#i just. don't play valorant anymore

[kaiserouo]

what

[noircheols]

⸺ NO ORDINARY LOVE. 𝜗𝜚 ࣪˖ ִ𐙚

an anthology of love stories almost never told.

PREFACE. love has been far from perfect. you thought you would stumble upon prince charming organically. unfortunately, this is a big fat joke in the 21st century. reluctantly, you open the app store and download something you always believed were better off for finding potential enemies or friends with benefits... a dating app. it’s time to give your phone cupid’s bow and see who it hits!

PAIRINGS. svt x reader (seperate)

WARNINGS. suggestive, cursing, varies from fic to fic

SCHEDULE. every monday (i hope.)

TAGLIST. @jjjjeonww @shirebusking @shinwonderful @tokitosun @unlikelysublimekryptonite @wonkierideul @flwrshwa @syluslittlecrows @macapunoz @paradiseoflosers @seokmn @itsclda

open! please feel free to dm/reply/ask

STATUS. ONGOING!

AUTHOR'S NOTE. AAAAA i wanted to write something inspired by hinge's no ordinary love campaign. reading it was so lovely and i wanted to write something alongside the same premises. hinge if ur seeing this please dont sue me </3. THIS IDEA IS NOT MINE AT ALL simply something inspired by it. i hope you all enjoy!! peep the ugly header LMAO graphic design is my least fave thing ever as u can see. happy love month to all the losers (affectionate) who enjoy!! i hope you all find love in the people you adore, the music, food, and most importantly, yourself!!!!

NETWORKS. @kstrucknet

♡ ‎ kisses are always promises ── 𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐈 𝐒𝐄𝐔𝐍𝐆𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐎𝐋

a love story for people who deserve peace of mind and torment themselves for being unable to give others the same.

LIKES : popping boba, working out, my dog kkuma, giving gifts and making them feel special, confidence

DISLIKES : lack of effort, ghosts, fries (got doxxed for this)

♡ ‎ let your habits control you ── 𝐘𝐎𝐎𝐍 𝐉𝐄𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐇𝐀𝐍

a love story for people who want somebody they can be themselves without any qualms, flaws and all.

LIKES : somebody who keeps me on my toes, napping, taking photos of my pet rock, cashmere pajamas

DISLIKES : somebody who monitors my every behaviour, judgemental

♡ ‎ heaven knows i'm miserable now ── 𝐇𝐎𝐍𝐆 𝐉𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐎

a love story for people who are looking for the best in people (and always end up finding the worst).

LIKES : optimism, deer print, sunsets, big smiles, playing guitar, an open heart

DISLIKES : poor manners, gaming, isn't understanding, just don't be a horrible person lol

♡ ‎ swimming fool ── 𝐖𝐄𝐍 𝐉𝐔𝐍𝐇𝐔𝐈

a love story for people looking to dive head first beyond the surface of dating to understand themselves and their partner.

LIKES : exploring new possibilities but having somebody to call home, cat cafes, matcha, hmu huzz 👅👅👅

DISLIKES : misunderstands me and my humour (or chooses to), isn't on the same wavelength

♡ ‎ i don't wanna watch tv anymore ── 𝐊𝐖𝐎𝐍 𝐒𝐎𝐎𝐍𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐆

a love story for people who are scared to pick up their broken hearts and close themselves off from being hurt again.

LIKES : TIGERS, going to the arcade just for the dance machine, somebody to share fun memories with but also can feel safe with

DISLIKES : spicy food, pent up emotions, lack of ambition

♡ ‎ focus ── 𝐉𝐄𝐎𝐍 𝐖𝐎𝐍𝐖𝐎𝐎

a love story for people who know that seeing is believing, that to be loved is to be seen, and that to believe is to love.

LIKES : hoodies, gaming (league of legends, genshin, valorant), reading, somebody to sit in silence with after a long day

DISLIKES : obnoxious, believes things revolve around them

♡ ‎ chocolate strawberries ── 𝐋𝐄𝐄 𝐉𝐈𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐍

a love story for people who put up walls and are waiting for the right person to knock them down.

LIKES : anime (jujutsu kaisen, naruto, kimi ni todoke), personal space, my personal space being invaded

DISLIKES : my personal space being invaded, physical touch

♡ ‎ keep you close ── 𝐊𝐈𝐌 𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐘𝐔

a love story for people who know what they want, and knowing what you want makes you lonely.

LIKES : cooking, trying new cuisines and restaraunts, unboxing collectibles, being appreciated

DISLIKES : heights, avoidance, mess

♡ ‎ weather forecast ── 𝐋𝐄𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐎𝐊𝐌𝐈𝐍

a love story for people who worry about being too much or too little, but never enough.

LIKES : long walks at public parks, cupcake-scented things, visiting the dog shelter, rock music (fun fact i was in a band!!!)

DISLIKES : nothing!!! everybody is awesome and cool in their own way :D

♡ ‎ cloudburst ── 𝐗𝐔 𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐇𝐀𝐎

a love story for people who don't appreciate what they have.

LIKES : art history, exhibitions, mala xianguo (or any other spicy food)

DISLIKES : being held back, long-term commitments, being deprived of choice, everything

♡ ‎ ‎stuck by the glue ── 𝐁𝐎𝐎 𝐒𝐄𝐔𝐍𝐆𝐊𝐖𝐀𝐍

a love story for people who are chronic people pleasers and give to the point of exhaustion.

LIKES : ballads, family, when somebody is caring and affectionate, tangerine flavoured desserts, iced americano

DISLIKES : making somebody upset, being found annoying, chan

‎ ‎♡ ‎ ‎starshy ── 𝐂𝐇𝐖𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐋

a love story for people who deserve to be taken seriously.

LIKES : visiting record stores, charli xcx, cloudy days, making personalized spotify playlists for each other

DISLIKES : dismissive, puts me down

‎ ‎♡ ‎ ‎hot n cold ── 𝐋𝐄𝐄 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍

a love story for people who make up their mind and change it the next minute.

LIKES : somebody who loves having me around, doing everything together, somebody dynamic

DISLIKES : seungkwan (DNI!!!!)

@noircheols do not copy or translate

[elliespassagerprincess]

write something abt gamer!Abby pls!!

Headcannons: gamer!abby anderson x reader

live footage of Abby, after dying in Valorant:

☆ Gamer Abby who worked two jobs at one point to be able to afford all the new games and set up.

☆ Gamer Abby who spent over 3000 dollars just to upgrade her pc.

☆ Gamer Abby who had everything in room because she wants to feel close to her games.

☆ Gamer Abby who felt embarrassed when you came over for the first time.

☆ Gamer Abby who apologizes for all the posters and stacks of games that littered her room.

“Why are you saying sorry?” you asked her, confused as you sat on her bed.

“This isn’t very sexy” she comments looking down at the floor.

“It is” you shrugged "everything you do is sexy Abs"

☆ Gamer Abby who memorizes all the lore to different games, and she tells you all about it, even though it sounds like gibberish to you.

“Wait what?”

“baby focus” Abby said with an annoyed tone.

“So Ellie is Joel’s daughter?”

“Oh my god don’t you listen?” Abby says dramatically.

“She isn’t his biological daughter babe” “oh.. so who’s Sarah then?”

All Abby could do was sigh.

☆ Gamer Abby who spends hours playing, but pauses her game when you send her a text.

☆ Gamer Abby who face times you while she’s playing, because she just wants to be with you.

☆ Gamer Abby who feels self-conscious when you are in her room when she plays.

☆ Gamer Abby who gets teased by her friends when they are all on a call.

“why are you so quiet Anderson?” she heard Mel ask through the headphones.

“Her girl is there, she doesn’t wanna scare her away” Nora says witch a chuckle.

☆ Gamer Abby who always feels like she talks too much about games, but falls in love with you all over again when you say: “its ok Abby, tell me about it”

☆ Gamer Abby who moves her gaming set up and posters into another room when you move in.

You walked into the room, the room that was once so colorful with games, was now empty. Naked.

“What the fuck Anderson?”

“I moved it all”

“yeah no shit… why would you do that?”

“this is our space now and I thought you know- we could… I don’t know decorate it together?” ☆ Gamer Abby who is wayyyyyy to good with her fingers, and she gets all shy when you mention something about it.

“What are you looking at?” Abby asked without taking her eyes off the screen you hummed before you simply answered “you”

You watched as Abby shook her head with a chuckle.

“I now see why you’re so good with your hands, these games are definitely teaching you something” you said with a wink and Abby almost pissed herself.

☆ Gamer Abby who uses cheesy game related pickup lines

“You must be as good as Yoshi with that tongue of yours” “Did you just cast aeroga on me? Because you swept me off my feet”

“You don't have to turn on a game to play with me”

“Nice pants! Mind if I loot them?” You never got the references but it always made you blush.

☆ Gamer Abby who almost cried when you gave her plushies from the games she was obsessed with at the time.

☆ Gamer Abby who tries teaching you how to play.

“C’mon baby it’s not that hard”

“Abby I keep dying”

“you’re dying because you aren’t focusing”

“Abby I don’t want to play anymore”

“please baby, for me?”

☆ Gamer Abby who almost combusts when you understood one of her references.

“What did you just say?”

“you said just look for the light that’s a the last of us reference, isn’t it?”

“Marry me” ☆ Gamer Abby who finds out you’ve been practicing her favorite games, and you learned the lore to surprise her.

☆ Gamer Abby who wakes you up at 3am because she was yelling at Nora for making her lose.

☆ Gamer Abby who begs you to play with her because she thinks it’s hot.

☆ Gamer Abby who was scared of being herself before she met you.

☆ Gamer Abby who wants to dress up as Mario and princess peach for Halloween.

☆ Gamer Abby who knew that you were the perfect girl when you let her decorate your shared room with a few posters.

☆ Gamer Abby who is really happy, being with you.

☆ Gamer Abby who could see the two of you getting old together. And she hoped when you were 73 one day, that you’d still be playing together

[peacheeeliz]

011. hurry up we're hungry (1k wc)

“Thank you all for joining today, and I hope you enjoyed the stream!” You speak towards your camera, waving goodbye to chat with a sweet smile. “See you guys on Wednesday for the fourth session of empires!”

You say a few more goodbyes before you finally shut down the stream, letting out a sigh. Playing with Yuyu went great, and you had a lot more fun than you thought you would. But after streaming for about five hours with him, you were ready to hit the sack and sleep until noon tomorrow. You're about to just walk away from your desk completely before a deep chuckle brings you from your sleep-filled thoughts.

“Feeling tired?” He questions. You totally forgot you were still on call with him, as he kept quiet while you did your outro.

“Yeah, a little,” you answer, laughing softly. “But, knowing me, I'll probably just be lying in my bed for hours, scrolling through TikTok.”

He lets out another laugh at that comment, “same, not gonna lie.”

You smile softly at his laughter, leaning back in your chair. “If you're not in any rush to head to bed,” you start, playing with the wire of your headphones. “Would you mind maybe chatting for a bit?” He falls silent for a bit, and you continue before he has a chance to answer. “Just because it feels like we don't know each other that well, is all. Want you to feel more comfortable with me, despite the whole war going on and stuff.”

“I'd love to,” he responds, and you can almost hear the smile in his voice. “I don't really know anyone on the server that well, to be honest, so I kinda needed this.”

“Not even Yeonjun?” You ask, hearing a quiet ‘nuh-uh’ as your answer. “I'm surprised seeing as he invited you to join the smp.”

“I think it's just because I'm another popular streamer, honestly,” Yuyu answers truthfully, and you hear the shuffle of his shoulders shrugging.

“But you're not just any other popular streamer. You're obviously more than that,” you tell him, a small frown forming on your lips. “How did you even start streaming? You started just over a year ago, right?”

“Yeah, July last year,” he tells her, finally smiling as he reminisces about that time. “I always played Valorant, you know, it's been my favorite game ever since it came out. So, when my friend suggested streaming in my downtime, it actually sounded really interesting.”

“You don't stream all that often, though,” you note. “You must not have a lot of downtime?”

He lets out a pained laugh at that, “you got that right. My job is pretty demanding,” he pauses for a moment. “But, I really enjoy it. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.”

You smile at that, “that's really sweet.”

“I mean, that's how you feel about streaming, no?” He questions. “That's what I'm assuming, anyway. You stream a lot more than me, and it seems like you really enjoy doing it.”

“Yeah, I guess you're right,” you respond with a small nod, despite the fact that he can't see it. “God, I've been streaming for so long. It's not really a job for me anymore. You know? Like I can just hop on stream, play silly games with my friends, and it keeps me stable on top of all of that. It's crazy to see how far I've come and how far we've all come.”

“Yeah, you started way back when, huh?” He jokes, laughing through his nose. “Six years ago, right? Sorry, I have a friend who's a big fan, so I know a lot more than it might seem.”

“Aww, you do?” You tease, leaning forward once again to rest your chin on your hand. “I'd love to meet him one day.”

“Trust me, you do not,” he warns. “He's already threatened to crash my stream today. Almost disowned me after I killed you during the first empires session.”

You let out a soft chuckle, “that's cute. Come on, it won't be that bad if we just talk for a bit, you tell him, drawing out a couple of words.

He shakes his head lightly, “I'll think about it, alright? But I really don't think you two will be a good duo,” he starts, hearing your exaggerated gasp through his headphones. “He's crazy, and you're…. also crazy.”

“Wooow,” you exclaim, letting out a pained laugh. “Says the one who just blew me up the other day.”

“Hey, hey, that,” he pauses, chuckling. “That was an accident. I really did think Soobin was going to walk in first.”

“Oh, I'm so sorry for foiling your plans by walking into my building first,” you say, rolling your eyes. “Thank you for rebuilding it, though. Very sweet of you,” you tease, smiling softly.

You can just tell he's rolling his eyes in response, “it was the right thing to do, after killing you what? Three times now?”

“Even more if you count the Among Us stream,” you comment, giggling.

“Damn, I owe you big time, don't I?” He replies, sighing. “I'll make it up to you whenever you ask.”

Before you can respond, you hear a muffled voice coming from your headphones. Yuyu gives a quick ‘sorry,’ before responding to who you assume is his roommate. You sit there quietly, trying your best not to listen in or interrupt the two.

“Sorry, forgot I had plans with a few of my friends after the stream,” he comes back to you, frowning that your time together was cut short.

“No, it's all good, don't worry,” you tell him. “Go hang out with your friends, have fun.”

“Thanks for understanding,” he says, smiling. He hesitates, but doesn’t forget to tell you: “We should, uhm, do this again sometime. It was nice.”

You smile as well, “we should. I'm here whenever, alright?” You respond. “Well, unless Sungchan pulls me away. He gets a little jealous when others get more attention than him.” His deep chuckle rings through your ears again. “Talk to you later, Yuyu.”

“Yeah, talk to you later, Y/N,” he replies, waiting until you leave the call to finally close out of the app. He leans back in his chair again, smiling to himself.

synopsis ⤏ you're trying to peacefully build your starter house on the empires server when your neighbor so rudely (accidentally) kills you, starting the biggest war on the server just one day in.

prev / masterlist / next

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ taglist is closed!

[sandorsubs]

no intro no aesthetic or proper writing bcz i need to kick this out of my head. i always feel like i'm shouting or wizardlizing around but no i promise it's pure passion...or my scorpio placements trying to come out but dw i usually keep them tied up (:

i'm curious what state are you in? because there is a state for every assumption like a status bar, it probably gets updated time to time: state of having, state of wanting, state of waiting, trying, hoping, praying etc. you have to be in one of those states otherwise there would be literal blanks. there is no in-between. everything shifts instantly and gets replaced(same with void. there is nothingness and everything(ness?) but it's never blank. non-existence is invisibility, not blankness. things need to exist in any form in order to be nonexistent)

if your state was a code, what would be the value: true or false? 0 or 1? if it's a switch, is it on or off? do you have it or not? it's so simple.

idk if you guys play any games but i do and i have this mode program. there are switches for every mode. i become lazier everyday so the way i persist turned into picturing a switch button.

i don't think or worry because if my rigid brain needs me to activate, open or turn something on even in my mind, why would i complicate things?

+is it on?

-idk check the switch.

+yep, it's on.

are you in the state of wanting? ew, switch that off. type false. value: 0. cut the energy line or the red wire, kick the battery idk just don't electrocute yourself. and then switch on the state of having.

"h-hold on, energy...?" yeah, you actually pour energy to this parasite state. what were you thinking? your thoughts=energy. first you react to them with emotions, second you act on them and spend more energy. now imagine this state creates a whole traffic, yk like how youtube does but more like a stream of thoughts(in pattern):

it didn't happen->but i want it to happen->then i need to try something new->i need to do more searching->it didn't happen->but i want it to happen->then i need to try something new

it all starts with one little upsetting thought and then vicious cycle has been created to keep you in. who needs to be scared of tiktok, you have your own algorithm in your brain. brick by brick, yes.

wanting, needing and hoping are all parasite states. they feed off from you. longer you stay in these states, stronger the vicious cycle gets. it's a toxic relationship. they literally give heavy "ihatemygirlfriend" vibes. stingy, if these states were a person they'd probably give you a broke boyfriend hug (pleaseee get the joke i'd definitely provide for my bf gf bff im just joking)

you know there is a moment of realization: i've been doing too much. maybe happily, with positive thoughts, while dancing with the butterflies, little expectant for some return eh, but i've been doing it for the wrong person. thankfully, you don't need a break up or divorce in this case. what you've learned and improved will stay with you.

lots of hugs heh 💋😏 and pheww i don't want to make different posts on shifting/manifesting/loa anymore. sometimes i just want to delete all my posts and only keep this one because look at this. i've been thinking about switch thing since the start of the year and it's so simple...i was so blind to see what's in front of me(thanks gaming)(dw it's not league of legends or valorant type of games)(and i don't think you can use mods on them...? def not)(and not FREAKY mods i swear why people always assume that...)

[hextechmaturgy]

oh cypher... the wonderful man that you are. pulling your silly pranks and cracking your jokes, hiding your face and name and every aspect of your past, acting like nothing phases you anymore. he works with people who don't trust him or don't like him, because he has a job to do. he recognizes talent when he sees it, he's not here to make friends 💅 better to bring the strong, shady people into the team than create a difficult enemy, that's just simple math :)

but then, for all that he tries to play the part of the heartless wildcard, cypher can't divorce himself from amir's compassion. even when a stranger manipulates the memory of his dead (?) wife and kid to fend him off, and everyone around him who also got blackmailed by her is rightfully pissed, cypher interrogates her and is nothing if not patient, warm, even. he realizes she lost someone and that all this is her desperation showing. after she joins the team, he keeps tabs on her because well... he's a spy and she's shady, but the info he chooses to report back to his boss is that she's not sleeping well, that she won't ask for help no matter how much she needs it, so he's doing it for her. i also think it's fair to say that he acts like killjoy's eccentric uncle/mentor. she's a genius but she's young and prone to foolishness - so there he is. and now this stuff with iso! a guy who slithered his way into valorant just so he could kill omen, a damn ticking bomb that cypher "refuses" to help unless he works for it... but the truth is that cypher investigates iso, finds the truth, and apparently proceeds to convince him that there's a better way ahead, one that also leads omen to the answers he craves. no price is paid or demanded

honestly man, cypher will help anyone and claim it's all for shits and giggles, but really, he's just a good guy. cypher may try to kill amir al amari but that mf will not go down !!!!!

[branwendaughterofllyr]

maris fic????? im soo curious about it👀

Evidently the people want to know about Maris. So to be clear, I currently have no plans to post any Maris fic, it was just one of the ideas I was playing with before I ended up writing a poison tree. I don't think I even have the draft anymore, and all I can remember about it is the line "Maris was not the prettiest of her sisters. Which was fine, for she certainly was the cleverest." I believe it was an Aemond/Maris fic, with a focus on the Four Storms.

I actually think the Four Storms get a bad rap in the fandom, considering three out of four of them ended miserably, and we don't know what happened to the other one.

And there's a very telling detail, I think, that most people miss when it comes to Elenda Caron and her daughters.

Lady Elenda Baratheon, the widow of Storm’s End, also took a new husband that year. With Lord Borros dead and Royce an infant, Dornish incursions into the stormlands had grown more numerous, and the outlaws of the kingswood were proving troublesome. The widow felt the need of a man’s strong hand to keep the peace. She chose Ser Steffon Connington, second son of the Lord of Griffin’s Roost. Though twenty years younger than Lady Elenda, Connington had proved his valor during Lord Borros’s campaign against the Vulture King, and was said to be as fierce as he was handsome.

And I honestly think this hints at something darker about the way that Lady Elenda unloaded all of her daughters off, either as septas or wives, since her new husband would have been closer in age to her unmarried daughters. Maris joins the Silent Sisters for unknown reasons, and while it probably is just a rumor her tongue was cut out, considering that her sisters also ended pretty miserably and she was partially blamed for Aemond losing his temper and killing Luke, I am side-eyeing it.

And I also think that Cassandra gets a bad rap, as well, despite her being in pretty uncomfortable straits after the Dance. Casssandra is likely around twenty (based off of Floris' age) and unmarried, no longer the heir to Storm's End because of her new brother, has lost her chances to be princess and then queen, and now a large chunk of the eligible men have died during the recent Civil War. And I don't think she was the one who killed Jaehaera, and I think that all of the above issues made her a great target for possibly being framed in the matter of the poisoning. Or if she was actually involved, she was likely an easy mark for manipulation (and considering that Tessario was an Unwin Peake appointment.....). And her punishment being to get married off to an old man with a bunch of children, while her mother declares it will stop her plotting..... Idk, maybe you should have been more on top of things, Elenda!

And then we finally have Floris getting married off to a man old enough to be her grandfather at age 14/15, who had SEVEN sons from two prior marriages but still gets her pregnant almost immediately, leading to her dying in childbirth at only 16. I don't care how sad Thaddeus Rowan was anout his teen bride dying with his twentieth kid, you can't make me like him!!!!!!

The Four Storms are really canon OCs to me, so I'm more than a little disappointed how slept on they are, and I think Maris and Cassandra are the real standouts here.

[krnsluvvie]

love at first, love at second, love at last

siete: dime (+ wc: 0,8k)

SUMMARY: sae had chosen his career and that was shortly followed by his and y/n's separation. three years pass by and amongst all the lurking and stalking each other's socials, sae is suddenly found back in their hometown. old feelings are resurfaced, current ones are questioned and a whole load of future ones are found in a blur.

seis | masterlist | ocho

sae inserts the key into the hole, twists the doorknob and the second the door closes, he drops on the floor.

gosh, i'm so fucking stupid.

there was a lot of unpacking to do and a lot of information that he can't yet bring himself to stomach. first it was y/n. deciding between texting them and not at all was a hard, silent battle. to make matters worse, it all happened before his practice. the longing for the past nagged at him and pulled at his heartstrings so much that he couldn't restrain it anymore. the familiarity of their contact on his screen made him cave in and text them right away. 

the warmth that enveloped him subsequently felt like a blanket on a cold winter day and he was so damned for basking in the imagination.

back then, they used to text everyday. his responses were mostly one-worded and y/n didn't seem to mind as much–though they did bring this up to him, thus a long conversation followed about how dry and uninterested he sounded over text. all was made up for when they went out at night to the convenience store, had a cute little date and at last, separated their ways.

something about them brought sae a sense of comfort and safety. y/n was bubbly, understanding and so painfully supportive when it came to his football career. they would try their best to come to his matches, make sure to cheer him on as loud as possible. and even though he did feel second-hand embarrassment at such flamboyant behavior, it made him feel so grateful.

that feeling was new but sae was slowly getting used to it. used to y/n and their warmth.

sae couldn't really let go of it. no, not just yet. it was all he thought of when he was in spain. it was weighing on his mind like crazy and the guilt was eating him up alive, more and more each day.

his dream of becoming the best striker in the world was shattered right before his eyes as he realized just how competitive the other footballers from around the world were. his japanese teammates, and even the back-then teams could not compare.

his mind had to switch to a different mindset. he didn't have to be a striker–though, it took him a long time to process that–he could act as a helping hand to the said striker. 

thus, rigorous training sessions were set in motion and his whole body composition changed. he'd always been strong but he wanted to be stronger and even more so–look like it. 

he had to keep himself occupied at all times. he had to.

the phone in his sweatpants starts vibrating and he sighs.

oliver.

he picks it up, staying silent. 

“prodigy-chan, we're on, so join whenever you're ready.”

sae rolls his eyes. he told him many times not to call him a prodigy but with the way oliver is, sounds like he'd do the total opposite. and of course he did. 

“sure.” and then he hangs up. because there is nothing more to say.

~

“we played too much valorant, why can't we do some open-world games now?”

“i know damn well you mean genshin, shidou.” oliver sighs into the mic.

“is it wrong?”

“this is why no one wants you.”

“i can say the same about you.”

“Scheiße, stop arguing.” kaiser adds as if that was the most natural thing to do.

“where the heck have you been, asshole?” oliver asks.

sae can only force himself to turn off the mute option. “timezone.” and… he's muted again.

“anyway, if you don't want to play, i'm leaving.” shidou announces out of the blue. oliver can only laugh in response. “you'd be doing us a favor, actually!”

sae rubs his temples. 

“i'll go rest.” and then he ends the call, not even bothering to hear their protests.

why is it that today he feels especially tired? practice wasn't even that bad. it never is unless he forces himself to go past his limits and break down. it had felt liberating but then football lost its meaning for an indefinite amount of time. so he never did it again.

sae reaches for his phone on the desk and subconsciously clicks on the twitter icon. 

his mind wanders back to y/n. from what he knows so far, they probably still have him blocked on every social media platform as all that stalking and lurking stopped ever since he found about it. sae's official account, however, can't be private and that's why he minimizes his ranting. hell, he doesn't even do it on his private account. maybe this is a sign that he should stop fucking bottling his emotions up.

his eyes lazily run over the posts, uninterested and bored. they are slowly closing. but then… then—

a/n: posting this soon so i can get it out of my system, i want to thank everyone who's been liking the posts, the story, and commenting so far! <3

(fyi: the title of the chapter says dime [dih-meh] as in 'tell me', not dime [daim] as in the ten-cent coin. :p)

tag list: @kiopanxp @funtuki@silly-ez @asteroskoniiii @keijiqahara

[l0serloki]

Hello!!

i was wondering if you could do a request for valorant sova, yoru, chamber (and anyone else if you would like) of their g/n so having anxiety and/or low self esteem on a certain day and how they would comfort them?

if you don't want to, then just ignore

thank youuu~ <3

Bad Days

(Chamber, Sova, Yoru, Phoenix, Sage, Fade)

CW : anxiety/depression, GN!Reader

Chamber :

Chamber understands having anxiety - he gets it from time to time. 

He will tell you that he cares and make you a warm drink. 

It totally depends on you though. I feel like he’s the type of boyfriend to give you space and let you come to him. He doesn’t want to add anymore stress on top of you!

He will ALWAYS be there and is an amazing listener. If you need anything at all and he will do it for you.

Sova :

Say no more!! Mama Sova is on the case.

He’s going to go above and beyond when he tells you’re in those moods. He cancels any plans/requirements you needed to have done. 

You wake up panicked and he pats your head and says “Lay back down my dove” <3

He will cuddle with you and give you lots of compliments. To him you are the best person in the world & he doesn’t want you feeling any less.

Yoru :

I always say this but Yoru is awkward…

He tries his best but he is NOT good with words. 

Instead he will take you to places he finds special and hope it takes your mind off things. 

He will make small comments like “Good job” or “Not half bad”.. He means it though!!

“Come here.. Just this once” (he will give you small smooches but don’t EVER bring it up to anyone.. he will deny it till he dies.)

Phoenix :

“Babe, how can you be anxious when I’m here. I’ll save you.” (He’s being sarcastic, he thinks it’ll lift the mood some.)

Immediate hugs and kisses to the side of your head. 

Phoenix is CLINGY unless you say otherwise. He will take you everywhere he goes/follow you throughout the day. 

He is quite the entertainer and will do whatever he has to to get your mind off things.

“I love you babe. You’re totally the one for me. I mean come on.. look at us!” (Cheese lord.)

Sage :

She will take the day off to stay with you. Your health means the world to her - mental and physical!

“My love, I made us dinner, let’s watch a movie.”

Snacks & cuddles on the couch with your favorite movie playing! She also will bring out the really fluffy blankets :^>

“If you ever feel this way please tell me. I want to always be here for you.”

Fade :

Fade totally has bad anxiety and knows what it’s like to live in her head. She will automatically pick up on it.

She may not say she knows at first but she’ll do little stuff to ease the stress off you. Your clothes are cleaned and there’s a tea waiting next to the bed <3

“Dear, I know you’re not in best shape. Why don’t we take a nap? I’ll keep the nightmares away from you.”

Fade rubbing your scalp and arms as you fall asleep in her arms!!

[naminiza]

WELCOME TO MY PAGE !! (⁠◠⁠‿⁠・⁠)⁠—⁠☆

quick guide;

she/her, 🇳🇱🇧🇷, ♑ (14/01), INFP-T, CET 🕐

dni; basic criteria (anti lgtbqia+, racist, pedo, pro life, etc.)

byf; i curse, i can be out of pocket sometimes, expect shitposts

socials can be found here! (+spotify)

what to call me? — whatever you want, honestly. people call me nami, izzy, bella, bell, izz, doll(y), isa... yep, we have variety in this household. (if you call me isabella i will make sure your pillows are warm and socks are wet)

what do i do? — i study lots of programming languages at school. i teach myself the kalimba + piano (used to play the bass and acoustic guitar as well!)... i write poems and songs, and i like making art (drawings, paintings, etc.) even if i'm not the best

what languages do i speak? — english, brazilian portuguese, dutch. learning french (at school) and learning korean (by myself) but could not hold a conversation in either to save my life 😭

sigh... mandatory fandom announcement

music; blackpink, le sserafim, newjeans, yoasobi, ashley sienna, kiss of life, emei, (g)-idle, itzy, blackbear

series; crash landing on you, business proposal, falling into your smile, girl from nowhere, gossip girl, arcane, gossip girl, the good place, lucifer

anime; bnha/mha, kakegurui, blue period

games; omori, unbeatable white label, ddlc, palia, class of '09, do not feed the monkeys, fnaf sb & sl, the sims 4, portal, minecraft, valorant (iron 1 killjoy main 😮‍💨)

misc; the spider-verse movies, junji ito (especially tomie), mark manson, dear peachie, deadpool

note: some of these i still like, but haven't interacted with in a while

main tags i use and what they're for;

#original poems — poems i wrote

#meliora — meliora is a project i'm working on, i talk about it sometimes, but it's nowhere near done so i haven't posted any of its content yet

#politics — pretty straightforward; sometimes i post or reblog things related to politics (though it's not really a niche of mine), if you don't like seeing that just filter out that tag and you'll be good. same goes for #capitalism, #awareness, and #🍉

#doll rants — my rants! can be about anything (usually shows), though you can always expect to see what i'm thinking. these may be the shitposts. doesn't make sense with my new username anymore but i do not have the energy to change the tag under all the posts so the doll thing is iykyk

#react with me — sometimes i watch shows and i end up annotating my thoughts while i watch (arcane s2, dan da dan ep1)

[kangshxrtie]

ch. 8 ⤍ valorant

"hiii chat today i'm gonna be playing valorant with kazuha" you greeted your stream once you started.

"we're dating now by the way" you added.

user1 cap

"i'm telling y'all the truth. she's my girlfriend"

user2 you have one of those?

"i get enough of this shit from my friends. i can pull and i'll show y'all today" you told your chat.

user3 sounds delulu

"i will put this shit in emote only" you gave out false threats.

user4 you won't

"okay i take it back, i'm sorry" you apologized.

user5 you better

"y'all bully me too much"

user6 it's our love language

"i think we all as a community should be a little bit nicer. i like to be appreciated"

user7 nahh we good

"i swear my chat shits on me more than the people that hate me do" you chuckled.

user8 FK THEM! only we can do that

"i do love y'all though so please sub to my channel because i've ordered food every day this week. i'm about to be broke"

naoi.rei sounds personal

"rei? how are you chatting right now, i haven't unbanned you yet?" you asked confused.

naoi.rei i unbanned myself

"sounds illegal, i'm reporting you for hacking" you joked.

you talked with your chat for a couple more minutes while waiting for kazuha to message you that she was ready. while you were reading comments one particular comment stood out.

user9 LOOK AT KAZUHA'S TITLE RN

"why? is it embarrassing?" you asked going to look at kazuha's stream.

duo's with bae @gameryn

"see! chat i told you we were dating! don't call me delusional anymore" you exclaimed after seeing the title.

"i should change mine then, it's only fair…" you said out loud going to change yours.

duo's with my gf @k_a_z_u_h_a__

"can you send me your name so i can add you?" you had just gotten into a call with kazuha on discord and were ready to play.

k_a_z_u_h_a__ Today at 7:48 PM bbyongbong #2252

"what is your name?" you asked while laughing.

"it's blackpinks lightstick" she answered making you nod your head in understandment. you typed it in and added her.

while waiting in queue for a match you talked about ranks and the game.

"you know how long it took me to get out of gold! i was there for almost a year!" you complained to the japanese girl.

"if we lose all our games and derank, please do not be mad at me" kazuha said to you.

"kazuha i swear if you throw and i go back back to gold i will actually never talk to you again" you told her.

"i will not purposely throw" she replied.

"i don't trust that but i'll believe you for now" after that conversation the game found a match and you picked your characters.

once the game started you stood in front of her character in game, "you wanna trade skins? my gun sings"

"yess give me" you dropped the skin and grabbed hers.

since the round hadn't started yet you went to go type in kazuha's chat.

gameryn im in y'all gameryn spectrum classic > any other classic

next round you bought a vandal dropping it on her body before she could tell you to sell it.

"dropping a vandal on round two is crazy! how can you afford this?" kazuha asked.

"i trust you'll use it well" you told her with a smile on your face.

"this is why you were stuck in gold"

"now that's just rude" you shook your head at her words, "it might be true though"

since you didn't have anything but a class you died fast and started spectating kazuha.

"you have such a great flank" you told her after she killed the second person. she turned the corner to kill the third person.

"yes, they don't know you're there" you said as she killed the fourth one.

"last one is boat" one of your teammates who just died commed.

she went forward and once she saw him she immediately head shotted the last person.

"holy shit that 4K, you're so hot for that" you hyped kazuha up.

"see! i knew you would do the vandal justice" you said as the next round started.

"it was still a crazy purchase"

during the next round, the enemy phoenix popped and kazuha killed him immediately. she got out of the corner she was hiding in and killed the sage. she held that same corner waiting for another enemy to pop out and they do, killing that one as well.

"hold on i'll bait for you" you told her running up and dying immediately letting kazuha know exactly where they were.

the saw the last one but they both missed their shots so chamber teleported behind making kazuha turn around. since she was hidden behind a wall she planted the spike.

the enemy chamber peeked the corner and kazuha killed him, winning the round and getting an ace.

"that's my duo!" you cheered.

"can you coach me please! i wanna play like you"

"yes! this is my moment" kazuha sat up to become even more focused.

after the round ended you asked kazuha what could have been done better to not die.

"uhm… next time try killing them… i don't know"

"kazuha you literally died first"

"i actually didn't die first; i died second"

"okay… i guess that is a little bit better than first"

"blue dude is windowwwww" you yelled out before dying.

kazuha jumped over a wall before killing the second to last person. she pulled out her knife to get the enemy's gun and died to the last standing person on the enemy team.

"why were you hopping around like that, were you trying to throw?" you asked genuinely.

"you said she was window!" kazuha retorted.

"i said blue dude! viper was unknown"

"okay then that was my fault" kazuha admitted.

"that was really concerning and if you keep playing like that i will leave this lobby" you told kazuha.

"i didn't say anything when you bought me a vandal on ROUND TWO but this is the kind of treatment i get" the japanese girl sighed.

"i believed in you" you simply replied. while you were waiting on the next round to start you took the chance to type in kazuha's chat.

gameryn kazuha is a pro thrower

"this is slander. suing you for defamation" kazuha said after reading your chat.

"why is everyone dead?" you asked once you realized you were alone, "kazuha help me!"

"sova is probably watching the flank" you peeked the corner to see the sova watching a different angle so you swung and headshot him, "yes now the other one has an op, but don't worry you're better. you have a double satchel so use that to swing quickly"

you swung the sage missing every shot, and needing to switch guns before finally head shotting her with a pistol.

"i only saw the last shot. that was so clean" kazuha told you.

gameryn get you a coach that lies to you 😍😍

"maybe you are a good coach" you said afterward.

"see! tell somebody to sign me" she exclaimed.

"you are signed"

"oh shit i am. don't tell my team i said that"

when the next round started you quickly pushed out and killed the first person before quickly moving to cover. you pulled out your ult, unfortunately missing it all. you slowly peeked out from the corner and killed the second one before moving some more and killing the third one from a distance.

you went around hoping to get the fourth one from behind which you luckily did.

"my ace!" you called out just as kazuha killed the last person.

"you have to earn it"

"i actually felt like i deserved that one" you said sadly.

"if only you would have killed them faster than me"

you playfully rolled your eyes before going to kazuha's chat to quickly type something before the next round started.

gameryn L coach

"maybe you would've gotten that ace if you would stay out of my chat and focused on the game" kazuha said.

"kazuha is the worst coach" you told your chat but didn't mute.

"you're unmuted" she told you.

"i know it was on purpose" you replied.

you two won that game and while you were waiting on the next game to start, you started talking about random stuff.

"we should have couple names and become edaters" you suggested to kazuha.

"immediately no" kazuha said.

"but it would be cute"

"i'll pass"

"yeah… that probably is for the best"

the game started and y'all were on the character picking so you asked kazuha, "coach who should i play on this map"

kazuha thought about it for a second, looking at everybody that already picked, "smokes, but of course whoever you're comfortable with"

"so omen" you locked it in.

it was the fourth round when you shot at a wall randomly hoping to at least get one, "that was all me, i got so much info"

"you spent the whole round shooting at a wall"

"yeah and we found out they weren't there"

a couple of rounds later as the spike was about to go off you saw the phoenix ult so you stood behind waiting for his ult to end.

"knife him" kazuha told you and you pulled out your knife successfully knifing him once the body returned.

"two more, there's no way we lose here" kazuha said while waiting for the next game to start. the game was currently 11-3.

"we're definitely losing after that" and you were right.

which led to this moment where you were the last two standing. the score was 11-7.

"i have blind" you told kazuha.

"do it" she told you and threw your blind, then went back to hold the cross with kazuha. you got the kill from the back.

kazuha threw one of her abilities down and you shot the last one threw the wall.

"niceee" kazuha said.

"we've done it. best duo out there. nobody can top us" you said.

it was 12-7 and one of your teammates stuck the bomb before dying and you killed one of the three people left. you teleported away from the bomb watching it from a further angle.

the enemy omen set down a smoke and your teammates pinged the spike for you which you sprayed at, successfully killing the person on spike.

you pushed into the smoke immediately seeing the enemy omen and killed him, winning the game.

"so i think my coaching was successful" kazuha gloated, "i helped you win us that game"

"you were a terrible coach. one star, but only because you're pretty"

"i'll take it" she smiled.

ALL CHAPTERS !!! | NEXT CH !!!

[iolypse]

primarily english speaking qsmp members as D&D characters because I can't help but fuse both of my current fixations together

Philza — species for this one was tricky, class and subclass a little harder, but I ultimately decided on aasimar ranger (horizon walker). kept trying to pick between aasimar and air genasi, almost put air genasi because I felt like qfoolish fit aasimar better, but they can both be aasimar it's fine. by the time I finish writing this, foolish might not even be an aasimar anymore, im still thinking. regardless, qphil has always been a bit of a tactician and a bowman, hasnt he? classic traits of a ranger. from there, it felt like horizon walker was the only subclass that fit. protecting from otherworldly threats, preserving life and other planes. yeppp sounds like this paranoid motherfucker right here.

BadBoyHalo — now that's a tiefling if I've ever seen one. class is a little more complicated. I've deliberated between paladin and warlock before eventually settling on paladin, making him a tiefling paladin (ancients). I don't have to explain the tiefling part (have you seen his everything?), but the paladin part could use it. we're yet to really see qbad make any real deals with any powerful forces, so that took out the warlock part for me. I wanted to make sure he had at least a little bit of magic though (c'mon), so I immediately went to paladin, and it worked out. he's a dedicated man! he'll make a promise and he'll fuckin stick to it. I debated between devotion and ancients after that, but devotion tends to have a more lawful side, which ended with me choosing ancients. they fight the darkness because they love life, plain and simple, and you're dull if you can't see how much this dude loves life.

FitMC — alright, I'm sorry, I had to do it, but this is a human fighter (rune knight) right here. I simply couldnt see him as anything other than human, and rogue and artificer didn't fit since there's other characters that fit those classes so much better, so fighter it was. still, qfit has a lot of cool gadgets and bits and bobs, and I wanted to recognize that in this adaptation of him, so I decided to show that through the rune knight subclass. rune knight fighters can do a lot of cool shit with their runes, enhancing pretty much anything they put their mind to. probably some shit he found scrawled in the horrors of 2b2t and decided to study.

Foolish — this one was hard! the fuck is this guy? I instinctively thought aasimar, but I already made qphil an aasimar, so I played around with different types of genasi and then goliaths, even minotaurs just trying to find something that fit the semi-inhuman sorta innately magical, physically strong being vibes. I think aasimar fit best, so then it was a matter of class. hes a builder! he builds shit. that's what qfoolish does. but he is NOT a mechanic and therefore not an artificer, not musical enough to be a bard, not angry enough to be a barbarian, so what the fuck is he? took a LOT of fucking around, but eventually I remembered the college of creation exists, and I felt it fit well enough, making him an aasimar bard (creation). he draws his power from his builds— he inspires with sight, not song. it's a unique take on a bard, but I've seen some awesome chef bards, so I think this works just fine. he's an architect bard.

Slimecicle — this one was FUN. 100% that's a fucking plasmoid. he's a goopy guy! then I experimented with different bard and rogue classes, thought maybe warlock for his deal with demon rubius, and then decided i couldn't disrespect the juanaflippa song and said fuck it, he can be a bard. again in correlation with the song, I went with valor, since he's telling her great story through the lyrics, keeping her memory alive with it. I DID consider spirits, however, since he actually managed to bring juanaflippa back, however briefly. still, I felt valor fit the bill just a little better. he's a plasmoid bard (valor).

JaidenAnimations — ohhh this one took some thought. I wanted her to be fairly humanoid while still having some subtle unusual traits, and elf was considered but it felt too regal. I almost considered kenku for how she tends to repeat what other people say, but it wasn't right. thought I'd try something a little strange, and I ended up with shifter! specifically wildhunt. class was just as difficult— she wasnt going to be any primarily martial classes, so that cut out a bunch, and she's not really faithful or super devoted, so that took out paladin, warlock, and cleric, and eventually I narrowed it down to sorcerer, picking aberrant mind for their mystery and influence on others. being the only woman in an island full of gay twinks is tough, man. she's a shifter sorcerer (aberrant mind).

Wilbur — half-elf bard (eloquence). this one came pretty quick to me, actually. the bard part is more than obvious, subclass picked for the number of times qwilbur's casually convinced other people to just go with the bit. he's a man of words, and he weaves them well. he can be damn persuasive, mixing in genuine arguments with small white lies, all while playing your heart strings just right. half-elf is almost entirely vibes honestly— human was too bland, elf too spicy, so we met in the middle.

DanTDM — this dude's been gone since the very fucking beginning pretty much. I almost want to make him a rogue just for that, but man, he's the diamond minecart, alright? I grew up watching him. it'd be a disservice not to make him an artificer. from there, alchemist best suited the vibes, since he never really did much of anything machinery-related. he is a human artificer (alchemist).

[maccreadysbaby]

Project: Killcode Drabbles

tw: vague intoxication, (sort of) non-con kissing (very vague, i skipped out on the gritty details because they make me uncomfortable : / )

wanna read the extended fic? here’s the table of contents!

⚠️ THIS IS NOT PART OF BENTLEY’S MAIN STORYLINE, THIS IS WHERE ASTEN WAS IN THE FIRST HALF OF CHAPTER ELEVEN.

IF YOU HAVENT READ CHAPTER ELEVEN ALREADY, PLEASE READ IT FIRST.

SUNDAY -- JULY 22 -- 3:01AM

WHEN HE AGREED TO PLAY SEVEN MINUTES IN HEAVEN WITH ALL FIFTY-SEVEN PEOPLE AT THE PARTY, HE DIDN'T ACTUALLY EXPECT THE GAME TO LAST LONG ENOUGH TO REACH HIS TURN.

The closet door closed with a deafening clack.

Asten would be a filthy liar if he said his heart wasn't hammering out of his chest. Of all the other girls in the drawing (there had to be, like, twenty, at least), of course she would be the one who's name was drawn alongside his. It was just his luck, really -- although he couldn't actually decide whether that luck was good or bad. 

The closet in Mason's parent's bedroom was huge. So big there was an island in the center that seemed to house only jewelry. He glanced around the room anxiously, and the whole thing felt both huge and excruciatingly small at the same time... although he guessed it could've been the alcohol that was coursing through his body making it feel that way. He'd never drank so much in his life -- he was starting to feel like a lightweight when pitted against Valor and Rockie, who both showed zero signs of being effected by the copious amounts of alcohol the three of them had consumed since the night began. It was even worse that he decided to do it on an empty stomach. It had only taken about ten minutes for him to start mixing up his left and right.

"Well?"

He turned on his heel, green eyes locking onto hers. Georgia was staring at him with her big brown eyes, and she flipped some of her braids behind her head with a dorky little smile on her face. She wasn't wearing her overalls anymore, but a dress, black with a tall neck and little ruffles on the sleeves, and she had a face of natural makeup on that made her look... perfect. Though he thought the alcohol may have been adding a little more airbrushing to pretty much everything... but especially her.

"Well?" He forced out, averting his eyes to some of the clothes hanging past her head.

"You're not gonna do anything?" She questioned, her eyes seemingly picking him apart like a machine. He very nearly felt everywhere her irises touched. "Every other time you've been around me, you've been gobsmacked. Not so pretty up close?"

Asten felt his face heat up, and he fake scratched his nose in an attempt to cover it, at least for a second. If he were being honest, she was way too pretty up close. 

"I thought this game was... just for their suspense," He answered cooly, gesturing to the door. Turning away also gave his face another second to return to its natural color.

Georgia snickered from behind him. "Well, it is. But that doesn't have to be all it's for." 

He glanced back at her quickly, and she had a smug little smile on her face that made him want to punch something really solid. 

He must've sounded like a doofus when he muttered: "What?"

Georgia laughed at him -- and he was sure it wouldn't have sounded so nice if he wasn't already drunk. He couldn't decide if he liked it or not; the lack of control. The way the beer fogged his mind and made it hard to see things like logic, sense. The way it blurred his sense of judgement like a scrambling frequency on a tracking radar.

"C'mon, don't tell me you haven't thought about it at least once. I know a sucker when I see one,"

He couldn't even process the words that were coming out of her mouth, because she was moving toward him. In the blink of an eye, she'd put her arms around his neck and was staring up at him with her huge doe eyes that made it so very hard to breathe. He went about as stiff as a rod of iron, all attempts at keeping his face cool fleeing instantaneously when he felt his cheeks erupt into a bright tomato-red.

He tried to speak, but nothing came out.

Georgia smiled up at him. "No one has to know -- that's the name of the game."

He breathed in, and then out, still managing to look past her despite her alarming proximity. Every semblance of common sense seemed to fade into the backdrop with the clothes that were hanging there. "We're drunk."

"You're drunk. I'm perfectly sober," She said with a snicker. "I drink this good old thing called water."

Even then, Asten watched her gaze fall to his mouth, and for some reason, he didn't like it.

"I've never..."

"You're wasting time," She chided in a sing-song tone. Asten blinked once, twice, her face coming into sudden focus in front of him -- really close to him. His heartbeat was so loud.

He took a few steps back, carefully pushing her arms away from their places around his neck. "Sorry, I just... I don't think I'm... I mean, I just met you, really, and I've never really... I guess I just..." 

He sighed heavily at how stupid he must've sounded, running a hand through his blue hair as he stepped back to force some space between them. With the alcohol, his powers, and the fact that he was closed in a closet with the closest thing he'd ever had to a crush, he had to be running at least a hundred and ten degrees. "I don't think I..."

Georgia took a step back, a flash of something like hurt ripping across her painfully beautiful features. "Okay." She started, blinking a few times. "But you're really cute when you ramble."

Stunned into silence, time and space seemingly nonexistent, Asten stood, dumbfounded. He was what when he what?

"I don't... ramble," He muttered, his words slurring in a way that kind of freaked him out, given he knew what they were supposed to sound like. He crossed his arms over his chest lightly, staring at a pair of boots that were on a shelf behind her. He really wondered what color his face was, because it felt like billion degrees.

Georgia laughed at him again, the same sound that made his heart beat just a little faster, that made her face seem to glow even though the closet lights were dim. 

"You're so pretty,"

He closed his mouth tightly as soon as he'd said it, hoping that maybe she hadn't heard him. He'd never felt more out of control than he did now, under the impression of, how much beer? He wasn't sure, but it was enough to destroy the filter he kept over his words and thoughts. Something writhed in the back of his mind -- a little Bruce Wayne, maybe, telling him to get out of the situation while he still could.

She must've heard him, though, because it seemed to be the last straw on the camel's back. One second, her eyes had drifted down to his lips again, and the next, she had grabbed him by the face and her mouth collided with his.

He jumped, but didn't move far enough to actually break away from her. For a solid five seconds, he didn't do as much as breathe as everything from elation to sheer panic flooded his veins. Logic made another quick appearance when the realization that he shouldn't be doing this materialized in his head.

He pulled away from her, taking a breath. "Stop, I don't-"

I don't want to. No, he didn't, but he did, and he was, because she didn't give him time to finish talking. Her hand was in his hair, but there had never been a hand in his hair like that, in a situation like that, in a place like that, and he wanted to pull away. But he didn't, instead he let her, bringing his hands up to hover in the air on either side of her. He'd never kissed anyone before.

His hands caught on fire.

Georgia pulled away just quick enough to look at them and laugh again. His heart had to have been ripping a hole in his ribcage by now, little tiny figurines of every Wayne in the entire family battling to win over his mind, telling him to stop. But he didn't want to stop, and that was scary -- because he wasn't in control of what he wanted anymore. He wanted to leave. He wanted to go back to his room and sleep off the beer. He wanted to shove her away and pretend it never happened. But she was smiling in his face and the fire was making her glow in such an ethereal way.

She kissed him again. 

He kept his hands far away from them, subconsciously extremely aware of the seven minute timer ticking down somewhere, of the fact that he shouldn't have allowed himself into that situation in the first place. Excruciatingly aware that Bruce Wayne was probably awake at the Manor wondering what he was up to. Terrifyingly aware that Georgia's hands were wandering and that it kind of made him want to vomit. 

He tried to move away, but his back thudded softly against what had to be shelving, and he couldn't push her off because he'd set her on fire. She had clearly done things like that in the past, which made him feel a sudden, new level of gross and violated and disgusting because he didn't know how many people she'd made out with before him. He wasn't sure how kissing someone so pretty could feel so bad, but it did. 

He didn't want to do this, but he was doing it. He didn't want to be there anymore. He wanted his common sense to come back, but it stayed agonizingly out of reach -- all the parts of him that said to push her anyway, that this wasn't okay, that he'd blatantly told her to stop and she hadn't. All the logic in the world seemed at his fingertips, but floating just deep enough in the alcohol fog that he couldn't think clearly enough to see through.

He attempted to sidestep her, but failed miserably because he was pinned between her and whatever was behind him. She didn't seem to realize the level of uncomfortable that was radiating from him, or maybe she didn't care, maybe he wasn't making it obvious enough. He tried moving his head away but her head just came with it. He didn't want to hurt her feelings, but he didn't want to do this. He silently willed his hands to stop burning so he could get her off, but they didn't. He couldn't make himself do anything.

Two loud knocks at the door were what finally jolted his senses back into him. 

"Hey -- times up." Came a voice through the door. It had been seven minutes?

That seemed to smack everything back into place, because the flames engulfing his hands died down to nothing, and he was finally able to grab her shoulders and force her away. 

Silence, staring, and bated breathing was all that ensued. Georgia's expression -- which had started out as a smile but was now falling -- seemed to change as she looked at him. "Asten?"

He took a minute to breathe, bringing one of his hands up to brush anxiously through his hair. Every part of him suddenly felt wrong, vile, nasty, and he took to staring at the shelves behind her. 

"I told you to stop," He muttered almost inaudibly, physically unable to make his voice any louder. "I... I didn't-"

"You didn't stop," She cut him off, her expression contorting into one of confusion. "You were obviously turned on, your hands caught fire! You were kissing me back all on your own!"

The use of that phrase turned on made him feel even more disgusting than he already did. She was right, he had kissed her. He wanted to -- a part of him, anyway. At first. But now...

"You can't blame me when you were doing it, too!" She whispered with a sense of urgency, something like fear surfacing in her eyes. 

He couldn't even seem to make sense of everything that was swirling around inside of him. In addition to feeling like the dirtiest creature on planet earth, things like guilt, shame, and anger also made an appearance. She was right, she wasn't entirely to blame; but he had been trying to get her off. He did tell her to stop. Where was the line? 

Why did everything feel wrong?

"Just for the record-" Georgia started, grabbing one of the black jackets from a shelf behind him and using it to wipe at his mouth. Did he have lipstick on him? "-you're one hell of a kisser."

That didn't make him feel any better.

She dropped the jacket in the floor and kicked it under a stool. "Turn off the dramatics and get out of the room before they think you're crawling down my throat." 

So he did. He summoned every little bit of willpower into forcing himself to be as nonchalant as possible as Georgia opened the closet door, and he followed her out, back into the bedroom where every member of the party was circled up in the floor.

"Well?" Valor snickered, throwing his hands up. "Did sparks fly?"

Asten opened his mouth, but Georgia was the one who spoke. "Oh yeah," She deadpanned, in a way that made Valor's suggestion sound absolutely ludicrous. "Because I'd want to put my mouth on that."

The venom, the tone change, the sheer disgust that emanated from her statement made Asten's stomach turn. Everyone in the room seemed to shift when she said that, a few chuckling, like they really believed her. They really believed the lies pouring from between the lips that, mere moments ago, Asten had to physically force off of his own.

"Plus, I think the alcohol is getting to him. He's looking kind of green,"

All eyes were on him, and suddenly, he did sort of want to hurl. The beer inside of him seemed to be churning into something volatile, hot, like lava. His skin seemed to burn everywhere she'd touched -- his mouth, various places across his back and shoulders that she'd traced with her fingertips, his scalp where she'd been lacing her fingers into his hair, his jawline where she'd grabbed his face. She said something else -- he didn't hear it -- that finally seemed to set the room at ease.

"Dude, you okay?"

His eyes flicked up, meeting with Valor's gray ones, who was standing in front of him now. He wasn't sure when he'd gotten there, but the older boy looked concerned. Asten couldn't help the little voice in the back of his head that kept telling him everyone knew exactly what he did.

Asten cleared his throat, bringing a hand up to rub at his forehead in an attempt to make sense out of anything. "Not feeling too good."

"Yeah, I can tell," Valor replied with a smirk, moving to his side and looping one of his huge wings around Asten's shoulders. "You did good, though. Drank way more than me at my first party, and lasted about an hour longer. Let's get you back to your redheaded roommate, yeah?"

Asten didn't even look at the rest of the group as he and Valor passed, just stared down at the floor instead. 

"I'm impressed," Valor muttered when they were out of earshot, scanning Asten with his gray irises as they worked their way out of the massive house. "I don't think any guy here could say no to Georgia if we were locked in a room alone with her. Good on you. I think Rockie would lose his shit if the new kid, of all people, kissed his girlfriend."

Asten nearly gagged. (Much to his luck, Valor was convinced it was the alcohol.)

Georgia had said nothing about Rockie.

And she'd made out with Asten anyways.

—

dedicated to @sassenashsworld ❤️

—

tag list! (If you want me to remove or add you, ask in comments!)

@fleur-alise @sarcopterygiian @flyrobinflyy @skylathescholar @gayboss-too-close-to-the-sun @xiaonothere @beatyoutothatusernameloser

[jiayuechen]

Viper, please scold me again.

【Chamber X Viper】 Valorant fanfic ongoing.

Chapter 1

Seeing Doubles

*I’m not a native speaker so I’m looking forward to your suggestions on my vocabulary and grammar.

“Viper, you must let me take you out some time. ”

“Viper, I know the perfect place for dinner, dancing.”

“Viper, don't pretend you're not happy to see me. ”

“Sabine...”

"Shut up!" Viper finally couldn't bear it anymore and yelled at Chamber, "I've told you not to use my real name during missions."

Chamber remained silent, then let out a few awkward laughs.

The same drama played out every time Chamber and Viper teamed up for a mission.

Out of respect for Viper, most agents quietly stood by and watched the entire drama, privately exchanging comments.

But there were also younger agents like Phoenix and Yoru who didn't care, expressing their views publicly.

"This isn't the first time, is it?" Yoru said gleefully.

"Sorry, I've silenced Viper again," Chamber apologized with remorse.

Thus, Viper faced the second painful moment in her life — embarrassment.

No one ever considered why such an awkward drama continued to went on between Viper and Chamber.

One, a French agent known for elegance and finesse.

The other, an American scientist turned to the dark side for revenge.

Logically speaking, with Chamber's emotional intelligence, if he truly wanted to pursue Viper, there would surely be better tactics.

And conversely, knowing Viper's character, if she truly wanted to reject Chamber, she would have more decisive methods.

Furthermore, with their respective charm and abilities, they could undoubtedly find better partners.

So why continue this same drama?

No one knows, and no one has really thought about it.

After all, those who come to Valorant each have their own purposes — whether to find long-lost family, reclaim lost memories, or see departed loved ones reborn.

As long as there’s no conflict with oneself, no one delves into the true motives of others.

Just like how Chamber and Viper treat each other at this moment.

"Chamber, I think we need to have a serious talk."

After the mission, Viper pulled Chamber aside.

"Well, I've been wanting to have a chat with you. Let's find a coffee shop..." Chamber seemed genuinely unaware of what Viper was talking about and pulled out his phone.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about." Viper looked visibly impatient. "I want to discuss about how you flirt with me in front of other agents."

"Well..." Chamber stopped joking around.

He knew Viper is not an idiot. Also, he knew very well that the real issue between them was the trust issue almost every Valorant agent had with Chamber. Viper was particularly sensitive to this, never truly trusting Chamber since he joined, and always ready to eliminate him.

As the false flattery slowly faded from Chamber's handsome face, an image of a shrewd arms dealer reappeared behind the mask. Viper's lips twitched slightly behind her mask. She paused and said, "I like things direct. First, less flirting during missions, more focus. Second, don't use my real name when other agents are present."

"Is that all?"

Chamber seemed to relax a little.

"That's all," Viper replied. Her tone was gentle and enticing, revealing no hint of fear or suspicion.

"If you don't say anything, I'll take that as a yes," Viper continued.

"No problem!" The usual pleasing smile returned to Chamber's face. "Um... just to confirm, so it's okay to call you Sabine in private or in letters, right?"

"Whatever suits you," Viper replied casually. "You're charming, Chamber, but not as clever as you think."

"So, let's get this straight, what are you really conflicted about?" Reyna took a deep sip from her coffee cup and asked.

"I don't know why I said that." Viper poured coffee from the siphon into her cup as she spoke.

"You mean saying he's charming?"

"Yes. I just wanted to say he should focus more on the mission, and I didn't want to delve into anything else. But I don't know why I said that."”

"Firstly, Viper," Reyna set down her coffee cup, "are you sure I'm a good emotional counselor?"

"I wouldn't talk to that woman who does revive stuff or those brats," Viper replied.

"What about Killjoy?"

"We don't discuss matters beyond the experiment."

"Ah," Reyna sighed heavily, "I never thought I'd see today."

"Let me ask you, Reyna. With my temper and age, would a man as young and rich as Chamber pursue me purely out of affection?"

"Correct." Reyna replied frankly.

"Then why would he pursue me?" Viper asked.

"Chamber is slightly more astute than other businessmen, in that you can never see through his true intentions," Reyna replied. "Just as I didn't understand why he would spend so much money supporting my shelter."

"If we don't know his purpose, but Cypher and Fade haven't intervened, it at least proves that this purpose won't conflict with the objectives of Valorant for the time being,"

"That makes sense." Reyna replied.

"So, here's the question. Considering Chamber pursues me for his own reasons, would you fall in love with a man flirting with you like that?" Viper asked.

"No, I'd just give him a headshot." Reyna replied bluntly.

"Exactly, so his actions wouldn't achieve his purpose. Do you think Chamber, with his abilities, would not realize this?" Viper pressed.

"Well..." Reyna hesitated, "maybe French men are just more confident? They think they know everything about women."

"If it's just a pursuit out of genuine affection, that makes sense. But if there are other motives, he seems to be overly confident," Viper concluded.

Reyna nodded, taking a large gulp of coffee to digest all this information.

"But..." Viper looked out the window thoughtfully.

"But what?" Reyna looked at her, puzzled.

"I'm thinking, if his goals don't conflict with Valorant and he needs my help to achieve them, why can't he just tell me directly?" Viper replied.

"What?" Reyna was so surprised she almost sprayed coffee everywhere. "What are you planning, Viper?"

"I don't actually dislike him," Viper answered. "The real reason I hesitate to get close to him is because of that sense of mistrust. He's keeping too many secrets from us."

"So you don't actually like him, right?" Reyna seemed almost unwilling to accept these words from herself.

"I said I don't dislike him," Viper reiterated. "It's just that I think he's not very clever. He hides himself so well that it makes everyone wary."

"But that's just who he is!" Reyna was struggling to organize her thoughts. "I mean, if he were to reveal his intentions and you disagreed, what would he do next? After all, he's a businessman."

"But right now, There’s not even a possibility of me helping him. He should take a chance at least," Viper replied.

"So we just have to wait for him to come around, is that it?" Reyna seemed more confused with each passing moment.

"I don't think he will come around," Viper said.

"Then let him be."

"But is it a good thing to have someone in Valorant who can't be trusted by others?"

Reyna chugged coffee like a relentless coffee pouring machine, trying to keep her brain awake with caffeine.

Despite the fruitless conversation with Reyna, Viper engaged in some introspection and began to understand the source of her inner turmoil.

Perhaps Reyna had a point. Chamber wasn't sure if he cared about his true purpose, and he feared that revealing it would lead to Viper rejecting him completely.

If that was the case, why not give him a chance to speak up?

Viper casually picked up one of Chamber's love letters, dipped it in the specially crafted green ink he had given her, and started writing on parchment. The writing process wasn't easy; despite having a template to follow, Viper wasn't adept at writing such sentimental things. Considering that anyone else seeing the contents of the letter would lead Viper to poison herself, she decided to personally deliver the letter to Chamber.

"Sova, where's Chamber?" Viper asked.”

"He's in the VIP lounge at Breeze," Sova replied, focused on adjusting his bolt without looking up.

"Thank you." Saying that, Viper left Sova's room.

It took him a moment to realize.

"Wait, who was she looking for just now?!"

Realizing something was wrong, Sova hurriedly ran towards the rooms of Cypher and Fade.

The bar at Breeze was as lively as ever.

Up on the third-floor VIP section, a regular patron awaited in his trademark white shirt and blue waistcoat—a Frenchman known as Chamber.

"Sir, your guest has arrived," the waiter whispered in French.

Chamber discreetly placed a rendezvous anchor under the table corner, then went down the stairs.

Rendezvous, also known as French Displacement, was a secret technique allowing for a swift retreat to base when combat turned unfavorable. By placing an anchor at a safe location, one could quickly escape the battlefield within a certain radius.

Leaving an anchor was a habit Chamber developed over years as an arms dealer.

After all, in this line of work, you never knew what tomorrow might bring.

The term "French Displacement" might sound like mocking cowardice for thinking of escape during negotiations, but for an arms dealer, adaptability was a necessary quality in this less-than-glamorous business.

On the other side, Viper also arrived at the VIP section of the Breeze bar, holding what was referred to as a "love letter."

She glimpsed Chamber coming down from upstairs, appearing to wait for someone.

Despite its concealed location, based on their familiarity with each other's habits during missions, Viper discovered the rendezvous anchor under the table corner.

Viper knew Chamber wouldn't place an anchor here without reason. She had also heard rumors that Chamber had encountered the Chamber from Omega and they had even collaborated. Surely, this anchor was meant to guard against a certain collaborator.

Putting on a gas mask and holding a vial of snake bite venom, Viper found a narrow corner on the VIP balcony where she could hide her figure. From there, she observed every move along the seaside through the railing.

About two minutes later, a man approached Chamber.

He wasn't wearing overalls or formal attire, just casual clothes, but his build and mannerisms were strikingly similar to someone Viper had in her mind. Viper vaguely felt she had seen this man somewhere before, but couldn't recall why.

"Could it be him?" Viper widened her eyes. She couldn't believe this person would still appear here.

Viper scrutinized the man in front of her against her memories, finally confirming him to be the same person—the senior engineer from Kingdom Corporation whom Viper had encountered during the lab attack years ago.

She watched as Chamber exchanged a few words with the man and then handed him a note. In return, the man handed over a document.

Unconsciously, Viper tightened her grip on the snake bite venom in her hand. Scenes from the uncontrollable memories of the lab attack flooded Viper's mind.

—flames soaring, devastation everywhere, and the people she cared about forever left behind.

She saw Chamber shaking hands with the mastermind behind all this pain, seemingly enjoying their cooperation.

Just like years ago, anger once again filled her chest, accompanied by myriad pains and despair rushing over her.

Viper struggled to contain her emotions, but her grip on the venom had become uncontrollable.

Click

The snake bite venom slipped from Viper's hand and fell to the ground.

The vial of this poison was not sturdy, designed to shatter upon impact, increasing the damage from the glass shards and allowing the poison to seep into the skin.

"What's happening?" Security and patrons from the Breeze bar rushed over upon hearing the noise.

Viper didn't have time to explain. She knew that soon, fully armed police would arrive here. To avoid raising suspicion, she deployed a smoke screen to obscure the view and swiftly left the bar.

Five minutes ago, on the beach of Breeze.

Chamber watched as his former colleague, dressed in cheap casual clothes, walked towards the beach. He reached out his hand and waved to the man, seemingly nostalgic for their past working together.

"Mr. Fabron," the tall man also extended his hand, friendly gesturing towards Chamber.

"You guys are down to selling action briefs for money now?" Chamber joked lightly.

"Mr. Fabron, you're generous with money. That’s why we're willing," the man replied unabashedly.

"According to the agreed price, here's the check," Chamber said, handing the check to the man.

"And here's the brief you requested," the man handed over the documents promptly.

"Pleasure doing business," Chamber extended his right hand, ready to shake hands with the man.

"Sorry, I just have to ask," the man double-checked the check, seeming a bit incredulous, "This is just an action brief from many years ago. Why is Mr. Fabron willing to pay such a large amount to buy it? Is there something of interest to you?"

"It's none of my concern," Chamber replied, "but it's important to a friend of mine."

"A friend?" The man seemed to doubt his own ears.

"Yes, a friend..." Chamber's gaze dimmed momentarily, but then returned to his usual ambiguous smile, "Actually, I'm not sure either. Just thought I'd buy it first and show her, might be useful."

"Well then, best of luck to you," the man extended his right hand and shook Chamber's hand firmly.

Click. The snake bite venom shattered on the ground, making a piercing sound.

Chamber turned towards the noise, spotting a familiar figure with a gas mask slipping into the toxic fog she had created.

"Oh no," Chamber muttered to himself, without saying goodbye to the man, he hurriedly chased after Viper in the direction she had left.

Viper returned to her room.

The mishap left her shaken to the core.

That anger... that heart-wrenching pain...

After all these years, she had never realized the strength of that force could be so overpowering.

The attack years ago had turned both her and Omen into dreaded monsters.

Omen's terror stemmed from his appearance, while Viper's horror perhaps came from within.

"Instead of shaking hands with that man, I might as well drink my own poison," Viper muttered calmly to herself.

Indeed, just seeing Chamber shake hands with that man caused her to accidentally drop and shatter the snake bite venom.

Did she have the capability to handle Chamber's darker, deeper secrets?

"If his goals are related to that experiment, would I really be able to stop myself from killing him?" Viper murmured to herself again.

She tossed the love letter into the poison, and used a bottle of chilled champagne to calm herself once more.

On the other side, Brimstone's office door was heavily knocked.

"Come in."

"Brimstone, we can't ignore the issue with Chamber any longer." Fade entered, throwing a stack of letters onto Brimstone's desk.

"Is it because of those threatening letters, or do you think Chamber is connected to the people who kidnapped your loved one?"

"Not the threats. It's Viper."

"What's wrong with Viper?"

Fade took a deep breath and said, "I swear on my life that Frenchman is in love with her. Viper went to Breeze's bar to see him today."

Brimstone paused for a moment, then slowly responded, "Since Killjoy and Raze got together, we no longer prohibit romantic relationships between agents."

"That's not the point!" Fade was almost incoherent. "He's a dangerous man who made a deal with his Omega World self. If his intentions don't conflict with the protocol, I might turn a blind eye. But Viper is different. Do you know why the Scions of Hourglass is still hunting her? Do you know why Omen tried to kill her during the lab tragedy years ago? We haven't figured any of this out, and you're okay with Viper being sweet-talked and bombarded with sugar-coated bullets by Chamber every day?"

Brimstone fell silent.

Fade quieted down too, looking pained and occasionally groaning.

After a moment of contemplation, Brimstone finally responded to Fade's concerns with a question of his own.

"Fade, do you think Viper is smart?"”

"Very smart. She's one of the smartest women I've ever met. That's why I came to you. I can't stand seeing such a smart woman being deceived so easily."

"If you think she's smart too, maybe you should trust her like I do."

“What do you mean by trust her?”

"If neither of us knows Chamber's true intentions, what's the best way to figure out?"

Fade pondered for a moment and retrieved the letters from the desk.

"But I must say, this approach carries great risks. If it fails, we'll both be held accountable."

Brimstone remained silent, nodded, and watched Fade leave.

[glassmarcus]

Sony's Z Targetable Weak Spot

As someone who has been playing Sony games for 20 years, it's weird how little attachment I have to their brand. I got a Playstation 2 so I could play Kingdom Hearts, but bought plenty of other games for it because that console is the Greatest of All Time. I've gotten every one of their consoles since then, yet I don't consider myself a Sony fan like I consider myself a Nintendo fan. I love Sly Cooper, I like Uncharted, I adore Bloodborne. On paper I should be a Sony pony, but I’m in no way ride or die. I think there's three reasons for this.

1) A lot of Sony properties aren't actually Sony properties. When I think early PlayStation, I think Final Fantasy, Metal Gear, Spyro, Parappa the Rappa and Crash Bandicoot. Sony owns none of these. They had exclusivity initially, but after 20 years of being multi-platform/those franchises not existing anymore, it's hard to link any association to Sony. Though I still do think of Final Fantasy 7 as a Sony game due to the recent remakes. Even Kingdom Hearts, a game I bought a PS2 to play, stopped being a franchise exclusive to Sony within like 2 years. Their early reputation ends up feeling like stolen valor because they just happened to be only 3rd party friendly console available at the time.

2) Most of their franchises are dead. The last Sly Cooper Game ended on a cliff hanger and was never seen again. Naughty Dog would rather make The Last of Us for the 4th time than craft another Uncharted or Jak game. Bloodborne will never be on a modern console because we simply can't have nice things. This makes brand association much harder to maintain. No one really cares about what Intellectual Properties you own if you do nothing with them. I'm not a Zelda fan just because I played Oracle of Seasons when I was 4, I'm a Zelda fan because Nintendo groomed me to be one by releasing games regularly. No Sony franchise other than maybe Ratchet and Clank operates this way.

3) A lot of their IPs during 7th gen were just not for me. Kill Zone isn't my kind of game. Resistance isn't my speed. Little Big Planet is a game that is my speed, but it's a bad game so I never got into it. This is all very personal taste based, but it's why most of my PlayStation 3 collection is overwhelmingly 3rd party.

For all these reasons the Sony brand is a bit weak. Which is why the premise of Astro Bot is perplexing. Astro Bot as a franchise exist to display Sony tech. The Astro Playroom games are primarily tech demos for PlayStation Camera, PlayStation VR, and Dualsense technologies. The Astro Bot games are the ones which are full stand alone games. I haven't played Astro Bot Rescue Mission, but it seems to be very similar in structure to Astro Bot and doesn't have any proof of concept it needs to show off. But its still a VR, game so I can't comment much on that as I have yet to accept VR as a real way to play games.

Astro Bot is a follow up to the PlayStation 5 pack in game, Astro's Playroom. Instead of being a large tech demo, it is a fully realized platformer that is solid across the board. The game is near perfect as far as 3D platformers go. Each level has fleshed out ideas with unique level mechanics and set pieces. The motion control gimmicks are reigned in, unlike Playroom which got a little nuts with it. There is whimsy and charm in every corner of the galaxy in the world of Astro Bot. As a game I have very little to complain about and endless things to enjoy about it. Based on the presentation, structure, and polish, you could give Astro a Mario skin and skint your eyes to fool yourself into thinking it's Mario Galaxy 3. It's that good with really the only difference in design philosophy being that there are more collectibles in Astro Bot. As someone who prefers the Mario Galaxy games over the Sandbox Mario games, but still likes collecting things, this is the platonic ideal.

As a game, this is the most impressed I've been in years. The way Astro Bot used the PS5’s SSD should be required study for anyone developing on that console. It's doing everything right. But it's not just a game. It's Sony's 30th anniversary game. As such tries it's best to display Sony's rogues gallery of IPs and partners. Astro does a wonderful job in that display. Over a hundred unique costumes are given to the robots you collect, all of them being references to Sony and Sony adjacent characters. These robots both look and act the part and it's fun going through the game seeing which of them you can recognize. In addition to that, there are 5 stages which are dedicated entirely to a certain franchise, one for each of their past consoles (except the Vita because I guess it didn’t sell enough). Ape Escape represents PlayStation 1. God of War represents PlayStation 2. Loco Roco represents the PlayStation Portable. Uncharted reps the Playstation 3, and Horizon reps the Playstation 4. These are all delightful levels which show great reverence to the series they are parodying. These levels and the game entirely ended up feeling like a glorified advertisement for their IPs. And you know what, that's great. I'm completely down with the Astro Bot franchise existing to be phenomenal games that shill other games. If this could be the Lego Movie of video games, I'd sleep perfectly fine every night.

But what actually are they advertising here? Most of these franchises aren't Sony franchises. Most of these Sony IPs haven't seen the light of day in decades. There are still glaring omissions here. There needs to be way more RPGs here if we want to represent PlayStation accurately. The more I think about it, the sadder I get. It's like we're throwing a house party at a funeral. It's like we're being peddled mythical goods which have vanished from history a millennia ago. You can't show me Jak, remind me he has been dead for 20 years, and then just move on. They haven't even rereleased the Jak games. How am I supposed to confirm that I still don't like Jak 2 if you don't give me an avenue to play it Sony? It all just amounts to embarrassing false advertising. Say what you will about Super Smash Bros, most of the those games are proud supported IPs which have games I can play right now, and I say this as a Kid Icarus and Punch Out fan.

This in no way ruins the game or makes it lesser by the way. I think think it's perverse how Sony decided to fund a game that pointed out exactly how it has been slacking in regards to its IP management.

[acrazybayernfan]

Ok so, I'm here to humbly request some Mullendowski from your amazing writing (I miss them so much) Btw, bless your inability to keep it short <3

(Fun fact: I was nervous to ask and for some reason, I started typing in Spanish (?????? )

Hello my dear Nana <333

first of all thank you so much for your request 😘 and I'm so so so so horribly terribly sorry to be so late to answer it. I had my first session of exams for my theater school last week and the repetitions took all my time, and I was so unsatisfied of I had done for your little fanfic that I had to try to make better but i failed so... I just count on your understanding and your kindness.

As a compensation for being so late, I have decided to write you two little stories (that can be related if you want or not if you don't want). Also, somehow I'm unable to write anything that isn't sad this month (it must be the fall vibes) so...

Oh if you'd like, go for Spanish, i can't talk well but I understand, so if it's easier for you, I won't mind, at all : )

First story is inspired by the song El Perdedor by Enrique Iglesias so the tittle is... Los Perdedores

Qué más quieres de mí Si el pasado está a prueba de tu amor Y no tengo el valor De escapar para siempre del dolor Demasiado pedir Que sigamos en esta hipocresía Cuánto tiempo más podré vivir En la misma mentira

One morning Thomas had read on internet news saying that Robert Lewandowski was considering leaving Bayern and he had laugh at these ridiculous rumors. He had laugh like that every day for months until, even him, couldn’t laugh about it anymore and fear, a terrible, dreadful fear sized his heart, the fear to lose something that perhaps, in the end, he never had.

Why would Lewy want to leave? Weren’t things great the way they were? Yes, that elimination against Villareal was a shame but… but Robert was still the best striker in Europe, and Thomas made sure that it was the case, and wasn’t that enough? What else should he has done to prevent this? What a terrible question was that, a question no one should ever asked themselves. 

All those years, didn’t they carry any weight in Robert’s heart? Thomas had thought… How stupid was that? He had thought that with time the Polish player had got attached to Bayern… to him? But apparently all this didn’t stand a chance against… against what? More money? No, Robert wasn’t like that. Against the hope to finally win this stupid Ballon d’Or? Perhaps… probably… Against Lewy’s dream to still play at forty years old, something easier to do in a less intense league than the Bundesliga? Maybe that dreams weight much more than memories after all. 

No, no vayas presumiendo, no Que me has robado el corazón Y no me queda nada más Sí, prefiero ser el perdedor Que te lo ha dado todo Y no me queda nada más No me queda nada más

At Bayern, the last game of the season his supposed to be a time for joy and celebration, the pinnacle of a successful season but today in the stadium the atmosphere is gloomy. No one talks about it but everyone knows. Thomas didn’t leaved Manuel’s side because he needed the strength of the goalkeeper calming presence. Next to them Robert was walking towards the stands. His face was livid but his expression determined. He waved at the fans and his eyes teared up and he stayed there for longs minutes, crying, a hand placed both on his heart and on the Bayern crest.

“If you care about all this, then why are you leaving !!!” Thomas was screaming these words again and again in his head, pinching his lips together to prevent himself from crying and from saying this out loud and then the pain became unbearable and he had to leave. How ironic it was! Robert was the one staying with the team, staying in the stadium, staying with the fans and Thomas was the one running away. 

As soon as he was out of sight the Bavarian player started to run to hide himself in the darkest most recluse place of the stadium. There he let out a terrible, desperate, passionate scream - a scream closed to the one Achille let out when he heard the news of Patroclus death- and after this supreme effort all strength seemed to leave his body and Thomas collapsed on the floor, weeping. All the muscles in his body were tense, from his toes to his face which was deformed by the pain, making it hard for him to breathe. He was clenching his right hand on the air around his chest in a vain attempt to ease the pain of his heart. Memories, reproofs, pleas, imprecations, regrets or prayers… all these thoughts were whirling in his head. In that moment he was willing to offer everything, even his dear world cup trophy, to make Robert stay. 

Ya no puedo seguir Resistiendo esa extraña sensación Que me hiela la piel Como invierno fuera de estación Tú mirada y la mía Ignorándose en una lejanía Todo pierde sentido Y es mejor el vacío que el olvido

But Thomas was strong, and after this beak down he promised himself to have more control over his feelings. The next when Robert saluted the crowd from the balcony of the city hall, he remained stoic, as cool as the statues next to him. The rest of the time he laughed and danced and screamed and told jokes as loudly and expressively as always, even more probably, to hide the fact that his heart was so cold that no amount of May’s sun could warm it up. He even found the courage to trifle a little bit with Robert and, as a joke, he offered to his teammate to take a photo of him with the Bundesliga trophy. The Polish man accepted all smile and Thomas asked himself if all this was just acting, like it was for him, or if Lewy was really leaving with a light heart. The simple fact that this supposition could exist was so hurtful and enraging that Thomas chased this thought quickly in order to keep his composure. 

The Marienplatz ceremony ended both too soon and too late for the Bavarian’s taste, torn that he was between his desire to spend as much time as possible with Robert and the exhausting weight that the striker’s presence was for him. 

After two hours of partying to celebrate the league title during the banquet of the team, Thomas was quite drunk, using alcohol to empty his mind and to hide his pain. It had worked for some time but now that his mental barriers were weakened by the liquor thoughts and memories field his mind again. Lewy was dancing in the middle of the crowd, more handsome than ever. Things always appear the nicest to us when we’re about to lose them, no? After a long moment of contemplation, Thomas got up and with an unsteady walk he moved through the crowd, bumping in a few persons on his way, is eyes fixed on his goal. At that moment Robert looked at him, their eyes met and for an instant they stared at each other. ‘Such incredibly beautiful eyes’ thought Thomas ‘as beautiful as the sky in winter”. But, soon his teammate looked away, the German player tried to reach him but instead he tripped on his own legs and his arms grabbed nothing but air. Robert was walking away and Thomas would have fell on the floor if not for Serge catching him.

Yo prefiero dejarte partir Que ser tu prisionero Y no vayas por ahí Diciendo ser la dueña de mis sentimientos

“Leave! Leave!!! Who wants you to stay anyway?! You’re just a selfish prick! I hate you !!!” Thomas had screamed with all his strength but Robert was already too far and the music was too loud or else he knew that, if his Polish teammate had heard him, this would have been the beginning of a fight between them. Perhaps that he would have preferred that, perhaps that it would have been better that this feeling of being invisible.  

Thomas sized the first bottle of alcohol he could find, he took a large mouthful of it and then - addressing his speech to all the persons around him- he declared with a solemn tone and drunken voice: “You know what? I can play without him. I played without him for years, I won the greatest trophies of my careers without it. I can live without him, I lived the happiest years of my life without him. I don’t need him on the pitch or in my life! Plus, he is not that good, is he? Mario would have scored as much has him if the all team had played for him like we do. There is nothing special about him !!”

No, no vayas presumiendo, no Que me has robado el corazón Y no me queda nada más Sí, prefiero ser el perdedor Que te lo ha dado todo Y no me queda nada más

At that moment Thomas had believed in what he was saying but it didn’t last for long and the next morning he had to admit to himself that all this was a lie. 

During one month he lived with the fear that this disastrous night may turn out be the last time he would see Robert as his teammate. The news in the press were more and more pessimistic, the relationship between the Pole and the club more and more tense. 

"I want the one who has been my offensive partner for years to continue."

This was more than what Thomas has ever dared to say in the press when one of his teammates was leaving, even for Bastian, but it was also so far from what he really wanted to say. 

The night after this interview Thomas had written this message on his phone: ‘Would this change something if I tell you that I need you? That I love you. And that I could do everything for you.” The message was never sent.

A few weeks later, the news was official, Robert was leaving Bayern for Barcelona.

One last training session and everything was going to be over. They all behaved extremely well that day. Robert was all smile but not too much either, witty and charming like he knew how to be and everything went really well. Thomas didn’t even cry, he had passed that point, he was just looking at Lewy hugging each player of the Bayern’s squad one by one and, in his head, he was talking to his soon to be ex-teammate saying the things that he could never say out loud: “I gave you all I had to give, I gave you everything I could give to someone. I changed the way I play for you, I changed the way I use my qualities to help you more, to make you shine more. But all this wasn’t entirely altruism, I wanted you to depends on me Iike I depended on you, I wanted to become essential to you, I wanted to create a special bond with you. I gave you everything and I don’t regret it, even now, because this is what it is to love, it’s to give without expecting anything in return.”

 ¿Qué más quieres de mí? Si he pasado esa prueba de tu amor.

Lewy has fallen in love with Thomas the very first day they met and yet it took him years to realize it. Knowing very way that those feelings could never bring anything good to him he fought against them. In desperation, he tried to leave Bayern but the fear of not seeing Thomas every day turned out to be greater than his fear of suffering. Four years later, it was the opposite, his heart was burned, devoured by repressed and unrequired feelings and both his mind and his body were exhausted of this situation. Leaving Bayern was the hardest decision he had ever made and the hardest to execute but it was necessary.

And the second story tittle is: Delusion and Disappointment and it's inspired by what happened after the Bayern-Leipzig game in 2020.

I'm sorry at the time I didn't knew how to register screen and to use it to make gifs so I only have those blurry pictures to show you the situation.

It was a hard match, probably an interesting game for a neutral spectator but for Robert it had been half and an hour of nightmare. He hated matches like this, those matches that would remind him of how useless he could be. They haven’t even lost but this 3-3 draw felt like a defeat to him. He was exhausted, he had fought against Upamecano and Konaté for the all game, without success. He just had one single opportunity and of course he has missed it, but not only was he unable to score or even to create chances for himself, but he was also unable to bring anything to the team, on the long balls he had lost all his aerial duels against the two Leipzig’s defenders and when he had gone to the midfield, in order to finally have a chance to touch the ball, he had been unable to turn around and make a forward pass because of the opponent’s pressing. His all body was hurting because of all the blows he has taken. As a football player that was something normal, they all play with pain here and there, this is something you have to get used to, and at the end of each game new pains appear in your body and you have to deal with them for the rest of the week. But that day it was a bit different, the Leipzig’s players hadn’t been soft with him and the euphoria of the victory wasn’t there to ease the pang. 

Robert with his pride, was determine not to show to the opponent that they had succeed in hurting him (both physically and mentally), so he was walking slowly but firmly and steadily towards the referees to shake their hands, just like usual. Around him the other players were talking together or exchanging a few words with the Leipzig’s players and trainers. 

From the corner of his eyes he caught sight of Thomas encouraging and congratulating Jamal. His German teammate seemed as full of energy as always. For a second, Robert asked himself how it was possible. A traitorous voice in his head answered him: “He has scored a brace, him” but Robert disagreed, Thomas was not like him, he cared about the team first and his statistics secondly, him scoring wouldn’t be enough to make him forget the disappointment of a Bayern bad game. No, his teammate was either stronger than him mentally or he was hiding his feelings, not by pride like him, but because he probably considered that it was his duty to cheer up the rest of the team. 

Sometimes he wondered about who would be there to cheer up Thomas when the young man needs it, and sometimes he would also hope to be that person, which was ridiculous because he was so bad at comforting people. When his father died, several times, he had caught his mother crying alone in her kitchen, he had wanted to go to her and to speak to her but each time he had always been stopped by the same questions: What should I say? What should I do? What if I do something wrong and I make it worse? And instead of moving he had stayed where he was and watched her for long, long minutes.  

Robert extended his arm to shake the sideline referee’s hand, not feeling like saying anything and he was about to move on to the next person when he was suddenly stopped by someone grabbing him from behind and putting his arms around him, there was a strange mix of strength -almost of roughness- and softness in this gesture, just enough to annihilate all ambiguity and he knew immediately who it was: Thomas. 

He would never, for anything in the world, show it or worst admit it but he was glad and grateful. For the briefest instant, for less than a fraction of second, he let his body melt in the embrace and then it was over, he wouldn’t be guilty of any other moment of weakness. Thomas almost let his chin rest on Robert’s shoulder to talk to him, but for some reason he didn’t went all the way. “You’re so stupid, Robert! Your vision is so limited that you’re not even considering that we have scored two of our goals thanks to you, are you? Of course not. Think a little about that pass between Upamecano’s legs, think about the way you have created space for me on the header and stop feeling sorry for yourself!”

If anyone else in the team had talked to him like that, Lewy would have probably told them to leave him alone in a rather brutal way but Thomas had some privileges.

However, Robert was determined to remain impassive – at least externally-, while his teammate was talking, so he offered his hand to the central referee, exactly as if Thomas wasn’t here. But his teammate was the not the kind of person to be deter by so little. He circled Robert, his harm sliding around the Polish man’s torso and then resting on his stomach. Now they were standing face to face. Thomas’ stubbornness was Robert’s greatest delight and greatest torture. 

Lewy immediately looked away, concentrating all his attention on the central referee. Robert then had the impression to hear his teammate sighing briefly but he convinced himself that it was in his imagination. Thomas placed his right hand on the striker’s neck, a familiar gesture between them. From time to time, during all these years they have played together, the German player would do that to him, sometimes to tease him, sometimes to encourage him, sometimes with no reason. There was nothing intimate, nothing tender in this gesture and yet there was something frighteningly pleasing in the sensation of this large, strong, slightly calloused hand on the soft skin of his neck. Frightening because it would be so easy to let himself melt in it, to let himself be hold by someone else like that and lose control. 

It only lasted for a brief moment and then Thomas let go of him and started walking past him, saying: “Take care of yourself it’s not good to stay in pain.”. Robert refrained himself from smiling. “Of course, he knew, thought the polish player, of course… Thomas always knew when something was wrong with him”. Perhaps that he was too easily readable or perhaps that his teammate was too good at that. There was just one thing that Thomas would never see or understand about him because Robert himself had decided not to see or understand it.