#did you think I started playing a visual novel because I wanted to really challenge my hand eye coordination CRABS TO YOU CRABS TO YOU ALL

[nellydreadful]

I play for story, and voted accordingly, but I will say I have to take mechanics into consideration with regards to whether they will get in the way of my completing that story.

I have the reflexes of a drunk slug and I’m prone to simulation sickness. If a game is a twitch heavy action challenge that requires me to do precisely timed movements in order to progress, or if it’s a first person 3D game with a lot of movement, then it flat out does NOT matter how great the story is. For me, the story will suck, because it will end with an abrupt horrible cliffhanger. Because for me it will end when I either get stuck on one action scene in the middle or when I have to go throw up and lie down in a dark room for an hour.

ok ok ok

[plutoslittlerkive]

I want to love you.

Tate Frost x AFAB reader!

Hi babies I’m back with another banger or wtv those YouTube mfs be saying but yeah hii I’m taking another break from Tiktok (Princessofmagix) Lol you should follow I’m pretty and kinda funny! But yeah I recently got back into otome and visual novels and guys when I found Tate Frost..? I went bonkers so I wrote a lil something but guys, hear me when I say:

PLEASE READ THE WARNINGS I’M NOT PLAYING WITH Y’ALL!

Warnings: Noncon, manipulation, Kidnapping, Stockholm syndrome, triggering sexual themes, mentions of past trauma!

But yeah enjoy!

•

“You’re fucking crazy.” I spit. His eyes traveled like an elevator down my body, eye-fucking me in the process. You know I have to hand it to them, the people who warn others about manipulative men.

They weren’t kidding, this guy’s seriously an actor, even worse an artist. A con one at that but I couldn’t help but commend his artistry, even as I found myself bound to his bed by ropes and held down for him, like the perfect prey. He eyed me like it too.

The talent was crazy but I think part of me was more mad at myself than him, maybe because I took pride in the fact that I wasn’t naive, well, not as much as expected from a traumatized person.

Not to get too much into detail but I’ve been deceived, later healed enough to start giving out the benefit of the doubt but I wasn’t stupid, not enough to fall for obvious love bombing but THIS was anything but obvious…and yet again I’d been deceived.

Fooled to believe I’d been loved.

Usually, at this point, I would fear that I’d never love again, never trust again, but live? This situation goes beyond my wildest nightmares.

“Can you blame me Sha? You look divine like this…”

My eyes narrowed but his words made me dizzy. He always did, but that’s what love was; a disease. One I’d tolerate though couldn’t stomach but finally for the first time it made me sick, this man was a monster. I understand that perfectly well, yet my body still hasn’t gotten the memo.

He had access to every part of me now but he sat across the room and continued to taunt me.

“I hate you,” I say staring away at a wall

“Well, that’s a shame sweetness, 'cause I adore you~”, He smiled ever so sweetly.

“Shut up.” I glare but he shoots up and grabs my ankles pulling me towards him. I struggle and start to scream but he immediately grips my throat, my eyes widen, not from his harsh grip but from the cold metal I feel against my thigh.

Almost instantly my eyes began to water and I trembled beneath him. He stared down at me, his dominance utterly petrifying, but he wanted to make sure I understood my position, fully grasped the situation I was in.

He then softened his hand. I cautioned my breathing, too afraid that I might accidentally set him off enough to rid me of existence, but he leaned in and pressed his forehead against mine and simultaneously my tears fell.

“I thought you loved me…” I struggled

He pulls back and tilts his head.

“I do love you?” But I scoff

“You’re delusional. This isn’t love.”

“Oh and that’s where you’re wrong sweetness,” He keeps the blade steady but focuses on my eyes.

“Believe it or not I’m honored you decided to trust me enough to be that vulnerable with me. To let me into your past. I’ve listened to you, comforted you…and it’s all been out of love.”

I clenched my teeth and he slowly sunk the blade deeper, enough to scare me.

“And what kind of love equates to threatening to kill me?” I challenge, he smirks.

“Our kind.” He says before pulling the blade and his hand away, but his hand didn’t stray too far as he gently traced the curves of my hip. My breath hitched as I looked up at him.

“You see Sha, the difference between me and all your other relationships is that they didn’t really love you.” My face went cold as ice.

What is he-..?

“MY love for you is overbearing…so much that you can’t even take it. So much that it overwhelms you but,” He sets the knife aside. Leaning down he kisses up my thighs, stalking around my arousal, and I whimpered in anticipation.

“Even if you can’t understand, your body knows that I love you… and it knows I would never lie about that.” He says soothingly, his thick accent laced with allure.

My mind began to shift into fight or flight as his kisses grew closer to my core.

“Tate no please stop..!” And before he could touch me there, he pulled away and let out a sigh before leaving the room.

As I found myself in the room alone my heart began to race, bro this man was out of his damn mind. I took time to breathe but my eyes quickly got to work scanning around his room.

Prior, I never took the time to take in my surroundings the other times I was here.

I was too busy being blinded by his “act”, and my alibi had to be the fact that we never had sex before, he always respected my boundaries and I cherished that about him, knowing I’d never seen that gentleness in anybody else.

But it wasn’t even him actually, and I was currently in the room of a stranger, but if there was one thing I knew for sure, I couldn’t stay here!

Suddenly the door swung open. And there he was…with a deck of playing cards?

“You know I’m quite worried about you Sha, don’t trust me, don’t trust your own body, ” He locked the door before walking over to me

“But I don’t blame you, you’ve been through enough.” He pulled up a chair and sat next to me, reaching over I flinched as he gently wiped my stained cheek, though his touch only made me want to cry again.

“No matter, I thought we’d settle this with a game. Wanna see what your subconscious thinks?” I yanked away from his touch and turned away to the other side of the room, once again making friends with the wall.

“You’re disgusting, I don’t want to play shit with you.” I spat

He chuckled, “I’m afraid it’s the only way sweetheart, besides I think you’ll enjoy what I have in store if you win~”

My brows furrowed as I looked back at him.

Unless it was my freedom he had to be out of his mind entirely if he thought I’d enjoy anything else and right I was.

“I can see you're on edge but I’m being completely honest, I care about you. And because I’m not a total monster I’ll take how you feel into consideration.”

My brows furrowed even more as I stared into his eyes.

Gee, thanks.

“I trust your body so the rules are simple Sha,” He coos moving to sit beside me on the bed.

“I’ll hold up three cards, and if you can pick my favorite, you win.” He began to trail off

If I win…I’ll set you free.” My eyes widened.

Wait what- he can’t be serious… but the way he looked off into the distance, he meant what he said…he was serious, and I let out a shaky breath

“But if you win, I finally get to fuck you, and you’re mine.” My body lost all warmth, dread took hold of my body as I started to hyperventilate. I shook my head and pulled against the ropes.

“Tate n-no don’t do this p-please don’t-!“ He shuffled the deck, eyeing me as I struggled, begging him to have mercy. But it just made him smile.

“I’m serious, are you listening-?!” I screamed out. He put a finger up to his lips effectively hushing me, I knew well then to upset him.

“Tate I-“

“Pick one Y/N.” He immediately cuts me off.

As he held the cards in front of me I quickly broke into a cold sweat.

He could take everything from me… and I wouldn't be able to stop him.

I looked at the cards. I just had to get it wrong and the odds are in my favor but, I’m use to being so unlucky.

“The middle one…” I spoke meekly.

He immediately looked down at the cards, staying quiet. The suspense was killing me and I’d rather it did, anything to take me away from this man. Before I know it he looks up at me and smirks.

“I love you too Sweetness”,

Before I can think he throws the cards aside and crawls on the bed, dragging my hips up to his. I had no time to react as my throat tightened and tears dripped down my cheeks.

Just my luck.

He swiftly pulled down his boxers making my eyes widen, as he ran his tip along my lips.

“S’been a long time comin'” He chuckled aligning with my entrance.

I try once again to pull away, no longer caring about upsetting him.

“No p-please I can’t- you’re too big I won’t be able to take it-!” But it was too late and the pressure quickly entered my body. I winced as he slid in every inch, tears nonstop falling to the sheets as he kept a harsh grip on my hips.

“Fuck!” He hissed

I panted heavily trying to cope with the pain of feeling him so deep against me. I whimpered as he pulled my hips closer, raising one of my legs up to kiss along, as if he was trying to soothe me.

Keeping my leg up he thursted in me once more allowing his dick to reach a newer depth.

“You’re so fucking tight” He groaned lifting my hips to pick up the pace.

He was relentless and rough but I still couldn't adjust to his size as he forced my body to take him repeatedly. My body tensed as surges of pleasure felt like an electric current in my body every time our hips met.

“a-ah~ Tate please-!“

“What’s that baby, such a pretty little thing, do you feel good?“ He teased

I hated him. I swore I did but the way he towered over me, he was so much bigger, stronger than me and it showed in the way he manhandled my body, as if he truly owned me and I was his doll.

He slowed down and buried his face in my neck, focusing on precision rather than speed. He whispered sweet words in my ear, telling me he loved me and I was made for him...and that I was perfect.

I clung to him and held on as he kissed and sucked along my jaw even biting me, but everything felt so gentle, his ease caused my body to relax against him and I whimpered as I allowed myself to fully submit to him.

I would never make it out alive if I didn’t and part of me wanted to accept him. Maybe he did love me and I just didn’t understand. Or maybe being forced away from the rest of society was finally catching up to me? Either way, this was my life now.

As I came to the realization he gently pulled away slightly and wrapped a hand around my throat squeezing lightly, my body tensed pleasurably once again as I closed my eyes taking everything he gave me.

But when I felt him pull back to me I flinch and cry out suddenly as I felt consistent harsh vibrations against my clit. My mouth stayed open as I tried to take in the mass amount of sensation. My breath left me quickly as I arched my back into his growing fast pace.

“Do me a favor and hold this for me baby.”

The tears never faltered, though now they were a symbol of how good I felt, and my eyes fluttered as I looked up to him and the wand he rested above my clit.

“Tate...I’m so close I can’t-“ I cried but he pressed the wand down harder and stared down at me sternly.

“Hold it.“ He repeated.

I couldn’t tell in what way he meant but to play it safe I did both. Taking a hold of the wand I listened to him when he demanded I keep it in place. My body started to shake violently and I felt the overstimulation building up in my body. As I held it in place he let go of my neck and used both hands to hold my hips before thrusting harder.

My head instinctively falls back.

“May l cum please?“ I ask, tears still falling down my face.

“You plan on leavin’ me?” He asks

I started to pant heavily, desperately needing to let go.

“No, no I’m yours I promise I won’t leave, I’ll never leave-!” I struggle, beginning to find myself in a state of hysteria.

“I love you! I promise to stay,” I cry

He immediately takes hold of the wand allowing me to convulse, letting out a loud guttural moan as I came, gripping the sheets.

As I tried to come down from the high, he pulled the wand away and embraces me, thrusting harder to chase his release. I reach up and kiss along his neck trying to return the same feeling he previously gave me but, he quickly bit down hard on my neck trying to quiet himself as he came, pouring every last drop inside me.

He slowed down his thrusts before maneuvering me to lay on top of him and he stayed deep inside.

We soon caught our breath as I laid my head against his chest.

“I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you…” I whispered, the weariness finally weighing down on me as I closed my eyes. He gently stroked my back pressing a soft kiss to my forehead.

“I forgive you baby” Was the last thing I heard before I fell asleep.

•

Guys c’mon now I can’t believe y’all let him scam y’all like that, what happened to the original plot of the movie?? But seriously if you guys ever find yourself in a situation like this it’s absolutely not healthy please don’t be afraid to seek help! This is purely fantasy! Lol but yeah thank you for reading I love y’allz <3

Likes, comments and reblogs are so appreciated!

[meggannn]

Games I Played in 2024

I played a lot of games this year (finished 33 but dropped a few others) and thought I'd write up some quick reviews. Didn't include Metaphor Refantazio since I only played the demo of that (really enjoyed it though), but I did include Hades 2 since I put in 100 hours into it and I think it's pretty obvious I like it lmao. listed in chronological order of when I played it

Howl: Hate to start out with a game I dropped, but I was just really bad at the puzzles in this one lol. You play as a deaf woman who is immune to the "howling plague" which turns people into feral beasts, so she alone travels the land to help villagers and try to find a solution. Really neat concept, I was just bad at the grid-like puzzle system.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits: 3/5 Thematically it's maybe a story more appropriate for children, in that you play as a young woman charged with taking care of spirits who have moved on and looking after the environment, but the combat was hard enough that it felt more suited for adults, which made me kind of wonder what the target audience really was. Visually it's stunning, and it's got all the elements of a typical AAA game these days (collectibles, puzzles, zones to explore). I found the plot a little simple, like if Disney wrote the game and Pixar animated it, but the gameplay could occasionally get hard. I've never played a soulslike game before so I can't comment on whether it is appropriately challenging for a "soulslike," like some have debated.

Persona 5 Tactica: 4.5/5 I enjoyed this one! The gameplay feels like Fire Emblem strategy set in the Persona world, which can be a bit simple in the main story maps but gets increasingly complicated in the challenge/side maps, especially those where you have to accomplish an objective in one turn. The chibi art style might turn people off but this feels very at home with the main game's story and themes with two surprisingly fun new companions.

Venba: 4.5/5 What a surprise I like the cooking game about a family adjusting to life and dealing with Asian diaspora. I think it could've been longer because I was enjoying the recipes but it did make me cry. Phenomenal soundtrack too.

Eastshade: 3/5 The idea is that you're a painter and you can walk around an island and capture the scenery on your canvas to fulfill requests from locals. Unfortunately it felt more like Crafting: The Game which wasn't really what I signed up for but it's still a relaxing time.

Dépanneur Nocturne: 3.5/5 A short little game I picked up randomly. You go shopping at a convenience store late at night and find some weird things on the shelves. Unexplainable, cute, kinda fun.

Hidden Through Time: 3.5/5 A cute little find-the-items game with the ability to make your own themed maps. There was a lot of variety in the levels.

Yoshi's Crafted World: 3/5 I played this at May's when I was catsitting at her house lol. Cute time-waster for a platformer I'd recommend for kids but honestly got a little grindy at the end.

Hades 2: (Personal GOTY) 5/5 Though it came out in May, I played this pretty much throughout the year. It is in Early Access, but I truly believe this game has more polish and content than most finished games have on release, so in my heart it counts. Melinoë is a wonderful character, there's some real depth, heart, and humor to the writing, and the world has gotten even grander and denser than in Hades 1. The stakes are high in that she has to defeat an undying Titan over and over again to save her family, but the game still feels quintessentially Hades while also reshaped to fit Mel's character and journey. I feel like the team knows exactly what they want and what they're doing. Supergiant doesn't miss and I'm very excited to see what future updates hold.

Synergia: Dropped. This is a cyberpunk visual novel with robot yuri about an overworked detective who purchases a new household android for company. I ended up putting it down because the writing was... mostly fine, but when it stumbled, it felt very awkward and unnatural; I also realized the main writer was a man, which made some of the "oops, I have to sleep naked" lines coming from the childlike android feel fetishy at times. It wasn't constant, but it was prevalent enough to bother me. Still I've seen some wlw enjoy it anyway or even embrace those aspects, so what I don't like someone else might.

Harmony: The Fall of Reverie: 3/5 This one has a neat concept. Polly, the main character, is tasked with keeping balance between two worlds while juggling the desires of Glory, Bliss, Power, Chaos, Bond, and Truth, who are anthropomorphized characters you can agree or disagree with in their direction to lead humanity. The gameplay idea is that you can see the consequences of your choices branching out before you make them, which at times is really cool because it lets you plan what you want, but at times also feels like you're really just looking at the behind-the-scenes of the developer code lol.

Hello Goodboy: 2.5/5 I must've misjudged this one because I think it was either for real little kids, or it just wasn't translated well. It's a story about a kid and his dog in the afterlife. Felt approachable for teaching kids how to play a video game for the first time.

Hohokum: 3.5/5 At first I could not get into this for the life of me but then it clicked after a few sessions and now I think really fondly on this weird, abstract experience that is more of a toy than a game. I only mark it down because I found the map so damn confusing.

Pentiment: 5/5 No notes, full stars, going right up there on the shelf of "games I'd recommend to Disco fans." This game officially made me a Josh Sawyer fan. I didn't think I'd get invested in a story about 16th century Bavarian monks but I cried several times.

A Tiny Sticker Tale: 4/5 A cute puzzle game set around the idea that you can pick up stickers of items and people, and place them somewhere else. Nice for an afternoon!

Pyre: An excellent 4.5/5 that I look more favorably on in hindsight than when I was playing; I want to give it a 5/5 rating but something about the combat really didn't click for me. You have been banished from the Commonwealth after an unmentioned crime, and after finding allies, you discover you can guide them to partake in ancient rites that will grant ascension back into the Commonwealth one at a time (if you're successful). To earn everyone's freedom, you basically have to play basketball while juggling all three of your main player characters on the field, who all have different abilities and movement speeds, and I struggled with that. That said, the story is Supergiant at its absolute peak, and I think it has the best soundtrack of all their games, which is saying a lot. There's light character roleplaying, but the main choices are made for you in how well you play fantasy basketball: the game will move on whether you win or lose, and the story will adapt.

Landlord of the Woods: 5/5 I really enjoy Madison Karrh's games and Landlord of the Woods is no exception. It's a short puzzle game about finding a new job and showing up on your first day... except your job is a landlord to a community living in the woods who do not want a landlord. Lighthearted yet also creepy, ironic without being jaded, it's delightfully unique.

Insomnia: Theater in the Head: 4/5 A short narrative/puzzle game about a woman's struggles with insomnia. Really captures the energy of all the wild thoughts running through your head at 2am.

Detective Grimoire: Secret of the Swamp: 3.5/5 Starting to show its age but I really like detective games where YOU have to figure out who did it. It is also fortunately not very punishing but you do have to think a little.

Roadwarden: 4/5 This gave me maybe the closest feeling of roleplaying Dragon Age Origins that I've had since playing Pillars of Eternity, just with a smaller budget and largely text-based. You play as a Roadwarden, who is charged with keeping the roads of a peninsula safe from monsters and bandits; but you have another job from your supervisors to see if the peninsula would be open to trade in the future, and would require new merchants and changing leadership. You can be a hero, an asshole, you can sell out the villagers, or quit your job and live with them... there are lots of small discoveries and connections to be had in this game.

Sarawak: 3.5/5 Another short little game, this one a literary mystery set in Oxford and Malaysia, about a woman investigating her parents' histories. I find myself really enjoying these small narrative adventure games as I get older.

Catlateral Damage: 2.5/5 Wish I enjoyed the "cats knocking stuff off stuff" game more, but truthfully it got a little boring after ten minutes.

Planescape Torment: 4/5 Clearly a long-beloved game for a reason, and I see how it inspired Disco Elysium. The combat is horrible and mechanics are old as balls, but the story and writing are top-tier. You play as a man who wakes up in a morgue after dying with no memory of who he is, and you have to hunt down your memories through the clues your previous lives have left you. But it's not a detective story, it's more about reinventing yourself and deciding who to be in your new life. The OG Harry du Bois, in a way.

En Garde! 4.5/5 What a goofy game! It's a quirky, funny action/adventure game that fully embraces the swashbuckling energy of fencing with a woman lead, which is a nice difference. The characters are flamboyant, the lines are overdramatic, and the game is very self-aware of its genre and embraces it. Found the enemy waves a little overwhelming at times but nothing insurmountable, it just has a lot of mechanics.

Robotherapy: 3.5/5 An interesting little premise about a robot that wants to be a therapist. The writing is fine, but occasionally weighed down by its need to be funny; still it's got a few interesting twists.

Lieve Oma: 3/5 A short story about a child who goes walking in the woods with a grandmother hunting for penny buns throughout the years. This kinda touched me because I never knew my grandparents well.

Hatoful Boyfriend: 4/5 Yes, I'm about a million years late to this game. Turns out the pigeon dating simulator is, in fact, really interesting, genuinely funny, and an absolute horror show at times.

Lego Horizon Adventures: 3.5/5 What the hell, it has Aloy shooting machines and Varl loving comic books and Sylens as a DJ. It definitely feels like it was made for kids who have watched for years over their parents' or older siblings' shoulder as they play the more difficult Horizon mainline games. I did wish it were longer and the gameplay a little more complex but I had fun with it.

stitch.: 4/5 Great little puzzle game where you group certain numbers of stitches together to form shapes with a truly INSANE number of puzzles.

Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery: 4.5/5 A short narrative adventure about an artist trying to paint "the finest scenery" with some simple puzzles. It reminded me a lot of Ghibli films, maybe not as polished but with some really heartbreaking twists and moments for me about inspiration, communing with your fellow artists, and also the passage of time.

Wavetale: 4/5 A 3d platformer about environmentalism and worker's rights that takes place in a flooded world with only boats to get around... until Sigrid discovers a supernatural ability to run/ride on water thanks to the help of a mysterious shadow. I didn't think this was going to get as deep as it did, and while I think it did go a little long, I respect the vision even if the platforming was kinda clunky.

Summerhouse: 3/5 Another game that's more of a toy than a game. You unlock different walls, windows, roofs, trees, people, etc. to build your house. I like the style of this one, just wish there was more of everything.

Between Horizons: (GOTY RUNNER-UP) 4.5/5 Hidden gem of this year! Despite having just a few things in common with Mass Effect 1, it reminded me a lot of that game (red-haired default female protagonist on a spaceship suddenly thrust into a position of authority and tasked with tracking someone down). It takes place on a generation ship deep into its journey when suddenly systems are sabotaged and rebellion looks like it's brewing. Stella, the new Chief of Security, has to find the culprit before the mission reaches a point of no return. REALLY good puzzles in this one imo, I actually had to pen-and-paper some stuff to figure out who did what.

Dungeons of Hinterberg: 4/5 Another hidden gem in which dungeons appear around the modern-day Austrian Alps, sparking a sudden wave of tourists and dungeon-crawlers to visit. Part Zelda and part Persona, you explore dungeons by day and hang out with friends and locals by night. The game questions us on if the tourism brought to a small town as a result of the magic spawning there is actually helping, or if the capital and greed it brings might change the village for the worst. The game is about 1/3 relationship sim, 1/3 combat, 1/3 puzzles; I enjoyed all three to varying degrees but I think the puzzles are the strongest.

Paper Trail: Another grid-based puzzle system I dropped (I'm noticing a pattern). You play as a young woman who runs away from home to go to college, and she can "fold" corners of reality to make bridges, connect landpaths, etc. Gorgeous environments and neat concept, I just struggled with it.

1000xResist: (GOTY RUNNER-UP) 4.5/5 Half of Tumblr should be playing this. It's a scifi game set in the distant future in which aliens have arrived on Earth and brought with them a devastating plague that kills most humans. A girl called Iris is the only person who seems to be not only immune but also now immortal, who is cloned/later clones herself throughout the years (first to study a cure, and then to keep company/create a new society). You play as Watcher, a clone created a thousand years later to record Iris's life, now known as the ALLMOTHER's, life, and ensure her authority goes unchallenged in a post-apocalyptic world. I can't even talk about it more without spoiling but it tackles authority and rebellion, identity, memory, bad friendships, generational trauma, modern Asian American/Canadian diaspora... If you enjoy any combination of the following you will probably enjoy it: Everything Everywhere All At Once, Evangelion, Imperial Radch, Arrival, Ghost in the Shell.

not included are my gatcha games lmao which are currently animal crossing pocket camp (og and complete) and fire emblem heroes

[warningsine]

For as much as I admire the incredible seventh episode of “Interview With the Vampire” Season 2, I cannot, in good faith, suggest other shows follow its lead. There are too many trapdoors lurking just behind the stage curtains, too many tonal shifts to ride out without being thrown from one’s motorcycle, and, quite frankly, too much patience required of the audience, human or vampire, given streaming executives think what viewers really want is a show that only requires half their attention. But despite all these challenges, “IWTV” persevered, the hard work of its true-blue theater troupe paying off in Episode 7, “I Could Not Prevent It” — an audacious endeavor that deserves to be recognized as one of the year’s most rewarding and remarkable hours of television.

A bit of context: Rolin Jones’ serialized adaptation of Anne Rice’s gothic horror classic began its journey to Sunday’s staggering episode by modernizing a nearly 50-year-old story and, in doing so, playfully yet purposefully toying with expectations. The subtextual attraction between newly bitten vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac (played by Jacob Anderson) and his maker, Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid), became beautifully, ferociously sexual (and thus textual). Louis’ identity in the novel — as a white plantation owner in Louisiana — was flipped into a Black, closeted, Creole businessman running a brothel in New Orleans. Finally, the interview was brought to the forefront as well. Rather than simply acting as a framing device, the veteran journalist Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) interrogates Louis as he recounts his memories in the present. Is his account trustworthy? Is Daniel being purposefully deceived? Is Louis?

Floating in the periphery (where it belongs), there’s talk of a vampire uprising and clandestine meetings with a secret agent (Justin Kirk!) working to save humanity, but let’s not bother with AMC‘s “Immortal Universe” right now since it’s not a huge priority in this series (and it’s not proven to be worth the same level of investment outside of “IWTV”). What matters is that the show’s boldest, biggest choices from the start led them here, to “I Could Not Prevent It,” where they paid off in ways both long-established and unexpected.

To be clear: Episode 7 should not work. The primary story takes place on a stage (which can be visually static and tiresome). What’s said on said stage is almost entirely a recap of events covered in the previous 13 episodes, and what transpires is largely foreseeable. (We’re told the “trial” isn’t real, its outcome is fixed, and the accused are merely “props.”) From a bird’s eye view, “I Could Not Prevent It” is set up to fail. Instead, the same facets that have sustained “Interview With the Vampire” thus far — its meticulous character work, its loud-and-proud melodrama, and its persistent questioning of its unreliable narrator — send the most pivotal hour yet soaring to new heights (even by Lestat’s standards).

An Unreliable Narrator Becomes Even Less Reliable

Let’s start in the same place the series does: with the interview. Daniel has long played the pot-stirrer, both narratively and formally. He asks the questions, he pushes Louis to delve deeper here or skip ahead there, and he will ultimately be penning the book that doubles as an annoucnement that vampires exist and a memoir, of sorts, for Louis. But his interruptions don’t just keep his subject honest. They keep the series honest, as well. If a scene’s sympathies feel misplaced (like when Daniel won’t stop asking “Did you eat the baby?” as Louis recounts how difficult that moment was for him) or when dramatic situations start to tip into hammy territory (as they regularly, wonderfully do), the candid questioner will break his subject’s highfalutin reverie and bluntly return them both to Earth. His recurring interjections may be frustrating for audiences wholly enraptured by the primary timeline (aka the past), but they serve a higher purpose: making it clear that Louis is an unreliable narrator. (And, I would argue, they’re fun! Go Daniel!)

The legitimacy of Louis’ storytelling is more heavily scrutinized than ever in Episode 7, although Daniel doesn’t deserve the credit for calling him out. It’s Lestat, albeit still via Louis’ memory, who provides an alternate version of various milestones, as he tells the “jury” of his companion’s alleged transgressions. First he argues, way back when they met, it was Louis who hunted him, not the other way around. “How do you not know that it was your own voice, Louis? Speaking your own unspeakable desires? Screaming them in the darkness in the hopes that I would come to you.” Their he said/he said back and forth isn’t a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, but — much like earlier rebuttals from Daniel made us wary of taking Louis’ word as gospel — the dispute over their origin story does plant the seed of doubt in Louis’ version of events.

And tees up Lestat’s next accusation: that Louis blackmails him into turning Claudia (Delainey Hayles) into a vampire, despite Lestat’s vehement, law-abiding protests. The scene itself plays out fairly close to what we saw before, but what may seem like trivial details to the less-than-impartial jury are hugely meaningful to the “IWTV” audience. The basic proceedings don’t change, but the motivations for them do. In Lestat’s recounting, Louis’ desperation to have a daughter is clearly misguided — what first seemed like a compassionate gesture on Louis’ part is now painted as a selfish act that would (and did) damage Claudia’s life as much as her makers’. Remembering it again, back in the present, Louis cannot deny his actions and admits that Lestat’s retelling is more truthful. “That is how it happened,” he says. “I didn’t think it at the time, but yeah.”

Louis’ ugly makeover (if, of course, we can believe anything Lestat claims) continues when Lestat shares his side of the couple’s physical fight from Season 1 — a vicious beatdown fans have long-suspected had more going on than what was shown (given that the couple disappeared upstairs for a significant portion of their brouhaha). The original depiction saw a jealous, vengeful Lestat use his superior powers to pummel his partner bloody. Now, in Lestat’s apologetic recital, he’s still the aggressor who goes too far, but he was also reacting to Louis’ own ruthlessness. Lestat, he claims, asked to stop, but Louis insisted on seeing their brawl through to a mortal end. “I’m gonna take this hand here and wrap it around that scrawny neck of yours,” a maniacally laughing Louis said. “I ain’t gonna stop until your eyes pop. Then I’m gonna find a big ol’ butcher knife and chop your head off.”

While not intended to justify Lestat’s frightful reaction, seeing Louis in such a state reframes the target of Lestat’s vitriol. It shows the audience a vampire literally begging for a fight, rather than a victim getting tossed around like a ragdoll, and it makes Lestat’s ensuing apology — on stage, in front of humans and vampires alike — all the more affecting. (As does Reid’s heartrendingly earnest performance.) The blame is shared. The results are, too. And their romantic saga grows all the more complex.

Nothing Tops a TV Show That Uses Its Time To Dive Deep into Characters

Phew! All these (alleged) twists and turns within established lore are enough to spin superfans’ heads, but “I Could Not Prevent It” isn’t focused on easter eggs or fan(g) service. It’s focused on characters. In addition to introducing all the aforementioned layers of our main duo — strengthening their twisted love story as much as it expands their emotional depth — Episode 7 doesn’t forget about its other creatures of the night. Santiago (Ben Daniels), as the prosecutor in a trial without a defense attorney, elevates himself to coven leader and gets to savor every second of his vengeance (except for those delightful moments when Lestat goes off book and puts Santiago in check). Madeleine (Roxane Duran) is mostly playing catch-up (she’s new to the group), but she still gets to flex her unbreakable backbone when she sacrifices her life by pledging loyalty to Claudia instead of the coven. Armand is similarly sidelined — made to watch as the vampires he betrayed are put through “a stoning” — but steps up in the only way he can, when he uses his powers to manipulate the audience/jury into saving Louis’ life.

Speaking of: For as much of the hour is dedicated to reappraising the past, Episode 7 isn’t strictly relegated to looking backward. Major, major shit goes down in “I Could Not Prevent It,” from Armand’s last-minute attempt at a do-over (tune in next week to see how he and Louis got over Armand’s betrayal) and Claudia’s tragic demise. Oh, Claudia. Always forced to be her own lone advocate, she doesn’t let Lestat’s apology mid-murder go unchallenged. “Real pretty. You dropped him like an egg from an airplane — he’s fine now, you apologize, and all is forgiven. We poisoned him, he’s not dead — he’s standing right in front of us — can I cry and say that I’m sorry, too?” She goes on to cite how she’s always been caught in Louis and Lestat’s “stormy romance,” which makes her fate here all the more fitting, and all the more tragic. Like she says, Lestat didn’t return for her. He didn’t travel across an ocean to seek revenge on his pseudo-daughter. He’s there for Louis, and just as she was born to heal their marriage, she dies because she helped break it.

Watching the sun steadily eradicate every particle of Claudia, as she sings the song she came to hate yet still tied her to the coven she longed to join, is painful, memorable, and fitting. Too often, Louis and Lestat treated her as a prop in their play, but she never accepted that reductive assessment. She always fought for herself, and she continued to do so until the bitter, all-too-early end.

If You’re Gonna Go Big, Go BIG

Which leads us to the final key element that makes both the series and the episode so successful: unabashed theatricality. Beyond setting so much of Season 2 — and even more of Episode 7 — in a literal theater, during an actual play, “Interview With the Vampire” is fearless in its willingness to go for those big melodramatic moments. Claudia’s death is harrowing enough before adding the song, and doing so could’ve tipped the scene into moment-ruining soap. The same risk applies to Lestat’s lengthy apology (not to mention his overt scenery-chewing throughout the “trial”) and so much of Louis’ grandiose storytelling to this point.

Trusting the actors to sell these scenes is half the battle, and even though it was clear from Episode 1 that Reid, especially, could sell sunlight to a coffin-dweller, seeing what he does with his brightest spotlight so far is nothing short of spectacular. But it’s just as impressive that Jones and his writing team, along with directors Craig Zisk, Levan Akin, and Episodes 6 & 7 helmer Emma Freeman can balance so many shifting tones without sacrificing any emotional weight. How? I don’t pretend to know, but “IWTV’s” extensive range seems to be rooted in character. The vampires’ god-like perception of themselves justifies the excess, and their inextinguishable humanity keeps them grounded. Lestat and Louis may be immortal (and thus more amenable to the pretentious, narcissistic depictions of whatever they deem important), but they also can’t repress the human nature they were born with. They’re still caught up in petty grievances, a desire for community, and individual attachments, which makes them immensely relatable even when they’re mocking us, their human viewers, as “complicit, repugnant, and appalling.” (Don’t worry, Santiago — we love you for it.)

Episode 7 combines the same moments of unblushing camp, biting humor, and piercing drama as the rest of the series, yet it’s able to hone them all to fit a hard-hitting hour of television. There are still lingering questions waiting to be answered in next week’s finale, but Jones has set up his last hour to focus more on resolution and catharsis than teases and cliffhangers. I still can’t believe Season 2 was able to keep the real Lestat offscreen for six of its eight episodes without spiraling out of control. Using visions of absent characters to make up for their absence is typically a terrible idea, yet “IWTV” proves itself the exception to a very good rule once again. Even as a rare example of courage in a timid TV climate, the audacity inherent to this choice and so many others isn’t notable solely for its bravery. It’s necessary for the show to work as well as it does.

To these vampires, anything less wouldn’t be enough.

Grade: A

[kimbapisnotsushi]

who do you think is addicted to games on their phone? maybe which games?

ooooh this is a fun one!! let's get it!!

(also let's studiously ignore the fact that a lot of them would not have had smart phones you could play on in 2012 LMAAO)

kenma obviously and i think he's willing to try any game once - whether it's platformer, retro 8-bit style, romance visual novel, rhythm games, match 3, whatever. the fun is in the trying and seeing what the games hold, and who knows? he might find something he really likes!

he DOES have a few ultimate favorites tho he really likes pokemon go (which i maintain that EVERYONE has bc it's funny as hell that way) and mmmm i'd say some kind of rpg/mmorpg or story-driven game

(not including monster hunter bc we know he has that on a handheld already and i don't know if they have mobile games for that)

i think lev would be a big cookie run ovenbreak fan LMAAAO. it's a super easy gacha system and all the cookies have really fun designs and stories that never seem boring to him!! his favorite cookie is space doughnut cookie bc he thinks it's fucking hilarious that they have cookie aliens in the cookie universe

tendou really likes visual novels and will download every single one he finds, whether they're thirty minutes long or take days of playing through. he loooves a good story and cool art and being able to impact the plot, and isn't particularly picky about the genre - he just wants it to be fun!

osamu, fukunaga, and yukie are all avid players of food fantasy (which was developed by the same company who did love nikki dress-up) and if you've never heard of it i totally recommend it!! it's so much fun and has gorgeous characters/art and a fun story and fun events. i haven't played in a while bc updates can take up a lot of storage which i currently do not have (RIP) but it's the only game i consistently re-download other than candy crush and pokemon go LMAAAO

(yes it is about anthropomorphic foods. no i am not ashamed to admit i am in love with some of them. they are your friends and teammates and you can battle with them and it's SO MUCH FUN)

semi DOES play love nikki dress-up which tendou finds hilarious not because of toxic masculinity or whatever the fuck but because "eita HOW in the world do you get good scores you literally dress like a grandpa on our days off"

he also really likes the music!!

i think watari really likes farming/cozy village life sims and if it's the type where you can name the characters around you he names everyone after seijoh (and when he has even more characters than that he starts branching out to other teams LMAAAAO)

the mayor is oikawa obviously

the twins def have a game that they can challenge each other/co-op in so like maybe brawl stars or something??? aran has it too bc of fucking course they want to play with him and aran drags kita into it who drags oomimi who drags akagi and the twins get ginjima and suna to download it and so the whole of inarizaki basically has this one game they all play with each other and know a lil too well

bonus pics of some of my food fantasy crushes:

[frostehburr]

Games I 100%ed Between Scrambling to Put Up and Away Holiday Decorations

So... Been a while since I've actually put stuff up on the internets.

I was particularly busy with IRL nonsense, specifically: putting away Christmas decorations followed by putting up Valentines decorations that only lasted one week before I was ordered to put those away and put up Spring decorations because, yes, my family decorates for ALL holidays and seasons. This year is different because St. Patrick and Easter are in the same month, granting me some real downtime for once.

I bring all that up because the games I 100%ed recently were very short and easy.

The first one being One Night, Hot Springs! A very very small visual novel with adorable art about a trans woman celebrating her friend's birthday. Honest, I was intrigued because I'm trans and wanted to play something that was about a trans person. My options were very limited in that department. All I got left is Celeste.

Anyhow, it's FREE on steam and it's a small part of a bigger visual novel that costs about $5 on Steam. The creator is npckc and their art is consistent with all of their games. Thought it would be nice to drop the name so anyone who stumbles on this post can at least consider supporting them.

Next game was Shadow Burglar, a stealth game that made my computer's fan go haywire. I put all the settings on low, how was it still going nuts?

Well, aside from desktop issues, the game played very well. However, there was no save points. Meaning, you have to play the entire two levels in one go. The achievements were barely a thought since I got them instantly. Although, I'd imagine the last one would be trouble for anyone who has no idea what the Konami Code is. Hint: Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A.

Shadow Burglar was free as well bu I don't really think it's worth the time to invest in. Maybe if the developer expanded the concept to a larger game but as is, it's best to focus on other games.

The last game I played, on Steam, during this time was Fable (Anniversary Edition). I've stated before that Fable 2 and 3 were super easy and could be finished in little to no time. I still stand by that even with the first game because the only actual grind was finding all the keys, books, chests, and stuff for the doors. Everything else was a cake walk. Mostly because almost all the achievements had two methods of unlocking them. Didn't even have to open the Demon Doors since flipping one off gets you the achievement.

Oh there was this one issue with a glitched npc that wouldn't let you play the mini game for Twinblade's doll. I got past it by giving him some gems and slowing time.

That was it for the games on Steam. As for Playstation... Have to admit... I purchased a psn subscription.

As painful as it is to admit. I had to because I couldn't get my old PS3 fixed nor could I find a refurbished one nearby. Wish I knew a reliable repair place because I enjoy playing my games on discs rather than stream but I don't so I'm doomed.

And the one game I streamed on psn was the Sly Collection. I already have to original discs but since PS4 can't play PS3 discs I was stuck with the streaming.

It didn't get too bad until the Ms. Ruby boss fight. Which has you match buttons as the icons slowly creep towards Sly. Issue with the streaming was that it lagged a lot on that level so I lost 11 lives to Ms. Ruby because the stream would not register the inputs I made.

The lag did not get better after that. I ended up having to watch Panda King's level in slow motion and Clockwork froze twice! Thankfully, the lag let up once Sly 2 started. It was smooth sailing from there. Got through all of Sly 2 and 3 nice and easy.

Until I had to do the challenges in Sly 3.

Not to say they were hard, far from it. They were just tedious. I did not like the challenges one bit. Something about putting a timer on something drives my anxiety through the roof and I freak out more because of it.

After the challenges were done I just had four mini games and the Sly Collection was 100% complete.

And despite Nintendo being the family friendly company with easy games... 100%ing a Nintendo game is a nightmare! So I had the bright idea of avoiding Nintendo stuff for some time. Only recently restarting Pokémon Scarlet after seeing the teaser for Pokémon ZA.

This puts my total amount of games completed (for these past few months) at 7. 3 from Steam and 4 from the Sly Collection (yes, I'm including the mini games as a separate game much like PSNProfiles does.

[lehdenlaulu]

Game asks: 5, 9, 14, 22 😁✨

Thank you, love!

5. Game(s) coming out that you’re looking forward to

First of all, Dragon's Dogma 2! It coming out in this year's March was such a delightful surprise. The original game from a decade or so ago was really interesting and in many ways innovative, though it has remained pretty obscure to larger audiences. Even I came across it pretty much by chance.

It's not that I mind the recent trend of tactical/isometric RPGs (though I've never been that big a fan of turn-based, as someone who grew up on the OG Infinity Engine games, RWP all the way), but an open-world action-adventure is still a welcome change (Starfield, bless its heart, doesn't count). I've also never been into the JRPG genre, but DD is an interesting case because while it's a Japanese production, it doesn't feel like a JRPG, aesthetically or otherwise.

Anyway, feast your eyes on the latest trailer!

There are others that I'm looking forward to as well, like Awoved, Broken Roads, Star Wars: Outlaws, and Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 (though with the developmental weirdness and the complete overhaul of the entire concept of the game that followed, I'm more cautiously curious than excited now). But realistically, I only expect one or two of them to actually come out this year.

Oh, and there are some cool visual novels coming out that I'm looking forward to as well, like Made Marion (currently in Early Access with Robin's route already playable), Call Me Under (which I hope has avoided the issues the studio's last two games, Errant Kingdom in particular, had), Imperial Grace, Tenebrae, and When Stars Collide.

9. A game you played completely blind with no prior knowledge of and enjoyed/loved

Huh. It's pretty rare for me to go in completely blind, though I usually don't go out of my way to look things up either as the joy of discovery is a big thing for me. But... I guess I could say the first Dragon's Dogma? I did not have many expectations, and while it wasn't the most brilliant thing ever and had some frustrating mechanics, it was super enjoyable (until the endgame bits ugh, but that's a me issue I guess).

Oh, and Enderal, of course! It's safe to say I Had No Idea What I Was In For.

14. A song that’s sure to hit your nostalgia buttons

Hah, how nostalgic do we want to get? Though a song specifically narrows things down a little, hmm.

Honestly, the first one to start playing in my head was Malukah's gorgeous Beauty of Dawn for The Elder Scrolls Online, but my brain also protests because a ten-year-old game is apparently not old enough for it to count as nostalgic. 😂

Something really old, then? How's A Pirate I Was Meant To Be? 😎

22. A game ending that’s really stuck with you

Well. The thing is, I'm apparently chronically allergic to finishing games. It's not that I lose interest, exactly, I guess I just don't like things to end or something? So I'm basically what you might call the complete antithesis of a speedrunner, I have to do literally everything else first and I often find myself loading an older save if I feel like the main quest is proceeding too fast (depending a little on the type of game, of course). 😅

So this is a bit of a challenge for me. Also, endings are tough in any media from a writing standpoint, truly satisfying and impactful endings are difficult to pull off.

But... even though I haven't technically finished it, I think I have to say Enderal. I mean, there are several possible endings, but they're all emotionally impactful, make sense, and will haunt you for a long time afterwards (as does the entire game, really).

Talk to me about video games?

[talenlee]

Game Pile: I Was A Teenage Exocolonist

Watch this video on YouTube

Script and Thumbnail below the fold!

I was a Teenage Exocolonist is a game from Northway Games that came out in 2022, a year when I am more and more feeling like media production did something weird to affect me, personally, deliberately. It launched on Basically Everything, including macOS and Linux, which speaks to a desire to include people in this big sprawling game that Wikipedia calls an RPG, that the Steam copy calls a Narrative RPG and which I keep thinking of as a dating sim.

[pops, neutral expression]

In this game, you’re going to play a character that starts out as a ten year old on a colony ship, which then lands and explores the story of a human colony on an alien world, for the first time in history. You follow the character across a sequence of years, confronting challenges, learning about who you are and who you want to be, developing experiences with other people, which you will save and slot into a deck of cards you then use to overcome challenges later. This is a game I find incredibly exciting and I like playing and I like enjoying is experiences it offers me and that’s great. Especially if you know me and my personal challenges grappling with playing and enjoying visual novels.

[scrolls]

When I say it’s a ‘visual novel’ or ‘dating sim’ I want to do that in a way that properly puts respect on the term. Because I think it’s very reasonable to describe I Was A Teenage Exocolonist as being in the same genre as Roommates, in the same way that Wolfenstein 3D and Battlefield 1941 are games in the same genre. There’s a lot of fundamental ideas that are lined up, but one of them has access to a lot more different ways to express their ideas.

There’s a pre-emptive sneer in the critical space around visual novels and dating sims. When Dokidoki Literature Club was The Topic, there were a lot of people like me, who don’t play many games in the genre, talking about one game that was doing something remarkable that they hadn’t seen before, and used that to suggest this game elevated the form. I found this discourse tiresome, because the game didn’t really do anything that surprised me, which was I think a byproduct of my being aware that it wasn’t doing anything new in the genre. That whole period made me cautious about talking too decisively, too seriously, about what the game genre does or has in it, because what I’m mostly aware of is the things I don’t know about. Ahah, people muse, what about these interesting ideas of a game that tells you it doesn’t want to play with you? Isn’t that interesting? Isn’t that something new? All while ignoring that the game is very much not doing that, and also, that this is something games have been doing for decades in that genre.

I’m not saying I’m a better critic than people who were impressed by Dokidoki Literature Club mind you.

(Maybe a little)

Point is, that it’s very possible to describe IWATE as a visual novel and dating sim and have that feel like I’m presenting it in the wrong way. I could just as much try and call it a deck builder, or a life simulator, or yes, a roleplaying game and those wouldn’t be wrong ways to describe it otherwise. Thing is, why NOT describe it as a dating sim? It’s a game where the mechanics of romances and relationships are front-and-centre, with room for players to explore them, and it seems to me that they’re as important as any amount of shooting Geth is to Mass Effect. If you want to define ‘dating sim’ and ‘visual novel’ down to the point where this game can’t be included you’re kind of paring down what those genres can even be in a way that’s deliberately designed to exclude almost every form of those games that doesn’t fit a very narrow band. Basically, it’s saying ‘these things are boring because anything that isn’t boring isn’t one of them, definitionally.’

And if you know me, you know how much I don’t tend to buy definitional arguments when it comes to game experiences.

So.

IWATE is a dating sim.

It’s a really, really good one.

It’s a visual novel.

It’s a really, really long one.

I am not a big reader, as may surprise those of you who see the amount of words I put out or the books I have to engage with for my study. I do not, typically speaking, like reading a lot, and it’s partly because I need to do A LOT of reading. My reading is compulsory and it’s slow and it’s difficult. When I don’t have to read – not BOOKS at least – I do kinda try and do that instead for my leisure time.

There’s a lot of reading in IWATE. It is honestly so vast a reading task that I do not feel confident – a mere twenty four hours of playing through the game – being confident about what is or is not in the text. I can’t say that there’s not some plot spur or some specific idea that I personally wouldn’t like, because there’s just so much of it. And what’s more, as a game, any given play through is going to show you just one particular version of it.

A text where there are multiple versions that you’re expected to experience in multiple different iterations is a hypertext. Some pre-digital hypertexts include things like ambigrams, sentences that change meaning when read backwards, or mystery novels. It’s not a new thing, it’s just a thing we needed terms for when we started talking about videogames, and then realised that, once again, videogames were connecting to a longer, greater culture of engagement with art.

Point is, that IWATE is an extremely hypertextual game; it’s full of different choices and ways to engage with its problems, and I think it shaped my experience of the game trying to imagine what it might be doing or might be about to do. I thought it was really interesting, and I didn’t want to just list to you, hey, here’s stuff I cared about in this game, in a way that meant when you played the game (because I think odds are good you will like this game). Part of what I liked about IWATE’s experience was the way that the game I engaged with in the beginning wound up presenting totally reasonable changes to my expectations. Basically, stuff I thought I’d care about in ten years when I was ten, I did not care about the same way – my relationships were shaped by randomness and circumstances and I wound up feeling entangled in a story in a way I wouldn’t have chosen to be.

This enmeshing is really interesting and I know when I loop back through this story, I’m going to do it without these changes being unexpected. It’s going to change how I relate to things in this game, and for that reason… I kind of don’t want to show you too much about what’s in the game. Hence this video being full of slow pans across promotional art and uh, me.

But I don’t want this to just come across as a sort of token effort of a video, I don’t want you to look at this and come away with ‘wow, IWATE is a big game and Talen hasn’t played all of it yet, because that would take ages.’ What I want to talk about instead, and what I keep thinking about as I play IWATE is the work of one Roger Caillois.

<intro to Caillois>

Roger Caillois or ROGER KY-LOIS for those of you who’ve only ever read his name rather than heard it said aloud, was a French intellectual whose career started out before World War 2 and kept on publishing until he died in 1978 and then, because he was influential and wrote a lot of stuff that’s still being translated and published, kept publishing until 2006, which is pretty good running for a dead guy. If you want to frame him as positively as possible, Caillois was part of an academic tradition that sought to involve as many people as possible from as many different places, and founded the academic journal Southern Cross, which helped introduce authors like Jorge Luis Borges and Victoria Ocampo to French-speaking audiences. If you want to be a little less charitable, he was an advocate for western oppressive and exploitative colonialism as a necessary good to correct the failings of all other cultures that existed at a level of civilisational quality below the level of white western Europeans.

What can one say, of course, but yikes.

I could spend a lot of time talking about different criticisms of Caillois from the funny (he hated clowns) to the vague (he was very good at intellectualising what was ultimately only his personal experience and generalising that out) to the deeply damaging (he didn’t respect women or nonwhite people at all). But instead I want to talk about one of his most well-known contributions to academic culture, with the proper framing up front so you know full well that these ideas did come from someone who needs to be considered with a degree of scrutiny. He’s responsible for the book Man Play and Games, which is probably? his most influential book.

In Man Play and Games, Caillois describes a lot of ideas. He talks about the idea of cultures’ destiny, reflected in their games, and about the distinction between types of play as expressive or rules structured – a paradigm of ludic play, versus paidic play. Then he describes a model of game classification, for considering different games not based on the components that are in them, or their length or size or form or outcomes, but instead about what experience motivates people to play them. And I want to talk about this model, because I think it can be a great way to look at IWATE, a game that can offer you everything.

First up, the summary: Caillois considers games to be broken into four basic motivating factors, reasons people play them, things they play them for. They are agon, alea, ilinx and mimicry.

Agon refers to competitive overcoming of obstacles. Agonic games are games where difficulty are important, games where you’re meant to be able to test your skill. You might recognise good examples of agonic games such as the Indian game chaturanga or the Japanese game go, games with a lot of open information and correct forms of play building around strategic windows. You might recognise it, but Caillois didn’t – he didn’t think Asian games produced meaningful examples of Agonic play.

Alea refers to games of chance, where your best choices are going to be consigned to the whims of fate. Caillois liked to connect this to his existing ideas of the sacred and divine, like there’s some part of people that just wants to give up offerings, but we don’t need that here, not really. I just think Aleatic games are games where players need a random, chance-based element, because they are looking for that feeling of getting lucky.

Ilinx refers to games of vertigo, of the voluptuous panic of a loss of control of the senses. This is your games where you’re losing the ability to perceive and experience things correctly. If you’re having a hard time thinking of games of ilinx, then think about things you see little kids doing: Spinning on the spot, rolling down hills, swinging on ropes. Or maybe that’s monkeys. Caillois argued that adult games of ilinx didn’t exist until the invention of the roller coaster. I argue that this means nobody invited Caillois to any really good parties. Drinking games, playing videogames while stoned, these are ilinx experiences, and you play in part to enjoy that experience of not being in control of your experiences and perception.

Then there’s Mimicry, which refers to games about being or pretending to be another person. These are games of simulation, of recreated experiences, which you may recognise from almost every videogame you’ve ever played in the past twenty years, since these days it’s very common for videogames to include some kind of character for you to inhabit as an agent. But most keenly you’ll see this stuff in play experiences like roleplaying games or life simulators.

And then there’s a secret, fifth thing.

Now, Caillois believed that games were fundamentally games of these traits. Chess is an agonic game, because it’s played for a winner and a loser with open information and people are trying to get better at it. If you’re not doing that you’re not playing chess. Which betrays one of the ways Caillois’ thinking was kinda bent at odd angles to mine. I don’t think games are agonic, I think you play games in agonic ways. There are absolutely people who play Chess in ways that aren’t agonic, they’re thinking about some other way to play, they’re looking at rules systems and aiming for a particular vibe, a joke to pull, or whatever. Chess is not agonic, it’s just we culturally, assert that chess should be treated as if it is only agonic.

And it’s that distinction – that you can use these tools to experience games in different ways – that brings me to IWATE.

IWATE is a game of Agon. There’s a lot of reading to do but at its beating heart is a resolution system that operates as a good-faith puzzle game where you spend time getting yourself the best puzzle pieces that are meant to function together in as optimal a way as you can. Your cards are known to you – you can refine them with currency and you can amplify them with stats you build up through carefully chosen processes. The game pieces are not random and do not ask of you to guess what they do in any given interaction. If you want to, you can math out layers upon layers of game strategy, and optimal play involves correct routing and correct execution. It can even be unlocked into a harder mode so that you need to do this to push through the game’s challenges. While losing isn’t the end of the story, you can always, always approach problems with a mindset that this is somehow winnable. It competes with you, it defies you, and it keeps escalating and demands you escalate with it. And then when you feel like you’ve failed, you can loop back through and do it all again, harder, and armed with more knowledge.

IWATE is an game of Alea. There is a constant presence of gambling in the game, where sometimes all you can do is consign your fate to the cards presented to you. You are going to accumulate cards (if you don’t try and stop it) and that means you’re going to wind up over the course of the story naturally building up a collection of memories that are at the very least, unreliable or weird or don’t fit together well, and the ways to approach and experience as much of the game as is possible mean you’re going to wind up believing in the heart of the cards and stacking a lot of Ls when they don’t come through for you. This is setting aside the social elements of the game too – there are a lot of things that have a chance to just go wrong because the game is unpredictable in a lot of deliberate ways. Keeps you on your toes. You need to capitalise on random respawns and lucky encounters because you won’t always get the best versions of things you want. You need to be at least a little bit lucky.

IWATE is a game of ilinx. Oh sure the game doesn’t reach in through your USB port and get you high, and there’s no playing with proprioception that you might get from a VR game or, try to scramble your brains through nonsexual sissy hypno like 1995’s Zoop — [annoyed]what do you mean I’m the only person who remembers Zoop? — but the character you play is constantly being thrown through a series of experiences that are about a sudden and panicking loss of control. The helplessness of being a child in a truly alien space aside, there are numerous encounters in the story that are about an immediate and wholehearted loss of control over your own body regardless of what the rules say. And your character does kinda get high a few times, as their consciousness is expanded by other’s actions. This is a really interesting thing to consider, because the game’s only recourse to make you experience this ilinx is not to deprive you of agency or information, but to instead instil in you what it feels like to feel this way, with metaphor and simile.

IWATE is a game of mimicry. It’s a life simulator game, where you get to settle into the identity of this kiddo in space who is going to go through the weirdest thing in their life (so far). You’re going to choose what they prioritise, who they prioritise, what they do with their limited time as a child and what those priorities mean for you. Are you a planner? Do you have set goals? Or do you just handle what comes your way? How well do you stick to the plan if you have one? Do you think you can stick to it even when confronted with an ugly, unpleasant choice? What, and who, and how do you care about things? Not just the character but you, as that character?

…

What’s that?

Why, that’s Astrid Ensslin’s music!

Yeah, so the history of games studies is a lot of white dudes in privileged positions deciding hey, you know, games are pretty much like this and not connected to anything else, and then women, queers, and people of colour (and queer women of colour) showing up afterwards to say hey, no, actually, people’s material conditions do matter here. In Caillois’ model, he conceived of those four reasons people might engage with a game, but that is missing a category that Ensslin describes in Literary Gaming: Rhythmos.

Rhythmos is engaging with a game because of the pure intersection of its rules as systems. It’s the kind of people who find the way that game behaviour all slots together neatly satisfying, the people who like finishing their turns with no leftover points, or pare a speedrun down to its minimum frames. Rhythmos is the play experience of liking the interaction of rules in interlocking systems for their own beneficial form. Rhythmos is using all eight letters on your first turn in Scrabble and it is ghost-running a Dishonored level without using any stun darts. Rhythmos cares about the things that can be done in the rules and the ways those executions can be done perfectly…

And IWATE is a game of Rhythmos, because of just how everything in its vast sprawling spread of interactions beckons to you with the idea of a perfect run. You can tell there are choices to be made, you can see there are places you waste investment and overflow and if you can just talk to everyone in the right order, if you can approach this system in the right way, map out the right direction next time, you should be able to unlock all these things and hit this goal and successfully make the whole thing fit together like a puzzle box of numbers.

Thing is, IWATE has a lot of different reasons to want to engage with it. You can approach it in a lot of different ways. Some of those ways are going to be incredibly engaging. I know I found it got its hooks in me hard and I had to literally assign myself homework with a post-it note on my desk to make sure I didn’t just open it up and vaporise a second day on it.

And there’s something else that’s covertly missing from IWATE.

See, growing up, you are going to have decisions about yourself, about your priorities, that you’re going to make and things that are going to change. You might find, like I did, at some point, that one of the people you assume is just as good as everyone else needs to get hit with a brick. Something that IWATE has space for and doesn’t do is a grapple with your own sexuality or gender, too. At any point in IWATE you can decide you want to try out some new pronouns, a new appearance, just pivot your slider over to the side and things are different now.

It’s interesting because it’s a reminder that for all there are things about your character that are a little bit defined, bumpers you bounce against on the way to your end of the story, they are also details that the game leaves entirely up to you to express. You get to choose if that’s a thing you want your exocolonist to do during the story. There is a room for where you play, where there are rules, but also there is a space for individual expression

It’s this space that Caillois – who died shortly after the first videogames were being made – describes:

This latitutde of the player, this margin accorded to his action is essential to the game and partly explains the pleasure which it excites. It is equally accountable for the remarkable and meaningful uses of the word ‘play,’ such as are reflected in such expressions as the playing of a performer or the play of a gear, to designate in one case the personal style of an interpreter, in the other the range of movement of the parts of a machine.

Roger Caillois, Man Play and Games, page 8

IWATE is an amazing game.

And it wants you to play with it.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#GamePile #Games

[marron121]

Quick announcement thingie 8: Life be like that sometimes

>Quick announcement thingie 7

More than a year since the previous quick announcement! Let's shoot for 2+ years next time lads.

Anyhow, life is hectic. The tl;dr is...

I don't have a job anymore lmao.

@lauraqwerty and I released A story told by the stars, which is a very nice game that you can play for free! If you like visual novels, give it a try.

Alongside friends, we organized the second edition of the Aaron's Awesome (Games Festival)! You can watch it on Youtube (although it's in Spanish).

In there I also released T.E.L, a free FPS which is quite decent, but I'm not really proud of.

Anyhow, that's the short gist of it. For the long explanation, read below... if you dare...

Okay, so I guess I should start with the 1st one. For the past two and half years-ish, I was working on a company that I cannot name for NDA reasons, as the main UI programmer for the game they were developing, and now I do NOT work there. Let's just say events happened and, ngl, I could be in a way worse position. For now I'll be taking some rest and, if everything goes fine, I'll be with a new job soon.

In the quick announcement 7, I mentioned we were working on a game called TWOgether. We tried to make it we the smallest scope possible, but even so the game became a bit too big and we were in a very busy situation, so we cancelled it.

Instead, we decided to go even smaller, and I had the chance to direct our 1st official project. It was an honor and alongside the amazing help of Lau, my friend and second half of our "studio", we ended up releasing A Story Told By The Stars, an hour long visual novel about two pals. I'm very proud of what we accomplished, and if you think you would enjoy it please give it a try. You can even play it on browser!

PS: When you finish the game, consider reading the postmortem, where we talked about the development process and challenges, among other things. Around 1k people have read it so far, so I must assume they enjoyed it.

On July 2022 I made the A3 (or Aaron's Awesome Festival), a quite cheap-looking direct where I displayed games from mainly friends, like a Nintendo Direct. And this year, with the help of a bunch more of my friends, including Lau, we made the second edition, the A3²!

I can confidently say that the event was a success, and I'm very happy that my friends and I were able to create something so cool. Since he's also on here, @narvalian did all the backgrounds and its animations you can see on the video.

And in that same event, I revealed AND made available T.E.L, which you can see the trailer above (a good one, if I may add). It's an FPS where you play as a young programmer stuck inside is own computer, where things happen. And, well...

...I'm not really proud of the game.

I do think it's a decent game, and I'm very happy that I managed to make some of the things that happen ingame, but T.E.L was going to be a game based around a joke with my friends that I have, and basically because I was lazy I wasn't able to make that and instead ended up making this effective, yet basic, first person shooter.

I had a lot, and I mean A LOT of ideas working into this game that I wasn't able to accomplish going into it, and instead of just saying "hey, this isn't what I want to do, so let's just stop." I just kept pushing and pushing, and I think the game reflects that.

Actually working on something I ACTUALLY want to do is something I want to become better at. Let's hope next time I write one of these I've actually improved on that.

[gyuyoungarchives]

💬 Cine 21: Highlights from Interview on Sweet Home

'Sweet Home's Park Gyuyoung - Would She Become a Monster of Tears?

Repressing the flutter of first love, it's the primal instinct to survive that prevails. For actress Park Gyuyoung, who portrayed a nurse secretly in love with a psychiatric ward caregiver in 'It's Okay to Not Be Okay' and a noblewoman of the Joseon era secretly in love with a modernist in 'The Nokdu Flower', 'Sweet Home' presents a novel challenge. Her character, Jisoo, a bassist living above Hyunsoo (Song Kang), trades her musical instrument for a baseball bat when faced with monsters.

"In previous works, I only played cute, pure, and delicate roles. In reality, I have a down-to-earth and strong side as well. The opportunity to show that in 'Sweet Home' was both a challenge and a chance." After gracing the cover of 'University Tomorrow' in 2015 as a Yonsei University student, she moved between films and dramas and was named a rising star by Cine 21 in 2018. We meet her again in 'Sweet Home.'

What was your impression when you first saw the script?

- First of all, I really enjoyed the original webtoon. I read it with a lot of fear because it's genuinely scary. I'm not good with horror, but once I started reading it, I couldn't stop until the end. It was thrilling and fun, and the artwork was great. I read it lying in bed on my phone. Personally, I found the character Jisoo very attractive and thought it would be really fun to play her, so I was excited when I got the role and found the script enjoyable. Since it's a drama where the visual aspect is important, I was curious about how it would be portrayed.

In your previous work, 'It's Okay to Not Be Okay', you infused a cute and adorable element into a character experiencing unrequited love. In 'Sweet Home', however, you face off against monsters. What kind of allure does this character have?

- Jisoo has a girl-crush charm and a strong survival instinct, making her a character who acts decisively in various situations. She also harbours a tender side within, allowing her emotions to surface depending on her surroundings. While fundamentally different from the character Juri in 'It's Okay to Not Be Okay', Jisoo in 'Sweet Home' still retains subtle emotional nuances.

In the webtoon, Jisoo has short hair, but in the drama, she appears with long, dyed hair tied back. I'm curious about the process of creating this different look from the original work.

- Jisoo is a character who plays the bass guitar and needs to look strong externally. The production team suggested bleaching and colouring my hair, and I decided on pink after bleaching about half of my long hair. It was my decision to choose pink. This was my first time bleaching, and after doing it five times, I dyed it pink. I chose pink because it seemed to convey a strong personality, and I've always wanted to try pink hair. (Laughs) It was really refreshing. I wanted to bleach my entire hair, but since the filming period was long, I transformed only half of it after being discouraged by the people around me that I would have no hair left if I continued to bleach it.

In the world of 'Sweet Home', people who become monsters transform into grotesque figures as their desires strongly manifest. What would Jisoo look like if she became a monster?

- Jisoo pretends to be strong but in reality, she is a character suppressing various sorrows and pains. I think she maintains a strong exterior and behaviour to not show these aspects. If Jisoo has a hidden desire, it might be her tears, a wish to show her vulnerable side. So, she might become a 'tearful monster.' A monster that continually cries and carries water around. It's a thought I just had. (Laughs) She'd be crying loudly, but I imagine it'd be quite frightening if water surged around Jisoo whenever she exerted her strength.

How did you develop the character in relation to her senior Haerang?

= Jisoo is a musician. Haerang was the person with whom Jisoo most empathized through music. Music can be a hungry dream for some. Haerang faced this reality and left the world. Haerang gave his most precious bass guitar to Jisoo, saying, "It's yours now," before leaving. I think that's the biggest narrative. Perhaps that's why the bass guitar felt more precious to Jisoo. Also, Jisoo has an episode tied with Haerang and a baseball bat, and I think the bat becomes a source of strength for Jisoo because of her memories with Haerang. The fact that Jisoo's main weapon is a baseball bat is also related to Haerang.

Playing the bass guitar must have been a challenge.

- It was my first time handling a bass guitar. The guitar itself was very heavy, and the strings were so thick that it required a lot of strength just to press them. My fingers hurt too. But it was fun to play because it sounded good. Jisoo's first appearance is playing the bass guitar, and I really wanted to do well, so I practised very hard. I took lessons consistently for three months, and when a specific song was assigned, I lived with the bass guitar every day. I thought I had to play the whole song myself. I couldn’t accept only playing parts of it and having a double for the rest. After the song was decided, I only practised playing that song. I still vaguely remember how to play it. I played the violin from elementary to middle school but wasn't very good, and I hadn't tried any other instrument since then. (Laughs)

You also had to perform action scenes.

- There were parts where I had to synchronize with other actors, and there were action scenes that I had to perform entirely with my own body. It wasn't easy. However, while doing 'Sweet Home', I developed a desire to do better in action acting if given the chance. It's challenging to express through physical action, but I found it fun. Since the setting is being isolated in an apartment, as you watch the later episodes, you'll see the characters, including mine, becoming more emaciated. It's a narrative flow that makes sense as we were isolated and couldn’t eat properly. While doing this, I also had to do physical action, wear bloody makeup, and deal with the cold. It wasn’t a comfortable environment physically, but I think that helped us immerse more in the work. As the episodes progress, the actors' appearances change drastically. The sound engineer said that after getting used to the actors' looks in the later episodes, when they went back to edit the first episode, everyone looked so different it was like they were different people. (Laughs) In the later episodes, things get more intense, and everyone is pushed to their limits.

What was your first impression when you saw the set?

- The set was very realistic. Places like the corridors and inside the houses looked just like a real apartment, which helped with concentration.

It must have been challenging to act in scenes facing the monsters, considering the extensive use of special effects. What did you imagine to portray fear?

- A major part of 'Sweet Home' are the monsters. It's not easy to act in empty space without the monsters, so there were senior actors on set who performed as the monsters. Of course, there were times I had to act in front of a green screen, but having these senior actors perform as monsters helped me capture the right emotions.

You've experienced many changes this year, including changing your agency and appearing in two dramas. If your acting career were a 10-story building, on which floor would you say Park Gyuyoung is currently?

- I'm still on the first floor. (Laughs) In fact, I want to become an actor whose mere name, Park Gyuyoung, holds a presence, but many people still remember me as the nurse character from 'It's Okay to Not Be Okay' or the rookie employee from 'Romance is a Bonus Book'. I think I can move up to the second floor when people start talking about the acting of Park Gyuyoung, rather than just the characters I play. There are still so many roles and projects I want to explore. I have a long way to go.

What floor were you on when you graced the cover of 'University Tomorrow'?

- Back then, I hadn’t really done anything as an actor. It's like I just parked in the underground parking lot of the Green Home apartment and have now finally reached the first floor. (Laughs)

- What does it mean for you as an actor to star in a Netflix Original?

= I truly experienced the power of the Netflix platform during 'It's Okay to Not Be Okay'. I gained a lot of international fans. It's honestly great that we're not just shooting for our country, but our content can be viewed worldwide. It makes me think I really need to do well since my acting can be seen globally. Personally, I watch Netflix so much, I might as well say I'm 'married to Netflix'. But turning it on and seeing myself there! (Laughs) Right now, I’m just waiting for the 18th when 'Sweet Home' will be released. I think I'll binge-watch it at home on the 18th, and probably watch it again.

- You often post movie stills that impressed you on your personal Instagram. Is there a role from a film that you would like to challenge?

= The role I really want to try is like Cindy (Michelle Williams) in 'Blue Valentine'. In the film, Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams portray a man and woman who fall in love at first sight, are consumed by love, and then change to the point of throwing away their wedding rings, the symbol of their love. The movie expresses this flow so well, and I think it’s very representative of how we live. Love seems to be the emotion closest to humans, and it would be great to have the opportunity to express it.

- You seem to watch a lot of movies.

= It’s embarrassing, but I started watching movies with interest when I began acting. Before that, I was too busy studying to have many memories of performances or movies. I naturally started watching more works as I acted, and I realized there is so much diversity and so much to see. I grew to like movies as I watched them out of determination. These days, I try to watch a movie every night before going to bed. Still, I feel embarrassed to say I watch a lot of movies, because the senior actors know so much about movies, and I feel there are many movies I still need to see. There's so much to learn from movies... But I am earnestly watching them. (Laughs)

Lastly, if actor Park Gyuyoung were to fall into the world of 'Sweet Home' and become a monster, what do you think you would look like?

- One of my main emotions is the difficulty of showing weakness and the desire to appear strong. This is similar to Jisoo. I might become that 'tearful monster' who carries water around. (Laughs)

Congratulations on the upcoming Netflix release.

- I really didn't know I would be on the cover of Cine21. I was named a rising star (by Cine 21) in 2018 and to be (featured in the magazine again) on the cover after two years... Next time, I hope to try something on my own.

Full Interview: http://m.cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=96829

as Yoon Jisoo in Sweet Home, 2020

[shytastemakerthing]

hello may I request a romantic twst matchup? (It's my first time doing this so sorry if it's too much or too little info 😭). I'm shy towards new people but when I'm with close friends I'm very loud and outgoing, I often need help talking to people! I'm VERY into RPG and visual novels, manga, and anime (though not much anymore). I often dislike leaving my house unless I'm going out with friends because I have sensitive hearing and get overwhelmed by crowds easily. My grades are something I take small pride in but I'm very forgetful so I sometimes forget things like formulas in science or math. I'm a sucker for people who are energetic with friends but when they're with their significant others they're more chill and very loving 💔. I try to help my friends with anything even if they don't help me back, though I hate repeating myself so I can get very annoyed when they don't understand it after 2 explanations. I'm very free about my looks and don't really care about how people think about my outfits, I often wear black and white clothes that's very girly despite me identifying with more masc genders.

A/N: Thank you very much for your request, I hope that you like it!😊

I match you with........

Lilia Vanrouge

• This wad the first and only man that came to mind as I read over your request and now it's rooted in there so deep that it ruined thoughts for anyone else.

• Right off the bat (no pun intended), Lilia is old and he has certainly been around thr block several times in all the years that he has been around. But never in all of his years did he think that he would find someone who captivated him as much as you do. I mean, what's there not to love??

• He is someone who you can be excited around and be with when you are put and about, and you are pulled into his pranks, i will tell you that now. And just because you're dating him doesn't mean you're safe from them either, it's actually worse, but never to a point where you'd actually get hurt. He loves you too much to hurt you. Whether you're out with your friends, over at Diasomnia (if you're not in that dorm. Don't want to assume you're in Ramshackle), it's always fun being around him, especially when others are involved. Bring in Floyd, and there's absolute chaos that's happening.

• But behind closed doors, whether in your room or his, and it's a quiet night, he holds you close to him. Much if he's life had been him fighting in wars and fighting. To have this peace, it's very soothing for him. Brush your hands through his hair or gently rub his back and he might actually fall asleep while laying with you. He will soak up all you have to give him like a sponge.

• He finds you're initial shy nature very intriguing. It's rather cute for him to see and it made it very fun to tease you and prank you! He just couldn't help it! Seeing you jump and near scream, the flush covering your face was just too endearing for him to resist. Than you got braver around him and then it was a challenge and he loved it.

• Being with him also means you've unofficially adopted Silver. Lilia' son is someone who is very important to him. Seeing you two interact with each other brings a teary smile to his face and he couldn't help but to start thinking of a family. He loves children after all. Please save them from his cooking........

• Lilia plaus video games, RPG will be included in this. This means that the both of you have pulled all nighters playing well into the morning. Just the two of you within the confines of his room, either your seated in your own chair, that he got for you, next to him, or you're in his lap. There's no in-between. The fae is not shy at all when it comes to physical contact.

• I can see him being into Manga a bit. This man plays with Idia, and there have been a lot of conversations so he looked into it and here we are. So, he will certainly divulge in this interest of yours. If you give him any recommendations, he will be sure to check them out!

• If he sees you beginning to get overwhelmed from a growing crowd of people, you don't have to even worry about walking out of there. He can teleport and he will be using that to his advantage to get you both out of there. After that, you're both in his dorm room doing whatever is needed to help to relax. He will refuse to leave you're side through this time. He's with you through thick and thin.

• A very attentive listener. When you're speaking with him, there will be no need for you to repeat yourself. He heard you completely, though there might be a couple of times he may ask you to clarify or elaborate on something, but never to actually repeat.

• He LOVES how free you are about your looks. Something simple? Something flamboyant? Something mysterious? He is living for it! He may even ask you to help him shake up his own style a little bit. Or even find some random articles of clothing just for you!

• Overall. Fae boy over here is smitten with you. You make him feel so young again reliving a first love that he never thought he'd feel again. Whether you're fae, human, or another species, he cherishes every moment that he has to be with you.

[splashink-games]

Potion Economics!

okay so I bought Potionomics on release. an impulse purchase. but I knew I was going to love it.

(screenshots are probably spoilers, I'll probably talk about spoilers, so here's your spoiler warning)

so again, I bought the game on a whim. my wallet cries in agony.

I love games like these where you take care of a store and some of my favourites from this genre are Moonlighter and Recettear. super fun times.

Potionomics is a fabulous game with a lot of personality, a simple, well-executed story, and an immensely fun game loop.

to start with the bad (which are few and far between).

my biggest negative for the game is that there is zero voice acting. which was really depressing. for how animated and unique these characters are, I was surprised there were no voices at all. and not like voiced dialogue. there aren't any vocal sfx. no quips. no barks. I would've loved something to make some of the visual novel aspects more entertaining

secondly, this was not a kick back, chill game where you can endlessly make potions for whatever witch, hero, merchant, cat, bird, dog, dragon that comes into your humble little store. no sir ma'am. it was a game with a time limit (which I hate btw) and stress (quite literally). 10 days to get ready and go. and then do that 4-5 times. not the potion I wanted, but not enough to turn me away.

next, we've just got a few release bugs, 80% of which I avoided by waiting like a week to play the game. but I did encounter stuff not showing up, but nothing game breaking.

so for all the lovely positives for the game.

all the characters are so great! they're sometimes cringe, but in a good kind of way. they're all kind of self-aware of their flaws, which makes them a less annoying to be around, but it also made them stronger characters because it was obvious what they needed in order to grow.

their little scenes were all very nice too! I focused on my favourites until about 70% through the game where I decided I could get all the achievements. some of them were lacklustre, maybe because of burnout or because I was hunting achievements, but I think they were all strong in their own rights. and also my favourites did not disappoint. I will always be Salt and Pepper's blood brother <3

even for the characters who I thought I wasn't going to like (cough Roxanne and Baptiste cough) I found that I couldn't hate any of the characters and the rivals are no exception. I think that's a sign of good character design, if I may be so bold.

the story is simple—uncle died, Sylvia inherited debt and needs to manage the store to win competition money. its simplicity allows the game to breathe and you can get so much more from adding details to this story like they did (rather than making a complicated story).

for example, each of the rivals. they're made to each have a main strength and an antagonistic personality. for example, Roxanne (the first rival) is a fraud who uses charm to win. we see what she needs to grow as a character, we see her strengths, and we see her goal.

I'm also extremely happy that the story is complete! which is a little counter to my "this is not endless chill game" problem. the ending wrapped everything up

and now for the absolutely delicious gameplay loop

making potions in Potionomics is a blast. all you do is put ingredients in a cauldron and try to get the right ratio, but holy moly was it fun for me. for a meticulous person like me, I loved it. spent hours on it. but getting higher tiers is kinda frustrating when you've only got crappy ingredients. the gating was real (either I had to wait for harder areas or better equipment).

accepting the requests were also fun little challenges! they weren't really required, I imagine you could essentially beat the game without them, but having to make potions with certain good traits inevitably made me actually good at making potions.

the card battling aspect was also really nice! this was one of the first times I've seen this kind (where you're not out to kill) and I loved that it enhanced the narrative aspect of the game.

one little gripe I have about the deck-building is that you always needs 20 cards. seems balanced enough. it was clearly more than enough to win me the game. but I did want to change up my tactics sometimes, which included wanting less cards. in the end, I pretty much kept the same strategy until the late game where 1. I had too much stress and needed to get some stress reducing cards and 2. I got the really good cards from maxing out relationships.

I haven't even gotten to talking about the art and the music!

the art and music was phenomenal. loved the character designs. loved the places. the animations were smooth and believable, flashy and unique to each character's personality. the art was one of the things that drew me to the game in the first place, because the cute characters and handsome characters dragged me in. I'm a sucker for them.

the music... was pretty good, all things considering. I liked the music. I liked the sound effects. but I found the audio to be the weakest aspect of the game. that doesn't mean it was weak. it was damn good. just everything else was so high quality, I couldn't pay all too much attention to it. having no voice acting also affected that, though.

Potionomics has a great story, amazing characters, and fun gameplay. there's no doubt in my mind that it's one of my favourite games of the year.

as always, enjoy gaming!

[chrisjake-cp]

History 3 Trapped Filming Diary (full English translation) - Days 1-10

Just before you start reading, a little note of explanation: the author of this diary will frequently use the character’s name when they mean the actor. I have added the names of the actors between square brackets sometimes to avoid confusion. Also between square brackets you will find some words that are implied, so I added them in the translation to make the translation a bit smoother, but they aren’t included in the Chinese text. 

The book’s author will also talk in the first person POV sometimes, refering to themselves as either “I”, “we” or “this little editor 小编”.  So each time you see me write “I”, it is not my own opinion I’m inserting in the text, but the author/editor’s. If I have anything else to add or explain myself, I’ll add it in a note at the end of the text.  

I’ll repeat: I don’t own the book so I can’t post my scans of the pictures that came with every day. So I posted some other pictures of the scenes that were being filmed with each day. These pics belong to LINE TV or Choco Media, or I’ve taken screenshots. 

Day 1-10 under the cut. 

Day 1

The first day of shooting happened to coincide with ‘Li Dong’⁕ but the temperatures of that day soared to 29 degrees. The crew was going sleeveless, but the actors were all wearing sweaters or dress shirts. Tang Yi, who had on the most, was wearing a turtleneck sweater and a suit jacket on top at one point, but he didn’t sweat very much.⁕ Meanwhile A De [Stanley], wearing a shirt and a suit jacket, was [clad] the ‘thinnest’ at the scene. When he got off work and took off his sweaty shirt, the wardrobe department exclaimed: “This shirt is so wet!”

Officer Meng’s scenes for that day consisted of eating from 10 am in the morning until 6pm in the evening. He basically ate from when he got to work until he got off work. All in all he had two large bags of rice and poured 4 liters of coca cola. Junhao [Jake] will start sweating profusely and start flushing when he eats spicy food, so as soon as the director yelled ‘cut’, the crew would immediately pass him a plastic bag so he could spit out the spicy Kung Pao Chicken he was eating.

⁕ Li Dong 立冬 literally means ‘establishing the winter’, so it is some kind of winter solstice in Asian culture. In the Gregorian calendar, it falls on 7 or 8 November. According to the IG stories of some of the cast of Trapped, it was indeed 7 November 2018 when shooting started. 

⁕ Chris apparently doesn’t sweat much, no matter how hot he gets. He says as much in his vlog as well. I envy him, because I’d just be sweating buckets like Stanley. 

Day 2

The first meeting between Tang Yi and Wenhao is also the second time that Chengyang [Chris] and teacher Jiakui [Chen Jiakui, the actor who plays Chen Wenhao] worked together. They cooperated for the first time on a movie. At that time teacher Jiakui served as the movie’s drama teacher. When Chris had gone through make-up in the early morning, he sat alone in a corner with the script. You could easily see that he was conflicted and upset. [For the other movie] teacher Jiakui was Chris’ mentor, but here Wenhao was the target of Tang Yi’s revenge.

In the process of their scenes where they faced each other, the director hoped that Tang Yi could hate Wenhao even more, but Tang Yi’s personality is subdued and calm. So how could he fly into a raging fit and still keep his calm? In a part that was not captured on camera, teacher Jiakui aggravated some lines to make Chris more infuriated. Afterwards teacher Jiakui also said that the role of Tang Yi is not easy to perform. [Tang Yi] is a young mob boss, The hate in his eyes must therefore also carry a bit of youthfullness, which is difficult to experience for normal people in the course of their lives.

Day 3

Today was the first time that Zhaozi arrived on set, and while he was bored waiting for his scenes, Zhaozi started to act as the shop’s clerk to sell suits. Apart from suits, bowties and regular ties, he even managed to sell shoehorns. By oneself, the words just kept on flying out of his mouth which left Shaofei beside him looking dumbfounded (if you want to see Shaofei’s dumbfounded meme-like look, you have to absolutely watch the behind-the-scenes on the DVDs)⁕. [Shaofei] continued to shout “If you buy a shoehorn you get Zhaozi for free with it, please someone take Zhaozi away, Unit 3 can’t stand it anymore.”

Boss Tang was tired, and took a nap in his own shop. ‘Just a little while will do. Shaofei and A De, you two be on the lookout for me, and if the director is coming, remember to wake me.’

⁕ Excellent advice. Please do watch the behind-the-scenes after finishing this book, because a lot of what is written here is visualized in the bts. The bts are arranged per episode though, and not per filming day, but it’s still amazing to be able to see what went on. 

Day 4

The set for the offices of Investigation Unit 3 is actually the office of LINE TV’s Choco Media branch. The contemporary industrial style caused the atmosphere among Unit 3 to be even more lively. 

For Unit 3’s first scene together, the director used a one-shot to have everyone appear on the scene, which meant that the first time all the actors were present, they had to have a ‘chemistry’ test. But apart from the actors, chemistry also had to be there for the whole staff, as the directing crew, the camera crew and the sound crew, really everyone, also had to follow [the actors] along⁕. I still remember that by the 20th take, everyone’s lines ran very smoothly, the shot was satisfactory and everyone was where they were supposed to be. The director and the crew were holding their breath in concentration, and just when they thought they’d succeed, A Zhi [character Zhou Guanzhi, played by Kass Tsai] forgot a line in the very last sentence hahahaha. In the end, this round took 27 takes.

⁕ The author uses a metaphor/reference here. They write 乾坤大挪移 which means something like ‘The Great Shift of the Cosmos’ and is apparently a kind of martial art from a martial arts novel. It consists of 7 increasingly difficult skill levels, whereby the 7th level is almost unattainable. In other words, shooting this one-shot scene required the whole cast and crew pulling off this great cosmos shift, and thus was a big, big challenge. 

Day 5

After we shot the scene where the two idiots from Unit 3 [Shaofei and Zhaozi] got into trouble and received an explosive scolding by Dapao [Shi Dapao, the name of Unit 3’s Captain]⁕, the director told Shaofei that she wanted to add a scene where he sat next to the window thinking about Sister Lizhen, continuing in the same mood [as the previous scene]...Everyone in Unit 3 felt that Shaofei was continuing to set his teeth into a meaningless old case. If there had only been some progress in the investigation...but [Shaofei] not only didn’t find any new leads, but he also got into trouble everywhere. If Sister Lizhen would still be alive, he wouldn’t be like this now...Shaofei really, really missed sister Lizhen. Rather than say that the director added this scene at the last moment, it’s more like she deliberately didn’t tell Junhao [Jake] that she would add this part. 

When they were shooting, the director played the music from the music box through the megaphone and from time to time talked as well, to provoke moody feelings in Jake. In the end Jake grabbed his phone and scrolled through his mother’s Facebook, and to all our surprise Jake started bawling, so much so that even after the ‘cut’ he couldn’t stop, until the director walked over and lightly patted him on the back. To be able to cry like that in a short amount of time, even he himself hadn’t expected that.

⁕ How much fun is it that the name of the Captain of Unit 3 literally means big cannon, when he explodes in anger all the damn time? 😂 I am quite convinced that in the hospital scene where Shaofei tells Tang Yi of his fortune-telling and that only a cannon can strike him down - he uses the exact same wording ‘dapao’ - it’s actually an inside joke and he may not have meant ‘cannon’ literally. 

Day 6

Today’s weather couldn’t be called very fine, and when we were shooting until 3 or 4 P.M., the daylight was almost gone, just when the filming location had large windows in every corner that reached the ground. Our funny director said “Why did the production team run out of light after 3 P.M.? Did they forget to send notice⁕ to the sun?” This caused the crew that was present to not know whether to laugh or cry. But in the end, before the sun got off work, everyone else smoothly finished their job as well.

⁕ the term “to send notice” is quite literal, but the word is indeed an entertainment industry term as well, that means to hire someone for a short amount of time or for a specific show, without there having to be a longer-term contractual agreement. So it could also be translated as “did they forget to hire the sun [to star in today’s scenes]?”

Day 7

It was a day with complicated feelings for Shaofei and little Tang Yi, as Shaofei discovered Tang Yi’s past history. 

Before going to meet the adoptive father of his lover, of course Shaofei had to straighten himself out first and shave his beard to leave a good impression. In the evening, today’s final scene was shot. Before starting filming, the director hoped that [Tang Yi’s] adoptive father could guide little Tang Yi’s mood, because the intensity of this scene needed to bring out the reason why Tang Yi’s feelings for Tang Guodong ran so deep and make everyone feel the warmth that Tang Guodong brought to Tang Yi even more. 

Under the constant conflict of raising [little Tang Yi] through much difficulties, a loud and clear slap came down heavily on little Tang Yi’s face. The silence at the [shooting] site caused the loud sound to be infinitely amplified, and the director and the crew were all shocked. When the ‘cut’ sounded, little Tang Yi instantly started crying, and the director rushed to the room immediately. On every crew member’s face was reluctance and shock. Meanwhile the adoptive father sat with his head down on the sofa, full of remorse. 

An extra tidbit from the same scene: the crew’s love for little gadgets

There are always a few conspicuous toys in front of the director’s monitor. She explained that these were toys that members of the crew who are close to her gave her to alleviate stress. I don’t know which toy is the director’s favourite?

 Day 8

For the setting of the toilets of Unit 3 we actually used the toilets in a department store. Zhaozi, who arrived at the store very early in the morning, was hit on by an older lady who was just coming into work. The lady said: “Aren’t you Zhao Youting [Mark Chao]? You definitely are Zhao Youting!!” Even though Zhaozi went on to deny it, the lady didn’t listen and believed that this handsome guy in front of her was Zhao Youting himself. 

Actually, Zhaozi passed on the above story [to us], and no one actually saw this older lady. Zhaozi often tells bluff stories with a straight face, but I [this little editor] have my reservations about its credibility. But be as it may, after he was told that he looked like Zhao Youting, Zhaozi’s acting skills immediately leveled up. So okay, whether or not the story was real, we thank this lady ‘from the legends’.

Day 9

Can I call you dad after this hug? 

I still remember the story of a friend coming out to his mother. He said to his mom: “I’m sorry if this thing disappoints you. I don’t dare to ask for your blessing. I just hope that you can show some understanding.” Through a chat message, his mother could only briefly reply: “If your other half is a good kid, I will give you my blessing.���

Many people in a same-sex relationship don’t dare to confess to the older generation and they don’t dare to ask for their blessings. Their only hope is not to be hated. It’s like that facing this society, and it’s the case when facing your beloved family. When Wenhao and Shaofei met each other, Wenhao gave Shaofei a hug. This hug must have carried [Wenhao’s] unspoken blessing. 

No worries, dear father-in-law. I, Officer Meng, will take care of everything (pats on the back). 

Wenhao and Guodong together brings its own hint of romance.⁕ The fighting was very intense that day, so much so that the police dispatched a Quick Fight Force team in concern [for the situation]. 

⁕ The term that the author uses is 腐味 (fuwei, the taste of fu). The first character, ‘fu’ is the same ‘fu’ that is used in terms like fujoshi 腐女子 and fudanshi  腐男子 (which are Japanese) but it’s the same pronunciation for that first character. So the author implies that there might have been something more than friendship going on between Chen Wenhao and Tang Guodong. They imply the same thing later in the book as well (day 60, where the two are called a CP). 

Day 10

A Mei [Stanley] who portrays A De, said that he was the expert in getting beaten [in this drama]. I say that Stanley definitely dedicated himself to taking on that role. Many times his head bumped into the wall and the crew told him to take a break, but Stanley couldn’t stop yelling “no no, hurry up, I’m familiar with it now!”

All the way through the end Officer Meng and Vixen⁕ no.1, A De, cheered each other on before ‘Action!’ [was called]. 

⁕ The word for vixen is ‘fox spirit’  狐狸精 in Chinese. I love that and I could probably write essays on this subject. In classical Chinese literature, foxes were most of the time portrayed as (mainly female) temptresses who seduced males for sex and then didn’t shy away from sucking the soul out of them, kind of like a succubus. If anyone is ever in the mood for some academic literature about foxes in late imperial China, I've got you covered  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3237790-alien-kind

So A De and Andy are constantly referred to as these foxes who want to seduce Tang Yi and snatch him away in front of Shaofei’s eyes. 

[eddiemunsonssoulmate]

He is the beast in my bones

Summary: Brash and Bright enjoy some more or less alone time together.

Rated: M for mature, S for smut and H for help I’m horny

Words: 3,1k

Also on: AO3

A/N: I fell down into the Demonheart Sir Brash rabbit hole so here you go. This is just so random and basically just PWP but who wouldn’t want to get fucked by a man like him, cmon. Also much love to @warlock-enthusiast for being as thirsty for this man as I am. Love you. For any of my followers that love visual novels with a darker theme, check the game out! Demonheart Now enjoy!

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In his heart there's a hole There's a black mark on his soul In his hands is my heart And he won't let go till it's scarred

If someone would ask her what she was doing here, she wouldn’t be able to give a proper answer. A lot of time had passed and yet, she was still by his side after all those months.

She only saw his back for now but she could picture his face in front of her inner eye.He always had that look in his eyes. That look that told other people to run. That look that drew her in.

His stern face and hard features made other people scared of him. She had been scared of him in the beginning too but it didn’t take her long to see something more in those eyes. Behind all that hatred and anger was a sadness that was still present to this day.

Brash was currently talking to some of his soldiers, even yelling at them, throwing threats left and right. They were new recruits that probably didn’t know what exactly they had signed up for, scared shitless of him. They were right, he would kill them within a heartbeat if he had to. Especially because they had to do the night’s watch, if they fucked it up half the camp could be dead by tomorrow.

The knight had never been a good man. Never will be but Bright had accepted this. He might not even be good for her and yet, when he turned around and saw her, his features softened. Only after making sure no one was looking, of course.

He was the storm and the raging tide while she was the gentle breeze and an anchor. He was a beast and a hunter while she was the prey that had been running for too long, only finding peace in the arms of a monster.

She wouldn’t want it any other way. Too many things had happened. She had nothing left but him. They had been outlaws and were no more than mercenaries at this point. Mercenaries with their own army, a roof over their head and food on the table every day. It wasn’t too bad. He needed the thrill of the fight, his whole body was screaming out for blood. They had tried to live peacefully for a while but there had always been this edge, this bloodlust inside of him.

After he had snapped really badly at her at one point during their peaceful time, she decided that it couldn’t go on like that. He hadn’t hurt her or anything but she wouldn’t stand around and watch him crumble. With their abilities it hadn’t been hard to get hired. She would help with the soldier's wound as best as she could and he would...do what he always did.

Brash walked over to her, that smirk on his lips. His body looked impressive even without the heavy armor on him. She was leaning against the wooden post of their tent when he reached her, instantly towering over her rather small frame with his lean body. The darkness was all around them, only a few torches and the campfire further away lit up the area around them a little bit.

“You’ve been staring at me quite a bit, kitten,” he said and licked his lips with that telltale grin of his.

The redhead raised a challenging eyebrow at him. “Oh? I think you’re mistaken, I was looking at one of the fine new recruits you were yelling at.”

She had a hard time keeping a chuckle inside when she saw his features change, the grin fade and he instantly had that look in his face that said he would go and stab them right now while his jaw was clenched. Wouldn’t be the first time he killed someone she might fancy or that might fancy her.

“Don’t play with me like that,” he growled deeply at her and a cool shiver ran down her spine. His voice had been one of his features that had been drawing her in right from the beginning.

“Or what?” Her back was pressed roughly against the tent post when he stepped so close that not even a piece of paper would fit between them. She knew that she was playing with fire but right now, the burn was exactly what she wanted.

He had been gone all day while she had been cooped up in here at camp and for whatever reason, she always started to miss him after a few hours. They were used to spending everyday together, he would rarely leave her side, still thought she needed the protection. It was true that she wasn’t good at fighting but she would at least be able to stand her ground now and then. In the end, she was a runner and normal humans wouldn’t be able to catch her. Right now they were lucky that their tent was a little further off from the others so the chances of someone watching them was really low. Hearing though, was a whole other story, especially thinking about what was about to happen.

“Or I think I might need to remind you that you are mine.” His voice was so deep and she was able to hear the desire he had for her in it, saw it in his eyes too.

“Maybe you really need to remind me, Sir.”

He instantly put his hand on her hips and pulled her in roughly, forcing the kiss on her lips that she happily returned.

Brash had never been the sweetest or slow paced guy when it came to them. He took what he wanted and Bright was giving it to him willingly. The aura he had was drawing her in so much, she was barely able to say no to him. She might fight him for fun, be a little defiant to rile him up but then let him have it his way. Some people might call her crazy and she probably was for loving this man but how could she not if it felt so good?

He had no trouble picking her up, his strong arms wrapping around her without any struggle. While they were still kissing and he was biting her bottom so hard that it almost drew blood, he carried them inside, throwing her down almost carelessly on the cushions of their rather large sized bunk bed.

He wouldn’t hurt her on purpose though. The knight might look like some brute that didn’t care for anyone’s feelings but when they were alone she saw the different side of him that he wouldn’t show to anyone else.

A side I didn’t want right now.

The war was long and hard, there was enough stress to release and after missing him all day long, she wouldn’t want to let him go now. Who knew what would happen tomorrow, they had to make every moment count.

Bright watched him taking his armor off, licking her lips in anticipation, still tasting him.

“Like what you’re looking at, kitten?” he asked as he took his shirt off and she didn’t even realize she was really just goggling him a little too long. No need to show him how much she actually needed this right now even though he probably knew.

“Depends if you intend to get those muscles over here soon or if I have to go look for that fine recruit.”

It didn’t even take two seconds that he was on top of her, tearing at her shirt. It had taken a few tries in the beginning but by now he had figured out how to get it off her body without actually ripping it apart. It had been such a hassle to always buy new clothes.

“Don’t say things like that,” he mumbled and threw her shirt to the other side of the tent, then looking back at her exposed breasts. “I know you only want me.”

Before she could even start a weak attempt to tease him once again he closed his lips around one of her nipples, groping the free beast with his other hand.

The moan that escaped her mouth was enough to prove him right. No one else could make her feel like this.

She knew that he had blood on his hands, blood of many people and yet it felt so right when those same hands were wandering her body, groping her, teasing her, making her feel alive.

“So perfect,” he whispered against her skin as he was kissing down her stomach before getting rid of her pants and panties.

He always loved seeing her like this, completely naked lying in front of him, the area between her legs already glistening with the evidence just how much she wanted him.

Brash sat back on his knees and patted on the cushions before him. “Come here, little kitty.”

She didn’t even question it and just got up, moving over to him. He motioned to his pants and she got to work to open them, pushing them down as far as she was able to.

His cock was right in front of her face now and he just smirked at her with those mismatched eyes. They had done this so many times before and yet, she was still as excited.

“Better get to work. Wouldn’t want to punish you for my boredom...but then again, you’d like that, wouldn’t you?” He chuckled when she leaned forward and closed her lips around his thick length.

He let out a sinful sound when he felt the soft lips around his skin and his hand found a way in her hair. Bright started to move her head with only a slight motion of his hand, taking his member in and sucking on the tip. Over the time she had learned what he liked and was able to please him but it had involved a lot of teaching in the beginning.

The wet sounds fell from her lips while his hand was urging her to take it deeper, a chuckle leaving his throat when he heard her choke a little. Nothing she couldn’t handle but for some reason, it was making his cock only harder to hear her struggle like this.

The young woman's head was bobbing on his length while he had closed his eyes now, simply enjoying the feeling of her mouth on him until the moment he grabbed her hair and pulled her back a little rougher than she had expected. She hissed slightly and he raised an eyebrow at her, his grin wide on his lips.

“Any complaints?” he asked her and his grip on her hair loosened a little.

“No, Sir,” she replied and he chuckled, leaning forward to give her a gentle kiss.

“As expected. Such a good girl.” He bit her bottom lip when they parted, his breathing a little unstable.

Brash grabbed her hips and turned her around on the bunk, handling her as easily as someone would handle a toy. His strength was still impressive to her but then again, he was a Demonheart after all, gifted with strength while she had her speed. Something she wouldn’t need right now.

She was on all fours in front of him, looking back to watch him admire her body so she started to wiggle her ass for him, ready to take him.

A loud slap rang through their tent and she whimpered, the sharp pain shooting through her whole body. There would for sure be a handprint on her left butt cheek now.

“Don’t be so impatient, kitten. You’ll get what you want soon enough,” he said with a chuckle and ran his hand gently over the spot he just slapped. Some nearby soldiers probably heard that but that even made him more proud, they would all hear that Bright was his.

His other hand ran through her wet folds and he couldn’t keep the deep laugh inside. “You’re already dripping so much, such a naughty girl.”

“Only for you, Sir,” she replied and looked back at him, biting her bottom lip to stop herself from wiggling her ass again.

“I certainly hope so,” he huffed and pushed one of his calloused fingers inside of her, causing her to moan. Her head dropped forward on the cushions. His hands were big and calloused to even just the motion of one of his fingers inside her made her go crazy inside.

“Yes, purr for me,” he said under his breath, almost too quiet for her to hear.

It didn’t take long for him to push a second and a third finger inside, massaging her ass with his free hand, enjoying the moans that fell from her lips.

“Please,” she whined and he tilted his head a little.

“Hm?” he replied with his grin back. “You said something?”

“I want your cock,” she answered but her voice was muffled by the cushions.

Another loud slap made her wince, this time it was her other butt cheek. The amount of times he had been teasing her with spanking on their early journey certainly hadn’t been a joke. He really loved doing this and she loved it too. Not something she had expected but he always got some surprising things out of her.

Bright lifted her head and looked back at him, jaw clenching a little at the pain that was still running through her body. Pain that was making her feel alive.

“I want your cock,” she said a little louder now and he pulled his fingers out, sucking them dry before he let himself fall down on top of her, kicking his pants off in the process, his tip at her entrance now, dragging along her wet folds ever so slightly.

“And here I thought you knew how to address me properly,” he whispered to her ear before he nibbled at her neck where her dark scar was located. “Beg for it.”

“Please, Sir,” she said as she tried to push herself back on his cock but he was towering over her and had his body pressed so close against hers she barely had room to move at all.

He reached around her body, holding himself up with only one arm and using his free hand to place it around her mouth before running it slowly down to her neck. “Please what?”

“Please, Sir, fuck me with your cock. I need it, please,” she begged when she felt him squeeze her neck lightly.

“Very good kitten,” he replied with a deep chuckle right next to her ear before he let go of her neck and pushed her upper body down into the cushions, his hands finding her lips and with one swift movement, he was buried inside of her.

A loud, lustful moan left her mouth, loud enough to wake up any soldier that was sleeping nearby but they wouldn’t be foolish enough to come check what happened. They knew. It was a regular thing after all.

“Shit, your pussy always feels so good wrapped around me,” he breathed and treasured the moment for a moment, just buried deep inside of her.

Bright tried to wiggle her ass a little, getting him to move, causing him to laugh again but no slap followed this time.

Instead he pulled out almost completely just to force it back in, making her squeal. He always did this at first, long and strong thrusts that hit all the right spots inside of her and she loved every second of it.

Every time the tip of his cock hit her cervix she moaned loudly, not able to hold it in. Not even the cushions she held in front of her mouth were able to muffle the sound.

“Yes kitten, let them hear you’re mine, only mine.” After the words had fallen from his lips, he started to pound her from behind with a more steady rhythm, still strong thrusts but more regular.

It made her body shake and the wetness was dripping down her legs by now, her hands clawing at the sheets beneath them, trying to handle the size of him inside of her.

His breathing grew more ragged and for a moment he got a bit sloppy in his thrusts, making her whine when the rhythm changed for a second.

Their tent was filled with moans, grunting and skin slapping against skin now, sweat running down their bodies.

“Sir, please, I’m close,” she told him as a warning because she knew he loved when they both came at the same time.

He leaned forward so his chest was pressed against her sweaty back, his lips finding her shoulder, biting down hard on it and sucking while his thrusts grew even harder. He would leave a mark on her for sure, marking her as his but she wouldn’t want to have it any other way.

“Say my name,” he requested and pounded her faster, sweat dripping from his brow.

“Brash,” she breathed out, not really able to form a clear thought. “Please Brash, let me come.”

With that he gave a few more hard thrusts that caused her to fall over the edge, her insides starting to clench around him.

“Fuck,” he growled when his hot seed started to paint her from the inside, making her moan even louder.

Her whole body was shaking but she wasn’t able to move with him on top of her like this, he basically held her in position until he was done and after he made sure every last drop of his cum was inside of her.

Only then the knight rolled over to the side and slipped out of her, causing her body to collapse instantly.

Both were breathing hard for a moment without saying a word before his hand found the way to her ass once more, caressing it a little before a finger dipped inside of her again.

“I always love when your pussy is stuffed to the brink,” he chuckled and pulled his fingertip out, holding it in front of her face.

Without thinking about it she opened her mouth, letting him put his finger inside to suck it dry, swirling her finger around it longer than necessary.

A gentle smile formed on his lips when he saw her lay here, body exhausted and mind fogged but still with happiness in her eyes.

“You did well, my love,” he said and leaned forward to place a kiss on her forehead.

“Weren’t so bad yourself,” she mumbled and yawned a little.

“And back to being cocky, it sounds like the lesson was clear enough.” She giggled at his words before rolling a little close to him, snuggling against his bare skin.

“Loud and clear, Sir. I’m yours and only yours,” she replied and kissed his jaw.

Brash laughed briefly before he pulled the sheets over them.

“That’s my kitten.

He's the fire in the sin And I burn breathing him in Now it's love suicide And I sell my soul for the high

[whocalledhimannux]

@peregrer the What. 👀👀👀 *insert John Mulaney gif of "say more right now"*

ok so when I say "the extent to which I've fleshed out the QT GBBO AU in my head is getting to be embarrassing," I truly and deeply mean it, please enjoy 1,900 words of utter ridiculousness.

first, our competitors:

Legarus - performs so poorly that viewers are a bit confused how he got on the show in the first place, a la Jamie (series 10) or that one guy who made a lime and chocolate cake in the first week.

Chloe - nice flavors and good ideas for decorations, but pretty sloppy. was up for elimination in the first week but came back with a great showstopper.

Melheret - good but not as good as he thinks he is (hence his bread week elimination because of sloppy technique), heavy-handed with the alcohol flavoring

Agape - solid competitor, not flashy but tasty + pretty results. I haven't worked out exact week-by-week themes (that would indeed be Too Much) but I imagine this is something like "Dairy" or "Caramel" or "Vegan," some particular element she just happens to not be strong on. viewers are disappointed by her early elimination

Teleus - Dad contestant. brings in a bunch of weird pans and gadgets he made up himself, does pretty well until it comes to Fiddly Foreign Foods he doesn't know (probably eliminated in French or Patisserie week)

Laela - typically has good flavors and pretty designs but technical knowledge is a bit lacking, so there are usually some flaws in the execution and she's often in the bottom half of technicals

Phresine - Grandma contestant. nails the classics but ultimately isn't creative enough to make it further.

Magus - the "Ian (series 6)" flavor of Dad contestant, often brings in foraged ingredients or eggs from his own chickens or whatnot and revives old recipes/flavor combinations no one else knows about. one week, some of those turn out to just be too weird, leading to his elimination.

Sophos - pretty elaborate decorations and good flavors (on the border of classic and new), but he tends to try a million different embellishments on everything and struggles with timing, occasionally to the detriment of technique.

Kamet - always has really interesting and different flavors and tends to do well in technicals especially, assuming he doesn't get overwhelmed. which is... an assumption (Finalist)

Costis - leans towards classic and indulgent flavors, although sometimes a bit sloppy--the kind of contestant where the judges look at his dishes and say "it's a bit of a mess" and then Paul Hollywood starts laughing because it still tastes delicious (Finalist)

Irene - absolutely stunning visually, queen of the technicals, occasionally gets the "style over substance" warning (Winner)

more details below the cut

I've gone back and forth on whether Eugenides should be in it but ultimately I decided no because I wanted to maintain a pre-show relationship between Laela + Kamet (I thought otherwise at first but then I realized I hadn't left Kamet any longterm friends or family for his finalist video and that's depressing af) and Irene and Sophos which to my knowledge hasn't happened once on the show so far? so having a married couple on top of that seems like it would be a stretch, and also then I think I'd need to make Eugenides the winner on principle and you know what? he can stand to be second fiddle to his wife for a little bit. My alternate backstory for him is that he was actually the winner of MasterChef one year (good with knives), so in the first episode Irene's first little chat to camera is something like "my husband's been bugging me for years to try out and I keep telling him he's got a skewed perspective on cooking competitions, finally I applied just to shut him up... and here we are." Her little video introduction is about how baking is a stress relief from her bigshot job. Her decorations tend to be abstract and gorgeous rather than cutesy.

Kamet, likewise, was nagged into applying by Laela, but she very cleverly framed it as she wanted to apply and wanted him to do it to for moral support. both were confident the other would get in and surprised that they did themselves. This is one of those series where everyone's friendships are immediate and obvious and super adorable (cast of series 10 my beloved...), and in particular these two are holding hands in episode 1. Laela's deep blue robe from TaT sticks in my head for whatever reason so I imagine her making an elaborate blue peacock cake or something one week that wins her star baker. somebody always does a peacock something and it's always impressiev.

Phresine is cool as a cucumber under pressure, always has lovely things to say about everyone else's bakes, and is the go-to last-minute helper because she usually comes in under the time. Irene starts out similar but as the weeks go by she starts to feel the pressure a bit more and cuts it a bit close. Sophos is the worst on timings, and mentions his wife at least once an episode. (I also played with him being single on the show and meeting Helen later through Irene and Eugenides, but this idea is too cute to pass up tbh.) Teleus lives with Relius, a fact that isn't mentioned until a few weeks in when he comments that Relius likes a recipe or gave him an idea for a flavor or something (Relius does not bake himself but will happily sample practice bakes), to the surprised delight of every viewer whose favorite contestant is the oldest gay in any given series (me, me, that person is me).

Costis tends to use a lot of chocolate and, as I said, pretty "classic" flavors--one of those people who makes a full English savory bake at some point. He's usually in the top half of the competition but doesn't get the top until one of the later weeks in the competition, which is a Honey themed week, and he absolutely nails it. The delicate decorations of his honey nut cakes and his use of honeycomb are particularly praised and that's the week he gets star baker. One of those bakers who flirts with elimination the first few weeks but noticeably improves over the course of the show.

My most, like, plot-y ideas are about Kamet (SHOCKER). I imagine he was born in Setra (I usually make Setra a non-autonomous region in my AUs) but arrived in Britain as a child due to [Unspecified Crisis] and ended up with foster dad Jeffa, who was roughly from the same region but not Setra itself; whenever Kamet wanted Setran food as a kid, Jeffa would take him to the library to find recipes and that was what sparked his love of baking. He's well-read on the subject and knows about foods from a lot of different cultures, so he's usually heard of the technical challenges even if he hasn't made or eaten them. He does a lot of fusion flavors, and is ALL ABOUT bread week.

I don't usually make the his-relationship-with-Nahuseresh-is-romantic leap in modern AUs but I think it works for this one because of the nature of the format--Nahuseresh doesn't actually appear on camera but is alluded to once or twice, ends up being Very Displeased that Kamet is doing something for himself, and during the week following Laela's elimination they have the fight that makes Kamet realizes this is actually a terrible relationship and he needs to leave now. He calls Laela to let her know what's up and mentions that, since he'll need to stay in a motel and has presumbly lost his job as a secretary (yeah working for your boyfriend is Bad, he's realized that now), he's going to have to drop out of the show. Laela, despite living in a studio flat without room to host him, immediately thinks "um fuck that" and calls Costis, and within an hour Costis and Aris and a few rugby buddies have moved all of Kamet's things into Costis and Aris's flat, where Costis insists that he'll squeeze into Aris's room (they've shared before, it's fine) and that Kamet gets first dibs on the kitchen for all bake off practices.

None of them actually reveal any of this to the show's producers. Kamet gets a little overwhelmed the following week and nearly walks away from the tent, but Costis jumps in to keep his bake from being ruined, and some soothing words from Irene + the hosts calm him down and he returns to finish. The only mention of the Drama comes in the finale, during the longer video clips they do on each of the contestants. Kamet is deliberately vague about the details of the situation, but Aris shows up in both Costis's and Kamet's videos and references the fact that having TWO flatmates in the bake off is a bit difficult because they only have a standard size kitchen, so he hasn't cooked for himself in a month and has been living off cake and savory breads. one of the hosts talks to Kamet in the tent after that clip is shown and he still won't talk about it in more detail, but says that he wanted to tell people so they could appreciate why Costis hasn't practiced as much the last few weeks (the judges scolded him for winging it a couple of times), and admits that he totally copied some of Costis's techniques for honey week based on watching him at home.

I imagine the finale task is something like an illusion cake--probably with a bunch of additional required elements because the show has been going bonkers with the finale showstoppers in the newer seasons--and Irene wins with a jewelry box containing, among other things, ruby earrings made out of candy. Kamet does a stepwell, and Costis does something architectural (I was thinking castle but something visibly Greek-ish so maybe a temple or a megaron? idk). Irene wins but they're all BFFs and that's obvious, so everyone's delighted for her. The little montage at the end reveals that Irene + Gen are expecting twins, that everybody hangs out all the time, and that Costis + co recently helped Kamet move into his own flat where he's now working on a novel (Immakuk and Ennikar inspired, obvi, leaning heavily on the honey-shared-on-the-road thing and including some recipes that actually work in the narration, albeit still written in an ancient-novel-like-way).

[Obviously not part of the show, but when Kamet mentions that it's time for him to look for his own place, Costis tries to v awkwardly invite him to stay forever and Kamet is like "nope I've got to try this on my own but yes we will go on a date once I've moved out and see how it goes from there."]

[This is so far beyond the scope of the show but also several of them go on to have more baking-related careers and have active social media presences and at one point they're all hanging out and Eugenides pulls out a camera and demands they all produce baking pick-up lines. Teleus refuses and also doesn't believe anyone knows baking pick-up lines off the top of their head or could make them up on the spot. Sophos sort of proves him right by coming up with "you're the apple of my pie," which Eugenides instantly mocks because Sophos's three greatest loves are baking, Helen, and poetry, and that's the best he can do? Helen comes up with "I like my cake the way I like my men--rich, sweet, and bright red," to which Sophos blushes on cue. Irene's is "when I'm with you, I feel like chocolate heated to 50 degrees--I struggle to maintain my temper." Eugenides protests this is more like an anti-pickup line. Irene insists this is the most accurate marriage-related baking pun anyone could ever come up with.

[Laela's is "You and I are like custard--I hope we never split." Kamet's is "You remind me of bread, because I knead you." Costis freezes for a minute and finally comes up with "Fancy a cream horn?" which produces a lot of giggling and makes Kamet slap his arm in such a way that, hen Eugenides posts this video to instagram, fans of the show all go WAIT ARE THEY DATING NOW] [by this point, yes they are] [I didn't even have to google baking pickup lines for this, guys, I legit came up with them on my own, please clap.]

am I obsessed? I might be obsessed

[meitantei-dai]

I really want someone to make an otome game styled dating sim, but like Aro-Ace.

No no, hear me out before you back off, here's the gist of it:

You play as a detective (they let you customise your avatar to ridiculous degree (yes, anime styled (IT'S FOR THE AESTHETIC YOU FOOL))) and you one day are added to a random chat with other detectives.

Few days go by, but none of you leave because you're too busy trying to figure out what is happening. It's intriguing, just who would do this and why?

And then "M" starts sending messages. Of cases. Unsolved police cases, newly happened cases, each getting more and more hard to solve on your own until you realise that you have no choice but to team up with the other detectives.

However, these detectives won't trust you at first, just like how you don't trust them. You have to first earn their trust via chatting and more over DMing them, talk about things. And you have to earn enough points with each encounter to raise your affection level to befriend them. They all have their own personalities and methods of solving cases, they also specialise in different things because their interests just went to that way. One of them is a shut in who's dead afraid of human interaction and thus has been remotely solving cases for years by having someone else go to the scene and follow their instructions precisely. Another one is a doctor, one is a mystery novelist etc etc.

And while the game goes on and cases become harder, you also have the chance of trying to solve out one more mystery on the way.

Who is "M", why did they do this in the first place, what is their goal and more over how do they have an access to these files?

It is possible to have a wrong deduction and send the wrong person behind the bars, but in that case the other detectives may pipe in to add or question something. A potential Rival Character also showing up to disprove your deduction is also possible.

Why am I not making this myself?

I only know how to write and do some light drawing. That's literally it.

Also yes, in my vision you can choose to form a platonic relationship with the character of your choosing. Though it'd be for the best to consult someone who actually understands how aros, aces and demis work, so if there was a team that'd be interested in picking this up, please do make sure to consult multiple individuals and have at least one in your team.

I personally am not one, so there's a lot of things I don't understand about it, I literally made this up because there's so little dating sim styled games that can hold my attention since I don't typically feel attracted towards any of the characters or even find them to be interesting enough to engage further with. Also many of the detective story styled ones are too easy to figure out and aren't actually giving you much opportunity to get creative and think about the cases from multiple angles (also I'm bored with the lovers quarrel styled cases, there's too many of them).

I'd be interested in one day seeing a well made detective visual novel with multiple options for how to solve the case, the possibility of your deduction being wrong, and the game just overall teaching you how to solve them.

I enjoy games that challenge me to think while encouraging me to attempt to deduce something before the conclusion, but good ones are just so so hard to find. There's also a lot of concepts that aren't sadly being utilised in this genre of gaming that much, like the chatroom function, and you don't often see visual novels without romantic plot.

As for the platform... As of this moment mobile gaming is a big thing, so I'd advice making it that, as phones are something most people have, if you manage to make it light and playable with poor Internet connection as well, you might see some interesting numbers.

If you were to create a PC version as well (which I'd personally pay to be able to play), you could switch the phone interface to something like a Skype styled chatroom or make a visual where you see the phone on the screen, but you'll see a scenery, though for this one you'd also need to make sure that the character creation would also affect the potential hand holding the phone.

Alternatively, you could add gacha elements into it if you really wanted to, like by solving a case you get X amount of something and are able to roll for something like a card, downloadable wallpapers and voice lines, things like that (disclaimer: I don't play gacha and thus I also have no idea what people get from them) .