#he called them button mashers

[eeepybee]

a horde of gamers!??!

tim drake you little nerd i love you

(Batman Gotham Knights - Gilded City #1)

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

The House Guest 2

Warnings: non/dubcon, and other dark elements. My username actually says you never asked for any of this.

My warnings are not exhaustive but be aware this is a dark fic and may include potentially triggering topics. Please use your common sense when consuming content. I am not responsible for your decisions.

Character: Bucky Barnes

Summary: an old acquaintance calls in a favour, leaving you with an unexpected house guest.

As usual, I would appreciate any and all feedback. I’m happy to once more go on this adventure with all of you! Thank you in advance for your comments and for reblogging ❤️

“Where can a man get a beer around here?” Bucky’s voice distracts you from watching the starchy boil of potatoes.  

You step back look at him as he fills the doorway. The house was built in another time. People were smaller. Or maybe he’s just big. 

“Oh, the beer stores about fifteen minutes away.” 

“Great,” he says. “Phone can’t find it. Map’s blank.” 

“Ah, yeah, up here, that happens,” you say. “Fifteen minutes driving. It’ll be at least an hour on foot.” 

“Right,” the disappointment is crisp in his voice. 

“I got a case of Molson in the fridge. Neighbour’s wife was sick and I helped out. Gesture of kindness... for anyone that drinks. You’re welcome to it.” You take a fork and poke at the potatoes. “It’ll end up in the sink anyway.” 

He inhales audibly, “you don’t mind?” 

“As long as you don’t. I don’t know if it’s any good. I’m not a beer person. Unfortunately, everyone else around here is,” you turn off the burner and lift the large pot. 

You carry it to the sink and dump the potatoes into the strainer. A cloud of steam puffs up and sets a sheen over your face. You grunt and put the hot pot aside. You lift the colander and shake out the excess water. 

You look over your shoulder and set it back down. He’s still in the doorway, watching. It must be strange. To be fair, you feel the same. You’re not used to company and he’s a far way from home. 

You go to the fridge and break off a tall can from the six-pack. You bring it to him and his lips clamp sheepishly, “thanks. Coulda waited til dinner... you need help?” 

“I got it,” you assure as you hold out the can.  

He takes it an examines the label. “More of a Heineken man.” 

“Like I said, I wouldn’t know the difference,” you shrug. 

You return to the sink and dump the potatoes back into the pot. He lingers at the door as he cracks the can. You cross to the fridge again as tension pinches the nape of your neck. You take out the butter and milk. The door sucks shut and you sniff as you back up. 

“I... never been to New York,” you say to fill the void. “I hear it smells.” 

“Stinks,” he agrees. “Born in Indiana but I ended up in New York. Home to me. Or... was.” 

“Right,” you nod as you add some milk and butter to the potatoes and grab the masher. “I grew up south of here. Small town but closer to the city. Compared to this it was a metropolis.” 

“It’s quiet up here.” 

“Sure it,” you agree. “It’s nice. Most of the time.” 

You put a lid on the pot to keep it warm and go to the stove. You turn off the steamer as the lid begins to tremble. The timer on the stove counts down. 

“I can take you to the beer store tomorrow. Sorry but I hate driving after dark. The moose don’t exactly abide by the rules of the road.” You explain. 

“It’s fine,” he takes a loud slurp. “It’s beer. It’s not...” he sucks his teeth loudly. “You know, I can’t even get drunk. The taste is just familiar.” 

“Fair enough,” you hit the cancel button before the time can yell at you. “Dinner’s ready.” 

You open the cupboard and take down two plates. You lay them out side by side and work at doling out the portions. His shadow hovers on the other side of the stove. 

“Thanks, you know,” he dares to inch closer. “You already put a roof over me, now you’re feeding me.” 

“No biggie. Just the way up here.” 

He sniffs and gets closer, peeking at the pan as you carve out a hunk of meatloaf, “hadn’t had good home cooking since... well, I been living off the microwave crap or take out.” 

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” you warn him. “It’s nothing special, I manage. As long as the meat’s cooked, I’m not complaining.” 

“Me either,” he agrees. You lift the plates but before you can bring them to the table, he stops you. He puts the beer on the counter and brings his hands to the edges of the plates. “I got it.” 

You let him take the food and he brings it to the table. You watch him then scoop up the can and follow him. It’s going to be an adjustment. For both of you. 

You put the Molson next to his plate as he’s reluctant to claim his seat, “dig in. It’ll get cold.” 

You go back to grab cutlery and come back. You sit and hand him a knife and fork. He reaches with his left hand and hesitates as you look at his metal digits.  

He clutches the cutlery and quickly retracts. You don’t mention it though you do wonder if he’s embarrassed. Why? Isn’t that what makes him special? A hero? Or whatever he is. 

“This place is old. My ma had the same lintels on her doors in 1934.” He points with his fork to the door frame. 

“Old on top of old. Those are actually from the twenties. No one was doing renos in the thirties, I’m sure you know that. Somewhere back there, one of my great great whatever’s put in a stove and fridge and wired the place up. Kept the fire stove though. Antique now.” 

“Antique, like me,” he scoffs. 

You nod, unsure how to respond. You hope you don’t think you were implying anything. You get a bit carried away. Your mother and grandmother were always into genealogy and you caught a bit of the bug. 

Or maybe he thinks you’re over explaining. He was alive. He would know all these things and could guess the rest. You bite into the meatloaf and stare at the painted trim on the plate. 

“Ma’s place was taken down. Lived near the base since dad was there and they flattened it for a firing range. Now the place in New York... drug den now. New York, glamourous, really. You’re missing out,” he tuts dryly. 

You look up at him and give a tight-lipped expression, “sorry to hear that.” 

“It is what it is. The world changes. With or without you,” he reaches for the beer and swigs. His blue eyes dart to the wall and sharpen. He put the can down with a bit of force and pats his chest. He feels around and grimaces. “I’m gonna have a--” there’s a crinkle and he slides out another sucker. “Well...” 

He waves the candy at you and stands. You watch him silently and scrape your fork through the mashed potato. He twirls the stick between his fingers. 

“It’s good,” he points to his plate, “really.” He clears his throat and shifts on his feet, “back soon.” 

He turns and marches out. You look down at your food and slice into the loaf. The grainy scent of the beer wafts over. You take another bite as your forehead creases in thought. Sam’s a funny guy and this feels a bit like a joke. 

[loneliness-of-spring]

If you were a magic girl, what would your transformation be like? Also, would you rather fight against your darling Jade or fight with~

Either way, what bliss for him, really🫶

CERUUUUUUU YOUUUUUUUUUUU. YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU 🫵🫵🫵🫵🫵🫵🫵🫵 DON’T YOU DARE PRETEND I DON’T SEE YOU BEING DOWN BAD ABOUT CATER. BLISSFULLY IN LOVE. POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK!!!!!

I don’t have a magical girl transformation myself, and I’m ass at drawing one, but I would think it’d be very flowery, specifically full of periwinkles!

I would fight with Jade, hands down. I would not win against a fight with him I am a pure panic button masher (evident in any game I play really) while he is calculated, meticulous and precise. I fear having him as an enemy 💀 If he were real I would NOT wanna get on his bad side he would obliterate me EASILY

However >_> Li Xue IS a magical girl in canon >_>

I ramble more about it under the cut

Pretend I didn’t forget her hairpin in the doodles in the third photo

Okay!!! So Li Xue has been around for quite a while (a year? Or two?), going through MULTIPLE design changes, and only now am I more capable of drawing her the way I want to. Essentially, she’s part of my own PMMM x TWST concept back when I noticed the multiple similarities between their magic systems (and possibly plot ahem timeloop theory ahem).

So far I’ve changed a LOT about her that she’s pretty different from her previous designs, while keeping the staples:

1. periwinkle theming

2. sword as her magical girl weapon

3. Traditional chinese clothing and aesthetics (mainly hanfu)

And I’ve also doodled some interactions she would have with Jade in that third photo above! Non-canon to my concept, because in canon she’s hiding the fact that she has magic in the first place. But if she were to have revealed herself as a magical girl before book 3, I think Jade would be slightly intrigued, which gradually rises during the fight underwater when she makes use of her ice magic to give him an annoying time. Would definitely treat her like a lab specimen and poke and prod at her relentlessly just to find out about her abilities and weak spots. Her magic is different, how does it work? Can she only use just ice magic? Is it her equivalent of their world’s unique magic? So many questions awaiting their answers.

In book 4 is when they start to work together, albeit only a truce formed out of necessity. She still isn’t fond of the Octavinelle trio and their roundabout manipulative tactics, but what choice does she have when stuck with an equally conniving perpetrator? She gains more insight on the inner workings of Jade’s and Azul’s minds and machinations when working with them to form a plan. When it comes to combat styles, Li Xue is definitely close-combat focused, so Jade takes on a supporting role by covering her with long-range attacks. If these two practiced together more, they’d definitely be able to come up with a whole lot more coordinated attacks, too.

It’s 5am and I don’t know how to end it off uh. Yay!

[yabsthesquare]

JSABtober day 5 🔻 Button Masher: The Big Brother

Status in my AU: 🟢Canon!🟢

(Button, he/him)

Having suffered a rough childhood and having grown up way too early, Button's whole determination in life is to make sure his little brother Cascade (he/him) has the best and safest childhood. He's the only family he has after all.

They call eachother nicknames; Cassie and Butt (affectionately).

He trains daily to be able to defend himself and Cascade from any dangers, though things turn south from one day to another...

Nobody wants to know what he'd do if his brother got hurt 👁 (slight blood warning)

This prompt got a little animation in it 😺

I made both of them brothers because their songs start the same way xD I was like "Ayo this sounds like Cascade"

[crystalelemental]

Some of my wife's coworkers will give her game recommendations, and the recent one was a game called Silent Hope. It's a dungeon exploration game, kind of a button masher. You have seven characters you can play as that go through the dungeon, each with their own battle style. It's pretty cozy, not too difficult and generally just about doing some fun runs. I tried the demo and we picked up the full game on 70% discount on the e-shop, so can't complain. Anyway, preliminary thoughts below.

Naturally, because there are seven classes and you can play as one at a time, I have to rank them. Sorry, that's just life.

Wanderer - easy worst, I do not like him. Short range, skills aren't particularly impressive, nothing he's doing is exciting to me.

Archer - Range is generally my preferred approach, but Archer is stupid squishy and I'm not particularly impressed with his skillset. He has one good straight-line shot that deals good damage, but his trap feels basically useless.

Warrior - Big slow swings for big damage. She's fine, but not a favorite. She's at least able to consistently handle things, and has a good charge attack that deals a ton while stopping enemies from attacking and breaking through walls.

Caster - Range but better. I like his skills, Gravity to gather enemies together then burst damage. It's a decent combo. I just need to get a good weapon on him. Also, his dodge is a teleport, so he can get behind enemies and out of situations where others get stuck.

Rogue - Very short range, but has skills to make up for it. Rogue has a solid offensive close-range attack, but also has ranged spin and a charge in that deals pretty solid damage too. Like Caster, she can teleport behind enemies, but this is far more valuable for her, as it means dodging a physical strike and then unleashing her heavy hitting attack. Really fun, but can be a bit squishy.

Fighter - Punch Ojou-sama. Really close range by default which frustrates me at times, but her skills more than make up for it. She has a rocket punch that draws enemies to her, then a heavy charge attack at close range that just trucks things. Her main buff is kinda whatever, focusing more on attack speed than actual damage, but it's fine.

Farmer - Easy best of the initial set. Good range on basic attacks, solid stats despite no standouts, her a nice charge that stuns for breakthrough and disruption, has a Poison Butterfly that deals poison chip damage and can confuse to get enemies attacking one another, and a passive buff that improves random stats. Notably, while I discounted that one, during a segment in a challenge section when I ran out of healing potion, it turned out one buff was passive regen. So like. Farmer does it all. I beat the first boss with Farmer, and had basic equipment. No frills, still won first try. Took a while! But we won. Farmer's crazy good.

Thing is, each run, you want to swap between all of them. They all give a permanent passive buff for the remainder of your exploration each time you switch out, with the party member leaving providing their buff. You really want to cycle though all of them, and admittedly I can't remember which one provides which stat to give an impression of their importance.

The gameplay loop is fairly long, but I'm enjoying myself overall. The biggest hangup is resource collection. Sure as shit, the second area has a lot more specific materials that you need a lot of to upgrade stuff, and it can be hard to get the rarer options like Straight Lumber and Obsidian. It makes the experience a little more frustrating, but honestly the difficulty isn't so extreme that I've felt like I needed too much. You can get by with weaker equipment if you're skilled enough at dodging and abusing your skills. So it hasn't progressed to the point of irritation. Despite taking really risky moves, I have yet to see a game over screen despite sub-optimal equipment on half my party.

There's not really "story," per se. The ancient kind of some place fucked off into the abyss and stole everyone's ability to speak, so his daughter cried so hard her tears literally crusted over her entire body, and now you guys are summoned to go find the king at her behest. She's the only character who speaks, and she relays information to you throughout the dungeon. It's cute enough, but what sells me is the enemies. Not because they're like super interesting in appearance or anything, but because they're all kinda vaguely named after vices, and sort of hint toward what the king's deal was. The dungeon looks like the old kingdom and, for example, there's a crab enemy whose title is a spin on "penny pincher." They all come with little flavor text about some kind of wicked thought or action, the funniest of which is probably the cute early game bunny heads that talk about pure malice. It's fun, I like the idea.

It's fun, takes a while to play through, but I'm enjoying it for now. Waiting for the area that gets too up its own ass on rare materials, when I finally snap. Because I feel like it's coming.

[selineram3421]

I'm turning some pain into a oneshot. Also I like this art on the merch.

In The Morning, part 3🌹

Alastor X Sweet Reader Oneshot

Warnings? ⚠

⚠ fluff, kisses, hugs, soft Alastor, food mention, hint at cannibalism, domestic ⚠

One of the rare moments in your afterlife, you woke up at the same time as Alastor.

"Good morning.", you mumble, slowly blinking your eyes to try having them adjust to the light coming in from the window.

"Good morning my dear.", he said, moving closer to you and placing a kiss on your forehead. "Shall we make breakfast?"

"Hm..", you hummed, still comfortable where you were, limbs tangled and all.

But breakfast didn't sound too bad.

"Yes.", you decide and give him a quick peck before sitting up. "What do you want to make today?", you ask.

"French toast?", he suggests, taking a hold of your hand and pressing kisses on your knuckles. "Or perhaps an American styled breakfast? Eggs, toast, and sausages or bacon on the side."

"What about you love?", you say and pull on his hand holding yours, kissing it before getting out of bed. "Huevos con chorriso? Or grits?"

"Let's see what we have in the kitchen.", he says before getting up as well.

After tossing on some robes and slippers, both of you make your way downstairs and head over to the kitchen, opening the refrigerator to glance at your options.

"We can prepare..", he mumbles, picking up the eggs. "Egg sandwiches, omelets, boiled egg, egg.. What are the flat things called again?"

"Tortillas.", you say.

"Yes, we can also make those egg burritos.", he nods. "Then there's the option of pancakes, waffles, crepes, french toast.."

With a smile and a shake of your head, you make your way over to the coffee machine, getting the pot and filling it with water.

"I'll start the coffee.", you say.

After putting the water in and setting the pot back in place, Alastor brings ingredients over to the counter.

"I'm making beans and sunny side up eggs with sausage. Is that fine?", he asks.

"Mhm.", you nod and get the mugs from the cupboard. "Are you going to cook your meat separately?", you ask.

"Don't worry, I won't eat that kind until later.", he says and puts a large pan on the stove. "For dinner."

You put in the filter before putting in scoops of ground coffee, making sure to count them as you go.

Then there's music.

Darlin', if I sat down and I wrote a song

I would know where every word belongs

'Cuz I'd write my song about you

Looking over, you find the microphone just a bit away from the fridge, playing an oldie. The mic looks happy after you give it a wave.

When the coffee starts after a push of a button, you head over to your man in red, wrapping your arms around his torso and resting your forehead against his back.

"Want help?", you question, tightening your hold just a bit before going back to holding him regularly.

"I'd be grateful but I like you hugging me from behind. Stay?", he glances back, only seeing the top of your head.

You nod and stay, listening to the music and the sizzling of beans. Without letting go completely, you get the bean masher and place it on his waiting hand.

"Thank you dear.", the deer demon says and mashes the beans a bit.

When he's done with the beans, he places a lid on it before putting the flame on low. Getting out another pan, smaller for the sausages and eggs.

You let go and pat his back lightly.

"I'm going to make toast and get some avocado.", you tell him before making your way to get the bread.

Another song plays from the mic.

La la la la la la

La la la la la la

My Cherie amour, lovely as a summer day

My Cherie amour, distant as the Milky Way

You can hear him hum along to the song, a smile forms on your lips.

Cutting the bread, you make sure its not too thin before cutting out four more. You clean the bread crumbs off the knife before putting it away.

Putting the bread in the toaster, you push down the little lever and turn the knob to three minutes. On your way to get the coffee, you pocket a knife and avocado to bring to the table.

Alastor is almost done cooking, already on the eggs.

You pour the coffee into the mugs and put the pot back before going to the table, setting everything down. And making sure to get the items out of your pocket too.

Hearing the clinking of plates, you go to help, taking one from his hand.

"I've got mine love.", you say and peck his cheek. "Thank you."

Both of you serve your plates and get ready to head to the table.

Then the toast pops up.

"I'll get it, go sit down.", he says, stealing a kiss and the plates of food.

You blink and blush, turning to the table before he could see that he's made you flush so easily.

Sitting down, you make sure there's napkins for both of you.

Alastor comes with the plates full of food, placing them down and giving you your utensils.

The song on the mic changes again when you begin to eat, and as you go to drink your coffee, you remember about the cream and sugar.

"I forgot-", you start.

With a snap of his fingers, the Radio Demon makes the cream and sugar appear on the table, along with a small vase with a red rose.

"Enjoy darling.", he says cutting the avocado.

'Cause we've got a life of love that won't ever change and

Everyday love me your own special way

Melt all my heart away with a smile

Adding the cream and sugar the way you like it, you can't help but keep a smile on.

You really liked these kinds of mornings with Alastor, even if they were somewhat rare.

I'm fine now, so don't worry. ❤ Song names in the tags.

~Seline, the person.

🌹In The Morning, part 1 , part 2.

Taglist@

@ducky-died-inside @willowaudreykeyes @c4rved-pumpk1n @stolas-thebirb @scary-noodlesblog @naelys-the-aster @bisexualboba @kiraisastay @+?

ML for Alastor🎙

[pand1on]

ok I've been thinking about this since my last drawing

Amy is actually good at games. She plays plenty of aesthetic cozy type games, and her organization is impeccable, but she's also a master at the dark souls side of the gaming spectrum and will smoke anyone's ass in call of duty.

Tails is also a big Gamer, he's a little redstone engineer and makes everything as efficient as possible. Definitely mods games too.

Sonic is a button masher. Just smashes the controller til he wins the boss fight.

Shadow only plays games when someone makes him, and it's always like. Animal crossing or harvest moon or something. And he's really bad at them. No sense of aesthetic or understanding of the game mechanics.

Knuckles isn't allowed to play video games anymore after a single round of mario cart that went very poorly.

Rouge calls every console a nintendo

[vanillaxmochi]

In honor of the Twisted Wonderland anime announcement and The Nightmare Before Christmas manga being sold at Cracker Barrel of all places, here’s some info about Yuu for the 2 people who remembered that he exists

I am not one of those people btw

EDIT: We got some more fun facts

- Name: Hatanaka Yuu - Age: 16 - Birthdate: November 27th - Star Sign: Sagittarius - Height: 179cm (5’9) - Weight: 63kg (140lbs)

- Due to being in Twisted Wonderland more than he thinks is necessary (AKA: at all), Yuu is very emotionally tired; which causes him to have a rather cynical personality around and towards his peers - When he isn’t ready to disappear off of school grounds mysteriously, he’s described as a hardworking and honest boy - Yuu’s hair and eyes are naturally brown, but he dyes his hair and wears colored contacts because got fed up with people calling him strange looking - Yuu refers to the color of his eye contacts as Blacklight Green - Yuu also had his ears pierced to help him blend in more. On his right ear he wears a simple silver stud, however on his left he wears an earring that features an 8th of Clubs - His earring holes have gotten infected at least twice since getting them, since he got them pierced at Twisted Wonderland's equivalency of Claire's. Either that or he did them himself after getting a piercing needle from Sam, take your pick - He's really good at card and dice based games, and plays Poker with the Ghost's in Ramshakle for fun; however he isn't apart of the Board Game Club - In terms of video games, he's good at hack-n-slash games, but only if he doesn't know the character's movesets and combos because he overthinks them (he's a button masher at heart) - On that note, he's a really big fan of his world's equivalent of the Dynasty Warriors/Samurai Warriors series, and enjoys Twisted Wonderland’s equivalent as well - He loves early 00's pop music, Britney Spears specifically - After being given the Ghost Camera, Yuu has picked up photography as a hobby. He's not very good at it yet - He prefers savory foods - Yuu prefers spicy curry over sweet curry, and has a high spice tolerance - Refers to everyone with the -kun suffix, the exceptions being upperclassmen and teachers (minus Malleus and Kalim, who do get referred with with -kun) - If Yuu had been assigned a proper dorm, it would be Heartslabyul - Yuu usually writes his given name in Katakana - He has 3 younger siblings, a set of triplets containing two identical twin boys and their older, fraternal sister. Their names are Daiki, Masaki and Saki respectively - Yuu is six years older than his younger siblings - Due to being his younger siblings idol (or because he misses them), whenever someone Yuu perceives to be younger than him complements him, he tells them to say it again, but to call him "nii-chan" - He will also refer to himself as "nii-chan" from time to time - His Japanese voiceclaim is Ono Kensho (Nanase Riku from IDOLiSH7, Sanada Yukimura from Ikemen Sengoku, Kuroko Tetsuya from Kuroko’s Basketball, Diluc Ragnvindr from Genshin Impact) - (Also please imagine Leona and Yuu dressed as Shingen and Yukimura)

[cigarettesandcoffee]

Sam and Rei for the ship meme ofc

Who cooks meals for the other?

I'm pretty sure they cook the same amount, but I have an odd feeling that Sam is an amazing cook, so Reilin probably wants him to cook all the time.

Who spams the other with memes? 

Rei definitely spams Sam's phone with memes and photos of Bab all day.

Who likes to tidy around the house?

Sam has always been a bit obsessive about having his surroundings being neat and organized. So he's probably straightening up the house all the time.

Who likes to play pranks on the other?

They're both guilty of this. But I think Reilin would probably have the advantage.

Who asked the other to move in with them?

Well in their modern verse, Rei moves in with Sam. In their DA verse, Sam moves in with Rei. So it depends.

Who is in charge of the music during a car ride?

Something tells me it's Rei who probably has a crackhead Playlist that goes from sappy love songs to death metal screamo. Sam is just an old man who listens to the oldies on 9.

Who is more likely to tickle the other mercilessly?

Sam will mercilessly tickle the shit out of Reilin even if he knows he's ganna catch a swift kick to the jaw as a result.

Who needs to hold the other during scary movies?

Sam LOVES horror movies, but so does Rei. They both probably sit there like "stupid bitch, don't go in the shed." And then she gets murdered and they're like "told you so."

Who has to help the other when it comes to technology?

SAM IS AN OLD MAN WHO ONLY KNOW HOW TO MAKE CALLS ON HIS SMARTPHONE AND NOTHING ELSE. He probably asks Rei to help him at least ten times a day.

Who likes to get a bit frisky in public / an inappropriate setting?

Are you kidding? Both of them are deviants.

Who wakes up first, and do they wake up the other or let them rest?

Sam definitely wakes up first, at like five in the morning. He doesn't wake Reilin up though or he'd catch them scrappy hands.

Who is always taking pictures of the other when they aren’t looking?

Reilin's phone is probably filled with sneaky photos of Samson, he loves his Samb too much not to.

Who always forgets their wallet and never ends up paying for anything?

It's not because he forgets his wallet, but Sam probably wants to pay for Rei's things when they're out because he likes Reilin to know he's appreciated.

Who can’t sleep because the other snores or moves too much at night?

Poor Reilin has to deal with Sam's lawnmower snoring.

Who is better at video games, and do they let the other win or show no mercy?

I think they're both pretty good at video games, but Reilin is a notorious button masher.

Who always gets up in the middle of the night to use the restroom and accidentally wakes up the other?

Reilin with the million times he's pregnant 🤣 Sam has to help roll him out of bed so he can go pee.

[ltleflrt]

Okay so what's this about a god of death game? I saw your art reblogs and I am intrigued.

Why yes, I would definitely like to talk about my new favorite video game, thank you for asking XD

The game is called Hades, and it’s a rogue-like game, or as I like to call it--a button masher game.  You play as Zagreus, the son of Hades, who is so H O T that he’s got one red eye and his feet start fires wherever he steps (the other eye is green, and I won’t spoil why lol).  Anyway, he’s bored in the underworld and wants to break out and go to the surface, but Hades doesn’t want him to leave so he has to fight his way up there. 

If you don’t like to play games where you die a lot, this might be a frustrating game because dying is actually a mechanic of the story.  Every time Zagreus dies, he’s reborn from a pool of blood back in Hades’ house in Tartarus.  But this allows you to use your game currencies to level up, and you can also talk to the residents of the house, like Nyx the Goddess of Night, and Achilles who is there guarding the Great Hall, and Hypnos the God of Sleep.  And Cerberus!  You can pet the doggo!

Zagreus can romance 3 people, Megaera the Fury, Thanatos the God of Death, and Dusa the housekeeper.  Eventually Dusa will turn Zag down, but you can be in a relationship with both Meg and Than at the same time.  So Zag is bi AND poly! :D

If you keep talking to Achilles he gives you a codex to fill out with all the monsters and gods that you encounter.  At one point the Thanatos entry gets updated talking about Zag and Than’s relationship, and Achilles points out that Zagreus is the God of Blood or God of Life.  So I am tickled fucking pink at the idea of the God of Death and the God of Life being in love with each other.

Thanatos is reeeeeelly fuckin’ hard to pin down tho, so I’ve basically been playing for 60 hours already and still haven’t gotten that fucker to show up in my bedroom.  And he’s a big part of the addiction for me, because I luv him.  Every time he pops up, I shout MY BOYFRIENDD!

It’s a really fun game.  I have to turn on God Mode to give myself 80% damage resistance though, cuz I’m bad at button mashers.  But I sure love them anyway.

The story is neat! The voice acting is amazeballs!  The soundtrack is a fuckin’ bop!  It’s only like $25 on Steam!(EDIT: and it’s on the Switch too, I’ve heard lol)

10/10 A+ would recommend!

[hispeculiartreasure]

All We’ve Got is Time - Chapter Twelve | B.B.

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Female Reader

AU: If They’d Survived/Post-War/Window Washer!Bucky Barnes

Rating: All Ages

Word count: 4,968 

Chapter 12/24

Warnings: Family tension

AN: What’s extra wild about this post is that it marks the official halfway point in this story! We have come so very far, yet there is still so much in store for you. Aaaaand I’m gonna stop before I get emotional about it. As always, thanks for sticking around and having passion for this story. This wouldn’t exist without your support.

Per usual, my most heartfelt appreciation to @lucyyannabel , @barnesrogersvstheworld , and @abovethesmokestacks for being my personal cheerleaders and listening to me whine and complain about this chapter and how ornery the Barnes family could be. Bucky is blowing all of you a kiss 😘

Chapter Eleven

‘All We’ve Got is Time’ Masterlist

“Bucky, are you sure I shouldn’t have worn a dress?” you ask for the tenth time, looking uncertainly down at your wide-legged trousers which fall in a graceful line to your feet. Your brightly colored blouse - the one Suzy had picked out between the options you had presented her; she insisted it was the perfect color on you - is carefully tucked in where your pants taper in at the waist.

House by house you steadily approach the Barnes’ family home as you walk the streets of Brooklyn. Your fingers toy with the fabric of Bucky’s suit jacket absentmindedly where your hand is tucked into his elbow.

“I’m telling you, sweetheart, you could wear a potato sack and the girls wouldn’t think less of you.” He playfully nudges your side for good measure.

“Well I did have a dress made out of a flour sack when I was a kid, maybe that would’ve been better.”

He’s all tease. “First off, everyone had flour-sack clothes. We were all Depression kids, you’re not special.” His tone shifts to one of gentle sincerity. “Second, quit worryin’. They care about who you are as a person a lot more than what you’re wearing.”

‘Quit worrying,’ you scoff internally. What a gas. Meeting Steve and Peggy was one thing, but this? How can I not worry about meeting the four women that know him best? Four women that could easily chew me up and spit me out if they don’t think I’m right for Bucky. I need all the help I can get. At least his dad won’t be here.

Bucky brings you to a stop in front of a waist-level iron fence. At the end of the pathway behind the white gate is a sweet brick house with a small porch, large windows taking up most of the front of the home.

“This is it,” he sighs before turning to look down at you. “You ready?” 

Rather than answering his question you ask your own. “Are you ready?” 

A smile quirks his mouth to one side before he opens the tiny gate with a flourish. “After you, ma’am.”

He raps his knuckles on the door once, twice, before opening the door. Loud female chatter reaches you from around the corner as Bucky takes your purse and hat to hang on the coat rack before he deposits his own hat and jacket. There’s an undeniable warmth here that has nothing to do with the temperature. Red drapes frame the windows, the pieces of on-trend floral furniture matching perfectly. You can practically see a young Bucky listening to the large radio in the corner while sprawled out on the patterned area rug.

“We’re here!” he shouts, leading you by the hand through the living room to approach the kitchen.

The talk comes to an immediate stop before you hear a rumbling of feet. “Bucky!” several women squeal as they rush to meet you in the kitchen’s threshold.

You are momentarily stunned by how similar the Barnes women look. Their various statures are among the only differences between them. You see echoes of Bucky in their raven hair, bright eyes, and dimples as all of them flock to greet you. 

Two of them surge forward, each taking an arm exuberantly.“Oh hello!” by way of the pregnant stomach, you’re assuming Rose, greets.

“I can’t believe we are finally meeting you!” the youngest-looking, has to be Evelyn, coos through the sweetest smile that takes you aback. 

They begin to talk over each other, variations of “You look lovely!” and “It’s about time he brings you around” and “Are you sure he’s not paying you to pretend to be his girlfriend?” shared in all sorts of merriment.

“Let her breathe, girls,” chides the tallest from her place beneath Bucky’s arm.

Becca, you reason, given Bucky’s easy demeanor as they embrace.

Clad in a clearly well-loved apron, the shortest, eldest, and most effusive of the women reaches her hands toward you and Rose and Evelyn make way for their mother. You clumsily clasp her fingers, maternal affection not among the things you’re used to. She either doesn’t or pretends not to notice your stilted return of her greeting as she says, “Welcome to our home, darling. Needless to say, we are thrilled you and James are here.” It’s the first time you’ve heard someone call Bucky by his first name and it would have been jarring if not for the obvious affection with which Winnifred spoke it. You can’t help but take note that the corners of her eyes have the same distinct crinkle when she smiles, just like someone else you know.

“Thank you for having me over for dinner, Mrs. Barnes.”

She waves a hand, “None of that, please call me Winnifred.” Moving to Bucky, she plants a kiss to his rosy, clean-shaven cheek.

Becca takes the moment to introduce herself before complimenting, “I love your outfit. I wish I could pull that color off.”

“Thank you for saying that, I was wondering if I shouldn’t have dressed up a bit more.” You flatten your hands against your thighs.

Looking down at her own perfectly tailored trousers then back up at you, her eyes dance. “Pants are perfectly dressy enough in this house. I’ve broken the family in for you,” she winks conspiratorially. “But I think we should get to wear what we want when we’re making our own money, ya know?”

“I couldn’t agree with you more,” you smile genuinely for the first time since stepping in the door. Perhaps it was your knowledge of Bucky’s special bond with Becca coloring your opinions, but you suddenly felt as if you had a teammate in your corner, someone to act as a buffer against any awkwardness you may feel.

Winnifred turns from Bucky back to you, laying a soft hand on your shoulder. “I apologize, dear - dinner is running a little behind schedule. Normally I’d try to have the meal finished by the time our guests arrive, but it’s been a hectic day. Bucky tells us you’re the gracious sort who won’t be scared off by our tardiness.”

Feeling all eyes on you you shake your head. “Oh gosh, no, it’s perfectly okay. Is there anything I can do to help?”

“The only thing you’re allowed to do is sit with us in the kitchen and have a glass of tea.” With that, Rose loops her arm through yours and leads you to the table in the kitchen. You obediently take a seat and expect to be joined by Bucky but when you turn, he’s undone the cuffs of his long button-down shirt and is rolling up his sleeves. He grabs a bowl from the counter, grabbing a potato masher and getting to work.

You fight a pang of petulant jealousy that Bucky gets to do something to keep himself busy while you sit in the middle of the room, useless and on display.

Each family member has a task, an area you suspect is fairly common for them. Winnifred focuses on the main dish - something that looks suspiciously like a meatloaf roasting in the oven. Bucky and Becca bump hips as they assist with side dishes as needed - mashed potatoes and some vegetable concoction. Rose has gathered cups for beverages, Evelyn is in charge of setting the table for six. You imagine this scene playing out a thousand times in the past, the ease of moving around each other, the familiarity of the room. It sends an ache to your heart.

You make it through the standard questions politely; where you work, what you do, where you’re from. Everything you’d expected for a ‘meet the family’ night and the meal hadn’t even been served yet. This was going to be fine, what could happen?

“What did you say was your hometown?” Evelyn asks.

Bucky answers for you from where he’s leaning against the kitchen counter, sending a bloom of warmth through your chest. “Tarrytown.”

“Tarrytown. . . where have I heard of that?” Winnifred tuts almost to herself while she peers into the oven.

“It’s about a five minute drive from Sleepy Hollow, if that helps.” You sip your tea, waiting on the typical reaction.

“That’s exactly it!” she props a hand on her hip as comprehension dawns on her.

Rose looks to you curiously. “Sleepy Hollow? As in, the Headless Horseman?”

“One and the same,” you nod, relishing in your little town’s shared history. You couldn’t imagine a world where the setting of a 19th century legend wasn’t the sweeping glen outside of your hometown - well technically, village - that inspired gothic stories all through the region. 

The family makes various noises of interest and surprise, including a begrudging “I didn’t even know that,” from your boyfriend.

Becca hums. “I can imagine Halloween is a pretty big deal for you guys.”

Finally, a subject you could really talk about. “Oh, you have no idea. It’s a week-long event for us and we get a ridiculous amount of visitors.” 

“Do you and your family have any fun traditions for Halloween?”

You smile at Winnifred before answering. “Well, I’m an only child, so it’s always been just me and my parents. We usually volunteer at one of the public events or attend a party our neighbor throws.”

“That sounds lovely,” she returns your smile.

You stand up for a moment, taking a step toward Bucky. “Are you sure I can’t help-”

“NO!” all five Barneses exclaim, twisting to fix you with the same exact insistent, yet kind look. You immediately plant yourself in your seat again.

“You’re our guest,” Rose explains.

“Actually, Rose, you need to sit down too. You’ve been on your feet all evening,” Evelyn pointedly looks down to her sister’s shoes.

“I’m not going to tell you you’re wrong,” she groans before sinking into the chair next to you.

“How much longer do you have?” you ask as the other siblings take orders from Winnifred.

With a thoughtful hum and rub of her belly Rose replies, “About three months, we think.”

“That’s gotta be exciting,” you venture, bordering on territory that was completely unfamiliar.

The young woman’s head bobs back and forth. “Exciting, terrifying. . . depends on the day. I thought I was ready to be a mother, but the closer we get, the more nervous I feel. I have no clue what I’m going to do.” The last bit is said quietly, almost guiltily, as if it had been the first time she’d let the thought breathe outside of her own mind.

Sensing her tenuous feelings, you measure your next words carefully. “While I don’t know exactly what you mean, I can relate to that.” Rose watches you, doe-eyed. “I’ve been living on my own for a few months now and I feel like every day I make it up as I go along. But I don’t think any of us are expected to have everything figured out. Having the willingness, the grit try to figure it out is what counts. Obviously I don’t know anything about being a parent. But it seems like if you love your child and do your best by them, everything will fall into place.”

You weren’t expecting to see Rose’s eyelashes glittering with moisture when you look back to her. 

Oh no. I’ve said the wrong thing, why couldn’t I just nod and move on?

The panic you felt on the inside must have started to show on your face, because Rose begins shaking her head, wiping furiously at the tears. “I’m sorry, I’ve been so weepy lately. I needed to hear that. Thank you, really. I haven’t really talked about it before, except with my husband.”

Relief floods you. “You’re welcome, and I mean it. It’s gonna be okay.” 

Rose giggles wetly before looking past you. “She’s just as kind as you said, Buck.”

“Don’t sound so surprised.” A familiar hand on your shoulder prompts you to look up into Bucky’s soft eyes. 

He looks like he wants to say something but is interrupted by Winnifred announcing, “Let’s get the food on the table, kids, it’s dinner time.”

The six of you fit comfortably around the table. Bucky and Winnifred settle at either end while you sit to Bucky’s right, next to Becca. Once Rose and Evelyn are seated across from you the steaming platters are passed around. You fill your plate up probably more than was considered “lady-like”, but it smelled so much like home and you’d rather overeat than insult your hostess by not eating enough.

“Tell us how you met,” Evelyn urges as she picks up her fork. “Buck only mentioned it was through work.”

“Well, do you want to know about the time he almost died or the first time we actually spoke to each other a few weeks later?” You take a bite of the meatloaf, chewing at Bucky smuggly.

The table as a whole freezes and all heads swivel to Bucky, who has developed a sudden intense interest in his meatloaf. 

“James, you said this job was safe.” Winnifred does a fair job of hiding her natural worry behind a stern gaze.

“Compared to war it is. And saying I almost died is an exaggeration.”

“Free-falling 10 stories is exaggerating near-death?” you say skeptically.

“Bucky!” The four women squawk. He finally has the decency to look embarrassed.

“I was never in danger, it was just a little hiccup.”

You share what you saw that crisp April morning, his fearlessness, his strength, his kindness during your first true interaction through the window. And a concerning disregard for his personal safety, but that was beside the point.

Bucky finally chimes in when you describe how stressed you were on your first day. “When I actually got to cleaning the window close to her desk, she was so frazzled she couldn’t even find the pencil behind her ear.” He winks at you before assuring you, “It was adorable.”

“Guess you’ve been keeping me sane ever since, huh?” you let a smile loose, the fondness of that first memory erasing any embarrassment you may have had.

You don’t miss the twinkle in his eye as he says, “That’s debatable.”

“Takes crazy to know crazy.” His sisters dissolve into giggles at your sass, Winnifred hiding a sly grin behind her napkin. “Anyway, we went on our first date a couple weeks later.”

Becca props her chin on a hand before she mockingly muses, “Well isn’t that sickeningly cute.” Bucky sends a face her way that Winnifred immediately chastises him for, muttering something about “adult toddlers”.

A spirited debate begins amongst the siblings regarding Bucky’s behavior as an older brother and first-born.

You look up from your plate upon hearing your name, finding Evelyn leaning on her elbows toward you. “Count yourself lucky to not have any brothers or sisters, he was an absolute terror growing up.”

“Oh come on, I think it was the standard fare,” Bucky tries to bargain. “And I spent a lot of time carting you around so you could hang out with friends.”

Evelyn presses her fingertips together, steepling her hands. “Shall we go back to the worst Thanksgiving of my life?” Bucky groans, a hand coming up to cover his eyes. 

The girl’s attention is on you now, eyes as expressive as her brother’s. “I get massive hiccups after dinner which stick around for an hour. Buck walks in with a ‘Hey, I learned a surefire way to get rid of hiccups, wanna try?’ And of course I do because I’m miserable and I trust my big brother. Five minutes later he’s got me hanging upside down by my ankles while Becca pours water into my mouth. He tried to drown me! Both of you did!”

“I was trying to help! Plus that was a long time ago - I was young and foolish.”

“YOU WERE 23!” Evelyn yells, causing you to sputter into your beverage.

“Your hiccups stopped didn’t they?” Bucky’s hand is on his chest, trying to hold back his laughter.

“Only after you nearly dropped me when Mom came into the room!” Everyone, even Winnifred, can’t contain themselves at that; everyone else re-living the memory while you chuckle just imagining it. You love the idea of the shenanigans the Barnes children got up to in this house, picturing this kind of laughter around the clock. Growing up, your own small house was often quiet with only three mild-mannered people taking up residence.

The sound of a car door slamming shut has Bucky glancing toward the kitchen window, brows knitting together. The front door opens and his posture immediately shifts as he looks to his Ma. She’s already on her feet, disappearing into the hallway where your ears pick up a deep voice. The siblings around you share hard looks, leaving you confused. But then Winnifred appears in the kitchen doorway, eyes trained on Bucky. Something is shared between them extremely quickly that you can’t keep up with before realizing what’s happened.

George Barnes shuffles in looking weary and dour, setting his luggage down by the couch. Bucky shares many of his features - the strong jaw, consistent hairline, the mouth - yet you’d never seen this sour of an expression on his son’s face.

Bucky stands. “Dad. Didn’t know you were going to make it.” 

“Well I heard we were having a guest and didn’t want to miss the opportunity to meet her.” 

Bucky twists the cloth napkin in his hands tightly.

Not sure what else to do, you stand and smile at George, drawing his attention. 

He removes his hat, fiddling with it in one hand. “So this is the girl I’ve heard so much about. George Barnes.” A small wave is given across the table, his sharp eyes flicking down to your outfit for a moment before returning to study you.

“It’s nice to meet you, sir,” you offer, your mind grasping desperately for something else to say but coming up empty.

Breaking the silence, Winnifred turns to Evelyn. “Could you grab another setting please? We’ll have to shift around a little bit.” Everyone moves from their stock-still positions, shuffling plates around the table to make room for one more seat. Bucky pulls a chair next to yours as you shift closer to Becca, managing to sit snugly between the siblings as George replaces Bucky at the head of the table.

The patriarch gratefully accepts the full plate set in front of him, not wasting a moment to begin his meal. The rest of the family turns to their own food. You take note that Evelyn has removed her elbows from the table. Becca has fallen silent. Rose’s face lacks a smile. You’re certain if Bucky sits up any straighter he’s going to pull a muscle. 

What just happened? You wonder, more than a little stunned.

“So, Bucky, how’s your training going?” Rose attempts, voice desperate to dispel the tension in the room.

Only you catch the moment of hesitation Bucky has before answering. “It’s tough, but I think I’m doing well. Spend almost every spare minute studying. After Independence Day I’m headed to Pennsylvania for a month of on-site training. I’ve been told it will be intense.”

“Mmm, I remember those days of training. It felt like forever,” you remark, taking a stab at your vegetables.

“I cannot imagine what it must have been like to be a woman in such a masculine profession,” Becca comments, tone almost formal as she keeps her eyes down.

George grunts from his chair, scooping another forkful of mashed potatoes. The noise strikes a chord in Bucky - you can see his mouth moving to open, a bitter retort no doubt on his tongue. Instinctually you rest a hand on his thigh, halting him.

“Yes, it was a challenge. But nothing I couldn’t handle,” you smile sweetly at Becca, feeling George watching you. Pointedly ignoring him, you tack on, “You could’ve handled it too. It’s not so bad.”

Bucky continues. “Good news is that Harvey, her uncle,” he motions to you, “offered me a position as a serviceman in his garage once I get back. He’s agreed to help teach me as I finish up my training.” You pat Bucky’s leg, for the umpteenth time in your life thankful for your Uncle Harvey.George joins the conversation. 

“You’ve got a job lined up then, have you?”

“Yes, sir.” Bucky adds a tight nod of assent.

“Ya know, James-” you can’t help but compare Winnifred’s sweet handling of the name versus George’s almost scold, “-I would’ve been more than happy to have set you up with a position at my company if you’d asked. That was the plan before you enlisted.”

“I know, Dad. I needed something new.”

His father huffs, eyes cutting to you yet again. “Didn’t think I pushed you to be in the top of your class all those years to end up with you in that profession. But it’s your life.”

The words are coming out of your mouth before your mind can process them.

“Actually, being a mechanic requires an advanced understanding of mathematics and physics as well as the ability to comprehend mechanical and electrical engineering. Your efforts weren’t wasted sir, they are being put to excellent use.”

Again, the stillness at the dining table is glaringly obvious. 

A tinge of regret swirls in your gut. Not from having said the words, but for the discomfort it caused five members of the family. The sixth, you were quickly discovering you didn’t care too much for.

“George, how was your work trip?” Winnifred questions, graciously shifting focus away from her son.

However, your focus turns to Bucky completely. A close look shows that he’s making a valiant effort to control his breathing, and you’re guessing his temper too. You tap fingers on the back of his hand and he flips it over to thread your digits together. The motion calms you somewhat, worry that you had added to his anxiety easing. A gentle squeeze from him signals that he’s thankful. You squeeze twice to tell him he’s doing great. He’s in the middle of his sequence of three squeezes back when the topic of conversation turns again, drawing your attention elsewhere.

Some time later George lays his fork down, sighing in satisfaction. “Dinner was wonderful, Winnie,” he says rather kindly, the obvious affection for his wife in his gaze a stark contrast to his behavior toward everyone else.

“Thank you, dear.” Winnifred turns, “Evelyn, I believe it’s your turn to wash up.”

“Oh please, let me help,” you implore. The family begins to protest before you raise your voice above them, already taking yours and Bucky’s plates in hand. “Please, let me be useful tonight. You all have been wonderful hosts, let me feel a little better about myself.”

Without much resistance, the Barneses acquiesce. Winnifred places bread pudding on the table, starts up a pot of coffee, and doles out mugs. After scraping the remnants of food from the dinner plates you take station next to Evelyn, towel at the ready to dry the dishes after she washes and rinses.

After a few plates and asking after her boyfriend, you go after the only other thing you really know about Evelyn. “You graduated high school, right? What’s next for you, Evie?”

“Evelyn,” she says softly.

“I’m sorry?”

Her shy glance at you hints at a deeper insecurity. “Would you mind calling me Evelyn?”

You blink. “Oh gosh, of course I don’t mind. I am so sorry, that’s just all I’ve heard Bucky call you.”

A gentle sigh escapes her before she confides, “I’ve asked him to stop calling me Evie. He hasn’t quite gotten around to it.”

“Ah. Childhood nickname I assume?” you calmly wipe down a few utensils before setting them aside.

“Right. It just. . .“ Evelyn contemplates the suds covering her hands, “. . . doesn’t sound like an adult. And it feels like when Bucky calls me Evie, he’s not thinking of me as an adult. He’s still picturing the scrawny 14-year-old little sister he left behind when he joined the army. I’ve grown up a lot since then, but he’s not really seeing that.” She hands over a plate ready for drying, catching your thoughtful face. “I’m sorry, that was a lot.”

“No, no, I understand. Thank you for telling me. So, Evelyn, tell me what your plans are.”

As you listen to Evelyn talk about engagement rings and wedding plans, you check over your shoulder and catch Bucky watching you. Unlike every other time in your relationship when you’ve caught him looking, he doesn’t turn away bashfully. In fact, his nose crinkles ever-so-slightly while his lips curl into a smile. Part of you wants to feel self-conscious, but another part preens at the attention, the adoration in his eyes.

His content expression disappears, however, when George turns to say something to him, the corners of his mouth turning down quickly. You sigh internally. Turns out you’d taken Steve’s warning about father and son not getting along a little too lightly. And it also turns out that it was harder to watch than you’d expected.

As soon as the dishes are set back in their places in the cabinet, you and Evelyn join the table once more. Gratefully accepting the coffee Bucky passes you sit in your chair, noticing that he’d scooted ever-so-slightly closer with his arm stretching across the back of your seat.

“I understand you work, is that right?” 

A glance up from your bread pudding confirms that George was speaking to you. Scrutinizing men was something you dealt with every day. This was child’s play. “Yes, sir. In Chevrolet’s corporate office.”

“Doing what?”

“I work directly for a supply manager, I monitor his correspondence and help maintain the relationship between Chevrolet and our factories in this region.”

“And you type letters, I assume?”

Not being able to stop the narrowing of your eyes you take a beat before responding, “Yes, sir. That’s one of my many responsibilities.” 

George takes a sip of coffee, matching your scrupulous gaze squarely. “And you’re finding moving from factory work to being a secretary satisfying?”

Wooden chair legs screech across the floor as Bucky stands abruptly, aggressively tabling his coffee mug. “We better get going, work will come early in the morning and we’ve got a good walk home.”

Everyone else stands to their feet - George being the last to rise - and Bucky grabs your things for you. As you accept hugs from Rose and Evelyn, you watch Winnifred embrace Bucky from the corner of your eye. She whispers something in his ear. Bucky pulls back, smile and nod tight as he turns to his father.

You miss their exchange when Becca offers her own hug. “We should grab dinner sometime after work!”

“I would really enjoy that, Becca. Thank you for being so welcoming,” you squeeze back.

Before pulling away completely she whispers, “You have done my brother a world of good and I will love you for that forever.” Someone would think she’d punched you in the stomach, the way the breath was knocked out of you.

Turns out that George Barnes spares you from having to respond. “It has been very nice meeting you, young lady,” he bellows as sticks his hand out to you.

“Likewise, Mr. Barnes.” You grasp it and shake firmly, making a point to maintain eye contact before you part.

Winnifred grabs your hands once again. “You are a true joy. Thank you for spending the evening with us. I hope we get to see you soon and get to know you better.” Her openness continues to throw you for a loop. “And if you’re ever in the neighborhood and need anything, our door is always open.”You tell her that you’ll keep that in mind as you return her hug. 

Everyone says a last “goodbye!” as Bucky shuts the door, placing his hat on his head. He latches the iron gate before turning to you. 

Hands shoved in his pockets, he kicks a rock.

“You okay?” you inquire hesitantly.

He looks up at the dark sky. “I think so. Are you?” Blue eyes dart to yours, the concern there enhanced by the street lamps.

You chuckle. “I think so.”

“I’m so sorry,” he moves to rub the back of his neck as if it pained him. “I had no clue he was going to be here-”

“You have nothing to apologize for, Bucky.”

He lets out a humorless laugh. “We both know that’s not true. I don’t know why he is the way he is.”

“I think at some point in time we all have that thought about our parents. But your mom is as lovely as I expected. All the girls are, actually.”

His eyes shift over your shoulder and out of nowhere, he waves his arms to one side in a “shoo!” motion. You spin to see three feminine shadows scurry away from the window and swear you hear laughter.

“Your sisters are a ball of fun,” you step into Bucky, wrapping arms around his waist. His heartbeat is a little too fast under your ear but he eventually embraces you as well. “I had a nice time tonight, honey. Truly.”

“You sure?” He murmurs, tilting your chin up.

“I’m sure,” you nod, probably a little too eagerly.

Incredulous, he strokes your cheek with a finger. “How did I ever find you?” he presses his lips to your forehead.

“Do we really have to go over you almost dying again?”

His chest rumbles with laughter, the last of his shoulder tension dissipating.

“Get out of here!” Bucky shouts suddenly, startling you before realizing you’re not his intended target. This time, Rose, Evelyn, and Becca keep peeking through the drapes, tongues sticking out at their brother. “Sisters,” he scoffs before he grabs your hand and leads you down the street back to the subway station.

Chapter Thirteen

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[cosm0skid]

Destiny players are so freakin’ wholesome.

So at the request (more like 3 weeks of demanding) of my friend, I got the new free version of Destiny 2. A bit of background about me- I never had video games growing up, couldn’t afford them and my parents thought they melted your brain, all that good stuff. I recently got a hand-me-down Xbox 1 from a friend, and the games I have are story driven, almost no combat or fast moving games, and then a button masher that takes no skill. So I have almost no experience playing games, other than this friend who has been slowly teaching me the basics (like how to aim and walk at the same time) on their system. So I get Destiny 2, after watching 4+ hours of lore to catch up with story, and jump in. It takes me about an hour and a half to complete the opening mission, as I try to figure out the controls, and then I’m off to the tower and the rest of the game. After getting lost for almost 2 hours in the tower, I figure out how to travel to earth and get started on a quest called “Discover the EDZ,” where I have to run around and do a public event and do bounties and simple stuff like that. I’m kinda just bouncing around, watching groups of experienced guardians take down enemies like it’s nothing, while I try and figure out how to use my super (that was an embarrassing google search.) Eventually I see this one gaurdian who’s by himself fighting a bunch of big Fallen bois. He gets killed, and I run out from my hiding spot behind a building and revive him, then run tf out of there to safety. Well about 5 minutes later, I’m struggling to take out the small Fallen on my own, and the same guy comes up, sees that I’m struggling I guess, and starts fighting alongside me. After they’re all dead he waves at me (que another frantic google on how to emote) and starts following me around. He stays with me for almost an hour, running around and helping me, even though I couldn’t even talk to him. I guess he saw that I was just a kindergaurdian and decided to help me out. It legitimately made me so happy that someone was being nice, and made me really enjoy myself while I figured out how to get my feet under me in the game. Gaudians are wholesome and sweet, and I wish I had thought to look at his name so I could thank him here. Whoever you are, you legitimately made my whole day by running around with me, and I really can’t wait to keep playing and learning the game.

Tdlr; Experienced gaurdian helped me, a brand new kindergaurdian, by running around for almost an hour when he saw I was struggling to kill simple enemies, made my whole day and made me want to keep playing with this wholesome community.

[kindaangelic]

De-Aged Damian Wayne

Oh no! Damian’s been deaged back into a baby! The spell lasts for a week, and the Bats have to make the most of it! What would they do?

Bruce: Utterly enamored by his tiny baby son. Highly emotional, emotions will escape him in the form of grunts and harrumphs. Spends most of his time staring at Damian in his crib, trying to memorize his large green eyes, his stubby baby fingers, and his button nose before he loses these few precious moments again. Dick makes him put Damian against his bare chest - “Why.” “For bonding, Bruce!” - and it’s all Bruce can do to not burst into tears at the thought that he missed ten years of doing this. But he will make up for it now.

Dick: Does a full sailor moon transformation and engages Ultimate 70′s Suburban Mom mode, complete with hairpins and frilly apron. It is a battle to separate Dick and Damian, Damian’s clinginess to his big brother seemingly having transformed along with him into his infant state. If they’re not singing lullabies, they’re playing with tiny toy swords. If they’re not playing, they’re cuddling, and if they’re not cuddling, Dick is either feeding him apple mush or changing his diaper or giving him bubble baths. Jason calls Dick obsessive, Dick just insists that he loves Dami very, very, much. 

Jason: Actively runs from diaper duty, but takes great joy when he discovers that Damian is absolutely fascinated by his mountains of chest hair. Damian grabs tiny fistfuls of Jason’s masculine chest follicular expulsions and always looks amazed by his brother’s manliness. As a consequence, Jaosn spends a lot of time shirtless, and Bruce constantly cringes when he thinks about Jaosn shedding on the good sofa. 

Tim: Blackmail time ahoy! Damian’s eating apple mush? Take a picture. Damian’s naked in the bubble bath? Take a picture. Damian’s getting his tiny bum powered? Take a picture. Damian’s dressed up in a bumblebee costume? Take several pictures and circulate them to the rest of the family, charge Dick extra because he is a sentimental goop. Baby Damian is smiling at Jason? Save picture and torment Damian with it for the rest of his life. 

Cass: Grabs Stephanie and new baby brother and hits the town. Damian gets a baby manicure, a baby facial, and a princess outfit because he is a good little boy. Damian stars in several selfies and strangely, seems to enjoy Stephanie’s company. She is thrilled by this discovery until Cass points out that its not her shining personalty, but her breasts that Damian equates with milk that had him plastered to her. Damian gets chocolate milk instead, and is generally happy with this new milk. 

Alfred: Sees an opportunity to continue an age old Wayne family tradition, and stuffs Damian into a Victorian baby gown and takes several pictures, because he couldn’t do it with any of the older ones. Alfred is also the main food masher, because left to Dick, Damian would be eating mashed froot loops and coco crunch, and no one, certainly no infant under his watch will ever ingest such abominations in the name of food. Alfred goes ham and buys organic bananas, grapes, and apples, because his grandson deserves only the best. 

[arielsojourner]

Vader Strikes Back - Part the 7th

Not beta read/really rough/not really proof read/plot holes and OUT of order.  Also spoilers for the original first story in AO3 Back From the Future: Episode VI The Clone Wars.  Check the tag #vader strikes back on my page for the other parts to this mess/fic outline. 

Trying something new with this part. Not sure if it works or if I will rewrite the whole thing. Let me know if it works.  

*

“So we made it to Tatooine,” a voice with a noticeable Mando'a accent began as the holocam view spins slowly around taking in yellow dunes and a cloudless sky. “Most of the settlements are in the northern hemisphere of the planet. I say settlements, but this is pretty much all there is in the north. Sand and looking over here, even more sand. And what’s over in the west? Sand. The south? Almost no one goes to the southern hemisphere because there’s absolutely nothing to see there either. Except sand of course. There’s nothing to see on this entire, Force-forsaken, garbage masher of a–”

*click*

“Are the scramblers in place?”

Even through the helmet, one can see the visible eyeroll that question causes. “For the tenth time Joc, the scramblers are in place. We’re good to go. As soon as He gives us the signal, we go in and we get everyone out.”

The holoimage shakes and wobbles.

“Stand still, will you?” Another helmeted figure hisses. “We’ve got the easy part.”

“You say that but where’s the signal, huh? Why hasn’t He–“

Static garbles the holo-transmission for several seconds and there is an ear shattering boom.

“Move, move!” a trooper orders and they are on the run, bursting through the subterranean tunnels and breaking down every door they can find. It’s dark and only the lights from the clone trooper helmets’ illuminate the cells and the huddle broken figures packed inside.

*click*

From the high angle of the holoimage, the viewer can see a male Crolute is standing on a raised stage before a raucous crowd, shiny datapad in hand. “I hear 32, do I hear 40? 40 peggats for this fine specimen. She’s still got some youth to her, do I hear 48? 48 to the Lady Murra, thank you for you bid. 56! Thank you, sir. Do I hear 64? She’ll earn you that back in a week, look at her!” he crows reaching over to pull off her barely closed shirt exposing her to the eyes of the crowd. “Do I hear 64?”

The girl, barely into her teens, simply keeps her head lowered. She makes no move to cover herself. She stands still and silent on the stage.

“Tell me I can kill him,” a voice mutters darkly.

“Wait, Redeye.”

“I want to kill him. I’ve got the shot. Let me take the damn shot, Captain.”

“Wait.”

“Sold!” the auctioneer roars and two Weequays take hold of the newly purchased slave and drag her from the stage. The Crolute motions for the next lot and the guards drag forth a Twi'lek child from the holding pens. The child is barely old enough to toddle on his own two feet. His face is a howling mask of grief and pain.

“Ryma!” the child cries, his hands reaching desperately behind him to the figures packet tightly into cages. “Ryma! Ryma!”

“Skrag this,” Redeye swears and the holocamera captures perfectly the moment where the guards and the auctioneer are taken out with three quick headshot blasts from sniper rifle.

“REDEYE!” a voice roars.

“Go ahead and put me on report, Captain. I don’t care!” Redeye yells back as the camera angle shifts again and again as he snipes people in the panicking crowd, taking out slavers execution style with one perfect headshot after another. “I’m not watching one more second of this kriffing, messed up–“

There is a thrum of an engine, the familiar whine of a troop transport. Air support casts a large shadow over the auction square. A dark blurry figure falls from the sky to a land amid the screaming chaos of bodies. The mic on the holocamera picks up an all to familiar snap-hiss.

*click*

“–so introduce everyone already, Echo!” the trooper out of the holoframe, but holding the camera, calls out.

“Right, so this is Xian,” Echo says pointing at one of the people sitting with him in the courtyard. They are a motley crew each standing or sitting with slug throwing rifles in their hands, braced against their shoulders, resting on their bent knees. “And this is Lore, Etamin, Kor-Joo, and Anequis. They’re here helping us with the liberation of the planet. Lots of people are willing to help, which sure makes a change from the Wars. They’re helping us organize. Say hello to the rest of the GAR everyone!”

*click*

The holoimage moves around as if the camera is being held by someone drunk.

“Put it into focus. No! Not like that! Push the other button!”

“I can do it, CT-9779! I’m not a nerf, you know.”

“Could have fooled me,” CT-9779 replies under his breath.

“Shut up.”

“Can you just let me do it? It’s my camera! I don’t want you to break it. What are you even trying to do?”

“I’m trying to– ah-ha!” The image stops shaking and then zooms in quickly on the building. Hanging by a chain from the highest tower is a bulbous blurry mass. Then the image comes into focus.

It is the body of a Hutt, dangling in the air. It is wrapped and strangled by chains, purifying in the desert heat, and covered with insects feasting on the rotting remains.

“Really? Of all the things to use my camera for, you want to take a holo of that? You think people want to see that festering pile of–“

“Are you kidding me? This is THE holo. This, right here. People are gonna want to have this framed and in their homes, I tell you. Jabba, dead at last! I only wish we’d managed to get a holo of that moment where He used the Force to wrap the chains around him and choke him to death. The look on his face!”

*click*

“Put the weapon down! Put it down!”

The richly dressed man presses the blade even deeper into the young boy’s throat. “I’ll kill him. I’ll kill him if you don’t let me go!”

“Put the weapon down and release the boy or we’ll fire!”

“We can come to an arrangement. You can take this one if you leave me be. I’m a reasonable man! I’m being reasonable!”

“Kriff you, we don’t make deals with child raping scum! Let the boy go!”

The boy who’d been hanging limp in the slaver’s grasp seems to suddenly steel himself. He raises his hands and digs his nails into the arm pinning him and turns his head, heedless of the blade at his throat and bites down, hard.

The man screams, the blade slices, blood arcs, the troopers fire.

The camera jostles and the troopers’ hands come into view, pressing against the boy’s gaping throat as he lies fallen on the carpeted floor of the lavish bedroom. “Sith hell! Get a medic! GET A MEDIC!”

*click*

Sharp cracking shots fill the air. The helmet holocamera view is partially obscured by a building wall.

“They’re above the catina!  Left Foot! Bats! Do you hear me? They’re above the cantina!”

A woman pushes the trooper aside, steps out behind the cover of the building and brings her slug throwing rifle to bear.

“Get back!” The trooper yells grabbing her and yanking her back under cover. “Xian, are you crazy? We need to coordinate, you can’t just–“

There is a sudden pop and the front of the cantina explodes into a fire ball.

Xian spits and then stands, weapon at the ready and advances into the fray.

“Skrag this! Left Foot, we’re going in!”

*click*

The holoimage is dominated by the cockpit of the fighter. Armored hands work the controls. A piece of starry space is visible through the bend of the transparisteel canopy.

“Swinging around for another sweep,” a trooper voice crackles as if heard through a long tunnel.

“Stay in formation, Kickback. We’re having a hard enough time covering the whole planet with this CAP to have you straggling.”

“Negative, Pike. I’m getting something, something from the southern hemisphere.”

“I’ve got nothing on my scopes,” another voice protests. “No one even lives in the southern hemisphere.”

A sliver of the yellow sunbaked planet is visible now through the canopy.

“I’m telling you, there’s something,” Kickback insists, priming his weapons. “Come around to flank me. I think we’ve got someone about to try and run the blockade.”

“Another feeling, huh?”

Kickback laughs. “I haven’t been wrong yet. There! Do you see? Switch to visual tracking. The engine trail. Point five.”

“They’re flying like a mynok outta hell,” Pike remarks. “Unidentified ship. You are ordered to stand down and prepare to be boarded.”

“They’re not answering and they’re not stopping.”

“I can see that Oddball,” Pike responds with exasperation. “Comm the Dauntless, tell them we have our first catch of the day. Kickback, can you--”

“Hyperspace event!” another voice shouts over the comms. “We’ve got someone coming out of lightspeed!”

“Who is it?”

“GAR cruiser, sir!”

“Blast it, forget about that! The ship is making a break for it!” Kickback yelled. “We can’t let them–!”

*click*

“Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth or are you just a meat sack in armor with a gun? I don’t keep slaves. Everyone works for me because they chose to,” the woman insists. “It’s a job.”  She turns and gestures to the various barely clad species huddled behind her.

“Everyone gets scanned,” the trooper insists. “Denal?”

The trooper steps forward and raises the strangely cobbled together device.

The woman stares at the scanner and her eyes widen and she pales. “L-look, I’m telling you. There’s been a mistake. This is a house of pleasure. The girls and boys here make a decent living. What’s wrong with a little companionship? You, trooper.  Denal, is it? Don’t you want to rest a bit? Spend some quality time with one or two of my employees? On the house, of course!”

The device flashes once and Denal turns the screen so the woman can see. “Employees, huh? Then why are they all implanted with transmitters and bombs?”

*click*

In the dim light it is hard to make out much, but the clone armor still stands out, reflecting back the emergency lanterns as the trooper digs frantically with his hands, a part of his own armor, and what appears to be the Force, at the side of a mountain.

“Hardcase?  Hardcase, there’s nothing more to be done.”

“They were just behind me, sir,” Hardcase explains as he strains to move more debris. “The little one, he was hanging from my shoulders. They’re probably just past these rocks. They’re probably waiting for us to get them out. We just need to dig a little bit more. We just need to prop this up with something--”

With every boulder shifted, ever meter dug, his progress is eaten away by the force of gravity, dragging down more of the mountain.

Hardcase lets out a noise of frustration. “I need some help,” he finally says. “I just need some help digging.” He turns and faces the officer who is trying to get him to stop. “Captain, is Fives up yet? What about Chatterbox? And Cooker? If they’ve recovered, we can clear the entrance together. We can use the Force and–“

“Fives, Cooker, and Chatterbox are still unconscious,” Captain Rex interrupts quietly.  “So’s Flare and Bats. They held up the mountain as long as they could. You need to rest too, soldier.”

Hardcase blinks. Then he shakes himself and turns back to his task.

“Just a bit more, Captain. They were just behind me. They’re waiting. I’ve just gotta move a few more rocks.  Just a few more, yeah.”

*click*

“Anakin? Anakin, enough now. Turn it off, please.”

[digiitalis]

@uurameshii

“Yusuke, please excuse my language, but you’re a dirty fucking cheater.” The screen in front of them flashed brightly, big block letters unfolding themselves with solid ‘bang’s for emphasis. “GAME OVER” it read. “PLAYER ONE WINS” then “CONTINUE?” It was as if the game cabinet was taunting Shuichi for every moment he stood there. Insult added to injury, he felt, with his player character already laid flat on her back, little spurts of pixel blood shooting into the air. 

With a long suffering sigh he dug into his coin-purse, sparing his friend only a single dirty glance before embarking on his search for 100 yen coins. “That combo should not have been possible. I don’t know how you did it, but I call shenanigans.” Granted, Shuichi was more of a button masher when it came to Alley Brawler, but still, the endless loop of kicks and energy blasts seemed more like a glitch than a proper strategy. Some sort of Namiko code bullshit. Yusuke would. 

Seeing that he was reduced down to fifty yen pieces, he zipped up the little fabric fox head and put it away. One more round would not be in his future today. Even though Yusuke had most certainly cheated. “And you know the punishment for shenanigans, yes? You have to buy me lunch.”

[spiralatlas]

PAX Australia 2017 Day 3

There are no notes for Day 2 because I spent it socialising a little and sleeping a lot.

Queer Coded: A History of LGBTQIA+ Gaming

David Gaider Q&A

Brian Fairbanks Talks about Addressing Accessibility Through Game Design

Misc: I spent a chunk of the day in the diversity lounge which was fun. I met some great people at the Gender Diverse card game, and got to the semi finals of the Xena Nintendo 64 Fighting Game Tournament (there were only three rounds, but given how much I suck at fighting games this was still a happy surprise, and a sign of what a random button masher the game is)

The gender neutral toilets near the diversity lounge were very well done, unlike GCAP the original signs weren't visible and "with stalls/urinals" was in small letters like an afterthought.

I didn't break anything on Day 3 but did break a mug the next morning. Also the cinema in the Crown Casino is surprisingly inaccessible.

Despite the various mishaps I had a great time and will definitely come again next time we can afford it.

Queer Coded: A History of LGBTQIA+ Gaming

I missed the second half of this to see David Gaider, feeling very annoyed at the programmer.

Anny Sims @ChattyAnny on twitter (I was too slow to get the others!) Keely Thirkell Hayley Williams Soap Pejovic

Most queer characters are just queer coded, with plausible deniability. "It's up to you".Tendency for queer characters to be villains. Indie games tend to be more queer friendly than AAA games.

Lesbians: First known queer character in games: 1986 Moonmist had side-character who was a lesbian murderer.

Other notable lesbian characters:

KOTOR 2003, Juhani, first queer Star Wars character

Gone Home 2013

Dragon Age Inquisition Sera (I thought Sam Traynor from Mass Effect 3 came first?)

Tracer from Overwatch 2016

Trans characters:

1988 Birdo from Super Mario Brothers 2 "A male who believes he is female"

Lots of others but all terrible. Jokes and villains. Trans women seen as threat. Poison from Final Fight 1989, "so you can hit a woman".

Krem DAI 2014 trans man, You can't go "Ok, cool".

Hainly Adams MEA 2017 trans woman. Tells you her deadname, this was patched.

Horizon: Zero Dawn 2017 trans man

Dream Daddy 2017 trans man. One throw away line about wearing a binder, had to be clarified by writers. Non binary people and cosplayers wear binders too!

How do you make it clear they're trans without them implausibly outing themselves or just having it be word of god?

Gay men:

1993 fmv Dracula Unleashed has speaking role

Tended to be background characters, jokes and villains again. No m/m relationships shown onscreen.

Dreamfall: the Longest Journey 2006 (not made super clear until 2015)

Steve Cortez Mass Effect 3 2012

Dorian DAI 2014

Dorian knew exactly what his sexuality was. Coming of age narratives get boring.

Bi Characters (no picture because they're invisible):

1993 Ultima 7 part 2 bi character propositions character regardless of gender.

"Slutty bisexuals". A lot of characters are playersexual and it never comes up outside the relationship.

Zevran DAO 2009

Borderlands 2009

Fable 2004 let player be bi, Fable 2 2008 added bi PCs

Playersexual:

Only queer in the context that they will date players of both genders, but you don't see that unless you play as both.

Dragon Age 2 2011, Anders only mentions his ex-boyfriend if you play as a male PC

Fallout 4 2015. Did have background queer characters.

Stardew Valley 2016

Non Binary:

1995 Chrono Trigger villain

Often robots, aliens or other non human

Frisk Undertale 2015

Life is Strange 2015

Zer0 Borderlands 2 2012

Turing Read Only Memories

Some games let you have gender neutral pronouns.

David Gaider Q&A

1999 Working on Balder's Gate 2, didn't talk about his sexuality at work. Figured he would always be writing stories for straight people.

He was shocked to hear Jade Empire was having same sex romance. Got to be lead writer on DAO after that. "So I can put same sex romances in, right?". More economical to have bi romances, but he would have been happier having some gay characters.

Feeling iffy about playersexuality after DA2, he asked for 2 straight, 2 bi, 2 gay for DAI. "Minority content" is weighed via the percentage of those who play it and those who appreciate it. Eg 5% play dwarves but most see it as a positive thing to be able to do.

Most of his time was spent on the actual plot but Dorian was the most personal writing.

He was targeted by Gamergate but it doesn't compare to, for example, how much Jennifer Helper was targeted.

10 years on Dragon Age was enough, his head would explode if he had to write another story about templars and mages.

How did you get the job: His story is very specific. He was managing a hotel and a comic book artist in his spare time. A friend was a character artist at Bioware but Gaider wasn't really aware of the specifics. Bioware told their employees "If you know anyone who does game related writing let us know", the friend gave them Gaider's LARP rule book without asking. Got a call, gave the stories he wrote in highschool, got offered a job. He said no, it didn't pay enough, but then he got fired from the hotel. It felt like a sign.  

Who do you think will take the romance torch from Bioware: he’s not sure they're giving it up? EA treats romance fans as a reliable audience who don't need to be advertised to, even though it's why a lot of people play in his experience (though obviously those are the kinds of fans he will tend to meet). There is an underserved audience.

Most proud of: Lots of stuff he's not proud of. Wishes he'd been more involved in community discussions early on. Proud that the team tackled issues as they started arising. Proud of the company for standing by them. Most proud of Dragon Age 2 despite the mixed response. They had very little time to create it. It’s like a very big first draft. They had a plan but didn't get to compare notes once things were written, so he had to trust the team would stick to plan as much as they could despite things being cut on the fly. Team said they were happy in a post-game survey, didn't feel he was too dictatorial.

What does your writing look like, a screenplay? A cutscene does. But it’s generally structured like a tree that expands and then contracts back to the core path before expanding again. Flow charts.

Favourite relationship in a game? Morden in Mass Effect. Cried more than in a movie. Tali was his space girlfriend. Of the ones he's worked on, Morrigan will always be closest. She represents Dragon Age to him. Joyous time working with Claudia Black, first celebrity he'd worked with. Flemeth was originally Arabic, but that actress couldn't do it so they got Kate Mulgrew. They stopped looking for an Arabic actress for Morrigan and looked for someone who matched Kate Mulgrew. Claudia Black's audition tape was her reading Smack That like a beat poet. Gaider was very nervous, he'd never spoken to any actor before. First rule he was told was don't compare them to another celebrity, so naturally he said "I had Helena Bonham Carter in mind when I wrote Morrigan". Claudia Black said "So you're saying I'm a cheap Helena Bonham Carter ;D". She would say "Does he want me to do it more like Helena?" during recording.

Has being so closely associated with diversity had downsides? He may be gay but he's still white and a dude. He feels like it's all he talks about conventions sometimes. Teams need to sit down and look at what they've made. Lot of things made individually without concern for the bigger picture eg only 15% speaking roles in DAI were female until they stopped and looked at it and fixed it.  

"We didn't think about it" is no longer a defense. He wants to help with that, but we should be helping other marginalised voices get into the industry and amplifying their voices.

Wishes it could just be expected and we didn't have to discuss it.

He likes dating sim mechanics in the context of a larger story. But he does like the idea of romance not being as tertiary as it's been in Bioware games, romance as part of the adventure eg a romantic adventure. He's not really interested in social sims or day to day relationships. "My idea of a spicy relationship is to have my life threatened."

Why do you think most AAA companies try to avoid discussions of lgbt stuff, why is it taking so long? Because it's Pandora's Box. There is more being added casually. But if they do nothing they get lumped in with the rest of the industry. As soon as they do anything there are 2 sides: 1. why are you doing this, you're politicising your game. 2. Why aren't you doing more, whatever you did is wrong and not good enough.

Not that flawed attempts should be above criticism. But by mostly focusing criticism on the games that did anything rather than nothing, people have increased the feeling that it's Pandoras box. He understands that it feels like those developers might listen to criticism but the dynamic is sending the wrong lesson.

My question: How do you think inclusion of non binary player characters can work with including gay and lesbian love interests instead of just having playsexuality? “We've thought about it”. He defined playersexual for audience, like Shroedinger's sexuality. He doesn't like it when the only way to have something show up is to have the character talk about it. eg asexual: character would have to sit you down and explain what asexuality is. Is unsexy as a feature. Explaining nuances of sexuality is off putting. If there was more nuance across the industry that would mean no one game has to do everything. Any one game can have only so much within it.

(This doesn't actually answer my question. I discussed it with my husband afterwards and even he didn't understand what I was asking, so I may have garbled it in my nervousness)

Are some choices "canon"? One of the features of Mass Effect and Dragon Age was the continuity of choices. No "canon" but there is a default. A lot of people feel like they have to play the whole series to get the full experience, was off putting, and he found the Keep a nightmare as a writer.

They had editors keeping track of which choices were incompatible. And that was just the third game. "Can you imagine for a fourth game? Phew! Not my problem :D"

Have you thought about the morals of gamifying romance, saying what people want to hear to get sex? Dragon Age didn't work that way, sex was not at the end. Some characters in DAI had no sex scenes, sex is optional for Dorian's romance. It's a game, everything is gamified, you can't simulate actual relationships. For proper reactivity you’d have to mark every response and keep track of inconsistency, but that’s too much work. Same with polyamory: too many variables!

Maybe get away from the approval system? Pay more attention to overall choices in major quests etc instead of individual lines.

Bi characters in DAI were bi from the start. Not the first thing that comes up during character creation eg Dorian started out as "the good Tevinter". Helps avoid too many assumptions based on sexuality. But once characters started solidifying they would think about who worked for what sexualities. There's no set way to write someone "as" bi, but the writer can have them talk about relevant things in other scenes. Sera's writer is a straight dude, he didn't want to write About The Lesbian Experience, and got lesbians in the company to check out what he was writing.

Have relationships gotten more or less complicated? In Balder's gate 2 there was a single sequence of romance scenes which you could get kicked off. Dragon Age had approval. If it gets complicated but the player can't see it or understand how reactions relate to their previous actions it just seems random or predetermined. Unless they say "I am angry at you because of X", but noone says that.

Brian Fairbanks Talks about Addressing Accessibility Through Game Design

lostandhound1 on twitter

His notes.

He's not blind himself, and while he obviously cares a lot about accessibility had an unfortunate tendency to treat disabled people as a separate, if respected, "Other" to himself and the audience, even though I was right there in a bright red mobility scooter. He advocated person first language, "a person with blindness" etc, but not all disabled people like it and it shouldn't be presented as unambiguous best practice. I'm building up the energy to talk to him about it.

He's a sound designer.

Audio games: designed for people with a vision disability.

Audio game jam: the games tended to be about blindness as a bad thing. It felt victimising.

How can we make people feel powerful?

He was inspired by his dog's amazing sense of smell. The mechanic is that you follow an invisible trail using sound cues, a humming noise that gets louder and quieter.

Sighted people struggle with extracting information from sound. The game is more difficult for sighted people.

He had to add fruit on the ground as an accessibility measure for sighted people.

All music is diegetic: happening inside the world of the game, eg characters are singing.

There's a lack of much budget for audio games, since they're never going to make much money.

In 30 years current 30-something gamers will need accessible games.

Accessibility tends to be added as an afterthought or accident.

For example Pokemon has unique sounds for materials, collisions, monsters that accidentally make it accessible.

Sony reader: US only

Microsoft narrator: good but hard to use as a developer

EA: Proactively adding blind accessibility

Fighting games are often in stereo, blind players can play and even win tournaments.

Demand more from your games.

Developers: find a consultant. Address accessibility early.

It's about empathy. People with disability deserve the same stories to take part in as everyone else.

gameaccessibilityguidelines.com

daisyalesoundworks

binaural sound is going to make a big difference

audiogames.net: where blind gamers go to play games. They're supportive if you ask for advice and feedback.

People don't mind if you don't do immersive, game specific voices and just rely on the screenreader

Sound designers need more love to make VR accessible.  

Braille games?? He doesn't know much about it.

Curb cut effect examples: curb cuts for wheelchairs but also useful for prams etc. Subtitles. Think about short term problems that benefit from accessibility as well eg the screen is broken, there's sunlight on the screen etc.  

Sounds of a blind person navigating their desktop. To me it sounds like a mangled garble of little bursts of cut off computer speech, here’s a description of what’s going on.