’d notice,” you admitted, your voice a soft, breathless murmur that barely escaped your lips. “You’re being too hard on me.”

“I’m not being hard on you,” he said, stopping his movements to look up at you. “I’m just being honest. Now, let me make this right.”

His fingers continued their movements, pressing and curling inside of you while his mouth was a hot, wet worship of your clit that left no room for pretense. He sucked and nipped, eyes locked on you, watching and studying your reactions to know what he needs to do to get you seeing stars. 

“Tell me what you need,” he whispered against your sensitive skin. “Let me make you feel good.”

His fingers curled and pressed within you, brushing against those more sensitive spots that had you quivering on the precipice of ecstasy. His mouth lavished attention on your clit with an insatiable hunger, tongue tracing lines of devotion over your clit, drawing out sweet, desperate sighs from the depths of your being. A gasp, trembling and desperate, slipped from your lips. “Yes, right there,” you breathed, a plea caught between heaven and earth. 

Law's eyes darkened and gleamed with the satisfaction of a conductor in the throes of his performance. His smirk was nothing short of triumphant, as he continued to sculpt and mold your pleasure.

Your hands were driven by an unrestrained need and wove into his hair, fingers threading through the raven locks, gripping with a desperate longing as you sought to ground yourself. Your body writhed and arched, the torture he imbued onto your body nothing short of exquisite. Every movement he made was spellbinding, each pump of his fingers and each caress of his tongue drawing you inexorably closer to your release. 

The heat that burned between your legs was a consuming fire, a desire that intensified with each passing second. Your moans heightened in pitch, dripping with desperation as the unrestrained evidence of your rapture was pulled from the depths of your soul. 

“Come on,” he murmured. “Surrender to it. Let yourself go for me.”

Your body trembled, his efforts building to a peak that left you gasping for breath, like a crescendo of a symphony instead played on your arousal. Your muscles strained and quivered, contracting with an almost painful intensity as your orgasm began to crash over you. Your sweat slicked thighs clamped around his head, pulling him almost impossibly closer. His fingers inside of you were squeezed by the pulsing of your inner walls, each contraction pulling them somehow deeper than before. 

Choked gasps fell from your lips, each breath ragged and desperate. Your back arched off the surface, each muscle in your body taut and straining, the feeling bordering on discomfort. Your arousal gushed over his face, seeming to drive him mad as his mouth worked to lick and slurp every last drop of your ecstasy. 

As the final tremors of your climax began to subside, an overwhelming exhaustion overtook you, and your body collapsed back onto the bed with a soft, content sigh. Law’s face glistened with the essence of your pleasure, his eyes filled with a joy that he was able to bring you to such a blissful end. His fingers stilled within you, allowing you to come down from your high while his tongue gently lapped at the remnants of your release, savoring every last drop.

Each flick of his tongue against your oversensitive clit left your muscles twitching involuntarily in response to the continued stimulation. You whined out, weakly shoving his head away as you muttered something about being too sensitive. 

He pulled away for a moment, and his fingers emerged from your cunt, the digits still connected to you with a string of your essence before it snapped. He brought them to his lips and licked them clean, savoring every bit of pleasure that he coaxed from you. He smirked at you, expression still filled with a predatory hunger. 

Now that's the reaction I was looking for," he murmured, voice thick with desire. "Let me see it one more time to make sure you got it right

Before you could respond, he was back in between your thighs, his tongue and fingers resuming to their previous song and dance, renewing the growing waves of your ecstasy, making you wonder why you ever had to fake it in the first place. 

[lexyeevee]

it's wild to see myhouse having escaped the orbit of Doom People, because so much of it specifically riffs on doom in a way that is laser-targeted at Doom People, to the point that i just wouldn't have expected it to be nearly as interesting if you don't pick up on that stuff

right from the outset, "my house" is even a recognizable genre, because doom was among the first approachable platforms for creating a 3D space, and if you give random people the ability to create a 3D space then many of them will just try to recreate their own house. (i want to say jp lebreton even made an effort to play through every house map on the idgames archive at one point, though hell if i can find it now.) there was in fact already a "myhouse.wad", from 1995!

frankly it's incredible that someone (or someones) put so much effort into this map and then had the gall to simply post it on doomworld as "myhouse.wad", because that is a thread title that guarantees the fewest possible people will bother to look. there are posts in the thread where people outright admit that they only checked because they were surprised how many replies a "my house" wad got.

so anyway, okay, the "classic" doom wad experience is that you download a wad, it contains exactly 1 map, and it has zero custom textures or music or other frills. most wads from the 90s are like this; if you're lucky you might get a bad midi rendition of a metallica song. nowadays there are texture artists and musicians and everything collaborating on full map packs, but "just a map" is still kind of the default mapping experience and is recognizable to anyone who's been around doom for sufficiently long.

and myhouse riffs on absolutely every aspect of this:

• the music is the MAP01 music, Running From Evil, which is just the music you get if you supply your own map in the MAP01 slot and do nothing else. so a ton of 90s maps had this same track as their background music, so everyone has heard it a zillion times. it is ingrained into so many people's skulls. subtly fucking with it is a great way to fuck with the player

• the house uses only stock doom 2 textures, or occasionally light modifications of them. again this is just what you get if you make a map and don't supply any other resources, so the stock textures are very familiar. only later, with sufficient poking around, does the map introduce new textures, which really help sell the impression of being swept away to Somewhere Else

• if you take the exit, you go to MAP02, Underhalls. this is the expected experience because doom wads replace what's already there — you're not really supplying a "new map pack" or anything, you're overwriting a map from the original doom 2 progression. (there are ways to fiddle with this now, but in vanilla doom 2, the level progression was hardcoded.) so the "ending" of a no-frills single-map wad is always, always to transition to Underhalls. the opening shot of Underhalls is practically like seeing the credits. so roping Underhalls into the experience is completely unexpected, because Underhalls is the sign that you've escaped back to regular doom

• the super shotgun is "hidden" in Underhalls, in probably the best-known super shotgun location in the whole game, because it's the first time you can get it

• incidentally Underhalls itself feels uncanny, because the player camera height is higher than usual to make the house's proportions feel sensible. (part of the trouble with exact recreations of real spaces in doom is that the camera is weirdly low.) i was actually convinced that myhouse included a modified Underhalls, but no, it's stock doom 2 Underhalls, it just feels off when you're slightly taller

but wait, there's more

• silent teleporters are a feature from boom, a very early doom derivative that added a number of helpful mapping features and is basically considered only half a step beyond vanilla. so shifting between two versions of a space without interruption isn't completely unexpected. it's only later that the portal use becomes more obvious

• although if you're especially canny, you should notice that the second version of the house shows both the upstairs and downstairs windows in full, which is impossible — doom cannot do room-over-room. (in fact this is accomplished with a semi-obscure zdoom feature called sector portals — essentially, the whole second floor and the space outside it are a separate area, and the "ceiling" of the yard becomes a view up through the "floor" of that second space.)

• swinging doors are a hexen feature (polyobjects) that gzdoom inherited. (heretic and hexen were modifications of the doom engine, and zdoom started out as a merge of all three codebases into something that could play all three games.) they might also be in other fancy engines (eternity?), but they are very distinctly not a doom thing. if you're deeply familiar with doom's limitations then they'll jump out at you immediately, but if you're looking at doom like it's any old 3D game then maybe not so much

• recreations of other humble real-world locales are also a somewhat common theme, and remind me in particular of Doom City, from way back in 1995

• a very common desire for players is to "uv-max" a map, i.e. reach the exit on ultra-violence with 100% kills and secrets. if you can't do this, the map is (reasonably) considered broken. it is comically impossible to do this in myhouse, and anyone with the skill to create the map would be acutely aware of this

• the extra weapon frames look to be borrowed from the well-known smooth doom, which adds extra frames for everything and is just pretty dang slick overall. so it's not merely "ho ho, got you, smoother weapons" but specific integration of another familiar project

• this might be reaching a bit, but mirrors are specifically a nightmare in zdoom's software renderer because they work by rendering all visible geometry as if it were physically present on the other side of the mirror — and if there be any actual geometry back there, it will also get rendered and you will have a big fucking mess. so a mirror in the middle of a room is a laughable idea. this is somewhat less of a concern now that the hardware renderer is basically the default, but it's still a spectre looming over the very concept of mirrors, so the way mirrors play out in myhouse is very funny to me

there's probably more, like, the way it intercepts noclip is a stroke of genius and not something i've ever seen done before. but i hope you get the idea

[fujoshi-her]

dolly dog man readthrough #8

grime and punishment

THERE'S SOME INSANE SYMBOLISM IN THIS ONE

also yes i skipped a readthrough and yes it is in my drafts, im publishing it later bc i had problems with the image files

this is a metaphor for life and having the autonomy to choose your own path and this is probably gonna be the theme for the rest of the book

im guessing

all of grampa's experiences with others in life have been transactional, likely since childhood, to the point that he is unable to see others in any way other than a means to an end

while his son, petey, fits an NPD diagnosis almost exactly, grampa seems to fit an ASPD diagnosis almost exactly.

anddd

andddd

this is the most open he has been about his feelings. and its in an altered state

this is a metaphor for people who avoid therapy and medication, instead opting into dependence on recreational drugs to regulate and process their emotions

petey hangs onto the hate towards his father because it's the only thing he has left with him in relation to his father. giving up the hate would mean giving up his father, and deep down he still just wants to be loved, so he settles for what he's given

being a witness to abuse is really hard, especially when you're trying to explain it to someone who wasn't around to see it, someone younger. you want to protect them from the harsh knowledge, but you want them to understand your pain. it's even harder when you have to watch your other parent simply take it, settle with the abuse, because they feel like there's no escape. it makes you lose hope and really shapes your expectations for what life will look like for the worse.

OH FUCK. SHIT

side note: the composition of these frames is really nice... in the second frame, his son's speech bubble comes from behind him, as if it's sneaking up on him. the sizzling of the pan goes off the page to the right, continuing as his son talks, but it abruptly stops once he finishes the sentence. it literally shows the room going quiet.

in the last frame, petey is super far behind him. there's a divide between him. it's as if li'l petey is fading into the background and an invisible barrier, petey's memories, is brought to the foreground. a divide between them, really showing how different their experiences of life are.

i also appreciate how the color changes of the background went through these panels, starting a deep angry color, fading to a more neutral, some tension with the yellow, and then desaturating as the question is asked.

silhouette comes in clutch every time. this entire scene is genuinely a cinematic masterpiece

i appreciate that they took the time to show that even when there's tension between them he still makes sure to take care of li'l petey

sickening page

this was created so beautifully.

the third panel is absolutely stunning, the symbolism managed in the imagery in such a simplistic comic is incredible. the bottled weeds from earlier in the book on the counter, the weeds that li'l petey specifically referred to as dying, which ended up symbolizing resistance in struggle... in this scene, it means both of those things at the same time. there's a duality.

also, the buds of the weeds being white i assume symbolizes grief and loss. outside, it's dark, the world is a dark place, but they've made a loving home together, which is why the walls are still multicolored. petey is struggling with issues from the past, but this time he's not alone and he can't give up. it's a lot of mixed feelings, just like the mixed colors on the wall.

he has a point, the little anarchist has a point

ACAB chief my beloved

he just does it for the fun of the game

i feel like im witnessing a Socratic seminar in comic form

to hate or not to hate

or smth

YEAH TELL EM LI'L PETEY SET THOSE BOUNDARIES

bro needs to stop parentifying his child !!

I KNEW THAT WAS GONNA COME BACK.

shitt bro...

let go of your baggage or it will only weigh you down

also i rlly liked the artistic decision to make petey's outline glow more when hugging his son so cute

fun fact this is actually a DBT crisis skill called "Pushing Away"

when there's nothing else you can do to make a situation better, you're allowed to give yourself the benefit of retiring from it. you're not required to stick it out for every problem in your life. you are allowed to have peace of mind

and now grampa has no choice to accept the situation for how it is. it's settled and boundaries are set. he can't wriggle out of them. it was a direct, neutral statement with no judgement. when you're in the wrong, sometimes that's the hardest thing to sit with. if someone tells you something you did with no judgement and you feel ashamed because of it, you can't blame it on the way they said it, you can only blame it on what you did.

PERFECT DBT SKILLS. PERFECT BOUNDARIES SETTING.

yeah this is essentially what people are saying when they try to make you explain your boundaries

if you fight enough with someone they may forget their footing and adjust their boundaries, but you don't have to fight, you don't have to explain your boundaries, you can just set them and leave it.

real shit bro real shit

IM FUCKING TWEAKING HOLY SHIT

that bottle again,,,,

after years of struggle he lets his inner child finally feel and see. he travelled his path and now he's ready to share his resilience with the rest of the people in his life, ready to reconnect in a new way, instead of hiding his resilience in private, ashamed, as if it's a show of weakness. he's learnt the strength of being open

YOU CAN COLOR IT ANY WAY YOU WANT......

FIEND! FIEND! FIEND! FIEND!

so THISSS is the sauce they put in this book...

EACH BOOK KEEPS GETTING BETTER AND ALSO MORE HEARTBREAKING

IM GONNA GENUINELY START TWEAKING

DAV PILKEY WHAT ARE YOU

[byhees]

when you find their baby photos.

엔하이픈 ・ female reader + word count 700 genre fluff established relationship non-idol au warnings not proof-read skinship petnames light profanity (god) mention of food — more

a/n. i really dug through my drafts n found this keke

heeseung would snatch that little picture out of your grip in an instant, cheeks lightly brushed with a pink tint; “what’re you doing, love??”, but it’d be laced with slight bashfulness and embarrassment. would hold the photograph high up in the air, arm outstretched and everything, making it exponentially harder for you to retrieve the little treasure piece. “baby picture? what do you mean, love? i don’t see any around here.” is trying his hardest to conceal the painfully obvious flush of his face…

jay would stare at your phone screen, wide-eyed; first thought to run through his mind would be ‘how did you even manage to find that??’ would awkwardly clear his throat, whilst being bombarded with heaps of compliments— “woah, you look so cute here.” the tips of his ears are reddening. “aww, look at your little cheeks!” at this point, they’re probably neon-red; given your cooing at the slightly pixelated image, he doesn’t find it that surprising that his baby picture is adorning your phone lockscreen the day after, a shy chuckle escaping his lips...

jake would simply gawk at your phone; ‘oh, no yeah, who’s that?’ would be an ample encapsulation of his expressions. would be so so embarrassed (because who wants their significant other to see a picture of their younger selves striking a questionable pose— he’s definitely not a part of that population). would try to divert your attention away from the photograph of baby jake— but would fail miserably upon seeing you swipe to another picture, his little plan crumbling in pure mortification of the photo. “oh my god, what am i even doing…” is what he’d say, face buried in the palms of his hands, cheeks heating up with every passing compliment…

sunghoon would, first, let out the tiniest of shrieks because, is that a baby picture— correction, his baby picture— being shoved into his face? is dramatically swinging his arms in the air; would raise a hand to your eyes, as though to shield his photo from your gaze. “sweetheart, this is very embarrassing, by the way,” he’d say, awkwardly coughing. would, lowkey, smile a little upon hearing your soft coos; ends up holding you close to his embrace, smile growing with every endearing comment…

sunoo would tilt his head ever so slightly, and blink rapidly in confusion; after all, you did just burst into the room, a small, precious baby picture clutched in hand. honestly wouldn’t mind too much, finding himself really cute, actually. would say things like “don’t my cheeks look as squishy as before?”; manages to, somehow, convince you to reveal a baby photo of yourself— both of you would wind up entangled in a lazy hug, hushed squeals falling from your lips at the sheer adoration of it all…

jungwon would take a brief look at the photo and pause; he had not expected to see a zoomed-up picture of his younger self, holding a little heart gesture towards the camera. would burst into immediate laughter— snorts at how ridiculous he looks, posed with his slice of pizza; unintentionally recreates the image, face twisting to the same, jubilant smile. tiny tiny screeches along the lines of “that was cringe, please forget that”. would spend the night scrolling through his chat history with you, adamant and determined to find a baby picture of you in the midst of the chaotic texts— just wants to say “my baby’s still so pretty”, to you...

riki would, initially, be flabbergasted, gobsmacked even; a very audible gasp would fall from his lips. tries to get hold of the little rectangular device— that is, your phone— but fails because of how adept you are at defence; “hoho, two can play that game,” he’d say, whipping out his phone from his pocket; you both end up shoving baby pictures of the other in each others’ faces, lips pressed into thin lines to suppress uproars of giggles and disbelieving “what am i doing, oh my god”. your wallpapers are now baby pictures of the other…

taglist open! @halcyoni-ki @wondipity @yjjungwon @shysakuno @niktwazny303 @vnsux @minhosify @haechansbbg @yeomha @stepout-09-15 @chansburgah @sona-verse01 @lilly-bubblelops @smouches @mrchweeee @luvistqrzzz @nwjws @ibsysbsfsunsbs @rikisly @amyysfics @mixtape-racha @berry-and-kkami @rikislady @gweoriz @czlluvriki @okwonyo @okwons networks! @kflixnet @enhanet @k-labels

[are-you-still-writing-that]

Yandere Alphabet: Killua Zoldyck

He was a lot of fun to get into. The first crush I ever had on an animated figure, roughly 10 years ago. It was a lot of fun for me to come back to him.

Killua Zoldyck

The heir of a famous family of assassins. Manipulated since birth and tortured since childhood. Someone, who knows more ways to kill someone, than you can even imagine. A deeply hurt boy, who just wants to heal. Though I fear, the he is going to be the last of your worries. There are others, far more dangerous people in his vicinity, that I would rather watch out for.

Affection: How do they show their love and affection? How intense would it get?

He is a bit socially stunted, maybe even emotionally. He won´t be the first to admit it, but he will admit it. Still, he is trying. He observes what the couples on the streets are doing, and then hesitantly, he will try to recreate it. Shyly, he will grasp for his darlings head, turning his head away to hide his rising blush. He is not used to it, so when you pull away, he will let go. Maybe he did something wrong? He doesn´t know, and it shows.

Blood: How messy are they willing to get when it comes to their darling?

He won´t quite recognize some actions as flirtations, if they are not obvious, so that won´t be a problem. Though, he does understand a threat when he sees one, and that is also the moment, when blood will flow. Probably not, where his darling could ever see it, but the problem will be removed. Clean and efficient, for something his childhood training had to be good for after all, no? So, if someone threatens you or makes you uncomfortable, they will be gone the very next day.

Cruelty: How would they treat their darling once abducted? Would they mock them?

He isn´t one for abduction in the first place. Instead, he simply won´t leave your side. Travelling somewhere? It´s obviously more fun with another person around. Just resting at home, he just can stay as well, no? He doesn´t kidnap his darling, but they also won´t be able to get rid of him any more.

Darling: Aside from abduction, would they do anything against their darling's will?

Well, as his darling, you can very early on bide your personal space farewell. It will never return to you either. He sticks close to his darling, even if it just staying in the same room. He always makes sure, that you somewhat around each other. The only time, he will ever forcefully take control of a situation, where it might cut into your own autonomy, is when the two of you faced with a danger that will be deadly. Then he will flee with you, if you want to or not doesn´t matter in that moment.

Exposed: How much of their heart do they bare to their darling? How vulnerable are they when it comes to their darling?

The truths slip out, when he least expect it most of the time. It´s not that he even tells his darling everything that he knows, and more that he, even unconsciously, has laid his entire heart and emotional well being into your hands. His darling is supposed to be his moral compass, his balance in everything. When he runs into an emotional barrier, he tends to look to his darling for guiding. He really put his all with you.

Fight: How would they feel if their darling fought back?

He doesn´t understand it. Not at all. What is going on? He tries to find the logical reason behind what is going on, but it takes a long time for him, to even get an idea why you are fighting him. Are you trying to play with him? But then, why do you look so serious, while fighting? That boy has no clue. Still he keeps trying, maybe he will figure out along the way, or his darling will stop on their own. Whatever comes first.

Game: Is this a game to them? How much would they enjoy watching their darling try to escape?

He doesn´t even register his darlings escape attempts as such. Though, he does wonder, why you would want to play hide and seek now out of all times. It´s not, that he doesn´t enjoy a good game, but he had been actually sleeping for once. He would even giggle, when you break out in a mad dash to get away from him, amused by your antics and apparent playfulness, to play tag now. Yes, your escape attempts are just games for him, because there is nothing you would need to escape from after all, right? Though he can´t help himself but to look over his shoulder, because sometimes his darling looks so afraid.

Hell: What would be their darling's worst experience with them?

He wouldn´t even be at fault for his darlings worst experience with him, because it would simultaneously his own worst experience as well. It´s when his family, specifically his oldest brother, catches up to the two of you. Killua is terrified, as he desperately tries to get you back from the hands of his family, while you suddenly decide, that maybe he isn´t all that bad. After all, you just got confronted with how bad it actually could be, and you know what. You rather keep just Killua, than getting into contact with the rest of the family one more time. Except Alluka, she seems to be nice. Oh... Well, nevermind. You prefer the boy, thank you.

Ideals: What kind of future do they have in mind for/with their darling?

He is someone who is already glad to simply stay by the side of his darling for as long as he can. He doesn´t imagine anything special or detailed. The only thing, that Killua desires of the future is, that whatever might happen, or wherever he may go, that it will still be by his darlings side. He doesn´t want that the path of you two will ever part again. So just stay, will you? By his side, while he stay by yours.

Jealousy: Do they get jealous? Do they lash out or find a way to cope?

Sometimes, there is this biting feeling in his chest, that he doesn´t quite understand. The one, that makes him grab for you, to pull himself closer to you, that makes him frown and glare at other people. A feeling, that almost feels like annoyance, like bloodlust slowly trickling in. He hates that feeling so much, and so he leans closer to you, because it will leave if his darling is close. It will leave, when he nuzzles himself into your side like an affectionate cat. Your smile is the only solution he needs, when that feeling burns him.

Kisses: How do they act around or with their darling?

It´s actually rather often, that people are reminded of a cat, when looking at Killua. He is dangerous like one, moves like one, and some would even swear that he grins like one. They would no be wrong. His darling also sees him like a cat. An excessively affectionate one, but a cat nonetheless. Nuzzling you randomly, and a limb always thrown over you when you sitting close to each other. When you are walking he is close by, shadowing your footsteps. Sometimes he nudges you with his head. You tend to ignore it, when he starts to chew on something gently, without breaking skin or fabric.

Love letters: How would they go about courting or approaching their darling?

One day, he simply approaches you, introducing himself and naturally you would do the same. He would just throw the two of you into a conversation, somehow always finding something to keep the conversation going, and before you know it hours pass, while the two of you are still joking around with each other. He would offer you food every now and them, either part of his snacks or pay for dinner. In your conversations you might notice, that he sometimes talks about what he achieved. It never sounds boastful, and more often that he is just talking about it. He also stays rather close, and sometimes tends to act like a cat around you.

Mask: Are their true colours drastically different from the way they act around everyone else?

When one considers his childhood, the thought that he tends to keep his actual emotions and thoughts under lock and key, seems reasonable. Even though his emotions always shimmer through, when he is around you, not only because he uses you to understand what he is feeling, but also because he doesn´t feel the need to hide away with you. Though some things stay hidden, even from you. Especially if he might feel some kind of bloodlust, it will not show in anyway. His insecurities on the other hand, always seem to be so obvious to you in the way he holds himself, even if he is completely unaware of it.

Naughty: How would they punish their darling?

Even though he grew up in a violent household, being tortured and poisoned all his childhood along, he can´t do it. He isn´t able to inflict any kind of pain onto his darling no matter what had happened before. Even though violence should be one of the most normal things for him, and mostly it, he still can´t bring himself to do it. He is sure, that if you ever in pain, that he would feel it as well, it twist around in his chest and it hurts so much, and so as punishment, he can only hold onto you and cry, his grip tight and bruises blooming under his fingers. He will apologise in the end as he pushes some chocolate into your hands.

Oppression: How many rights would they take away from their darling?

Be aware, that he will always be around you. There isn´t really any physical space left between the two of you, as he for some reason always tends to brush against you. With the fact, that he takes up a lot of your physical space, your privacy will also suffer from it, though that is to be expected. Though the loss of these things, tend to not appear to obvious to his darling, because he knows how to keep it hidden. Also, you tend to keep so many of your freedoms, and he manages to twist your words and actions so much, that you are the one pulling him along anyway.

Patience: How patient are they with their darling?

He is very patient in his advances, and tends to wait. After all, why would he be impatient at this point anyway. He already got everything he wanted. He has your attention, stays close by your side. All he wanted, he has achieved. There it nothing more that he could want, and so he is able to lean back and just wait. His darling will surely come back to him again. He simply knows it.

Quit: If their darling dies, leaves, or successfully escapes, would they ever be able to move on?

There are a few ways, it could play out. It is all depending on how the darling leaves. If you ever die, he will follow you. He wouldn´t even think twice about it, before leaving as well. If you escape without him noticing, he will assume the worst and think you had been kidnapped, and will go on to search for you. He wants to find you again as quickly as he can. There is also a peaceful way, that he will leave you. If you manage to convince him, that it would be the best for the both of you to part way, he will follow your wish, but he will harbour the wish in his heart to meet you again, when he can.

Regret: Would they ever feel guilty about abducting their darling? Would they ever let their darling go?

He can´t really regret kidnapping his darling, because if you want to get technical he never kidnapped anyone. In the end, he never abducted anyone. He follows you around, not the other way around. He never forced you to follow him either. Is he persuasive, if he wants to? Yes. Still, doesn´t mean that he kidnapped anyone.

Stigma: What brought about this side of them (childhood, curiosity, etc)?

The root of his problems is to be found in his childhood, to absolutely no one´s surprise. He was depraved early on, of affection, human connections and the emotions that come with all of those things. As he grows older, he kind of missed the timeframe in which all those things would have still come naturally to him, and so he tends to be a bit extreme in all he does. It takes a while till he recognises an emotions, and even longer to figure out how to react to it.- from childhood on depraved of affection, human connection and emotions

Tears: How do they feel about seeing their darling scream, cry, and/or isolate themselves?

It pains him everytime to see his darling in any kind of pain. He doesn´t quite know what to do at this point, and it scares him. He feels helpless and insecure, feeling as if he is incapable of even doing the smallest things for his darling. Soon he tries to awkwardly imitate people he saw comforting someone else. In most cases, it will make him sound somewhat motherly.

Unique: Would they do anything different from the classic yandere?

What makes him different is the amount of the control the darling holds. He is already dependent on you for a majority of things, while you aren´t. He also doesn´t plan to make you dependent on him in any way. You decide where to go next, what you talk about, while he is content to simply follow you along, and nods along to whatever you tend to say. You are the one in control, not him.

Vice: What weakness can their darling exploit in order to escape?

He is absolutely codependent on his darling. Relying on you to give what he needs to fulfil his emotional cravings. He will also do whatever it takes, so that you can keep meeting those as well. Killua tends to be slightly insecure, when it comes to interacting with you. He doesn ´t want to overwhelm you with the teachings of his family, and so he is always walking a fragile line. Especially because he was raised the way he was, he has troubles understanding his own emotions, and quite frankly doesn´t know what a healthy relationship looks like. It´s something, that he desperately wants, and you are his focal point when it comes to that.

Wit's end: Would they ever hurt their darling?

He doesn´t want to ever hurt you. Still, it will happen. He will grab you sometimes too tightly, thinking you are just as sturdy as him, while you simply aren´t. His nails sometimes catch on your skin, pulling bright red gashes over you, as he panics when the smell of blood hits his nose. He truly doesn´t want to harm you, but it becomes quickly clear, that he is not always aware of his own strength, and that you are so much more fragile, than he could ever be. Accidents happen, and he cries over every bruise and scar. He tries to be so careful with you, but he never can be.

Xoanon: How much would they revere or worship their darling? To what length would they go to win their darling over?

He hunts for a relationship outside of his family. It doesn´t matter to him if it´s friendship or something else, as soon as he has it, he reveres it. This is what he so desperately wished for. The one thing, he would give everything he had for. So it is only logical, that he reveres the people he holds these relationships just as much. He treasures these people and holds them close to his heart, as he does everything he can to be allowed by their side. He wants so badly to be here. To bask in the warmth, that blooms in his chest, the quiet crackle, he only feels in the presence of those he loves.

Yearn: How long do they pine after their darling before they snap?

Killua will yearn forever for his darling, if he has to. Staying by your side keeps his temper in check, as he simply enjoys being with you. Though, there is one thing, that will make him snap like a bowstring. It´s when his family gets the bright idea to involve themselves with you as well. It´s a panic, that will drive him from this moment onward. He is afraid of losing you to his family, and so he will stick as close to you as he can. In that moment, he also stops to hide of close he always is to you, how much of his attention always lingers on you. It´s the only way he can ensure your survival. Making it clear, that he will know.

Zenith: Would they ever break their darling?

It is not something, that would ever cross his mind, and if it ever did, it would horrify him to no end. While he sometimes misjudges his own strength, he never once harmed you mentally. He is surprisingly attuned to the way your mind works. Your thought process is not a secret for him, as he follows it effortlessly. He is very careful with you and around you. Minding how his actions might impact you in the long run, and taking care to not traumatise you. This time, his trying succeeds.

[mmikmmik]

One underrated aspect of Mouthwashing is that it's really good as a video game.

I thought the player feedback was super strong. There's so many little gimmicky nightmare worlds and "minigames" and the game really helps you understand them very quickly and keep up the momentum. There were only a couple times I got stuck for long enough that I felt like it was breaking me out of the narrative, and I was able to resolve them pretty quickly. And one of them was my own fault - I was trying to use an item somewhere the devs had already indicated it was impossible, because I forgot about the little framing that pops up to indicate you can go into "interaction mode". That's a great little UI mechanism for making it super obvious what is and isn't interactive while still being unobtrusive and letting you feel immersed in the ship environment. Oh, and using the birthday cake scene to introduce the sawing mechanic? So when the player saws at Curly's leg, it's an incredibly powerful callback and the player already knows what they're supposed to do, defending the emotional punch from a "wait... which buttons am I supposed to press for this...?" moment? Brilliant.

Mouthwashing also has beautiful interplay between its gameplay elements and its storytelling. I think of Mouthwashing as "movie-like", because I feel like the pacing + tone + themes remind me very much of horror movies, but this story is meant to be a game. Think of the scene where Jimmy is basically telling Curly that he intends to destroy the ship. It starts with the player controlling Curly in first person POV. But right as Jimmy is talking about how Curly doesn't have agency in his own life ("You're standing at the top. Feet in cement. I get it now.") the camera escapes Curly's perspective and moves into a third person perspective, giving us our first look at pre-crash Captain Curly.

That was the last moment Curly had to avert the tragedy. He knew Jimmy had attacked Anya. Anya told Curly that Jimmy must be physically prevented from accessing the means to hurt the rest of the crew. Jimmy said it would be best if they all just died and then walked away saying "I'll take care of it" and Curly stood there watching him and did nothing. In chronological order, the next scene is the first time the player controls Jimmy. The agency and control, the status of "player character", has left Curly. He let himself become a character in Jimmy's story. And by the time he gets control again, it's already too late.

(Not that I think the game is actually presenting "player character" status as something that's true or real. Look how much Anya's internal life and deliberate choices shape the story, before and after the crash, even as Jimmy casts her as an annoying quest-giver NPC.)

I also really like how much playing through the little nightmare vignettes have the player recreate Curly and Jimmy's decisions. Like when Jimmy is forced to stare directly at the post-it note that's telling him to take responsibility (or whatever the exact words are), but he simply backs away from it. It's all about the way he finds mental and emotional loopholes to get away from what he's done, no matter how directly he's forced to confront it. What other medium could so intimately guide you through that metaphor, to express its internal logic so clearly without words? God, I love video games.

[eskewcity]

Eskewcity's Top Ten Games of 2023

Hello!!! I've decided to compile a list of the best games I played this past year. As such, this list is not limited to only 2023 releases (in fact a majority of the games I played are several years old atp). Additionally, I only considered games that I had completed by year's end. This means that fantastic games such as Signalis and The Talos Principle 2 will not be included, though I still highly recommend them.

Finally, I will put my ranking under a read more for the sake of not clogging anyways dash. Hope you all had a good 2023 and maybe can find something that interests you mwah <3

10. Subway Midnight by Bubby Darkstar

Board the train! Run away from a weirdo! Solve some puzzles! Make friends with some ghosts! Try not to become a ghost yourself!

While I am not someone usually willing to gloss over a somewhat lackluster story for the sake of gorgeous visuals, I will give Subway Midnight an exception. Even with a game that largely takes place in a subway car, it was exceptional when it came to its visual design. It has a blend of a cartoonish style for the characters mixed with extremely realistic environments. The gameplay itself was also quite fun, if not tedious in multiple runs and I really enjoyed the variety of characters that players encounter.

9. Broken Reality by Dynamic Media Triad

A humorous adventure set in a 3D parody of the internet. Diverse puzzles, beautiful worlds, friends, experiences, upgrades and more, await those who 'log on'!

Depending on yourself, Broken Reality might either be a headache inducing cacophony of colors or a fun exploration game about the internet and the commercialization of products and each other. For myself, I choose to look at it from the latter perspective. I found the game to put quite humorous and I really enjoyed all the different worlds to explore. Much like Subway Midnight, I would not recommend it much on its story but I think the design and concept certainly carries where that lacks.

8. Hylics by Mason Lindroth

Hylics is a recreational program with light JRPG elements.

At its core, Hylics is a game with a pretty simple concept. Fight your way through the world with the end goal of defeating the big bad, Gibby, King of Moon. However past that, get ready for a confusing and abstract adventure. This accounts for several reasons. For one, the dialogue of Hylics consists of randomly generated sentences that feel almost coherent while maintaining a healthy amount of head scratching. The game was also created through claymation leading to characters and environments whose shapes twists and turn in perplexing patterns. While this may seem to take away from the experience, I found this not to be the case at all. In fact, I would say it enhanced my time playing greatly. I could not stop thinking about Hylics after I played it simply because its weird and purposely lacks focus which makes it all the more memorable.

7. Babbdi by Sirius & Léonard Lemaitre

BABBDI is a short, first person exploration experience with light narrative and platforming elements. Visit the town of BABBDI, a forsaken district in the outer ring of the megalopolis. Meet its inhabitants and discover how to escape.

In Babbdi, your goal is to leave Babbdi. You must search through the city to find a train ticket that can guarantee your escape. However, the ironic part of playing this game was that I did not rush to leave. While being a free-to-play game, it had an incredibly sizable area to explore. The game actively encourages the player to search every inch of city to find its secrets while also reminding the player that their goal is to eventually leave all of this behind. If you have an hour or so to spare and love games focused more on exploration than action, this is definitely one to check out!

6. Who's Lila? by Garage Heathen

A reverse-detective adventure, where you control your character's face

In Who's Lila, you play as a young man named Will who cannot properly control the expressions on his face. As the player, your job is to ensure that he reacts properly to the world around him. The game even starts with a tutorial on how to respond accordingly to a variety of situations. While a seemingly simple concept, this game is not as it may appear. In fact, and without giving much away, Who's Lila requires multiple playthroughs to order to begin to piece together what is truly going on.

5. Hypnospace Outlaw by Tendershoot

Greetings Enforcer, and thank you for enlisting in the Hypnospace Patrol Department! As the world falls into its slumber, Hypnospace becomes a bustling global village. These virtual streets aren't going to police themselves!

Taking place in 1999, Hypnospace Outlaw tasks you as a moderator for a new form of technology which allows users to surf the internet in their sleep. As the player, you're tasked with seeking out policy violations and handing out warnings and even banning users, if necessary. There is so much about this game I can say but I find going in blind is the best. I definitely found some frustrations which some of the puzzles and how obtuse their solutions were but its undeniably one of the most unique games I have ever played.

4. Return of the Obra Dinn by Lucas Pope

Return of the Obra Dinn is a first-person mystery adventure based on exploration and logical deduction.

In Return of the Obra Dinn, is a mystery game where you not only have to determine the fates of one person, but an entire ship's crew. Additionally, you have to determine the names of each individual based on existing records. By going in the past to witness the last moments of each individual, players can be able to slowly work out the mystery of the Obra Dinn. As someone who plays many puzzle games, I found this to be one of the most satisfying I've ever played. I also thought the game just looked gorgeous and was extremely fitting for the vibe it was going with.

3. Papers Please by Lucas Pope

Congratulations. The October labor lottery is complete. Your name was pulled. For immediate placement, report to the Ministry of Admission at Grestin Border Checkpoint. An apartment will be provided for you and your family in East Grestin. Expect a Class-8 dwelling.

As a border patrol officer, your job is determine the legitimacy of the documents that are brought to you by people wishing to enter the country of Arstotzka. This requires things such checking if their paperwork has expired, if they match their passport photo and if they have the necessary seals for entry. However, what if someone comes to the border fearing for their safety if they are denied, without the correct paperwork? Will you let them in, risking punishment for yourself or deny them, ensuring that you will able to provide for your family at home? Papers Please is a game that will continuously make you question your own ethics under a authoritarian regime. I found this game to be incredibly emotional and made me replay several days simply because I decided against my initial judgments. Certainly one of the most impactful games I played this year.

2. Presentable Liberty by Wertpol

You have been imprisoned without being told why. All you can hear day in day out is the faint ticking of a clock in your cell. That is, until the first of 5 fateful days begins.

Sometimes there are short indie games in the world that fundamentally change you and this is one of them for me. With that in mind, there is not much I want to say about Presentable Liberty since I find its best experienced blind. The short of it is you play as a prisoner as they receive letters from those on the outside. The gameplay is minimal since the player is stuck in their cell for the majority of the game but promise you when I say it does not much that action when its biggest strength comes from its writing. While this game had its short lived success on Youtube, I implore everyone out there to play it and see why I choose to rank it this high on the list.

1. Cry of Fear by Team Psykskallar

Cry of Fear is a psychological single-player and co-op horror game set in a deserted town filled with horrific creatures and nightmarish delusions. You play as a young man desperately searching for answers in the cold Scandinavian night, finding his way through the city as he slowly descends into madness.

Honestly, it's insane it took me so long to play this game especially when loving a piece of media that's a psychological horror featuring a depressed character wandering a city is kind of what I'm known for. However, I finally got around to it and I'm so glad I did. While not the most technically savvy game out there, it is incredible what Team Psykskallar managed to pull off while offering players the opportunity to experience the entire thing for free. Several times throughout playing Cry of Fear I couldn't stop thinking how much better it was than many of the games I've paid for. Like I said, its definitely not the most polished horror game out for sure but damn was I charmed. Even after I completed this game, I immediately had to restart so I could play with director's commentary as I was just that damn interested in learning about as much of this game's development as I could. And its because of how invested I got in playing this game but also its background, that I choose to make it my number 1 pick this year.

(fuck that train level though)

[romancomicsblog]

Sinister Six: How Sony can make a halfway decent film & universe

It's no question that Sony has been floundering while attempting to make a cinematic universe without Spider-Man.

With the exception of the Venom films, Sony has continuously made ridiculous decision after ridiculous decision when making this universe. From making Madame Web separate from the others and in the past, to the lead of Morbius being Leto, to the potential El Muerto spin-off, it has been one headass move after another.

It doesn't seem like Sony has any potential for stopping. With the end credits scene of Venom The Last Dance setting up Knull as the Thanos of this B-list supervillain universe.

While having Knull as the main antagonist isn't a bad idea, the characters they'd set up are all over the place. Not to mention they barely resemble the Sinister Six we know in the comics.

Can Sony make a dynamic team, full of characters we care about, with different personalities and motivations and make a satisfying film?

Probably not. But I have a couple of ideas to help them.

First, let's breakdown the team, their roles in the film, and on the team. Most will be characters we know, but I will also be pitching two new members of the team, actors to portray them, and how it can fit into an overall narrative.

The Lead - Tom Hardy: Eddie Brock

With Knull as our main villain, Eddie will be our main hero. As we know Knull in The Last Dance is looking for Eddie and Venom because they hold the Codex.

In this story, after Venom has sacrificed himself, Eddie is now reporting in New York City again, mostly writing, content overall but missing his buddy. His only problem? He is having intense nightmares.

Knull is in his mind, threatening and haunting his mind, determined to find a way to the Codex, escape his realm and destroy our world. Why? We'll get to it.

What we will find out eventually is Eddie still has traces of Venom within him. Not enough to be Venom but enough for him to be connected to Knull, and even potentially recreate the Codex within him.

These fragments will be reignited, to turn Eddie into....

Anti-Venom.

This version could feel like Venom, but more positive and balanced, or like in the comics, a non being, a suit without a personality, given Eddie more peace.

The Skill - Aaron Taylor Johnson: Kraven the Hunter

While we are unsure where Kraven will end at the end of his film, I have a solid idea. Kraven will continue being this big game hunter, looking for the ultimate hunt.

We will find him in Area 51, looking for the ultimate killing machine.

After finding evidence of the Xenophage, Kraven will be looking for any traces of one, putting him on a direct course to Eddie in New York.

Kraven will be one of the few able to kill Xenophages, with his strength and skill he'll be able to understand their weak points and lead our team in the fight. If Venom is our Tony Stark, Kraven will be the teams Captain America. He's tactical and essential for the fight.

The Outsider - Michael Keaton: The Vulture

While this is one of my favorite characters on this list, this one was one of the hardest to fit into the film.

Vulture had an incredible debut in Spider-Man Homecoming, as a criminal with strong ties and motivations to his family. So that's what we're going to keep.

Adrian Toomes will also be a pivotal reason why Knull is coming, directly tying him into this.

When we see him next, he's trying to scrap together parts for two reasons: 1) to go home and 2) to contain his monster. Who is that?

The Monster - Jared Leto or whoever we want to recast: Morbius

After their proposed team up, Morbius became a liability, killing and even became a threat to The Vulture. Vulture decided very early on to contain Morbius for his safety and the safety of others, but couldn't do it without help. Who is help? We will see.

Morbius will be in monster form throughout the film, and be the least trusted, but also the must crucial in the fight. He will turn the tide, against the Xenophages.

But who is helping contain him?

The Brains - Doctor Octopus

The next film in this franchise should easily be Doctor Octopus. He is often on the Sinister Six team, and is a fan favorite character.

In this version, Otto Octavius is the lead scientist for Smythe Robotics, where he is fired in order for the Founder, Alistair Smythe, takes credits for his "Slayers".

Otto then has a psychotic break, and uses a design he created as a potential prosthetic and creates a powerful weapon. This revenge story will end with Otto killing Smythe and being locked up.

The end credits will have the Vulture breaking Otto out to contain Morbius.

Otto will be working on a number of projects in this film, including bringing out Antivenom, working on opening up the multiverse, for Vulture but for his own gain, and how to summon Knull. We'll get there.

I think Cameron Britton of Mindhunter, Shrill & Umbrella Academy would be the kind of energy I'm looking for, but I'm open to suggestions.

So Doc Ock is with Vulture & Morbius, and Kraven finds Eddie. Who is the fifth member, and how does everyone meet?

The Cyborg - Silver Sable

A Silver Sable project has been in the works for a while, usually as a Black Cat and Sable team up. I think Sable should have a revenge story going after her gang leader father, Silvermane.

By the end of the film, I want Sable to be saved by the same advanced Robotics her father used, upgrading herself but losing some humanity.

Kraven will track her down as the only other muscle he knows of in New York, and Doc Oak will find her to use her technology to advance his projects. Once they all realize their interests align, they will come together to find our major threat.

I'd love Halle Bailey to get some love. She has a kindness to her that is great, and has great franchise potential as a lead.

The Story

Knull throughout this film will continue to send Xenophages. While he is unsure where Eddie is, he knows he's in New York due to the visions Eddie is getting.

Knull wants to destroy this world and take over due to sensing the multiverse has been created. When Vulture came to earth, Knull sensed a much more powerful universe where he would not be able fight what comes.

Fearing his eventual distraction, he wants to escape more than ever, take over the earth and create a new army to fight the "Secret War".

Once everyone is together, Doc Ock comes up with a solution.

Eddie must draw out Knull. With the members here, Morbius the Monster, Doc Ocks reprogramed Slayers, they think the only way to stop the Xenophages is to kill Knull as he is.

Turning Eddie into AntiVenom, AntiVenom will let Knull out, leading to an all out war against the King of Black. Leading to Eddie finally returning as Venom, for the two to bite off Knulls head.

With the team assembled, and the war ended, they use Knulls sword to finally unlock the multiverse and send Vulture home. The rest of our "heroes" look out at the multiverse, deciding what they should do next with their new found power and friendship.

And that's the pitch! It incorporates every character, makes a fun team, and hopefully a satisfying movie.

Thank you for reading! If you like this, be sure to follow me on all my socials here! And let me know what you think: What do you wanna see in a Sinister Six film?

[ruva-fjura]

An Important cohost Post, Recreated on Tumblr

(Original Publication Date: August 16th, 2024)

I got pretty distant from my dad once my parents split up. He wasn't really all that great to me, but he was trying his best, and he had anger problems like me. All the same, I sort of understood, and thought maybe after the decade apart, I could forge a new relationship with him.

This is a story about how getting invested in stories causes them to find new ways to suckerpunch you. About how character creation does deeply impact how you experience a game. And about how grief is like having twisted an ankle when you were twelve: You think everything's fine and then you do something weird and it hurts all over again.

This is a story, about Ruva Fjura, Warrior of Light.

Content Warning: Final Fantasy XIV Spoilers, Heavensward Spoilers, depictions and discussions of death, discussions of trans identity and grieving.

I've been getting into Final Fantasy XIV recently thanks to the introduction of Hot Cat Women (I am predictable.) A few years before this, I had made an attempt to play FFXIV when I was really itching to play WoW with my friends. Legolas Lordofthering did not inspire a connection to the story. This time, now that I could play as a species that I could feel connected to, not a smoothskinned human-alike, but a real anthro Lady… Since, when I bought the game, I was given a free month of sub, a month before Dawntrail's actual release, I decided to fold that into my WoL's backstory. Ruva Fjura is a trans hrothgar, seeking to adventure to earn the gil to afford the expensive body-changing medicine Fantasia.

I even made sure to take a screenshot of her very first dress.

Ruva would, over the course of A Realm Reborn:

clean up a little,

and polish her look as she set forth to defend Eorzea. (Don't tell anyone, but relatively early on I start using plugins, so everyone appropriately addresses Ruva with the correct pronouns. Shoutout to PrefPro!)

Originally I'd intended to use the Magic HRT that is the Fantasia potion right at the border between A Realm Reborn and Heavensward, because I'd tried to play the game a few years ago and knew the story beat there makes a good point for an identity update… but having accidentally blitzed the story of ARR in 2 weeks, and having more time still to play before Dawntrail drops, a few friends suggested another story point I was likely to get to by the time Dawntrail dropped:

Right after the Vault. (For those of you who already know what happens in the story, you can see where this is going.)

Now, I don't always remember to screenshot things, and my screenshots aren't particularly well-organized, so I don't have a lot of visual material for my man Haurchefant. You first meet him during a segment of A Realm Reborn when you're attempting to locate Cid's airship, and dealing with the Ishgardians. While they're mostly religious isolationists at this point, Haurchefant welcomes you rather more warmly and openly, to the best his ability and rank can afford him to. You assist him a few times, and he is consistently the most helpful hand and face in the whole of their region.

It's under his guidance you're able to escape from the major regions after being framed for assassination, to House Fortemps, the house he calls home as a knight and bastard son. (Ishgard has some of that Noble Houses stuff going on.) He's super chill. He's a bro. You interact with him a lot during Heavensward.

Ruva ventures forth in the surrounding region of Coerthas, assisting Ishgard with trying to end a war that has lasted a millenium, makes enough money to purchase an apartment, decorates it for her friends, and, one night, stops and gets to think:

"Soon, I won't be trapped in this body any longer."

It's the night before the servers drop for The Maintenance That Installs The New Expansion, and I finally come to the Vault. You're trying to save a different person, Ser Aymeric, who's been INSTRUMENTAL in keeping you safe and helping sort things out in Ishgard from being captured and possibly killed trying to confront his father. I ask my friends to assist, since this is the last thing I'll be doing narratively before Ruva Fjura finally gets her magic HRT shipped in. (Mechanically I've had the consumable since before the end of A Realm Reborn, but narratively.)

ou join him to run off after your friend, but suddenly, an enemy knight who had been standing on the tower walls of the building behind you launches a spear of light your way. Haurchefant tries to do his best to intercept it, defend you, block it with his shield, but…

It's too powerful.

The wound is too deep. Your companions' best healing cannot hope to stop his injuries enough to heal him. You're here in his final moments.

He looks up at you, and delivers the line that nobody in my friend group, myself included, could have predicted would utterly decimate me.

"Oh, do not look at me so."

This is one of the most famous lines from Heavensward, involving to my experience on of the biggest character deaths in the series. It's touching, but on its own it probably would not have hit me as hard as what happens next. Because he says this, and the camera immediately cuts back, to Ruva.

Pre-HRT.

... ... About two years before I started playing Final Fantasy XIV, my father died suddenly. The details aren't important, but given that I had never had a great relationship with him growing up, I didn't feel that loss as much as my sister, and the rest of my family, did. Atop this, it takes a lot to make me cry, just because of the kind of person I am. I can feel strongly, but I usually just feel tense, and achey, and anxious, far before any tears flow.

A year ago, I had started really started feeling out how I expressed and embraced my gender in real life. Slowly, but more than I'd done in the previous three decades. I'd started wearing dresses, changed hairstyles, dyed my hair, asked my family to call me Astra rather than my birth name. I didn't get to show my father this side of me. I started this journey after his death. He never got to see me be who I really want to be, who I really am. And- And I just-

And that potion is in-transit, it's coming tomorrow, and this man, this close companion, an elezen who has never treated me as anything less than the woman I have always been, who sees The Warrior of Light and thinks 'friend', is dying. He is dying right in front of me, and his final words are commenting on a face that doesn't feel truly mine! He never got to see me be who I really want to be, who I really am-

I sat there. In the voice call with the friends who had assisted me in that dungeon run, who I'd been sharing my experiences in the game with, who had told me to make these cutscenes the last thing Ruva did before Dawntrail's release.

And I sobbed.

----------------------------------------

A few days pass. Dawntrail drops. I log in, use the Fantasia, and log out so I can enter the options. I fiddle with the character creator to get that final polish. I make the Ruva Fjura I bought this fuckin' game to play as. I log back in.

Before I do anything else, I travel to the highest point I can get to in Coerthas. Nothing else matters. I have taken the fantastical gender potion, Ruva has finally achieved that which she first started adventuring to achieve. And she has to get as close to the heavens as she can.

I have to make sure he can see.

----------------------------------------

I have fallen into becoming a tank main. I'm a Dark Knight main, though I play most every tank. (It's a little near-impossible, playing a properly effective healer on controller.) I have helped end a war that has lasted a millenium. The head of House Fortemps has gifted me a shield bearing the crest of his household. It is the same sort of shield that my closest friend once used trying to protect me.

In the background is a browser window with information on informed consent clinics within my area, as well as the price of various estrogen medications. The shield I have obtained completes a set I have since worked to put together. I will not lose anyone else without them having seen me for who I want to be. For who I really am.

I will never forget him. I will always honor how he has touched my life.

... now if only Paladin wasn't the most awkward of the tank rotations-

[atmilliways]

Wrong On The Money (33)

part 33 of ?? | 1085 words | Teen+

Blackmail fic on Ao3 | on tumblr

Summary:

“It’s not like you have to leave or make yourself scarce or anything,” Eddie had said, obviously trying to cushion the harsh truth. “You live here too, man.” Right. Like Eddie is going to want someone like him around all his older Hellfire buddies.

Just so y'all know, I have written up through part 40 and I do not think I will be able to wrap up the story by 42, as my heart of hearts wishes I could.

Anyway, cheers to Steve being so insecure that he kind of doesn't notice Eddie defending him with flowery prose.

33.

“It’s not like you have to leave or make yourself scarce or anything,” Eddie had said, obviously trying to cushion the harsh truth. “You live here too, man.”

Right. Like Eddie is going to want someone like him around all his older Hellfire buddies. These aren’t the kids. They have no reason to like him, and he doesn’t even understand the game; Steve has no right to butt in.  

But he doesn’t have a shift today, and Robin is hanging out with Vickie, and he doesn’t feel like going anywhere. He wakes up early out of sheer restlessness and tries to recreate the technique for cooking bacon that Mrs. Wheeler had shown him over Spring Break. So much had been going on then, but it had been good bacon, and the first hearty breakfast he’d had in a while. Every time he’d said so she’d beamed and flipped another fresh-off-the-griddle pancake onto his plate; after a while he’d asked for the recipe out of habit.

At least he hadn't gone into the Upside Down on an empty stomach. 

He makes breakfast, doing okay on the bacon. (He’ll have to keep practicing.) Wayne eats with him before his shift at the plant—part time these days, with the government money to help things along, and all day shifts now. There’s no pressure for small talk, and Steve appreciates that. He keeps his eyes down, sipping his coffee and bringing the fork to his mouth until his plate is empty. Before heading out Wayne claps a hand on his shoulder, leaving him buzzing with an unfamiliar feeling of approval.

So he wraps the leftovers in tin foil so they’ll still be warm-ish for when Eddie wakes up, and bakes cookies, too. Why the hell not? There’s a bag of chocolate chips in one of the cupboards and the recipe is right there on the bag. Steve follows it to the letter; he’s good at following instructions. 

The cookies are out of the oven and cooling by the time that Eddie shuffles in, and Steve. . . . God, Steve should not feel as gooey on the inside as he does over the guy’s epic bed head. He wants to run his fingers through it until all the tangles are gone and the curls spill across Eddie’s shoulders instead of frizzing out in complete defiance of gravity.

He passes Eddie a clean mug for coffee—the Garfield one that Steve knows is his favorite—and escapes the kitchen without a word. 

Steve doesn’t know if they’re playing D&D or what, but whatever they’re doing out there is loud. Eddie had mentioned that two of them were coming back to town for this. . . . Maybe they have a lot of catching up to do, so as a courtesy Steve doesn’t put music on to drown them out. Instead, he pulls out a deck of cards and starts playing.

It’s been a while. He used to do this a lot as a kid, when his parents were home throwing a grown up party where they didn’t want him underfoot, or alone and shouting at each other. Steve had never learned how to shuffle a deck the right way, first because his hands were too small and later because he’d devised his own ways. He plays the way farmers rotate their crops, going from solitaire games that put the suits together in numerical order to 52 card pickup to playing both sides of a game of War to randomize the deck again. Just killing time.

Because this house isn’t like the one Steve grew up in. It’s one story and there aren’t half as many extra rooms to soak up and hollow out sounds, so he hears every arrival and most of the exclamations over the cookies he'd never put away. (Which is fine, he bakes when he knows people will be around to eat the results.)

But he can’t make out actual words, not until he reaches the point where he can’t ignore his bladder any longer. With a mental middle finger flipped at his past self for drinking so much coffee earlier, Steve slips out of his room in time to hear—

“So what’s with Steve living with you, man?” 

He’s pretty sure that’s what’s-his-name. . . . Not Gary. . . . Gareth? That sounds right. 

“Yeah,” someone else pipes up through a mouthful of cookie . Steve doesn’t remember his name, but it’s not Gareth or Jeff. (He wonders if Eddie bothered to mention who made them.) “I mean, talk about your typical douchebag jock. That guy was the king of ‘em, why’d you even let him in the door?”

Someone else, the only girl at this little reunion of nerds, scoffs. “For fuck’s sake, you idiots are so stuck in high school.”

“I concur, Margaret.” That’s Eddie, and he sounds annoyed. “That’s a rude fucking question, Gare-bear. Do you know of him doing anything downright objectionable in the past year since he graduated? Granted, I only recently escaped the hallowed halls of our mutually beloathed—”

“Not a word,” several people object at once, like it's an inside joke.

“—Our mutually beloathed Hawkins High,” Eddie says, loud and powering through, “but it comes with different social structures and adaptation requirements. It is, if you’ll excuse the phrase, a whole different ball game—”

“Fuck, the exposure is already getting to him.”

And yeah, Steve is pretty sure he’s said something like that in the past week or so. It was about getting the kids to listen during emergency Upside Down situations versus normal times, but still. Oops. 

“I said pardon the phrase, Frank.”

“Eddie’s right,” Margaret cuts in. “Popularity, or freakhood, doesn’t transfer directly from high school to college. It’s a social reset, like going from being the oldest kids at middle school to bottom of the barrel freshman in high school. From high school to working can’t be that much different.”

“So you’re saying that King Steve is at the bottom of the barrel?” Gareth asks, audibly skeptical. 

“Nope, pretty sure that’s still me,” Eddie replies, with a brightness so fake it sets Steve’s teeth on edge. There’s something raw to it that he can’t begin to understand. Maybe Robin was right, and there is something bothering Eddie. 

Maybe something like . . . a housemate who listens in on his conversations?

There’s no way he could know, but Steve still winces and hurries to the bathroom. Sticking around for a possible debate about his worth to society or whatever wouldn’t be all that great a time, no matter which way it goes.

[dragonmarquise]

OK OK OK HEAR ME OUT!!! HEAR ME OUT!!! all the BRC crews, but like, they're slashers/murderers, and the BRC crew is basically the main cast y'know???? I feel like solace should be the final girl

This is gonna be a fun one! I like horror stuff, but admittedly with slashers I tend to just read about them, since seeing the gory stuff makes me ill. ^^;

Still! Even just reading about a lot of these kinds of movies gives a lot of ideas, so I'm working off of that!

Also sorry I’m posting this the next day! I finished this yesterday, but I wanted to proofread it first and got too sleepy to finish it last night. ^^;

So with BRC as the main cast (I’m assuming just the original 5? Tryce, Bel, Felix, Vinyl, and Solace), horror movie logic dictates that usually the comedy relief character dies first. Then again I have no idea if that’s still a thing in horror movies these days. :u

But anyways, I feel the character who probably fits that role is either Felix or Solace. Because, Felix gives me the impression of a chill guy who cracks jokes every now and then. And Solace is Solace, the comedy is mostly in his bad luck and/or his status as a Sad Wet Blorbo, lol

imo Solace’s bad luck could actually work in his favor, basically him bumbling/tripping/etc. while avoiding death in more and more ridiculous ways as the movie goes on. To the point where he just happens to be the Final Girl!

But if we go with “comedy relief character dies first” and Solace gets that role, then I nominate Vinyl as the Final Girl. I feel like she’d be great as the Final Girl and actually manage to finish off the villain!

I guess the rest of the non-rival BRC members (Rave, Mesh, Shine, Rise, and Coil) get to be the background characters that get killed off along the way. Or otherwise they manage to escape just in time, but don't play much of a role in stopping the villain in the end. Whoops, sorry guys. D:

So with the main cast established, let’s move on to the crews! I’m gonna be predictable and start off with Devil Theory, specifically with my OCs. *u*

Daishō is a lover of horror media, so he goes all in on being a slasher movie villain! Serial killer who recreates elaborate deaths from his favorite horror movies!! Also involves plenty of knives and butcher themes, maybe.

Sai and Nunchaku tag along as minions, also a bit of a “If we didn’t help him, he might end up worse” kind of way. Cool motive, still murder though. Going by a horror movie structure, they’d get killed off before the main cast (or what’s left of them at that point) can take down Daishō directly.

Bō stays out of this whole mess because he hates horror stuff, especially gory stuff. He might play the role of someone warning the main cast to leave before it’s too late… before getting killed off by Daishō as a “traitor”. Yikes. D:

Now for DOT EXE... probably stuff involving hijacking robots and machines? Like that big incident in the mall in the Child’s Play remake from 2019. All the electronics go haywire and kill people, oh no!!

For my versions of the crew, Twoson and Fourside in particular would go all in on being evil serial killers like this. Like with Daishō, they’re big horror media nerds. Also they both probably kill off the other DOT EXE members when/if they try to get in the duo’s way too. I just can’t imagine the other members being okay with this, like how Sai and Nunchaku are okay with going along with Daishō’s plan. :o

With the Franks, maybe something like the Prince tricking people into thinking they’re getting life-saving surgeries free-of-charge... but then just harvesting them for organs and spare body parts for some experiments the Prince is carrying out. Or otherwise just sending out the Franks to kidnap people for ��surgery”. I guess something like the doctor from the Mad Father game, just without the “turn people into dolls” obsession… or maybe have something like that too?! Or otherwise it’s just experiments to improve his skills and eventually advance humanity overall.

He insists he’s doing it for the good of humanity, but, y’know, he’s still tricking and killing people in the process. The Franks here are his minions, made from the body parts of former victims, and like I said being sent out to find more "test subjects".

So then for Eclipse, uhhhh, make them witches I guess?? Has there ever been a slasher with a witch as the villain? Gory magic! Surely there’s been at least one movie with that kind of idea.

Or if not that, then serial killers who leave astrology-themed “clues” at their murders, but really the clues are just to lure in more victims. Heck, combine the two! Why the hell not. Either way, they mostly target men who are genuinely heinous people, especially those who managed to escape punishment/jail time/etc. Basically a “the villain has a point though” kind of thing.

Sometimes they mess up and target a man who turned out to be completely innocent, or even the wrong guy entirely, but they don’t see it as a big deal. You could take this as a “He probably would have done something bad sooner or later anyways” thing, or otherwise “Well, you can’t make an omelette without cracking a few eggs. Or heads in this case.”

And now finally, FUTURISM! I’m thinking psychological horror mixed with slasher stuff! DJ Cyber and his crew basically messing with people before killing them off, stalking them for weeks or even months to get a good idea of their personality, background, etc. and then use it against them.

Maybe even go Saw with it, elaborate traps where they have to earn their survival or literally die trying! If we go with Solace surviving just on his weird luck alone, I can imagine some genuinely hilarious ways he can narrowly avoid death in this situation, lol

I think that’s about it for my ideas on this topic! This was a fun one to think over, thank you for sending this in. :D

[hlvr-online]

Loading (New) Introduction...100%

Welcome, to Half Life VR Online, fellow player!

Hello players! This blog has been on hiatus for quite some time due to me (Mod John) and my partner, Mod Ben, being hyperfixated elsewhere. We still technically are- but since the big excitement about hlrvai 2's trailer has stirred up attention and my personal feelings regarding the fanbase i've decided to try and return to this blog. My partner won't be able to help me as much as when we started this blog due to various reasons, but i still consider this blog to be OUR blog nonetheless because i really valued making this AU together- so updates will be slow.

As a recap for what the AU and blog is about: As you can see, this is a Hlvrai Au ask blog run by two mods where you follow Gordon Freeman, a video game streamer who has recently bought a recreation of his long time favorite game, and old classic, Half Life, but now as an Full Virtual Reality MMO created by a dying game company. However, something bugs out and now Gordon finds himself rushing to win the game with his strange party of other players caught in this situation like him.

You are a watcher of his streams, and can interact with them and influence what he or his party does simply by sending in asks!

You must escape HLVRO! Hopefully, all in one piece...

I have also Updated the reference sheets for characters that are important as of right now to fit the current art style:

Fun Mod Note: You can ask the players to use their skills and they might actually do it!~

[fictional-worlds-are-exquisite]

had a dream where I was in some sort of weird game of hide and seek. Like if you got caught you died, and whoever the seeker was had powers e.g. flight, some sort of destructive power that would kill you. Just for that round.

and I made it to one of the last rounds when there was an announcement that a new competitor had been added with new powers but we weren't told what they were.

So anyway I encounter this new competitor warily. I'm ready to bolt at any moment but the person is reassuring me that they dont want to hurt me, that they literally just need me to fill out some paperwork for the game. So I get closer and yeah, the paper they have does ask for things like name, contact details, health details, etc. But I see the signature section on the bottom of the page and I'm like NICE TRY THIS IS A TRICK. and then I bolted away and the person started chasing after me but I was too fast. I escape and take a breather.

And then the announcement comes. Player xyz has been eliminated by [this new competitor]. And I'm PISSED because that was MY FRIEND YOU JUST KILLED. but also, I should warn people before getting revenge.

So I open tumblr and start typing (rough recreation follows)

Hey guys, just letting you know NOT to sign paperwork if it's offered to you randomly. This may be a trick to get permission to possess you before killing you. Make sure you verify the source of any paperwork BEFORE signing - you don't want to be the victim of a demon scam. I just lost a friend to it and I don't want to see it happen to anyone else. This person is still on the loose so take care of yourself and your loved ones tonight. Thanks guys

And then I move on to tearing this mf in two and beating them bloody for killing my friend but that's not the point of this post

I woke up just now in a panic because I thought I'd actually posted that on tumblr in a half awake half asleep state where I couldn't differentiate real from dream. Turns out I had not. But in retrospect, that probably would've slapped idk why I was worried

[xylathesilkwing]

played the Time-Breaker DLC! confusing and both enlightening experience- spoilers under the cut below! It is my feverish ramblings and not professional at all, enjoy

-SAM LAAAAKE I thought you were evil Mr Lake but I only had you for a moment I miss you come back

-JESSEEEE JESSEE jessse hi. hi Jesse (insane)

-no fr though Petri Alanko confirmed that the music that plays during Tim (Shawn?? Jack?? I’m gonna say Tim) and Jesse’s introduction was supposed to be a 1:1 recreation of the music that plays in Quantum Break with Jack and Beth, and I just think that’s neat (going feral)

-the insane scribbling on the whiteboard in the trailer resembles the scribbling the real (original? currently dark place) Tim’s notes:

and since I think it’s confirmed that the DLC episodes are just attempts at Alan Wake trying to escape the dark place, did he see the OG notes and go “oh yeah, I could probably write something with that”? Did he predict what Tim would write that without ever meeting him? Is the multiverse real??

-also, “red headed woman” in both images. obviously in the DLC it’s Jesse, and probably is the same in the actual game (especially with the polyhedrons) but it’d be so cool if he also remembered Beth or those other versions he had seen

-this image alone down below?? listing off names??

obviously we’ve got Jesse, plus Dylan (Faden? possibly her brother?) and someone named Savage, but we’ve also got Lisa, Elisa and Liz being nicknames for Elisabet/related to it. Just sayinnn Beth could be part of that tooo (delusional) (hasn’t finished quantum break yet)

-anyways we continue

-the ocean view hotel is so freaky cool in this world??? The clocks leading you to different rooms, the FBC being present and posting notes on doors and cannonly being there, plus the ENEMIES? I’m afraid of the shadows in Alan Wake’s playthrough but these were also pretty freaky

-JESSEEE I’m sorry I’m just genuinely so insane about her im glad she returned

-while I can’t remember the name of the place she works for, i find it pretty funny she still works for a concealed/unknown agency involved with secret forces. went from supernatural events to the multiverse girl

-the time-sea-whatever outside?? insane. cool. wicked awesome

-“and another version of me got super powers” and it’s her lifting a forklift!! Love the control references, especially the Alien Guardian Angel one.

-“as you say, characters in a video game” METAA

-okay I had to put this here but Tim/Jesse shippers.. I see you. like I’m an avid Jessily shipper but genuinely I see the appeal

LIKE? Obviously this is most likely an homage to the fan theories of Jesse and Tim being echoes of Beth and Jack, but it’s also so interesting Alan-wake wise. I could probably make a separate post for this but like- imagine you’re Jesse and you’re seeing all these versions of a man some variant of you loved die gruesome deaths, and you’re feeling these feelings that aren’t actually /yours/, it’s. I’m insane it’s so freaky and cool and sad and ARGH

And for Tim!! your other versions were trying to find this girl and when you get there you realize that the feelings you feel for her aren’t actually yours either! just some version of you and some version of her that probably didn’t work out! I’m gonna go insane!

-the arcade game sequence was INSANE and I love it so much. I wish we saw more of that universe

-the universe with all the empty time-core-thingies?? insane, freaky, perfect.

-THE VOID? THE TEXT?

-okay so I might be weird for this but instead of thinking about The Master of Many Worlds I thought about the red headed woman I’m so sorry. definitely got caught off track but the way her name is LIS like the names list?? and she’s a DANCER? <—— I’m a dancer

-it was so freaky when all the text and numbers turned into Alan Wake at his desk?? but also so meta and cool?? insane DLC

-awesome DLC! North Star is my favorite so far but tbh this one was super meta I loved it

[psychooomind]

The Art of Deception - 1

Severus Snape x reader

Summary: Sequel to Mixed Signals, part of Potions and other drugs series. Severus and Katya strengthen their relationship, based from 1994 to 1998.

This is a prequel to another of my Harry Potter fanfics, The New Founders.

A multi-entry, slow-burn, colleagues to lovers, smut.

You can also read it at AO3 here.

If you liked it, reblog the chapter :)

Mayfair - August 22, 1994

Enchanted bubble

There were few things that ever caught Severus by surprise. He always had everything meticulously planned, one of those inevitable habits that came with having a mind as anxious as his. Every possible scenario had already been recreated and analysed in his mind, over and over again, like a chess player reviewing all the strategies before making a move. However, no matter how much he foresaw, nothing could have prepared him for opening his eyes that morning and finding Katya’s naked body beside him.

For a moment, he lay still, barely breathing, as if moving might break the delicate spell that held the scene before his eyes. Her pale skin rested against the sheets with a serenity that contrasted with the hurricane of thoughts in his mind. Katya’s hair spilled untamed over the pillow, and her tranquil expression was a cruel reminder of how unreal this all seemed to him.

Severus closed his eyes for a moment, trying to piece together the puzzle of the previous night. When he opened them, his lips curved into a fleeting smile. Not even in his most intimate dreams, the ones that haunted him night after night and left him waking with shortness of breath, had he imagined this could ever become real again.

Seeing her the night before in the Malfoys’ tent during the Quidditch World Cup had not surprised him in the slightest. In fact, he’d expected it, given that Narcissa had sent him an invitation, and he’d immediately suspected there was more behind her usual politeness. He knew Mrs. Malfoy well, and her tendency to orchestrate "casual" meetings between Katya and him, ever since she’d picked up on the tension between them, had never escaped his notice. But even though he had considered attending just to see her, Dumbledore’s words still echoed in his mind.

“Be careful with her, Severus. You don’t truly know who she is, or what she seeks. And her closeness with the Malfoys does not inspire trust.”

Severus knew the old man was right. Katya was not someone to trust lightly, but that did not lessen the effect she had on him. Seeing her, even from a distance, somehow eased the obsessive visions of her in his dreams. But it also made him a man divided: one part of him wanted to heed Dumbledore’s warnings and stay away from the temptation, while the other, darker and more primal, pushed him straight into her arms.

In the end, he had yielded. He’d fulfilled his duties to Dumbledore and, before he could question it too much, he’d prepared himself and taken one of the Portkeys to Devon. Upon arrival, his gaze sought her almost unconsciously among the figures moving gracefully in the shadows illuminated by magical torches, and there she was.

Katya drew him in like a magnetic force, the kind that commanded attention without even trying. Her captivating yet shy smile made her stand out among the pure-blood families and influential figures from the Ministry gathered in the Malfoys’ tent. Severus, as was his habit, watched her from a distance, studying every movement, every word that left her lips as she conversed with the others. He wondered if she was there for the same reasons as him, fulfilling some hidden purpose, or if she was simply another pawn in the political and social game she seemed to belong to so naturally.

The night wore on, and with each glass of wine that passed between his hands, his resolve to keep his distance faded. When she stepped out of the tent to smoke, he couldn't resist the temptation to approach. His feet moved before his mind could stop them. It was an irrepressible impulse, as if the air was easier to breathe near her. When Katya saw him approach, a look of warning flashed across her face, before she smiled kindly at him, as if she had been waiting for that moment all night.

What happened next blurred in his mind like a whirlwind of images and sensations, difficult to untangle. They had shared it with an intensity that overflowed any attempt at reasoning, as if time had ceased to exist. He remembered accompanying her to the apartment in Mayfair, the same one he had left her at a few weeks ago.

Katya moved quickly around the space, picking things up at random and tidying the living room with almost automatic gestures. There was something about her nervousness that disarmed him, even as he remained still, watching her with that penetrating gaze that seemed to see through any mask.

"It's Nikita and Emil's apartment," she confessed suddenly, as she slipped off her heels with a sigh of relief. Her bare feet echoed softly on the wooden floor as she headed towards the fridge. "They lent it to me so I wouldn’t have to rent somewhere while I’m in London."

She opened the fridge with deliberate movements, pulling out a half-open bottle of wine, and with a swift flick of her wand, two glasses floated towards her. Her nonchalant tone didn’t fully mask the tension she carried with her.

"But don’t worry," she added with a fleeting, almost mischievous smile. "They won’t bother us tonight. They’re too busy reliving their glory years in the Quidditch tournament."

Severus didn’t respond immediately. His eyes followed every movement of Katya as she leaned slightly against the counter, unbuttoning the first few buttons of her white shirt. There was something in her posture, in the way she looked directly at him, that stirred something inside him. The tension between them was palpable, almost electric.

“Did you used to play?” he finally asked, his deep voice filling the silence as he took one of the glasses still floating in the air and moved towards her, cornering her against the counter.

“Yes,” she answered, her voice lower than usual, as though the intimate atmosphere of the moment affected her too. She took a sip of wine before continuing. “At Koldovstoretz. Nik was a Seeker and Emil, a Beater.”

Severus nodded slowly, never taking his eyes off her. The proximity between them had diminished to almost nothing. With a delicate gesture, he brushed a strand of hair from Katya's face and tucked it behind her ear, prolonging the contact long enough to feel the slight tremor in her skin.

“Did you cheer for them?”

Katya shook her head softly, offering a small smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“No,” she admitted. “I never went to watch the matches. I didn’t like them.”

Before Severus could respond, Katya set her glass aside and closed the remaining distance between them, her body barely grazing his. Her eyes shone with a mix of determination and desire, and although the situation seemed already under her control, she smiled as if she had just won a game he hadn’t even known they were playing.

Severus couldn’t resist any longer. He kissed her with a fervour that left him breathless, pressing their lips together in a movement that was more instinctive than calculated. Katya immediately reciprocated, with an intensity that made him forget any doubts or concerns. What followed was a frantic sequence of movements, a clumsy but passionate choreography as they fumbled their way toward the bedroom.

Between kisses, their hands roamed over each other's clothes, peeling away layers as though they couldn’t bear any barrier between them. At one point, he whispered her name:

“Kat…”

Severus’s voice carried a note of hesitation, as if he were trying to stop the inevitable, but she didn’t give him a chance. She pushed him firmly onto the bed, straddling him with overwhelming confidence.

“Please,” she whispered, almost urgently. “I need this.”

Those words were enough to shut his mind off completely. In that instant, there was no past or future, no questions or answers. Only the present existed, the present they shared, tangled in each other.

Katya guided the rhythm of the night with intensity, while Severus worshipped her as though she were a goddess made flesh. Every kiss, every touch, reminded him of that sense of absolute connection he had only ever felt with her. Throughout the night, his body became a map that he explored with devotion, trying to engrave every inch of her into his memory.

When the early morning light began filtering through the windows, they were still clinging to each other, as if afraid the other would vanish. Katya breathed heavily against his neck, and Severus, for the first time in a long while, didn’t feel the need to think of anything but the warmth of her body next to his.

Now, as he watched her sleep, he couldn’t help but wonder if he was falling into a trap again. Perhaps she was his drug, and he, an addict willing to ignore any warning just to have another taste. But, for once, Severus allowed that part of him he always suppressed to take control.

With extreme care, as though afraid of breaking the spell that enveloped them, he reached out and let his fingers graze a loose strand of Katya’s hair. The touch, though barely perceptible, sent an unexpected warmth through his skin, a warmth that was not physical, but something deeper. His fingers lingered for a moment on the strand, tangling slightly before letting it go, as if his mind were memorising the feel, the silky texture of something he knew didn’t belong to him completely, but for a brief moment, was his.

The room was immersed in a peculiar silence, the kind only found in the early hours of the morning, when the world seems suspended between sleep and wakefulness. The faint light filtering through the curtains fell on Katya's face, illuminating her features with a soft, almost ethereal glow. He found himself watching her, studying her as if he wanted to imprint every line of her face in his memory: the delicate curve of her lips, the way her lashes cast tiny shadows on her cheeks.

For the first time in a long while, Severus allowed himself a moment of selfishness. He didn’t want to think about tomorrow, the secrets she kept, or the possible consequences of being with her. He just wanted to stay there, in that frozen moment, lying beside her, feeling the gentle rise and fall of her breath, allowing himself to believe that, even if only for that night, he could be someone else: someone not trapped between duties and regrets.

He closed his eyes for a moment, letting the scent of her hair — a light blend of perfume and something more natural, uniquely hers — surround him. The exhaustion of the past days finally caught up with him, and, without realising it, he fell asleep. But this time, there were no dreams to torment him, no visions of her to keep him trapped in an endless cycle of desire and frustration. For the first time, he rested in peace.

Suddenly, a loud, sharp knock shook the living room next to the bedroom. Severus jolted awake, the deep echo of voices in Russian beginning to filter through the door. Still half asleep, he squinted and saw Katya sit up abruptly, rigid, her face pale and alert.

“What’s going on?” he asked in a low voice, watching her with a mix of irritation and curiosity.

Katya, visibly nervous, ran her hands through her hair, smoothing it instinctively.

“I think it’s Nikita... and Emil,” she whispered quickly, as she searched for her shirt on the floor.

Severus frowned. Goodbye to the enchanted bubble, he thought.

“What are they doing here? You said they wouldn’t be here.” She turned to look at him, annoyed by his tone.

“They weren’t supposed to be…” she replied, buttoning her shirt with trembling hands. “I think…” Katya caught a few scattered words from her friends through the door. “Something happened at the camp.”

Before she could hear more, a male voice echoed from the living room.

“Katya! Ты здесь?” (Katya, are you here?)

Katya sighed and, adjusting her clothes, opened the door and quickly stepped into the hallway. Severus remained by the slightly ajar door, just enough to observe and listen to what was happening.

In the living room, the tension was palpable. Nikita stood, his face flushed with anger and his blonde hair completely dishevelled. Beside him, Emil threw his coat onto the sofa with a sharp gesture, his torn shirt showing the recent chaos. Both of them looked on edge, exhausted and frustrated.

"Что, черт возьми, произошло?" (What the hell happened?) Katya asked in Russian, folding her arms, her gaze fixed on them as she tried to grasp the gravity of what had happened.

"Пожиратели смерти." (Death Eaters), Nikita growled, gritting his teeth. "Это был полный беспорядок. Они напали на магглов недалеко от лагеря, подняли их в воздух и пытали на глазах у всех." (It was a complete mess. They attacked some muggles near the camp, lifted them into the air, and tortured them in front of everyone.)

"Некоторые из нас пытались помочь." (Some of us tried to help), Emil added, looking at Nikita with a flash of resentment in his gaze. "Но никто не смог их остановить, пока они не исчезли." (But no one could stop them before they disappeared.)

Katya frowned, clearly shocked by the severity of the situation, but her concern was palpable. "Вы в порядке?" (Are you alright?) she asked, her eyes shining with a mixture of worry and curiosity.

"Мы целы, да, но это не то, что можно игнорировать." (We’re fine, yes, but this isn’t something we can ignore.) Nikita took a deep breath, running a hand through his neck, visibly shaken. Then his gaze shifted toward the slightly open door to the room, as if a small doubt had started forming in his mind. "Are you alone?" he asked, switching to English, his voice a little softer but full of curiosity.

Before Katya could respond, Severus' figure emerged from the room with calm steps, his unmistakable presence filling the space. He approached Katya and stood beside her, adjusting his robes with that characteristic calm, his expression impassive.

"No, she’s not," Severus replied in his usual cold, indifferent tone, fixing his gaze on Nikita with an intensity that didn’t go unnoticed.

The atmosphere in the room shifted immediately, a tense silence filling the space. Nikita and Emil exchanged a look of distrust, while Katya, in turn, watched Severus warily, still processing his unexpected intervention.

"Professor?" Emil asked, raising an eyebrow in some confusion, as if he couldn’t fully understand the situation. Katya quickly nodded, her gaze fixed on Severus.

Severus gave a slight smile, almost imperceptible, but his eyes remained deep, filled with a dangerous calm.

"Severus Snape," he said, his tone chilling the air even further. "Friend... of Katya."

Nikita squinted, crossing his arms, clearly sceptical. "Yes, we saw you leave together at the camp," he muttered, his voice full of suspicion. "The attack was a few hours later, you’re lucky you weren’t there."

"Precisely," Severus responded with a calm that seemed almost ironic, taking a step toward them. "Many of my students were at the tournament, so I’m interested in knowing what happened. It seems the situation was... chaotic, wasn’t it?"

Emil, still irritated by what had happened, huffed in disgust. He walked toward the counter and picked up the wine glass that had been left there. His gaze was fixed on the liquid as he pondered what had occurred.

"That's putting it mildly," he said bitterly. "It was a public attack. They set fire to tents and attacked muggles as if they were toys. Who does something like that in the middle of the World Cup?"

"The Death Eaters, obviously," Nikita interjected in a sombre tone, fixing his gaze on Severus as though trying to assess every word that left his mouth. "And... we thought the British were civilised," he added, with a sneer, snapping his fingers. In an instant, cigarettes appeared in his hand, and with a gesture, he offered one to the others. Katya, without thinking too much, took one quickly. Severus, however, shook his head, his posture unmoving.

"What about the Malfoys?" Katya asked, her voice tense, searching for answers in the fragments of information she had received.

"They fled, Kat!" Emil exclaimed, his tone filled with frustration. "They didn’t even stay to help the injured."

"With that kind of scum you work, Kat," Nikita replied, visibly annoyed, his voice laden with disapproval.

Severus, still and serene, maintained his composure. He slightly tilted his head, calmly observing the interaction, while Katya smoked her cigarette with vigour, her eyes fixed on the smoke that dispersed into the air, as though trying to dissipate the tension of the conversation.

"Did you see who led the attack?" Severus asked with carefully controlled indifference, trying to steer the attention away from the growing conflict between Emil and Nikita.

"We didn’t see much more than the masks," Emil answered with a resigned gesture, shrugging. "It was clearly organised, but I focused on helping some players who got burned in the fires."

"They came, sowed chaos, and disappeared," Nikita added, his voice thick with bitterness, as though the words themselves had left him exhausted.

Severus processed the information quickly, his expression impassive as he tried to hide any trace of emotion. "They’ll likely send the injured to St. Mungo's Hospital," Snape commented with a distant calm, almost as though it were not an issue that truly concerned him.

Emil shot a sceptical glance between Severus and Katya, his distrust still palpable in the air. "You need to leave here, Kat," Nikita insisted, his tone urgent and defiant. "Forget about your stupid…"

"Заткнись уже!" (Shut up already!) Katya exclaimed, cutting him off abruptly, casting a warning look at Nikita.

In that moment, Severus understood everything. Katya didn’t trust him either. He watched her intently, noting the tension in her posture, the uncertainty in her eyes. With a polite smile, though tinged with subtle irony, he said:

"I believe it’s my time to leave," he said, his tone calm but determined. Katya looked at him, concerned, as though his departure was more than just an ordinary goodbye. "It was a pleasure, gentlemen."

The professor watched her in silence for a long moment, trying to decipher the true reasons behind her secrecy, after which he sighed softly and nodded, resigned.

"Alright. I’ll walk you to the door," Severus said, his tone softer now, and Katya returned a tense smile, though her eyes reflected some sadness. When they reached the door, he gently took her arm, pressing it lightly. "Severus, I’m sorry," she whispered. "I hope that..."

"Don’t worry, Kat," Severus replied, his smile empty, almost mechanical. "I don’t want you to think you owe me any explanations, please." He closed the door behind them and, without another word, placed a chaste kiss on her lips, a gesture that lacked all the passion they had shared the night before. "We all have our secrets. It’s been a nice moment, I hope to see you again soon."

Without saying anything more, Severus took out his wand, adjusted his robes with a precise movement, and prepared to vanish down the hallway of the flat, leaving Katya behind to face the remnants of that night. But as he began to move away, he couldn’t help but look back, certain that the incident at the Quidditch World Cup was just the beginning of something much darker.

Nikita let out a low grunt as the young woman returned to the flat, as if Katya's presence in that country was tearing him apart inside, before once again turning his full attention back to her. His gaze was filled with concern, but also with palpable anguish.

"You should take care of yourself, Kat," he pleaded, desperation clear in his voice. "You have to leave here."

Katya, her face marked with sadness, lowered her gaze, clearly embarrassed by her own situation. Her voice trembled as she spoke.

"I can’t do it, not until I finish what I started here," she said firmly, but the doubt shining in her eyes did not go unnoticed.

"Are you mad, Kat?" Nikita exploded, his anger erupting like a repressed volcano. "They’ll kill you if you stay here, spying for your father."

Katya closed her eyes for a moment, struggling to swallow the words she wanted to say, feeling the weight of the truth crushing her. Then, her voice cracked, and her eyes filled with tears.

"I have no choice!" she exclaimed, her body shaking with contained fury. "I promised I would, Nik" she whispered, the anguish resonating in every word, like a distant echo of an unbreakable vow.

Nikita snorted, furious and frustrated, starting to rant about Katya’s father. But before the words could explode into something more hurtful, Emil, who had been quietly watching Katya's pain and distress, understood. His voice came out soft, almost calm, trying to stop the storm unfolding in the room.

“Nik, stop,” Emil said, his tone firm but full of patience.

Nikita looked at him, stunned, as if he couldn’t believe what he had just heard. His face grew even more severe, his frustration taking over.

“You too?” Nikita challenged his husband, his voice filled with disbelief.

“Don’t you realize, Nik?” Emil responded, his gaze fixed on his friend, almost as if he wanted him to finally understand. “Katya has no other choice. It´s Pyotr Borislov, who we are talking about. None of us can stand against him.”

The words fell like a stone over the room. Nikita stared at his husband in confusion, his eyes searching for answers he couldn’t find. But before he could say anything more, the sound of Katya’s sobs filled the space, heartbreaking and full of despair.

“Why, Kat?” Nikita asked, the hardness of his voice softening in the face of his friend’s obvious pain.

Katya nodded slowly, her face drenched in tears. The sadness and sacrifice were clear in her eyes, as if she had accepted a burden she could not escape.

“I need to get away from them, get away from that family. They've come back for me, my brothers, they've been harassing me again.”

Emil sat down beside her on the sofa, taking her hands in his, the contact sought to offer some comfort in the midst of the emotional storm. Nikita, seeing the scene, snapped his fingers with a quick, precise gesture, making a bottle of wine float towards them. Imitating Emil, he sat at his friend’s feet, watching the situation with a mix of discomfort and concern.

“It's the only way I can get out of that family. My father promised. Once I do my part, I'll be free. I won't have to go back to Russia, or work for them or see them ever again. It's just a job, and I'll be free.”

“What has your father asked of you?” Nikita asked, his tone serious, not breaking his gaze from Katya. “What exactly does he wants?”

Katya hesitated for a moment, her mind struggling with the truth she was about to release. Finally, her words came out, trembling but clear.

“He wants... he wants direct contact with the Dark Lord” she confessed, her voice barely a whisper. “He believes he’ll return and that, with his influence, he can take full control of the Russian Committee.”

“Fucking bastard,” Emil cursed, his voice full of contempt, as if the hatred for Katya’s father consumed him.

“Why does he want that?” Nikita asked, frowning, still not understanding the magnitude of what was happening. “He’s already in power in the Committee, what more could he want?”

Emil looked at him with a seriousness that went deep. His grave tone answered with a bluntness that only years of disillusionment could provide.

“What else could an ambitious bastard like him want, dear?” Emil paused, his gaze fixed on a distant point, as if searching for answers in the air. “What more power is there after basically being the leader of a country?”

Katya took a deep breath, her body exhausted by the tears and the weight of her own words. In a quiet voice, almost a whisper, she completed the revelation.

“He wants to become the Supreme Wizard,” she said, as if she had just let go of a breath. “It’s his greatest dream. He would sacrifice anything for it, even his daughter’s life.”