#like not even keyboard and mouse

[lananiscorner]

So I got gifted Tomb Raider I-III Remastered this Valentine's Day.

I just booted up the game, accepted the dodgy mid 90s graphics EULA...

And now I'm sitting in the main menu and it looks just like the DOS version I played when I was like... 7 years old, only better, and the music sounds exactly the same and it's been an exhausting two weeks and... I'm just about to cry.

These games were my childhood. Now I get them again, in better graphics... with NG+... AND achievements... AND all the DLCs???

Yeah, I think I'll just start crying.

[lost-in-fandoms]

Hi friend, please give us more streamer Max AU! First interaction between them maybe??

part 1 here

Daniel blinks awake, groggily turning off his alarm and rubbing his eyes, blindly reaching for the water on his bedside table.

The room is still pitch dark, the night quiet outside.

2:55 am.

He grabs his phone, settling again onto the pillows and clicking through his apps until he can open the now familiar twitch app and navigate to Max's channel, just in time to see the starting soon screen appear as it goes live.

He knows this is ridiculous. He knows that he is not helping himself or his unstable sleep patterns by setting an alarm in the middle of the night to watch a guy stream from somewhere in Europe, but as long as nobody knows nobody can judge him either, so that's okay.

He yawns, scratching at his chest, watching people say hello to each other in chat as it comes alive.

He has yet to ever type something there.

In the two weeks he's been watching Max, he has managed to figure out what subscriptions and gifted subs are, Max's schedule (stream four times a week plus whenever he feels like it), and has started to recognise some usernames in chat. But there is something about actually typing that feels...revealing.

His username is generic, just Daniel_358, the number randomly chosen until twitch stopped telling him the username was taken, but that's still his name. Connected to his private email. And he knows he's not doing anything wrong, but it still feels forbidden, to wake up at night and spend about two hours just looking at Max.

The screen suddenly changes, switching to Max's camera, his pretty smiling face filling Daniel's small screen. Not for the first time, he thinks about setting up the projector, just to be able to see more.

"Hello everyone, it's Friday! And we're playing Minecraft today."

Daniel lets Max's now familiar accent wash over him, feeling himself smile back instinctively. Max looks soft today in the dim golden glow of his light, a faded sweatshirt almost covering the very short grey shorts he's wearing, and it makes Daniel wish he had Max right there, in his bed, warm and sleep rumpled in the sheets.

Yes, he is aware how weird that is too. He knows that it would maybe be less weird if he only got off watching Max's streams.

He has by now mostly figured out Max's deal. He'll play his games, talk with chat, and from time to time do something that will make Daniel's breath stutter in his chest. Touching his legs, squeezing himself through his shorts, raising his shirt to touch his stomach, trailing his fingers down towards his pants. One memorable time, he had pushed it high enough to touch his own nipple, a visible shudder traveling through him. Daniel had almost come on the spot.

The whole stream sometimes ends up feeling like a 2 hours long edging session, and he is so painfully hard by the end of it he comes as soon as he gets a hand around himself, waiting until Max has said goodbye to do so.

He doesn't always get off though. One time he had actually fallen back to sleep, Max's voice and Stardew's soft sounds lulling him straight into dreamland. But he always gets at least a little bit hard, something too sensual and alluring about Max for him to help himself.

Today though, Max seems more subdued. He still has his legs splayed open, miles of fuzzy skin on display, but he's focusing more on the game, even replying less to chat.

Daniel frowns, knowing he's not the only one who has noticed it, other worried messages popping up, mixed with a few more rude ones, telling Max to get on with it already.

"Sorry chat," Max says, finally acknowledging the messages with a small laugh. He takes a hand away from his keyboard, but instead of one of the usual teasing touches, he brings it up to his face, rubbing at his eyes and then dragging it down his cheek.

"It's been a long week," he adds with a sigh, before pushing himself to sit a bit straighter, pulling his smile back on. He's playing with the hem of his shorts now, pulling them high enough they completely disappear under the sweatshirt, but Daniel can tell it's an halfhearted attempt at best.

For the first time, he pulls up the chat, fingers itching to write something, but not knowing how to word it without being offensive. "You don't have to touch yourself if you don't want to"? Nobody ever actually acknowledges that bit out loud, he can't be that direct. "You don't have to stream if you are tired"? Would that feel like he's telling Max he doesn't care about his stream? He doesn't want that to be the first impression Max has of him.

Daniel_358: anything we can do?

He feels stupid as soon as he sends it, cringing at himself. What would he even do? He's on the other side of the world, a complete stranger.

And yet Max smiles, soft and sweet, and Daniel's stupid heart jumps in his chest.

"Hello Daniel, welcome in. You just being here is enough."

Daniel knows, he knows, that Max is just saying that, just a throwaway line to make him feel good, but at the same time he can't help but melt a little at the way Max says his name. At the thought of Max wanting him there.

He watches as a few more messages pop up, offering vague support, and sees the moment it gets too much for Max, his face closing off a little as he goes back to the game, trying to redirect chat's attention to it.

Without thinking too much about it, Daniel navigates to Max's profile down to the donate button. He's hovered over it often enough he doesn't have any trouble finding it, but it still takes him a couple tries to figure out how to properly go through with it.

A few moments later, a new alert pops up on the stream, startling Max (and Daniel, even if he knew it was coming) badly enough he accidentally falls out of a tree.

Daniel_358 has donated €358: for making it through the week and as good luck for the next

Max blinks. Pauses the game, then blinks again.

"I..uh...thank you Daniel for the donation? That's...a lot of money, mate," he stutters out, shaking his head slightly in disbelief. "Are you sure?"

Daniel_358: of course Daniel_358: you deserve it

Max's cheeks are red, his blue eyes wide, and Daniel's heart is still doing something weird in his chest.

"Thank you, then. It's...I of course appreciate it."

His voice sounds off, and for a moment Daniel is afraid he did something wrong, but then Max smiles, some tension in his shoulders disappearing.

"Well, Daniel just made the week better, so let's go back to chopping trees, yes?"

The chat explodes in a flurry of yeses and nodding emotes, and Daniel settles back on his pillows, feeling warm and satisfied.

The rest of the stream is more normal, Max going back to his usual teasing a few moments later, but for once Daniel doesn't feel like getting off, content with just watching Max's pretty smile and rosy blush. He still gets hard, he's not suddenly gone crazy (...or more crazy at least), but it doesn't feel as consuming as usual.

By the time Max says goodbye, Daniel is half asleep, curled up in his blankets, his phone laying on the pillow next to his.

When the screen goes dark he yawns, stretching slightly and dipping two fingers into his boxers, trying to decide if he feels like getting off or if he's sleepy and content enough to save it for the morning.

He's brushing a finger against the tip of his dick, still contemplating, when his phone dings, a new notification sound he's never heard before. Curious, he takes his hand out, reaching for it and unlocking it.

The twitch app is still open, now with a red number 3 next to the messages icon, and when he clicks on it he almost drops his phone again in surprise.

Player00Max: Hello Daniel Player00Max: I hope it is okay if i message you I wanted to thank you for the donation Player00Max: but it is a lot of money so I of course can reimburse you if you changed your mind

[neonraven28]

Do you think Logan and Hesh ever felt fear during the campaign? Ever felt lost?

Like, sure, throughout the campaign they've had multiple life threathening missions, but only after Elias' death was there truly an all or nothing mindset— where the smallest mistake could determine the outcome of everything.

When the Walker brothers decided that they'd die, just to take Rorke down... Did they feel they had nothing left to loose, so long as both were gone and so was Rorke?

Was that the reason they really gave it their all, pushing through their injuries? They were ready to die and they made sure that Rorke wouldn't survive no matter what (well, we know how that went...)

Just how much weight left their shoulders the moment they survived? The moment they sat on the beach, panting, watching bombs paint the sky?

And how fucking hard did reality sink in at the sight of Rorke, surviving just like them?

[genderfluid-druid]

attempting to claw my brain out of The Rottening by allowing myself to spend money on things that will improve my household life even though I've been reluctant to commit to them

[rpfisfine]

find 10 hidden objects type image

[tarnussy]

red and black combo forever

[youredreamingofroo]

once again coming back to apologize for my inactivity, I've not only been depressed but also burnt out of tumblr 🫠 I haven't been motivated to check tumblr and haven't really cared (as much as I love it here) to just reblog and wtv. Today was a really hot day (for me) and if the rest of the week or month looks like this, then definitely do not expect anything from me (especially as we ease into spring and eventually enter summer), hot weather is my mortal enemy and it's like im fighting demons nonstop whenever summer/late spring rolls around so... yea.

on top of that I just haven't used my laptop in a couple of days LMAO after the play on Saturday, I was absolutely knocked out for all of Sunday and the last two days I've been playing red dead redemption 2, which I've really been enjoying 🙃🙃 which means eventually when I get back to tumblr will probably be rbing rdr2 stuff lmao

cut is just me rambling about the next two games I'm planning on playing after rdr2

also I currently have a line of games (and by line, I mean 2 games LMAO) I'm seriously looking forward to playing on my Xbox/Laptop-

First game is skyrim, I LOVEDDDD playing it on my switch, but I haven't played it properly for sooo long, but I recently saw that skyrim is free on gamepass and will definitely be installing it on my laptop 🥹 Granted, my character in skyrim is veryyyy op and it'll be upsetting to have to restart but whatevs! I just have to do what I always do and power thru battles that are intended for higher levels- and also grind pickpocketing cuz I can NOT live without that skill LMAO

Second game is a well-loved game of mine, ARK, I've played well over 500 hours on my phone and well over 250 hours on my switch (which ofc I enjoyed infinitely more, but nothing beats the nostalgia of mobile ARK LMAO), and when I TELL you I was elated to see it for free on gamepass, I mean it cuz I was SOO giddy, of course I know rdr2 will take bloody forever to finish (at the rate I'm going) but I'm just so excited to play it, especially since I think all the expansions are free as well, which means I can play genesis without paying for it (since I bought the other expansions on my switch- aberration FTW btw)

[sodrippy]

i love a deal too much, im looking for a basic keyboard/mouse combo but theyre selling a 5 piece Gaming Bundle for only $15 more. i dont even game.

[iguanasplit]

vent under cut

lord this is sick on both sides. but the physical and psycological damage taken from my younger sister getting a really wonderful job opportunity and soon after my mother goes like "well, when are you getting a better job?" like damn bro im so sorry, you dont have to remind me every single time what i do is not enough, its not like im enjoying this, cant you just be less of an ass and celebrate the actual good news

[linguisticparadox]

I got my siblings raspberry pi zero w kits for christmas so they can set up pi-hole and I'm trying to save them a lot of trial-and-error hassle by typing up simple instructions but. it's hard when I don't even know what routers they have? bc that can complicate things.

ugh I better make sure they don't have fucking AT&T

anyway I'm doing the desktop environment version of the os bc I don't feel like coordinating getting their router logins and fucking IP ranges or whatever to do headless setup, and setting up wifi via the command line is a little weird so the lite os wouldn't work either (again I am trying to keep this simple). Plus idk how complicated SSH is for headless setup, I've never done it and even though I'm sure I could I don't wanna add on any weirdness for them to deal with. but I'm like. should I go so far as to install the os's for them or is just imaging the sd cards enough...

I also keep having to fight the impulse to be like "well I don't want to do all the FUN STUFF and leave none for THEM!" because like. I Am An Outlier in that respect I think.

[gender-euphowrya]

something about when gamer men do the whole "ugh women just don't get why we love gaming so much :(". Well. maybe if women were actually treated seriously as gamers and gaming stopped being seen as a Male Activity where they get yelled at and harassed in voice chats or made to feel like the only games they're allowed to touch are the sims and stardew valley played on their pink computers

maybe women would 'get' gaming if gaming 'got' women

[daz4i]

uh oh i think my laptop's officially dead

[tamagotchikgs]

feel sick

[dwarf-vader-of-middle-earth]

My dearest friend i know life is hard and I can't imagine what pain you are going through but please, you deserve so so so much more than death, please last just a bit longer my friend

Wow, this one came through and I got a notification that an ask was sent. Thank you, bestie. I literally can't thank you enough. You're incredible, I love you more than I can put into words. I live for you, and I promise you I'll keep going for you. I'm gonna cry the whole way until this shit is fixed, but I'll do it anyway because I love you. I want to live through this to see better days somehow. I hurt so fucking much all over, and I'm not even sure I'll sleep tonight because of the pain, and there's nothing I can do to ease it so I've got to just bear through it. But I'll do it. For you bestie. I love you. Thank you. <3

[boatemboys]

i honestly dont think my hatred for work is even mental illness related i just really dont want to do something i hate for 40 hours a week for. what. bills? maybe a crumb of food if im lucky

[jaynovz]

Truly I have reached the age where I simply cannot sit in a non-optimal chair to use a computer for longer than maybe 15 minutes (without pain that is)

ughhhhhhh